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Cold War Starts
There is no specific date attached to the start of the cold war. It may have started during or after WW2. However this 50 year long war was between the U.S. and communist countries such as the Soviet Union. Each country was racing to build up their political, economical and military strength. Though there was no direct warfare between the 2 superpowers, many wars like the Korean and Vietnam came out of the increasing conflicts between these 2 countries. -
Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech
Winston churchill traveled to the united staes to describe what was happening in Europe. He described the situation as if an iron curtain had decided the continent in to mostly democratic western Europe and communist eastern Europe. -
Stalin creates satellite Countries
Satellite countries, which are countries between Germany and Russia such as Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Poland, were forced to become communist countries. Stalin wanted control over these nations so as to have a barrier between his home ground and the rest of western Europe. By doing this, he was also spreading communism which, was his over all goal. -
Berlin Airlift
Stalin cut off all road and rail access into western Berlin halting shipments of food and supplies into the city. The 2.1 million residents only had about 5 weeks of supplies before they ran out so the British and American started the air lift. For 327 days they flew supply planes into the city around the clock. In total about 277,000 planes brought in 2.3 million tons of food, fuel, medicine, and other supplies to the city. -
NATO Founded
NATO or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was an alliance formed between the U.S., Canada and 10 Western European nations. This organization was designed so that if any one nation were to be attacked, the other nations would provide military support to one another. Other countries later joined, and by the end, NATO had over 500000 troops, and thousands of weapons and tons of other equipment. -
Korean War Starts
This war started when north Korean forces, controlled by the soviets, pushed down into south Korea believing that they would be able to defeat the 500 american troops stationed there. Two days later however, President Truman along with 16 other nations reinforced his men with over 590,000 troops. -
Truman Fires McArthur
President truman, who at the time, was McArthurs boss, didn't agree with his urge to wage a full scale war against china. McArthur secretly was writing to journalists, and republican leaders in attempt to make military decisions. Truman who wanted to put together a settlement of the war could no longer put up with McArthurs behavior. Finally Truman announced that he had Fired McArther for trying to sabotage his policy. -
Hydrogen Bomb Exploded in Pacific
The hydrogen bomb or h- bomb was the next step in nuclear weaponry advancement. Created and tested by first the U.S., the H- bomb was estimated to be 1000 times stronger then the previous nuclear weapons created. This gave the U.S. a lead in the arms race for a short period of time, however the Soviet Union shortly detonated their own thermonuclear device. -
Stalin Dies
After Stalin died, there was no defined way in which the next ruler was to succeed another. At first a group of leaders shared powers but as time went on, one man named Nakita Khrushchev gained control. He, like Stalin also thought that communism would rule the world however, he believed it could be achieved peacefully. Instead of war, nations would compete economically and scientifically. -
McCarthy censored by senate
McCarthy, who began making dozens of unsupported accusations on suspected communists in the 1950s and later charged the democratic party of 20 years of treason for allowing communist infiltration into the government. Nobody spoke up against McCarthy until finally the senate investigated one of his charges against the US army. The public gave up their support for him and eventually the senate condemned him for improper conduct. McCarthy died 3 years, suffering from alcoholism. -
Geneva Conference
President Eisenhower, traveled to Geneva Switzerland to meet with Soviet leaders and discuss an open skies proposal. The idea of this proposal was to agree that planes could fly over each others countries to guard against surprise nuclear attacks. -
Suez Canal Crisis
Egypt wanted to build a damn on the Nile but needed help. The U.S and Great Britain agreed to aid in the construction. However, the Egyptian leader tried to play the U.S. and Soviets by improving relations with each country in order to receive more aid. When the U.S. found out that Egypt was making deals with the Soviets, they withdrew their support. -
Sputnik Launched
Sputnik, the first man made satellite, was launched into orbit around the earth by the Soviet Union starting what is known today as the Space Race. Shortly after sputnik, American Scientists worked profusely to develop their own spacecraft. Their first attempt was a humiliating disaster, however they soon managed to launch a successful mission. The Soviets lead in the arms race was short lived and the U.S. managed to keep up in the race. -
NASA Created
President Eisenhower signed an act creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration or (NASA). This was so that the U.S. could keep up with the Soviet Union who had just launched the first artificial satellite. -
Cuban Revolution
The crisis began when Fidel Castro lead a guerrilla movement to over through the current dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Castro openly announced that he was a communist and welcomed aid from the Soviet Union. This caused serious problems between Cuban-American Relations. Some Cubans were happy with their new leader and his willingness to stand up to the U.S. Others saw Castro as a tyrant and went into exile, mainly to the U.S. -
U-2 incident
U-2 planes were used for secrete high altitude flights over Soviet territory with out being detected. U.S. officials were afraid of sending these missions because they knew that the Soviets were aware that these missions were taking place. Eisenhower himself didn't want to send anymore missions but agreed to one last mission. That last flight was shot down by a soviet pilot and the American pilot was captured and jailed. The 1960's began with a new fiery tensions between the two superpowers. -
Bay of pigs
This was a secret mission in which the CIA trained a 1500 cuban exiles so that they could invade Cuba and hopefully start an uprising against Castro. Kennedy approved the mission though he learned of it only 9 days after being elected. The mission was a complete disaster. The airstrike designed to take out the Cuban air force failed and a distraction group never reached its destination. As a result, when the exiles reached Cuba, they faced 25,000 troops backed with tanks, planes and aircraft. -
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was literally a concrete wall that divided the city into west Berlin and east Berlin. The wall was built to stop refugees from the communist east to the free west. The refugees wanted to leave their devastated part of the city for an improving life in west Berlin. This action dangerously weakened the country economy. President kennedy did not let the Berlin Wall interfere with his actions to hold western Berlin, he would not let communists drive the U.S. out of the city. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuba was still receiving aid from the Soviet Union and in October, photographs of launch sites equipped with missiles were delivered to Kennedy. In response Kennedy stated that any missile launched at the U.S. would result on an all out attack on the soviet union. The U.S. Navy prevented any soviet ship from reaching Cuba and 100,000 troops in florida prepare for attack. Eventually the two leaders agreed to step down, the Soviets removed their missiles, and the U.S. disband their troops. -
Us and USSR Establish Hotline
President Kennedy and Khrushchev, the Soviet's Leader, began to realize the magnitude of their situation. A split second decision is all that separated Cold War peace and nuclear disaster. To ease the tension, Kennedy established a hot line between the White House and Kremlin that allowed the leaders of the two nations to have instant communication in the case of another crisis. They also both agreed ban atmospheric nuclear testing by signing a Limited Test Ban Treaty.
