10 Decisions That Altered the Course of the Cold War

The Cold War (1947-1991) affected billions of lives, cost vast sums of money and reshaped global politics in ways that still echo today.

From postwar reconstruction to nuclear brinkmanship, major decisions during the era sent shock waves across the world. Here are 10 Cold War decisions that changed the course of history.

The plan, led by U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall, committed $13.3 billion in American aid to rebuilding World War II-ravaged Europe. As Marshall said, “It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world.”

Aftershocks:

Wary of Soviet expansion, the United States, Canada and 10 Western European nations formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a military alliance built on the principle that an attack on one member would be treated as an attack on all. President Harry Truman called NATO “a milestone in history.”

Aftershocks:

Eager to blunt the spread of communism, Truman authorized U.S. intervention on the Korean Peninsula on June 27, 1950, after North Korea attacked the South two days earlier. Acting under a United Nations mandate, Truman framed the invasion as evidence that communism had moved beyond subversion and was using armed force to conquer “independent nations.”

Aftershocks:

President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned that the United States would respond to Soviet aggression with overwhelming nuclear force. The policy emphasized a rapid, decisive response in the event of attack. As U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles said in January 1954, a U.S. response to aggression would be “by means and at places of our choosing.”

Aftershocks:

With the West preoccupied by the Suez Crisis, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev moved to suppress a popular uprising in Hungary. Reformers sought political freedoms and free elections, both of which Khrushchev crushed. On November 4, Soviet tanks entered Budapest, crushing the revolt. Khrushchev told Western envoys, “Whether you like it or not, history is on our side.”

Aftershocks:

From October 16-28, the Soviet Union and the United States stood on the precipice of nuclear war over nuclear missiles introduced by the Soviets on Cuba, just 90 miles from Florida. President John F. Kennedy announced a naval blockade, or quarantine, on October 22 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, to prevent further Soviet deliveries of missiles and related components. Khrushchev ultimately agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for American guarantees not to invade Cuba and to remove U.S. nuclear missiles from Turkey.

Aftershocks:

President Lyndon B. Johnson believed increased military pressure would force North Vietnam to negotiate. Following reports of attacks on U.S. military vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin—an incident later disputed—Johnson secured approval from Congress for expanded military action. The United States soon launched a massive bombing campaign against North Vietnam and deployed regular ground troops to fight the Viet Cong.

Aftershocks:

In a major Cold War realignment, President Richard Nixon became the first sitting U.S. president to visit communist China. For Nixon, a longtime anti-communist, the move was stunning. Nixon said at the time: “What we must do is find a way to see that we can have our differences without being enemies at war.”

Aftershocks:

President Ronald Reagan sought to build a shield against enemy missiles and even floated the idea of sharing the technology with the Soviets. But the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), nicknamed “Star Wars” after the hit 1977 science fiction film, never realized Reagan’s original vision. After the United States spent roughly $30 billion, the program was restructured into the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization in 1993.

Aftershocks:

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev loosened centralized economic controls through perestroika, or restructuring, and introduced political reforms known as glasnost, or openness, leading to the Soviet Union’s first relatively free elections since 1917. Soviet intellectual Yuri Druzhnikov said, “Before glasnost, people lived in a whisper. People are more open [now].”

Aftershocks: