Cold War Timeline

  • United Nations formed

    United Nations formed
    In an attempt to maintain international peace and security.
  • Truman Doctrine

    Truman Doctrine
    Established that the US would provide political, military, and economic assistance to all democratic nations that are under threat from internal or external authoritarian forces.
  • Hollywood 10

    Hollywood 10
    It was a group of 10 film industry members that refused to testify to an anti-communist committee hearing during the Second Red Scare.
  • Marshall Plan

    Marshall Plan
    The Secretary of State George Marshall, proposed that the US provide economic assistance to restore the economic infrastructure of postwar Europe.
  • NATO formed

    NATO formed
    The signing of the North Atlantic Treaty forms the basis of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
  • Korean War

    Korean War
    Conflict between North Korea and South Korea in which at least 2.5 million people lost their lives.
  • Space Race/Sputnik

    Space Race/Sputnik
    Between two Cold War rivals, the US and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability.
  • Bay of Pigs

    Bay of Pigs
    It was a failed attack launched by the Kennedy admistration to push Cuban leader Fidel Castro from power.
  • Berlin Wall goes up

    Berlin Wall goes up
    East German soldiers laid down more than 30 miles of barbed wire barrier through the heart of Berlin. East Berlin citizens were forbidden to pass into West Berlin.
  • US official enters Vietnam War

    US official enters Vietnam War
    A procrastinated conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam.
  • Soviets invade Afghanistan

    Soviets invade Afghanistan
    The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan, under the pretext of upholding the Soviet-Afghan Friendship Treaty of 1978.
  • Berlin Wall comes down

    Berlin Wall comes down
    The head of the East German Communist Party announced that citizens of the GDR could cross the border whenever they pleased.