Lenin md

Truman - Reagan Cold War Timeline

By jmuntz

  • GI Bill of Rights

    Act conveying several benefits for World War 2 veterans; among these, low-cost mortgages, one year "severance package" (unemployment compensation), and paid tuition for university, to name a few.
  • Period: to

    Truman

  • Potsdam Conference

    Conference between US, USSR, UK; first conference attended by Truman; Stalin officially informed of atomic bomb (already knows about it through spies)

  • Atomic bombing of Hiroshima

  • Atomic bombing of Nagasaki

  • Japanese surrender, WWII ends

    Tokyo subject to impressive air raid the day prior

  • Churchill gives Iron Curtain speech

  • HUAC investigates Hollywood personalities under pretense of Communism

    Many Hollywood folks end up being blacklisted because of HUAC trials; as little as 10% pursue re-integration into the entertainment industry under a different name. (Jan 1 not real date; event happened throughout this year.)

  • Truman Doctrine

    States that US will provide financial, military, and political support to countries in jeapordy of becoming Communist, so long as their government is some form of democracy

  • Taft-Hartley Act

    Any strike threatening the health and safety of the people allow the president to call for an 80 day cooling-off period.
    Vetoed by Truman, overrode by Congress

  • UN supports formation of Israel

  • Marshall Plan signed into law

    States that the US will provide $12 billion to help reconstruct Europe.

  • Israel formed

  • NATO formed

    NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is essentially an alliance between the Allied countries in the Western Bloc Main concept behind the alliance is the idea that an attack on one NATO country is an attack on all NATO countries.

  • Mao captures Peking, establishes PRC

    PRC: People's Republic of China Non-Communist Chinese fled to now-Taiwan Formosa.

  • North Korea invades South Korea

  • Mossadeq nationalises British-held oil facilities in Iran

  • Truman signs Mutual Security Act

    Essentially a successor to the Marshall Plan, giving economic and military aid to countries allied with the US

  • McCarran-Walter Act passed

    Severely limited immigration from percieved communist areas of the world, to limit influx of communists to the US.

  • Marshall Plan ends

  • Period: to

    Eisenhower

  • Joseph Stalin kicks the oxygen habit

  • Mossadeq overthrown in CIA funded coup

    Replaced with Zahedi, a prime minister loyal to the Shah and not opposed to American influence.

  • Viet Minh defeat French at Dien Bien Phu

    French withdraws from southeast Asia

  • Brown v Board

    Overrules Plessy v Ferguson, in that deprecate schools are inherently unequal.
    Leads to Little Rock.

  • Warsaw Pact formed

    Essentially the Communist version of NATO; alliance formed between USSR and satellite states. Same principle as NATO.

  • Geneva Summit

    Attending:
    - President Eisenhower of US
    - PM Eden of UK
    - Premier Bulganin of USSR
    - Khrushchev of USSR
    - PM Faure of France

  • Rosa Parks arrested

    Triggers Montgomery Bus Boycott.

  • Khrushchev begins De-Stalinization

    Khrushchev delivers "On the Personality Cult and its Consequences" speech

  • Browder v Gayle

    Supreme Court decision rules segregated seating on buses unconstitutional.
    Ends Montgomery Bus Boycott.

  • Eisenhower Doctrine

    US pledges protection to Middle Eastern states, should they seek it if they come under attack.

  • Sputnik launch

  • NASA formed

  • Period: to

    Kennedy

  • Yuri Gagarin pilots Vostok 1; first man in space

  • Bay of Pigs invasion, lasts to the 19th.

  • Kennedy sets national goal: men on the moon

  • Berlin Wall constructed

  • Tsar Bomba detonated

  • Cuban Missile Crisis

    US and USSR inch very close to initiating WW3 when Khrushchev belays an order to turn around a ship.

  • Moscow-Washington hotline set up

    Primarily as a vector for as direct communication as possible in stressed times.

  • Partial Test Ban Treaty

    Essentially a nuclear non-proliferation treaty between the US, UK and USSR

  • Kennedy assassinated, succeeded by Johnson

  • Period: to

    Johnson

  • Johnson and Khrushchev cut back nuclear weapon production

  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    North Vietnamese attack two American destroyers at the Gulf of Tonkin; leads to increased US involvement in Vietnam.

  • US builds up military in South Vietnam, sustained bombing of North Vietnam.

  • US invades Dominican Rep. to prevent communist takeover

  • Tet Offensive begins

  • Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty opened for signature

  • Period: to

    Nixon

  • US bombs Cambodia

  • Apollo 11 moon landing

  • Vietnamization begins

  • NPT enters into force

  • War on Drugs press conference

  • Khrushchev dies

  • Nixon pays surprise visit to China

    First US President to visit since PRC foundation.

  • US ends involvement in Vietnam War

  • Period: to

    Ford

  • Haile Selassie ousted by Marxist junta

  • North Vietnam beats South Vietnam

    South Vietnam falls with capture of Saigon, the two countries merge under a Communist government.

  • Experimental Flight Apollo-Soyuz

    First joint flight of NASA and the Soviet space program

  • Mao kicks the oxygen habit

  • Period: to

    Carter

  • Carter gives speech regarding the US energy crisis

    Encouraged energy conservation and wearing more clothes.

  • Love Canal incident

    Superfund law created in response to Love Canal neighbourhood seeing the consequences of being built upon a toxic waste landfill

  • Carter and Brezhnev sign SALT II

  • Iran hostage crisis begins

    52 American diplomats and citizens as hostages
  • Period: to

    Reagan

  • Iran hostage crisis ends

  • Caribbean Basin Initiative announced

  • Reagan delivers Evil Empire speech

  • Strategic Defense Initiative proposed

  • Gorbachev becomes leader of USSR

  • Chernobyl disaster

  • "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" speech

  • Gorbachev announces at UN that USSR will cease military activity in Eastern Europe