Timeline of the Cold War
Although the Cold War can be considered to have began in 1947, the timeline also lists important dates in the origins of the Cold War.
- Outbreak of World War I
- Russian Revolution
- Start of the Russian Civil War
- Establishment of the Soviet Union after the Reds win the Russian Civil War
- Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact also known as the Nazi-Soviet Pact
- Outbreak of World War II
- February 4: The Yalta Conference occurs, deciding post-war status and visions of both the US and the Soviet Union.
- July 24: US president Harry Truman informs Soviet Union president Joseph Stalin that the United States has nuclear weapons (Stalin is already aware, via espionage).
- August 2: The Potsdam Conference ends with the Potsdam Agreement that organizes the division and reconstruction of Europe after World War II.
- September 5: Igor Gouzenko, a clerk working in the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, Canada, defects and provides proof to the RCMP 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.
- January 7: Republic of Austria is reconstituted, with its 1937 borders, but divided into four zones of control: American, British, French, and Soviet.
- January 11: Enver Hoxha declares the People's Republic of Albania, with himself as Prime Minister.
- February 22: George F. Kennan writes his Long Telegram, describing his interpretation of the objectives and intentions of the Soviet leadership.
- March 2: British soldiers withdraw from their zone of occupation in southern Iran. Soviet soldiers remain in their northern sector.
- March 5: Winston Churchill warns of the descent of an Iron Curtain across Europe.
- July 4: The Philippines gain independence from the United States, and begin fighting communist Huk rebels.
- September 8: In a referendum, Bulgaria votes for the establishment of a People's Republic, deposing King Simeon II. Western countries dismiss vote as fundamentally flawed.
- Chinese Civil War resumed between Communist and Nationalist forces.
- French landings in Indochina begin the First Indochina War. They are resisted by the Viet Minh communists who want national independence.
- March: The Greek Civil War reignites between communists and the conservative Greek government.
- May: Soviet forces evacuate Iran after a crisis.
- 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.
- February 25: Communist Party takes control in Czechoslovakia, after President Edvard Beneš accepts the resignation of all non-communist ministers.
- April 3: Truman signs the Marshall Plan into effect. By the end of the programs, the United States had given $12.4bn in economic assistance to European countries.
- May 10: 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 18: A communist insurgency in Malaya begins against British and Commonwealth forces.
- June 21: In Germany, the Bizone and the French zone in control launch a common currency, the Deutschmark.
- June 24: 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 relieve the civilians of Berlin by air.
- July 17: The constitution of the Republic of Korea is effected.
- September 9: The Soviet Union declares the People's Democratic Republic of Korea to be the legitimate government of all of Korea, with Kim Il-Sung as Prime Minister.
- April 4: The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is founded by the 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 11: The Soviet blockade of Berlin ends , with its capital at East Berlin.
- October 1: 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 16: Nikolaos 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.
- January 6: The United Kingdom recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom.
- January 31: The last Kuomintang soldiers surrender on continental China.
- February 14: The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China sign a pact of mutual defence.
- March 1: Chiang Kai-Shek moves his capital to Taipei, Taiwan, establishing a stand-off with the People's Republic of China.
- April 14: 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 9: Robert Schuman describes his ambition of a united Europe. Known as the Schuman Declaration, it marks the beginning of the creation of the European Communities.
- June 25: North Korea invades South Korea, sparking the Korean War.
- June 27: The United Nations votes to send forces to Korea to aid South Korea. The Soviet Union cannot veto, as it is boycotting the Security Council over the admission of Mongolia. 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.
- June 28: Seoul, the capital of South Korea, falls to North Korean forces.
- July 5: 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 15: United Nations forces land at Inchon. Defeating the North Korean forces, they press inland and re-capture Seoul.
- October 7: United Nations forces cross the 38th parallel, into North Korea.
- October 8: Forces from the People's Republic of China mobilise along the Yalu River.
- October 19: Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, falls to United Nations forces.
- October 25: China invades Korea with 300,000 soldiers, catching the United Nations by surprise. However, they withdraw after initial engagements.
- November 26: United Nations forces approach the Yalu River. In response, China invades Korea again, but with a 500,000 strong army. This offensive forces the United Nations back towards South Korea.
- January 4: Chinese soldiers capture Seoul.
- March 14: United Nations forces recapture Seoul during Operation Ripper. By the end of March, they had reached the 38th Parallel, and formed a defensive line across the Korean peninsula.
- April 11: President Truman fires Douglas MacArthur from command of US forces in Korea.
- April 18: The European Coal and Steel Community is formed by the Treaty of Paris.
- September 1: Australia, New Zealand, and the United States sign the ANZUS Treaty. This compels the three countries to cooperate on matters of defence and security in the Pacific.
- September 20: Greece and Turkey join NATO.
- April 28: Japan signs the Treaty of San Francisco and the Treaty of Taipei, formally ending its period of occupation and isolation, and becoming a sovereign state.
- June 21: The United States launches the world's first nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus. The nuclear submarine would become the ultimate nuclear deterrent.
- June 30: The Marshall Plan ends, with European industrial output now well above that of 1938.
- July 26: Gamal Abdel Nasser heads a coup against King Farouk of Egypt.
- October 2: The United Kingdom successfully tests its atomic bomb in Operation Hurricane. The test makes the UK the world's third nuclear power.
- November 1: The United States detonates the world's first hydrogen bomb in Operation Ivy.
- January 20: Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes President of the United States.
- March 5: Joseph Stalin dies, setting off a power struggle to succeed him.
- July 27: Cease-fire ends Korean War.
- August 19: The CIA assisted a royalist coup that ousted Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh (Operation Ajax). The coup was organised because of Iranian nationalization of the oil industry and fears that Iran may join the Soviet camp.
- September 7: Khrushchev becomes leader of the Soviet Communist Party. His main rival, Beria, is executed in December.
- 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.
- Yugoslavia splits from the Soviet camp.
- 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.
- February 24: 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.
- March: Soviet aid to Syria begins. The Syrians will remain allies of the Soviets until the end of the Cold War.
- May 9: West Germany joins NATO and begins rearmament.
- May 14: 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 15: Austria is neutralized and allied occupation ends.
- July: Eisenhower and Khrushchev attend the Geneva Four Power Conference, the first between the leaders.
- June 28: in Poznań, mass protest of workers against communists. Fights in town.
- July 26: Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal.
- October 23: 1956 Hungarian Revolution: Hungarians revolt against the Soviet dominated government. They are crushed by the Soviet military, which reinstates a Communist government.
- October 29: Suez Crisis: France, Israel, and the United Kingdom attack Egypt with the goal of removing Nasser from power. Diplomatic pressures from the United States force the attackers to withdraw.
- January 5: The Eisenhower doctrine commits the U.S. to defending Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan from Communist influence.
- January 22: Israeli forces withdraw from the Sinai which had been occupied the previous year.
- A Communist insurgency begins in South Vietnam, sponsored by North Vietnam.
- October 4: Sputnik satellite launched
- July 14: A coup in Iraq 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 23: Second Taiwan Strait Crisis begins when China begins to bomb Quemoy.
- 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.
- May 1: American pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down in his Lockheed U-2 spy plane while over the Soviet Union, thus causing the U-2 Incident.
- June: Sino-Soviet split: The Chinese, angered by being the junior partner to the Soviet Union, declare their version of Communism superior and begin to compete with them for influence, thus adding a third dimension to the Cold War.
- July 31: Communist insurgents in Malaya are defeated.
- August 9: Pathet Lao (communist) revolt in Laos begins.
- January 20: John F. Kennedy becomes President of the United States.
- April 15: Bay of Pigs Invasion: CIA backed invasion of Cuba by counter-revolutionaries fails.
- August 13: The Berlin Wall is built by the Soviets to stop the flood of people attempting to escape East Germany.
- August 17: Alliance for Progress aid to Latin America from the United States begins.
- Angolan nationalists, including communists, begin an insurgency against Portuguese rule.
- 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 been installing bases, including nuclear weapons, on Cuba. Kennedy orders a quarantine of the island that causes a tense crisis and almost a nuclear war. Yet the Soviets back down and agree to withdraw their missiles from Cuba in exchange for a withdrawal of similar American missiles from Turkey and guarantees 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 4: United States President Lyndon B. Johnson claimed that North Vietnamese forces had fired on two American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Although there was a first attack, the second attack was later proved unfounded. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident led to the open involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War, after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
- October 14: Brezhnev succedes Khrushchev to become General secetary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
- October 16: China tests its first atomic bomb.
- 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 so-called 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.
- January 20: Richard M. Nixon becomes President of the United States.
- March 2: Border clashes between the Soviet Union and China occurs
- March 17: The U.S. begins bombing Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.
- July 25: ”Vietnamization” begins with U.S. troop withdrawals from Vietnam and the burden of combat being placed on the South Vietnamese.
- September 1: Gaddafi overthrows the Libyan monarchy and expels British and American personnel. Libya aligns itself with the Soviet Union.
- March 18: Lon Nol takes power in Cambodia. Khmer Rouge Communists begin attacking the new regime, which wants to end foreign presence in Cambodia.
- November 18: United State's aid to Cambodia to support the Lon Nol regime begins.
- Feb 8: South Vietnamese forces enter Laos to briefly cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
- March 25: Third Indo-Pakistani War, Bangladesh becomes independent from Pakistan.
- February 21: Nixon visits China, the first time any U.S. President visited the People's Republic of China.
- March 30: North Vietnam invades South Vietnam only to be repulsed by the South with major American air support.
- May 26: SALT I agreement signals the beginning of détente between the U.S. and U.S.S.R.
- September 2: The Summit Series, a series of eight hockey games against the Soviets and Canada. In the very last game, Canadian Paul Henderson scored a goal which lead Canada to victory.
- January 27: Paris Peace Accords ends American involvement in the Vietnam War. Congress cuts off funds for bombing Indochina.
- October 6: Israel is attacked by Egypt and Syria, who are defeated with heavy losses on all sides in the Yom Kippur War
- September 11: The Marxist President of Chile, Salvador Allende, is deposed and dies during a military coup led by Augusto Pinochet. There are accusations of American involvement.
- October 22: Egypt defects to the American camp by accepting a U.S. cease-fire proposal during the October 1973 War.
- September 12: The pro-Western monarchy of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, is ousted by the Marxist military junta known as the derg.
- August 9: Gerald Ford becomes President of the United States upon resignation of Nixon.
- April 17: The Maoist Khmer Rouge takes power in Cambodia and begins a genocide called the "Killing Fields".
- April 30: North Vietnam invades South Vietnam. South Vietnam surrenders and the two countries are united under a Communist government.
- November 29: Pathet Lao takes power in Laos.
- May 12: Mayaguez Incident The Khmer Rouge seizes an American ship prompting American intervention to recapture it and its crew. In the end, the crew is released from captivity.
- June 25: Portugal withdraws from Angola and Mozambique, where Marxist governments are installed, the former with backing from Cuban troops. Civil war engulfs both nations that involves Angolans, Mozambicans, South Africans, and Cubans with the superpowers supporting their respective ideology.
- 1st August : Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe signed by the United States, Canada, the Soviet Union and the countries of Europe
- 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.
- March 15: The Ogaden War ends with a Somali defeat.
- December 25: A Communist regime is installed in Afghanistan
- January 7: Vietnam deposes Khmer Rouge and installed Pro-Vietnam, Pro-Soviet government.
- June 18: SALT II treaty was signed by Leonid Brezhnev and President Jimmy Carter.
- February 17: Sino-Vietnamese War, China launches a punitive attack on North Vietnam to punish it for invading Cambodia.
- January 16: Iranian Revolution ousts the pro-Western Shah and installs a theocracy under Ayatollah. CENTO dissolves as a result.
- July 17: Sandinista Communists overthrow Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua. Contra insurgency begins.
- May 9: War breaks out in El Salvador between Communist insurgents and the government.
- July 3: President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. [2]
- December 24: The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan to save the crumbling Communist regime there, resulting in the end of detente.
- July 19: United States boycotts the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow
- February 22: 1980 The US men's Olympic Ice Hockey Team wins over USSR
- January 20: Ronald Reagan becomes President of the United States.
- The U.S. begins to support anti-Sandinista Contras.
- August 19: 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.
- September 3: Poland and the Uprising of Solidarity
- May 30: Spain joins NATO.
- June 6: Israel invades Lebanon to end raids and clashes with Syrian troops also there.
- October 25: U.S. forces invade Grenada to abort the construction of a Soviet funded airstrip.
- November 1983: Exercise Able Archer 83 — The USSR mistakes a test of NATO's nuclear-release procedures as a fake cover for a NATO attack and subsequently raises its nuclear alert level.
- President Reagan outlines a foreign policy speech in January reinforcing his previous thoughts
- Margaret Thatcher and the UK government devise a plan to open new channels of dialogue with Soviet leadership candidates, meeting and bonding with Mikhail Gorbachev at Chequers. [3]
- March 11: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union
- February: France launches the Operation Sparrowhawk in order to end the Libya-Chad War.
- February 28: Sweden's radical Prime Minister Olof Palme is assassinated in Stockholm by an unknown gunman.
- April 15: U.S. planes bomb Libya in response to Libya’s support of terrorism.
- November 3: Iran-Contra scandal: The Reagan administration has been selling arms to Iran to free hostages and transferring the profit to the Contra rebels.
- 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).
- 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.
- February 26: The Sandinista government in Nicaragua is rejected in democratic elections.
- October 3: Germany is reunited.
- August 19: Soviet coup attempt of 1991. The August coup, in response to a new union treaty to be signed on August 20.
- December 25:President Bush, after receiving a phone call from Boris Yeltsin, delivers a Christmas day speech acknowledging the end of the Cold War
- December 25:Gorbachev resigns as General Secretary of the CPSU.
- December 31: The Red Flag is lowered for the last time over the Kremlin.
- February 1: President George Bush of The United States and President Boris Yeltsin of The Russian Federation Declare a formal end to the Cold War.