Cold+War

=Cold War=

Winston Churchill: "Iron Curtain" Speech, 1946
A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory. Nobody knows what Soviet Russia and its Communist international organisation intends to do in the immediate future, or what are the limits, if any, to their expansive and proselytising tendencies. I have a strong admiration and regard for the valiant Russian people and for my wartime comrade, Marshal Stalin. There is deep sympathy and goodwill in Britain - and I doubt not here also - towards the peoples of all the Russias and a resolve to persevere through many differences and rebuffs in establishing lasting friendships. We understand the Russian need to be secure on her western frontiers by the removal of all possibility of German aggression. We welcome Russia to her rightful place among the leading nations of the world. We welcome her flag upon the seas. Above all, we welcome constant, frequent and growing contacts between the Russian people and our own people on both sides of the Atlantic. It is my duty however, for I am sure you would wish me to state the facts as I see them to you, to place before you certain facts about the present position in Europe. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow. Athens alone - Greece with its immortal glories - is free to decide its future at an election under British, American and French observation. The Russian-dominated Polish Government has been encouraged to make enormous and wrongful inroads upon Germany, and mass expulsions of millions of Germans on a scale grievous and undreamed-of are now taking place. The Communist parties, which were very small in all these Eastern States of Europe, have been raised to pre-eminence and power far beyond their numbers and are seeking everywhere to obtain totalitarian control. Police governments are prevailing in nearly every case, and so far, except in Czechoslovakia, there is no true democracy.

media type="custom" key="25869346"

=Yalta Conference 1945=

Yalta Agreement Main Points:

 * Major points**
 * There was agreement that the priority was the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. After the war, the country would be split into four occupied zones, with a quadripartite occupation of Berlin as well.
 * Germany would undergo demilitarization and denazification, and pay reparations to Allied nations
 * Eastern European countries would hold free elections
 * Roosevelt obtained a commitment by Stalin to participate in the United Nations once it was agreed that each of the five permanent members of the Security Council would have veto power.
 * Stalin agreed to enter the fight against the Empire of Japan within 90 days after the defeat of Germany. The Soviet Union would receive the southern part of Sakhalin and the Kurile islands after the defeat of Japan.

=Timeline: Cold War=

Aug. U.S. drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Potsdam Conference - Truman - Stalin and British divide up Europe
 * 1945 Feb. Yalta Conference May World War II ends in Europe.
 * 1945 Feb. Yalta Conference May World War II ends in Europe.

1947 Jan. Communists seize power in Poland. March Truman Doctrine announced.

1948 June Berlin Airlift begins (ends May 19, 1949)

1949 April North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) established. Aug. Soviet Union explodes its first atomic bomb. Oct. Communists win Chinese Civil War.

1950 June U.S. and other U.N. members fight North Korean forces. (the Korean War ends July 27, 1953)

1955 May Warsaw Pact formed. July First Summit Meeting between President Dwight Eisenhower and Premier NikitaKhrushchev.

1957 Oct. Soviets launch first man‑made satellite.

1959 Feb. Fidel Castro becomes premier of Cuba, installs Communist government.

1961 Aug. East Germany builds Berlin Wall.

1962 June Sino‑Soviet Conflict begins. Oct. Cuban Missile Crisis.

1964 Oct. China explodes its first atomic bomb.

1965 Aug. U.S. commits combat troops to South Vietnam.

1968 Aug. Soviet Red Army crushes Czech Uprising.

1972 Feb. President Richard Nixon visits China.

1975 Apr. South Vietnam falls to Communist forces.

1979 Jan. U.S. and China establish diplomatic relations. Dec. Soviet Red Army invades Afghanistan

1980 Aug. Polish shipyard workers strike, Solidarity Union formed.

1985 Mar. Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union, the following year he declares //glasnost// and //perestroika//.

1989 May Led by university students, over one million Chinese in Tiananmen Square demand reforms by the Chinese Communist government. Sept. Solidarity forms the first post-war non-Communist government in Poland Oct. Hungary declares a non-Communist government. Nov. East Germany allows unrestricted migration to West Germany. Dec. Berlin Wall is demolished.

1990 May George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev agree to the reunification of Germany in 1994

1991 Aug. Hard-line Communists stage unsuccessful coup against Mikhail Gorbachev. Dec. The Soviet Union is abolished. Boris Yeltsin becomes President of Russia. || =Key moments of the Cold War: photographs=

media type="custom" key="25895302"

=Cold War: World Map=