Cold War Timeline

  • The End Of WWII

    The End Of WWII
    End of WW ll -Now that Japan was finally defeated, America and Russia have no one to focus on apart from each other. This is when the tension really started to happen between the Western-World and the communists countries.
  • Winston Churchills "Iron Curtain Speech"

    Winston Churchills "Iron Curtain Speech"
    Iron Curtain Speech- Winston Churchill was stating that the Russians have cut off Eastern-Europe from the Western-World and imposed communism on them.
  • The Marshall Plan

    The Marshall Plan
    The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was the American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism.
  • Berlin Blockade and Airlift

    Berlin Blockade and Airlift
    This event was a turning point in post World War 2 Europe. The introduction of a new deutsche mark in West Berlin (as throughout West Germany), which the Soviets regarded as a violation of agreements with the Allies, the Soviet occupation forces in eastern Germany began a blockade of all rail, road, and water communications between Berlin and the West.
  • Forming of NATO

    Forming of NATO
    In 1949, the prospect of further Communist expansion prompted the United States and 11 other Western nations to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
  • Vietnam War

    Vietnam War
    The cold war was a fight between the United States and the USSR over the world's resources. South Vietnam was an allie of the US and North Vietnam was an allie of the USSR. The US feared if North Vietnam won the war other countries in South Asia would also fall to Communism.
  • Sputnik

    Sputnik
    The Sputnik crisis was the American reaction to the success of the Sputnik program. It was a key Cold War event that began on October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite.
  • The U-2 Incident

    The U-2 Incident
    The 1960 U-2 incident occurred during the Cold War on 1 May 1960, during the presidency of Dwight Eisenhower and during the leadership of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, when a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down over the airspace of the Soviet Union. The United States government at first denied the plane's purpose and mission, but then was forced to admit its role as a covert surveillance aircraft when the Soviet government produced its intact remains and surviving pilot.
  • Creation of the Berlin Wall

    Creation of the Berlin Wall
    The Berlin Wall was erected in the dead of night and for 28 years kept East Germans from fleeing to the West.
  • Cuban Missile Crisis

    Cuban Missile Crisis
    The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. The United States armed forces were at their highest state of readiness ever and Soviet field commanders in Cuba were prepared to use battlefield nuclear weapons to defend the island if it was invaded.