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Yalta Conference
SourceThe Yalta Conference was held in the north coast of the black sea in the Crimean Peninsula. The Allied leaders Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt. In the Yalta Conference, the leaders discussed the future of Germany, United Nations and East Europe. The leaders agreed to also give France a part of the Easter European nations since the French had also contributed to the effort to win the war. When it came time to execute the plan, it didn't exactly go as planned eventually leading to the Cold War. -
Berlin Declaration
On this date, the commanders of the west met the Soviet commanders for the first time. The meeting itself was organized and hosted by the Soviet forces in Berlin. During the meeting, the commanders on behalf of their government signed three documents regarding the occupation of Germany. The first document which was the Berlin Declaration proclaimed unconditional surrender of Germany and gave power the victorious leaders. Berlin itself was a joint occupation for all four powers. -
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was the last time that the big 3 leaders met in person. The big 3 were Stalin, Attlee, and President Truman. The conference was mainly centered on the future of europe and how the leaders would divide up the land. They also emphasized on development of German agriculture, economy and nonmilitary industries. Experts had agreed that the reparations set on germany had hurt the German economy and promoted Nazi growth. Despite the problems they were able to settle an agreement. -
North Vietnam
After Japan's surrender, the Vietnamese communist Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam's independence from France. His proclamation paraphrased from the U.S Declaration of Independence, "All men are born equal: the Creator has given us inviolable rights, life, liberty, and happiness!" Once a cook, he became a powerful communist leader in Vietnam. He organized the Viet Cong who fought against the French in response to an attack which caused division into north and south Vietnam. Ho lead northern vietnam. -
Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain was an imaginary barrier between the Allies and the Soviets which marked the beginning of the cold war. Churchill had conducted the speech about the Iron Curtain in which he also praised that the United States stood "at the pinnacle of power." The whole point of the Iron Curtain was because of the red scared so the allied leaders didn't want communinsm to spread to the capitalistic west. Stalin responded to this by calling the speech "mongering" and viewed Churchill as a racist. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was also known as the European Recovery program. What it did was use approximately $13 billion to finance the recovery of Europe from the deafeat in the world war. The Soviets of course weren't too happy with the plan and they viewed it as an attempt to inerfere in the internal affairs of the other states. Not only did the Marshall Plan helpt europe, it also helped the United States by making the United States look better since they were willing to help when they really didn't. -
Containment Policy
The goal of the containment policy was to prevent Soviet expansion and it had some connections to the red scare also. The policy was suggested by George Kennan who set up the U.S embassy in Moscow in 1943 and called the United States in order to prevent the expansion of the Soviet Union. The policy had a military approach or an economic approach. George C. Marshall who was the Secretary of State proposed a program to send American economic aid to Europre. -
Berlin Blockade
The Berlin blockade was an action taken by the Soviets to limit the access of the Allies to the Soviet controlled part of Germany. Ignoring the airlift, the Allies did an airlift for nearly a year which they dropped essential supplies for the people and even toys for children. This not only made the Soviets furious, it helped the German people and the children who were the future to start developing a liking towards the United States. Three years after the World War 2 the blockade was set. -
Berlin Airlift
After the Allies each got their piece of land, the Soviet Union built the Berlin Wall and started to close all access to their section which also stopped all import which meant no food and supplies for people. No food and supplies translated into starvation and poverty. The United States then started going on airlifts in which they dropped essential supplies and food for the people for a time period of almost a year which helped the people significantly and portrayed a positive image of the U.S -
NATO
The United States and 11 other states made the National Atlantic Treaty organization. The relationship between the Soviets and the Americans started to worsen greatly in 1948. There were many disagreements between the two countries about the status of Germany after the war. Since the soviets blocked Allied access to their part, president Truman assembled the NATO. The signatories agreed that "An armed attack against one or more of them... shall be considered an attack against them all." -
Korean War
On this date, North Korea started an attack on South Korea. Under the auspices of the United Nations goes into war with North Korea defending the South Koreans.The U.S and the South Korean forces fell victim to a surprise attack by the North Koreans. The U.S responded to this by sending masses of U.S forces towards Korea in order to take "Police Action." It was the first 'Hot War" during the Cold War. After coming to a bloody stalemate, the U.S and North Korea signed a cease fire that ended war. -
Nikita Khrushchev
After Stalin's death, there was a massive panic in the Soviet Union and alot of people wondered who would be the next leader of the soviets. Competing with 5 other leaders, Krushchev was selected as the new leader of the Soviet Union. There was however, a power struggle between Nikita and another leader name Georgi Malenkov. Nikia had stayed loyal to the communist party since the day he joined which gave favored him and gave him advantage which lead to Nikita becoming the Soviet leader. -
Eisenhower Presidency
General Eisenhower was a legendary commander. He led multiple attacks on the Nazis during World War 2. At the time he was competing for presidency with a democrat named Adlai Stevenson which he defeated in order to become president. He served two terms and during these two terms he guided the nation out of disaster and managed cold war tensions. In addition, he also brought an end to the Korean war further achieving peace. He also strenghtened the social security and produced the highway system, -
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed on this day. The couple were convicted of conspiring to pass U.S atomic secrets to the Soviets. The couple were executed in a prison in New York by an electric chair. Up to the time of execution, both of them claimed to be innocent. Julius was an engineer for the U.S Army Signal Corps and Ethel was a secretary. It would be reasonable for the U.S to execute the two because the U.S couldn't risk having information leaked during the cold war. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was a pact proposed by the Soviet Union to seven other states: Poland, Albania, Romania, Hungary, East Germany Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria. What it did was create a mutual defense organization with the Soviet Union as the commander of the armed forces of the member states. This meant that if an outside force would attack any one of these nations, it would be an attack against them all. It was a Russian version of the American established NATO which brought protection for members. -
Suez Crisis
Israeli forces went into Egypt towards the Suez canal after the Egyptian president nationalized the canal which lead to the Suez Crisis.The French and the British formed an alliance with Israel which made the Soviets furious and damaged the relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States. The Israeli, French and British troops were eventually withdrawn from the area in late 1956 and early 1957. The alliance formed by the British French and Israel nearly made a conflict. -
Sputnik
Sputnik was the world's first artificial satellite. It was sent by the Soviets to outer space which also kicked off the space race between the U.S and the Soviet Union. Sputnik means satellite in Russian. Sputnik had a 22 inch wide diameter and weighed 184 pounds. It circuled the earth once every hour and thirty six minutes. The U.S didn't stay behind and sent the explorer a year later but by that time the soviets had now launched sputnik 2 with a dog in it. -
Cuban Revolution
On this day, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba since Fidel Castro came to power. As a celebration, people started to cause chaos in the streets of Cuba and there was a new feeling of Anti-Americanism. Batista was American-friendly unlike Castro. As Castro came to power, he wanted a revolution and the people started to support him. Since Batista had no power at the time, the U.S started to withdraw their support from Batista. As time passed Castro started to move towards the Soviets. -
U2 Incident
On this date a U.S U2 spy plane is shot down by the Soviets while it was conducting espionage over the Soviet Union. Incident brought an end to a meeting that was supposed to be attended by President Eisenhower and Nikita Khrushchev which was later that month. The plane belonged to the Central Intelligence Agency and it was a sophisticated technological marvel at the time. The Soviets responded by presenting an intact wreckage of the U2 and the pilot who was alive. The U.S admitted it was ours. -
Kennedy Presidency
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected to office on November 8, 1960. He was the youngest man to ever become president at 43 years old and he was the first Catholic President. His competition was the Republican Vice President Richard Nixon which he narrowly beat. Kennedy was elected during the climax of the cold war and he handled himself in a very calm and professional manner. He did all he could to deal with the soviets in a nonviolent way. Nixon tried all he could to make Kennedy look bad. -
Bay of Pigs
The invasion began when a CIA financed and trained group of Cuban immigrants tried to assasinate Fidel Castro. Since the revolution, Castro was a concern to the U.S and his anti-American ideaologies so when the U.S tried to assasinate himbyt the help of cuban immigrants, it turned out to be a disaster and Castro survived it. Castro used the attempted assasination to further gain power by requesting futher Soviet military power. -
Berlin Wall
Prior to the wall, the Soviets drew a line with barbed wire between East and West Germany with a barbed wire. Two days later, they started to build a 15 foot wall in order to isolate the two sides by a literal iron curtain. There were about 5000 successful escapes when the barbed wires were present but that number decreased tremendously when the actual wall was built. Between the wall was a space filled with land mines and soldiers with machine guns ready to annihilate anyone who tried to cross. -
Vietnam War
The U.S really got involved on December 11, 1961 when they sent 33 helicopters and 400 air and ground crewmen. These men started to train the South Vietnamese military in order to be able to cause some resistance against the Communist North Vietnam. Eventually the U.S soldiers started getting involved and started to fight alongside the South Vietnamese. Thousands of people were being drafted all over the U.S in order to participate. In the process, the U.S lost about 58,000 soldiers. -
John F. Kennedy assassination
John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22 1963. He was killed by a sniper bullet shot by Lee Harvey Oswald. He fired three shots from the sixth floor of Texas School Book Depository Building at 12:30 p.m. 30 minutes later President Kennedy was announced dead at Dallas Parkland Hospital and Lee Harvey Oswald was also assassinated himself while being taken into custody. Vice President Johnson was sworn in in a presidental jet and became the next president. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave permission for expansion of the Vietnam War. It also gave alot of power to President Johnson in order to oppose communist aggression in Southeast Asia. It expanded the military role of the United States in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. America's ally, South Vietnam, was in danger of being forced to become communist. The U.S spent millions of dollars and sent hundreds of thousands of troops there to train the South Vietnamese for resistance. -
Tet offensive
About 70,000 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces launched the Tet offensive. The offensive was a coordinated set of attacks on more than 100 South Vietnamese cities. General Vo Nguyen Giap was the commander who planned and attempted this attack. He was the leader of the Communist People's Army of Vietnam of PAVN. Even though the U.S and South Vietnamese forces managed to hold them off, the American Public was shocked when they discovered about this attack. -
Nixon Presidency
Richard Nixon was the thirty seventh U.S president and the first ever president to resign from office. He resigned half way through his second term to avoid impeachement over his efforts to cover up illegal activities. He was vice president for two terms under President Eisenhower and he was very close to becoming the president when he was going against John F. Kennedy. Nixon's involvement in Watergate stained his legacy and credibility as a president which made people criticize him. -
Apollo 11
On this date, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin went on a mission to become the first people to walk on the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon and by doing this the U.S had beaten the ssoviets in the space race. Armstrong's famous quote was "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Apollo 17 was the last manned mission which took place in 1972. The apollo 11 mission was eight years after Kennedy announced the national goal of landing a man. -
SALT I
SALT is an abbreviation for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. It was a meeting in which U.S and Soviet discussed about curbing the Cold War arms race.The meetings and negotiations lasted for around three years. The SALT was signed in May 1972. It was mainly focused on anti-ballistic missiles and multiple independent re-entry vehicles. The Soviets were excelling in ABM's while the U.S was developing and improving MIRV's. The two nations were once again trying to impress eachother. -
Détente
Détente is a French word which when translated mean "realease from tension" This was the case in the beggining of 1971 when the relationship between the Soviet Union and the United states improved. A part of it was because of president Nixon's visit with the secretary-general of the Soviet Union Communist party. The two countries stood for a potential gain if the trade of nuclear weapons could be increased and the danger of nuclear warfare reduced. The agreement was one reason of improved status -
Paris Peace Accords
The U.S, North Vietnam, South Vietnam and the Viet Cong signed an agreement to end the war and restore peace in vietnam. The agreement included a cease fire all over Vietnam and the U.S agreed to withdraw all of it's troops from Vietnam. About 23.7k soldiers were pulled out. This was both good for Vietnam and the U.S since the U.S would get it's soldiers back and that Vietnam would have all of the U.S soldiers outside of their country. Both sides also agreed to withdraw troops from Laos. -
Yom Kippur War
It was the most recent full on war in the Middle East. The war started when the Arabs conducted a surprised attack on Israel. Unfortunately Israel's guard was down during the attack since they were participation in religious celebrations of the Yom Kippur. The Yom Kippur is a holiday for the Jewish community. Most of the middle easter countries like Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Israel, Saudi Arabia were involved in the fight and they had just as many men as NATO had back in the United states. -
The Fall of Saigon
Saigon was the capital of South Vietnam which fell in the hands of North Vietnam on April 30, 1975. The fall of Saigon marked the end of the Vietnam war. After the introduction of Vietnamisation by president Nixon, the U.S forces declined leaving to defend their own country against North Vietnam. In April, rockets were fired towards Saigon and the people had no defense against them. U.S ambassador Graham Martin made an appreance and stated that he would not leave Vietnam in the middle of night. -
Iranian Revolution
Ayatollah Khomeini had finally returned to Iran after 15 years in exile in Iraq and France. Two weeks prior, the Shah and his family had fled the country. The Iranian peopel wanted a better leader since the Shad used the secret police called Savak to control the country, much similar to the Soviets and the KGB.There was chaos on the streets with the people fighting against the Shah's forces and thousands of young lives were lost trying to find a better leader for Iran and for freedom. -
Iran Hostage Crisis
A group of Iranian students stormed the U.S embassy in Iran taking over 60 American hostages. The cause of this incident was because president Carter had allowed the Shah to travel to the United States a few months prior for cancer treatment and it angered the Iranian people. It was also a way for Iranian people to cease American interference in their country. The hostages were set free on January 21, 1984. Many people believe that the crisis costed president Jimmy Carter his second term. -
Ronald Reagan
Rondald Reagan used to be a former actor and the Governor of California before becoming the 40th U.S president. He was raised in Illinois and became a Hollywood actor in his 20s. He later went on to become the Republican governor of California from 1965 to 1975. He was president for two terms and during his presidency he cut taxes, increased defense spending and he also negotiated nuclear arms reduction agreement with the Soviets. There was an attempted assassination in 1981 which he survived. -
Korean Air Lines Flight 007
A few Soivet jet fighters intercept a Korean Airlines passenger flight which was flying in Russian airspace and shoot it down killing 269 passengers and crewmembers. The event raised the tension greatly between the Soviet Union and the United States. The plane had been flying in the Russian airspace by mistake as it had gotten off course of its destination but the Russians shot it down anyways. The pilots get on radio together and the Russian pilots failed to recieve a response from them. -
Tiananmen Square Massacre
Chinese troops stormed through the Tiananmen Square and started to kill and arrest thousands of pro-democracy protesters. The attack shocked the west and brought sanctions from the west. Millions of young Chinese students went to the Beijing building in order to protest for a greater democracy and resignation of communist leaders on May 1989. The protesters were there for nearly three weeks until on June fourh the Chinese troops breached in and started to open fire on the crowd and killing. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
After days and days of mass protest, the communist leaders of the East German side allowed the gates along the wall to be opened. Imediately masses of East and West Berliners started to rush towards eachother and started and greeting for the first time in 28 years. Then they started to climb the walls and started to tear down the Berlin Wall piece by piece which was a great achievement because people have been isolated for 28 years and many people had died trying to reach freedom. -
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The Soviet flag flew one last time over the Kremlin in Moscow on Christmas day 1991. 11 representatives from the Soviet Republics announced that they no longer wanted to be a part of the Soviet Union. These representatives included Ukraine, Belarus, The Russian Federation, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The once mighty Soviet Union pretty much crumpled after this and Gorbachev was dissapointed and resigned in December 25.
