The Cold War

  • Yalta Conference meeting of FDR, Churchill, Stalin - the 'Big Three'Soviet Union has control of Eastern Europe. The Cold War Begins

    Yalta Conference meeting of FDR, Churchill, Stalin - the 'Big Three'
    Soviet Union has control of Eastern Europe. The Cold War Begins
  • VE Day - Victory in Europe. Germany surrenders to the Red Army in Berlin

  • Potsdam Conference - Germany was officially partitioned into four zones of occupation.

  • The United States drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima (20 kiloton bomb 'Little Boy' kills 80,000)

  • Russia declares war on Japan

  • The United States drops atomic bomb on Nagasaki (22 kiloton 'Fat Man' kills 70,000)

  • Japanese surrender End of World War II

  • Emperor surrender broadcast - VJ Day

  • Stalin hostile speech - communism & capitalism were incompatible

  • "Sinews of Peace" Iron Curtain Speech by Winston Churchill - "an "iron curtain" has descended on Europe"

  • Truman demands Russia leave Iran

  • Operation Crossroads with Test Able was the first public demonstration of America's atomic arsenal

  • America's Test Baker - underwater explosion

  • Truman Doctrine - Truman declares active role in Greek Civil War

  • Marshall Plan is announced setting a precedent for helping countries combat poverty, disease and malnutrition

  • Rio Pact - U.S. meet 19 Latin American countries and created a security zone around the hemisphere

  • Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia

  • Truman's Loyalty Program created to catch Cold War spies

  • Brussels Pact organized to protect Europe from communism

  • Berlin Blockade begins lasting 11 months

  • NATO ratified

  • Berlin Blockade ends

  • Russia tested its first atomic bomb

  • Communist Mao Zedong takes control of China and establishes the People's Republic of China

  • Chiang Kai-shek moved to Formosa and created Nationalist government

  • Truman approved H-bomb development

  • Joe McCarthy begins Communist witch hunt and loyalty tests

  • Korean War begins. Stalin supports North Korea who invade South Korea equipped with Soviet weapons

  • Federal Civil Defense Administration established

  • Truman fires MacArthur

  • A-bombs developed by Britain

  • Nuclear Arms Race atomic test series of 11 explosions at Nevada Test Site

  • RAND report on the "Vulnerability of U. S. Strategic Air Power"

  • Korean War ends

  • Ike's Atoms for Peace speech

  • H-bomb Castle-Bravo test

  • KGB established

  • vietnam split at 17th parallel

  • Warsaw Pact formed

  • USSR sent tanks into Poznan, Poland, to suppress demonstrations by workers

  • USSR sent military aid to Afghanistan

  • Rebellion put down in Communist Hungary

  • Suez Crisis began with Israeli attack led by Moshe Dayan against Egyptian forces in the Sinai

  • Vostok rocket launched 1st ICBM

  • Sputnik launched into orbit

  • Sputnik II launched - Laika died in space

  • Explorer I launched

  • NASA began Mercury project using Atlas rocket

  • Khrushchev demands withdrawal of troops from Berlin

  • Soviet Union reveals that U.S spy plane was shot down over Soviet territory

  • John F. Kennedy elected President of USA

  • Cuba openly aligns itself with the Soviet Union and their policies.

  • Bay of Pigs invasion

  • Berlin border is closed

  • construction of Berlin Wall begins

  • U.S. involvement in Vietnam increases

  • Cuban Missile Crisis

  • President Kennedy assinated in Dallas, Texas

  • Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified