Cold War Timeline

By bryce.pope

  • Berlin Blockade

    Soviet Union the Westeern Allies' railway, road and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. The Berlin Blockade was an attempt in 1948 by the Soviet Unionto limit the ability of France, Great Britain and the United States to travel to their secctors of Berlin, which lay within Russia - occupied East Germany.

  • Korean War

    The Korean War ( 1950 - 1953) began when the North Korean Communist army crossed the 38th Parallel and invaded non - communist South Korea.

  • Veitnam War

    The North Vietnamese government and Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam under Communist rule. They viewed the conflict as a colonial war, fought intially against forces from France and the America, and laterr against the South Vietnam.

  • creation of Berlin Wall

    On August 13, 1961, the Communsit government of the German Democratic Republic ( GDR, or East Germany) began to build a barbed wire and concrete.

  • Cuban Missile Crises

    In October 1962, an American U - 2 spy plane secretly photographed nuclear missile sites being built by the Soviet Union on the Island of Cuba.

  • Gorbachev's Reforms ( Perestroika/Glasnost

    In 1985, reform minded Mikhail Gorbachev came to poweer as General Secretary of the Soviet Union. He introduced reforms along liberal lines. The two reforms commonly associated with him are glasnost and perestroika. Glasnost means 'openness' and refers to government tranparency and increased of expression.

  • Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

    Afghanistan's Taliban government harbored Osama Bin Laden and the al - Qaeda terrorist group, who were responsible for Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

  • Sputnik launch

    Sutnik was the first artificail Earth sattellite. The Soviet Union launched it on october 4, 1957. History changed on that day when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik 1. The world's fist artificail satellite was about the size of a beach ball.

  • Bay of Pigs

    The Bay of Pigs invasion begins whe a CIA - financed and - trained group of Cuban refugees lands in Cuba and attempts to topple the Communists government of Fidel Castro. The attack was an utter failure.