1945 -- Yalta With the defeat of Nazi Germany imminent, the Big Three Allies meet in the Crimean resort town of Yalta from February 4-11. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agree to jointly govern postwar Germany, while Stalin pledges fair and open

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1945 -- Yalta With the defeat of Nazi Germany
imminent, the Big Three Allies meet in the
Crimean resort town of Yalta from February 4-11.
Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agree to jointly
govern postwar Germany, while Stalin pledges fair
and open elections in Poland.
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1946 -- Iron Curtain On March 5, at Westminster
College in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill
declares, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste
in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended
across the continent."
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1947 -- Truman Doctrine On March 12, President
Truman requests 400 million in aid from Congress
to combat communism in Greece and Turkey. The
Truman Doctrine pledges to provide American
economic and military assistance to any nation
threatened by communism.
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1947 -- Marshall Plan On June 5, U.S. Secretary
of State George Marshall proposes a massive aid
program to rebuild Europe from the ravages of
World War II. Nearly 13 billion in U.S. aid was
sent to Europe from 1948 to 1952. The Soviet
Union and communist Eastern Europe decline U.S.
aid, citing "dollar enslavement."
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1948 -- Berlin airlift On June 24, the Soviet
Union makes a bid for control of Berlin by
blockading all land access to the city. From June
1948 to May 1949, U.S. and British planes airlift
1.5 million tons of supplies to the residents of
West Berlin. After 200,000 flights, the Soviet
Union lifts the blockade.
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1949 -- China In June, Chinese communists
declare victory over Chiang Kai-shek's
Nationalist forces, which later flee to Taiwan.
On October 1, Mao Tse-tung proclaims the People's
Republic of China. Two months later, Mao travels
to Moscow, where he negotiates the Sino-Soviet
Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual
Assistance.
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1950 -- Korean War On June 25, North Korean
communist forces cross the 38th parallel and
invade South Korea. On June 27, Truman orders
U.S. forces to assist the South Koreans while the
U.N. Security Council condemns the invasion and
establishes a 15-nation fighting force. Chinese
troops enter the conflict by year's end.
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1951 -- Rosenberg Spy Case On March 29, 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, despite outrage from liberals who portray
them as victims of an anti-communist witch hunt.
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1952 -- Hydrogen bomb On November 1, the United
States explodes the first hydrogen bomb at a test
site in the Marshall Islands. Less than a year
later, the Soviets announce their first test of a
hydrogen bomb.
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1953 -- Stalin dies Korean War ends Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin dies of a stroke on March 5.
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.
The willingness of China and North Korea to end
the fighting was in part attributed to Stalin's
death.
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1954 -- Dien Bien Phu After a long siege,
Vietnamese communists under Ho Chi Minh defeat
French colonial forces at Dien Bien Phu on May 7.
In July, the Geneva Accords divide the country at
the 17th parallel, creating a North and South
Vietnam. The United States assumes the chief
responsibility of providing anti-communist aid to
South Vietnam.
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1955 -- Massive Retaliation On January 12, U.S.
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles first
announces the doctrine of Massive Retaliation. It
threatens full-scale nuclear attack on the Soviet
Union in response to communist aggression
anywhere in the world.
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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.
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1957 -- Sputnik On October 4, the Soviet Union
launches Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to
orbit the Earth. In 1958, the U.S. creates the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
and the space race is in full gear.
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1959 -- Castro takes power On January 1, leftist
forces under Fidel Castro overthrow the
government of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba. Castro
soon nationalizes the sugar industry and signs
trade agreements with the Soviet Union. The next
year, his government seizes U.S. assets on the
island.
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1960 -- The U-2 Affair On May 1, an American
high-altitude U-2 spy plane is shot down on a
mission over the Soviet Union. After the Soviets
announce the capture of pilot Francis Gary
Powers, the United States recants earlier
assertions that the plane was on a weather
research mission.
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New kind of President

• Foreign Policy top priority
• World situation
• Flexible Response
• Crisis over Berlin
• Southeast Asia
• Diem vs. Ho Chi Minh
• Cabinet
• Best and brightest
• New Frontier
• Peace Corps

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1961 -- Bay of Pigs An U.S.-organized invasion
force of 1,400 Cuban exiles is defeated by
Castro's government forces on Cuba's south coast
at the Bay of Pigs. Launched from Guatemala in
ships and planes provided by the United States,
the invaders surrender on April 20 after three
days of fighting. Kennedy takes full
responsibility for the disaster.
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1961 -- 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.
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1962 -- Cuban Missile Crisis After the failed
Bays of Pigs invasion, the Soviet Union installs
nuclear missiles in Cuba capable of reaching most
of the continental United States. After U-2
flights confirm their existence, Kennedy orders a
naval blockade of Cuba on October 22 until the
Soviet Union removes its missiles. On October 28,
the Soviets agree to remove the missiles,
defusing one of the most dangerous confrontations
of the Cold War.
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1963 -- 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. Kennedy and
Khrushchev were often forced to communicate
through public broadcasts during the Cuban
Missile Crisis.
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1964 -- Gulf of Tonkin Resolution North
Vietnamese patrol boats fired on the USS Mattox
in the Gulf of Tonkin on August 2. On August 7,
the U.S. Congress approves the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution, granting President Johnson authority
to send U.S. troops to South Vietnam.
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1967 -- Six Day War On June 5, Israel launches
an attack that becomes known as the Six Day War,
seizing the Sinai and Gaza Strip from Egypt, the
West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan and the
Golan Heights from Syria. The Soviet Union
accuses the United States of encouraging Israeli
aggression.
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1968 -- Tet Offensive Viet Cong guerrillas and
North Vietnamese Army troops launch attacks
across South Vietnam on January 30, the start of
the lunar new year Tet. In Saigon, guerrillas
battle Marines at the U.S. Embassy. In March,
Johnson orders a halt to the U.S. bombing of
North Vietnam and offers peace talks.
http//www.nam-vet.net/photocangedwar.html
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1969 -- 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.
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1969 -- 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.
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1972 -- Nixon visits China Nixon becomes the
first U.S. president to visit China, meeting with
Mao Tse-tung on February 21. The two countries
issue a communique recognizing their "essential
differences" while making it clear that
"normalization of relations" was in all nations'
best interests. The rapprochement changes the
balance of power with the Soviets.
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1973 -- 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.
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1975 -- Cambodia The communist Khmer Rouge takes
power in Cambodia on April 16. Cambodia's
educated and urban population is forced into the
countryside as part of a state experiment in
agrarian communism. Under the regime of Pol Pot,
as many as 3 million Cambodians die from 1975 to
1979.
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1979 -- Afghanistan On December 25, 100,000
Soviet troops invade Afghanistan as communist
Babrak Karmal seizes control of the government.
U.S.-backed Muslim guerrilla fighters wage a
costly war against the Soviets for nearly a
decade before Soviet troops withdraw in 1988.
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1983 -- 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.
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1985 -- 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.
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1987 -- INF On December 8, Reagan and Gorbachev
sign the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
in Washington. It mandates the removal of more
than 2,600 medium-range nuclear missiles from
Europe, eliminating the entire class of Soviet
SS-20 and U.S. Cruise and Pershing II missiles.
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1989 -- Berlin Wall falls 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.
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1990 -- German unification At a September 12
meeting in Moscow, the United States, Soviet
Union, Great Britain, France and the two Germanys
agree to end Allied occupation rights in Germany.
On October 3, East and West Germany unite as the
Federal Republic of Germany.
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1991 -- 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.
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1991 Operation Desert Storm
In August of 1990, the country of Iraq under
dictator Saddam Hussein invades the small country
Kuwait in order to help pay for debts incurred
during their war with Iran. In January of 91,
President G.H.W. Bush along with the United
Nations attack Iraq and clear them from Kuwait.
The United States makes a controversial decision
and does not overthrow Husseins regime. Instead
the U.S. will keep a presence in the middle East
and enforce no fly zones over the northern and
southern parts of the Iraq
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No Fly Zones 1991-2008
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Terrorism on Americans 1991-2008
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World Trade Center Bombing, February 26, 1993
The World Trade Center in New York City was badly
damaged when a car bomb planted by Islamic
terrorists exploded in an underground garage. The
bomb left 6 people dead and 1,000 injured. The
men carrying out the attack were followers of
Umar Abd al-Rahman, an Egyptian cleric who
preached in the New York City area.
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Bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City,
April 19, 1995 Right-wing extremists Timothy
McVeigh and Terry Nichols destroyed the Federal
Building in Oklahoma City with a massive truck
bomb that killed 166 and injured hundreds more in
what was up to then the largest terrorist attack
on American soil.
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U.S. Embassy Bombings in East Africa, August 7,
1998 A bomb exploded at the rear entrance of the
U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 12 U.S.
citizens, 32 Foreign Service Nationals (FSNs),
and 247 Kenyan citizens. Approximately 5,000
Kenyans, 6 U.S. citizens, and 13 FSNs were
injured. The U.S. Embassy building sustained
extensive structural damage. Almost
simultaneously, a bomb detonated outside the U.S.
Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 7
FSNs and 3 Tanzanian citizens, and injuring 1
U.S. citizen and 76 Tanzanians. The explosion
caused major structural damage to the U.S.
Embassy facility. The U.S. Government held Usama
Bin Laden responsible.
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Kenya
Tanzania
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Attack on U.S.S. Cole, October 12, 2000 In Aden,
Yemen, a small dingy carrying explosives rammed
the destroyer U.S.S. Cole, killing 17 sailors and
injuring 39 others. Supporters of Usama Bin Laden
were suspected.
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Terrorist Attacks on U.S. Homeland, September 11,
2001 Two hijacked airliners crashed into the
twin towers of the World Trade Center. Soon
thereafter, the Pentagon was struck by a third
hijacked plane. A fourth hijacked plane,
suspected to be bound for a high-profile target
in Washington, crashed into a field in southern
Pennsylvania. The attacks killed 3,025 U.S.
citizens and other nationals. President Bush and
Cabinet officials indicated that Usama Bin Laden
was the prime suspect and that they considered
the United States in a state of war with
international terrorism. In the aftermath of the
attacks, the United States formed the Global
Coalition Against Terrorism.
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