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The Cold War
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The Iron Curtain Speech, 1946
Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemned the Soviet Union’s policies in Europe and declared, “From Stetting in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” Churchill’s speech is considered to be the first announcing of the beginning of the Cold War. -
The Truman Doctrine, 1947
This was an American foreign policy created to counter Soviet geopolitical spread during the Cold War. It said that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from authoritarian forces. -
The Marshall Plan, 1947
Secretary of State George C. Marshall issued a call for a program to rebuild Europe. Fearing that Europe would be taken over by communism, congress passed the Economic Cooperation Act in March 1948 and approved funding for rebuilding Western Europe. -
The Molotov Plan, 1947
A system created by the Soviet Union in order to provide aid to rebuild the countries in Europe and Asia that were politically and economically aligned to the Soviet Union. The system was to create an economic alliance of socialist countries, rebuild a war-devastated region, remove trade barriers, and provide self-sufficient command economies. -
Hollywood Ten, 1947
In October 1947, 10 members of the Hollywood film industry publicly denounced the tactics employed by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), an investigative committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, during its probe of alleged communist influence in the American motion picture business. -
The Berlin Blockade, 1948
This was an attempt by the Soviet Union to limit France, Great Britain and the United States' traveling to their sectors of Berlin, which were within Russian-occupied East Germany. The Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the sectors of Berlin under Western control. -
The Berlin Airlift
The Russians who wanted Berlin all for themselves, closed all highways, railroads and canals from western Germany into western Berlin in hopes of driving France, Britain, and the U.S. out of Berlin. In response, the U.S. and the allies supplied their sectors from the air and it lasted for more than a year. -
Alger Hiss Case, 1948
The case against Hiss began in 1948, when Whittaker Chambers, an admitted ex-communist and an editor with Time magazine, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee and charged that Hiss was a communist in the 1930s and 1940s. -
NATO, 1949
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty. NATO’s purpose is to safeguard the freedom and security of its members through political and military actions. -
Soviet Atomic Bomb Test of 1949
The Soviet Union conducted its first nuclear test, code-named RDS-1, at the Semipalatinsk test site in Kazakhstan. The USSR successfully detonated its first atomic bomb and if they had not, their scientists would have been executed for failing to do so. -
Korean War, 1950
The Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, came to the aid of South Korea. China, with assistance from the Soviet Union, came to the aid of North Korea. -
Rosenberg Trial, 1951
The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg began in New York Southern District federal court. Where Judge Irving R. Kaufman presided over their espionage prosecution accused of selling nuclear secrets to the Russians. -
Battle of Dien Bien Phu, 1954
After French forces occupied the Dien Bien Phu valley in late 1953, Viet Minh commander Vo Nguyen Giap amassed troops and placed heavy artillery in caves of the mountains overlooking the French camp. With Chinese aid, Giap mounted assaults on the opposition’s strong points, eliminating use of the French airfield. Viet Minh forces overran the base. -
Army-McCarthy hearings, 1954
A series of hearings held by the United States Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations between April 1954 and June 1954. The hearings were held for the purpose of investigating the conflicting accusations between the United States Army and Senator Joseph McCarthy. -
Geneva Conference, 1954
The Geneva Conference happened in Geneva, Switzerland and purpose was to attempt to find a way to settle issues in the Korean peninsula and discuss the restoring peace in Indochina. The Soviet Union, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and the People’s Republic of China were participants in the conference. -
The Warsaw Pact, 1955
The treaty was signed in Warsaw, Poland. It included the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria. The treaty called on the states to come to the defense of any member attacked by an outside force. It also set up a unified military command under Marshal Ivan S. Konev of the Soviet Union. -
The Invasion of Hungary, 1956
Soviet tanks came into Budapest to crush the national uprising in Hungary. Street fighting broke out, but the Hungarian people were no match for the Soviets as they were viciously crushed by Soviet tanks and troops. -
U2 Incident, 1960
A United States U-2 spy plane was shot down while in Soviet airspace. The aircraft, flown by CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers and was performing photographic aerial reconnaissance when it was hit by an S-75 Dvina surface-to-air missile and crashed near Sverdlovsk. -
Bay of Pigs invasion, 1961
A failed military invasion of Cuba undertaken by the CIA sponsored paramilitary group Brigade 2506 on 17 April 1961. A counter-revolutionary military trained and funded by the United States government's CIA. Brigade 2506 fronted the armed wing of the Democratic Revolutionary Front and wanted to overthrow the communist government of Fidel Castro. -
The Berlin Wall, 1961
The Communist government of the German Democratic Republic built a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” between East and West Berlin. The purpose of the Berlin Wall was to keep fascists from entering East Germany. -
Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
The U.S. and the Soviet Union engaged in a tense, 13 day political and military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles from U.S. shores. -
Assassination of Diem, 1963
The arrest and assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem, the president of South Vietnam, marked the culmination of a successful CIA-backed operation led by General Duong Van Minh in November 1963. Diem and his adviser, his younger brother Ngo Dinh Nhu, were arrested after the Army of the Republic of Vietnamhad been successful in an overnight siege on Gia Long Palace in Saigon. -
Assassination of JFK, 1963
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. He was shot twice, and an hour after his death Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the crime. -
Tonkin Gulf Resolution, 1964
On August 4, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson announced that two days earlier, U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin had been attacked by the North Vietnamese. Johnson dispatched U.S. planes against the attackers and asked Congress to pass a resolution to support his actions. -
Operation Rolling Thunder, 1965
During the Vietnam War, as part of the strategic bombing campaign known as Operation Rolling Thunder, U.S. military aircraft attacked targets throughout North Vietnam. This was intended to put military pressure on North Vietnam’s Communist leaders and reduce their capacity to wage war against the U.S. -
Tet Offensive, 1968
70,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launched the Tet Offensive, a coordinated series of fierce attacks on more than 100 cities and towns in South Vietnam. General Vo Nguyen Giap, leader of the Communist People’s Army of Vietnam, planned the offensive in an attempt to foment rebellion among the South Vietnamese population. -
Assassination of MLK, 1968
U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. His assassination led to a national mourning that helped speed the way for an equal housing bill that would be the last significant legislative achievement of the civil rights era. -
Assassination of RFK, 1968
The assassination of Robert Kennedy, a United States Senator and brother of President John F. Kennedy, took place shortly after midnight in Los Angeles, California, during the campaign season for the 1968 presidential election. -
The Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968
The Soviet Union led Warsaw Pact troops in an invasion of Czechoslovakia to stop reformist trends in Prague. Although the Soviet Union’s actions stopped the reform in Czechoslovakia, it had many unknown consequences for the unity of the communists. -
Riots of Democratic convention, 1968
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters battled police in the streets, while the Democratic Party fell apart over an internal disagreement concerning its stance on Vietnam. -
Election of Nixon, 1968
The Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon, won the election over the Democratic nominee, incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey. This was the 46th quadrennial presidential election. -
Kent State, 1970
At Kent State University in Ohio, protesters launched a demonstration that included setting fire to the ROTC building, prompting the governor of Ohio to dispatch 900 National Guardsmen to the campus. -
Nixon visits China, 1972
U.S. President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China was an important step in normalizing relations between the United States and China. It marked the first time a U.S. president had visited the PRC. -
Ceasefire in Vietnam, 1973
When the cease-fire went into effect, Saigon controlled about 75% of South Vietnam’s territory and 85% of the population. The South Vietnamese Army was well equipped and continued to receive U.S. aid even after the cease-fire. -
Fall of Saigon, 1975
This was the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, by the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. The event marked the end of the Vietnam War and the start of a transition period to the formal reunification of Vietnam under the Socialist Republic. -
Reagan elected, 1981
Ronald Reagan was sworn into office on January 20, 1981. His running mate was George H.W. Bush. -
SDI announced, 1983
In a televised address to the nation, President Reagan announced his vision of the world being safe from nuclear threats. His Strategic Defense Initiative was later nicknamed Star Wars by the press. -
Geneva Conference with Gorbachev, 1985
Meeting in Geneva, President Ronald Reagan and the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev produced no significant agreements, but the meeting boded well for the future, as they engaged in personal talks and seemed to develop a close relationship. -
‘Tear down this wall’ speech, 1987
This is a speech made by President Ronald Reagan in West Berlin calling for the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to open up the barrier, take down the Berlin Wall, which had divided West and East Berlin since 1961. -
Fall of Berlin Wall, 1989
The spokesman for East Berlin’s Communist Party announced a change in his city’s relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country’s borders.
