-
Period: to
Years of the Cold War
No historians can agree on the start of the Cold War, but agree on 1947 as the year it started. -
Truman Doctrine Signed
Truman pledges American assistance to any nation in the world threatened by Communism, preventing them from falling into the Soviet sphere, starting with Greece and Turkey. -
The NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
Founded by Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States in order to resist Communist expansion. -
Mutual Security Act
Signed by President Harry S. Truman, announced to the world, and specifically the communist powers, that the United States was prepared to provide foreign military, economic, and technical foreign aid to American allies. -
The Warsaw Pact
The "treaty of mutual friendship, co-operation and mutual assistance" was signed the People's Republic of Albania, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, the Hungarian People's Republic, the German Democratic Republic, the Polish People's Republic, the Rumunian People's Republic, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, and the Czechoslovak Republic. It was the Communist counteraction to NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). -
Period: to
The Vietnam War
-
The Kitchen Debate
During the grand opening ceremony of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, US Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev engage in a heated debate about capitalism and communism in the middle of a model kitchen set up for the air. It became one of the most famous episodes of the Cold War. -
The Berlin Wall Built
The wall was built almost overnight. West Berlin was a geographical loophole through which thousands of East Germans fled to the democratic West. It was in response to this, that made the Communist East German authorities decide to build a wall that completely encircled West Berlin. -
Cuban Missile Crisis Starts
A 13-day Confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union over Soviet ballistic missiles deployed in Cuba. It was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. It ended on the 28th of October, 1962, and resulted in the withdrawel of the nuclear missiles from Cub and of American nuclear missiles from Turkey and Italy, an agreement with the Soviet Union that the US would never invade Cuba without direct provocation, and the creation of a nuclear hotline. -
JFK Assassinated
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on Friday November 22, 1963, while on a political trip to Texas to smooth over frictions in the Democratic party. The assassination proved to be an important moment in US history because of its impact on the nation and the ensuing political repercussions. Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn into office on the Air Force One plane, 2 hours and 8 minutes after JFK was assassinated. -
Battle of la Drang
The first rmajor engagement between US troops and regular Vietnamese forces -
SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks)
The first of two; they were negotiations between the US and the Soviet Union that were aimed a curtailing the manufacture of strategic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. They were intended to restrain the arms race in strategic ballistic missiles armed with nuclear weapons. -
The Paris Peace Accords
The United States, South Vietnam, Viet Cong, and North Vietnam formally sign "An Agreement Ending the War (in Vietnam) and Restoring Peace in Vietnam" in Paris. All references to it were confined to a two-party version of the document signed by North Vietnam and the United States - the South Vietnamese were presented with a separate document that did not make reference to the Viet Cong government, South Vietnam would not recognize Viet Cong's Provisional Revolutionary Government. -
SALT II (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks)
Signed by US President Jimmy Carter and the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, It set limits on the number of strategic launchers, with the object of deferring the time when bothe sides' land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) systems would become vulnerable to attach such missiles. The treaty set an overall limit of about 2,400 weapons systems for each side. -
Reagan proposes the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
Also known as Star Wars, the intent of this program was to develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system in order to prevent missile attacks from other countries, specifically the Soviet Union. It was response to possible nuclear attacks from afar. -
Berlin Wall demolished
A Politburo spokesman, Gunter Schabowski, not fully informed of the technicalities or procedures of the newly agreed lifting of travel restrictions, announces on accident at a news conference in East Berlin that the borders have been opened. After hearing the announcement, East Germans gathered at the wall at six checkpoints, demanding the gates be opened. The actual fall of the wall started on this date, with people using various things to chip off pieces of the wall as souvenirs. -
Supreme Soviet of the USSR dissolves
Five days after US President George H. W. Bush announces the end of the Cold War, the President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev and then five days after that the Council of Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR recognizes the dissolution of the Soviet Union and decides to dissolve itself. The last day of 1991, all Soviet instituions cease operations.
