-
Period: to
Cold War
In 1945, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union had been strained since 1917. That year, a revolution in Russia established a Communist dictatorship their. During the 1920's and the 1930's, the Soviets called for world revolution and the destruction of capitalism, which was the economic system of the United States. The United States did not grant diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union until 1933. -
Truman Doctrine
World War II, the Cold War developed between the Soviet Union and its former allies. The Communists gained control over Eastern Europe. The President realized that the United States would have to lead in the fight for freedom. The country would have to spend as much as necessary to strengthen its allies. In 1946, Congress approved a $3,750,000,000 loan to the United Kingdom. -
Iron Curtain Speech
During 1945 and early in 1946, the Soviet Union cut off almost all contacts between the West and the occupied territories of Eastern Europe. In March 1946, Winstyon Churchill warned that "an iron curtain has descended across the 'Continent" of Europe. He made the phrase iron curtain popular to talk about to Soviet barriers against the West. the U.S.S.R. steadily expanded its power behind these barriers. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan begin in April 1948, when the congress established the Economic Cooperation Administration to administer foreign aid. Seventeen nations formed the Organization for European Economic Cooperation to assist the ECA and develop cooperation among its members. The United States sent about $13 billion in food, machinery, and other products to Europe. the aid ended in 1952. -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
Berlin Airlift was the historic effort when France, britain, and the United States supplied West Berlin entirely by air during a Soviet blockade. The airlift lasted from June 1948 to September 1949. It brought in food, coal, petroleum, and other supplies to more than 2 million people in West Berlin. The Berlin Airlift, which saved West Berliners from starvation, ranks among the most important and dramatic incidents of the early Cold War. -
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization came into being on August 24, 1949. It was created by the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed in Washington DC, on April 4, 1949. The treaty provided for mutual defense and collective security, primarily against the threat of aggression by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. NATO was the first peacetime alliance joined by the United States. The other 11 original members were Belgium, canada, Denmark, france, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg. -
Period: to
Korean War
In the Korean War (1950–53) a U.S.-dominated United Nations (UN) coalition came to the aid of South Korea in responding to an invasion by North Korea; the North was aided by the USSR and allied with Communist China. Concurrently, the United States was assuming leadership of the Western nations against what were perceived as the expansionist intentions of its former ally, the USSR. In Korea this cold war became hot. -
U-2 Spyplane
Virtually a powered glider, the U-2 was able to attain and cruise at great heights by virtue of its unusually wide wingspan, 24.4 m (80 ft), almost twice the length of its body. The prototype U-2 was first flown in 1955. The U-2A production version was powered by a Pratt and Whitney turbojet engine with a range of 4,200 km (2,600 mi) and a maximum altitude of about 22,900 m (75,000 ft). The U-2A entered service with the United States Air Force (USAF) and the NASA. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO), often called the Warsaw Pact, was a military alliance (1955–91) between the USSR and its Eastern European satellites. The WTO was established in Warsaw on May 14, 1955, as an Eastern counterpart to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Its original member nations were the USSR, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Hungary, Poland, and Romania. The WTO had a unified high command with headquarters in Moscow -
Period: to
Veitnam War
In the Vietnam War—which lasted from the mid-1950s until 1975—the United States and the southern-based Republic of Vietnam (RVN) opposed the southern-based revolutionary movement known as the Viet Cong and its sponsor, the Communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam (the DRV, or North Vietnam). The war was the second of two major conflicts that spread throughout Indochina, with Vietnam as its focal point. -
Sputnik
Sputnik is the name of a series of unmanned satellites launched by the Soviet Union. Sputnik 1, launched Oct. 4, 1957, was the first artificial earth satellite. It circled the earth once every 96 minutes at a speed of 18,000 mph (29,000 kph), until it fell to the earth on Jan. 4, 1958. The Soviet Union also launched nine much larger sputniks, from November 1957 to March 1961. The earliest of these carried the first space traveler, the dog Laika. -
Eisenhower Doctrine
In July 1958, a revolution ended the rule of the pro-Western government of Iraq. Nearby Lebanon feared a Communist revolution and asked the United States for aid. Eisenhower quickly sent about 6,000 sailors and marines to help Lebanon. The United Kingdom sent paratroopers to protect Jordan against Iraqi pressure. In spite of Soviet protests, the American and British forces stayed in the Middle East for about three months. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961 was an unsuccessful attempt by about 1,500 Cuban exiles, organized and financed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to topple the revolutionary regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba. In March 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved a CIA plan to train the exiles for an invasion of Cuba, and by autumn they were receiving military instruction in Guatemala. When John Fitzgerald Kennedy succeeded Eisenhower in January 1961, he allowed the preparations -
Berlin Wall
In August 1961 the East German government began constructing a system of concrete and barbed-wire barriers between East and West Berlin. Its intent was to prevent East Germans from seeking asylum in the West. This Berlin Wall endured for nearly 30 years. It became a symbol not only of the division of Germany but of the larger conflict between the Communist and non-Communist worlds. The wall ceased to be a barrier when East Germany ended restrictions on emigration in November 1989. It was largely -
Cuban Missile Crisis
In a televised speech on Oct. 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy publicly announced that the USSR had begun to deploy medium- and intermediate-range nuclear missiles (see nuclear weapon) in Cuba, approximately 145 km (90 mi) from Florida. Moreover, the president said, by their doing so the Soviets had demonstrated that they had for many months been lying about their intentions in that island nation. Kennedy then stated that the United States was prepared to not only blockade Cuba but to ultimat -
Cold War Ends
Cold War tensions increased in the early 1980's. The renewed friction resulted chiefly from the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and from continued American fear of Soviet and Cuban influence in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Central America. United States President Ronald Reagan and his administration adopted a policy they called linkage, tying any U.S. arms agreement to consideration of Soviet expansion.
