Cold War Map by MICHAEL BRAGG

Yalta Conference drafts Post-War plan.

mbragg25 — 2024-03-27 13:49:50 UTC

A discussion held by the leaders of the United States, United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, over the reconstruction and organization of post World War 2 Germany.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

mbragg25 — 2024-03-27 13:57:01 UTC

The USA detonated two atomic bombs over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This resulted in the casualties of an estimated 200,000 Japanese residents.

Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech in Fulton, MO

mbragg25 — 2024-03-27 14:02:15 UTC

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom pays a visit to the small town of Fulton, Missouri. He expressed the need to ally the United Kingdom with the United States against the communist plague of the Soviet Union.

Truman Doctrine first applied in Greek Civil War

mbragg25 — 2024-03-27 14:20:05 UTC

Marshall Plan is announced to rebuild Europe

mbragg25 — 2024-03-27 14:21:29 UTC

Berlin Blockade and Airlift Begins

mbragg25 — 2024-04-08 13:11:52 UTC

The Soviets blocked western railroads, roads, and canals from travelling into East Berlin. Effectively cutting off any influence from western powers. The USA airlifts cargo, such as food and other essentials, to the citizens of East Berlin in response.

NATO Alliance formed

mbragg25 — 2024-04-08 13:15:20 UTC

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization. An alliance of Canada, the US, and several western European countries to help provide security against the influence of communism, specifically the Soviet Union.

Russia tests its first atomic bomb

mbragg25 — 2024-04-08 13:18:36 UTC

Russia develops their first atomic bomb. Marking the second country to successfully develop functional atomic weapons. Also denotes a major change in how warfare is conducted.

Mao Zedong wins Chinese Civil War and creates the People’s Republic of China.

mbragg25 — 2024-04-08 13:47:17 UTC

Marks the end of the dynasty era (Chin was the last). China modernizes after WW1. Mao Zedong (Communist) became the leader of mainland China. Non-communists fled to Taiwan.

McCarthyism and the Red Scare takes hold in the US

mbragg25 — 2024-04-08 14:08:38 UTC

China becomes communists and causes the Red Scare which is essentially a mass hysteria witch hunt. Joseph McCarthy states that communist spies are everywhere, including the government and Hollywood. He pours gasoline on the paranoia.

Korean War

mbragg25 — 2024-04-08 14:26:00 UTC

Japan occupied Korea. They surrendered northern Korea to China and southern Korea to the US. Surprise invasion of South Korea by the Chinese. Only a foot hold of Pu Song survives. Then surprise "D-Day like" invasion by Douglas MacArthur takes back South Korea and nearly all of North Korea. Chinese reinforcements force a ceasefire.

H-Bomb Tested by USA on Bikini Atoll

mbragg25 — 2024-04-10 13:36:51 UTC

A bomb thousands of time stronger than atomic bombs. It is also referred to as "Hydrogen Bombs". Instead of splitting atoms they fuse atoms.

KGB established

mbragg25 — 2024-04-10 13:43:08 UTC

"Secret Police" force of the Soviet Union. Safeguards the country from foreign threats.

CIA helps overthrow unfriendly governments in Iran and Guatemala

mbragg25 — 2024-04-10 13:54:58 UTC

The US overthrew Guatemala because they were interfering with the US's banana republic. Jacobo seized the banana republic's land and then Jacobo was overthrown.

Warsaw Pact formed

mbragg25 — 2024-04-10 13:57:11 UTC

Established by the Soviet Union as a counterweight to the formation of NATO.

The Transfermium Wars Begin

mbragg25 — 2024-04-11 13:07:49 UTC

Scientific competition with the USA and the Soviet Union to find new elements. They name elements in an aspect that reflects their respective nationality. The goal was to get international recognition for the names.

Rebellion put down in Hungary

mbragg25 — 2024-04-11 13:13:12 UTC

Sudden uprising of nationalist Hungarians against their communist controllers. It was soon crushed by a fleet of Soviet tanks. Exposed the fragility of communism in Eastern European countries.

USSR launches first ICBM

mbragg25 — 2024-04-11 13:16:26 UTC

World first intercontinental ballistic missile. Made the threat of nuclear annihilation all the more prevalent since now the means to actually drop the bombs became significantly easier.

Sputnik launched into orbit

mbragg25 — 2024-04-11 13:19:22 UTC

The Soviets had successfully launched the first satellite into outer space. This marked the beginning of the Space Age and the race to the Moon by the USA and the Soviets.

Fidel Castro takes power in Cuba

mbragg25 — 2024-04-11 13:22:15 UTC

During the Cuban Revolution, Castro, an already important Cuban figure, had successfully toppled the pre-established government and he was then declared prime minister where he established a communist rule over the country.

U2 spy plane shot down over the USSR

mbragg25 — 2024-04-11 13:52:25 UTC

U2 plane spies on the Soviets so high up that missiles shouldn't have reached it. The Soviets invented a missile that had oxygen imbued into it so it could reach the super high altitudes. Gary Powers was the pilot and was captured and put on public trial by the Soviets of espionage.

Failed Bay of Pigs Invasion

mbragg25 — 2024-04-11 14:05:36 UTC

CIA trained Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro and supplied them with weapons then dropped them off at the coast. The invasion was crushed and the revolutionaries were interrogated. Cuba immediately allies with the Soviet Union after this.

Cuban Missile Crisis

mbragg25 — 2024-04-24 13:05:01 UTC

Closest the world has been to thermonuclear annihilation. The climax of the Cold War. Soviet missiles get secretly imported into Cuba to pose a direct threat to the USA. Crisis is averted and the USA and Soviet Union both withdraw missiles from close proximity of each other's countries.

Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified

mbragg25 — 2024-04-24 13:14:23 UTC

A deescalation where there was a mutual agreement to not use nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, underwater, or in outer space. With the exception of underground testing that would leave no radioactive debris in residential areas.

Gulf of Tonkin incident and resolution

mbragg25 — 2024-04-24 13:29:36 UTC

The French want the colony of Vietnam back now after Japan withdraws. Vietnam does not want this and fights guerrilla warfare and successfully makes the French withdraw. The guerrilla warfare is lead by a communist leader which gets the USA in involved where they position up a anti-communist government in southern Vietnam. "Supposedly" some Vietnam missiles get launched towards US vessels... awfully convenient. Confusion if there was an attack or not. Anyways the USA gets involved either way to contain communism.

US Marines sent to Dominican Republic to fight Communism

mbragg25 — 2024-04-24 13:37:00 UTC

Lyndon B. Johnson sent twenty thousand troops to the Dominican Republic under the vision of the Truman Doctrine to contain the spread of communism in the area.

US announcement to dispatch 200,000 US troops to Vietnam

mbragg25 — 2024-04-24 13:39:31 UTC

The official draft of the Vietnam War had begun. Under the vision of the Truman Doctrine the USA felt the moral obligation to contain the spread of communism and dispatched two-hundred thousand soldiers to Vietnam to dispel the Vietcong.

B-52s Bomb N. Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder

mbragg25 — 2024-04-24 13:57:57 UTC

USA's strategy was to just obliterate North Vietnam with as many bombs as they can throw at it. More bombs were thrown here than all of World War 2. Goal was to submit North Vietnam and use exclusively air power to win the war to help offset American casualties.

Red Army crush Czechoslovakian revolt

mbragg25 — 2024-04-24 14:14:31 UTC

The Soviet Union was liberating eastern European countries from German control and setting up their own puppet governments. Some countries are fed up with the Soviet control so protests are pursued. The Czechs protest and the Soviets sent tanks to annihilate the protests.

Apollo 11 lands on the moon

mbragg25 — 2024-04-24 14:19:02 UTC

The USA wins the moon race which boasts the USA's nationalism and triumph over the Soviet Union. Another non-violent competition victory of the Cold War.

Publication of the Pentagon papers

mbragg25 — 2024-04-24 14:23:25 UTC

The Pentagon papers were secret military documents which documented the expanding war efforts (e.x. like bombing Laos and Cambodia). This was withheld from public intel until it was leaked and then the Nixon administration tried to fight the supreme court on whether the papers could be published by the media and the supreme court was in favor of the media's right to publish the papers.

President Nixon visits China

mbragg25 — 2024-04-29 13:03:43 UTC

Nixon opens reopens China. Nixon is very harsh to China but he decides to leverage that fact into establishing diplomatic and trade relationships with the USA without being criticized for being a "Chinese Sympathizer".

SALT I signed

mbragg25 — 2024-04-29 13:16:40 UTC

Both the Soviet Union and the USA both signed a treaty "limiting" nuclear weapons. Attempt in reigning in the arms in terms of nuclear weapons. Crowing achievement of Nixon's policy of "Détente"

US supported coup overthrows Chilean government

mbragg25 — 2024-04-29 13:20:08 UTC

There was no hard evidence that the USA supported any coup, but the CIA was aware of a plot of overthrowing the Chilean government by the Chilean military led by General Augusto Pinochet.

Egypt and Syria attack Israel; Egypt requests Soviet aid

mbragg25 — 2024-04-29 13:22:41 UTC

Egyptian and Syrian forces attacked Israeli forces on October 6, 1973 in the Sinai and the Golan Heights in an effort to regain territory they had lost during the 1967 war.

S. Vietnam falls to Communist N. Vietnam

mbragg25 — 2024-04-29 13:27:08 UTC

Ho Chi Minh, the leader of North Vietnam, sent down 70,000 Viet Cong soldiers to do a surprise attack on military bases and southern cities. This overwhelmed the South Vietnamese troops and they were forced to retreat and then surrender. All USA supporters were then either killed by the Viet Cong or flown away by USA helicopter.

Soviet and Cuban forces help to install Communist government in Angola

mbragg25 — 2024-04-29 13:30:02 UTC

Cuba backed the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, a pro communist movement, in its fight against the pro Western National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, and National Liberation.

US and China officially establish diplomatic relations and trade & Panda Diplomacy

mbragg25 — 2024-04-29 14:03:00 UTC

Countries that recognize communist China get to rent pandas for a million dollars a year. in the 70s this was a major deal because you couldn't find pandas nearly anywhere in the USA at the time. The pandas are a symbol of friendship to the Chinese. If the pandas are in poor condition then the residents of China will be infuriated.

Sino-Vietnamese War

mbragg25 — 2024-05-01 13:36:25 UTC

Boarder skirmish between Communist Vietnam and Communist China. It was less than a year of conflict and there was a stalemate.

Shah of Iran overthrown; Iran Hostage Crisis begins

mbragg25 — 2024-05-01 13:48:24 UTC

Shah is the "King" of Iran and is backed by the USA. He is very progressive and pro-western. In November of 79 he was overthrown by a theocracy when the Shah was in the USA for cancer treatment (Which actually started with religious college protests until it spiraled out of control). After the Shah was accepted into the USA for a cancer treatment the Iranian people stormed the USA embassy in Iran and took 63 hostages.

Soviet forces invade Afghanistan

mbragg25 — 2024-05-01 13:57:14 UTC

Due to internal struggles within Afghanistan, the state was weakened and the Soviets saw this as a prime time to invade. So on the night of December 24, 1979, the Soviets sent a force of 30,000 soldiers to the People's leader Hafizullah Amin.

US Hockey defeats USSR at winter olympics in Lake Placid, NY.

mbragg25 — 2024-05-01 13:59:32 UTC

On Feb. 22, 1980, the United States beat the Soviet Union 4-3 in an ice hockey game at the Lake Placid Olympics. It was one of the biggest upsets in sports history. The Americans had lost to the USSR 10-3 in their final exhibition game before the Olympics.

1980: US Boycotts Summer Olympics in Moscow

mbragg25 — 2024-05-01 14:03:40 UTC

The boycott was initiated to protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Reagan proposes SDI or “Star Wars”

mbragg25 — 2024-05-01 14:08:03 UTC

Ronald Reagan proposes a new branch of the military that would focus on space-related technology. This would include space-based missiles.

US troops invade and overthrow regime in Grenada

mbragg25 — 2024-05-02 13:42:23 UTC

U.S.-led invasion of the Caribbean country of Grenada to overthrow a military government that had taken power in a bloody coup days earlier.

1984: Eastern Bloc boycotts LA Summer Olympics

mbragg25 — 2024-05-02 13:44:24 UTC

The Soviet Union boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games in retaliation for an American-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.

Gorbachev begins “glasnost” and “perestroika” in efforts to reform the USSR

mbragg25 — 2024-05-02 13:46:19 UTC

Glasnost and Perestroika were a series of reforms started by the leader of the Soviet Union in 1986, Mikhail Gorbachev. Their goal was to revive the country's economy.

Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan

mbragg25 — 2024-05-02 13:58:51 UTC

The Soviet Union conducted a total military withdrawal from Afghanistan between 15 May 1988 and 15 February 1989. This was because the Afghanistans eventually developed good enough technology to fight against the Soviet air power which was the only thing keeping the Soviets afloat.

Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania oust Communist governments

mbragg25 — 2024-05-02 14:05:40 UTC

In Poland, Hungary, East Germany and Czechoslovakia, newly formed center-right parties took power for the first time since the end of World War II. In Bulgaria and Romania, reformed communists retained control of the governments, but new center-right parties entered Parliaments and became active on the political scene.

Tiananmen Square Massacre

mbragg25 — 2024-05-02 14:18:04 UTC

Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in which the People's Liberation Army cracked down on a student protest on the square that had the stated purpose of calling for political liberalization and greater respect for human rights.

Berlin Wall falls

mbragg25 — 2024-05-23 13:02:20 UTC

The Peaceful Revolution marked the beginning of the destruction of the Berlin Wall. The destruction of the Berlin Wall marked the escape from Soviet Control and the Soviet's lessening power over the region.

Germany Reunited

mbragg25 — 2024-05-23 13:04:40 UTC

The Soviet Union is close to collapsed and so did their control over East Berlin. Both Berlins were reunited with each and the rest of Germany officially established itself as a full sovereign country again.

USSR dissolved - 15 Republics gain independence, including Russia.

mbragg25 — 2024-05-23 13:08:35 UTC

Gorbachev successfully launched reforms over the USSR. Communists attempted to stop him but failed. The reforms called for elections with a multi-party system and creating a presidency for the Soviet Union began a slow process of democratization. The ideology of communism led them to economic depression and too much emphasis on military might which was ultimately their downfall.

VIDEO

mbragg25 — 2024-05-23 13:35:53 UTC

https://www.loom.com/share/8407987245144e9387d23c0912d84053?sid=b10be542-5383-4c3c-be60-50499edcff8a