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Yalta Conference - Cold War Begins
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin, the big three, met to discuss the war effort against the Axis and tried to settle lingering diplomatic issues. While several important agreements were reached at the conference, tensions over European issues foreshadowed the crumbling of the Allies which later led to the Cold War. -
U.S. uses first A-bomb in war, Japan surrenders, end of WWII
On August 6, 1945, nearing the end of the second world war, Americans dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. A few days later, another Atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan’s Emperor announced his empires' unconditional surrender in World War II. This marked the end of WWII, but the start of the Cold War. -
Period: to
Cold War
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Winston Churchill delivers “Iron Curtain” Speech
This was one of the most famous Cold War speeches in which Winston Churchill condemned the Soviet Union’s policies in Europe and declares, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” Churchill’s speech is considered one of the sparks in the beginning of the Cold War. -
President Truman decleares an active role in Greece and Turkey - Truman Doctrine
President Harry S. Truman asked for U.S. assistance for Greece and Turkey in order to stop communist domination of the two nations. Many cited Truman’s address, which came to be known as the Truman Doctrine, as the official declaration of the Cold War along with the iron curtain speech by Churchill. -
US Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan, channeled billions of dollars in order to finance the economic recovery of Europe between 1948 and 1951. The Marshall Plan successfully sparked economic recovery for Europeans. The plan promoted European economic integration and federalism, and created a mixture of public organizations similar to the US's economy. All in all, the United States was able to lead many countries towards Democracy instead of communism. -
Communists take over Czechoslovakia
Under pressure from the Czechoslovakian Communist Party, President Eduard Benes allowed a communist government to be organized. Western observers decried the communist coup as an example of Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe, thus strengthing the thought of a "cold war." -
Berlin Blockade and Airlift
In response to the Soviet blockade of land routes into West Berlin, the United States began a massive airlift of food, water, and medicine to the citizens of the besieged city. For nearly a year, supplies from American planes sustained the over 2 million people in West Berlin. This action angered the USSR, expanding the cold war. -
NATO Established
The military alliance, NATO, which provided for a collective self-defense against Soviet aggression, greatly increased American influence in Europe. Today there are actually 26 members in total. Back in the 20th century, the Warsaw Pact was created in response to NATO until its dissolution in 1991. NATO was created to stop communism from spreading during the cold war. -
Soviets develop & test their first A-bomb
On August 29, 1949, the USSR successfully detonated its first atomic bomb in Kazakhstan. The atomic explosion, which at 20 kilotons was roughly equal to “Trinity,” the first U.S. atomic explosion. This event scared many because the two opposing powers during the cold war now had dangerous war machines. -
Communists under Mao Zedong take control of China
Mao Zedong and his communist army took over China on Oct. 1st 1949. The west realized that this would change the gloal balance of power, as the Soviet Union had a new and power communist ally. This fueled the cold war onward because the USSR now had a huge communist ally as stated before. -
Wisconsin Sen. McCarthy begins Communist witch hunt
Joseph McCarthy enthusiastically agreed and took advantage of the nation’s wave of fanatic terror against communism, and emerged on February 9, 1950, claiming he knew hundreds of people in the State Department who were known members of the American Communist Party. Americans went crazy and was scared with the thought of seditious communists living within the United States, and roared for the investigation of the "hidden comunist." McCarthy expanded the cold war with his communist scare. -
Korean War is fought
On June 25, 1950, the Korean War began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. -
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg tried and executed for espionage
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were a couple convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. In 1951, they were put to death in the electric chair. The execution marked the dramatic finale of the most controversial espionage case of the Cold War. Specifically, they were accused of heading a spy ring that passed top-secret information concerning the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union which played a crucial role during the Cold War. -
Warsaw Pact formed
The Soviet Union and several of its European allies signed the Warsaw Pact which established a mutual defense organization. It was created because the Soviets saw the formation of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organzation) which included the U.S., as a direct threat. The formation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact was a direct result of the cold war. -
Hungarian rebellion put down by Soviets
Following nearly weeks of protest and political instability in Hungary, Soviet tanks and troops crushed the protests for Deomcracy. Thousands were killed and wounded, and nearly a quarter-million Hungarians fled the country.The problems in Hungary had begun in October, when thousands of protesters took to the streets demanding a more democratic political system and freedom from Soviet oppression. This rebellion was a direct result of the cold war (Deomcracy vs Communism). -
Sputnik launched – start of space race
Beginning in the late 1950s, space would become another dramatic arena for the cold war. The United States and Russia sought to prove the superiority of its technology, its military, and its politics. Ultimately, the USSR was able to launch the first satellite into space, showing its superiority amidst the cold war. -
Khrushchev demands NATO withdraw troops from Berlin
Khrushchev, the leeader of the USSR, fought to figure out a lasting compromise for the divided nation of Germany and of the problems with West Berlin. In November 1958, he gave the United States, United Kingdom and France 6 months to create a peace treaty with East Germany. This would give Western Powers access to Berlin. This caused the Western Allies to be uneasy, since they didn't want to go to war over this issue. This issue arised because of the tensions during the cold war. -
Bay of Pigs Invasion
On January 1, 1959, a Cuban nationalist named Fidel Castro drove his guerilla army into Havana and overthrew General Fulgencio Batista, the nation’s American-backed president. For the next two years, officials at the U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) attempted to push Castro from power. The the new order on the island just about 100 miles from the United States made American officials nervous because the nation was amidst a cold war with the USSR. -
Cuba taken over by Fidel Castro
Cuban leader Fidel Castro established the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere after leading an overthrow of the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. He ruled over Cuba for nearly five decades. During that time, Castro’s regime was widely criticized for stifling economic and political freedoms. He also went against the United States which scared them because they were in the middle of a cold war against the USSR. -
U-2 incident: American spy plane shot down over USSR
An American U-2 spy plane was shot down while conducting espionage over the Soviet Union. The incident derailed an important summit meeting between President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that was scheduled for later that month. On May 16, a major summit between the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France began in Paris. This event escalated the cold war because the US was found spying in USSR terrority. -
John F. Kennedy elected
John F. Kennedy becomes the youngest man ever to be elected president of the United States, narrowly beating Republican Vice President Richard Nixon. When president, he took on the role of leading the United States admist the cold war against the USSR. He made many important decisions that saved the world from an all out nuclear war. -
U.S. sends “advisors” to Vietnam
President Kennedy approved sending hundreds of US troops and U.S. military advisers to South Vietnam. On the same day, he ordered the start of war against North Vietnam to be conducted by South Vietnamese agents. Kennedy’s orders also called for South Vietnamese forces to infiltrate disrupt communist bases and supply lines there as part of the cold war effort. -
Berlin Wall Built
East German authorities began building a wall, the Berlin Wall–, to permanently close off access to the West. For the next 28 years, the heavily fortified Berlin Wall stood as the most tangible symbol of the Cold War. It was a literal “iron curtain” dividing Europe between democracy and communism. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a pivotal moment in the Cold War. In October 1962 President John F. Kennedy was informed of Soviet nuclear-tipped missiles in Cuba. The President resolved immediately that this could not stand. Over an intense 13 days, he and his Soviet counterpart Nikita Khrushchev confronted each other, each with deadly nuclear arms that could kill millions. -
President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, is assassinated while traveling through Dallas, Texas, in an open-top convertible. Kennedy’s untimely death also left future generations with a great many “what if” questions concerning the subsequent history of the Cold War. During this time, many Americans were fearful because they were scared of the USSR and their next action(s) due to the president's death.
