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Russian Revolution
Russians grow unhappy with the backwards nation of the Tsar, overthrowing and jailing him in the February Revolution. The ensuing civil conflict gives rise to the Communist party, or the Bolsheviks. This begins the Communist force that the US will face against in the Cold War. -
Potsdam Conference
US, Britain, and the USSR confer to discuss plans for post-WWII Europe. Truman + Churchill want to spread democracy throughout Europe while Stalin wants to take it and the world under a rule of Communism. This conflict starts friction between US and Russia. -
Atomic Bomb - Hiroshima + Nagasaki
Truman, pressed to his wits' end, orders to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombings force the Japanese emperor to finally consider and go through with surrender, ending WWII. -
Iron Curtain
Churchill calls the divide between the USSR and western Europe an "iron curtain." It indicates the friction of the time. -
Truman Doctrine
Truman promises to give aid to nations who are threatened by Communist influence. The Truman Doctrine attempts to resolve any Communist revolutions without directly coming up against the USSR. -
Molotov Plan
Russia makes a plan to build up its USSR satellites, like the US planned for western Europe. The USSR wants to bulk up in the case of invasion. -
Marshall Plan
The US lends a hand in rebuilding Europe, sending money, supplies, and workers to attempt banishing post-WWII conditions. This lets eastern Europe begin to prosper, and prevented Communist thought to take root from the former poverty. -
Berlin Blockade
Stalin cuts off supply lines in Berlin to retaliate the union of the west German sectors. -
Berlin Airlift
An American airlift supplies isolated Berlin in response to its blockade. It was not interfered with by the Soviets. This fuels the divide between west and east Berlin. -
Hollywood Ten
People in the Hollywood movie industry were asked to testify on inserting secret communist messages into films. Ten of them did not answer the question, making them the Hollywood Ten. They were then blacklisted. Hollywood later began releasing anti-communist movies. -
Alger Hiss Case
Alger Hiss, who'd previously worked in the state department, was tried for spying for the USSR in court. He was jailed for perjury. This case was an example of the accusatory nature of Americans at the time. -
NATO
NATO is formed as an international-peace preserving organization. It joins the US, West Germany, and some other nations in a military alliance. This upsets Stalin some more. -
Soviet Bomb Test
The USSR stuns the US with their own testing of an atomic bomb. This leads to the frantic arms race of the Cold War between Russia and America. -
Korean War
Mao's now reigning communist party in China seeps into nearby Korea. Civil war breaks out, and the US backs up the side opposing the communists. The conflict ends in separated North and South Korea and America failing to eliminate North Korea's communism. -
Rosenberg Trial
The Rosenbergs were brought into court for potentially sending nuclear secrets to the USSR. They were sentenced and executed for other reasons, however. It was another example of the accusations that rose from the anti-communist environment in the US. -
Army-McCarthy Hearings
McCarthy was a US senator that claimed to know communists in government. He used the communist-fueled paranoia of the time to gain more power for himself. -
Battle of Dien Bien Phu
The 1st Indochina War pitted the French against the Vietnamese, who wanted independence from France. The French prepare a big offensive in Dien Bien Phu, but get badly defeated and lose the war. Vietnam is now able to control its own government, leading to a communist group's rise to power. -
Geneva Conference
Nations gather to decide to split Vietnam after the First Indochina War. The government in the north would remain communist, while the south's would be influenced by the west. The two Vietnams would then unify and hold an election to choose one presiding government. However, the split between north and south Vietnam becomes fraught with friction and leads to war. -
Warsaw Pact
Stalin creates his own alliances with the USSR satellites, to counter those of NATO. The US and Russia are building up defenses that come into play in the Cold War. -
Hungarian Revolution
Hungary revolts against the USSR, but is struck down by Soviet troops. With this, discontent with communism within the USSR itself was starting to form. -
U2 Incident
A CIA agent tries to photograph a sensitive part of Russia, but his plane is shot down as a result. The relationship between the US and the USSR is as strenuous as ever. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
US-trained exiles of Cuba are sent to revolt against the new Fidel Castro, communist leader. The attack falls through, however, and Castro started allying with the USSR. This leads to the gutting Cuban Missile Crisis. -
Berlin Wall
The USSR constructs a wall between east and west Berlin. With east Berlin isolated, the wall is an eerie representation of the divisive ideologies of the US and the USSR. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Soviet bombs are set up in Cuba to strike the US. Escalating tension sets off fear in peoples' hearts as they hoped not for the worst: a full-scale nuclear war and the end of the world. It was resolved by Russia taking out the missiles. America compromised also with no invasion of USSR's ally Cuba. -
Assassination of Diem
Diem was South Vietnam's Prime Minister, chosen to uphold democracy there. He treated his citizens brutally, notably as well against Buddhists. The US sees this, sends troops to seize Diem, and they kill him. The Geneva Conference's plans for Vietnam fail, and the US is forced to win Vietnam through war. -
Assassination of JFK
President Kennedy is killed a short while after Diem's death. Johnson takes over, inheriting the massive burden that is the Vietnam War. -
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
The US needs a reason to declare war, making a story that American ships were shot near Vietnam. This is the start of the Vietnam War. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
The US decides to continually bomb north Vietnam in an attempt to deter it. Despite the bombings spanning three years, the communists showed perseverance to America's horror. -
Tet Offensive
A surprise attack on US military, including "safe" spots, by the north Vietnamese. Media coverage views it as a defeat for America, despite them overcoming the attack. It showed US citizens a longer war than they were told, who were now calling to pull out of war even if it meant "losing" Vietnam. -
Assassination of MLK
Many Americans were impacted by King's death. His assassination served as a reminder to America's own civil unrest at the time, all during the Cold War. -
Assassination of RFK
Presidential candidate Kennedy was shot dead. He was a potential contender against Nixon. -
Invasion of Czechoslovakia
Members of the Warsaw Pact, with Russia at the front, charged into Czechoslovakia who was seized by a reform sentimentality. They were able to stop the movement and got Czechoslovakia to continue as usual in the USSR. -
Riots of Democratic Convention
Protesters of the Vietnam War found their way also to the Democratic National Convention of 1968, where police violently broke up the meeting. -
Election of Nixon
Johnson doesn't run for a second term, wanting no longer to be associated with the Vietnam War. Nixon wins the latest election and introduces a new strategy to win the war: Vietnamization. This entailed teaching the native Vietnamese to hold their own against the communist north, helping see the end of the war for the US. -
Kent State
Protests against the Vietnam War rise up in numbers and across American universities. In Kent State University, protesters were shot down by state forces, sending up a cry to end the war soon. -
Nixon visits China
Nixon meets with Mao, and the US and China begin to warm up to each other. The US establishes a relationship with a communist country, driving an unlikely ally to their side. -
Ceasefire in Vietnam
Nixon officially begins to finish off American involvement in the Vietnam War, first with a ceasefire, and then finally calling for the end. -
Fall of Saigon
Saigon in South Vietnam is taken by the north. Surrendering, the south Vietnamese see the end of many brutal years of fighting against the relentless north. -
Reagan's Election
After Nixon comes President Reagan, whose personal goal was to eliminate communism once and for all. He would carry out the rest of the Cold War. -
SDI announced
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was an impossible plan to threaten the USSR with laser-shooting satellites from space. The USSR simply couldn't keep up with the resources that US scientists had for the project, so they couldn't make a counter-product. -
Geneva Summit with Gorbachev
Reagan and Gorbachev negotiate to stop SDI and undo all their nuclear tension. In meeting each other, they develop a relationship that was important to ending the Cold War. -
"Tear down this Wall" Speech
Reagan boldly addresses Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, if he was really believed in building a better Russia. The Soviet leader, under much scrutiny, had to respond. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
Gorbachev ultimately agrees to Reagan's speech, and his objective is clear: bring down the Berlin Wall. He does so, and down also came the icy tensions of the Cold War.
