Wyatt's Cold War Timeline

  • Period: to

    Confrontation of the Superpowers

    The Soviet government nor the American leaders were willing to give up power and prestige. A number of events led these two superpowers (countries whose military power is combined with political influence) into conflict.
  • Greece

    Greece

    The Communist People's Liberation Army and anti-Communist forces supported by Great Britain fought for control of Greece
  • Truman Doctrine

    Truman Doctrine

    Adressing a joint session of Congress, Truman asked for $400 million dollars in aid for Greece and Turkey.
  • Marshall Plan

    Marshall Plan

    The Truman Doctrine was followed by the European Recovery Program. Proposed by General C. Marshall, U.S. secretary of state.
  • Policy of Containment

    The split in Europe between the United States and the Soviet Union had become a fact of life. George Kennan, a well-known U.S. diplomat with much knowledge of Soviet affairs, argued for a policy of containment to keep communism within its existing boundaries.
  • Unification

    Unification

    Great Britain, France, and the United States were making plans to unify the three Western sections of Germany (and Berlin) and create a West German government.
  • Berlin Airlift

    Berlin Airlift

    Supplies would be flown in by American and British airplanes. For more than 10 months, more than 200,000 flights carried 2.3 million tons of supplies.
  • Chiang Kai-shek

    Chiang Kai-shek

    Chiang Kai-shek finally lost control of China, and the Communist Mao Zedong announced the formation of the People's Rupublic of China.
  • COMECON

    COMECON

    The Soviet Union responded to the Marshall Plan by founding the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance for the economic cooperation of the Eastern European states.
  • Blockade

    Blockade

    The Soviets, who wanted to avoid war as much as the Western powers, finally gave in and lifted the blockade.
  • H-Bomb

    H-Bomb

    In the early 1950s the United States and the Soviet Union developed the even more deadly hydrogen bomb.
  • Korean War

    Korean War

    The war began as an attempt by the Communist government of North Korea, which was allied with the Soviet Union, to take over South Korea.
  • ICBMs

    ICBMs

    Both the Soviet Union and the United States had intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of sending bombs anywhere
  • Allies

    Allies

    In the mid 1950s the Untied States found itself in military alliance with 42 states around the world
  • Warsaw Pact

    Warsaw Pact

    The Soviet Union and its European allies began to create the Warsaw Pact.
  • Berlin Wall

    Berlin Wall

    Nikita Khrushchev, being the new leader of the Soviet Union, tried to take advantage of the American concern over missiles to solve the problem of West Berlin.
  • Sputnik 1

    Sputnik 1

    The Soviets sent Sputnik 1, the first human-made space satellite, to orbit Earth. New fears seized the American public.
  • Cuban Missile Crisis

    Cuban Missile Crisis

    A left-wing revolutionary named Fidel Castro overthrew the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista and set up a Soviet-supported totalitarian regime in Cuba.
  • Bay of Pigs

    Bay of Pigs

    The invasion began on Sunday, April 16, 1961. By wednesday, the exiled fighters began surrendering. One hundred and fourteen died; the rest were captured by Castro's troops.
  • Counteract

    Counteract

    Khrushchev began to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. The missiles were meant to counteract U.S. nuclear weapons placed in Turkey.
  • Art

    Art

    Khrushchev loosened government controls on literary and artistic works.
  • Hot Coms

    Hot Coms

    A hotline communications system between Moscow and Washington, D.C., was installed.
  • Vietnam 1

    Vietnam 1

    Under president Lyndon B. Johnson, increasing numbers of U.S. troops were sent to Vietnam.
  • Veto

    Veto

    While Khrushchev was away on vacation, a special meeting of the Soviet leaders voted him out of office.
  • Antonin

    Antonin

    Novotny` had alienated many members of his own party and Czechoslovakia's writers.
  • Nixon

    Nixon

    Presindent Nixon reached an agreement with Vietnam to withdraw their forces.