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Yalta Conference - Cold War Begins
The leaders of the three superpowers Britain, America, and USSR agreed that Soviets would participate in the Pacific in exchange for control over Manchuria. Churchill and Roosevelt tried to convince Stalin to allow democracy in Poland, but Stalin ensured that Red Army would control states they liberated -
Potsdam Conference
Churchill,Truman, and Stalin meet in Germany to extend Yalta.The leaders agreed to demilitarize Germany and be remade into a democracy. Soviets wanted half of reparations from Germany, but Truman only needed those from their zone of occupation. Negotiators also agreed to create a council of foreign ministers to draft peace treaties with Germany. The Potsdam declaration (China, USA, Britain) threatened Japan with destruction if they did not surrender. Here, Truman, harboring feelings of Pax Ame -
Winston Churchill Speech
SpeechChurchill claimed that an iron curtain had been dropped on Europe. On one side were the countries controlled by the Soviet Union and on the other were capitalist nations of Europe. A similar situation was occurring in Asia. -
US frees Phillippines
Delayed by the war, the act was taken care of, but America still kept strategic military bases in position to support Filipinos who were pro-US. -
Indian Negotiations with British
Jinnah, leader of the Muslim League, calls for Direct Action, resulting in the Calcutta Killing. This was proof that Jinnah's Pakistan would be the only solution. -
Arabs vs Jews
British could not mitigate the conflicting claims of the Arabs and the Jews, so they withdrew from Palestine and handed the issue to the UN. They voted to split Palestine, but Arabs deemed this unacceptable, and civil war broke out. The next year, zionism of the Jews led them to proclaim Israel wholly independent. This caused years of Arab-Israeli conflicts. -
Truman Doctrine Enunciated
SpeechAs communist movements threatened Greece and Turkey and the west, Truman was dedicated to prevent expansion of Soviet influence and help those who are trying to resist it. This was the first example of a policy of containment being instigated. -
Marshall Plan Announced
The ERC was proposed to rebuild the European economy through cooperation and capitalism. This was an effort to create a proxy war by not directly opposing the Soviets. Still, the USSR felt threatened and created COMECON -
Indian Independence
British agreed to Partition India and create another sovereign state: Pakistan. This national liberation caused conflicts between Hindus and Muslims that would last for years. Within the chaos of mass migration, Gandhi was killed by an extremist. The hostility caused Nehru, who favored non-alignment, to accept military aid from the USSR. -
North/South Korea created
Since the two superpowers could not agree on a unification of the country, the Republic of Korea was created in the south and the communist Peoples Democratic Republic was created in the North. -
East/West Germany Formed
Cooperation between the two superpowers eroded, and US, Britain, and France created Federal Republic of Germany. The Soviets in turn created East Germany -
NATO Ratified
Established by the United States as regional military alliance against the Soviets to maintain peace in Europe through defense. In response to this, the Soviets created the WTO. Countries that were not part of these organizations were considered Third World and were usually very poor. -
Mao Zedong takes control of China
This event was a culmination of the Red/White power struggle and years of civil war. This leader actually, like other nations at the time, adopted reformed communism, in which a highly controlled economic was the center. This is contradictory to true communism in which everyone gets an equal part. -
1950: February -- Joe McCarthy begins Communist witch hunt
Nearing the end of his term after being elected in 1943, Senator Joseph McCarthy’s first term was criticized as unimpressive. McCarthy searched for ways to keep his political success alive, a Roman-Catholic friend by the name of Edmund Walsh, suggested a “crusade” against so-called underground communist. McCarthy agreed and took advantage of the nations wave of terror against communism, and on February 9th, 1950, McCarthy came forth with a list of people in the State Department who were known me -
1950: June -- Korean War begins
Armed forces from communist North Korea smash into South Korea, setting off the Korean War. The 38th parallel, involved in Korea;'s tactics, north is a circle of latitude that is 38 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. The United States, acting under the auspices of the United Nations, quickly sprang to the defense of South Korea and fought a bloody and frustrating war for the next three years. -
1951: January 12 -- Federal Civil Defense Administration established
President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 10186, shifting many responsibilities of the National Security Resources Board (NSRB), which oversees federal emergency planning, to a new civil defense organization, the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA). The FCDA is placed within the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), an agency established as part of the Executive Office of the President years earlier by President Franklin Roosevelt -
Nkrumah- Ghana
Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1951 to 1966. The Mau Mau Uprising (also known as the Mau Mau Revolt, The Mau Mau Rebellion and the Kenya Emergency) was a military conflict that took place in Kenya between 1952 and 1960 -
Rosenberg executions
une 19 marks the anniversary of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's historic execution in 1953. Found guilty of relaying U.S. military secrets to the Soviets, the Rosenbergs were the first U.S. civilians to be sentenced to death for espionage. -
1953: July -- Korean War ends
After three years of a bloody and frustrating war, the United States, the People's Republic of China, North Korea, and South Korea agree to an armistice, bringing the Korean War to an end. The armistice ended America's first experiment with the Cold War concept of "limited war." Eisenhower was also involved in the military strategies developed by the United States at the time. -
1954: Geneva Conference
In an effort to resolve several problems in Asia, including the war between the French and Vietnamese nationalists in Indochina, representatives from the world's powers meet in Geneva. The conference marked a turning point in the United States' involvement in Vietnam. -
1954: France suffers defeat at dien bien phu
In northwest Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh forces decisively defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu, a French stronghold besieged by the Vietnamese communists for 57 days. The Viet Minh victory at Dien Bien Phu signaled the end of French colonial influence in Indochina and cleared the way for the division of Vietnam along the 17th parallel at the conference of Geneva. The domino theory, which governed much of U.S. foreign policy beginning in the early 1950s, held that a communist victory in one n -
1954- Bandung Conference
1954 -- Bandung Conference, a meeting of Asian and African states—organized by Indonesia, Myanmar(Burma), Ceylon (Sri Lanka), India, and Pakistan—which took place April 18–24, 1955, in Bandung, Indonesia. In all, 29 countries representing more than half the world’s population sent delegates. -
1955: May -- Warsaw Pact formed
The Soviet Union and seven of its European satellites sign a treaty establishing the Warsaw Pact, a mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states. -
1956: October - November -- Rebellion put down in Communist Hungary
Rebellion put down in Communist Hungary. Egypt took control of Suez Canal; U.S. refused to help take it back -
1958: November -- Khrushchev demands withdrawal of troops from Berlin
Khrushchev's demands for the West to mend things with Germany was a step in the right direction. He wanted East Germany to incorporate the western sections. He was trying to turn Europe back into its whole self that it used to be. A lot of the Cold War, from what I understand, was a part of patching up the fragments of cities and towns to bring them back into their countries. Khrushchev's demands of withdrawal was only trying to help this along. -
1959: January -- Cuba taken over by Fidel Castro
In 1959, Cuba had just announced a new leader. Shortly after, on October 3rd, Fidel Castro, recently out of law school, and law classes, forcefully took over control of Cuba. Him, his younger brother, and over 130 skilled army men took over the power. For over 5 decades now, Castro has been leading Cuba as a dictator. He made many changes to the Cuban culture, including agriculture, the industry, and seized all American-owned businesses and farms. -
1959: September -- Khrushchev visits United States; denied access to Disneyland
In one of the more surreal moments in the history of the Cold War, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev explodes with anger when he learns that he cannot visit Disneyland. The incident marked the climax of Khrushchev's day in Los Angeles, one that was marked by both frivolity and tension. -
Soviet Union reveals that U.S. spy plane was shot down over Soviet territory
A U-2 spy plane was shot down over Soviet Union airspace. Although the U.S. originally denied its purpose, they were eventually forced to confirm it, bringing embarrassment and deteriorating relationships between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Info on U-2 Spy Plane -
John F. Kennedy elected President
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Bay of Pigs invasion
1,400 American-trained Cubans were sent to perform a full-scale invasion of Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro, but it was very unsuccessful; the invaders were highly outnumbered by castro’s troops and surrendered in 24 hours -
Kennedy requests 25% spending increase for military in preparation of the threat in West Berlin
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Berlin border closed
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Construction of Berlin Wall begins
the berlin wall was constructed to keep the western fascists out of east germany and undermining the socialist state -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Soviet Union had installed nuclear weapons in Cuba. In October during a TV address, Kennedy told Americans about the missiles and the naval blockade, and he made it clear that they would be ready to use military force to subdue this threat. Tensions were high, and many feared Mutual Assured Destruction. However, after negotiations, the Soviet Union promised to remove the missiles if the U.S. promised not to invade Cuba. -
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified
This was a treaty signed by the United States, Soviet Union, and Great Britain which prohibited the testing of nuclear weapons anywhere on earth or in outer space. This was regarded as an important first step to controlling the “nuclear arms race” which many believed had been reaching dangerous levels at this point in time. -
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Gulf of Tonkin incidents
There were two events, one real and one fictitious. The first event occurred on August 2nd. It was a minor sea battle between the USS Maddox and Vietnamese torpedo boats, Four vietnamese sailors were killed, but no Americans were killed. The NSA claimed that a second sea battle occurred on August 4th but may not have involved actual torpedo attacks. Because of these events, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which allowed the expansion of the Vietnam War. -
U.S. Marines sent to Dominican Republic to fight Communism
After the assassination of long-time dictator Rafael Trujillo, the Dominican Republic fell into chaos as many groups struggled for power. The United States, fearing that another Cuba was in the making, intervened and established a non-military, conservative government. -
Announcement of dispatching of 150,000 U.S. troops to Vietnam
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U.S. military involvement ends in Vietnam
