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Cold War

TIMELINE
1945
End of WWII
Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” Speech
1946
George Kennan sent Long Telegram explaining reasons USSR must be "contained"
Document link
1947
Truman Doctrine (Greece and Turkey)
"it must be the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."
Cominform
Communist Information Bureau - in charge of publishing propaganda to encourage international communist solidarity.

1948
Marshall Plan (Soviets create Comecon)
Announced in 1947
Monetary aid to European countries
Berlin blockade and airlift (11 months)
Yugoslavia (led by Tito) stands up to Stalin
Alger Hiss Case
1949
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) created
Russia acquired atomic bomb
Klaus Fuchs, British scientist who worked on Manhattan project, admitted giving A-Bomb secrets to Russians
Chinese Revolution
Mao Zedong (Communist) defeats Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek) (Nationalist)
Nationalists retreat to Taiwan, create Republic of China (ROC)
Mao creates People's Republic of China (PRC)
1950
McCarthy Trials
Joe McCarthy presented list of 205 members of the Communist Party still working for the State Department.
McCarren Internal Security Act
Passed by US Congress over Truman's veto
Made it unlawful to support establishment of a totalitarian government
Restricted employment and travel of those joining Communist-front organizations
Authorized creation of detention camps for subversives
1950-53

NSC-68 (April)
National Security Council proposal to Truman
To Quadruple the US defense budget
And forming alliances with non-Communist countries
Korean War (Jun. 25, 1950-Jul. 27, 1953)
North Korea under Kim Il Sung moved south of 38 parallel attacking U.S.-backed Synghman Rhee
UN approved action against North (Moscow had boycotted the meeting),
U.S. sent troops led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur
Eisenhower ended war in 1953 (armistice)
1951
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg trial (executed 1953)
1952
US acquired Hydrogen Bomb
1953
Eisenhower inaugurated (Jan)
Stalin died
Russia acquired hydrogen bomb (US had H-Bomb in 1952)
1954
Army-McCarthy hearings, called a "witch hunt."
French defeated in Indochina by Ho Chi Minh at Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam
Eisenhower "domino theory" speech (Apr. 7)
1955
Warsaw Pact created May 14
Geneva Conference July 18
Held in Switzerland, Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Nikola Bulganin
Proposal to create "open skies" to eliminate chance of surprise nuclear attack
Soviets rejected proposal but first thaw in relations
Austria independent July 27
1956
Khrushchev De-Stalinization
Issues secret speech delivered at the 20th Communist Party Congress in Moscow denouncing Stalin’s terror and “cult of personality” (de Stalinization).
Speech published in New York Times.
"Peaceful co-existence"
Result: resources to production of consumer goods, less power to secret police, freedom to writers
Russian authors
Solzhenitsyn publishes “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” describing Stalin concentration camp
Boris Pasternak publishes “Doctor Zhivago” (but not allowed to receive Nobel Prize in Literature)
Poland
Poland's Communist party elect moderate, Gomulka, Gomulka refuses to give in to Soviet demands but promises military loyalty, Poles enjoy new degree of independence including increased toleration of Catholicism
Hungary
Liberal Communist leader Imre Nagy promised free multiparty elections and to pull Hungary out of Warsaw Pact
Soviets sent tanks and troops to suppress rebellion, US didn't help because engaged in Suez
Suez Crisis
Gamal Abdel Nasser asked US to help fund Aswan Dam, US refused
Wanted to nationalize Suez Canal (owned by Britain and France)
Britain, France and Israel invaded.
Eisenhower furious, condemned the attack
Chinese-Soviet split
China (Mao) criticizes USSR (Khrushchev) for backing away from Marxism.

1957
Soviets launch Sputnik, 1st satellite to orbit Earth
Suez Crisis: Israel, UK, Fr. invaded Egypt after Nasser tried to nationalize Suez Canal
Eisenhower Doctrine: Aid to Middle East countries
1958
Mao launched Great Leap Forward in China (1958-1961)
To rapidly industrialize China, 30 million died of starvation
Congress created National Defense and Education Act
Money for school for math, science, foreign language education
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
Created to direct US efforts to build missiles and explore outer space.
1959
Fidel Castro overthrew U.S.-backed dictator, Fulgencia Batista, in Cuba (Jan.)
Khrushchev barred from Disneyland (Sept. 19)
1960
OPEC created (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela)
Soviets withheld aid from China, leads to China detonating own bomb (1964) and border clashes (1968)
Russians shot down U.S. U-2 spy plane flying over Soviet Union.
Ended USSR thaw
1961
Eisenhower farewell address (Jan. 17, 1961)
Warned against negative impact of the Cold War and the military-industrial complex.
John F. Kennedy inaugurated Jan. 20
Bay of Pigs (April)
Ill-fated U.S. attempt to topple Castro regime (under JFK)
Berlin Wall (Aug. 13)
Built by East Germany with Khrushchev's support around West Berlin
After more than three million East Germans flee to W. Berlin. ("Brain Drain")
Franz Fanon wrote “Wretched of the Earth”
1962

Cuban Missile Crisis
U.S. spy planes discover Soviet Missiles being installed in Cuba
Khrushchev v. JFK --> close to nuclear war
Oct. 29, Khurshchev backs down, missiles taken out
US promises not to invade Cuba
Pulls out of Turkey 6 months later
1963
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed by JFK (Aug. 5)
John F. Kennedy killed by Lee Harvey Oswald (Nov. 22)
1964
Nikita Khrushchev ousted from power by politburo
Brezhnev to power (1964-1982): Communist Party clamped down on Solzhenitsyn, Sakharov and other outspoken dissidents
1966
Chinese Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China (1966-1976)
Attempt to reignite revolutionary spirit by cleansing China of those who didn't support Mao. Millions humiliated or killed.
1968
Czechoslovakia's Prague Spring
Czech Communist leader Alexander Dubcek initiates reforms in order to create “socialism with a human face,” ends censorship, democratic reforms.
Result – Brezhnev called on other Warsaw Pact countries to invade Czechoslovakia to remove Dubcek from power.
Issued “Brezhnev Doctrine” (text) to stop reforms from spreading.
1973
US pulled out of Vietnam (Nixon)
1975
Helsinki Agreement: Confirmed Europe's borders est. in WWII, human rights, détente.
1979
Soviets invaded Afghanistan
Islamic Revolution in Iran: Ayatollah Khomeini overthrows US-backed Shah Mohammed Pahlavi
1980
Death of Tito in Yugoslavia causing ethnic tensions and economic issues
1982
Brezhnev died

1985
Mikhail Gorbachev installed as the new leader in USSR
He launched Glasnost and Perestroika
1986
Glasnost (“openness”)
Encouraged Soviets to discuss ways to reform country. People learn truth about state of Soviet Union and Chernobyl nuclear disaster
Perestroika (economic “restructuring”)
Gorbachev to restructure economy to remove some bureaucratic control to encourage greater productivity.
Demokratizatsiya (“democratization”) Calling for election of a new legislature, a 2,250-member Congress of People’s Deputies.
Slobodan Milosevic became president of Serbia
1989
Poland – “Solidarity”
Polish cleric (John Paul II) becomes Pope
Lech Walesa leads Polish workers to form a democratic trade union called “Solidarity”- Polish voters overwhelmingly rejected Communist Party and elect Solidarity candidates – 1st time people in Eastern Bloc peacefully vote a Communist regime out of power
East Germany – Opening of Berlin Wall
Fall of Berlin Wall – Inspired by Poland, East Germans demand change in their government, Nov. 9, new East German leaders opened Berlin Wall, marked to Cold War in Eastern Europe
Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution
General strike led by Vaclav Havel resulted in collapse of Communist government
1990
Yugoslavia (six Republics), Serbs under Milosevic ethnic cleansing
Yugoslavia dismantled 1990-1992 (video)
1991
START I signed by US president George H.W. Bush and Gorbachev sign
Reducing number of nuclear warheads to under 10,000 each side
August Coup
Hardliners who believed Gorbachev had gone too far with Glasnost and Perestroika staged unsuccessfully coup while Gorbachev was vacationing in Crimea
Boris Yeltsin, president of Russian SSR, defeated coup members
1992
CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States)
Created from ten former Soviet Republics after collapse of Soviet Union
Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan
START II signed by George H.W. Bush and Yeltsin
Reduced nuclear warheads to 3,000 and US economic aid to Russia

1993
Czechoslovakia peacefully split into Czech Republic and Slovakia