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Curated playlist

Presidency of Harry S. Truman

  • Cold WarWhy was the Cold War called a war when the two superpowers never fought each other directly?
  • McCarthyismJoseph McCarthy waved a paper in 1950 and claimed it listed 205 communists in the State Department.
  • Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and NagasakiKyoto was taken off the atomic bomb target list because one official admired the city. Nagasaki was added in its place.
  • Truman DoctrineAn eighteen-minute speech to Congress in March 1947 launched the Truman Doctrine.
  • Presidency of Harry S. TrumanHarry Truman became president without having been told about the Manhattan Project.
  • Potsdam ConferenceMid-conference at Potsdam in 1945, British voters replaced Winston Churchill with Clement Attlee.
  • Point Four ProgramThe Point Four Program got its name from the order of a list. It was the fourth goal in Truman's 1949 inaugural address.
  • Marshall PlanTruman tried to bury the Marshall Plan speech, but the BBC read all of it aloud.
  • Occupation of JapanMacArthur refused to put Emperor Hirohito on trial after Japan's surrender.
  • Turkish Straits crisisIn August 1946, the Soviet Union demanded that Turkey scrap the rules for its two key straits.
  • Trust Territory of the Pacific IslandsThe Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands split into four separate jurisdictions between 1986 and 1994.

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