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Germany surrenders
Germany is defeated. UN is created. The great powers divide Germany, Austria and Vienna between themselves. -
End of WW2
Japan surrenders after nuclear attacks and invasion by Americans and Soviets. WW2 finally ends. -
The Marshall Plan
Designed by the United States to speed economical recovery in Europe and prevent the rise of Communist parties. CIA is created in the US. -
The Truman Doctrine
Truman declares that the United States will intervene in political affairs to stem the tide of Communism. -
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The Cold War
Czechoslovakia taken into the Eastern block due to Soviet backed coup. Allies form military alliance to defend against Soviet attacks and introduce a new currency in their parts of Germany. Stalin responds by imposing a blockade in west Berlin. Allies respond with an airlift. -
Alliances
Western European countries form military alliance with the US and Canada to form NATO. -
Soviets succesfully test their first atomic weapon
At a remote test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, the USSR successfully detonates its first atomic bomb, code name “ First Lightning.” In order to measure the effects of the blast, the Soviet scientists constructed buildings, bridges, and other civilian structures in the vicinity of the bomb. -
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Korean War
Communist China allies with the Soviets. War erupts between north and south Korea, backed by China and the US respectively. US push for the rearmament of the Republic of Germany in case of Soviet attack. -
Intervensionism
New US president Eisenhower advocates for instalation of atomic weapons in western Europe to dissuade Communists. Stalin dies leading to a period of unrest in the USSR. CIA organizes a coup in Iran to overthrow the prime minister so that the country takes a pro western approach. -
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Vietnam War
A protracted conflict that pitted the communist government of North Vietnam and its allies in South Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong, against the government of South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States. -
MAD
Both the US and the USSR have developed a large nuclear armament. Incentive for war decreases as it would bring mutual assured destruction. -
The Suez Crisis
Egypt nationalizes the Suez canal. France, Britain and Israel launch an offensive to take it back. USSR threatens with nuclear weapons, forcing the attack to be called off. End of colonial domination by United Kingdom and France. -
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The Sino-Soviet Split
It was a rift in relations between the world's two largest communist states, which almost led war in the late 1960. This was primarily caused by doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Leninism. -
Sputnik 1
It shocked many Americans, who had assumed that their country was technologically ahead of the Soviet Union, and led to the “space race” between the two countries. -
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Great Leap Forward
The campaign undertaken by the Chinese communists to organize its vast population, especially in large-scale rural communes, to meet China’s industrial and agricultural problems. -
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The Berlin Crisis
It was the last major European political and military incident of the Cold War concerning the status of the German capital city and of post–World War II Germany.
President John F. Kennedy met with Khrushchev in Vienna to address the ongoing issue of Berlin, but they found no solution to this problem.
It culminated in the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961. -
First Man in Space
Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut, became the first man to travel into space on April 12, 196112345. His spacecraft, Vostok 1, orbited Earth once in 1 hour 29 minutes, bringing him immediate worldwide fame -
Tsar Bomb
It was the Soviet thermonuclear bomb that was detonated in a test over Novaya Zemlya island in the Arctic Ocean on October 30, 1961. The largest nuclear weapon ever set off, it produced the most powerful human-made explosion ever recorded. -
The USSR makes friends with Cuba
After the establishment of diplomatic ties with the Soviet Union after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, Cuba became increasingly dependent on Soviet markets and military aid and was an ally of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. -
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The US supports General Suharto
In Indonesia, Suharto, a powerful Indonesian military leader, accused the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) of organizing a brutal coup attempt, following the kidnapping and murder of six high-ranking army officers. Over the months that followed, he oversaw the systematic extermination of up to a million Indonesians for affiliation with the party, or simply for being accused of harboring leftist sympathies. He then took power and ruled as dictator, with U.S. support, until 1998. -
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Détente (agreements)
Period of the easing of Cold War tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
It was a time of increased trade and cooperation with the Soviet Union and the signing of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) treaties. Nuclear testing was also limited. -
Moon Landing
Neil Armstrong was an American astronaut and the first person to set foot on the Moon. -
Fall of Berlin Wall
It was one of the series of events that started the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. -
End of the USSR and the Cold War
The Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991, giving rise to 15 newly independent nations, including a Russia with an anticommunist leader.