American flag wall art 1

Superpower Presidential Timeline

By Mitchell H

  • Stalin 1924 – 1953

    Stalin 1924 – 1953
    1901- Joined Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.
    1905- Met Vladmir Lenin. (leader of the communist revolution in U.S.S.R.)
    1912- Named by Lenin to Bolshevik Party Central Committee.
    1917- Named Commissar of Nationalities after Bolshervik.
    1922- Appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party.
    1928- Began Five Year Plans to bring U.S.S.R into the industrialize age.
    1929- Became dictator of U.S.S.R. after the death of Lenin.

  • Truman 1945 – 1953

    Truman 1945 – 1953
    • Involved in the Berlin Blockade; the Soviet Union and the US went to war.
    • Declared the Cold War.
    • Around when NATO occured; response to the Soviet threat and Iron Curtain.
    • Invented the Marshall Plan.
    • Came up with the Truman Doctrine.
    • Soviet sphere of influence; Hungary occured.
    • Korean War occured; North Korean invades South Korea; Comunist vs. Non-communist.
  • Period: to

    1945 (the end of WWII) to 1991 (dissolution of the USSR)

  • Eisenhower 1953 – 1961

    Eisenhower 1953 – 1961
    • SEATO was signed the following year in 1954; tried to prevent communism from gaining ground in the region.
    • Veitnam War started in 1959 -- April 30; struggle between nationalist forces attempting to unify the country.
    • U-2 incident occured; American spy plane shot down and causes an uproar.

  • Khrushchev 1953 – 1964

    Khrushchev 1953 – 1964
    • Around when the Warsaw Pact took place; military alliance of communist nations in eastern Europe; signed on 14 May 1955; great effect as a military deterrent on any of the European nations seeking war against other nations.
    • Soviet sphere of influence; Poland occured.

  • Kennedy 1961 – 1963

    Kennedy 1961 – 1963
    • Served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate before becoming the 35th president.
    • On November 21, 1963, he was assassinated after he had flew to Dallas, Texas for a campaign appearance.
    • Cuban Missile Crisis occured; military standoff in October 1962 over the installation of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on Cuba

  • Lyndon B. Johnson 1963 – 1969

    Lyndon B. Johnson 1963 – 1969
    • Johnson addresses a joint session of Congress calling on legislators to fulfill Kennedy's legacy and pass civil rights and tax legislation.
    • Signs The Civil Rights Act of 1964 to stop segregation in public places as well as discrimination by businesses and labor unions.

  • Brezhnev 1964 – 1982

    Brezhnev 1964 – 1982
    • Soviet involvement in Afghanistan took place; assisted the growth of communism in Afghanistan.
    • Prague Spring took place; the government of Czechoslovakia led by Alexander Dubček seemingly wanted to democratise the nation's affairs.
    • Brezhnev Doctrine took place; limited independence of the satellite states' communist parties. No country was allowed to compromise the cohesiveness of the Eastern bloc in any way.

  • Richard Nixon 1969 – 1974

    Richard Nixon 1969 – 1974
    • Established the “Philadelphia Plan” in 1969 to increase hiring of minority owned contractors on big Federal projects.
    • Signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Soviet General Secretary Brezhnev, 1972, in Moscow; this limited the use of ballistic missles.
    • Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty occured; prevented the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology.
    • SALT II occured; two rounds of bilateral talks about treaties about the US+SU
    • Helsinki Accords took place.
    • SALT I occured

  • Gerald Ford 1974 – 1977

    Gerald Ford 1974 – 1977
    Grants Nixon an unconditional pardon (1974)
    Campaign Reform Law (1974)
    Communist victory in Southeast Asia (1975-76)
    Helsinki Agreement (1975)

  • Jimmy Carter 1977-1981

    Jimmy Carter 1977-1981
    • Vietnam War era draft evaders pardoned (1977)
    • Panama Canal Treaty (1977)
    • Camp David Accords (1978)
    • US officially recognizes People's Republic of China (1979)
    • Three Mile Island incident (1979)
    • Iran Hostage Crisis (1979-81)

  • Ronald Reagan 1981 – 1989

    Ronald Reagan 1981 – 1989
    • Glasnost and perestroika led to the fall of communism.
    • Sandra Day O'Connor named first woman Supreme Court justice (1981)
    • Attempted assassination (1981)
    • Granada invasion (1983)
    • Iran-Contra Scandal (1985-89)
    • Glasnost with the Soviet Union (1985-1991)
    • Stark incident in Gulf War (1987)

  • Yuri Andropov 1982 – 1984

    Yuri Andropov 1982 – 1984
    • He joined the Communist Party (1939)
    • Promoted to Central Committee secretary in 1962
    • He was promoted to the rank of full Politburo member in 1971.
    • Played the dominant role in the decision to invade Afghanistan in 1979.
    • As the head of the KGB, Andropov led active efforts against dissidents at home and enhanced the KGB collection efforts abroad.

  • Konstantin Chernenko 1984 – 1985

    Konstantin Chernenko 1984 – 1985
    • Joined Komsomol in 1926.
    • Joined Communist Party in 1931.
    • Became a candidate member of the Central Committee in 1966 and a full member in 1971.
    • He joined the Politburo in October 1977, becoming a full member in November 1978.

  • Gorbachev 1985 – 1991

    Gorbachev 1985 – 1991
    • Joins the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and works in various positions in the party for the next two decades in 1952
    • Becomes the first secretary of the Communist Party of the Stavropol Komsomol City Committee in 1955-1958.
    • Becomes chief of the Agriculture Department in the Stavropol region in 1963
    • Named the first secretary for the Communist Party in the Stavropol region in 1970-1978
    • Deputy of the Supreme Soviet, the highest legislative body in the Soviet Union in 1970-1990

  • George HW Bush 1989 – 1993

    George HW Bush 1989 – 1993
    • Fall of the Berlin Wall occured.
    • fall of communism in Hungary occured.
    • Fall of communism in Czechoslovakia occured.
    • Fall of communism in Romania