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Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference was a meeting of British prime minister Winston Churchill, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During this conference, the deciding of Germany's postwar status was discussed including their demilitarization, dividing Germany into four occupation zones, free elections in all countries occupied by Nazi Germany and the replacement of the failed League of Nations with the United Nations. -
Period: to
Cold War Era
This timeline is a documentation of the events that embodied the Cold War up until the Soviet Union ceased to exist. -
Death of FDR
President Franklin D. Roosevelt suffers a stroke and passes away. -
Potsdam Conference
This conference lasted from the 17th of July (1945) until the 2nd of August (1945). This was the last of the meetings held by President Harry S. Truman, Prime Minister Clement Attlee (Winston Churchill was also present, Atlee was his successor) and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. At this conference, the 3 discussed the unconditional surrender of Japan, the decentralisation of institutions that controlled the economy under the Nazis, new boundaries of Poland, and the split of Berlin into 4 zones -
A-Bomb
The US Bombs the Japanese city of Hiroshima. -
A-Bomb Part 2
Truman grant permission to use the US' second e and last atomic bomb on Nagasaki. -
USSR Invades Japan
The Soviets kept their agreement made at the Yalta conference and invades Japan. -
VJ-Day!
The unconditional surrender of the Empire of Japan was announced by Japan on August 15 and formally signed on September 2, 1945! -
Long Telegram (X Article)
George F. Kennan writes his Long Telegram which describes his interpretation of the objectives and intentions of the USSR. He states that the USSR sees itself at a war with Capitalism and they did not believe that capitalism and communism could peacefully coexist. -
Iran Crisis
On this date is when the UK, US and USSR should have withdrawn their forces from Iran after having occupying it during WW2 having agreed to withdraw no later than 6 months at the end of the war. However, the United Kingdom and United Stated both withdrew while the USSR did not. -
Greek Civil War
The Greek civil war starts again between the communists and the conservative Greek government. -
Iron Curtain Speech
Winston Churchill delivers his "Iron Curtain" speech. He says “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.”. This was depicting the divide that Stalin was bringing with communism. -
Iran Crisis Part 2
3 weeks later on this date and the Soviets still had not withdrew their forces from Iran. However, they promised that they would do so within 6 weeks. The Soviet Union and Iran had reached an agreement that gave the Soviets an oil concession in Iran. They began to withdraw their forces in April of 1946. -
Soviet Forces Leave Iran
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Phillipines
The Philippines gain independence from the US and begin fighting communist rebels. -
Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine, under president Harry S. Truman, stated that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. -
Sputnik
The launch of Sputnik contributed to the Arms Race going on during the Cold War. This launch showed the technological advancements that the Soviets had achieved as they were the first to ever launch a satellite into space. This gave the Soviets the upperhand because they had also previously had a successful testing of their hydrogen bomb. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was an American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave $13 billion in aid in order to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War 2. This was used as a tactic in order to keep these countries from falling to communism. -
Berlin Blockade/Airlift
Starting on June 24th, 1948, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. Eventually, the western powers instituted an airlift that lasted 321 days and delivered supplies and relief to West Berlin. On May 12th, the Soviets surrendered and reopened the borders. This later established East and West Germany. -
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, constitutes a system of collective defense. Therefore, the members agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party (aka the Soviet Union). -
Soviet Union's Hydrogen Bomb
The Soviets exploded their first atomic bomb which came as a great shock to the United States because they were not expecting them to possess such knowledge so soon. This was part of the Arms Race and having the upperhand in technology wss important to both Superpowers/ -
Declaration of Communist China
Mao Zedong declares china, a quarter of the world's population as communist. -
McCarthyism
This term was coined from Joseph McCarthy. It is known as the act of accusing someone without having any evidence for doing so. McCarthy fueled the fear of communism that was prevalant in the US by accusing people, anybody, of being communist supporters. -
China and Soviet Union
The Soviet Union and China, sign a pact of mutual defense. -
NSC-68
The National Security Council Report 68, NSC-68, was a 58 page, top secret document that was presented to US Pres. Harry S. Truman. Its authors argued that one of the most pressing threats confronting the United States was the “hostile design” of the Soviet Union. It concluded that the Soviet threat would soon be greatly increased by their addition of weapons, especially nuclear ones. They argued that the best course of action was to build US military and weaponry. -
Korean War
The Korean War was a war between North and South Korea, in which the United States fought for the capitalist South, and China along witht the USSR fought for the communist North. This ended in an armistice on July 27th, 1953, which was basically and L for the United States lowering our "Superpower" status because it proved that we could indeed be beat. -
Mutual Security Act
In this act, Harry S. Truman announces that the U.S. was prepared to provide military aid to "free peoples." (Shade at the Soviets). -
Death of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin dies which results in a power struggle of who was to be the next leader of the Soviet Union. (It was Nikita Khrushev) -
Cuban Revolution
This revolution was led by Fidel Castro in order to overthrow the Cuban government, Batista Fulgencio. It lasted until January 1st, 1959 and Castro was successful in his efforts. He became the new leader of Cuba which became communist. For America, this was not good because this was the closest communism had ever gotten to us. -
USS Nautilus
The United States launches the world's first nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was created in reaction to NATO. Similarly, it was a collective defense treaty among the Soviet Union and seven Soviet satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe. -
Geneva Summit
This was attended by the "Big Four" (Eisenhower of the US, Anthony Eden of Britain, Nikolai Bulganin of the Soviet Union, and Edgar Faure of France) in order to begin discussions of peace. Although many topics were discussed, the most significant was Eisenhower's "Open Skies" plan, which called for an international aerial monitoring system. -
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that was between North Vietnam and Viet Cong and South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. The was was an unpopular was as it took many American lives, but ended when Americans wtuhdrew their forces in 1973. -
Suez Canal/Crisis
Israeli armed forces pushed into Egypt toward the Suez Canal after Nasser (Egyptian President) nationalized the canal in July of that same year. At the same time, the USSR was invading Hungary. This ended when the United States ended up forcing the Israelis, the British, and the French to withdraw in order to prevent conflict with the Soviet Union. -
Sino-Soviet Split
This split had no specific start date, only in 1960. However, this was used to described the increasingly different ideologies that existed between China and Russia, the 2 largest communist countries. After Stalin, the tension between China and future USSR leaders continued to grow which eventually caused the split between the alliance of China and the Soviet Union in 1980. -
U-2 Incident
During the Presidency of Eisenhower and the Premier of Khrushev, a US U-2 spy plane was shot down while in Soviet air. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured. -
Nixon Doctrine
The Nixon doctrine stated that "the United States would assist in the defense and developments of allies and friends," but would not "undertake all the defense of the free nations of the world.". -
Bay of Pigs
The Bay of Pigs Invasion, geared by President Kennedy and the CIA, was an invasion that lasted for only 3 days. The United States armed Cuban runaways with gear that appeared to be Cuban in order to confuse the Cuban Army. It was meant to look as if they had rebeled by themselves in order to overthrow Fidel Castro thus overthrowing communism in Cuba. The invasion proved unsuccessful. -
Vienna Summit
Kennedy and Khruschev met in Vienna, Austria. They spent a significan amount of time discussing the Berlin Crisis. Kennedy made it clear that the US was not willing to compromise on a withdrawal from Berlin. No concrete agreement was reached at the meeting. -
Berlin Wall
The building for the Berlin Wall began on August 13th. This was was built in order to separte East and West Germany. This made emigrating from West to East Germany especially difficult and split many families. Some say this was done at the suggestion of Khrushchev. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
This crisis began when the US had discovered that the Soviet's had ICBM's located in Cuba. With a few options, including a nuclear bomb, Kennedy chose to enact a Naval Blockade in order to avoid a nuclear war. This blockade proved successful when the Soviet's withdrew their ICBM's 13 days later when they realised Kennedy wasn't playing around. -
"Ich bin ein Berliner"
Kennedy delivers his "Ich bin ein Berliner" in Berlin, basically underlying the support of the US for West Germany. -
Assassination of JFK
JFK was shot and killed in Dallas. -
Gulf of Tonkin
This fictional attack was when the U.S. destroyer Maddox exchanged shots with North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. It was used as justification for deploying US ground troops in Vietnam by Lyndon B. Johnson. -
Tet Offensive
The Tet Offensive, the turning point in the Vietnam War, begins which was an attack on over 100 South Vietnam cities by North Vietnam. -
Brezhnev Doctrine
This Doctrine stated that the Soviet Union had the right to intervene in the affairs of Communist countries in order to strengthen Communism. -
Ostopolitik
This was used to refer to the normalization of the relations between East and West Germany; policy was one of détente with Soviet-bloc countries. It was initiated by Willy Brandt. -
NPT
This was an international treat to prevent the spread of weapons technology, including nuclear weapons and to promote the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. -
Four Power Agreement
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Nikita Khruschev Dies
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SALT 1
Te Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, or SALT, were 2 treaties signed by the US and Soviets in order to control armaments. WIth SALT 1, the United States and Soviet Union had agreed to limit the number of nuclear missiles in their arsenals. -
Paris Peace Accords
This ends the Us involvement in the Vietnam War. -
SEATO Ends
SEATO comes to an end after France leaves the organization. -
Gerald Ford becomes president
Upon the resignation of Nixon, Gerald Ford bcomes the president. -
End of the Vietnam War
The War ends when North Vietnam wins the war in South Vietnam. SV falls with the surrender of Saigon and the two countries are united under a Communist government. -
Camp David Accords
Agreements between Israel and Egypt eventually led to a peace treaty between the two countries the following year, the first such treaty between Israel and any of its Arab neighbours. It was Negotiated by Jimmy Carter between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian Pres. Anwar el-Sādāt, the agreements became known as the Camp David Accords due to the negotiations taking place at Camp David, MD. -
Afghanistan
A communist regime is eestablished in Afghan. -
SALT II
President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT-II agreement dealing with limitations and guidelines for nuclear weapons. The treaty helped the United States to discourage the Soviets from arming their third-generation ICBMs.. It also banned new missile programs. However, the treaty was never ratified by the US Senate. -
Iran Hostage Crisis
More than sixty American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days after a group of Iranian students who supported the Iranian Revolution, took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. They weren't released until Ronald Reagan was sworn into office. -
Soviet-Afghan War
The Soviets had invaded Afghan in order to support their communist government. The mujahideen, who were fighting against the Communist government, were armed and trained by the United States although the US was not supposed to do so. This was lasted for 9 years. The mujahideen later formed in Al Qaeda. -
Star Wars Speech
This speech was a proposed missile defense system that would be used to protect the United States from an attack by any allistic strategic nuclear weapons using advanced technology such as lasers and such. Although this was unobtainable, both technologically and financially, the Soviets did not know that. They strongly opposed this defense intiative. -
Glastnost
This was a soviet policy implimented by Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980's which allowed for the open discussion of political and social issues. It began the democratization of the Soviet Union. -
Perestoika
This was another soviet policy implimented by Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980's. It allowed for democracy to be incoorporated into the Soviet's government and was used to refer to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system. -
Iran-Contra Affair
This was a political scandal in which the US was accussed of having a secret arrangement to provide funds to the Nicaraguan contra rebels from profits gained by selling arms to Iran. -
US Invasion of Grenada
Reagan believed that the Americans in Grenada were threatened by that nation’s Marxist regime. Reagan ordered about 6,000 troops overall into the Carribean nation which resulted in the fall of their government. Regan described this as the first “rollback” of communist influence since the beginning of the Cold War. -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
It was announced that citizens of East Germany were free to cross the country's borders. People used hammers and picks to knock away the wall while cranes and bulldozers pulled down section after section. Eventually, the the wall was gone reuniting Berlin. -
Reunification of Germany
East and West Germany come together on what is known as “Unity Day.", a year after the fall of the Berlin wall. Although this happened about a year before the fall of the Soviet Union, many people marked this as the end of the Cold War. -
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
Many Soviet republic had announced that they would no longer be part of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union had fallen, largely due to the changed implimented by Mikhail Gorbachev during his time at the Soviet Leader. This was the end of the long, long, long Cold War Era.
