Timeline of the Cold War

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Timeline of the Cold War

• Part 1
• The 1940s

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Yalta Conference

• February 1945
• Cold war begins (prior tensions?)
• Free elections in Eastern European countries
  Poland, others?
• Create new international peace keeping body based
  on Atlantic Charter principles
• USSR to enter war against Japan after Germany
  surrenders in exchange for islands (?)

The Big Three
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Allied Occupation of Germany

• Potsdam Conference July 1945
• German occupation zones
• (draw)

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The Atomic Bomb

• August 1945
• Save American lives
• Justify the cost
• Intimidate USSR

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Iron Curtain
Stettin

• March 1946
• Churchill speech

Trieste
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• From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the
  Adriatic an "iron curtain" has descended across
  the Continent. Behind that line lie all the
  capitals of the ancient states of Central and
  Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna,
  Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia all
  these famous cities and the populations around
  them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere,
  and all are subject, in one form or another, not
  only to Soviet influence but to a very high and
  in some cases increasing measure of control from
  Moscow.

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Truman Doctrine

• March 1947
• Greek civil war
• US policy of aiding nations defending themselves
  against communist forces
• Greece and Turkey

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Marshall Plan

• June 1947
• Sec. State George Marshall
• USA provide aid to all European nations that
  needed it
• Congress approves 12.5 billion after Soviet
  tanks enter Czechoslovakia

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The Berlin Airlift
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Berlin Blockade and Airlift

• June 1948 to May 1949
• USSR cuts off West Berlin
• Operation Vittles
• 1.5 million tons
• 200,000 flights
• The Candy Bomber!

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Col.Gail Halvorsen
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NATO

• July 1949
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• 12 nation mutual defense agreement

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The USSR gets the bomb!

• September 1949

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Chinese Revolution ends

• September 1949
• Mao Zedongs Communist forces declare victory
• Chiang Kai-Sheks Nationalists set up separate
  Chinese government on Taiwan
• Who lost China to communism?
• So much for containment ????

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Timeline of the Cold war

• Part 2
• The 1950s

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Korean War Begins

• June 1950
• North Korea invades South Korea
• US leads UN force to drive North Koreans out of
  South Korea
• China enters war when UN/US forces get too close
  to their border (Yalu River)

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The Hydrogen Bomb

• November 1952
• USA detonated first thermonuclear bomb
• August 1953
• USSR detonated its own h-bomb
• Arms race is on in earnest

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The Rosenbergs

• June 1953
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed for spying
• USSR able to detonate first atomic bomb ahead of
  schedule thanks to information gained from them

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Korean War ends

• July 1953
• Eisenhower is new president of USA
• Stalin died in March
• Armistice signed
• 38th // remains in place
• 94,000 UN dead (54, 000 Americans)
• 1 million South Koreans
• 2 million North Koreans

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Vietnam

• July 1954
• Geneva Accords temporarily divide Vietnam at the
  17th //
• North Vietnam (communist)/ South Vietnam
  (democratic)
• until elections (1956?) can be held to unify the
  country

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Warsaw Pact

• May 1955
• USSR with satellite nations of Eastern Europe
• Formed as counterweight to NATO

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Sputnik

• October 1957
• Using an ICBM
• USSR launched first unmanned satellite
• Implications for the USA?
• Space race begins

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Cuban Revolution

• January 1959
• Fidel Castros Communist forces take over Cuba

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Timeline of the Cold War

• Part 3
• The 1960s

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U-2 Shot Down

• May 1960
• Gary Powers captured alive
• Soviet Premier Krushchev uses beginning of the
  Paris conference to denounce both USA and
  Eisenhower, then leaves abruptly
• The 1960s open with tension between superpowers
  as high as ever

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Bay of Pigs Invasion

• April 1961
• CIA trained and equipped Cuban exiles fail to
  overthrow Castros communist regime
• President Kennedy takes full responsibility
• Significant propaganda victory for Castro

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The Berlin Wall

• August 1961
• Millions of East Germans have escaped into West
  Berlin
• Krushchev wants it stopped
• He knows USA wont give up on West Berlin
• So he orders a wall to be built across the city

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The Cuban Missile Crisis

• October 1962
• Afraid that USA still intends to overthrow him,
  Castro asked USSR for protection
• U2 flights take pictures of Soviet nuclear
  weapons sites on the island
• Pres. Kennedy demands USSR withdraw weapons from
  Cuba
• 13-day crisis ends with Soviets backing down

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Positive Consequences of Missile Crisis

• April 1963
• Hot line established between Oval Office and
  Kremlin
• July 1963
• Limited (Nuclear) Test Ban Treaty
• No nuclear bomb testing in the atmosphere

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JFK Assassinated

• November 1963
• Lee Harvey Oswald, a communist sympathizer????
• Was the USSR involved ???

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Good luck on the Unit Three test!
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Gulf of Tonkin Incident

• August 1964
• USS Maddox fired on by North Vietnamese gun boats
  in international waters (?)
• Congress passes Tonkin Gulf Resolution
• LBJ given broad military powers in Vietnam (?)

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Escalation of the War in Vietnam

• February 1965
• Operation Rolling Thunder
• Bombing of North Vietnam
• March 1965
• First American combat troops to South Vietnam
• June 1965
• 50,000 US troops fighting Vietcong
• Vietnam War now Americanized

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1968

• January Tet Offensive launched by Vietcong in
  South Vietnam
• April MLK assassinated
• June Robert Kennedy assassinated
• August Soviets crush uprising in Czechoslovakia
• 500,000 US troops now in South Vietnam
• November Nixon elected with secret plan for
  ending war in Vietnam

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Apollo 11

• July 1969
• First moon landing
• USA definitely winning the space race