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Cold War Timeline
1945
4-11 February: Yalta Conference between Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin. The Yalta
conference is often cited as the beginning of the Cold War. It renews American-Soviet Alliance,
Roosevelt held his last meeting with Churchill and Stalin at Yalta, a Crimean resort on the Black
Sea. The Atlantic Charter is composed.
April 12: Roosevelt Dies: Now, Stalin has the most control at the Potsdam Conference and
allows him to swing things his way and to get a lead.
7 May: German military leaders surrender unconditionally to Eisenhower at Rheims,
France. World War II ends in Europe. Staffs are exchanged between US and Russian military
forces meeting on the Elbe river and later Berlin.
26 June: The United Nations Charter is signed at San Francisco. Drawn up before the US
had entered the war, stated noble objectives for the world after the defeat of fascism: national
self-determination, no territorial aggrandizement, equal access of all peoples to raw materials and
collaboration for the improvement of economic opportunities, freedom of the seas, disarmament,
and :”freedom from fear and want.”
July 17th to August 2, 1945: Potsdam Conference: held just outside Berlin lacked the spirited
cooperation characteristic of the wartime meetings of Allied leaders that Roosevelt had attended.
The American, British, and Soviet delegations had a huge agenda, including reparations, the
future of Germany, and the status of other Axis powers such as Italy. They agreed to demand
Japan’s unconditional surrender and to try Nazi leaders as war criminals.
6 August: Explosion of Hiroshima atom bomb. A U.S. B-29 bomber, Enola Gay, dropped
“Little Boy,” killing nearly 80,000 Japanese civilians and injuring 70,000. It was done to put an end
to the war and to save American soldiers lives.
14 August: Japan surrenders. Japan surrenders because their country is almost completely
destroyed and they have no further reason to fight the US.
5 November: Hungarian election: Communist party wins only 17 percent of the vote. Stalin
moves to eradicate opposition and to consolidate the Soviet position in Hungary.
1945-1946: America and Great Britain withdraw their troops from Iran. The Soviet Union
does not and this causes further controversy between the US and Soviet Union.
1946
28 February: Russia policy: Secretary of State James F. Byrnes introduces new "get tough with
Russia" policy at Overseas Press Club, New York.
5 March: Winston Churchill, in a speech at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, says an
"iron curtain" has come down across Europe. The dream of a community of nations had
dissolved, but perhaps it had never been more than a fantasy contrived to maintain a fragile
alliance amid the urgency of WWII.
14 June: Baruch Plan: Bernard Baruch presents Truman's international atomic energy
control plan to U.N. Plan. It would place fissionable materials under control of a U.N. agency
equipped with inspection powers and exempt from the great-power (Security Council) veto. Soviet
Union objects to American domination of any U.N. agency and is unwilling to surrender their veto
or accept inspection within the Soviet Union.
1947
12 March: President Truman urges the United States ``to support free peoples who are
resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressure'' (Truman
Doctrine) the US had declared its right to intervene to save other nations from communist
subversion.
12 March: Truman Doctrine: Truman asks Congress to support "free peoples who are resisting
attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures." Congress grants $400 million in
aid to Greece and Turkey to defend against Communist guerrillas.
March: Huebner-Malinin Agreement signed on creating military liaison missions, SOXMIS
and USMLM, Accredited to the Soviet and United States Commander in Chief of the Zones of
Occupation in Germany.
7 April: US Military Liaison Mission (USMLM) stands up under General Order 17
subsequent to the Huebner-Malinin Agreement signed in March 1947. This created military
liaison missions accredited to the Soviet and United States Commander in Chief of the Zones of
Occupation in Germany. USMLM staff headquartered in Potsdam, near Berlin. Soviet Mission
(SOXMIS) headquartered in Frankfurt.
5 June: Marshall Plan: Secretary of State George C. Marshall calls on European nations to draft
plan for European economic recovery, offering aid in planning and "later support." Eastern
Europe walks out of initial Paris meeting at Soviet behest. The following March, Congress votes
to fund the Marshall Plan to aid 16 European nations. Pledged the US to the containment of
communism in Europe and elsewhere. The doctrine was the foundation of Truman’s foreign
policy. It impelled the US to support any nation whose stability was threatened by communism or
the Soviet Union.
26 July-17 September: National Security Act creates DoD, and several new agencies,
These new agencies including the National Military Establishment with three separate
departments of the Army, the Navy and the new U.S. Air Force, National Security Council (NSC),
CIA, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff
5 October: Establishment of Cominform. “The organization for the ideological unity of the
Soviet
1948
24 June (until May 12, 1949): Beginning of the Berlin blockade by the Soviet Union. The
Soviet Union blockades all highway, river, and rail traffic into Western-controlled West Berlin to
force the Western powers out of Berlin. USMLM allowed to continue travel throughout Eastern
Germany but with some restrictions on access to Berlin and travel corridor. USMLM attempts to
monitor Soviet forces buildup and intentions around Berlin.
1949
4 April: The North Atlantic Treaty is signed: Signed in Washington by Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United
Kindgom and the United States. Later joined by Greece, Spain, Turkey, and West Germany. In
1955 Soviet Union forms competing Warsaw Pact
9 May: The Berlin blockade is lifted.
23 September: Truman announces that the Soviet Union exploded an atomic bomb
sometime during the latter half of August. 2 Nations now had atomic bombs and proceeded to
stockpile bombs and to put nuclear warheads on missiles, inaugurating the fateful nuclear arms
race that scientists had feared since 1945. The two superpowers were now firmly locked into the
cold war.
6 October: Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1949 is signed by President Truman.
1950
February 9, McCarthyism: McCarthy issued wild accusations and led a flamboyant offensive
against not only New Deal Democrats but the entire Truman administration for failing to defend
the nation’s security. Democrats were “soft on communism,” he charged; they had “lost” China.
His name has provided the label for the entire campaign to silence critics of the Cold War.
April: NSC 68 Reappraisal of America's strategic position by the NSC. The definition for the
Cold War shifted from political to military, postulating a Soviet "design for world domination." NSC
68 called for both a build-up of nuclear weapons and for enlarged capacity to fight conventional
wars whenever the Russians threatened "piecemeal aggression." It also called for a reduction of
social welfare programs and other services not related to military needs and for tighter internal
security programs.
June 25, Korean War: North Korean communist forces cross the 38th parallel and invade South
Korea. On June 27, Truman orders U.S. forces to assist the South Koreans while the U.N.
Security Council condemns the invasion and establishes a 15-nation fighting force. Chinese
troops enter the conflict by year's end.
19 December: The North Atlantic Council appoints General Dwight D. Eisenhower to be the
first Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR).
Alger Hiss convicted of Perjury: in 1948, Whittaker Chambers first made his public charges
that Hiss was a secret communist. Hiss denied the charge and filed a libel suit against Chambers,
but after Chambers produced a number of copies of State Department documents and said they
were given to him by Hiss for transmission to the Soviet Union, perjury charges were brought
against Hiss when he denied before a grand jury that he had committed espionage. The HissChambers affair would prove to be the watershed case of the McCarthy period and one of the
most important of the century.
1951
March 29, Rosenberg Spy Case: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of selling U.S.
atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. The Rosenbergs are sent to the electric chair in 1953, despite
outrage from liberals who portray them as victims of an anti-communist witch hunt.
17-22 October: Signature in London of the protocol to the North Atlantic Treaty on the
accession of Greece and Turkey.
1952
28 April: First meeting of the North Atlantic Council in permanent session in Paris.
November 1: Hydrogen bomb: the United States explodes the first hydrogen bomb at a test site
in the Marshall Islands. Less than a year later, the Soviets announce their first test of a hydrogen
bomb.
1953
5 March: The death of Josef Stalin. Stalin dies; Korean War ends: Soviet leader Joseph
Stalin dies of a stroke on March 5. On July 27, an armistice is signed ending the Korean War,
with the border between North and South roughly the same as it had been in 1950. The
willingness of China and North Korea to end the fighting was in part attributed to Stalin's death.
14 August: Soviet Union explodes a hydrogen bomb. 2 Nations now had atomic bombs
and proceeded to stockpile bombs and to put nuclear warheads on missiles, inaugurating
the fateful nuclear arms race that scientists had feared since 1945. The two superpowers
were now firmly locked into the cold war.
15 19 August: US installs the Shah of Iran
1954
1 May: Soviet Union unveils M-4 its first jet-engine propelled long-range bomber. The race
for improved technology is fueled between the US and Soviet Union.
24 August: Communist Party outlawed in United States as Eisenhower signs Communist
Control Act.
1955
14 May: Warsaw Pact signed, calling for the mutual defense of Albania, Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, and the Soviet Union.
1956
Khrushchev's 'secret speech' In a speech before Communist Party members on February 14,
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounces the policies of Stalin. Khrushchev rejects the Leninist
idea of the inevitability of war and calls for a doctrine of "peaceful coexistence" between capitalist
and communist systems.
1957
4 October: Soviet Union launches Sputnik, first satellite to orbit Earth: The Space Race
begins and now the Eisenhower Administration pledged to strengthen support for educating
American students in math, science and technology through The National Defense Act.
3 November: Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2, which carries the first living creature (a dog)
into space.
17 December: First successful test of US Atlas ICBM.December: Gaither Report to the NSC
states Soviet Union has achieved superiority in long-range ballistic missiles leading to fears of a
"missile gap."
1958
31 January: First U.S. satellite, Explorer I, is launched into orbit. The United States joins the
Space Race
30 March: Soviet Union suspends atmospheric nuclear testing.
1959
24 July: Nixon visits the Soviet Union, takes on Khrushchev in the "kitchen debate" on the
merits of capitalism vs. communism.
13 September: Soviet spacecraft reaches the moon and crashes there.
1960
1 May: American U2 aircraft is shot down over Soviet territory. Pilot Gary Powers is held by
the Soviet Union. Incident is announced by Khrushchev on May 5. The U-2 Affair On May 1, an
American high-altitude U-2 spy plane is shot down on a mission over the Soviet Union. After the
Soviets announce the capture of pilot Francis Gary Powers, the United States recants earlier
assertions that the plane was on a weather research mission.
20 July: United States fires first ballistic missile from a submerged submarine off Cape
Canaveral.
8 November: Kennedy elected president. He ran under the banner of the New Frontier. His
liberalism inspired idealism and hope in millions of young people at home and abroad. In foreign
affairs, Kennedy generally followed, and in some respects, deepened the cold war precepts that
dominated postwar policy making.
1961
12 April: Soviet Major Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man orbited in space.
3 January: Cuba: Eisenhower Administration breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba over Castro's
unwillingness to hold democratic elections.
12 April: Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin is the first man to orbit the Earth.
17 April: Bay of Pigs landing by more than 1,000 CIA-trained Cuban refugees fails in its attempt
to "liberate" Cuba. A U.S.-organized invasion force of 1,400 Cuban exiles is defeated by Castro's
government forces on Cuba's south coast at the Bay of Pigs. Launched from Guatemala in ships
and planes provided by the United States, the invaders surrender on April 20 after three days of
fighting. Kennedy takes full responsibility for the disaster.
5 May: First American in space, Alan B. Shepard, makes suborbital flight aboard a Mercury
capsule.3 June: Vienna Summit:Khrushchev reissues ultimatum to begin talks on Germany within
6 months or face a permanent the division of Germany. Kennedy responds with call for military
build-up, beginning of civil defense program.
August 15: Berlin Wall The United States rejects proposals by Khrushchev to make Berlin a
"free city" with access controlled by East Germany. On August 15, communist authorities begin
construction on the Berlin Wall to prevent East Germans from fleeing to West Berlin.
1 September: Soviet Union resumes atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons.
15 September: United States resumes underground testing of nuclear weapons. In reponse
to the Soviets resuming atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons
1962
20 February: John Glenn is first American to orbit the Earth.
23 October: Cuban Missile Crisis: United States establishes air and sea blockade of Cuba in
response to photographs of Soviet missile bases under construction in Cuba. United States
threatens to invade Cuba if the bases are not dismantled and warns that a nuclear attack
launched from Cuba would be considered a Soviet attack requiring full retaliation After the failed
Bays of Pigs invasion, the Soviet Union installs nuclear missiles in Cuba capable of reaching
most of the continental United States. After U-2 flights confirm their existence, Kennedy orders a
naval blockade of Cuba on October 22 until the Soviet Union removes its missiles. On October
28, the Soviets agree to remove the missiles, defusing one of the most dangerous confrontations
of the Cold War.
28 October: Khrushchev agrees to remove offensive weapons from Cuba: United States
agrees to remove missiles from Turkey and end Cuban-exile incursions.
21 November: United States ends Cuban blockade, satisfied that all bases are removed and
Soviet jets will leave the island by December 20.
1963
June 20 Hot line: The United States and Soviet Union agree on June 20 to install a hot line
allowing the leaders of both countries to directly communicate during a crisis. Kennedy and
Khrushchev were often forced to communicate through public broadcasts during the Cuban
Missile Crisis.
15-25 July: The United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union initial an agreement
banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and underwater.
22 November: President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas
1964
15 October: Khrushchev is removed from office. He is replaced by Leonid Brezhnev as
General Secretary of the CPSU and by Alexei Kosygin as Prime Minister.
1965
24 December: Vietnam: U.S. forces number 184,300 in Vietnam.
1966
1967
1968
1969
June 8: Vietnamization On June 8, U.S. President Richard Nixon announces his
"Vietnamization" plan, designed to withdraw U.S ground forces from Vietnam and turn control of
the war over to South Vietnamese forces.
July 20 – Moon Landing
November 17: SALT On November 17, the first phase of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks begins
in Helsinki, Finland. The finished agreement, signed by Nixon and Brezhnev in Moscow on May
26, 1972, places limits on both submarine-launched and intercontinental nuclear missiles.
1970
5 March: Non-Proliferation Treaty on Nuclear Weapons comes into force.
20 March: First NATO communications satellite launched from Cape Kennedy.
1971
2 February: Second NATO communications satellite launched from Cape Kennedy.
1972
1973
January 27 Vietnam War agreement: On January 27, 1973, the United States, South Vietnam,
North Vietnam and the Viet Cong sign the Paris Peace Treaty, establishing a cease-fire and a 60day window for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops. The United States is allowed to continue
providing aid to South Vietnam. Saigon falls in April 1975.
1974
23-24 November: President Ford and General Secretary Brezhnev, meeting in Vladivostok,
agree on steps towards limitation of US-USSR strategic nuclear arms.
1975
1976
1977
10-11 May: North Atlantic Council meeting in London with participation of Heads of State and
Government. Initiation of a long-term defense program.
1978
18 November: Third NATO communications satellite launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1979 Soviets invade Afghanistan – remain until 1989, Iranian Hostage crisis begins
1980-1989 Charlei Wilson’s War
1981
18 November: President Reagan announces new arms control initiatives including
intermediate-range nuclear force negotiations (INF) and strategic arms reduction talks (START).
30 November: The United States and the Soviet Union open Geneva negotiations on
intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF).
1982
1983
March 23 Star Wars On March 23, Reagan outlines his Strategic Defense Initiative, or "Star
Wars," a space-based defensive shield that would use lasers and other advanced technology to
destroy attacking missiles far above the Earth's surface. Soviets accuse the U.S of violating the
1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty.
23 March: President Reagan announces a comprehensive research program aimed at
eliminating the threat posed by strategic nuclear missiles (Strategic Defense Initiative).
1984
1985
11 March: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union. Gorbachev comes to power On March 11, Gorbachev comes to power in the
Soviet Union, ushering in an era of economic reforms under perestroika and greater political
freedoms under glasnost.
12 March: The United States and the USSR begin new arms control negotiations in
Geneva, encompassing defense and space systems, strategic nuclear forces and intermediaterange nuclear forces.
19-21 November: Geneva Summit meeting between United States President Ronald
Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
1986
26 April: Nuclear accident at the Chernobyl power station in the Soviet Union. USMLM
personnel traveling throughout East Germany notice a complete East German Government news
blackout on the Shernobyl nuclear accident. Radioactive fallout detected over Western Europe
prompts Western authorities to issue safety & health warnings that include frequent showering
and limiting outside activities. No such warning is ever issued by East German Communist
authorities.
11-12 October: Reykjavik Summit Meeting between United States President Reagan and
Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev
1987
22 July: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev announces Soviet readiness to eliminate all
intermediate-range nuclear weapons: This includes those deployed in the Asian part of the
Soviet Union in the context of a United States-Soviet INF treaty.
8 December: US President Reagan and Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev, meeting at the
beginning of their 3-day summit talks, sign the Washington INF Treaty: This eliminates on a
global basis land-based intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
9 December: The United States and the Soviet Union reach agreement on measures
allowing the monitoring of nuclear explosions at each other's test sites.
10 December: At the end of their 3-day summit meeting in Washington, US President
Reagan and Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev pledge deep cuts in strategic arms.
11 December: The North Atlantic Council marks the 20th anniversary of the Harmel report.
The Secretary of State of the United States and the Foreign Ministers of Belgium, Federal
Republic of Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom sign bilateral agreements
relating to the implementation of the INF Treaty.
1988
31 May: During a five-day Summit meeting in Moscow, President Reagan and General
Secretary Gorbachev exchange documents implementing the recently ratified December
1987 INF Treaty and sign bilateral agreements on nuclear testing and in other fields.
1989
12 May: President Bush proposes ``Open Skies'' regime to increase confidence and
transparency with respect to military activities. The proposal envisages reciprocal opening of
airspace and acceptance of overflights of national territory by participating countries.
31 May: During a visit to the Federal Republic of Germany President Bush outlines proposals
for promoting free elections and pluralism in Eastern Europe and dismantling the Berlin Wall
9-10 November: The opening of the Berlin Wall. Following widespread demonstrations and
demand for political reform, the government of the German Democratic Republic announces the
lifting of travel restrictions to the West and sets up new crossing points. Gorbachev renounces the
Brezhnev Doctrine, which pledged to use Soviet force to protect its interests in Eastern Europe.
On September 10, Hungary opens its border with Austria, allowing East Germans to flee to the
West. After massive public demonstrations in East Germany and Eastern Europe, the Berlin Wall
falls on November 9.
4 December: NATO Summit Meeting in Brussels. US President George Bush briefs NATO
leaders on his talks with Soviet President Gorbachev at the US-Soviet Summit Meeting in Malta
on 2-3 December, marking the beginning of a new era of cooperation between their countries.
The Summit Meeting of leaders of the Warsaw Treaty Organisation in Moscow publishes a joint
statement denouncing the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces and
repudiates the Brezhnev Doctrine of limited sovereignty.
29 December: The Polish Parliament abolishes the leading role of the Communist Party
and restores the country's name as the Republic of Poland.
1991
August 19: Soviet Union collapses: While vacationing in the Crimea, Gorbachev is ousted in a
coup by Communist hard-liners on August 19. The coup soon falters as citizens take to the
streets of Moscow and other cities in support of Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who denounced
the coup. Military units abandon the hard-liners, and Gorbachev is released from house arrest.
He officially resigns on December 25 as the Soviet Union is dissolved.