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