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communism & capitalism were incompatible
"Sinews of Peace" Iron Curtain Speech by Winston Churchill - "an "iron curtain" has descended on Europe" -
Containment
Truman Doctrine - Truman declares active role in Greek Civil War -
Truman approved H-bomb development
U.S. President Harry S. Truman publicly announces his decision to support the development of the hydrogen bomb, a weapon theorized to be hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. -
Federal Civil Defense Administration established
The Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) was organized by President Harry S. Truman on 1 December 1950 through Executive Order 10186,[1] and became an official government agency via the Federal Civil Defense Act of 1950 on 12 January 1951.[2] In 1958 the FCDA was superseded by the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization when President Dwight D. Eisenhower merged the FCDA with the Office of Defense Mobilization. -
A-bombs developed by Britain
During World War II, 50 British scientists and engineers worked on the successful U.S. atomic bomb program at Los Alamos, New Mexico. After the war, many of these scientists were enlisted into the secret effort to build an atomic bomb for Britain -
Korean War ends
The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, when communist North Korea invaded South Korea. Almost immediately, the United States secured a resolution from the United Nations calling for the military defense of South Korea against the North Korean aggression. In a matter of days, U.S. land, air, and sea forces had joined the battle. The U.S. intervention turned the tide of the war, and soon the U.S. and South Korean forces were pushing into North Korea and toward that nation’s border with China. -
USSR sent tanks into Poznan, Poland, to suppress demonstrations by workers
The Poznań 1956 protests, also known as the Poznań 1956 uprising or Poznań June (Polish: Poznański Czerwiec), were the first of several massive protests against the totalitarian government of the People's Republic of Poland. Demonstrations by workers demanding better conditions began on June 28, 1956 at Poznań's Cegielski Factories and were met with violent repression -
Vostok rocket launched 1st ICBM
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Explorer I launched
Explorer 1 was the first satellite launched by the United States when it was sent into space on January 31, 1958. Following the launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency was directed to launch a satellite using its Jupiter C rocket developed under the direction of Dr. Wernher von Braun. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory received the assignment to design, build and operate the artificial satellite that would serve as the rocket's payload. JPL co -
Cuba taken over by Fidel Castro
Cuban leader Fidel Castro (1926-) established the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere after leading an overthrow of the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. He ruled over Cuba for nearly five decades, until handing off power to his younger brother Raúl in 2008. During that time, Castro’s regime was successful in reducing illiteracy, stamping out racism and improving public health care, but was widely criticized for stifling economic and political freedoms. Castro’s Cub -
Cuba openly aligns itself with the Soviet Union and their policies
For 13 days in October of 1962, the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war: Cuba and the Soviet Union were locked in a standoff with the U.S. at the height of the Cold War. Here's a look at key events leading up to the Cuban missile crisis and what unfolded. -
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified
The Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT) is a treaty prohibiting all test detonations of nuclear weapons except underground. It was developed both to slow the arms race (nuclear testing was, at the time, necessary for continued developments in nuclear weapons), and to stop the excessive release of nuclear fallout into the planet's atmosphere. The Treaty was signed and ratified by the governments of the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States during the autumn of 1963. -
Apollo 11 lands on the moon
Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong working at an equipment storage area on the lunar module. This is one of the few photos that show Armstrong during the moonwalk -
President Richard Nixon visits China
ccurring from February 21 to 28, 1972, the visit allowed the American public to view images of China for the first time in over two decades. Throughout the week the President and his most senior advisers engaged in substantive discussions with the PRC, including a meeting with Chairman Mao Zedong, while First Lady Pat Nixon toured schools, factories and hospitals in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou with the large American press corps in tow. Nixon dubbed the visit "the week that chan -
North Vietnam defeats South Vietnam which falls to Communist forces
This situation emboldened the North Vietnamese, who launched a new campaign in March 1975. The South Vietnamese forces fell back in total disarray, and once again, the United States did nothing. The South Vietnamese abandoned Pleiku and Kontum in the Highlands with very little fighting. Then Quang Tri, Hue, and Da Nang fell to the communist onslaught. The North Vietnamese continued to attack south along the coast toward Saigon, defeating the South Vietnamese forces at each encounter. -
SALT II signed
In June 1979, Carter and Brezhnev met in Vienna and signed the SALT-II agreement. The treaty basically established numerical equality between the two nations in terms of nuclear weapons delivery systems. It also limited the number of MIRV missiles (missiles with multiple, independent nuclear warheads). In truth, the treaty did little or nothing to stop, or even substantially slow down, the arms race. Nevertheless, it met with unrelenting criticism in the United States. The treaty was denounced a -
President Reagan and Gorbachev resolve to remove all intermediate nuclear missiles from Europe
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) is a 1987 agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union. Signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev on 8 December 1987, it was ratified by the United States Senate on 27 May 1988 and came into force on 1 June of that year. The treaty is formally titled The Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermedi -
Reagan and Gorbachev agree to remove all medium and short-range nuclear missiles
on 27 May 1988 and came into force on 1 June of that year. The treaty is formally titled The Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles. -
Boris Yeltsin elected as President of Russia
Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet. On 12 June 1991 he was elected by popular vote to the newly created post of President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), at that time one of the 15 constituent republics of the Soviet Union. Upon the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev and the final disso -
End of Soviet Union and the Cold War Ends
In 1991, he proposed a Union Treaty, giving greater autonomy to the Soviet republics, while keeping them under central control.
