-
Casablanca Conference
Meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill. Stalin received invitation but was unable to attend because the Red Army was engaged in major offensive against the German Army at the time.
Developments of the Conference were the finalisation of Allied strategic plans against the Axis powers and the promulgation of the policy of 'unconditional surrender'. -
Cairo Declaration
Roosevelt, Churchill and Kai-shek present. Declaration developed ideas from the 1941 Atlantic Charter, which was issued by the Allies of WW2 to set goals for the post-war order. -
Tehran Conference
Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. Leaders coordinated their military strategy against Germany and Japan and made numerous important decisions regarding the post WW2 era.
Notable achievements of the Conference focused on the next phases of the war against the Axis powers in Europe and Asia. -
Yalta Conference
Roosevelt, Churchill on decisions regarding the future progress of the war and post-war world.
The Big Three agreed that after Germany's unconditional surrender, it would be divided into four post-war occupation zones, controlled by US, British, French, and Soviet military forces. Berlin would also be divided into similar occupation zones. -
Potsdam Conference
Stalin, Churchill and Truman to negotiate terms for the end of WW2. Continued the conversations from the Yalta conference. -
Churchill Iron Curtain Speech
"From Stettin in the Baltic, to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent."
Framed the geo-political landscape for the next 50 years.
Iron Curtain - Symbol used by Churchill to denote the separation of Europe into two rival camps.
On one side were the totalitarian countries of central and eastern European that were dominated by the Soviet Union. -
The Truman Doctrine
American foreign policy that pledges American "support for democracies against authoritarian threats." The doctrine originated with the primary goal of countering the growth of the Soviet bloc during the Cold War.
- The US would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces.
Announced to Congress by President Harry S. -
The Marshall Plan
Proposed that the US provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of post-war Europe in order to create stable conditions in which democratic institutions could survive in the aftermath of WW2.
Proposed by Secretary of State George Marshall in 1947.
Signed by President Truman under the Economic Recovery Act. -
Berlin Blockade
The Soviet Union, whose territory fully surrounded the capital, cut off all ground traffic into and out of West Berlin in an attempt to force the Allies to abandon the city. -
Nuclear Parity
Definition: The situation in which two or more nations possessing nuclear weapons have equal or near equal numbers and quality of launch vehicles, warheads etc., so that no one nation possesses a decisive advantage.
Began as the Soviet Union exploded an atomic bomb. -
Soviet detonation of atom bomb
Came as shock to the West, U.S. intelligence believed that the Soviet Union was at least several years away from being able to detonate a nuclear device. -
Communists win the Chinese Civil War
Marking the beginning of the PRC -
NSC 68 Published
'United States Objectives and Programs for National Security' Concluded the only plausible way to deter the Soviet Union was for President Harry Truman to support a massive build-up of both conventional and nuclear arms. -
North Korea invades South Korea
Dividing communist North Koras from the non-communist Republic -
Treaty of San Fransisco
Stipulated that Japan should recognise the independence of Korea, and that Japan should renounce all rights, titles and claims to "Korea, including the islands of Quelpart, Port Hamilton and Dagelet." -
End of Korean War
Armistice was signed, ending organised combat operations and leaving the Korean peninsula divided.
Created numerous war orphans and divided families in both Koreas. -
Stalin Dies
Marked 'The beginning of the end of the Soviet Union' -
Bandung Conference
Organised by Indonesia.
Laid the foundation for the nonaligned movement during the Cold War. Leaders of developing countries banded together to avoid being forced to take sides in the Cold War Contest.
Initial motivation for the movement was the promotion of peace. -
Eisenhower takes office
Supported a policy of a "modern Republicanism" that occupied a middle ground between liberal Democrats and the conservative wing of the Republican Party.
Continued New Deal programs, expanded Social Security, and prioritised a balanced budget over tax cuts.
Eisenhower Administration > focused on the Cold War. Built up a stockpile of nuclear weapons and delivery systems to deter military threats and save money while cutting back on expensive Army combat units. -
First Taiwan Strait Crisis
Tensions between PRC and ROC resulting in armed conflict over strategic islands in the Taiwan Strait. -
Hungarian Revolution
-
Suez Crisis
-
Khrushchev Speech
Denunciation of the deceased Soviet leader Stalin to a closed session of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
The nucleus of a far-reaching de-Stalinization campaign intended to destroy the image of the late dictator as an infallible leader and to revert official policy to an idealised Leninist model.
Recalled Lenin's testament, a long-suppressed document in which Vladimir Lenin had warned that Stalin was likely to abuse his power, then cited such excesses. -
Second Taiwan Strait Crisis
-
Beginning of Berlin Crisis
-
Castro in Cuba
-
Congo Crisis
-
Berlin Wall
-
Kennedy takes Office
-
Bay of Pigs Invasion
-
Cuban Missile Crisis
-
Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
-
Johnson takes office
-
Kennedy Assasinated
-
Brezhnev in USSR
-
PRC detonates atom bomb
-
Khrushchev ousted
-
France withdrawal from NATO
-
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
-
Six Day War (Arab-Israeli)
-
Prauge Spring
-
Brezhnev Doctrine
-
Nixon takes office
-
Sino-Soviet border conflict
-
Salvador Allende in Chile
-
Moscow Summit
-
Allende overthrown
-
Yom Kippur War
-
Augusto Pinochet in Chile
-
Portuguese Revolution
-
Nixon resigns
-
Ford takes office
-
Angolan Civil War
-
Mozambican Civil War
-
Charter 77
-
Carter takes office
-
Camp David Accords
-
Soviet Invasion in Afghanistan
-
US boycott of Moscow Olympics
-
Martial law in Poland
-
Brezhnev dies