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Period: to
January 1, 1947 - December 31, 1966
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Truman Doctrine
The principle that the US should give support to countries or peoples threatened by Soviet forces or Communist insurrection. First expressed in 1947 by US President Truman in a speech to Congress seeking aid for Greece and Turkey, the doctrine was seen by the Communists as an open declaration of the Cold War. -
Marshall Plan
This was a program of economic aid offered by the United States to any European country. The plan was rejected outright by Stalin and any Eastern Bloc country considering accepting aid was reprimanded severely. Consequently the aid was only given to Western European Countries. -
The Rio Pact
The Rio Pact was a treaty signed by the U.S. and 19 other countries in Central and South America. This pact was created in order to protect other countries in the Americas. An attack on one of these countries would be considered an attack on all of them. -
Communist Takeover in Czechoslovakia
With assistance and backing from the Soviet Union, the communist party in Czechoslovakia was able to seize total control of the country's government in February 1948. Then, in May, the communist party manipulated the subsequent elections. -
The Brussels Treaty
In order to defend western European nations from communism, Britain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands joined the Brussels Treaty, which established a broad defensive alliance. As a result, NATO and the Western European Union were eventually founded. -
Soviet Union Blockades West Berlin
The Soviet Union made the decision to blockade West Berlin's entrance points in an effort to take control of the entire city. The US replied by sending 2.3 million tons of supplies for West Berlin via the Berlin Airlift. -
NATO is formed
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, was established to defend numerous European nations against the Soviet Union and other potential invaders. Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States were among the founding members. -
Berlin Blockade Ends
The Soviets dropped the blockade on land access from West Berlin after discovering that the Berlin Blockade had been rendered meaningless because the west had been able to get around it by flying the supplies in. -
The Soviet Union Tests It's First Atomic Bomb
In August of 1949, the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb, which was known in the west as Joe-1. The bomb was tested at Semipalatinsk Test Site, in Kazakhstan. -
Truman Approves H-Bomb Development
After the Soviet Union successfully tested its own atomic bomb, Truman wanted to reinstate U.S. superiority. He approved the development of a new H-Bomb (Hydrogen Bomb) which was theorized to be over a hundred times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. -
Joe McCarthy begins Communist Witch Hunt
During a time period in the U.S, known as the Red Scare, many were afraid of communism spreading throughout the country. Joe McCarthy, or McCarthyism, were set on catching communists and putting them on trial for working for the Soviets. Dozens were put on trial for treason, including some higher-up officials. -
Korean War Begins
In June of 1950, with aid and support from The Soviet Union, North Korea (Northern Korean People's Army) invaded South Korea over the 38th parallel, hoping to conquer the South and reunited Korea under the North Korean regime. This prompted the United States and the UN to get involved and send aid to the south. -
Federal Civil Defense Administration is Formed
The Federal Civil Defense Act (FCDA) was created in order to administer the national civil defense program and to coordinate military, industrial, and civilian mobilization, in case of a surprise attack on military buildup. -
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Found Guilty
During the red scare, and the communist witch hunt, Julius and Ethel Rosenburg were put on trial for selling U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union. After a long time of debate and sharing evidence, the two were eventually found guilty and sentenced to death. -
Truman Fires MacArthur
General Douglas MacArthur led troops in the pacific during WWII and the eventual surrender of Japan, but after the start of the Korean War, Truman chose MacArthur to lead the U.S. troops in South Korea. During this time, MacArthur made a lot of controversial moves, for example; after pushing back the North Koreans, he kept pushing over the 38th parallel and suggested bombing China and North Korea to cut off North Korean aid. Truman realized MacArthur downplaying the threat of war in Asia. -
Fulgencio Batista overthrows the Cuban government
The 1952 Cuban coup d'état took place in Cuba on March 10, 1952, when the Cuban Constitutional Army, led by Fulgencio Batista, intervened in the election that was scheduled to be held on June 1, staging a coup d'état and establishing a de facto military dictatorship in the country. -
Britain Accquires It's Own Atomic Bomb
After the United States and the Soviet Union, Britain became the third country in the world to test nuclear weapons. The first British test, code-named 'Hurricane', was conducted at the Montebello Islands in Western Australia. -
The U.S. tests Thermonuclear Weapons
The world's first thermonuclear weapon test, code-named Mike, was carried out by the United States at Enewetak atoll in the Marshall Islands, on November 1, 1952. Thermonuclear weapons, or hydrogen bombs, use the energy of a primary fission explosion to ignite a hydrogen fusion reaction. -
Joseph Stalin Dies
After Stalin passed away, doctors began their examination to figure out how he died. Due to Stalin's reign of terror, many of his best doctors were either arrested or too afraid to treat the dying dictator. After examination, they concluded that Stalin, who had a known history of uncontrolled hypertension, had sustained a hemorrhagic stroke involving the left middle cerebral artery -
Fidel Castro leads an attempt to overthrow Fulgencio Batista in Cuba
The revolution began in July 1953 and continued sporadically until the rebels finally ousted Batista on 31 December 1958, replacing his government. 26 July 1953 is celebrated in Cuba as Día de la Revolución; in Spanish: "Day of the Revolution." -
Korean War Ends
American officials worked anxiously to fashion some sort of armistice with the North Koreans. The alternative, they feared, would be a wider war with Russia and China–or even, as some warned, World War III. Finally, in July 1953, the Korean War came to an end. In all, some 5 million soldiers and civilians lost their lives during the conflict. -
The United States Tests a Hydrogen Bomb in The Marshall Islands
On March 1, 1954, the United States tested an H-bomb design on Bikini Atoll that unexpectedly turned out to be the largest U.S. nuclear test ever exploded. They thought it would yield the equivalent of 5 million tons of TNT, but, in fact, "Bravo" yielded 15 megatons; making it more than a thousand times bigger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. -
Vietnam is Split
The Geneva Accords were signed in July of 1954 and split Vietnam at the 17th parallel. North Vietnam would be ruled by Ho Chi Minh's communist government and South Vietnam would be led by emperor Bao Dai. -
The Senate Votes To Censure Joseph McCarthy.
On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to censure Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had led the fight in Congress to root out suspected Communists from the Federal Government. The censure described his behavior as "contrary to senatorial traditions." He continued to speak against communism and socialism until his death at the age of 48 at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, on May 2, 1957. -
Warsaw Pact is Formed
The Warsaw Pact or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republics of Central and Eastern Europe in May 1955, during the Cold War. This was in retaliation to the west forming NATO. -
China Agrees To Give Aid to North Vietnam
China and the Soviet Union provided massive military and economic aid to North Vietnam, which enabled North Vietnam to fight first the French and then the Americans. Chinese aid to North Vietnam between 1950 and 1970 is estimated at $20 billion. As the world's largest communist powers, both the Soviet Union and China gave moral, logistic, and military support to North Vietnam. They hoped to build and expand communism in Asia. -
Ngo Dinh Diem Replaces Bo Dai as Leader of South Vietnam
Ngo Dinh Diem, prime minister under Bao Dai since July 1954, is elected president of South Vietnam. He displaces Bao Dai and wins with 98 percent of the vote. Observers, and later historians, note that the election is rigged, though many concede that Diem would likely have won regardless. -
Khrushchev Denounces Stalin
When Khrushchev made his “secret speech,” he shocked the gathered representatives at the Party Congress. Over the course of his address, he condemned the brutality of the Stalinist regime, particularly the purges that led to the torture and execution of some wholly innocent party loyalists. He began a program called "Destalinization" in which he ordered from any statue, painting, and anything relating to Stalin be removed. -
Soviet Union Puts Down Peaceful Protest in Hungary
The Hungarian Revolution began on 23 October 1956 in Budapest when university students appealed to the civil populace to join them at the Hungarian Parliament Building to protest against the USSR's geopolitical domination of Hungary by the Stalinist government. Hungary is then viciously crushed by Soviet tanks and troops on November 4, 1956. Thousands were killed and wounded and nearly a quarter-million Hungarians fled the country. -
Castro lands in Cuba
Accompanied by a band of 81 men on board the yacht Granma, Castro landed in eastern Cuba on December 2, 1956, but most of the force was quickly killed or captured. -
Zhou Enlai, Prime Minister of China, Visits The Soviet Union
When the prime minister of China visited the Soviet Union, it was terrifying news for the west, because this new alliance could lead to an even bigger spread of communism in Asia. -
President Eisenhower Resumes Aid to Israel
Following the Suez Crisis in 1956, The U.S. had temporarily stopped providing aid to Israel to go and assist in the Suez Canal Crisis, which many other nations in the United Nations had got involved in, such as Britain, France, etc. -
Britain Tests It's First Hydrogen Bomb Test over Christmas Island
Operation Grapple was a set of four series of British nuclear weapons tests of early atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs carried out in 1957 at Christmas Island in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands in the Pacific Ocean (modern Kiribati) as part of the British hydrogen bomb program -
Explorer 1 Launched
Explorer 1 became the first successfully launched satellite by the United States when it was sent to space on January 31, 1958. A quick response to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik 1, Explorer 1's success marked the beginning of the U.S. Space Age. -
Nikita Khrushchev meets Mao Zedong in China and calls for an end of all nuclear testing
After Krushchev had an argument with a Chinese general, it came out in a paper that stated; A vivid account of the day Nikita Khrushchev warned a Chinese general not to spit at him and Mao Zedong called Soviet leaders "timeservers" has been published for the first time. With all this tension, Krushchev demanded an end to nuclear testing to avoid mass destruction. -
The Soviet Union demands that all foreign troops be withdrawn from Berlin
On November 10, 1958, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev delivered a speech in which he demanded that the Western powers of the United States, Great Britain, and France pull their forces out of West Berlin within six months; threatening action if the west refused. -
Fidel Castro and his victorious troops enter Havana
When the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista fled Havana in the early hours of, 1 January 1959, Fidel Castro was 550 miles away, at the opposite end of the island. Although, Castro didn't know this, so when he and his troops marched into Havana, he wasn't met with much resistance and Castro was able to take power. -
Khrushchev Visits The United States
The state visit of Nikita Khrushchev to the United States was a 13-day visit from 15–27 September 1959. It marked the first state visit of a Soviet leader to the US. During his tour, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev toured the IBM factory in San Jose, California. While visiting, the innovation Khrushchev was most fascinated by was not the computers, but rather the company's cafeteria. -
Member states vote again against the admission of China to the United Nations
On the 22nd of September, 1959, the UN held another vote to decide whether or not The People's Republic of China would be admitted to the United Nations. The vote came back as a majority no for China's entry. -
NATO introduces a unified air defense command
The NATO Integrated Air Defense System (short: NATINADS) is a command and control network combining radars and other facilities spread throughout the NATO alliance's air defense forces. -
John F. Kennedy is Elected President
In the 1960 election, John F. Kennedy, of the democratic party, defeated a previous vice president under Eisenhower, Richard Nixon in a very close ballot count. John F. Kennedy had become the 35th President of The United States. -
National Liberation Army (Vietcong) is established in Vietnam
North Vietnam established the National Liberation Front on December 20, 1960, at Tân Lập village in Tây Ninh Province to foment insurgency in the South. Many of the Viet Cong's core members were volunteer "regroupees", southern Viet Minh who had resettled in the North after the Geneva Accord (1954). -
The Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba
The Bay of Pigs invasion was an invasion of Cuba in April 1961 by 1,500 Cuban exiles opposed to Fidel Castro. The invasion was financed and directed by the U.S. government. It derives its name from the location of the invasion, the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs), also known to Cubans as the Playa Girón (Girón Beach), on Cuba's southwestern coast. The invasion ended up being a catastrophe for the U.S, with many of the exiles being captured. -
Khrushchev and Kennedy Hold Summit Meeting in Vienna.
Nikita Krushchev and John F. Kennedy met up in Vienna to talk about current issues in the world. One of the main ones was the topic of Berlin. Khrushchev wanted the US to sign a peace treaty and remove its troops from West Berlin, but Kennedy refused. -
United States Promises to Support South Vietnam Against Communist Aggression
The USA was afraid that communism would spread to South Vietnam and then the rest of Asia. It decided to send money, supplies, and military advisers to help the South Vietnamese Government. The U.S' biggest fear was the domino effect, where if South Vietnam fell, would Laos, Cambodia, and other countries in South Asia fall to communism. -
John F. Kennedy Orders An End To All Trade with Cuba
On February 7, 1962, President John F. Kennedy issues an executive order broadening the United States' restrictions on trade with Cuba. The ensuing embargo, which effectively restricts all trade between Cuba and the United States, has had profoundly negative effects on the island nation's economy. -
Soviet Union Agrees to Send Arms to Cuba
After the failed U.S. attempt to overthrow the Castro regime in Cuba with the Bay of Pigs invasion, and while the Kennedy administration planned Operation Mongoose, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev reached a secret agreement with Cuban premier Fidel Castro to place Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter any future invasion attempt. -
John F. Kennedy Announces That The Cuban Missile Crisis is Over
After a secret agreement was made between Kennedy and Krushchev to try and ease tensions between the two; In November, Kennedy called off the blockade of Cuba from Soviet Ships, and by the end of the year, all the offensive missiles had left Cuba. Soon after, the United States quietly removed its missiles from Turkey. -
Khrushchev and Kennedy Establish a Hot Line
The Hot Line was a way of direct communication between Krushchev and Kennedy and was used so both sides could talk and try and resolve any conflict or crisis happening at the time, all in order to keep tensions as low as possible to avoid any nuclear action. -
Kennedy Visits West Berlin
The US President, John F Kennedy, made a ground-breaking speech in Berlin offering American solidarity to the citizens of West Germany. A crowd of 120,000 Berliners gathered in front of the Schöneberg Rathaus (City Hall) to hear President Kennedy speak. He also went there to challenge Soviet oppression and offer hope to the people of the divided city. -
John F. Kennedy is Assassinated
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States of America is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. -
Gulf of Ton-kin Incident
The Gulf of Tonkin Incident occurred in August 1964. North Vietnamese warships purportedly attacked United States warships, the U.S.S. Maddox and the U.S.S. C. Turner Joy, on two separate occasions in the Gulf of Tonkin, a body of water neighboring modern-day Vietnam. -
China Tests It's First Atomic Bomb
The People's Republic of China conducted its first nuclear test, making it the fifth nuclear-armed state after the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and France. China had initiated its nuclear weapons program in the mid-1950s, after the Korean war. -
Zhou Enlai Visits The Soviet Union
Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China serving from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman Mao Zedong and helped the Communist Party rise to power. In November of 1964, Enlai visited the Soviet Union to try and improve relations between The Soviet Union and China. -
Australia Decides To Send Troops To South Vietnam
Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced in parliament that Australia would send a battalion of combat troops to Vietnam. The decision was motivated by a desire to strengthen strategic relations with the United States and halt the spread of communism in South-East Asia. -
The Soviet Union Admits to Supplying North Vietnam
In September of 1965, The Soviet Union admitted to providing aid to North Vietnam. The Soviet Union supplied North Vietnam through its ally China; The Soviet Union was also North Vietnam's biggest supplier. They supplied their communist allies with food, petroleum, transport vehicles, iron, steel, fertilizer, arms, and ammunition. -
Ho Chi Minh Rejects Peace Talks Offered by Lyndon B. Johnson
As tensions in Vietnam started to become higher, Johnson wanted to try and ease tensions with the North. After offering peace talks to Ho Chi Minh, leader of North Vietnam, Minh denied the offer for peace talks, not wanting to make any deals with the U.S. Minh wanted to reunite Vietnam under a communist regime, so he didn't want to make any deals or peace. -
Charles De Gaulle Calls For United States Forces To Leave Vietnam
French president Charles de Gaulle urges the United States to get out of Vietnam. In a speech before 100,000 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, President Charles de Gaulle of France denounces U.S. policy in Vietnam and urges the U.S. government to pull its troops out of Southeast Asia. -
France Withdraws It's Troops From NATO
In 1966, France decided to withdraw from the Alliance's integrated military command. This doesn't mean that France withdrew from NATO entirely, they were still willing to uphold their commitment to defending other NATO members. As General de Gaulle put it, the aim was to change the form of our Alliance without changing its substance. -
United States Air Raid on Hanoi Kills Over 100 North Vietnamese Civilians
In 1965, The U.S. began an operation called Operation Rolling Thunder, in which the U.S. would carry out bombing raids on North Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, U.S. aircraft bomb the major North Vietnamese population centers of Hanoi and Haiphong for the first time, destroying oil depots located near the two cities.