Event Letter A: Iron Curtain Speech
Iron Curtain Speech
Winston Churchill, prime minister of England during World War II, visited the United States in the spring of 1946 and delivered his famous Iron Curtain speech. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the continent. This iron curtain of the Soviet-controlled countries in Eastern Europe ran along the western border of East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Albania, and along the southern border of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.
Event B: Truman Doctrine
Truman Doctrine
In 1947 President Truman asked for and received from the U. S. Congress $400 million to provide assistance to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation (enslavement) by armed minorities (communists) or by outside pressures. Providing military and economic assistance to nations resisting communist takeovers became known as the Truman Doctrine. The first nations to receive aid under the Truman Doctrine were Greece and Turkey, both of which then successfully defeated attempted communist takeovers.
Event C: Marshall Plan
Marshall Plan
In 1947 U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall created a plan to rebuild a Europe devastated by World War II. All European nations, including the Soviet Union, could receive U.S. dollars to rebuild their devastated economies as long as the money was spent on products made in the United States. In 1948 the U.S. Congress approved $17 billion in aid. Nations receiving Marshall Plan aid were Great Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, West Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Greece and Turkey.
Event D: Molotov Plan Molotov Plan
The Soviet Union rejected participation in the Marshall plan in 1947 and decided to create an economic union of Eastern European nations. This plan called the Molotov Plan after the Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheshav Molotov. The nations of Eastern Europe would rebuild their post war economies according to a plan set forth by the Communist parties of each participating nation. The nations involved in the Molotov Plan were the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania.
Event E : NATO
NATO (North East Atlantic Treaty Organization)
Fearful the western European nations could not resist a Soviet attack from eastern Europe President Truman signed a treaty that created a military alliance (a pact between states in a common cause) known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). NATO linked the United States and Western Europe in such a way that, as Truman said, an armed attack against one or more of the (nations) in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all. Members of NATO in 1949 were Canada, the United States, Great Britain, France, Iceland, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, and Italy. Greece and Turkey joined the alliance in 1952, an West Germany was admitted in 1954.
Event F: Warsaw Pact
above: Czechoslovakia, August, 1968. Invasion by Warsaw Pact troops near the Radio headquarters
Warsaw Pact
The leaders of Eastern European nations met in 1955 in Warsaw, Poland and signed the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance (a pact between states in a common cause) with the Soviet Union leading military power. Warsaw Pact member nations pledged to defend one another in the event of an attack on any of the member states. The members of the Warsaw Pact in 1955 were the Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria.
Event G: Berlin Blockade
Berlin Blockade
Following World War II, the Americans and Soviet Union agreed to divide up Germany into four occupation zones to be controlled by the Americans, Soviets, British, and French. Berlin, the capital city of Germany that lay deep within the Soviet occupation zone, would itself be divided into four occupation zones held by the same powers. In 1948, when the western nations agreed to create a currency for their occupation zones as the first step in creating a new nation of Western Germany, the Soviet Union decided to close off all road and rail access to the western occupation zones in Berlin. This action, known as the Berlin Blockade, created a crisis for the west because it seemed as if they would either have to fight their way to Berlin to supp the people living there or give up their zones of occupation in the German capital.
Event H: Berlin Airlift
Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Blockade of 1948 left two million West Berliners without electricity, food and fuel needed for survival. Unwilling to give up West Berlin to the Soviet Union and unwilling to fight the Soviet army and risk starting World War II, President Truman decided to launch the Berlin Airlift. For 10 months, starting in August of 1948, the United States sent two million tons of supplies to West Berlin on cargo planes. The planes had to land and take off 24 hours a day to keep from having to give up the Wests occupation zones in the German capital. The Soviet Union lifted the blockade in May of 1949.
Event I: Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall:Because of strict laws preventing citizens of communist nations from leaving their countries for the West, West Berlin was seen
as an escape route out of otherwise tightly sealed borders between communist and non-communist nations. After years of using propaganda to discourage people in East Berlin from defecting (abandoning their country) to West Berlin, a wall was constructed in 1961 that sealed shut the entire border between East and West Berlin. The Berlin Wall, 15 feet high & built of solid concrete masonry, stretches across the city, blocking streets, traversing the river and separating buildings. It was manned by armed East German soldiers in watchtowers with shoot-to-kill orders for anyone attempting to scale the wall and enter West Berlin. Almost 80 people would be killed attempting to escape, & a massive underground movement to
smuggle goods & supplies across the wall that was created. In the nearly 30 yrs that the wall existed no one was ever shot trying to enter East Berlin.
Event J soviet union tests the h bomb
The Soviet Union Tests the Bomb
When the news became public that the Soviets had successfully completed their first test of an atomic bomb in 1949(4 years after the USA dropped the atomic bombs on Japan), Soviet citizens felt pride. Americans and Western Europeans however, were very afraid of the USSR being in possession of
such a powerful weapon. Prior to 1949 America had a monopoly (total control by one group) of weapons of mass destruction (another term for nuclear weapons.) After the United States learned of this, both the Soviet Union & the United States got involved in an arms race to see who could build the most atomic power to be able to defeat the other if war happened again. Soon, each superpower had enough destructive power to completely destroy an entire continent, and later the world.This is called mutually assured destruction.
Event K Soviet Invasion of Hungary
The Invasion of Hungary, 1956
Rioting broke out in Hungary 1956 as Hungarians took to the streets demanding more freedom from their communist government and threatening to return to a parliamentary democracy if their demands were not met. Hungary had been a Soviet satellite after World War II and was under the iron curtain of the Soviet Union and Communism. The new Soviet leader Nikita, Krushchev, quickly dispatched the Soviet Army with tanks into the streets of Budapest, the Hungarian capital, rounding up the protesters and executing their leaders. Within a few days, the uprising was brutally crushed and Hungary was returned to a Soviet-style communist nation.
Event L the Soviet Invasion of Czech
The Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968: In 1968 Czechoslovakia attempted to loosen itself from strict Soviet control. A
new Czech leader, Alexander Dubcek, emerged and restored freedom to his people lost since the end of World War II. Czechoslovakians freely expressed themselves and distributed and read previously banned literature. Alarmed the Czechoslovakia would be wrested from their control, the Soviet Union quickly sent in Warsaw Pact troops and tanks and, with little resistance, restored Czechoslovakia as a hard-line communist nation.
