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COLD WAR EVENTS

Terms in this set (39)

Potsdam Conference
(July 17-Aug 2, 1945)
Allied leaders USSR (Stalin), USA (Churchill) and UK (Truman), gathered to discuss the spread of Communism and Soviet Union influence in the post war world negotiate terms for the end of World War II and to decide how to handle the defeated Germany.
Marshall Plan (June 5, 1947)
US Secretary of State George C. Marshall first called for American assistance program to aid Europe, in which the United States (with President Truman) gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism.
Marshall later won the Peace Nobel Prize.
Berlin Airlift
(24 June 1948 - 12 May 1949)
The dropping of thousands of tons of food and medical supplies to starving West Berliners after Joseph Stalin closed off all highway and railway access to the city in mid-1948. Stalin hoped to cut off British, French, and American access to the conquered German city, but President Harry S Truman, determined not to lose face or the city, ordered American military planes to drop provisions from the air. The blockade was foiled, and Stalin finally lifted it in 1949.
NATO creation (Apr 4 1949)
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization
An organization formed in 1949 that bound the United States, Canada, most of Western Europe, and later Greece and Turkey together in a mutual pact of defense against the USSR and Eastern bloc countries.
Chinese Civil War (1927-1950)
civil war in China fought between Republic of China Communist Party of China (CPC).
The war began in April 1927, amidst the Northern Expedition, and essentially ended when major active battles ceased in 1950. The conflict eventually resulted in two de facto states, the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in mainland China, both claiming to be the legitimate government of China.
Korean War (June 25- 1950)
After WW II the country of Korea was split into 2
The north was communist and influenced by the Soviet Union: Stalin, N. KOREA Kim II Sung
and China and the south was democratic influenced by United Nations. U.S. Truman, Eisenhower, Mc Arthur, U.N. and S. KOREA
The War began when soldiers from the North Korean People's Army cross the 38th parallel,
it was a war against the forces of international communism
This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War.
Mayor Battle was Battle of Inchon
Finally, in July 1953, the Korean War came to an end when the armistice agreement was signed.
The agreement restored the border between the Koreas and created the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)
The Korean peninsula is still divided today and US is still involved with Korea.
Battle of Inchon
(Sep 15-Sep 19 1950)
Was an amphibious invasion and battle of the Korean War that resulted in a decisive victory and strategic reversal in favor of the United Nations (UN). involved were U.S. Marines, commanded by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur
The operation led to the recapture of the South Korean capital Seoul two weeks later.
Geneva Accords (1954)
Settlement which brought about an end to the First Indochina war.
This set of documents ended the French war with Vietnam and divided Vietnam into North and South states. The communist leader of North Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh while the US friendly south was led by Ngo Dinh Diem.
Warsaw creation (1955)
A pact signed by the USSR and Eastern European countries under Soviet influence.
By signing the pact, they pledged mutual defense in response to the formation of NATO.
The Soviets obviously saw this as a direct threat and responded with the Warsaw Pact.
Hungarian uprising
(Oct 23-Nov 10 1956)
Was a spontaneous nationwide revolt against the government of Hungary and its Soviet-imposed policies.
On October 23rd 1956, students and workers took to the streets of Budapest and issued their Sixteen Points which included personal freedom, more food, the removal of the secret police, the removal of Russian control etc
Sputnik (Oct 4, 1957)
The former Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a basketball, weighed only 183 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path.
The launch of these satellites astonished the world and scared many Americans.
U-2 spy plane (May 1st 1960)
When a United States U-2 spy plane (plane of choice for the spying missions) was shot down over the airspace of the Soviet Union.
During the presidency of Eisenhower and the leadership of Soviet N. Khrushchev
the incident was a great embarrassment to the United States and prompted a marked deterioration in its relations with the Soviet Union.
Bay of Pigs (April 17th 1961)
In 1960 Castro took over U.S. oil refineries in Cuba. As a result, US stopped buying Cuban sugar. Castro responded by taking over all of U.S. businesses in Cuba.
This led President Kennedy to authorize the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
A force of Cuban exiles, trained by the CIA, aided by the US government attempted to invade Cuba and overthrow the Communist government of Fidel Castro.
The attempt failed, consolidated Castro's power, and pushed Cuba into signing a treaty with the Soviet Union
Berlin Wall (13 August 1961)
The Berlin Wall was the division (the construct of a massive wall of concrete and barbed wire) between West Berlin and East Germany from 1961 to 1989 and the symbolic boundary between democracy and Communism during the Cold War.
the Berlin Wall became the most famous symbol of the Cold War.
Cuban Missile crises
(October 1962)
Was a 13-day confrontation between
the Soviet Union with Cuba, and the US.
The Soviets had installed nuclear missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of the US.
U.S. armed forces were at a state of readiness.
The fate of millions hinged upon the ability of two men, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev,
to reach a compromise.
It was a moment in which the Cold War came closest to turning into a nuclear conflict.
JFK Berlin Wall Speech
(June 26, 1963)
"I am a Berliner" is a quotation from a speech by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin. He wanted to support West Germany after the built of Berlin Wall supported by Soviet Union.
It was a great morale boost for West Berliners who feared a possible East German occupation.
Gulf of Tonkin Incident
(Aug 2nd 1964)
North Vietnamese torpedo boats supposedly attacked the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin, off Vietnam, in a pair of assaults on August 2 and 4 of 1964. It was the basis for the Tonkin Gulf Resolution,
which served as Johnson's legal justification for deploying U.S. conventional forces and the commencement of open warfare against North Vietnam.
This helped lead to greater American involvement in the Vietnam War.
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
(Aug 7 1964)
The passage by the Congress of a resolution in response of the Gulf of Tonkinn Incident, which granted President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization, without a formal declaration of war by Congress, the resolution authorized the President to do whatever necessary in order to assist "any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty whose government was considered to be jeopardized by "communist aggression.
My Lai massacre (March 16, 1968)
Was the Vietnam War mass murder of about 500 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam, by United States Army soldiers of "Charlie" Company. Most of the victims were women, children, infants, and elderly people.
TET offensive (Jan 30 1968)
The Tet Offensive was a military campaign during the Vietnam War that was launched on January 30, 1968 by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnam against South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies. It was a campaign of surprise attacks that were launched against military and civilian command and control centers throughout South Vietnam, during a period when no attacks were supposed to take place.
Apollo II (Jul 20 1969)
Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans, Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on the Moon
SALT 1 (Nov 1969)
(Strategic Arms Limitation Talks), extended from November 1969 to May 1972.
signed by Nixon and Brezhnev, prohibited the manufacturing of nuclear missiles in order to reduce the threat of nuclear war.
Nixon visit China
(Feb 21 to 28, 1972)
Was an important step in formally normalizing relations between China and U.S, because US upholded an economic embargo against China that lasted some twenty years.
In 1971, this was to change, with Nixon's lifting of the embargo in an effort to begin repairing relations
It marked the first time a U.S. president had visited China, putting in opossition China and U.S. against Soviet Union.
Detente (1972)
Policy adopted by Richard Nixon in 1972 that called for a more relaxed approach toward the Soviet Union to ease the tension from the Cold War; Ronald Reagan would later abandon this policy in favor of a vigorous anti-communist policy
Paris Peace (January 27, 1973)
The Paris Peace Accords of 1973 intended to establish peace in Vietnam and an end to the Vietnam War, ended direct U.S. military involvement, and temporarily stopped the fighting between North and South Vietnam.
North and South Vietnam and USA signed
the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam. U.S Henry Kissinger was one of the main negotiators of the agreement.
Vietnam War
( Nov 1, 1954 - Apr 30 1975)
Communist North Vietnamese forces, led by Ho Chi Minh, were allied with the Viet Cong in South Vietnam, China, and the Soviet Union.
They faced an anti-communist coalition made up of the South Vietnam, the United States,
The North Vietnamese army and their Viet Cong allies won the war.
The United States and other foreign nations withdrew their troops by March, 1973. The South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to the communist forces on April 30, 1975
U.S.wanted to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam as part of their wider strategy of containment
President Richard Nixon ordered US troops to go to Cambodia Apr 30 70.
SDI/Star Wars (March 23, 1983)
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as Star Wars, was a program initiated under President Ronald Reagan.
plan to research, develop and to use ground and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles.
in order to prevent missile attacks from other countries, specifically the Soviet Union.
The nickname "Star Wars" caused the public to associate this program with new and creative technologies and abstract ideas like
Perestroika ("restructuring") (1986)
Literlly "reconstruction" or "rebuilding." Series of political and economic reforms adopted by Gorbachev that moved the country away from centralized state control. Established that multiple candidates could run for office (though all were Communist Party candidates) and legalized private ownership of businesses. The policy backfired and led to a food shortage, Perestroika ended with the collapse of the USSR in the 1991.
Glasnost ("openess")
(second half of 80's)
Literally "openness," this policy, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev, increased political transparency of Soviet institutions and freedom of information.
INF (Dec 8th 1987)
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF)
By signing this treaty, Gorbachev and Reagan agreed to reduce stockpiles of nuclear weapons.
with intermediate ranges between 500-5,500 km (300-3,400 miles).
Reagan Berlin Wall Speech
(June 12, 1987)
"Tear down this wall!" was the challenge issued by US President Ronald Reagan to Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to destroy the Berlin Wall, in a speech at the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall
Reagan challenged Gorbachev, to tear it down as an emblem of Gorbachev's desire to increase freedom in the Eastern Bloc through glasnost ("transparency") and perestroika ("restructuring") .
USSR becomes Russia
(Dec 1991)
Soviet Union had fallen, largely due to the great number of radical reformst Mikhail Gorbachev had implemented.
The Soviet Union disintegrated into fifteen separate countries.
Its collapse was hailed by the west as a victory for freedom, a triumph of democracy over totalitarianism thereby ending the Cold War.
NASA created (1958)
On July 29, 1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, establishing NASA
As a result of the space race between USA and the Soviet Union in the 1950s
Fall of the Berlin Wall
(Nov 9th 1989)
The fall of the Berlin Wall happened nearly as suddenly as its rise. There had been signs that the Communist bloc was weakening,
Then suddenly, on the evening of November 9, 1989, an announcement made by East German government official stated, "Permanent relocations can be done through all border checkpoints between the East Germany into West Germany or West Berlin."
After the Berlin Wall came down, East and West Germany reunified into a single German state on October 3, 1990
Containment
A U.S. foreign policy meant to prevent communism from spreading outside of the Eastern Bloc states; this policy led to a quadrupling of U.S. defense spending, wars in Korea and Vietnam, the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban missile crisis.
Moon Landing
Is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. The first human-made object to reach the surface of the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2 mission, on 13 September 1959.
The United States' Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon, on 20 July 1969
McCarthyism
Is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence, the term has its origins when Joseph Mcarty accused more than 200 federal employees of being Communists. Even though McCarthy had no proof to support these claims, Americans supported his endeavors to find more "Soviet agents" hiding in Washington.
Iron Curtain (1945)
Iron Curtain, the political, military, and ideological barrier erected by the Soviet Union after World War II till end of Cold War, to seal off itself and its dependent eastern and central European allies from open contact with the West and other noncommunist areas.
British prime minister Winston Churchill used the term in a speech at Fulton, Missouri, U.S., on March 5, 1946, when he said of the communist states, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent."
Although the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 restored them. The Iron Curtain largely ceased to exist in 1989-90 with the communists' abandonment of one-party rule in eastern Europe.
Camp David
Khrushchev toured the United States in 1959 and visited personally with President Eisenhower at Camp David, Maryland. The U-2 incident and 1962 Cuban missile crisis, however, ended what little amity existed between the two nations and repolarized the Cold War.
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