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Berlin Airlift
The Berlin airlift was a supply run of thousands of planes dropping supplies to West Berlin. Many countries helped out including Canada, the U.S., Great Britain, and more. Berlin was a target for the Soviets (who initially blocked off Berlin) as it was a large political city and would allow them to take over Germany. Although the blockade let nobody out, supplies kept getting through and the blockade was eventually lifted. -
Soviets create their atomic bomb
The Soviets tested their atomic bomb, and proved a success. Other countries did not expect this at all and it came as a massive suprise. Since the U.S. found out about the bomb, they started making bigger and better bombs, sparking the arms race. Immense pressures arose as countries began to produce many weapons of mass devestation. -
Korean War
Korea was seperated along the 38th parallel with North and South Korea. The war began when North Korea poured troops into South Korea to take over. Of course, the U.S. saw this as more communist action and jumped in to apply containment, and so they pushed the North Koreans back. It went back and forth across the 38th parallel, but ended right back where it started, even to this day. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a war that not many people know why we fought. One of the only reasons was to prevent communist spread. As a major war of the Cold War era, it was a failure for the U.S. We tried to overcome the North Vietnamese and Vietcong, but eventually had pulled out and lost the country to communist regime. -
Soviets launch Sputnik
Sputnik was a soviet sattelite launched during the Cold war era. It was also the first sattelite anyone had sent up to space. This was a major deal, especially for America because we did not know whether it was to spy on the U.S. or to rain down missiles. Another part of it was that it sparked the space race. The U.S. wanted to get farther and better than the USSR first. -
U2 Spyplane Incident
The U2 Spyplane was meant for U.S. reconnaissance over the USSR during the cold war. It was supplied with some of the best equipment at the time to ensure best results possible. Although, the U2 was revealed in the spotlight when it was shotdown in Soviet territory being able to be recovered and allowing the Soviets to hold onto Francis Powers. This created tensions and caused leakage of valuble U.S. information. -
Bay Of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs invasion was an organized attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. The CIA trained and armed cuban militants to fight against Castro, and on April 17-19, 1961 they launched the invasion. The invasion failed dramatically though, as many militants were cought because of Castro's intelligence system. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban missile crisis was basically a secret transportation of ballistic missiles from the USSR to Cuba. It ended in less than a month, but was the closest the U.S. and the Soviet Union ever came to war. Panic arose and so did the urgency to make a deal with the USSR. Eventually a deal was made for the Soviets to remove their missiles, and that the U.S. would not invade Cuba.
