Cold War: Definition and Timeline

Che Guevara

Ernesto “Che” Guevara de la Serna, the controversial Marxist revolutionary and guerrilla leader, was a central figure in the Cuban Revolution, serving as second in command to Fidel Castro.

3:57 minTV-PG

Here’s Why the Suez Crisis Almost Led to Nuclear War

Discover the history of the Suez Canal and how Egypt’s President Nasser, with the support of the Soviet Union, seized the canal from the British in 1956, causing an international crisis. See how President Eisenhower intervened to help restore order.

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Palmer Raids

Red Scare Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, America was on high alert, fearing Communist revolutionaries on their own shores. The Sedition Act of 1918, which was an expansion of the 1917 Espionage Act, was a direct result of the paranoia. Targeting those who criticized the government, the Sedition Act set into motion an effort […]

3:11 minTV-PG

Formation of NATO

Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union resulted in the formation of key alliances that would endure throughout the Cold War.

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Khmer Rouge

Pol Pot Although Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge didn’t come to power until the mid-1970s, the roots of their takeover can be traced to the 1960s, when a communist insurgency first became active in Cambodia, which was then ruled by a monarch. Throughout the 1960s, the Khmer Rouge operated as the armed wing of […]

1:59 minTV-PG

Army-McCarthy Hearings

Joseph McCarthy and his role in stoking fears of communism and its sympathizers during the 1950s.

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1:41 minTV-PG

Hollywood Ten

Historian Yohuru Williams discusses key facts about the Hollywood 10, a group of film directors, screenwriters, and producers blacklisted for Communist affiliations in 1947.

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1:35 minTV-PG

HUAC: A Cold War Witch Hunt

Take a crash course on the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), a group that investigated the ‘loyalty’ of those suspected of having Communist ties after World War II.

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1:09 minTV-PG

Fidel Castro

During Fidel Castro’s tenure as President of Cuba, he survived an estimated 638 attempts on his life – and that’s just from the CIA.

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0:58 secTV-PG

Dean Acheson

Domino Theory, which governed much of U.S. foreign policy beginning in the early 1950s, held that a communist victory in one nation would quickly lead to a chain reaction of communist takeovers in neighboring states.

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1:41 minTV-PG

Mao Zedong and China’s Cultural Revolution

Historian Yohuru Williams gives a crash course on the Cultural Revolution led by Communist leader Mao Zedong in China in the 1960s.

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1:02 minTV-PG

Army-McCarthy Hearings

On June 9, 1954, two-thirds of the way into the 36-day televised Army-McCarthy hearings in which Sen. Joseph McCarthy argued that the U.S. Army was harboring communists, the investigation hits a turning point. When Joseph Welch, the Army’s special counsel, accuses McCarthy of having “no sense of decency,” the tide of public opinion turns and […]

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