This is dedicated to Mrs. Gruber, our amazing history teacher :)

1.United Nations October 1945

On October 24, 1945 the United Nations came into existence. Representatives from 50 countries met at the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco. At the conference they drew up the United Nations Charter. The Charter was then signed by 50 countries. This event decreased tensions between the USA and USSR because the UN's mission was to conserve world peace.

2.¨Iron Curtain¨ 1945

The Iron Curtain was the name for the non-physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas. This happened from the end of WWII in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. It created diminished contact and restricted travel put on by the Soviet Union between the communist countries. Winston Churchill made the phrase "Iron Curtain" famous when he referred to the boundary as that. This event increased tensions between the USA and the USSR because it caused separation between different areas around the world.

3.Truman Doctrine March 12, 1947

The Truman Doctorine was an American foreign policy. The purpose of the policy was to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. Congress announced it March 12, 1947 through President Harry S. Truman. It further developed on July 12,1984 when he pledged to contain threats in Greece and Turkey. This event increased tensions with the USA and USSR because it kept the Soviets from expanding during the Cold War.

4.The Marshall Plan 1948

The Marshall Plan , which was officially the European Recovery Program (ERP). It was an American initiative passed in 1948 to aid Western Europe. The United States then gave $12 billion in economic assistance. This money then helped to rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II. This event decreased tensions with the USA and the USSR because America helped recover Europe.

5.Berlin Airlift June 1948

The Berlin Airlift was one of the first international crises of the Cold War. The reason for it was that the Russians cut off access from Allied zones in West Germany to West Berlin. This gave the Allies two choices surrender West Berlin or supply it by air. For almost a year supplies from American planes sustained the 2 million people of West Berlin. This even increased tensions between the USA and USSR because the Russians had blocked the Allied areas.

6.Chinese Communism- Civil War, Great Leap Forward, and Cultural Revolution (October 1949)

The Chinese Communist Revolution was a revolution in China. It was led by the Communist Party of China and Mao Zedong. This resulted in the proclamation of the People's Republic of China. The communists were victorious. This increased tensions with the USA and USSR because it was a revolution.

7.Arms Race- Atomic Weapons, Hydrogen Bomb, and Ballistic Missiles (1949)

The arms race was a competition for supremacy in nuclear warfare. It was between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their allies during the Cold War. The Arms Race had become the focus of the War. This caused them to invest more in their military. This increased tensions between the USA and USSR because they were competing with each other with nuclear weapons.

8.Military Alliances: NATO (1949) and Warsaw Pact (1955)

The probability of further Communist expansion pushed the United States and 11 other Western nation to form NATO. NATO stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Soviet Union and its affiliated Communist nations in Eastern Europe founded a rival alliance, the Warsaw Pact. Both military alliances led to the expansion of military forces and their integration. This event increased tensions between the USA and the USSR because they became rival military alliances.

9.Korean War June 1950

The Korean War was a war between North Korea and South Korea. The war began on June 25, 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea. This happened following a series of clashes along the border. The war ended July 27, 1953. There were more than 50,000 casualties. This event increased tensions because there were American soldiers that fought in the war.

10.Space Race- Sputnik, man on the moon, and satellites 1955

Space Race refers to the 20th century competition between the US and the Soviet Union, the two Cold War rivals, to dominate spaceflight. On October 4, 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik (Russian for “traveler”), the world’s first artificial satellite and the first man-made object to be placed into the Earth’s orbit. This set off the race for the US to beat the Soviets to successfully landing satellites and eventually a man on the moon. The US "beat" the USSR in the Space Race when Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon on July 20,1969. This event increased tensions between the US and the USSR due to the intense competition.

11.Vietnam War- November 1955

The Vietnam War, which lasted from November 1, 1955 to April 30, 1975, was caused by the communist North Vietnam (and its allies) waging war with South Vietnam. It is also known for the United States' involvement in the war as an ally of South Vietnam to discourage the spread of communism. The Vietnam War was also intertwined with the Cold War because the US was trying to influence other countries while the USSR tried to stop them and vice versa, which caused a power struggle. Essentially, the two superpowers used Vietnam to fight each other by proxy since the US was trying to avoid communist expansion, which was a Soviet ideal. This increased tensions between the US and the USSR because of their differing views.

12.Berlin Wall is erected- August 1961

The purpose of building this wall was to keep East Germans from fleeing to the West. President Kennedy denounced the wall even as American-Soviet tensions began to worsen and even traveled to Vienna to attempt to establish trust with the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, but was unsuccessful. This overall increased the tensions between the two nuclear superpowers-especially over Berlin. During the 28 years that the wall stood, some 5,000 people attempted to escape, of whom an estimated 600 were killed. The day that this wall was built (August 13, 1961) became widely known as "Barbed Wire Sunday" throughout Germany.