🌍 Cold War (1940s–1960s)

Key Events & Terms

• Manhattan Project: Secret U.S. program during WWII to develop atomic bombs. Used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, ending WWII but sparking the nuclear arms race.

• Four Freedoms: FDR’s speech (1941) outlining freedoms everyone should enjoy—speech, worship, want, and fear. Influenced Cold War ideology.

• Berlin Blockade/Airlift (1948–49): USSR blocked Western access to West Berlin; U.S. and allies flew in supplies for 11 months.

• Division of Berlin: Post-WWII, Berlin was divided into U.S., British, French (West Berlin) and Soviet (East Berlin) zones.

• Berlin Wall (1961–1989): Built by East Germany to stop East Berliners from fleeing to the West. Symbol of Cold War division.

International Conflicts

• Chinese Civil War: Communists (Mao Zedong) defeated Nationalists (Chiang Kai-shek) in 1949; U.S. supported Nationalists.

• Korean War (1950–1953): North (Communist) invaded South; U.S. and UN helped South. Ended in stalemate at the 38th Parallel.

• Suez Canal Crisis (1956): Egypt nationalized the canal; Britain, France, and Israel invaded. U.S. and USSR pressured them to withdraw.

Domestic Cold War (U.S.)

• McCarthyism: Fear-driven campaign against alleged communists in U.S. government and society, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy.

• Hollywood Ten: Group of filmmakers jailed for refusing to testify before HUAC about communism in Hollywood.

• Rosenbergs: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg executed for allegedly passing atomic secrets to the USSR.

• Blacklisting: Denying employment to suspected communists, especially in the entertainment industry.

U.S. Foreign Policy

• Truman Doctrine: U.S. will support countries resisting communism (especially Greece & Turkey).

• Eisenhower Doctrine: Extended Truman Doctrine to the Middle East.

• Containment: U.S. strategy to stop the spread of communism, based on George Kennan’s Long Telegram.

• Marshall Plan: $13 billion in aid to help rebuild Western Europe and stop spread of communism.

Alliances & Ideological Divide

• Iron Curtain: Term by Winston Churchill describing Soviet control over Eastern Europe.

• NATO (1949): U.S.-led military alliance to counter Soviet threat.

• Warsaw Pact (1955): Soviet-led counter-alliance to NATO.

• United Nations: Formed after WWII to promote peace; became Cold War battleground for diplomacy.

Cuba & the Americas

• Bay of Pigs (1961): Failed U.S.-backed invasion of Cuba to overthrow Castro.

• Cuban Missile Crisis (1962): Closest the world came to nuclear war; ended with USSR removing missiles from Cuba.

Space & Defense

• Sputnik (1957): First satellite, launched by USSR; sparked U.S. fears and the Space Race.

• Civil Defense Authority: Promoted preparedness for nuclear attack—“Duck and Cover” drills.

• Nuclear Proliferation: Spread of nuclear weapons technology post-WWII.

✊ Civil Rights Movement

Key People

• Rosa Parks: Sparked Montgomery Bus Boycott by refusing to give up seat.

• Martin Luther King Jr.: Leader of nonviolent protests, "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington (1963).

• Emmett Till: 14-year-old murdered in Mississippi in 1955; his death galvanized the movement.

• Little Rock Nine: First Black students to integrate Little Rock Central High School (1957); faced violent backlash.

Key Events & Tactics

• Brown v. Board of Education (1954): Supreme Court ruled segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

• Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–1956): Year-long boycott leading to desegregation of buses.

• Sit-ins: Nonviolent protests (like at Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro) to challenge segregation.

• Freedom Rides: Interracial activists rode buses into segregated South to test Supreme Court rulings.

• Birmingham Campaign (1963): Nonviolent protests met with violence; images shocked the nation and led to civil rights legislation.