Apr 042015
 

Events of the Cold War Era

BIB

1945 to 1991

1945

February 8th 1945: The Yalta Conference occurs, deciding the post-war status of Germany. The Allies of World War II (the USA, the USSR, Great Britain and France) divide Germany into four occupation zones. The Allied nations agree that free elections are to be held in all countries occupied by Nazi Germany. In addition, the new United Nations are to replace the failed League of Nations.

April 12th 1945: US Franklin D. Roosevelt suffers a stroke and dies while on vacation in Warm Springs, GA.

April 23rd 1945: US President Harry S. Truman gives a tongue-lashing to Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov indicating that he was determined to take a “tougher” stance with the Soviets than his predecessor had.

July 24th 1945: At the Potsdam Conference, US President Harry S. Truman informs Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin that the United States has nuclear weapons.

August 2nd 1945: The Potsdam Conference ends with the Potsdam Agreement that organizes the division and reconstruction of Europe after World War II. New boundaries of Poland are agreed. Before the agreement to divide Germany into four zones (Yalta Conference), the four nations also decide to split Germany’s capital, Berlin, into four zones as well. The Allied powers also agree to start legal trials at Nuremberg of Nazi war criminals.

August 6th 1945: US President Truman gives permission for the world’s first military use of an atomic weapon against the Japanese city of Hiroshima in an attempt to bring the only remaining theatre of war from the Second World War in the Pacific to a swift closure.

August 8th 1945: The USSR honors its agreement to declare war on Japan within three months of the victory in Europe, and invades Manchuria. In accordance with the Yalta Conference agreements, the Soviet Union also invades Japanese Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

August 9th 1945: US President Truman gives permission for the world’s second and last military use of an atomic weapon against the Japanese city of Nagasaki in order to try to secure a swift Japanese unconditional surrender in the end of the Second World War.

September 2nd 1945: The Japanese surrender unconditionally to the US on board the USS Missouri to representative General Douglas MacArthur.

September 5th 1945: Igor Gouzenko, a clerk working in the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, Canada, defects and provides proof to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police of a Soviet spy ring operating in Canada and other western countries. The Gouzenko affair helps change perceptions of the Soviet Union from an ally to a foe.

1946

In the January of 1946: Chinese Civil War resumed between Communist and Nationalist forces.

January 7th 1946: The Republic of Austria is reconstituted, with its 1937 borders, but divided into four zones of control: American, British, French, and Soviet.

January 11th 1946: Enver Hoxha declares the People’s Republic of Albania, with himself as Prime Minister.

February 9th 1946: Joseph Stalin makes his Election Speech, in which he states that capitalism and imperialism make future wars inevitable.

February 22nd 1946: George F. Kennan writes his Long Telegram, describing his interpretation of the objectives and intentions of the Soviet leadership.

In the March of 1946: The Greek Civil War reignites between communists and the conservative Greek government.

March 2nd 1946: British soldiers withdraw from their zone of occupation in southern Iran. Soviet soldiers remain in their northern sector.

March 5th 1946: Winston Churchill warns of the descent of an Iron Curtain across Europe.

April 5th 1946: Soviet forces evacuate Iran after a crisis.

July 4th 1946: The Philippines gains independence from the United States, and begins fighting communist Huk rebels (Hukbalahap Rebellion).

September 6th 1946: In a speech known as the Restatement of Policy on Germany in Stuttgart, James F. Byrnes, United States Secretary of State repudiates the Morgenthau Plan. He states the US intention to keep troops in Europe indefinitely and expresses US approval of the territorial annexation of 29% of pre-war Germany, but does not condone further claims.

September 8th 1946: In a referendum, Bulgaria votes for the establishment of a People’s Republic, deposing King Simeon II. Western countries dismiss the vote as fundamentally flawed.

September 24th 1946: Truman is presented with the Clifford-Elsey Report, a document which listed Soviet violations of agreements with the United States.

September 27th 1946: Nikolai Vasilevich Novikov writes a response to Kennan’s Long Telegram, known as the ‘Novikov Telegram’, in which he states that the United States are “striving for world supremacy”.

December 19th 1946: French landings in Indochina begin the First Indochina War. They are resisted by the Viet Minh communists who want national independence.

1947

January 1st 1947: The American and British zones of control in Germany are united to form the Bizone also known as Bizonia.

March 12th 1947: President Harry Truman announces the Truman Doctrine starting with the giving of aid to Greece and Turkey in order to prevent them from falling into the Soviet sphere.

April 16th 1947: Bernard Baruch, in a speech given during the unveiling of his portrait in the South Carolina House of Representatives, coins the term “Cold War” to describe relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.

May 22nd 1947: US extends $400 million of military aid to Greece and Turkey, signalling its intent to contain communism in the Mediterranean.

June 5th 1947: Secretary of State George Marshall outlines plans for a comprehensive program of economic assistance for the war-ravaged countries of Western Europe. It would become known throughout the world as the Marshall Plan.

July 11th 1947: The US announces new occupation policies in Germany. The occupation directive JCS 1067, whose economic section had prohibited “steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany  designed to maintain or strengthen the German economy”, is replaced by the new US occupation directive JCS 1779 which instead notes that “An orderly, prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany.”

August 14th 1947: India and Pakistan gain independence from the United Kingdom.

November 14th 1947: The United Nations passes a resolution calling for the withdrawal of foreign soldiers from Korea, free elections in each of the two administrations, and the creation of a UN commission dedicated to the unification of the peninsula.

December 30th 1947: In Romania, King Michael I of Romania is forced to abdicate by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, the monarchy is abolished and the Popular Republic of Romania is instituted instead. The Communist Party will rule the country until December 1989.

1948

February 25th 1948: The Communist Party takes control in Czechoslovakia, after President Edvard Beneš accepts the resignation of all non-communist ministers.

March 10th 1948: Czechoslovakian Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk is reported having committed suicide.

April 3rd 1948: Truman signs the Marshall Plan into effect. By the end of the programs, the United States has given $12.4 billion in economic assistance to European countries.

May 10th 1948: A parliamentary vote in southern Korea sees the confirmation of Syngman Rhee as President of the Republic of Korea, after a left-wing boycott.

June 18th 1948: A communist insurgency in Malaya begins against British and Commonwealth forces.

June 21st 1948: In Germany, the Bizone and the French zone launch a common currency, the Deutsche Mark.

June 24th 1948: Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin orders the blockade of all land routes from West Germany to Berlin, in an attempt to starve out the French, British, and American forces from the city. In response, the three Western powers launch the Berlin Airlift to supply the citizens of Berlin by air.

June 28th 1948: The Soviet Union expels Yugoslavia from the Communist Information Bureau (COMINFORM) for the latter’s position on the Greek civil war.

June 28th 1948 to May 11th, 1949: The Berlin Airlift defeats Russia’s attempt to starve West Berlin.

July 17th 1948: The constitution of the Republic of Korea is effected.

September 9th 1948: The Soviet Union declares the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to be the legitimate government of all of Korea, with Kim Il-sung as Prime Minister.

November 20th 1948: The American consul and his staff in Mukden, China, are made virtual hostages by communist forces in China. The crisis did not end until a year later, by which time U.S. relations with the new communist government in China had been seriously damaged.

1949

April 4th 1949: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is founded by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States, in order to resist Communist expansion.

May 11th 1949: The Soviet blockade of Berlin ends with the re-opening of access routes to Berlin. The airlift continues until September, in case the Soviets re-establish the blockade.

May 23rd 1949: In Germany, the Bizone merges with the French zone of control to form the Federal Republic of Germany, with Bonn as its capital.

June 8th 1949: The Red Scare reaches its peak, with the naming of numerous American celebrities as members of the Communist Party.

August 29th 1949: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb. The test, known to Americans as Joe 1, succeeds, as the Soviet Union becomes the world’s second nuclear power.

September 13th 1949: The USSR vetoes the United Nations membership of Ceylon, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Jordan, and Portugal.

September 15th 1949: Konrad Adenauer becomes the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.

On September 30th, 1949, the last plane–an American C-54–landed in Berlin and unloaded over two tons of coal. Even though the Soviet blockade officially ended in May 1949, it took several more months for the West Berlin economy to recover and the necessary stockpiles of food, medicine, and fuel to be replenished.

October 1st 1949: Mao Zedong declares the foundation of the People’s Republic of China – adding a quarter of the world’s population to the communist camp.

October 7th 1949: The Soviets declare their zone of Germany to be the German Democratic Republic, with its capital at East Berlin.

October 16th 1949: Nikos Zachariadis, leader of the Communist Party of Greece, declares an end to the armed uprising. The declaration brings to a close the Greek Civil War, and the first successful containment of communism.

December 27th 1949: Sovereignty is handed over to United States of Indonesia from the Netherlands through the Dutch-Indonesian Round Table Conference with Sukarno as the first president of the newly formed federation.

1950

January 5th 1950: The United Kingdom recognizes the People’s Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom.

January 19th 1950: China officially diplomatically recognizes Vietnam as independent from France.

January 21st 1950: The last Kuomintang soldiers surrender on continental China.

February 16th 1950: The Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China sign a pact of mutual defense.

March 11th 1950: Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek moves his capital to Taipei, Taiwan, establishing a stand-off with the People’s Republic of China.

April 17th 1950: United States State Department Director of Policy Planning Paul Nitze issues NSC-68, a classified brief, arguing for the adoption of containment as the cornerstone of United States foreign policy. It would dictate US policy for the next twenty years.

May 11th 1950: Robert Schuman describes his ambition of a united Europe. Known as the Schuman Declaration, it marks the beginning of the creation of the European Community.

June 25th 1950: North Korea invades South Korea. The Soviet Union cannot veto, as it is boycotting the Security Council over the admission of People’s Republic of China. Eventually, the number of countries operating under the UN aegis increases to 16: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

July 4th 1950: United Nations forces engage North Korean forces for the first time, in Osan. They fail to halt the North Korean advance, and fall southwards, towards what would become the Pusan Perimeter.

September 30th 1950: United Nations forces land at Inchon. Defeating the North Korean forces, they press inland and re-capture Seoul.

October 2nd 1950: United Nations forces cross the 38th parallel, into North Korea.

October 5th 1950: Forces from the People’s Republic of China mobilize along the Yalu River.

October 22nd 1950: Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, falls to United Nations forces.

October 22nd 1950: China intervenes in Korea with 300,000 soldiers, catching the United Nations by surprise. However, they withdraw after initial engagements.

November 15th 1950: United Nations forces approach the Yalu River. In response, China intervenes in Korea again, but with a 500,000 strong army. This offensive forces the United Nations back towards South Korea.

1951

January 4th 1951: Chinese soldiers capture Seoul.

March 14th 1951: United Nations forces recapture Seoul during Operation Ripper. By the end of March, they have reached the 38th Parallel, and formed a defensive line across the Korean peninsula.

March 29th 1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of espionage for their role in passing atomic secrets to the Soviets during and after World War II.

April 11th 1951: US President Harry S. Truman fires Douglas MacArthur from command of US forces in Korea.

April 23rd 1951: American journalist William N. Oatis is arrested in Czechoslovakia for alleged espionage.

April 18rd 1951: The European Coal and Steel Community is formed by the Treaty of Paris.

July 4th 1951: American journalist William N. Oatis receives a ten-year sentence in Czechoslovakia on an espionage charge.

September 1st 1951: Australia, New Zealand, and the United States sign the ANZUS Treaty. This compels the three countries to cooperate on matters of defense and security in the Pacific.

October 10th 1951: President Harry S. Truman signs the Mutual Security Act, announcing to the world, and its communist powers in particular, that the U.S. was prepared to provide military aid to “free peoples.”

November 14th 1951: President Harry Truman asks Congress for U.S. military and economic aid for the communist nation of Yugoslavia.

December 12th 1951 The International Authority for the Ruhr lifted part of the remaining restrictions on German industrial production and on production capacity.

1952

April 28th 1952: the Treaty of San Francisco, signed by Japan on September 8, 1951, comes into effect, and Japan signs the Treaty of Taipei, formally ending its period of occupation and isolation, and becoming a sovereign state.

February 18th 1952: Greece and Turkey join NATO.

In the June of 1952: Strategic Air Command begins Reflex Alert deployments of Convair B-36 and B-47 Stratojet long-range nuclear bombers to overseas bases like purpose-built Nouasseur Air Base in French Morocco, placing them within unrefueled striking range of Moscow.

June 14th 1952: The United States lays the keel for the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus.

June 30th 1952: The Marshall Plan ends, with European industrial output now well above that of 1938.

July 23rd 1952: Gamal Abdel Nasser heads a coup against King Farouk of Egypt.

October 2nd 1952: The United Kingdom successfully tests its atomic bomb in Operation Hurricane. The test makes the UK the world’s third nuclear power.

November 1st 1952: The United States tests their first thermonuclear bomb, Ivy Mike.

1953

January 20th 1953: Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes President of the United States.

March 5th 1953: Joseph Stalin dies, setting off a power struggle to succeed him.

May 16th 1953: American journalist William N. Oatis is released from prison in Czechoslovakia after serving 22 months of a ten-year sentence for espionage.

July 27th 1953: An armistice agreement ends fighting in the Korean War.

August 19th 1953: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) assists a royalist coup that ousts Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq (Operation Ajax). The coup was organized because of Iranian nationalization of the oil industry and fears of Iran joining the Soviet camp.

September 7th 1953: Nikita Khrushchev becomes leader of the Soviet Communist Party. His main rival, Lavrentiy Beria, is executed in December.

December 4th to 8th 1953: Eisenhower meets with Churchill and Joseph Laniel of France in Bermuda.

1954

January 21st 1954: The United States launches the world’s first nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus. The nuclear submarine would become the ultimate nuclear deterrent.

May 7th 1954: The Viet Minh defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu. France withdraws from Indochina, leaving four independent states: Cambodia, Laos, and what became North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The Geneva Accords calls for free elections to unite Vietnam, but none of the major Western powers wish this to occur in the likely case that the Viet Minh (nationalist Communists) would win.

In the May of 1954: The Huk revolt in the Philippines is defeated.

June 2nd 1954: Senator Joseph McCarthy claims that communists have infiltrated the CIA and the atomic weapons industry.

June 18th 1954: The elected leftist Guatemalan government is overthrown in a CIA-backed coup. An unstable rightist regime installs itself. Opposition leads to a guerrilla war with Marxist rebels in which major human rights abuses are committed on all sides. Nevertheless, the regime survives until the end of the Cold War.

July 8th 1954: Col. Carlos Castillo Armas is elected president of the junta that overthrew the administration of Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman.

August 11th 1954: The Taiwan Strait Crisis begins with the Chinese Communist shelling of Taiwanese islands. The US backs Taiwan, and the crisis resolves itself as both sides decline to take action.

September 8th 1954: Foundation of the South East Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) by Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Like NATO, it is founded to resist Communist expansion, this time in the Philippines and Indochina.

1955

February 24th 1955: The Baghdad Pact is founded by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. It is committed to resisting Communist expansion in the Middle East.

In the March of 1955: Soviet aid to Syria begins. The Syrians will remain allies of the Soviets until the end of the Cold War.

In the April of 1955: The Non-Aligned Movement is pioneered by Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Sukarno of Indonesia, Tito of Yugoslavia, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. This movement was designed to be a bulwark against the ‘dangerous polarization’ of the world at that time and to restore balance of power with smaller nations. It was an international organization of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power block.

May 9th 1955: West Germany joins NATO and begins rearmament.

May 14th 1955: The Warsaw Pact is founded in Eastern Europe and includes East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union. It acts as the Communist military counterpart to NATO.

May 15th 1955: Austria is neutralized and allied occupation ends.

July 18th 1955: President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the United States, Prime Minister Anthony Eden of the United Kingdom, Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin of the Soviet Union, and Prime Minister Edgar Faure of France, known as the ‘Big Four’, attend the Geneva Summit. Also in attendance was Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union.

1956

February 25th 1956 : Nikita Khrushchev delivers the speech “On the Personality Cult and its Consequences” at the closed session of the Twentieth Party Congress of the CPSU. The speech marks the beginning of the De-Stalinization.

June 28th 1956: in Poznań, Poland, anti-communist protests lead to violence.

July 26th 1956: Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal.

October 23rd 1956: Hungarian Revolution of 1956: Hungarians revolt against the Soviet dominated government. They are crushed by the Soviet military, which reinstates a Communist government.

October 29th 1956: Suez Crisis: France, Israel, and the United Kingdom attack Egypt with the goal of removing Nasser from power. International diplomatic pressures force the attackers to withdraw. Canadian Lester B. Pearson encourages the United Nations to send a Peacekeeping force, the first of its kind, to the disputed territory. Lester B. Pearson wins a Nobel Peace Prize for his actions, and soon after becomes Canadian Prime Minister.

In the December of 1956: Communist insurgency begins in South Vietnam, sponsored by North Vietnam.

1957

January 5th 1957: The Eisenhower doctrine commits the US to defending Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan from Communist influence.

January 22nd 1957: Israeli forces withdraw from the Sinai, which they had occupied the previous year.

May 2nd 1957: Senator Joseph McCarthy succumbs to illness exacerbated by alcoholism and dies.

October 1st 1957: The Strategic Air Command initiates 24/7 nuclear alert (continuous until termination in 1991) in anticipation of a Soviet ICBM surprise attack capability.

October 4th 1957: Sputnik satellite launched.

November 3rd 1957: Sputnik 2 was launched, with the first living being on board, Laika.

November 7th 1957: The final report from a special committee called by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to review the nation’s defense readiness indicates that the United States is falling far behind the Soviets in missile capabilities, and urges a vigorous campaign to build fallout shelters to protect American citizens.

November 15th 1957: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev claims that the Soviet Union has missile superiority over the United States and challenges America to a missile “shooting match” to prove his assertion.

1958

July 14th 1958: A coup in Iraq, the 14th of July Revolution, removes the pro-British monarch. Iraq begins to receive support from the Soviets. Iraq will maintain close ties with the Soviets throughout the Cold War.

August 23rd 1958: Second Taiwan Strait Crisis begins when China begins to bomb Quemoy.

In the August of 1958: Thor IRBM deployed to the UK, within striking distance of Moscow. the system was declared operational in 1959

In the September of 1958: A US reconnaissance C-130 airplane is shot down over Armenia by Mig-17s, with 17 casualties.

In the November of 19598: Start of the second Berlin crisis, Nikita Khrushchev asks the West to leave Berlin.

October 4th 1958: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA is formed.

1959

January 1st 1959: Cuban Revolution. Fidel Castro becomes the leader of Cuba although refrains from declaring the country Communist. Cuban-inspired guerrilla movements spring up across Latin America.

March 24th 1959: New Republic government of Iraq leaves Central Treaty Organization.

May 24th 1959: Former U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles dies from cancer.

July 24th 1959: During the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow US Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev openly debate the capacities of each Superpower. This conversation is known as the Kitchen Debate.

August 7th 1959: Explorer 6 is launched into orbit to photograph the Earth.

In the September of 1959: Khrushchev visits U.S. for 13 days, and is denied access to Disneyland. Instead, he visits SeaWorld (then known as Marineland of the Pacific).

In the December of 1959: Formation of the FNL (pejoratively called Viet Cong) in North Vietnam. It is a Communist insurgent movement that vows to overthrow the anti-communist South Vietnamese dictatorship. It is supplied extensively by North Vietnam and the USSR eventually.

1960

February 16th 1960: France successfully tests its first atomic bomb, Gerboise Bleue, in the middle of the Algerian Sahara Desert.

In the April of 1960: Jupiter IRBM deployment to Italy begins, placing nuclear missiles within striking range of Moscow (as with the Thor IRBMs deployed in the UK).

May 1st 1960: American pilot Francis Gary Powers is shot down in his U-2 spy plane while flying at high altitude over the Soviet Union, resulting in the U-2 Incident, an embarrassment for President Eisenhower.

In the June of 1960: Sino-Soviet split: The Chinese leadership, angered at being treated as the “junior partner” to the Soviet Union, declares its version of Communism superior and begin to compete with the Soviets for influence, thus adding a third dimension to the Cold War.

July 31st 1960: Communist insurgents in Malaya are defeated.

August 9th 1960: The Pathet Lao (communist) revolt in Laos begins.

1961

January 3rd 1961: Dwight D. Eisenhower closes the U.S. embassy in Havana and severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.

January 20th 1961: John F. Kennedy becomes President of the United States.

February 4th 1961: Angolan nationalists, including communists, begin an insurgency against Portuguese rule.

April 12th 1961: Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space and first to orbit the Earth when the Soviet Union successfully launches Vostok 1.1

April 17th –19th 1960: Bay of Pigs Invasion: A CIA-backed invasion of Cuba by counter-revolutionaries ends in failure.

May 25th 1961: John F. Kennedy announces the US intention to put a man on the moon – kick-starting the Apollo program.

June 4th 1961: Kennedy meets with Khrushchev in Vienna.

In the June of 1961: Jupiter IRBM deployment to Turkey begins, joining the Jupiters deployed to Italy as well as the Thor IRBMs deployed to the UK as nuclear missiles placed within striking distance of Moscow.

August 13th 1961: The Berlin Wall is built by the Soviets following the breakdown in talks to decide the future of Germany.

August 17th 1961: Alliance for Progress aid to Latin America from the United States begins.

September 1st 1961: The Soviet Union resumed testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere.

October 17th 1961: 22nd Soviet Party Congress held in USSR.

October 27th 1961: Beginning of Checkpoint Charlie standoff between US and Soviet tanks.

October 31st 1961: The Soviet Union detonates the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever tested, with an explosive yield of some 50 megatons.

December 2nd 1961: Fidel Castro openly describes himself as a Marxist–Leninist.

1962

February 10th 1962: American pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for senior KGB spy Colonel Rudolf Abel.

July 20th 1962: Neutralization of Laos is established by international agreement, but North Vietnam refuses to withdraw its personnel.

September 8th 1962: Himalayan War: Chinese forces attack India, making claims on numerous border areas.

October 16th 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis: The Soviets have secretly been installing military bases, including nuclear weapons, on Cuba, some 90 miles from the US mainland. Kennedy orders a “quarantine” (a naval blockade) of the island that intensifies the crisis and brings the US and the USSR to the brink of nuclear war. In the end, both sides reach a compromise. The Soviets back down and agree to withdraw their nuclear missiles from Cuba, in exchange for a secret agreement by Kennedy pledging to withdraw similar American missiles from Turkey, and guaranteeing that the US will not move against the Castro regime.

November 21st 1962: End of the Himalayan War. China occupies a small strip of Indian land.

1963

June 20th 1963: The United States agrees to set up a hotline with the USSR, thus making direct communication possible.

June 21st 1963: France announces that it is withdrawing its navy from the North Atlantic fleet of NATO.

August 5th 1963: The Partial Test Ban Treaty is signed by the US, UK and USSR, prohibiting the testing of nuclear weapons anywhere except underground.

November 2nd 1963: South Vietnamese Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated in coup. CIA involvement is suspected.

November 22nd 1963: John F. Kennedy is shot and killed in Dallas. There has been some speculation over whether communist countries or even CIA were involved in the assassination, but those theories remain controversial. Kennedy’s vice-president Lyndon B. Johnson becomes President of the United States.

1964

unknown date: 1964 decision of the Soviet Politburo to increase spending on terrorism by one thousand percent.

March 30th  / April 1st 1964: A military-led coup d’état overthrows democratically elected president João Goulart in Brazil. Goulart’s proposals, such as land reform and bigger control of the state in the economy, were seen as “communist”, though he was from the labour party.

April 20th 1964: US President Lyndon Johnson in New York, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow, announce simultaneously plans to cut back production of materials for making nuclear weapons.

May 27th 1964: Jawaharlal Nehru dies.

August 4th 1964: US President Lyndon B. Johnson claims that North Vietnamese naval vessels had fired on two American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Although there was a first attack, it was later proven that American vessels had entered North Vietnamese territory, and the second attack is proved unfounded. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident leads to the open involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War, after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

October 14th 1964: Leonid Brezhnev succeeds Khrushchev to become General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
October 16: China tests its first atomic bomb. The test makes China the world’s fifth nuclear power.

1965

March 8th 1965: US military buildup to defend South Vietnam. North Vietnam has also committed its forces in the war. US begins sustained bombing of North Vietnam.

April 28th 1965: US forces invade the Dominican Republic to prevent a communist takeover like the one that occurred in Cuba.

August 15th 1965: Operation Gibraltar launched by Pakistan culminates in the Second Indo-Pakistani War.

September 23rd 1965: The Second Indian-Pakistani War ends in a cease-fire. Pakistan fails in its objective of capturing Kashmir.

September 30th 1965: Six Indonesian generals murdered as part of the 30 September Movement.

November 11th 1965: Rhodesian colonial government under Ian Douglas Smith declares UDI.

November 14th 1965: Battle of Ia Drang, the first major engagement between US Troops and regular Vietnamese forces.

1966

March 10th 1966: France withdraws from NATO command structure.

May 8th 1966: Communist China detonates a third nuclear device.

August 26:th 1966 South African Border War begins.

1967

April 25th 1967: 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries sign the Treaty of Tlatelolco in Mexico City, which seek the prohibition of nuclear weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean.

March 12th 1967: General Suharto successfully overthrows Sukarno as president of Indonesia.

May 23rd 1967: Egypt blocks the Straits of Tiran, then expels UN peacekeepers and moves its army into the Sinai Peninsula in preparation for possible attack on Israel.

May 25th 1967: Uprising in Naxalbari, India marking the expansion of Maoism as a violent, anti-US and anti-Soviet, revolutionary movement across a number of developing countries.

June 5th 1967: In response to Egypt’s aggression, Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula, beginning the Six-Day War.

June 23rd 1967: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey for a three-day summit.

August 8th 1967: Bangkok Declaration is established to quell the communist threat in Southeast Asia.

November 29th 1967: Robert McNamara announces that he will resign as U.S. Secretary of Defense to become President of the World Bank.

1968

January 30th 1968: Tet Offensive in South Vietnam begins.

March 30th 1968: Johnson suspends bombings over North Vietnam and announces he is not running for reelection.

June 8th 1968: Tet Offensive ends; while an American military victory, it raises questions over America’s military chances in Vietnam.

July 1st 1968: The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is opened for signature.

August 20th 1968: Prague Spring Reforms in Communist Czechoslovakia result in Warsaw Pact intervention to crush them.

December 23rd 1968: The captain and crew of the USS Pueblo are released by North Korea.

1969

January 20th 1969: Richard Nixon becomes President of the United States.

March 2nd 1969: Border clashes between the Soviet Union and China.

March 17th 1969: The U.S begins bombing Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.

July 20th 1969: The U.S. accomplishes the first manned moon landing, Apollo 11. Manned by Neil Armstrong, “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins.

July 25th 1969: “Vietnamization” begins with U.S. troop withdrawals from Vietnam and the burden of combat being placed on the South Vietnamese.

September 1st 1969: Muammar al-Gaddafi overthrows the Libyan monarchy and expels British and American personnel. Libya aligns itself with the Soviet Union.

1970

March 5th 1970: Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, ratified by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States, among others, enters into force.

March 18th 1970: Lon Nol takes power in Cambodia. Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese Communists attack the new regime, which wants to end North Vietnamese presence in Cambodia.

October 24th 1970: Salvador Allende becomes president of Chile after being confirmed by the Chilean congress.

November 18th 1970: United States’ aid to Cambodia to support the Lon Nol regime begins.

1971

February 8th 1971: South Vietnamese forces enter Laos to briefly cut the Ho Chi Minh trail.

March 26th 1971: Bangladeshi Declaration of Independence. Bangladesh Liberation War begins.

May 15th 1971: Anwar Sadat’s Corrective Revolution purges Nasserist members of the government and security forces, and eventually expels Soviet military from Egypt.

September 3rd 1971: Four-Power Agreement on Berlin is signed by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France, and the United States.

September 11th 1971: Nikita Khrushchev dies.

October 25th 1971 : The United Nations General Assembly passes Resolution 2758, recognizing the People’s Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China.

December 3rd 1971: India enters the Bangladesh Liberation War after Pakistan launches preemptive air strikes on Indian airfields.

December 16th 1971: Lt. Gen A. A. K. Niazi, CO of the Pakistan Army forces located in East Pakistan surrenders unconditionally by signing the Instrument of Surrender which is accepted by Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, joint commander of the Bangladesh-India Allied Forces. Bangladesh is officially recognized by the eastern block.

1972

February 21st 1972: Nixon visits China, the first visit by a U.S. President since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.

March 30th 1972: FNL goes to the offensive in South Vietnam, only to be repulsed by the South Vietnamese regime with major American air support.

May 26th 1972: Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) agreement signals the beginning of détente between the U.S. and USSR.

September 1st 1972: Bobby Fischer defeats Russian Boris Spassky in a chess match in Reykjavík, Iceland, becoming the first official American chess champion (see Match of the Century).

September 2nd to 28th 1972: The Summit Series, an ice hockey tournament between Canada and Soviet Union.

December 18th 1972: Richard Nixon announces the beginning of a massive bombing campaign in North Vietnam.

1973

January 27th 1973: The Paris Peace Accords end American involvement in the Vietnam War. Congress cuts off funds for the continued bombing of Indochina.

September 11th 1973: Chilean coup d’état — The democratically-elected Marxist president of Chile, Salvador Allende, is deposed and commits suicides during a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet, supported by the US.

October 6th 1973: Yom Kippur War — Israel is attacked by Egypt and Syria, the war ends with a ceasefire.

October 22nd 1973: Egypt defects to the American camp by accepting a U.S. cease-fire proposal during the October 1973 war.

November 11th 1973: The Soviet Union announces that, because of its opposition to the recent overthrow of the government of Chilean President Salvador Allende, it will not play a World Cup Soccer match against the Chilean team if the match is held in Santiago.

1974

September 12th 1974: The pro-Western monarch of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, is ousted by a Marxist military junta known as the Derg.

In the June of 1974: SEATO formally ends after France leaves the organization.
August 9: Gerald Ford becomes President of the United States upon the resignation of Nixon.

1975

April 18th 1975: The communist Khmer Rouge take power in Cambodia; genocide ensues, later referred to as “The Killing Fields”.

April 30th 1975: North Vietnam wins the war in South Vietnam. The South Vietnam regime falls with the surrender of Saigon and the two countries are united under a Communist government.

November 29th 1975: Pathet Lao takes power in Laos.

May 12th 1975: Mayagüez incident: The Khmer Rouge seize an American naval ship, prompting American intervention to recapture the ship and its crew. In the end, the crew is released from captivity.

June 25th 1975: Portugal withdraws from Angola and Mozambique, where Marxist governments are installed, the former with backing from Cuban troops. The Civil war engulfs both nations and involves Angolans, Mozambicans, South Africans, and Cubans, with the superpowers supporting their respective ideologies.

In the July of 1975: The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project takes place. It is the first joint flight of the US and Soviet space programs. The mission is seen as a symbol of détente and an end to the “space race”.

August 1st 1975: Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe signed by the United States, Canada, the Soviet Union and Europe.

1976

January 8th 1976: Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai dies of cancer.

March 24th 1976: Coup d’état in Argentina. A Civil war against Argentine-based guerrilla warfare starts.

July 20th 1976: U.S. Military personnel withdraw from Thailand.

September 1st 1976: Inception of Safari Club.

September 9th 1976: Death of Mao Zedong.

1977

January 1st 1977: Charter 77 is signed by Czechoslovakian intellectuals, including Václav Havel.

January 20th 1977: Jimmy Carter becomes President of the United States.

June 6th 1977: U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance assures skeptics that the Carter administration will hold the Soviet Union accountable for its recent crackdowns on human rights activists.

July 23rd 1977: The Ogaden War begins when Somalia attacks Ethiopia.

1978

March 15th 1977: The Ogaden War ends with a cease-fire.

April 27th 1977: President of Afghanistan Sardar Mohammed Daoud’s government is overthrown when he is murdered in a coup led by pro-communist rebels.

December 25th 1977: A Communist regime is installed in Afghanistan.

1979

January 7th 1979: Vietnam deposes the Khmer Rouge and installs a pro-Vietnam, pro-Soviet government.

January 16th 1979: The Iranian Revolution ousts the pro-Western Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and installs a theocracy under Ayatollah Khomeini. CENTO dissolves as a result.

February 17th 1979: Sino-Vietnamese War, China launches a punitive attack on North Vietnam to punish it for invading Cambodia.

May 9th 1979: War breaks out in El Salvador between Marxist-led insurgents and the U.S.-backed government.

June 2nd 1979: Pope John Paul II begins his first pastoral visit to his native Poland.

June 18th 1979: U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, sign the SALT II agreement, outlining limitations and guidelines for nuclear weapons.

July 3rd 1979: President Carter signs the first directive for financial aid to opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul, Afghanistan.

July 17th 1979: Marxist-led Sandinista revolutionaries overthrow the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua. The Contra insurgency begins shortly thereafter.

In the September of 1979: Nur Mohammed Taraki, The Marxist president of Afghanistan, is deposed and murdered. The post of president is taken up by Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin.

November 4th 1979: Islamist Iranian students take over the American embassy in support of the Iranian Revolution. The Iran hostage crisis lasts until January 20, 1981.

December 12th 1979: NATO Double-Track Decision, the alliance decides to deploy LRTNF and to negotiate arms control on the same systems.

December 24th 1979: The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan to oust Hafizullah Amin, resulting in the end of Détente.

1980

March 21st 1980: The United States and its allies boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics (July 19th to August 3rd) in Moscow.

May 4th 1980: Josip Broz Tito, communist leader of Yugoslavia since 1945, dies at the age of 88 in Belgrade.

August 31st 1980: In Poland the Gdańsk Agreement is signed after a wave of strikes which began at the Lenin Shipyards in Gdańsk. The agreement allows greater civil rights, such as the establishment of a trade union independent of communist party control.

1981

January 20th 1981: Ronald Reagan inaugurated 40th President of the United States. Reagan is elected on a platform opposed to the concessions of détente.

January 20th 1981: Iran hostage crisis ends.

August 19th 1981: Gulf of Sidra Incident: Libyan planes attack U.S. jets in the Gulf of Sidra, which Libya has illegally annexed. Two Libyan jets are shot down; no American losses are suffered.

October 27th 1981: A Soviet submarine, the U137, runs aground not far from the Swedish naval base at Karlskrona.

November 23rd 1981: The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) begins to support anti-Sandinista Contras.

December 13:th 1981 Communist Gen. Jaruzelski introduces martial law in Poland, which drastically restricts normal life, in an attempt to crush the Solidarity trade union and the political opposition against communist rule.

1982

February 24th 1982: President Ronald Reagan announces the “Caribbean Basin Initiative” to prevent the overthrow of governments in the region by the forces of communism.

March 22nd 1982: President Ronald Reagan signs P.L. 97-157 denouncing the government of the Soviet Union that it should cease its abuses of the basic human rights of its citizens.

April 2nd 1982: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands, starting the Falklands War.

May 30th 1982: Spain joins NATO.

June 6th 1982: Israel invades Lebanon to end raids and clashes with Syrian troops based there.

June 14th 1982: Falkland Islands liberated by British task force. End of the Falklands War.

November 10th 1982: Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev.

November 14th 1982: Yuri Andropov becomes General Secretary of the Soviet Union.

1983

In the January of 1983: Soviet spy Dieter Gerhardt is arrested in New York.

March 8th 1983: In speech to the National Association of Evangelicals, Reagan labels the Soviet Union an “evil empire”.

March 23rd 1983: Ronald Reagan proposes the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, or “Star Wars”).

September 1st 1983: Civilian Korean Air Lines Flight 007, with 269 passengers, including U.S.Congressman Larry McDonald, is shot down by Soviet interceptor aircraft.

October 25th 1983: U.S. forces invade the Caribbean island of Grenada in an attempt to overthrow the Marxist military government, expel Cuban troops, and abort the construction of a Soviet-funded airstrip.

November 2nd 1983: Exercise Able Archer 83 — Soviet anti-aircraft misinterpret a test of NATO’s nuclear warfare procedures as a fake cover for an actual NATO attack; in response, Soviet nuclear forces are put on high alert.

1984

In the January of 1986: US President Ronald Reagan outlines foreign policy which reinforces his previous statements.

February 13th 1984: Konstantin Chernenko is named General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.

July 28th 1984: Various allies of the Soviet Union boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics (July 28th to August 12th) in Los Angeles.

October 31st 1984: Indira Gandhi assassinated.

December 16th 1984: Margaret Thatcher and the UK government, in a plan to open new channels of dialog with Soviet leadership candidates, meet with Mikhail Gorbachev at Chequers.

1985

March 11th 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union.

August 6th 1985: Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet Union begins what it has announced is a 5-month unilateral moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons. The Reagan administration dismisses the dramatic move as nothing more than propaganda and refuses to follow suit. Gorbachev declares several extensions, but the United States fails to reciprocate, and the moratorium comes to an end on February 5th, 1987.
November 21st: Reagan and Gorbachev meet for the first time at a summit in Geneva, Switzerland, where they agree to two (later three) more summits.

1986

February 13th 1986: France launches Operation Epervier (Sparrowhawk) in an effort to repulse the Libyan invasion of Chad.

February 25th 1986: The People Power Revolution takes place in the Philippines, overthrowing Ferdinand Marcos, dictator since 1965. First female president, Corazon Aquino.

April 15th 1986: U.S. planes bomb Libya in Operation El Dorado Canyon.

April 26th 1986: Chernobyl disaster: A Soviet nuclear power plant in the Ukraine explodes, resulting in the worst nuclear power plant accident in history.

October 11th–12th 1986: Reykjavik Summit: A breakthrough in nuclear arms control.

November 3rd 1986: Iran-Contra affair: The Reagan administration publicly announces that it has been selling arms to Iran in exchange for hostages and illegally transferring the profits to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

1987

January 16th 1987: Natives within the Party who oppose his policies of economic redevelopment (Perestroika). It is Gorbachev’s hope that through initiatives of openness, debate and participation, that the Soviet people will support Perestroika.

June 12th 1987: During a visit to Berlin, Germany, U.S. President Ronald Reagan famously challenges Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev in a speech: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” (The Berlin Wall).

September 10th 1987: The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, Angola begins and further intensifies the South African Border War.

December 8th 1987: The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Some later claim this was the official end of the Cold War. Gorbachev agrees to START I treaty.

1988

May 11th 1988: Kim Philby (Harold Adrian Russell Philby), the high-ranking U.K. intelligence officer who defected to the Soviet Union, dies in Moscow.

May 15th 1988: The Soviets begin withdrawing from Afghanistan.

May 29th to June 1st 1988: Reagan and Gorbachev meet in Moscow. INF Treaty ratified. When asked if he still believes that the Soviet Union is still an evil empire, Reagan replies he was talking about “another time, another era.”

December 22nd 1988: South Africa withdraws from South West Africa (Namibia).

February 22nd 1988: Incident: U.S.S. Yorktown (CG-48) and USS Caron (DD-970) are rammed off the Crimean Peninsula after entering Soviet territorial waters.

November 6th 1988: Soviet scientist and well-known human rights activist Andrei Sakharov begins a two-week visit to the United States.

December 7th 12988: Gorbachev announces in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly that the Soviet Union will no longer militarily interfere with Eastern Europe.

1989

January 4th 1989: Gulf of Sidra incident between America and Libya, similar to the 1981 Gulf of Sidra incident.

January 20th 1989: George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as 41st President of the United States.

February 2nd 1989: Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan.

June 4th 1989: Tiananmen Square Massacre: Beijing protests are ended by the communist Chinese government, resulting in an unknown number of deaths.

June 4th 1989: Elections in Poland show complete lack of backing for the Communist Party; Solidarity trade union wins all available seats in the Parliament and 99% in the Senate.

In the August of 1989: Parliament in Poland elects Tadeusz Mazowiecki as leader of the first non-communist government in the Eastern Block.

October 18th 1989: The Hungarian constitution is amended to allow a multi-party political system and elections. The nearly 20-year term of communist leader Erich Honecker comes to an end in East Germany.

November 9th 1989: Revolutions of Eastern Europe: Soviet reforms have allowed Eastern Europe to change the Communist governments there. The Berlin Wall is breached when Politburo spokesman, Günter Schabowski, not fully informed of the technicalities or procedures of the newly agreed lifting of travel restrictions, mistakenly announces at a news conference in East Berlin that the borders have been opened.

December 3rd 1989: At the end of the Malta Summit, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George H. W. Bush declare that a long-lasting era of peace has begun. Many observers regard this summit as the official beginning of the end of the Cold War.

December 14th 1989: Democracy is restored in Chile.

December 16th to 25th 1989: Romanian Revolution: Rioters overthrow the Communist government of Nicolae Ceauşescu, executing him and his wife, Elena. Romania was the only Eastern Block country to violently overthrow its Communist government or to execute its leaders.

December 29th 1989: Václav Havel becomes President of the now free Czechoslovakia.

1990

March 11th 1990: Lithuania becomes independent.

May 29th 1990: Boris Yeltsin elected as president of Russia.

August 2nd 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait, beginning Gulf War.

October 3rd 1990: Germany is reunified.

1991

February 28th 1991: Gulf War ends.

In the July of 1991: Warsaw Pact is formally dissolved.

August 19th 1991: Soviet coup attempt of 1991. The August coup occurs in response to a new union treaty to be signed on August 20th.

December 25th 1991: US President George H. W. Bush, after receiving a phone call from Boris Yeltsin, delivers a Christmas Day speech acknowledging the end of the Cold War.

December 25th 1991: Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the USSR. The hammer and sickle is lowered for the last time over the Kremlin.

December 26th 1991: The Council of Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR recognizes the dissolution of the Soviet Union and decides to dissolve itself.

December 31st 1991: All Soviet institutions cease operations.

Sourced from Wikipedia

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