Eastern Blockade
When the US and the USSR dissolved their alliance the USSR allied all the countries to their east which was known as the eastern blockade. This happened because of the rising tensions of the two biggest powers because of their different ideals. Because of this blockade being created the US felt more threatened which just made tensions higher.
Iron Curtain
This speech was delivered by Winston Churchill and it was about the eastern blockade which he referred to as the eastern blockade. This took place because of the rising tension between these two superpowers. This event helped the cold war start because this encouraged the USSR to start speaking out against the U.S.
The Long Telegram/ Containment
The long telegram was an 8000 word telegram sent to the department of state regarding the soviet Union. This was a really persuasive telegram that influenced containment greatly. This is very significant because without this telegram, the US might not have adopted containment early enough to stop the USSR.
The Truman Doctrine
This doctrine established the plan to support economically unstable countries with capitalistic governments so Communism would spread. When you are poor it is easier to go with communism because that makes everyone poor with you but when you actually have money you don't want to lose everything for communism. This is the plan the US had to contain communism.
The Marshall Plan
This plan took place because most of Europe was devastated by WWII and was in need of financial assistance. It is easy to accept communism when you're poor because it makes everyone else poor with you but if you aren't, you don't want communism because it makes you poor like everyone else. The Marshall plan was a plan to economically assist European countries so they won't fall to communism.
Berlin Blockade/ Airlift
The Berlin blockade was a heavily guarded blockade separating Berlin. This blockade was so secure hundreds of people died trying to escape it. Although many people died trying to escape there were still about 500 that managed to escape without dieing. In the end this wall ended up being teared down.
Soviets get A-Bomb
The USSR exploded their first atomic bomb which was called “first Lightning”. For the test they put structures that resembled a town with animals inside to test the effect on towns as well as human like animals. This was important because this was part of the arms race.
Creation of NATO
The U.S. along with 11 other western countries made an alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This alliance was made due to the expansion of communism throughout developing countries which were mostly in europe due to WWII. This alliance helps protect against the spread of communism and without it communism would be a much greater threat than it is currently.
China Becomes Communist
In 1949 China became a communist country because of their leader, Mao Zedong. The communist war in China had broken out following World War II. China transformed to communism due to the communist / nationalist war. The communist won the war which is why China is communist. This is a big turning point in the spread of communism because in this case containment failed.
Korean war
This was a war between North Korea (communist) and South Korea (noncommunist). The end of world war divided Korea at the thirty-eighth parallel which more or less divided the country in half. The cause of the Korean War was the indecision on what type of government they would have. They were debating on communism vs. democracy. The significance of the Korean War was the first confrontation of the upcoming Cold War.
H-bomb created/ Arms race
The arms race was between the USSR and the U.S. This was a competition between these two countries to see who could make the deadlier weapon. The result of this was the creation of the Hydrogen bomb. This was a very big part of the Cold War and many would argue the peak of the war because once the U.S. and the USSR both had the H-bomb they were on the verge of dropping them on each other which would start a nuclear war.
Warsaw pact
The Warsaw Pact was a treaty for defensive between eight communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. This provided a stability for both Soviets and the US. The reason this is significant is because if the Warsaw pact was not created the Soviets and Germany would be fighting which would lead to more issues for the US.
De-Stalinization
This was between the communist countries when they started eradicating the influence of Joseph Stalin and Stalinism. At this point they had realized how horrible Stalin was to his country. When others got to power they started gaining democratic policy which was a big step from when stalin was in power. This is a big turning point because even though Stalin was a horrible person he was a great leader because he built his country from the ground up and without him there would not be anyone to take drastic measures to keep the country powerful.
Sputnik
Sputnik was the first thing ever to be sent into space. This was created by the USSR and when this first came out made them seem very advanced. This was also the start to the space race which the U.S. ended up winning by getting the first human to the moon.
U-2 Incident
This was a big tension rising incident in the cold war. The U.S. had made a spy plane called the U-2 which they spied on other countries with. They were flying it over Russia when they shot it down and figured out it was a U.S. plane. Russia called out the U.S. on this but the U.S. denied multiple times until Russia had enough proof on them that they had to admit what had happened. This made much more tension between them.
Berlin Wall
This was a wall that the USSR built in a matter of weeks that separated Berlin into North and South Berlin. This wall caused a lot of damage because it split up families and trapped honorable people inside. Hundreds of people escaped but hundreds also died trying to escape. Later the wall ended up being taken down. This was significant because once they took it down the USSR started to break up.
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban crisis was a huge moment during the Cold War. The USSR leader placed missiles in Cuba pointed in the direction of the U.S. This caused many problems because this could have made another full on war which was estimated to caused 200 million deaths between the U.S. and the USSR. This would have stripped both of them of their Superpower titles.
MAD
MAD stands for mutual assured destruction which was created in response to both the U.S. and the USSR acquiring the H-bomb. The reason they made this is because if one side drops a bomb on the other, the other side will also drop a bomb which will assure both sides being destroyed. The significance of this is because once everyone started realizing how MAD was very real both sides got turned off of dropping a nuke on the other because they would also be destroyed.
Vietnam War
This started out being a war between North and South Vietnam because the North wanted the whole country to become communist but the South did not. Once this war started increasing, the U.S. started supporting the South because of containment against Communism. When the some of the south started helping the North, the U.S. just started fighting part of the South of Vietnam too. This is significant because they are fighting off communism to practice containment.
Détente
This was a period of time where the tensions between the soviets and the U.S. were decreasing. Détente means the ease of tension or hostility between countries. During this period there wasn't much fighting and the amount of arms decreased a lot. Richard Nixon was the creator of this.
SALT Negotiations
The SALT Negotiations was a negotiation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Both sides developed a ballistics missile that would seek an enemy nuke and blow it up in mid flight before it hits the ground. This was a very needed breakthrough because it made the tensions between both countries reduce greatly because they knew they could stop it.
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution were events which happened in response to the overthrow of the Shah. This revolution affected the U.S. greatly because the U.S. was a big supporter of the Shah and when he was overthrown they couldn't predict what was going to happen and how horrifying the results could be or end up being.
USSR invades Afghanistan
In December 1979 in the middle of the Cold War the 40th army of the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. There intentions were to up the communist government of the Peoples Democratic Party in Afghanistan. This was significant because it marked a failure in the Soviets and a success for the US.
Strategic Defense Initiative
This was first seen in March 23, 1983 when Ronald was president. This was an Initiative to create a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system to prevent/help the US from other countries trying to attack them with missiles. This would blow the missile up in mid flight. This lowered the tensions a lot because they now knew they had a plan against a nuclear attack.
Chernobyl
Chernobyl was a very bad nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant located in Ukraine. This took place on April 26 1986. The reason that this accident happened was due to fires and steam explosion that released a lot of radioactive materials. This badly affected the USSR in many ways.
Perestroika
This was a political movement that affected the Soviet Union by allowing them to reform in the communist Party. Perestroika was significant because they attempted reforms made by Soviets Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, this attempted to make the Soviet Union more open and democratic.
Democratization
This is when the USSR went to more democratic ideals and let the people share their opinion. democratization is the transition to a more democratic political regime from a non democratic political regime.
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The Berlin wall took many many years to build, which means it took a while to bring down. The most famous part that has been taken down is the concrete wall that has been painted on. The fall of the Berlin wall started in 1961 and took 3 decades for it to be fully wiped out. When the wall fell the cold war was mostly done. Even though it didn't make the USSR fall apart it still was an event that symbolized the fall of the USSR.
Collapse of the Soviet Union
In 1991 the Soviet Union finally collapsed. The Soviet Union collapsed to one main reason of having too much central power over other way less powerful areas. This was the true end of the tensions between the U.S. and Russia because the U.S. ended up on top.
