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