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"The Big Three" (Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin) at Yalta.

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Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt agreed that France, Britain, the US, and the USSR would each occupy a separate zone of Germany. This would split the territory and the city of Berlin into eastern and western blocs that would reflect the Cold War divide.

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President Truman delivers an address outlining the Truman Doctrine.

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The Truman Doctrine aimed to contain communism to the areas already under Communist governments and promised to use diplomatic, economic, and military means. These containment policies were seen as the US involved itself in several foreign nations (Greece, Turkey, Vietnam, Korea, etc). The doctrine that dictated that the US had a responsibility to contain and prevent communism from spreading in other countries led to several altercations between the US and communist groups/Soviets on foreign ground, spreading the Cold War conflict across the world.

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President Truman signs Foreign Assistance Act of 1948, authorizing the Marshall Plan.

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US Secretary of State George C. Marshall recognized that an economically and politically stable western Europe would be a buffer against the appeal of communism, so the Marshall Plan was created to offer Europe economic aid to rebuild. It was one of the most successful foreign aid programs in history, giving about $13 billion in aid, and although funding was offered to East Bloc countries, they rejected it in fear of western interference. As that made the Marshall Plan's benefits limited to Western Bloc countries, East and West Bloc Cold War divisions were further increased.

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People in Berlin watch a U.S. plane land at Tempelhof Airport (1948)

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Jun 24, 1948 – May 12, 1949: Berlin Blockade/ Airlift

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Jun 24, 1948 – May 12, 1949: Berlin Blockade/ Airlift

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In an attempt to reunify Berlin under the Soviet Union, Stalin blockaded rail, road, and water access from the Soviet zone of Berlin to the Western part. In response, the US and the United Kingdom coordinated hundreds of planes to supply West Berliners with provisions in the Berlin Airlift. The airlift succeeded, and Soviet forces lifted the blockade on access to western Berlin on May 12, 1949. The Berlin Airlift paved the way for the creation of two separate German states and proved to Americans that a strong military presence in Europe was an effective way to contain the threat of communism.

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The twelve founding nations of NATO sign the treaty in Washington, DC

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The US and eleven other countries formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an anti-Soviet military alliance of Western governments created to promote cooperation and protection of its members. Its purpose was to unify and strengthen the Western Allies against the Soviet Union and the threat of communism. This organization of western nations would lead to the Soviets countering with their own alliance in 1955.

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Map of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic.

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1949: Formation of Two Separate German States

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1949: Formation of Two Separate German States

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Two separate German states were formed in 1949. West Germany became the Federal Republic of Germany, founded on May 23, 1949 with an alliance with the US and other western nations. East Germany became the German Democratic Republic on October 7, 1949, aligned with the USSR.

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Syngman Rhee (left) and Kim Il Sung (right)

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After WWII, Soviet and American forces divided Korea temporarily, with communist ally Kim Il Sung leading North Korea and non-communist leader Syngman Rhee in South Korea. Each leader wanted the entire country, and the Korean war broke out; the UN and United States sent military and economic aid to the South Koreans, and China and the Soviet Union aided North Korea, creating another extension of the Cold War on foreign soil. After years of fighting, an armistice was signed, and North and South Korea developed separately and remained separate at the end of the Cold War.

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Warsaw Pact conference in Warsaw, Poland

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In response to the Western governments' formation of NATO, the Soviet Union organized the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact members pledged to defend each other if one came under attack but ultimately, the Soviet Union controlled most of the Pact's decisions, using it to contain popular dissent in its European satellites. The pact was a military agreement among the USSR and its communist satellites created in hopes of counterbalancing the effects of the strong Western alliance.

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East German authorities built a wall separating East and West Berlin, a physical and symbolic representation of the Cold War divisiveness. JFK hoped that the wall could ease Cold War tensions and hostility in Berlin, saying that a wall was better than a war, so he did little to prevent its construction. Lack of American resistance emboldened Nikita Khrushchev to strengthen the Soviet's military power, culminating in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

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The Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm)

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Oct 16, 1962 – Oct 28, 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis

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Oct 16, 1962 – Oct 28, 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis

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Khrushchev secretly ordered the installation of nuclear missiles in (Communist) Cuba, leading to the thirteen-day Cuban Missile Crisis handled by JFK's administration and his ExComm council. For this period, the US and USSR were on the brink of nuclear war, but the crisis was resolved with diplomacy and a deal to remove both Soviet and American nuclear missiles as a nuclear war would be mutually assured destruction.

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Joseph Mobutu of Congo (right) meeting with President JFK (left).

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May 31, 1963: President JFK and Joseph Mobutu Meet

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May 31, 1963: President JFK and Joseph Mobutu Meet

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The Congo was ruled by Belgium until 1960, but when they pulled out, the new nation fell into chaos. The US and western Europe feared that the Congo would fall under Soviet influence, so the United States and the CIA backed Joseph Mobutu, who staged a coup and created a corrupt dictatorship. The installation of Mobutu shows a pattern in the Cold War of the US supporting authoritarian dictators, so long as they were useful in the prevention and containment of communism.

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U.S. Marines arrive in Da Nang, the first official engagement of American troops in the Vietnam War

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March 8, 1965: American Involvement in the Vietnam War

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March 8, 1965: American Involvement in the Vietnam War

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In a temporary division of Vietnam, North Vietnam was controlled by Ho Chi Minh's communist government and South Vietnam was led by noncommunist Ngo Dinh Diem. America believed that a communist victory in Vietnam would cause a domino effect of Southeast Asian countries falling to communism. The US sent supplies, military advisors, and eventually thousands of troops (image above), turning the Vietnam War into a major Cold War conflict with the Soviet Union and China also sending aid to North Vietnam.

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Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party (1985-1991) gives an address

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February 26, 1986: Gorbachev Introduces Perestroika and Glasnost

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February 26, 1986: Gorbachev Introduces Perestroika and Glasnost

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In a speech to the Communist Party Congress, Gorbachev explained the need for restructuring the economic and political system (perestroika) and for wider dissemination of information in a more transparent government (glasnost). Awareness and free will increased and new perspective on Lenin emerged. In this time Gorbachev made efforts to democratize, increase freedoms, and lessen tensions with West and Eastern nations (e.g. SALT with the United States).

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People celebrate atop the fallen Berlin Fall

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 October 3, 1990: Reunification of Germany

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 October 3, 1990: Reunification of Germany

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After the Berlin Wall fell, demonstrations and protests demanding democracy increased in East Germany. The massive wave of refugees from East to West Germany threatened to cripple East Germany, and the People's Chamber was democratically elected for the first time. The new government began negotiations for a treaty of unification, and after Gorbachev dropped his objections to a unified Germany within the NATO alliance (in return for West Germany's financial aid), East Germany officially joined the Federal Republic of Germany in the West with a unification treaty going into effect on October 3, 1990.

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Gorbachev announces his resignation as president.

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December 25-26, 1991: Gorbachev resigns; the USSR falls

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December 25-26, 1991: Gorbachev resigns; the USSR falls

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Combined with Gorbachev's reforms in the USSR that damaged the economy and weakened control over the Soviet satellite states, countries in the USSR began to declare their independence, establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States. At the same time as these countries were breaking away from Moscow, Boris Yelstin came into control of the parliament and KGB. On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev aired his resignation as president, and the USSR fell the next day.