-
Period: to
Cold War
-
Truman Doctrine
With the Truman Doctrine, President Harry S. Truman established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. It was a policy which stated that the US would give aid to any country threatened by communism -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was a U.S.-sponsored program designed to rehabilitate the economies of 17 western and southern European countries in order to create stable conditions in which democratic institutions could survive in the aftermath of World War II. It was formally called the European Recovery Program. The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-torn regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, improve European prosperity and prevent the spread of communism. -
Rio Pact
The Rio Treaty enshrined the Monroe Doctrine into international law, placing the Western Hemisphere under American military protection at a particularly perilous moment, when the U.S. government believed that the Americas were threatened by the Soviet Union at the start of the Cold War. -
Korea is divded
South Korea surrendered to the Americans becoming an independent Nation. North Korea surrendered to the Soviets becoming a Communist nation -
Communists take over Czechoslovakia
the electoral failures of the French and Italian communist parties, prompted Joseph Stalin to harden his approach and order Gottwald to seize power. The economy was subject to further nationalization, and all agricultural land became state or collective farms -
Berlin Blockade
Soviet forces blockaded all road, rail and water routes into West Berlin which was controlled by the Allied Nations. The United Nations initiated the Berlin Airlift to send supplies through the air -
NATO treaty signed
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allied the North American and European countries. They all agreed to defend each other from an attack from an external party. -
Soviets Detonate Their First Atomic Bomb
Five days after NATO took effect, the USSR performed its first nuclear test at Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR. President Harry S. A part of the Soviet Atomic Bomb project, the Soviets descended into classified research to develop nuclear weapons during World War II. Truman made this threat known to the public, a move which surprised and deflated the Soviets who hoped to keep their ongoing atomic programs secret. -
Mao Zedong
The Soviet Union and Mao Zedong became allies. Part of the communists’ triumph against Chiang Kai-Shek was becoming the voice of Chinese nationalism for peasants and varying groups in China. China and the USSR, two powers of impressive size and military backing, were now united under communist mutuality -
Truman approves H-Bomb development
The US government believed that the Soviet Union would use its atomic bombs to gain more power and spread communism around the world.To counter this threat, President Truman approved the development of the hydrogen bomb to prevent the Soviets from developing atomic weapons. -
Korean War
North Korea invades South Korea. President Truman ordered Air and Naval support to South Korea. Troops from 16 nations were sent to South Korea -
38th Parallel is crossed
The United Nations gave MacArthur orders to cross the 38th Parallel and reunite Korea. UN ignored threats from China but were eventually pushed back by Chinese troops -
Stalemate
An Armistice was signed. The agreement was a stalemate. Korea was still divided between Communist North Korea and non- Communist South Korea. -
Chinese forces capture the South Korean capital Seoul
Chinese People's Volunteer Army pushed UNC forces back across the 38th Parallel and recaptured Seoul. May 1951: UNC counterattack freed Seoul. Fighting stalled around the 38th Parallel. -
MacArthur fired
MacArthur suggested dropping atomic bombs on China. Truman disagreed and thought doing so would start WWIII. MacArthur continued to argue his plan but was eventually fired for insubordination. -
Red Scare
The Red Scare was hysteria over the perceived threat posed by Communists in the U.S. during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, which intensified in the late 1940s and early 1950s. (Communists were often referred to as “Reds” for their allegiance to the red Soviet flag.) -
US. Presidential Elections
... -
Britain develops A-Bombs
On October 3, 1952, Britain detonated its first atomic device, code-named "Hurricane." It had an explosive yield of about 25 kilotons. In 1954, Churchill decided that Britain should go ahead with hydrogen bomb development. -
Nuclear Arms Race
The Arms Race heightened Cold War tensions by escalating military competition and fostering mutual distrust between the US and USSR. It shaped the course of the Cold War -
Korean War Ends
7 months after President Eisenhower's inauguration as the 34th President of the United States, an armistice was signed, ending organized combat operations and leaving the Korean Peninsula divided much as it had been since the close of World War II at the 38th parallel. The Korean U.N. Although the war ended where it began, the United States and its allies did succeed in preventing communism from overtaking South Korea. -
Ike's Atoms for Peace Speech
"Atoms for Peace" was a propaganda component of the Cold War strategy of containment. Eisenhower's speech opened a media campaign that would last for years and that aimed at "emotion management", balancing fears of continuing nuclear armament with promises of peaceful use of uranium in future nuclear reactors. -
H-bomb Castle-Bravo test
The Bravo detonation in the Castle test series had an explosive yield of 15 megatons—1,000 times that of the weapon that destroyed Hiroshima and nearly three times the six megatons that its planners estimated. The Bravo pH test is generally a well-tolerated diagnostic tool used to confirm the presence of abnormal esophageal acid reflux. While few complications have been reported, technical difficulties can occur, including poor data reception, misplacement, and early dislodgement. -
KGB established
It was created to serve as the “sword and shield of the Communist Party.” The new security service, which played a major role in the purge of Beria's supporters, was designed to be carefully controlled by senior Communist Party officials. It was feared by foreign countries and citizens alike for its expertise to gather information through spies, carry out covert operations, and conduct domestic surveillance. -
Vietnam split at 17th parallel
The accords established the 17th parallel (latitude 17° N) as a temporary demarcation line separating the military forces of the French and the Viet Minh. North of the line was the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, or North Vietnam, which had waged a successful eight-year struggle against the French. -
Geneva Summit
... -
West Germany joins NATO
.... -
Warsaw Pact Formed
Dominated by the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact was established as a balance of power or counterweight to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Western Bloc. This allowed the Soviets to force their foreign policy on the rest of the Eastern Bloc. From 1955 Europe was divided into two armed camps - the frontlines of the Cold War had been established -
USSR sent tanks into Poznan, Poland, to suppress demonstrations by workers
The workers fought back in silence, they walked out of their factories and marched towards the centre of Poznań, heading for headquarters of the authorities -the City National Council (MRN) and the Provincial Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party (KW PZPR) to force them to put an offer on the table and appeal to them to make concessions in order to improve both working and living conditions. -
USSR sent military aid to Afghanistan
At the end of December 1979, the Soviet Union sent thousands of troops into Afghanistan and immediately assumed complete military and political control of Kabul and large portions of the country. According to historian Sergey Radchenko there is no evidence that the Afghanistan war bankrupted the USSR. The Soviet Union spent about $7.5 billion between 1984 and 1987 but this number was negligible compared to the annual military budget of roughly $128 billion. -
Rebellion put down in Communist Hungary.
The Hungarian Revolution began on 23 October 1956 in Budapest when university students appealed to the civil populace to join them at the Hungarian Parliament Building to protest against the USSR's geopolitical domination of Hungary through the Stalinist government of Mátyás Rákosi. -
Vostok rocket launched 1st ICBM
How Vostok 1 Worked. The rocket that blasted Vostok 1 and Yuri Gagarin into orbit was derived from the Soviet Union's R-7 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, or ICBM. Originally designed to launch nukes at the United States, the rocket was repurposed to handle human cargo. -
Sputnik launched into orbit
The Sputnik launch marked the start of the space age and the US-USSR space race, and led to the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The event was a milestone in space exploration and a defining moment of the Cold War. It caused great anxiety in the United States because the public equated space achievements with military and technological power. To many, Sputnik represented the threat of superior Soviet space and missile technology. -
Sputnik II launched - Laika died in space
Laika was the first animal sent into space, she was a stray dog that was captured and used to test if animals could be sent to outer space . After the Soviets launched her into space in a new spaceship, it broke and the inside heated up way too much. Laika was unfortunately being burned alive in the space craft. -
Explorer I launched
The satellite was launched on Jan. 31, 1958, from Cape Canaveral, Fla.. Explorer 1 followed a looping flight path that orbited Earth once every 114 minutes. The satellite went as high as 2,565 kilometers (1,594 miles) and as low as 362 kilometers (225 miles) above Earth. After more than 58,000 Earth orbits, Explorer 1 re-entered Earth's atmosphere and was destroyed. Explorer 1 makes its final transmission to Earth. -
NASA began Mercury project using Atlas rocket
The spacecraft was destroyed upon impact in the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the spacecraft, engines, and the liquid oxygen vent valve were recovered later from the ocean floor. None of the primary flight objectives were achieved. The program had 2 aims: see if humans could function effectively in space. To put a man in space before the Soviet Union did. While Project Mercury failed in the second aim, it provided the technological basis for more challenging missions in the Gemini and Apollo programs. -
Khrushchev demands withdrawal of troops from Berlin
Looking for a way to stop the flow of people from east to west and a means to check the growing military power of West Germany, Khrushchev insisted in his November 1958 speech that it was time for the United States to pull out of the city. Khrushchev told reporters that he had proposed the Soviet Union as one of the guaranteeing powers for a free city of West Berlin because his country had the right as one of the victors of World War II. -
Cuba taken over by Fidel Castro
Returning to Cuba, Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in a guerrilla war against Batista's forces from the Sierra Maestra. After Batista's overthrow in 1959, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's prime minister. JFK learned of the invasion plan, concluded that Fidel Castro was a Soviet client threat to all of Latin America and, after consultations with his advisors, gave his consent for the CIA-planned clandestine invasion of Cuba to proceed. -
Kitchen Debate
... -
Khrushchev visits United States; The Kitchen Debate
The Kitchen Debate was a series of impromptu exchanges through interpreters between U.S. vice president Richard Nixon and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, at the opening of the American National Exhibition at Sokolniki Park in Moscow. It marked the first state visit of a Soviet or Russian leader to the US. -
Soviet Union reveals that U.S. spy plane was shot down over Soviet territory
Hopes for a successful summit were dashed when on May 1, May Day, an American U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over Soviet air space. On the first day of the Paris summit, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev stormed out after delivering a condemnation of U.S. spy activities. -
John F. Kennedy elected President of USA
JFK won the presidential election in 1960 against Nixon. During the campaign, Kennedy seemed calm and sophisticated while Nixon seems nervous and old. -
Cuba openly aligns itself with the Soviet Union and their policies.
With Cuba's proximity to the United States, Castro and his regime became an important Cold War ally for the Soviets. The relationship was for the most part economic, with the Soviet Union providing military, economic, and political assistance to Cuba. -
Bay of Pigs invasion see Cuban Missile Crisis Timeline
The disaster at the Bay of Pigs had a lasting impact on the Kennedy administration. Determined to make up for the failed invasion, the administration initiated Operation Mongoose—a plan to sabotage and destabilize the Cuban government and economy, which included the possibility of assassinating Castro. -
Berlin border is closed
the SED began to seal off the borders around West Berlin, first with barbed wire and a few days later with walls. It hoped this measure would put an end to the mass exodus to Berlin. It also wanted to stabilize its power and document its sovereignty to the outside world. -
Construction of Berlin Wall begins
The Berlin Wall would prevent the West from having further influence on the East, stop the flow of migrants out of the communist sector, and ultimately become the most iconic image of the Cold War in Europe. he Berlin Wall became the symbol of the Cold War and a tangible manifestation of the world's separation into two distinct ideological blocs. Map from the era, illustrating Berlin's division between the Allied forces. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and was the moment when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. -
Public Address
... -
Soviet Withdrawl
... -
Cuban Leader Visits Soviet Union
.... -
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified
The Limited Test Ban Treaty was signed by the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain in 1963, and it banned all nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in space, or underwater. -
President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas
At 12:30 PM, President Kennedy was struck by two shots apparently fired from an open window on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. He was rushed to nearby Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:00 PM. His accused killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested at 1:50 PM. -
Place holder
.... -
Gulf of Tonkin incident
In early August 1964, two U.S. destroyers stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam radioed that they had been fired upon by North Vietnamese forces. In response to these reported incidents, President Lyndon B. Johnson requested permission from the U.S. Congress to increase the U.S. military presence in Indochina. -
A-bombs developed by China
The People's Republic of China has developed and possesses weapons of mass destruction, including chemical and nuclear weapons. The first of China's nuclear weapons tests took place in 1964, and its first hydrogen bomb test occurred in 1966 at Lop Nur. -
Place holder
... -
U.S. Marines sent to Dominican Republic to fight Communism
The Caamaño revolt resulted in the deployment on April 28, 1965 of U.S. Marines and troops from the Organization of American States (OAS) to the Dominican Republic to restore peace and stability. The American intervention lasted until September 1966. -
Announcement of dispatching of 200,000 U.S. troops to Vietnam
President Lyndon B. Johnson announces that he has ordered an increase in U.S. military forces in Vietnam, from the present 75,000 to 125,000. In early August 1964, two U.S. destroyers stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam radioed that they had been fired upon by North Vietnamese forces. In response to these reported incidents, President Lyndon B. Johnson requested permission from the U.S. Congress to increase the U.S. military presence in Indochina. -
place holder
... -
place holder
... -
B-52s Bomb North Vietnam
Infuriated, President Nixon ordered plans drawn up for retaliatory bombings of North Vietnam. Linebacker II was the result. Beginning on December 18, American B-52s and fighter-bombers dropped over 20,000 tons of bombs on the cities of Hanoi and Haiphong. Another 4 B-52's managed to land but suffered heavy damage, and another 5 B-52s landed with medium damage. The North Vietnamese claim to have shot down 81 US aircraft (including 34 B-52s and F-111s).
You are not authorized to access this page.