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President Harry Truman announces the Truman Doctrine starting with the giving of aid to Greece and Turkey in order to prevent them from falling into the Soviet sphere -
US extends $400 million of military aid to Greece and Turkey, signalling its intent to contain communism in the Mediterranean. -
Secretary of State George Marshall outlines plans for a comprehensive program of economic assistance for the war-ravaged countries of Western Europe. It would become known throughout the world as the Marshall Plan. -
Gandhi had betrayed his Hindu religion and culture by supporting Muslims at the expense of Hindus. Therefore Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. -
Truman signs the Marshall Plan into effect. By the end of the programs, the United States has given $12.4 billion in economic assistance to Western European countries -
The United States declares the Republic of Korea to be the legitimate government of the Korean Peninsula, with Syngman Rhee installed as the leader. -
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is founded by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States, in order to resist Communist expansion. -
The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb. The test, known to Americans as Joe 1, succeeds, as the Soviet Union becomes the world's second nuclear power -
The Soviets declare their zone of Germany to be the German Democratic Republic, with its capital at East Berlin. -
President Truman announces the beginning of the development of a hydrogen bomb -
Senator Joseph McCarthy first claims without evidence that Communists have infiltrated the U.S. State Department, leading to a controversial series of anti-Communist investigations in the United States -
North Korea invades South Korea, beginning the Korean War. The United Nations Security Council votes to intervene to defend the South. The Soviet Union cannot veto, as it is boycotting the Security Council over the admission of People's Republic of China. -
Chinese forces capture the South Korean capital Seoul, after losing it the previous September -
President Harry S. Truman fires Douglas MacArthur from command of US forces in Korea due to him demanding nuclear weapons to be used on the enemy -
President Harry S. Truman signs the Mutual Security Act, announcing to the world, and its communist powers in particular, that the U.S. was prepared to provide military aid to "free peoples" -
Greece and Turkey are granted membership of NATO -
The United Kingdom tests its first atomic weapon, becoming the world’s third nuclear power -
Former World War II military commander Dwight Eisenhower is elected president of the United States. Eisenhower defeats Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson, carrying 39 states to Stevenson’s nine -
Stalin dies, setting off a power struggle to succeed him. NATO debates possibility of a fresh start -
Fighting ends in the Korean War, with the signing of an armistice at Panmunjom. A demilitarised zone is established to separate the two Koreas -
President Eisenhower receives National Security Council report 162/2. It recommends expanding and maintaining the US nuclear arsenal, to inflict “massive retaliatory damage” in the event of a war with the Soviet Union. -
The launching of the USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine -
Senator Joseph McCarthy claims that communists have infiltrated the CIA and the atomic weapons industry -
The formation of the South East Asian Treaty Organisation (SEATO), an eight-nation alliance for the purpose of resisting communism -
the Baghdad Pact is founded by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. It is committed to resisting Communist expansion in the Middle East -
An American U-2 spy plane makes its first flight over Soviet territory -
official beginning of the Vietnam War -
Workers in Poland riot against poor conditions and political oppression. This unrest leads to the replacement of the Polish government in October. -
The leader of the Hungarian Revolution, Imre Nagy, announces that Hungary is withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact. -
Dwight Eisenhower wins re-election, defeating Adlai Stevenson for the second time in the 1956 presidential election -
the Eisenhower Doctrine commits the United States to defending Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan from Communist influence -
The Soviets launch Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite, into orbit. -
NATO holds its first summit in Paris, France. It is the first time NATO leaders have met together since the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in April 1949 -
Second Taiwan Strait Crisis begins when China begins to bomb Quemoy. -
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev issues an ultimatum, demanding that the US and its Western allies leave Berlin within six months. -
The US and its allies reject Khrushchev’s ultimatum to withdraw from Berlin -
New Republic government of Iraq leaves Central Treaty Organization -
Member states vote again against the admission of China to the United Nations -
The US, the Soviet Union and ten other nations sign the Antarctic Treaty. It maintains Antarctica for scientific research and outlaws military bases or operations there -
France successfully tests its first atomic bomb, Gerboise Bleue, in the middle of the Algerian Sahara Desert. Gerboise Bleue was the codename of the first French nuclear test -
American pilot Francis Gary Powers is shot down in his U-2 spy plane while flying at high altitude over the Soviet Union, resulting in the U-2 Incident, an embarrassment for President Eisenhower -
the Guatemalan Civil War begins. When a group of left-wing junior military officers led a failed revolt against the government of General Ydigoras Fuentes -
John F. Kennedy becomes President of the United States. 35th president of U.S. -
North Korea and China sign a defensive treaty, the Sino-North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty. -
the Soviet Union erected the most iconic image of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall, which physically divided the Western and Eastern Blocs of Germany's city of Berlin -
Jamaica is granted independence by the UK -
Chinese forces attack India, making claims on numerous border areas -
The Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 was a direct and dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. This moment was when the two superpowers came closest to nuclear conflict. -
France announces that it is withdrawing its navy from the North Atlantic fleet of NATO -
the Partial Test Ban Treaty is signed by the US, UK and USSR, prohibiting the testing of nuclear weapons anywhere except underground -
John F. Kennedy is shot and killed in Dallas. There has been some speculation over whether communist countries or even CIA were involved in the assassination, but those theories remain controversial. Kennedy's vice-president Lyndon B. Johnson becomes President of the United States. -
Jawaharlal Nehru dies. The Colombian conflict begins -
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson claims that North Vietnamese naval vessels had fired on two American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Although there was a first attack, it was later shown that American vessels had entered North Vietnamese territory first, and that the claim of second attack had been unfounded. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident leads to the open involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War, after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution -
China tests its first atomic bomb. The test makes China the world's fifth nuclear power. -
US and South Vietnamese planes commence Operation Rolling Thunder, an ongoing bombing campaign against military and industrial targets in North Vietnam -
US president Lyndon Johnson announces that another 50,000 combat troops will be sent to Vietnam -
A Soviet newspaper reports that the government has shipped anti-aircraft missiles to North Vietnam -
Charles De Gaulle calls for United States forces to leave Vietnam. -
South African Border War begins -
Barbados becomes independent from the UK