Cold War Timeline

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    American-Soviet Co-operation ends at end of WW2

    Although there were strains between the two nations before WW2, cooperation between them ceased to exist after WW2 ended.
  • U.S Announces Marshall Plan

    U.S Announces Marshall Plan

    The Marshall Plan was a foreign aid program provided by Americans for Western Europe. It was meant to bring them back to their feet and provide stability for them to prevent them from turning to Communism.
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    Berlin Airlift

    The States began airlifting food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviets blocked other entryways.
  • U.S Announces Containment

    U.S Announces Containment

    Containment was an American policy that was meant to stop and prevent the spread of communism abroad.
  • Four Powers Divide Germany

    Four Powers Divide Germany

    After WW2 much of Europe was lacking the support and supplies they needed so Germany was split into 4 powers; America, Britain, France, and the Soviets. The Soviets took up the Eastern half while the other 3 powers ran the Western half.
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    Korean War

    This was a war between Northern and Southern Korea. The Northern Korea Communist army invaded non-communist Southern Korea. China sent an army over because they were worried the US wanted to use North Korea as a base.
  • U.S Develops H-Bomb

    U.S Develops H-Bomb

    The United States set off a hydrogen bomb on an island in the Pacific. The Russian's development of an atomic bomb encouraged America to proceed with developing an H-bomb.
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    Creation of Warsaw Pact

    The Warsaw pact was created in Warsaw, Poland as a reaction to NATO. Both NATO and Warsaw led to the expansion of military forces. The nations who took part in Warsaw were The Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania.
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    Vietnam War

    The Vietnam war was a long war between communist North Vietnam and South Vietnam and its ally, the United States. The conflict was intensified because of the Cold War.
  • Soviet Union Develops H-Bomb

    Soviet Union Develops H-Bomb

    The Soviet Union exploded its first hydrogen bomb at the Semipalatinsk test site.
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    Khrushchev calls for "Peaceful Co-existence"

    A theory of peaceful co-existence for the United States and USSR, stating that they could co-exist rather than fighting. Khrushchev tried to demonstrate this by attending peace conferences.
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    Hungarian Revolution

    The Hungarian Uprising was a nationwide revolution against the Hungarian People's Republic and its Soviet-inspired policies.
  • Sputnik is Launched

    Sputnik is Launched

    The Soviet Union launched the earth's first artificial satellite, which shocked experts in the States as they had thought America would be the first to achieve this.
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    Bay of Pigs Invasion

    Cuban exiles who were against Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution attempted and failed a landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba
  • Berlin Wall is Built

    Berlin Wall is Built

    The Berlin Wall was built to prevent its population from escaping Soviet-controlled East-Berlin to West-Berlin. It divided Berlin into two very contrasting zones.
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    Cuban Missile Crisis

    The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union that escalated into an international crisis when the Soviets had deployed missiles in Cuba. This is the closest that the cold war had come to turning into a nuclear war.
  • American-Soviet Hotline Established

    American-Soviet Hotline Established

    The hotline between the United States and the Soviet Union was established to reduce the threat of an accidental nuclear war.
  • Partial Test Ban Treaty Signed

    Partial Test Ban Treaty Signed

    This treaty banned nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, underwater, or in space. The only place allowed for this is underground.
  • Czech Uprising

    Czech Uprising

    This was a partially successful attempt by the Czech resistance to free the city of Prague from German occupation during WW2.
  • U.S Votes to Admit Communist China into U.N

    U.S Votes to Admit Communist China into U.N

    The PRC was admitted into the UN on a vote of 76 in favor, 35 opposed, and 17 abstentions
  • SALT Treaty Signed

    SALT Treaty Signed

    The SALT treaty was signed with the intention to restrain the arms race in strategic ballistic missiles armed with nuclear weapons
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    Helsinki Accords

    The Helsinki Accords was an agreement signed by 35 nations that concluded the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The treaty meant these nations should respect human rights and fundamental freedoms and to cooperate in economic, scientific, humanitarian, and other areas.
  • Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

    Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

    The Soviets invaded Afghanistan wanting to set up their communist government of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan.
  • Polish Soliditary Uprising

    Polish Soliditary Uprising

    Solidarity gave rise to a broad, non-violent, anti-communist social movement that, at its height, claimed around 9.4 million members. It is considered to have contributed greatly to the fall of communism
  • U.S Star Wars Research Begins

    U.S Star Wars Research Begins

    President Reagan proposed the creation of the Strategic Defense Initiative. This project would construct a space-based anti-missile system.
  • I.N.F Treaty Signed

    I.N.F Treaty Signed

    The Intermediate-Range-Nuclear Forces Treaty prohibited all U.S. and Soviet missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers.
  • Iron Curtain Collapses

    Iron Curtain Collapses

    The events that demolished the Iron Curtain started with peaceful opposition in Poland and continued into Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, and Czechoslovakia.
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    Berlin Wall is Torn Down

    It fell due to a wave of revolutions that left the Soviet-led communist bloc weak and failing, and helped define a new world order.
  • Germany is Reunited

    Germany is Reunited

    The German Democratic Republic became part of the Federal Republic of Germany to form the reunited nation of Germany.
  • START

    START

    The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was signed by the U.S and the Soviet Union. It was a bilateral treaty on the reduction and the limitation of strategic offensive arms.
  • Soviet Union Ceases to Exist

    Soviet Union Ceases to Exist

    Gorbachev's decision to allow elections with a multi-party system and create a presidency for the Soviet Union began a slow process of democratization that eventually destabilized Communist control and contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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