-
-
The Yalta Conference occurs, deciding the post-war status of Germany. The Allies of World War II (the USA, the USSR, Great Britain and France) divide Germany into four occupation zones. The Allied nations agree that free elections are to be held in all countries occupied by Nazi Germany. In addition, the new United Nations are to replace the failed League of Nations.
-
1945-1949
-
Soviet troops moved across the Russian border into North Korea to take over from the Japanese. US quickly sent troops to occupy South Korea. Soviet did not respond, and this reflected Soviet's attitude at that point in time of their willingness to cooperate.
-
This was a way to show US power, and show that we are stronger than the USSR, and as a way to get surrender on their own terms
-
US President Truman gives permission for the world's first military use of an atomic weapon against the Japanese city of Hiroshima in an attempt to bring the only remaining theatre of war from the Second World War in the Pacific to a swift closure.
-
US President Truman gives permission for the world's second and last military use of an atomic weapon against the Japanese city of Nagasaki in order to try to secure a swift Japanese unconditional surrender in the end of the Second World War.
-
-US policy to limit communism after WW2 by countering political crises with economic and military aid.
-
Provides massive aid to rebuild Europe iin image of democratic societies
-
-
Soviet troops blockade Berlin;
United States airlifts provisions to Berliners -
-
-
-
Western nations form North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
-
Soviet bloc establishes COuncil for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON)
-
Simone de Beauvoir pubishes The Second Sex
-
Mao Zedong leads Communist revolution in China
-
US senator Joseph McCarthy leads hunt for American communists
-
-
-
-
-
Vietnamese forces defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu
-
USSR and Eastern bloc countries form military alliance
-
Egyptian leader General Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal
-
Russia took control of Poland and began to force their Communistic beliefs on the citizens, a revolt among the Polish workforce erupted. The revolt was led by Prime Minister Imre Nagy. After his arrest by Russian forces on this day, the revolt abruptly ended.
-
Russia and America began serious competition on this day known as the Space Race. This competition consisted of seeing which super power could find the technology to send the first Earth-orbiting satellite into space. On October 4 this challenge was accomplished by the USSR with the launch of the Sputnick I. America returned the feel of defeat a decade later when American Neil Armstroing became the first man to set foot on the moon.
-
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev claims that the Soviet Union has missile superiority over the United States and challenges America to a missile "shooting match" to prove his assertion.
-
In March of 1958 Khrushchev finally reached the top of his political ladder when he became the leader (Premier) of Russia. When Nikita assumed office he was the first leader of the Soviet Union since Stalin to hold two top offices simultaneously. When Nikita reached this position, he gained the full attention of the American government.
-
-
A coup in Iraq, the 14 July Revolution, removes the pro-British monarch. Iraq begins to receive support from the Soviets. Iraq will maintain close ties with the Soviets throughout the Cold War.
-
Communist leader Fidel Castro took control of Cuba. Fidel was a major threat because he brought the threat of Communism from Russia (thousands of miles away) to Cuba (within hundreds of miles from the US). This caused great unrest and worry among the American government and its citizens.
-
Confrontation between US and USSR over Soviet installation of missile sites off the US coas in Cuba
-
The Partial Test Ban Treaty is signed by the US, UK and USSR, prohibiting the testing of nuclear weapons anywhere except underground.
-
South Vietnamese Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated in coup. CIA involvement is suspected.
-
US President Lyndon Johnson in New York, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow, announce simultaneously plans to cut back production of materials for making nuclear weapons.
-
Willy Brandt becomes West German foreign minister and develops Ospolitik, a policy designed to bridge tensions between the two Germanies
-
Revolution in Czechoslovakia against communism
-
US astronauts walk on moon's surface
-
Between US and Soviet Union
-
The Paris Peace Accords end American involvement in the Vietnam War. Congress cuts off funds for the continued bombing of Indochina.
-
Gerald Ford becomes President of the United States upon the resignation of Nixon.
-
North Vietnam wins the war in South Vietnam. The South Vietnam regime falls with the surrender of Saigon and the two countries are united under a Communist government
-
-
US hostages taken at US embassy in Teheran
-
The United States and its allies boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics (July 19-August 3) in Moscow
-
Iran hostage crisis ends.
-
-
-
Soviet nuclear plant explodes at Chernobyl
-
-
CHinese students revolt in Tiananmen Square and government suppresses them
-
Berlin Wall is demolished
-
Revolutions of Eastern Europe: Soviet reforms and their state of bankruptcy have allowed Eastern Europe to rise up against the Communist governments there. The Berlin Wall is breached when Politburo spokesman, Günter Schabowski, not fully informed of the technicalities or procedures of the newly agreed lifting of travel restrictions, mistakenly announces at a news conference in East Berlin that the borders have been opened.
-
Václav Havel becomes President of the now free Czechoslovakia.
-
US President George H. W. Bush, after receiving a phone call from Boris Yeltsin, delivers a Christmas Day speech acknowledging the end of the Cold War
-
All Soviet institutions cease operations.