The Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union lasted for decades and resulted in anti-communist suspicions and international incidents that led the two superpowers to the brink of nuclear disaster.
During World War II, despite mutual suspicion and distrust, the United States and Great Britain joined the Soviet Union in an effort to defeat their common enemy, Nazi Germany. The alliance began to crumble immediately after the surrender of the Hitler government in May 1945. Tensions were apparent during the Potsdam Conference in July, where the victorious Allies created the joint occupation of Germany. Determined to have a buffer zone between its borders and Western Europe, the Soviet Union set up pro-communist regimes in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Albania and eventually in East Germany. Recognizing that it would not be possible to force the Soviets out of Eastern Europe, the United States developed the policy of containment to prevent the spread of Soviet and communist influence and power in Western European nations such as France, Italy and Greece.
The Marshall Plan, also known as the European Recovery Program, was a U.S. program providing aid to Western Europe following the devastation of World War II.
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Find a summary, definition and facts about the Iron Curtain for kids. United States history and the Iron Curtain. Information about the Iron Curtain for kids, children, homework and schools.
The Soviet Union inaugurates the “Space Age” with its launch of Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. The spacecraft, named Sputnik after the Russian
This week marks 30 years since the Berlin Wall separating East and West Germany came crashing down. View photos of the rise and fall of the wall.
An arms race, such as the U.S.-Soviet Cold War nuclear arms race, occurs when countries increase their military forces to gain superiority over one another.
On June 25, 1950, the Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. Explore the war's causes, timeline, facts and end.
The domino theory was a Cold War policy that suggested a communist government in one nation would quickly lead to communist takeovers in neighboring states,
In April 1961, the CIA, under the leadership of President John F. Kennedy, launched the Bay of Pigs Invasion, which sent 1,400 American-trained exiled Cubans to attack Fidel Castro's troops. The invaders were badly outnumbered by Castro’s forces, and they surrendered after less than 24 hours of fighting.
The John F. Kennedy library and museum Cuban Missile Crisis page. Access the Kennedy Library Digital Archives, which includes 300,000 scanned documents, films, and audio clips with materials such as early drafts of the John F. Kennedy inaugural address, Fidel Castro, Bay of Pigs, Missiles, Russia, Sviet Union, John f. kennedy inaugural address, inaugural address of john f. kennedy, jfk inaugural address, john f kennedy inaugural address, jfk inaugural address.
Former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev provoked the Cuban Missile Crisis and oversaw the building of the Berlin Wall. Learn more at Biography.com.
On July 20, 1969, two American astronauts landed on the moon and became the first humans to walk on the lunar surface. The event marked the culmination of a nearly decade-long intense push to meet a challenge posed by President John F. Kennedy.
The Vietnam War was a long, costly and divisive conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States.
Many believe that the blame for losing the war goes to the people in the Congress, not to the people on the front
These are exhibits produced by students in two of my history courses, America in the Cold War World and The Evolution Debates.
Vietnam War - Vietnam War - The United States enters the war: Between the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the U.S. presidential election in November 1964, the situation in Vietnam had changed for the worse. Beginning in September, the Khanh government was succeeded by a bewildering array of cliques and coalitions, some of which stayed in power less than a month. In the countryside even the best ARVN units seemed incapable of defeating the main forces of the Viet Cong. The communists were now deliberately targeting U.S. military personnel and bases, beginning with a mortar attack on the U.S. air base at Bien Hoa near Saigon in November. Many of Johnson’s advisers
Détente (a French word meaning release from tension) is the name given to a period of improved relations between the United States and the Soviet Union that began tentatively in 1971 and took decisive form in 1972 when President Richard Nixon visited Secretary General of the Soviet Communist party, Leonid Brezhnev, in Moscow.
Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), a former actor and California governor, served as the 40th president from 1981 to 1989. Raised in small-town Illinois, he became a
The Red Scare was hysteria over the perceived threat posed by Communists in the U.S. during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, which