Cold War - This conflict was called the "Cold War" because there was no physical fighting involved and it was only a period of animosity between the United States and the Soviet Union.
By ctang
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Formation of the Eastern Bloc
The Eastern Bloc was a group of eastern European countries whose ideals aligned with those of the Soviet Union, including Poland, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, East Germany, Bulgaria, Albania, and Czechoslovakia. Originating at the end of the second world war, the Eastern Bloc was formed when Soviet forces occupied and took control of the countries. The purpose of the Eastern Bloc's formation was to conform to Stalin's model while maintaining Soviet military interests. -
Postwar Occupation and Division of Germany
The Big Three, consisting of Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States, discussed how to deal with Germany following their defeat in the war. Their goal was to democratize, demilitarize, and denazify the country. At the Potsdam Conference of July 1945, they agreed upon dividing Germany into four individual quadrants controlled by France, Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Each occupation zone's government reflected those of their respective occupying country. -
Greek Civil War
The Greek Civil War was a conflict that had its roots in political divisions between left and right wing factions in Greece. It erupted shortly after the conclusion of World War II in 1946. Communists, supported by the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, staged an uprising against the Greek state, supported by the United States and Britain. It resulted in the Greek government prevailing and the defeat of the Communist forces. -
Enactment of Marshall Plan
Signed by President Harry Truman in 1948, the Marshall Plan provided aid to European countries following the destruction caused by the second world war. Recipients of the aid included 16 European countries, such as France, Britain, Norway, West Germany, and the Netherlands. The Marshall Plan not only helped in rebuilding destroyed infrastructure and industries in these countries, it encouraged commerce and trade between them and the United States. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
When the allies divided Germany into four zones in 1945, the capital city of Berlin ended up under Soviet occupation. In 1948, the Soviet Union attempted to prevent the United States, France, and Great Britain from providing resources to West Berlin by blocking all road, rail, and canal access. As a result, approximately 2.5 million West Germans were devoid of basic necessities, such as food, water, medicine, and fuel. In response, the western powers airlifted supplies into West Berlin. -
Chinese Communist Revolution
During and after World War II and Japanese imperialism, China was prone to a number of economic, political, and social issues that led to increasing tensions within the government. The Chinese Communist Revolution was a social and political revolution on October 1, 1949 where communist leader Mao Zedong declared the formation of the new Chinese government, the People's Republic of China, ending the civil war between the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang/Nationalist Party. -
Korean War
The Korean War was a civil war between the communist North Korea, supported by China and the Soviet Union, and the liberal South Korea, supported by the United States and the United Nations. On June 5, 1950, North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel, the border separating the two entities, and invaded South Korea. This led to a deadly civil conflict between communists and republicans. The war concluded with the signing of an armistice and the official division of the Korean peninsula. -
Cuban Revolution
Led by communist Fidel Castro, the Cuban Revolution was an armed conflict between revolutionaries and dictator Fulgencio Batista, who seized control of the Cuban government following a failed election. Many Cubans were not fond of Batista's regime, which lacked justice and equality. After five years of the revolution, Batista fled Havana in 1959, leading to Fidel Castro's rise to power and the creation of the Communist Party of Cuba, the first of its kind in the west. -
Overthrow of the Guatemalan Government
During the Guatemalan revolution, military officer Carlos Castillo Armas launched a coup against the democratic government led by President Jacobo Arbenz. Arbenz held socialist beliefs and installed nationalist-inspired reforms, which led to tensions between Guatemala and the United States government. With the help of the CIA and American forces, Armas deposed Arbenz from power and seized control of the Guatemalan government, which eventually became a authoritarian dictatorship. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a conflict fought between the communist North Vietnam, with the support of China and the Soviet Union, and the republic of South Vietnam, backed by the United States and other anti-communist allies, and was thus considered a proxy war. Eventually, the conflict had spread to the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia and sparked civil wars in those countries. At its conclusion, the Vietnam War ended with the formation of communist governments in all three states. -
Hungarian Uprising
In response to the Soviet Union's geopolitical domination of Hungary, university students protested against the socialist policies set by the Stalinist system. This sparked a countrywide revolution between revolutionaries and the socialist government, the Hungarian People's Republic. Lasting 12 days, the uprising ended when Soviet tanks and troops took control, crushing opposing forces. The revolution resulted in thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of Hungarians leaving the country. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
In an effort to remove Cuban leader and communist Fidel Castro from power, the CIA attempted to launch a full-scale invasion of Cuba under the Kennedy administration. Thousands of American-trained Cubans who fled the country prior attacked a spot on the isolated southern shore of the island known as the Bay of Pigs. The invasion was almost immediately a disaster as a result of the force being outnumbered. In the aftermath of the invasion, Castro remained the leader of Cuba. -
Building the Berlin Wall
In 1961, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic of East Germany, influenced by the Soviet Union, built a concrete and barbed wire wall separating east and west Berlin. It was guarded with watchtowers, mines, and electrified fences. Although the official objective of the Berlin Wall was to stop Western "fascists" from entering East Germany and hindering the interests of communism, its actual purpose was to prevent the east German population from defecting to West Germany. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a tense political and military deadlock between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted 13 days. In response to Soviet-installed missiles only 90 miles away from American shores, the Kennedy administration made it clear that they would use military force to neutralize any possible threats. The crisis was averted when the Soviet Union and United States agreed upon the removal of Soviet missiles in Cuba in exchange for promising not to invade Cuba. -
Prague Spring
When Alexander Dubcek came to rule in the socialist country of Czechoslovakia, he introduced a number of liberal reforms, such as freedom of speech. His efforts to establish a new era of communism in Czechoslovakia initiated a brief period of freedoms known as Prague Spring. In response, the Soviet Union and 600,000 Warsaw Pact troops invaded the country, leading to the denouncement of Dubcek's liberal reforms and the re-establishment of an authoritarian communist regime under Gustav Husak. -
Soviet War in Afghanistan
The Soviet Union initiated the invasion of the democratic state of Afghanistan on Christmas Eve of 1979 by dropping troops into major Afghan cities and deploying divisions across the Soviet-Afghan border. Soon enough, the Afghan presidential palace was infiltrated and government officials were poisoned, resulting in the installation of communism through a puppet leader. This invasion led to the death of approximately 1 million citizens sparked a civil war in Afghanistan that lasted a 9 years. -
Tiananmen Square Massacre
In the spring of 1989, students led demonstrations at Tiananmen Square in Beijing for economic and political reforms, such as the re-establishment of basic freedoms like freedom of speech, association, and press. Unable to come to a peaceful resolution with the protesters after weeks of attempting, the government declared martial law, deploying troops in the square and firing on any opposing forces. The conflict resulted in an unknown number of deaths and censorship surrounding the event. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
In November of 1989, the East German Communist Party of the German Democratic Republic gave East Germans permission to cross the border without penalty. Citizens of the German Democratic Republic responded by either crossing freely into West Berlin or tearing down the wall using hammers and picks. For the first time since 1945, Germany were unified as an independent state. The fall of the Berlin Wall served as an important symbol of the decline of communism in Europe. -
Fall of the Soviet Union
The collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991 was a result of various factors that weakened the communist party of the Soviet Union. Such factors included political revolutions in Soviet satellite states, unsuccessful communist party coups, and poor reforms introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev that only contributed to its downfall. By the beginning of the following year, Gorbachev had resigned as the leader of the Soviet Union, which ceased to exist and dissolved into 15 independent states. -
9/11 Attacks
The events of September 11, 2001 were a series of terrorist attacks linked to an Islamic extremist group known as the Al Qaeda. Led by Osama bin Laden, the attacks included the hijacking of four commercial passenger airplanes.Two flew into the World Trade Center, the third hit the Pentagon, and the fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew resistance. The attacks led to many deaths, stronger security measures in American airports, and the invasion of Afghanistan.