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Timeline (U4)

Modern History (Year 12) - Overview of Cold War

Ben Whitten

Origins and Beginnings of the Cold War

1943

  • Tehran Conference

1945

  • Yalta Conference

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt dies and is replaced by Harry Truman as US President

  • Germany surrenders in WWII

  • Potsdam Conference

  • US drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima (6 August) and Nagasaki (9 August)

  • Formation of the United Nations

1946

  • Long and Novikov Telegrams

  • Winston Churchill coins the phrase 'Iron Curtain'

1947

  • Truman’s 'Containment' speech begins the Truman Doctrine

  • The Marshall Plan is implemented

  • Cominform is set up

1948

  • UK, France and USA unite their zones of control in Germany

    • Both Germany and Berlin are now divided in two: East vs. West

  • The Berlin Blockade begins, quickly followed by the start of the Berlin Airlift

  • The term 'Cold War' is used for the first time to describe the tension between East and West

1949

  • The Berlin Blockade and Airlift ends

  • Comecon is set up

  • NATO is established

  • The Soviet Union completes its first successful test of an atomic bomb, beginning the nuclear arms race

  • Mao Zedong declares the People’s Republic of China as a communist state

Development and Crises of the Cold War

1950

  • The Korean War begins

1953

  • Dwight D. Eisenhower takes over from Truman as US President

  • The Korean War ends

  • Joseph Stalin dies and is replaced by Nikita Khrushchev as Soviet leader

  • Khrushchev begins talks of 'peaceful co-existence' with the West

1955

  • The Warsaw Pact is established

1956

  • Polish and Hungarian uprisings

1959

  • Cuba becomes communist under Fidel Castro

1960

  • The U2 Spy Incident causes Khrushchev to walk out of the Paris Peace Conference

1961

  • John F. Kennedy takes over from Eisenhower as US President

  • The Bay of Pigs Invasion fails in Cuba

  • The construction of the Berlin Wall

1962

  • The Cuban Missile Crisis

1963

  • The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is signed between the US, USSR and UK

  • US President John F Kennedy is assassinated and replaced by Lyndon B. Johnson

1964

  • The Vietnam War begins

  • Khrushchev is replaced by Leonid Brezhnev as Soviet leader

1968

  • The Prague Spring happens

  • The Brezhnev Doctrine is introduced, justifying the subsequent Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia

1969

  • Richard Nixon takes over from Johnson as US President

Easing of Tension and Détente

1972

  • The Basic Treaty is signed to establish diplomatic relations between East and West Germany

  • President Nixon visits China and Russia

  • SALT I agreement is signed

1973

  • America withdraws from Vietnam

  • Conflict flares up between the superpowers in the Middle East during the Yom Kippur War

1974

  • Nixon resigns after the Watergate scandal and is replaced by Gerald Ford as US President

  • The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty is signed between the USA and USSR

1975

  • Vietnam is united under Ho Chi Minh's communist regime

  • The superpowers become involved in Angola

1976

  • Jimmy Carter takes over from Ford as US President

1979

  • SALT II is signed

  • The USA becomes involved in Nicaragua

  • The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan marks the end of détente

Renewal and End of the Cold War

1980

  • Ronald Reagan replaces Carter as US President

1983

  • Reagan announces the development of the Strategic Defence Initiative (also known as 'Star Wars')

1985

  • Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the USSR

1986

  • Gorbachev introduces his policies of glasnost and perestroika

1989

  • Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan

  • Solidarity participates in free elections (the first time an opposition movement participates in unfettered elections in the Soviet bloc)

  • The Berlin Wall falls

  • Eastern bloc nations including Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia start to break from Soviet influence

After the Cold War

1990

  • Iraqi forces invade Kuwait. The US establishes a multinational force to defeat Iraq in Kuwait

  • Disintegration of the former Yugoslavia

1991

  • START I is signed

  • The Warsaw Pact is dissolved

  • Gorbachev resigns, the Soviet Union is dissolved and the Cold War officially ends

  • Boris Yeltsin is elected leader of the new Russian Federation and adopts a capitalist system

1993

  • The Maastricht Treaty comes into force, signifying the formation of the European Union

2000

  • START II is ratified by Russia

2001

  • Al Qaeda attacks New York and Washington, sparking the US invasion of Afghanistan


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