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Civil war begins in China between the communist forces of Mao Zedong and the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai Chek
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Truman's speech to Congress asking for help for Turkey and Greece ("Truman Doctrine")
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Communist coup d'etat in Prague
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Treaty of Brussels
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Proclamation of the State of Israel. The first Arab-Israeli war begins
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Yugoslavia is expelled from the Kominform
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Signing of the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO)
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Adenauer proclaims the birth of the Federal Republic of Germany
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First Soviet atomic bomb
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Mao Zedong proclaims the People's Republic of China
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MacArthur's American troops regain the territory conquered by the North Koreans
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Intervention of Chinese troops in favour of North Korea
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Chinese-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance
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North Korea attacks South Korea
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Truman dismisses MacArthur as head of troops in Korea
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San Francisco Treaty between Japan and the United States
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Britain explodes its first atomic bomb
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Dwight Eisenhower elected president of the United States
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Stalin's death
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Armistice in the Korean War
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French defeat of Diem Bien Phu in Indochina
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A CIA-organized coup overthrows President Arbenz in Guatemala
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A CIA-organized coup overthrows President Mossadegh in Iran
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Signing of the Treaty of Southeast Asia (SEATO)
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Khrushchev establishes his leadership in the CPSU and the USSR
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Treaty of Baghdad (Middle East Treaty) later renamed the Centre Treaty (CENTO) in 1959
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West Germany regains its sovereignty, five days later joins NATO
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Constitution of the Warsaw Pact
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Khrushchev denounces Stalin in his "secret speech"; to the 20th CPSU Congress
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Workers'; protests in Poland
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Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal
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Kremlin accepts Gomulka as Polish leader
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The beginning of the revolution in Hungary
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Suez crisis begins: Israel, supported by France and Britain, attacks Egypt
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Soviet invasion of Hungary
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The Six (France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) sign the Treaties of Rome establishing the European Economic Community (EEC)
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USSR launches Sputnik I into space, the first artificial satellite
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First artificial North American satellite
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De Gaulle becomes the first President of the Fifth French Republic
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Fidel Castro takes power in Cuba
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Khrushchev's visit to the USA
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Khrushchev announces the downing of an American U-2 spy plane in the Soviet sky
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Failure of the Khrushchev-Eisenhower summit in Paris
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U. S. trade embargo on Cuba
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John F. Kennedy is elected President of the United States
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USA sends his first military advisors to Vietnam
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United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Cuba
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Yuri Gagarin, the first Soviet cosmonaut in space
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Failure of the CIA-organized invasion of Cuba (Bay of Pigs or Playa Giron)
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Summit between Khrushchev and Kennedy in Vienna
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GDR begins construction of the Berlin Wall
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U. S. Spy Plane Discovers Soviet Missiles in Cuba - Cuban Missile Crisis Begins
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After moments of serious tension, the USSR withdraws the missiles deployed in Cuba
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France vetoes UK entry into the EEC
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The "red phone"; is established between the White House and the Kremlin
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South Korean President Ngo Dinh Diem is overthrown and killed in a military coup
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John F. Kennedy is killed in Dallas
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Khrushchev is dismissed and replaced by Brezhnev in the CPSU General Secretariat
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The People's Republic of China explodes its first atomic bomb
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Lyndon B. Johnson wins U. S. presidential election
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First American bombing in Vietnam
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First American combat troops arrive in Vietnam
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USA intervenes militarily in the Dominican Republic
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France withdraws from NATO's military structure, but remains in the alliance
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Six Day War (Israel against Egypt, Syria and Jordan)
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Large protests at the Pentagon in Washington against the Vietnam War
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Dubcek starts the "Prague Spring";
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Communist troops start Tet offensive in Vietnam
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American troops commit the My Lai massacre in Vietnam
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Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia
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Richard Nixon, new president of the United States
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First military clash on the Ussuri River between the USSR and People's China
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After withdrawing 25,000 troops, Nixon announces that Asian countries must now defend themselves ("Nixon Doctrine";)
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North American astronauts arrive on the Moon
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American and South Vietnamese troops invade Cambodia. Major anti-war protests in the US
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The FRG and the USSR sign a non-aggression pact whereby the FRG accepts the inter-German and GDR borders with Poland (" Ostpolitik"; by Willy Brandt)
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People's China joins the United Nations as a permanent member of the Security Council
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The Europe of Nine: the United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland join the EEC
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Nixo's visit to People's China
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SALT I treaties signed in Moscow
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Watergate Scandal Begins
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The Peace Treaty on Vietnam is signed in Paris. End of the American intervention, although the war continues.
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CIA-backed military coup against Chilean President Salvador Allende
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Yom Kippur or Ramadan War (Israel against Egypt and Syria)
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As a result of the Watergate scandal, Nixon is resigning the presidency. He is replaced by his vice president Gerald Ford
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Breznev and Ford meet in Vladivostok and agree on a draft SALT II treaty
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Khmer Rouge conquer Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh
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North Vietnamese troops take Saigon. End of the Vietnam War.
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Signature of the Helsinki Act
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Reunification of North and South Vietnam
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Jimmy Carter is elected president of the United States.
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Carter announces that human rights will be the biggest concern of U. S. foreign policy
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Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat visits Israel
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Pro-Soviet military takes power in Afghanistan
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Carter, Begin and Sadat sign Camp David Agreements
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Vietnamese troops invade Cambodia and overthrow the Khmer Rouge regime
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USA and the People's Republic of China establish diplomatic relations
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Islamic Revolution in Iran
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China attacks northern Vietnam in retaliation for Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia
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Israel and Egypt sign the Peace Treaty between the two countries in Washington
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Carter and Breznev sign SALT II agreements in Vienna
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Sandinista troops overthrow Somoza's dictatorship
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Assault on the US embassy in Tehran and hostage taking (The hostage crisis will last 444 days)
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Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
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Carter Withdraws SALT II Treaty from Congressional Consideration in Response to Afghanistan Invasion
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Carter announces that the United States will use force if another power threatens its access to Persian Gulf oil ("Carter Doctrine";)
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American attempt to rescue hostages fails
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USA and 40 other nations boycott the Moscow Olympics
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Lech Walesa signs the agreement that signifies legal recognition of the Solidarity union
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Ronald Reagan is elected president of the United States.
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Egyptian fundamentalist officials kill Anwar el-Sadat during military parade
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Military coup in Poland. Martial law is decreed and Walesa is imprisoned.
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Israel invades southern Lebanon to prevent PLO guerrilla attacks
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Breznev dies. He is replaced by Yuri Andropov
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Reagan announces the launch of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
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Terrorist attack on the US embassy in Beirut - 63 dead
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Suicide bombing of a US Marine barracks in Beirut - 241 dead
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American invasion of the island of Grenada
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The deployment of the "Euromisiles"; begins
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Yuri Andropov dies. He is replaced by old man Constantin Chernenko
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U. S. Congress bans continued aid to the Nicaraguan Contras
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USSR and its allies (except Romania) boycott the Los Angeles Olympics
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Sino-British Agreement for the Return of Hong Kong in 1997
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Reagan announces that the U. S. support rebels fighting communist regimes in the Third World ("Reagan Doctrine";)
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Mikhail Gorbachev Elected Secretary General of the CPSU
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Gorbachev proposes an in-depth reform of the Soviet economy
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First summit between Gorbachev and Reagan in Geneva
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France begins Operation Sparrowhawk to expel Libyans from Chadian territory
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Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme is killed by a gunman while leaving a cinema in Stockholm.
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US planes bomb Libya
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in Chile, members of the Marxist terrorist group Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez made an unsuccessful attempt on the life of General Augusto Pinochet
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The Reykjavik Summit begins, where Reagan and Gorbachev reach several agreements for the effective control of nuclear weapons.
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Iran-Contra scandal. The Reagan Administration announces that it has been selling weapons to Iran in exchange for hostages, and that the profits from this sale have been used to finance the Nicaraguan Contra paramilitaries
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Gorbachev announces Glásnost and Perestroika, an attempt to improve government transparency and extend freedom of information, along with economic liberalisation measures.
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The Battle of Cuito Carnevale begins in Angola.
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The military forces of the Soviet Union are beginning to withdraw from Afghanistan.
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South Africa withdraws from South West Africa (Namibia).
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Cuba enters El Salvador's civil war
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Vietnamese troops withdraw from Cambodia.
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Withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan completed
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The protests in Tian'anmen Square are violently suppressed by the Chinese government.
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George H. W. Bush becomes President of the United States.
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The Berlin Wall falls.
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After the Malta Summit, George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev announce a new era of peace, beginning the beginning of the end of the Cold War
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Democracy is restored in Chile.
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Germany is reunited.
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President George H. W. Bush of the United States and President Boris Yeltsin of the Russian Federation formally declare the end of the Cold War.
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Failed coup d'état in the Soviet Union in response to the New Union Treaty.
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Gorbachev resigns as Secretary General of the CPSU. George H. W. Bush, in his Christmas speech, ends the Cold War
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The hammer and sickle are lowered for the last time in the Kremlin. The Soviet Union dissolves.
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