cold war timeline

  • Soviet creation of Nuclear weapons

    It would only be a matter of months before the U.S.S.R. exploded its own atomic bomb. The Soviets successfully tested their first nuclear device, called RDS-1 or "First Lightning" (codenamed "Joe-1" by the United States), at Semipalatinsk on August 29, 1949.
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    Yalta conference

    The Yalta Conference, also known as the Crimea Conference and code-named the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the postwar reorganization of Germany and Europe.
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    Potsdam conference

    The Potsdam Conference, 1945. ... After the Yalta Conference of February 1945, Stalin, Churchill, and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had agreed to meet following the surrender of Germany to determine the postwar borders in Europe.
  • hiroshima bombing

    The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, with the consent of the United Kingdom, as required by the Quebec Agreement.
  • bombing of Nagasaki

    The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, with the consent of the United Kingdom, as required by the Quebec Agreement.Rushay said that Hiroshima was one of four potential targets and that Truman left it up to the military to decide which city to strike. Hiroshima was chosen as a target because of its military importance. Nagasaki was bombed a few days later.
  • Molotov Plan

    The Treaty of Brussels, also referred to as the Brussels Pact, was the founding treaty of the Western Union between 1948 and 1954, at which it point it was amended as the Modified Brussels Treaty and served as the founding treaty of the Western European Union until its termination in 2010.
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    End of the cold war

    The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union with its satellite states, and the United States with its allies after World War II. The historiography of the conflict began between 1946 and 1947. The Cold War began to de-escalate after the Revs of 1989.During 1989 and 1990, the Berlin Wall came down, borders opened, and free elections ousted Communist regimes everywhere in eastern Europe. In late 1991 the Soviet Union itself dissolved into its component republics.
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    Truman Doctrine

    The Truman Doctrine was an American foreign policy whose stated purpose was to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. It was announced to Congress by President Harry S.truman More generally, the Truman Doctrine implied American support for other nations allegedly threatened by Soviet communism.
  • marshall plan

    The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative passed in 1948 to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over $12 billion (nearly $100 billion in 2018 US dollars) in economic assistance to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II.
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    Berlin blockade

    The main cause of the Berlin Blockade was the Cold War, which was just getting started. Stalin was taking over eastern Europe by salami tactics and Czechoslovakia had just turned Communist (March 1948). ... Stalin wanted to destroy Germany, and the USSR had been stripping East Germany of its wealth and machinery.
  • Brussels Treaty

    The Treaty of Brussels, also referred to as the Brussels Pact, was the founding treaty of the Western Union between 1948 and 1954, at which it point it was amended as the Modified Brussels Treaty and served as the founding treaty of the Western European Union until its termination in 2010.
  • NATO

    NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) is an international alliance that consists of 29 member states from North America and Europe. It was established at the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949.
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    korean war

    The Korean War was a war between North Korea and South Korea. The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following a series of clashes along the border.
  • Stalin's death

    Joseph Stalin, the second leader of the Soviet Union, died on 5 March 1953 at the Kuntsevo Dacha aged 74 after suffering a stroke. After four days of national mourning, Stalin was given a state funeral and then buried in Lenin's Mausoleum on 9 March.After Stalin died in March 1953, he was succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and Georgi Malenkov as Premier of the Soviet Union.
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    Warsaw Pact

    Warsaw Pact, formally Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, (May 14, 1955–July 1, 1991) treaty establishing a mutual-defense organization (Warsaw Treaty Organization) composed originally of the Soviet Union and Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania.
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    Vietnam war

    On May 07, 1954, Viet Minh forces won the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and ended French involvement in Indochina.Following through on that commitment, American aid to South Vietnam began as early as in January, 1955.Yet, by 1976, South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were communist. The United States won almost all of its battles against the Viet Cong, but the communists still won the war.January 27, 1973: President Nixon signs the Paris Peace Accords, ending direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
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    Hungarian revolution

    The problems in Hungary began in October 1956, when thousands of protesters took to the streets demanding a more democratic political system and freedom from Soviet oppression. ... The Soviets did so, but Nagy then tried to push the Hungarian revolt forward by abolishing one-party rule.Rebels won the first phase of the revolution, and Imre Nagy became premier, agreeing to establish a multiparty system.
  • NORAD

    The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is a United States and Canada bi-national organization charged with the missions of aerospace warning, aerospace control and maritime warning for North America.
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    Fidel Castro taking over

    Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was a Cuban communist revolutionary and politician who governed the Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as President from 1976 to 2008.
  • creation of the Berlin wall

    The Wall was built in 1961 because more than 2.6 million East Germans escaped to West Berlin or West Germany from 1949 to 1961 (total population of East Germany was about 17 million).The Communist government of East Germany built a wall separating East and West Berlin. The wall was built to keep the country's people in. But the Soviets and East German government said it was to keep capitalism out.
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    Bay of pigs

    On April 17, 1961, 1,400 Cuban exiles launched what became a botched invasion at the Bay of Pigs on the south coast of Cuba. In 1959, Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolt that overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.
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    End of Cuban missile crisis

    The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis of 1962, the Caribbean Crisis, or the Missile Scare, was a 13-day confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union initiated by the American discovery of Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba.
  • Nuclear Arms Treaty

    The treaty recognizes five states as nuclear-weapon states: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China (also the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council). China and France acceded to the treaty in 1992.
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    Afghanistan/Soviet war

    In December 1979,the Soviet 40th Army invaded Afghanistan in order to prop up the communist government of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) against a growing insurgency.The Soviet Union feared the loss of its communist proxy in Afghanistan.The United States provided the Mujahideen with Stinger missiles.The last Soviet troops departed Afghanistan on February 15, 1989. Because the Soviet Union failed in securing Afghanis from the rebels for such a long period of time.
  • Solidarity in Poland

    Solidarity emerged on 31 August 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard when the communist government of Poland signed the agreement allowing for its existence. On 17 September 1980, over twenty Inter-factory Founding Committees of free trade unions merged at the congress into one national organization NSZZ Solidarity.
  • nuclear arms treaty

    what: an agreement between countries to not produce arms
    where: everywhere
    what it did for the cold war: led to detente
    what it did for freedom: allowed people to feel safe to make decisions
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    Czechoslovakia revolution

    The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 29 December 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia included students and older dissidents.
  • berlin wall falling

    The Berlin Wall was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Construction of the Wall was commenced by the German Democratic Republic on 13 August 1961. The Wall cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin. The wall was built to keep the country's people in. But the Soviets and East German government said it was to keep capitalism out.