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Communists take over China
China had a civil war between the nationalist side of China led by Jiang Jieshi and Communist side of China led by Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong won easily because he had the support of the peasants and a more experienced government. Mao Zedong ordered that land would be distributed equally. He took land away from the wealthy and gave it to the peasants. If the wealthy rebelled they were killed. Peasants were organized into communes and people shared land and workload. -
Iron Curtain Speech
Winston Churchill gave the speech in America in 1946. He is concerned about Soviet aggression in Eastern Europe. The Iron Curtain is the division between Capitalist Western Europe and Communist Eastern Europe. He wanted the US to be concerned about the Soviet's aggression. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine started out as President Truman sending money to Greece because they were in economic trouble and to fight and oppose Communism. It worked Greece was able to fight off the Soviets. Truman promised to help out any country financially to fight Communism. This worked and many countries were able to fight Communism. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was a program started to help European countries economically to help them rebuild after the destruction that World War II caused. They did this to show countries that since they helped them they wouldn't attack the US and help them out if there were future conflict. The Marshall plan also slowed down the spread of communism. -
Berlin Airlift
Since the Soviets cut off all trade to Berlin, the US started to fly supplies to Berlin. They flew in all the necessary needs that the people of Berlin needed. They did this for 11 months straight sending over 200,000 planes to Berlin to deliver supplies to the citizens. This was one of the first battles of the Cold War. -
Berlin Blockade
The Soviet Union wanted to limit the amount of supplies that the US, Britain, and France were delivering to Berlin. The Soviets didn't want democratic influence coming into Communist eastern Europe so they blocked off supplies coming into Berlin. The US set up the Berlin airlift where they flew the supplies to Berlin. This was one of the first major clashes in the Cold War between the Allies and the Soviets. -
NATO
NATO was the acronym for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This was a military alliance between the United States, Canada, and nine Western European countries. The members of NATO pledged that they would help each other out if one of them were attacked by another country. -
Korean War
Korea was divided into two parts, a Soviet supported North and an American south. President Truman fought against this movement and was losing to the North. The US then sent a counterattack and pushed North Korea nearly into China. China then entered the war and helped the North and pushed South Korea back. In 1953, the 2 Koreas agreed to a-cease fire and they are still split to this day. -
Vietnam War
Vietnamese leader leader Ho Chi Minh wanted independence. A peace conference split Vietnam into 2. Ho took control of the North and made it into a Communist state. The South Vietnam government was threatened by Communist so the US sent troops to help out the South. In the late 1960s, the US cut number of troops in South Vietnam and gave the fighting to them. North Vietnam overran the South and made it one whole country again. Vietnam is still a Communist country. -
Revolt in Hungary
Hungarians were tired of the Soviet's Communist rule in their country. They had violent protest against the Communist rule. Imre Nagy came into power in Hungry and was getting rid of all Communist polices and laws. He was releasing anti-Communists from jail. Communist invaded the country and eventually executed Nagy. -
Sputnik
Sputnik was the first ever satellite ever to go into space. This happened during the space race and it showed that the Soviets had superior technology than the US. This was a major deal in the space race and the US had to pick it up. -
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Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward was a plan set up by Mao Zedong to change China from a farming country to a modern industrial country. He wanted this done in 5 years but the goals he set were impossible but the citizens of China were forced to try to reach that goal. The Great Leap Forward failed miserably due to the lack of planning by the Chinese Government. Around 45 million people died during the Great Leap Forward due to starvation and many other unnecessary acts. -
Apollo Program
The Apollo program was the program that sent astronauts on missions to the moon and allowed them to walk on the moon. They landed on the moon for the first time in 1969. This was beneficial to the Cold War because this was a great accomplishment for the United States in the space race. This showed that the US had really superior technology then the Soviets becasue they were able to send humans to the moon and bring them back to Earth safely. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Soviets brought missiles to Cuba because they saw how Cuba defended against the Bay of Pigs. They started building missile sites in Cuba and over 40 were made. John F. Kennedy saw it as a threat because the missiles were so close to the US. He demanded that the missile sights were taken down. Khrushchev didn't want to remove them and they almost went to nuclear warfare. This was the closest it has ever been to going to nuclear warfare. The Soviet Union finally agreed to take them down. -
Cultural Revolution
Mao Zedong was a Communist leader of China before he stepped back after the Great Leap Forward. He set up the 'Red Guards' these were soldiers that would attack "intellectuals" so he try to get his way back into power. He shut down schools so students could join the Red Guards. The purpose was to go back to old roots of just working and not thinking. -
Revolt in Czechoslovakia
The Soviets led the Warsaw PACT troops into Czechoslovakia to take down reformists acts in Prague. The citizens of Czechoslovakia did non-violent protest and public demonstrations but the Soviet tanks were too much for them. Czechoslovakia was the last democratic eastern European country but it fell to Communism.
