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1st Geneva Conference
The First Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded in Armies in the Field. -
Period: to
Cold War
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Potsdam Conference
President Truman, Soviet Premier Stalin and British Prime ministers Churchill and Attlee Discussed Post-war arrangements in Europe, Future moves against japan were also covered. -
The Iron Curtain Speech
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemns the Soviet Union’s policies in Europe and declares, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” -
Truman Doctrine
The British told the US that Great Britain would no longer give financial aid to Greece and Turkey's governments. -
Hollywood Ten hearings
In October 1947, 10 members of the Hollywood film industry publicly denounced the tactics employed by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) -
The Molotov Plan
the system created by the Soviet Union in 1947 in order to provide aid to rebuild the countries in Europe and Asia that were politically and economically aligned to the Soviet Union -
The Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism. -
The Berlin Air lift
Soviets placed a blockade on the allied sector of Berlin to starve the population into Soviet alliance. The blockade was a soviet attempt to starve out the allies in Berlin in order to gain supremacy. The allied response was a unbelievably massive air supply- flying night and day to feed the city. -
The Berlin Blockade
an attempt in 1948 by the Soviet Union to limit the ability of France, Great Britain and the United States to travel to their sectors of Berlin -
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization - a military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. Became more significant during the Korean Way in the early 1950s.Rivalry with the Warsaw Pact which was the USSR's military alliance. The Soviet Union was a communist superpower that were the opponents of the U.S. -
Soviet Atomic bomb test
the USSR successfully tests its first atomic bomb, "First Lightning." The explosion destroyed all of the surrounding structures built to test the strength. Just a few days later, a U.S. spy plane picked up radioactivity from the explosion -
Alger Hiss case
former State Department official Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury. He was convicted of having perjured himself in regards to testimony about his alleged involvement in a Soviet spy ring before and during World War II -
Korean War begins
the Korean War began when 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army went across the 38th parallel. -
Rosenburg case
Judge Irving R. Kaufman presides over the espionage prosecution of the couple accused of selling nuclear secrets to the Russians. -
Geneva Conference
An effort to resolve several problems in Asia, including the war between the French and Vietnamese nationalists in Indochina. -
Army-McCarthy hearings
McCarthy begins hearings investigating the United States Army, which he charges with being “soft” on communism. These televised hearings gave the American public their first view of McCarthy in action -
The battle of Dien Bien Phu
decisive engagement in the first Indochina War (1946–54) -
Period: to
Vietnam
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Warsaw Pact Formed
The Warsaw Pact (Warsaw Treaty Organization) was a political and military alliance. It was created between the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. The Soviet Union created this to balance out the National Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). -
The Invasion of Hungary
Hungary is viciously crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on this day in 1956. Thousands were killed and wounded and nearly a quarter-million Hungarians fled the country. -
U2 incident
the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) shot down an American U-2 spy plane in Soviet air space and captured its pilot, Francis Gary Powers -
Bay of Pigs
The CIA-financed and -trained group of Cuban refugees lands in Cuba and attempts to topple the communist government of Fidel Castro, The attack was a failure. -
The Berlin wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. The Berlin Wall was both the physical division between West Berlin and East Germany from 1961 to 1989 and the symbolic boundary between democracy and Communism during the Cold War. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
the U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13-day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles In Cuba -
Assassination of Diem
President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother are captured and killed by a group of soldiers causing a major turning point in the war -
Assassination of JFK
on Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, is assassinated while traveling through Dallas, Texas, in an open-top convertible. -
Tonkin Gulf Resolution
U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin had been attacked by the North Vietnamese. Johnson dispatched U.S. planes against the attackers and asked Congress to pass a resolution to support his actions. -
(China & Soviet nuclear test)
joins the rank of nations with atomic bomb capability. China is the fifth country to do so. -
Operation Rolling Thunder
U.S. military aircraft attacked targets throughout North Vietnam from March 1965 to October 1968. This massive bombardment was intended to put military pressure on North Vietnam’s Communist leaders -
Tet Offensive
70,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launched the Tet Offensive a coordinated series of fierce attacks on more than 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam. -
Assassination of MLK
U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. -
Assassination of RFK
Kennedy was fatally shot while exiting through the hotel kitchen immediately after leaving the podium in the Ambassador Hotel and died in the Good Samaritan Hospital twenty-six hours later. -
The Invasion of Czechoslovakia
200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 5,000 tanks invade Czechoslovakia to crush the “Prague Spring” peaceful protests faild -
Riots at Democratic National Convention in Chicago
at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters battle police in the streets -
Election of Richard Nixon
Republican challenger Richard Nixon defeats Vice President Hubert Humphrey -
Kent State shooting
Nixon announced that they need to draft 150,000 more soldiers for an expansion of the Vietnam War effort. At Kent State University the riot got to out of hand prompting the governor of Ohio to dispatch 900 National Guardsmen to the campus. -
Nixon visits China
Nixon takes a dramatic first step toward normalizing relations with the communist People’s Republic of China -
Ceasefire in Vietnam
A cease-fire goes into effect at 8 a.m., Saigon time (midnight on January 27, Greenwich Mean Time). -
Fall of Saigon
the outskirts of Saigon were reached by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). -
Election of Ronad Reagan
Ronald Reagan won the election by a landslide, receiving the highest number of electoral votes ever won by a non-incumbent presidential candidate. -
Announcment of SDI ('Star Wars')
President Ronald Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative, signaling a massive paradigm shift in U.S. policy on nuclear policy. Dubbed “Star Wars” after the 1977 movie, -
'Tear Down This Wall' speech
President Ronald Reagan made a speech to the people of West Berlin contains one of the most memorable lines spoken during his presidency. "Tear Down The Wall" -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The infamous fall of the Berlin Wall started On midnight of that day, East Germany's Communist rulers gave permission for gates along the Wall to be opened as a result of days of mass protest.
