Cold War Timeline
Date
Events
Leaders
Oct.
1944
Stalin and Churchill meet creating the Percentages
Agreement splitting up Europe
Feb.
1945
Yalta Conference (Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt) Divide
Germany into Zones, Free elections in Europe
July
1945
Potsdam Conference (Stalin, Churchill, Truman) Stalin
took much of Germany, expelled 5 million Germans, did
not allow elections, Truman tells of A-Bomb
USA - Truman
1946
1st Indochina War begins between Ho Chi Minh and the
French
N.Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh
Iran seeks help from UN because the USSR won’t take out
their troops
England – C. Atlee
March
1946
USSR – Stalin
USA – Roosevelt
England - Churchill
March 5th Churchill gives his Iron Curtain speech
1947
March 12th Truman Doctrine created to help defend
Greece and Turkey form communist aggression
June 5th Marshall Plan created to give economic aid to
Western Europe. Offered to Eastern Europe but Stalin
refuses to let them take it
1948
Feb. Czech Coup puts communists in power.
Sovietization of Eastern and Central Europe is complete
FRG – Konrad Adenaur
GDR – Erich Honecker
March – Tito and Stalin split ways
June Us creates a new currency in West Germany (FRG)
June 24th Stalin begins the Berlin Blockade and the West
responds with Berlin Airlift
1949
October Mao wins the Civil War in China, the Nationalists
flee to Taiwan and on October 1st Mao declares the
People’s Republic of China
China – Mao
1950
June – Kim Il Sung has North Korea invade South Korea
starting the Korean War
N.Korea – Kim Il Sung
S. Korea – Syngman Rhee
1953
March – Stalin Dies
July – East German protest and demonstrate over
wages. They are put down by Soviet tanks
July – Korean War comes to an end
CIA leads coup in Iran putting the Shah in power
USSR –
Malenkov…Khrushchev
USA - Eisenhower
Date
1954
Events
USA is paying 80% of France’s Indochina war
May- Dien Bien Phu battle ends the war for France,
complete humiliation.
Geneva Accords end the war and promise free
elections
1956
US blocks elections in Vietnam and supports Ngo
Din Diem who is unpopular in South Vietnam
October – Poland and Hungary experience popular
uprisings against their regimes. Poland ends
peaceful, Hungary is crushed by Soviet Tanks and
Imre Nagy is murdered
Leaders
USA – Eisenhower
USSR – Khrushchev
China - Mao
S. Vietnam – Ngo Dinh
Diem
Poland – Gomulka
Hungary - Nagy…RIP then
Kadar is installed
Egypt – Abdel G. Nasser
Suez Canal Crisis occurs when Britain, France and
Israel attack Egypt turning Nasser into a hero
1959
Castro comes to power in Cuba
1960
U2 Spy Plane incident ruins talks between US & USSR
USA – Eisenhower
USSR - Khrushchev
NLF (National Liberation Front) created in Vietnam
in response to blocking elections
Lumumba from the Congo is assassinated
1961
April – Bay of Pigs fails horribly making the US look
bad
USA- John F. Kennedy
USSR -
August – Berlin Wall is built
1962
October Cuban Missile Crisis happens
1963
Buddhist Monks burn themselves in protest in
Vietnam
Ngo Din Diem is assassinated
JFK is assassinated
1964
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution created getting US heavily
involved in Vietnam
1968
Tet Offensive in Vietnam shows public it is
unwinnable war
USA – Johnson
USSR – Brezhnev
China - Mao
1968
My Lai Massacre happens
N. Vietnam (1969) :
Ton Duc Thang
Student protests occur all over the World in reaction
against Parents and society and materialism
USA – Nixon
USSR – Brezhnev
China – Mao
Czechs rise up and demand reforms, Dubcek
creates Socialism with a Human Face, Soviets crush
the revolution (Brezhnev Doctrine)
Czech. - Dubček
Nixon wins Presidential election begins détente
1973
Nixon visits China
Paris Accords signed ending Vietnam War
USA – Nixon
National Security Advisor :
Henry Kissinger
September- General Pinochet launches US
supported military Coup against socialist leader
Salvador Allende in Chile, killing Allende in the
process
1974
1975
Nixon resigns due to Watergate scandal
USA – Ford
Coup in Portugal to overthrow rightwing
government leads to independence for Angola
which leads to a civil war involving the Superpowers
USSR - Brezhnev
North Vietnam invades South Vietnam and finally
unifies the country
Helsinki Accords are signed by over 30 countries
1976
1979
Carter win US presidential elections, his presidency
is plagued by economic problems
MAO DIES
February - Islamic fundamentalist Ayatollah
Khomeini takes power in Iran and the Shah of Iran
flees, seeking asylum in the US
Strikes in Poland lead to the creation of the trade
Union Solidarity with Lech Walesa as the leader
Dec. – Islamic students take the US embassy
hostage for 444 days
December 25th Soviets invade Afghanistan
USA - Carter
Iran: Shah…then
Ayatollah Khomeni
USA – Carter
Poland - Jaruzelski
USSR – Brezhnev
China – Deng Xiaoping
Date
1980
Event
Leaders
Reagan wins US presidential election, US hostages in USA- Reagan
USSR - Brezhnev
Iran are released
1982
February – Brezhnev dies, Andropov takes over
USSR – Andropov
Polish communists impose martial law after labor
strikes get out of hand and arrest Lech Walesa
Poland - Jaruzelski
March – Reagan give “Evil Empire” speech
USA – Reagan
September – Soviets accidentally shoot down South
Korean civilian airliner KAL-007 who went off track
China – Deng Xiaoping
1983
USSR - Andropov
December – Able Archer 83 NATO exercise occurs,
Soviets believe it is a real attack raising tension to
an extreme level
1984
Andropov dies, Chernenko takes his place as
leader of Russia
USSR - Chernenko
1985
Chernenko dies, Mikhail Gorbachev takes power
USSR – Gorbachev
USA - Reagan
1986
February – Gorbachev introduces reforms:
Perestroika and Glasnost
April – Chernobyl nuclear power plant explodes
September – Reykjavik Summitt between
Gorbachev and Reagan ends with no decision
on nuclear disarmament but opens the door for
more talks
Soviet dissident Sakharov is released
November – Iran-Contra Scandal surfaces for
Reagan
1987
Reagan gives his “Gorbachev tear down this wall!”
speech in Berlin
1988
Gorbachev kicks out people who oppose him in the
politburo and gives “Sinatra Doctrine” speech
killing the Brezhnev doctrine
Dec. Walesa and Jaruzelski meet to discuss Polish
labor problems and Round Table talks
1989
Hungarian communist reformers allow for more free
assembly
May 2nd Hungary cuts down fence on Austrian
border (leading to exodus of East Germans who
quickly travel to Hungary)
June 3rd Poland has free elections and Solidarity
wins by a landslide communism is dead there
USA – Reagan
USSR – Gorbachev
Poland – Jaruzelski and
then Lech Walesa
GDR – Erich Honecker
then Egon Krenz
FRG – Helmut Kohl
July 6th Hungary reburies Imre Nagy and
rehabilitates him 1956 was not
counterrevolutionary
August 19th Hungary holds a Pan European Picnic
on border with Austria helping East Germans to
escape to freedom
Czech. – Jakes…then
Havel
England - Thatcher
October – Hungarian Communist Party changes to
the Socialist Party and gets rid of Communist
dictatorship
October 18th 1989 Egon Krenz removes Erich
Honecker from power in East Germany
November 4th People protest in East Berlin
November 9th The Berlin Wall is opened and brought
down for good
November 17th – Student march in Czech. Is
attacked (staged?) rumors of a student killed lead
to more protests and demonstrations
November 19th Jakes (Czech communist leader)
relaxes travel restrictions
November 19th Vaclav Havel helps create the Civic
Forum, which is run out of a theater
November 25th Czech communists resign and Havel
becomes president of new free Czech. In Dec.
1991
Nationalist movements lead to Soviet states like
Lithuania and Latvia and Estonia to break away
from the USSR, including Russia
Dec. Gorbachev resigns as president USSR is no more
USA – Bush Sr.
Russia – Boris Yeltsin