Timeline of events in the Cold War

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Although the Cold War can be considered to have begun in 1947, the timeline also lists important dates in the origins of the Cold War.

Contents

  • January 1: The American and British zones of control in Germany are united to form the Bizone also known as Bizonia.
  • March 12: United States President Harry S. Truman announces the Truman Doctrine. The Doctrine states that the USA would remain committed to "contain" further communist expansion. Truman cites a domino effect as a possibility.
  • May 22: US extends $400m of military aid to Greece and Turkey, signalling its intent to contain communism in the Mediterranean.
  • June 5: 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.
  • August 15: India and Pakistan granted independence by the United Kingdom.
  • November 14: 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.

  • May 7: The Viet Minh defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu. France withdraws from Indochina, leaving four independent states: Cambodia, Laos, North Vietnam (founded by the communist former Viet Minh) and South Vietnam (anti-communists). The Geneva Accords calls for free elections to unite Vietnam, but none of the major parties wish this to occur.
  • May: The “Huk” revolt in the Philippines is defeated.
  • June 18: The elected leftist Guatemalan government was 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 23: Nasser, an Egyptian nationalist, ousts the pro-British King Farouk and establishes a dictatorship. Soon he becomes an important Soviet ally.
  • August 11: The Taiwan Strait Crisis begins with the Chinese Communist shelling of Taiwanese islands. The U.S. backs Taiwan, and the crisis resolves itself as both sides decline to take action.
  • September 8: 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.

  • January 1: Cuban Revolution. Fidel Castro becomes the leader of a new Marxist Cuba. Cuban inspired guerrilla movements spring up across Latin America.
  • March 24: New Republic government of Iraq leaves CENTO
  • December: Formation of the National Liberation Front in South Vietnam. It is a Communist insurgent movement that vows to overthrow the anti-communist South Vietnamese government. It is supplied extensively by North Vietnam.

  • July 20: Neutralization of Laos is established by international agreement but North Vietnam refuses to withdraw its personnel. [1]
  • September 8: Himalayan War: Chinese forces attack India, making claims on numerous border areas.
  • October 16: Cuban Missile Crisis: The Soviets have secretly been installing military bases, including nuclear weapons, on Cuba, some 90 miles from the U.S. mainland. Kennedy orders a "quarantine" (a naval blockade) of the island that intensifies the crisis and brings the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. to the brink of nuclear war. In the end, 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 U.S. would not move against the Castro regime.
  • November 21: End of the Himalayan War. China occupies a small strip of Indian land. The war will influence India, one of the leaders of the non-aligned movement, to indeed align itself with the Soviets in a decade.

  • November 22: Lyndon B. Johnson becomes President of the United States upon assassination of Kennedy.

  • August 15: Second Indo-Pakistani War.
  • April 28: U.S. forces invade the Dominican Republic to prevent a similar communist takeover like that occurred in Cuba.
  • March 8: U.S. military build up to defend South Vietnam. North Vietnam has also committed its forces in the war. U.S. begins sustained bombing of North Vietnam.
  • November 14: Battle of the Ia Drang-1st major engagement between U.S. Troops and regular Vietnamese forces.

  • May 23: Egypt blocks Straits of Tiran Egypt then expelled UN peacekeepers from Sinai and moved their army in to the Sinai Peninsula as preparation for attack.
  • June 5: As a response to Egypt, Israel invaded and the Six-Day War took place.

  • January 30: Tet Offensive in South Vietnam begins.
  • March 31: Johnson suspends bombings over North Vietnam and announces he is not running for reelection.
  • June 8: Tet Offensive ends in Communist military defeat but psychological victory over the Americans.
  • August 20: Prague Spring Reforms in Communist Czechoslovakia cause Warsaw Pact intervention to crush them.

  • July 20: U.S. military personnel withdraw from Thailand.

  • January 20: Jimmy Carter becomes President of the United States.
  • June 30: SEATO dissolves (not formally until 1977) because of the failure to prevent Communist expansion in East Asia.
  • July 23: The Ogaden War begins with Somalia attacking Ethiopia.

  • October: The Battle of Cuito Carnevale (Angola) begins
  • June: Gorbachev announces Glasnost and Perestroika. Gorbachev's goal in undertaking glasnost was to pressure conservatives within the Party who opposed his policies of economic restructuring - perestroika. Mikhail Gorbachev hoped that through different ranges of openness, debate and participation, the Soviet people would support and participate in perestroika.

  • May 15: The Soviets begin withdrawing from Afghanistan.
  • December 22: South Africa withdraws from South West Africa (Namibia).
  • February 22: Incident: USS Yorktown and USS Caron are engaged off crimean peninsula.

  • January 20: George H.W. Bush becomes President of the United States.
  • May 20: Tiananmen Square protests are crushed by the communist Chinese government.
  • September: Vietnamese troops withdraw from Cambodia.
  • November 9: Revolutions in Eastern Europe: Soviet reforms and their state of bankruptcy have allowed Eastern Europe to rise up against the Communist governments there. The Berlin wall is torn down.
  • Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan.
  • December 14: Democracy is restored in Chile.


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