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Topic 22 – The Cold War

The Beginning 1945-46

• April 12 1945 : Roosevelt Dies: Now, Stalin has the most control at the Potsdam Conference and allows him to swing things his way and to get a lead. • 26 June: The United Nations Charter is signed at San

Francisco• July 17th to August 2, 1945: Potsdam Conference• 6-9 August 1945: Explosion of Atom bombs• 5 March 1946: Winston Churchill, in a speech at

Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, says an "iron curtain" has come down across Europe as Soviet Troops remain in Eastern Europe

1947

• January – Containment begins• 12 March: Truman Doctrine – Greece and Turkey to get

$440-$600M• 5 June: Marshall Plan: Secretary of State George C.

Marshall calls on European nations to draft plan for European economic recovery. $13B Soviets do not participate• 26 July-17 September: National Security Act creates

DoD, and several new agencies, These new agencies include National Security Council (NSC), CIA, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff

1948

• 24 June (until May 12, 1949): The Berlin blockade. The Soviet Union blockades all highway, river, and rail traffic into Western-controlled West Berlin. The West responds with the largest airlift in history – Operation Vittles

The Berlin Airlift – 1948-49

1949

• 4 April: The North Atlantic Treaty is signed: Signed in Washington In 1955 Soviet Union forms competing Warsaw Pact• 9 May: The Berlin blockade is lifted.• 23 September: Truman announces that the Soviet

Union exploded an atomic bomb sometime during the latter half of August. 2 Nations now proceeded to stockpile bombs and to put nuclear warheads on missiles, inaugurating the fateful nuclear arms race

1950• February 9, McCarthyism: McCarthy issued wild accusations and led a flamboyant

offensive against New Deal Democrats and the entire Truman administration for failing to defend the nation’s security. Democrats were “soft on communism,” he charged

• April: NSC 68 Reappraisal of America's strategic position by the NSC. The definition for the Cold War shifted from political to military, postulating a Soviet "design for world domination. Enacted an aggressive enforcement of the Containment Policy.

• June 25, Korean War begins: North Korean communist forces cross the 38th parallel and invade South Korea.

• 19 December: The North Atlantic Council appoints General Dwight D. Eisenhower to be the first Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR).

• Alger Hiss convicted of Perjury: in 1948, Whittaker Chambers first made his public charges that Hiss was a secret communist. Hiss denied the charge and filed a libel suit against Chambers, but after Chambers produced a number of copies of State Department documents and said they were given to him by Hiss for transmission to the Soviet Union, perjury charges were brought against Hiss when he denied before a grand jury that he had committed espionage.

1951-1953• March 29, Rosenberg Spy Case: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of

selling U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. The Rosenbergs are sent to the electric chair in 1953.

• 1952 • 28 April: First meeting of the North Atlantic Council in permanent session in

Paris.• November 1: Hydrogen bomb: the United States explodes the first hydrogen

bomb at a test site in the Marshall Islands • 1953 •

5 March: The death of Josef Stalin. • 27 July Korean War ends: On July 27, an armistice is signed ending the

Korean War, with the border between North and South roughly the same as it had been in 1950.

• 14 August: Soviet Union explodes a hydrogen bomb. • 19 August: US installs the Shah of Iran

1954-1956• 1 May: Soviet Union unveils M-4 its first jet-engine propelled

long-range bomber. • 24 August: Communist Party outlawed in United States as

Eisenhower signs Communist Control Act. • 1955 • 14 May: Warsaw Pact signed, calling for the mutual defense of

Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, and the Soviet Union.

• 1956 • Khrushchev's 'secret speech' In a speech before Communist Party

members on February 14, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounces the policies of Stalin. Khrushchev rejects the Leninist idea of the inevitability of war and calls for a doctrine of "peaceful coexistence" between capitalist and communist systems

1957-59• 4 October: Soviet Union launches Sputnik, first satellite to orbit

Earth: The Space Race begins and now the Eisenhower Administration pledged to strengthen support for educating American students in math, science and technology through The National Defense Act.

• 1958 • 31 January: First U.S. satellite, Explorer I, is launched into orbit.

• 30 March: Soviet Union suspends atmospheric nuclear testing.

• 1959 • 26 July – Fidel Castro comes to power• 13 September: Soviet spacecraft reaches the moon and crashes

there.

1960-1961•

1 May: American U2 aircraft is shot down over Soviet territory. Pilot Gary Powers is held by the Soviet Union. • 8 November: Kennedy elected president.

• 1961 • 12 April: Soviet Major Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man

orbited in space.• • 3 January: Cuba: Eisenhower Administration breaks

diplomatic relations with Cuba • 17 January – Eisenhower’s Military Industrial Complex

warning

1961 continued• 17 April: Bay of Pigs landing by more than 1,000 CIA-trained Cuban refugees fails

in its attempt to "liberate" Cuba. Kennedy takes full responsibility for the disaster.• • 5 May: First American in space, Alan B. Shepard, makes suborbital flight aboard a

Mercury • • August 15: Berlin Wall The United States rejects proposals by Khrushchev to make

Berlin a "free city" with access controlled by East Germany. On August 15, communist authorities begin construction on the Berlin Wall to prevent East Germans from fleeing to West Berlin.

• 1 September: Soviet Union resumes atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons.• • 15 September: United States resumes underground testing of nuclear weapons.

In response to the Soviets resuming atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons

1962-1963• 1962

20 February: John Glenn is first American to orbit the Earth.• • 14 October: Cuban Missile Crisis: United States learns of Soviet missile

bases under construction in Cuba. On October 28, the Soviets agree to remove the missiles, defusing one of the most dangerous confrontations of the Cold War.

• • 28 October: Khrushchev agrees to remove offensive weapons from Cuba:

United States agrees to remove missiles from Turkey and end Cuban-exile incursions.

• 1963 • June 20 Hot line: The United States and Soviet Union agree on June 20 to

install a hot line allowing the leaders of both countries to directly communicate during a crisis.

• 22 November: President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas

1964-68•

15 October: Khrushchev is removed from office. He is replaced by Leonid Brezhnev as General Secretary of the USSR

• 1965 24 December: Vietnam: U.S. forces number 184,300 in Vietnam.

• 1966-1968 US Escalation of Vietnam War

1969-1973• June 8: Vietnamization On June 8, U.S. President Richard Nixon announces his "Vietnamization" plan, designed to withdraw U.S

ground forces from Vietnam and turn control of the war over to South Vietnamese forces. • July 20 – Moon Landing• November 17: SALT On November 17, the first phase of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks begins in Helsinki, Finland. The finished

agreement, signed by Nixon and Brezhnev in Moscow on May 26, 1972, places limits on both submarine-launched and intercontinental nuclear missiles.

•1970

•5 March: Non-Proliferation Treaty on Nuclear Weapons comes into force.

• • 20 March: First NATO communications satellite launched from Cape Kennedy.

• 1971• April 6-17: Ping Pong Diplomacy

• 1972• February 21 – Nixon visits China• 1973

• January 27 Vietnam War agreement: On January 27, 1973, the United States, South Vietnam, North Vietnam and the Viet Cong

sign the Paris Peace Treaty, establishing a cease-fire and a 60-day window for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops. The United States is allowed to continue providing aid to South Vietnam. Saigon falls in April 1975.

•

1974-1983197423-24 November: President Ford and General Secretary Brezhnev, meeting in Vladivostok, agree on steps towards limitation of US-USSR strategic nuclear arms.12 December: Soviets invade Afghanistan – remain until 19891980-89 – Charlie Wilson’s War

1981 • 18 November: President Reagan announces new arms control initiatives including intermediate-range

nuclear force negotiations (INF) and strategic arms reduction talks (START).• • 30 November: The United States and the Soviet Union open Geneva negotiations on intermediate-range

nuclear forces (INF). • 1982

• 1983 • March 23 Star Wars On March 23, Reagan outlines his Strategic Defense Initiative, or "Star Wars," a space-

based defensive shield that would use lasers and other advanced technology to destroy attacking missiles far above the Earth's surface. Soviets accuse the U.S of violating the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty.

•23 March: President Reagan announces a comprehensive research program aimed at eliminating the threat posed by strategic nuclear missiles (Strategic Defense Initiative).

•

1985

•11 March: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev comes to power On March 11, Gorbachev comes to power in the Soviet Union, ushering in an era of economic reforms under perestroika and greater political freedoms under glasnost.

• • 12 March: The United States and the USSR begin new arms control

negotiations in Geneva, encompassing defense and space systems, strategic nuclear forces and intermediate-range nuclear forces.

• • 19-21 November: Geneva Summit meeting between United States

President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.•

1986

• 26 April: Nuclear accident at the Chernobyl power station in the Soviet Union. US personnel traveling throughout East Germany notice a complete East German Government news blackout on the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Radioactive fallout detected over Western Europe prompts Western authorities to issue safety & health warnings that include frequent showering and limiting outside activities. No such warning is ever issued by East German Communist authorities.

• • 11-12 October: Reykjavik Summit Meeting between United

States President Reagan and Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev•

1987-1988 • 12 June: Ronald Reagan – “Tear down this wall….”• 22 July: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev announces Soviet readiness to eliminate all

intermediate-range nuclear weapons: • • 8 December: US President Reagan and Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev, meeting at the

beginning of their 3-day summit talks, sign the Washington INF Treaty: This eliminates all land-based intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

• • 9 December: The United States and the Soviet Union reach agreement on measures allowing

the monitoring of nuclear explosions at each other's test sites.• • 10 December: At the end of their 3-day summit meeting in Washington, US President Reagan

and Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev pledge deep cuts in strategic arms.• • 1988 • • 31 May: During a five-day Summit meeting in Moscow, President Reagan and General

Secretary Gorbachev exchange documents implementing the recently ratified December 1987 INF Treaty and sign bilateral agreements on nuclear testing and in other fields.

1989• 31 May: During a visit to the Federal Republic of Germany President Bush outlines

proposals for promoting free elections and pluralism in Eastern Europe and dismantling the Berlin Wall

• 9-10 November: The opening of the Berlin Wall. Following widespread demonstrations and demand for political reform, the government of the German Democratic Republic announces the lifting of travel restrictions to the West and sets up new crossing points. Gorbachev renounces the Brezhnev Doctrine, which pledged to use Soviet force to protect its interests in Eastern Europe. On September 10, Hungary opens its border with Austria, allowing East Germans to flee to the West. After massive public demonstrations in East Germany and Eastern Europe, the Berlin Wall falls on November 9.

• • 4 December: NATO Summit Meeting in Brussels. US President George Bush briefs

NATO leaders on his talks with Soviet President Gorbachev at the US-Soviet Summit Meeting in Malta on 2-3 December, marking the beginning of a new era of cooperation between their countries.

• 29 December: The Polish Parliament abolishes the leading role of the Communist Party and restores the country's name as the Republic of Poland.

1991 - The End of the USSR• 1991• August 19: Soviet Union collapses: While vacationing in the

Crimea, Gorbachev is ousted in a coup by Communist hard-liners on August 19. The coup soon falters as citizens take to the streets of Moscow and other cities in support of Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who denounced the coup. Military units abandon the hard-liners, and Gorbachev is released from house arrest. He officially resigns on December 25 as the Soviet Union is dissolved.

Some Key Cold War Vocabulary• Iron Curtain• Loyalty Review Board• UN• Truman Doctrine• Containment• Marshall Plan• NATO• Brinkmanship• Nuclear Arms Race

• Red Scare• Peaceful Coexistence• NDEA• Space Race• Domino Theory• NSC 68• McCarthyism• Détente • Strategic Defense

Initiative

And now…. Some lasting images from the Cold War

Winston Chruchill• 5 March 1946: Winston

Churchill, in a speech at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, says an "iron curtain" has come down across Europe as Soviet Troops remain in Eastern Europe

Operation Vittles• 24 June (until May

12, 1949): Beginning of the Berlin blockade by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union blockades all highway, river, and rail traffic into Berlin

The Korean War 1950-1953• Sometimes called the

“Forgotten War”• First test of the UN as

Peacekeepers• 35,516 Americans

died.

Sputnik 1957• 4 October: Soviet

Union launches Sputnik, first satellite to orbit Earth: The Space Race begins.• Eisenhower

responds with The National Defense Act.

Fidel Castro 1959

President Eisenhower• In his farewell

address in January 1961, Pres. Eisenhower warned of the relationship between the military and the arms manufacturers - “The Military Industrial Complex”

Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev

Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush 1945-1993