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Period: to
Timespan of the Cold War
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The End of World War II
OriginAt the end of World War II, the U.S. and the Soviet Union both came out as top world powers. The U.S. feared that the Soviets were attempting to sprend Communism to the weakened countries around the world. -
Churchill's "Iron Curtain" Speech
Iron CurtainFormer British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, delivers a speech that talks about how an iron curtain has descended across the continent and is considered one of the first open announcments about the Cold War. The U.S. warmly recieved the speech and the term "iron curtain" was quickly adapted into the Cold War vocabulary. -
U.S. Creates First Hydrogen Bomb
U.S. Bomb
The U.S. detonated the first hydrogen bomb in the Pacific and it gave the them a short-lived advance over the Soviet Union in the nuclear arms race. -
The Warsaw Pact
Warsaw PactThe Warsaw Pact was a “treaty of mutual friendship, co-operation and mutual assistance” which was signed between a multitude of Republics in Easter Europe. This was a counter to NATO and showed the Soviet's dominance over Eastern Europe and that Communism had become a powerful force. The Soviet's used it to keep a watchful eyes on the other countries. -
Eisenhower Doctrine
Eisenhower DoctrinePresident Eisenhower pledges to provide military and economic aid to countries in the Middle East that are fighting Communism. -
Launch of Sputnik
SputnikThe Soviet Union successfully launched the first artificial satellite, which marked the start of the space age and the U.S. versus Soviet Union space race. This brought on new political, military, technological, and scientific developments, and lead to the direct development of NASA. -
The Bay of Pigs Invasion
Bay of PigsThe U.S. attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro and invade Cuba. About 1,300 exiles armed with U.S. weapons invaded and hope to gain support of the locals to get rid of Castro, but Castro's army quickly defeated them. -
Berlin Wall Built
Berlin WallThe Communist government of East Germany began to build a concrete and barbed wire wall between East and West Berlin. It was built to keep Western "facists" from entering East Germany and undermining the Communist idea. -
Cuban Missle Crisis
JFK Missle Crisis An American U-2 spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being established on the island of Cuba by the Soviet Union. President Kennedy created a quarantine with ships around the island to prevent more supplies from entering. Both the U.S. and the Soviet Union recognized the devastating possibility of a nuclear war and publicly agreed to a deal where the Soviets would dismantle the weapon sites as long as the U.S. did not to invade Cuba. -
President Nixon Visits China
Nixon to ChinaPresident Nixon went on an official trip to China and was the first president to visit the People's Republic of China since it was established in 1949. This trip was important because the U.S. was trying to improve relations with this Communist country at the time. -
Boycott of the 1980 Olympics
Boycott Olympics President Carter informed U.S. athletes that the United States will boycott the Olympics in Moscow because the Soviet Union's incursion into Afghanistan. -
The U.S. Invasion of Grenada
GrenadaPresident Ronald Reagan noticed the Marxist regime in the Caribbean nation of Grenada posed a threat to American nationals there. He ordered Marines to invade and in a little over a week, Grenada's government was overthrown. -
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Treaty
TreatyAn agreement between the U.S. and Soviet Union to eliminate nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with intermediate ranges. These could be defined as between 500-5,500 km. This treaty was signed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. -
Berlin Wall Torn Down
Berlin WallThe East German Communist Party announced that the GDR could cross the border whenever they pleased. Excited crowds swarmed the wall that night and some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall. -
Fall of the Soviet Union
Collapse of SovietsThe Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries because Communism ideology never quite took root in the people, economic failure, political problems and more.
