Cold War Timeline- It was called the Cold War because neither the Soviet Union nor the United States officially declared war on each other.
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Postwar Occupation
After WWII when Germany was defeated, its fate was decided by the allies (The United States, Great Britain, The Soviet Union,and France) who particapted in a series of confrences where they discussed their major concerns about germany as well as how to divide the territory. -
Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech
The Iron Curtain was the border between the allied liberated area and the soviet liberated area of Europe post 1945, The term was first coined by Winston S. Churchill and was played on Joseph Stalin who portrayed himself of iron. The speech was given March 5 1946 at the Westminster College. Fulton Missouri, and generally marks the start of the cold war -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine was an international policy that was set forth by the United States President at the time, Harry Truman. he first stated the doctrine in his speech that stated that the U.S. would support Turkey and Greece with both economic and military aid. This was donne to help prevent those countries to fall into the soviet sphere and become communist. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall plan was a plan constructed by the United States government to go help shore up the destroyed infrastructure of Western Europe after the end of World War II. The main purpose of this plan was to prevent Western Europe form the Soviet sphere that would end up leading to communism. Another initiative of this plan was to make the Europe prosperous again by removing trade barriers and revamping the industry. -
Berlin Blockage and airlift
The Berlin Blockage was possibly one the first major international crises that happened during the Cold War. During post World War II, the Soviet Union had blocked all central access to Western Berlin so that they could practically own the city. That did not work however because the Americans and the British had responded with airlifts that were meant to keep the inhabitants alive. They also got help from their allies. All in all, there were about 200,000 flights that flew in one year. -
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Orgination that was an intergovernmental militry aliance that was based on the North Atlantic Treaty which had been signed in 1949. NATO was little more than a political association until the Korean War galvanized the organization's member states and an integrated military structure was built up under the direction of two U.S supreme commanders. -
Chinese Communist
After WWII ended, the Chinese communists led by Mao Zedong and the nationalists led by Sun Yixian continued to fight over the rights to control China. Though the Nationalists had the greater advantage, obtaining more troops, weapons, territory and support from the United states, who provided financial and military assistance in order to prevent China from becoming a Communist state, it was the Communist army that prevailed, causing the nationalists to retreat to Taiwan. -
Korean War
The Korean War was fought between the North ( Democratic People's Republic of Korea), which was supported by the Soviet Union and at some point China. The South (Republic of Korea) was supported by the United Nations. The war left Korea divided and brought the Cold War to Asia. -
Cuban Revolution
Following liberation from Spain and the United States, turmoil in Cuba led to Fulgencio Batista seized power in a military coup with support of the United States.Fidel Castro, a young lawyer and political activist, sought to remove Batista from power because of his tyranny. After legal proceedings failed, a military uprising sprouted up. With hit-and-run tactics, the rebels were able to outskill Batista’s forces and overthrow his government. -
Space Race
The space race was one of the most exhilarating races between U.S.S.R and U.S.A. for supremacy in space flight. The Soviets had one the first round when they launch Sputnik 1 into space on Oct. 4, 1957. The U.S had a counter attack by landing the first man on the moon in 1969. An unforeseen effect was that the Space Race contributed to the birth of the environmental movement by providing sharp color images of the global Earth taken by astronauts in trans lunar space. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was basically acollective defense treaty among eight communist States of Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War. It was a counter alliance that was just as powerful as NATO. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was the prolonged struggle between nationalist forces attempting to unify the country of Vietnam under a communist government and the United States with the aid of the South Vietnamese attempting to prevent the spread of communism. However, the North won and the country is communist. -
Bay of Pigs
The Bay of Pigs was the location that the U.S invaded Cuba to take out their communist leader Castro. Sadly the U.S efforts failed and all of the member were killed. This caused Latin countries to see low of the Americans in how they could not take out a third world country. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin wall was a barrier constructed in 1961 to separate East Berlin from West Berlin and East Germany. The Berlin Wall was originally constructed by the communists rulers in Germany. The Berlin Wall served as a reminder of the Iron Curtain and was eventually torn down in 1989 after years of civil unrest. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closet the world ever came to an all out nuclear war. It was a confrontation between the Americans and the Cubans who were allied with the Soviets. This was refereed to as one of the hottest periods of the cold war. -
Soviet-Afghan War
In 1978 Afghanistan's centralist government was overthrown, putting Nur Muhammad Taraki, an advocate of communist ideals and the leader of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, into power. During their rule, the Democratic Party established close ties with the soviet, implemented many radical social and political reforms that become unpopular amongst opposition from the people. -
Tiananmen Square Massacre
Before the massacre, around a million young students of China had rallied in central Beijing to protest for stronger democracy and the resignation of the leaders of the nation’s communist party. In June, China responded to the protests with a brutal police force that fired unrelentingly into the crowd, leading to the deaths of around 300 and the imprisonment of 10,000 protesters. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin’s Communist Party announced a change in his city’s relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country’s borders. -
Fall of Soviet Union
Those were initiatives by the last USSR leader, Mikhail Gorbachev during the mid- to late 1980s. Gorbachev came to power in 1985, so these reforms came out that year. Perestroika was an economic policy designed to bring some open market concepts to the USSR. Glasnost was an attempt to allow more free expression in the media and the arts.
