Timeline of the Cold War

This is a timeline of the main events of the Cold War, a state of political and military tension after World War II between powers in the Western Bloc (the United States, its NATO allies and others) and powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union, its allies in the Warsaw Pact and later the People's Republic of China).

1940s

1945

• February 4–11: The Yalta Conference in Crimea, Russia, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and their top aides. Main attention is deciding the post-war status of Germany. The Allies of World War II (the US, the USSR, United Kingdom and also France) divide Germany into four occupation zones. The Allied nations agree that free elections are to be held in Poland and all countries occupied by Nazi Germany. In addition, the new United Nations are to replace the failed League of Nations.
• March–April: US and Britain outraged as Stalin excludes them from a role in Poland and turns Poland over to a Communist puppet government he controls.
• March–April: Stalin outraged at inaccurate reports about Operation Sunrise that American OSS in Switzerland is negotiating a surrender of German forces; he demands a Russian general be present at all negotiations. Roosevelt vehemently denies the allegation, but closes down the operation in Switzerland. A Russian general is present at the negotiations in Italy that lead to surrender.
• April 12: Roosevelt dies; Vice President Harry S. Truman takes over with little knowledge of current diplomatic efforts, no knowledge of the atomic bomb, and a bias against Russia.
• July 24: At the Potsdam Conference, Truman informs Stalin that the United States has nuclear weapons.
• August 6: Truman follows advice of Secretary of War Henry Stimson and gives permission for the world's first military use of an atomic weapon against the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
• August 8: The USSR honors its agreement to declare war on Japan within three months of the victory in Europe, and invades Manchuria.
• August 9: With no Japanese response to his ultimatums, Truman gives permission for the world's second and last military use of an atomic weapon against the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
• September 2: The Japanese surrender unconditionally to the US. General Douglas MacArthur takes over occupation of Japan, and freezes out Russian and other allied representatives.
• September 5: Igor Gouzenko, a Russian working in the Soviet embassy in Canada, defects and provides proof to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police of a Soviet spy ring operating in Canada and the U.S. The revelations helps change perceptions of the Soviet Union from an ally to a foe.
• November: Stalin refuses to relinquish Soviet-occupied territory in Iran, beginning the Iran Crisis. Two short-lived pro-Soviet states, the Azerbaijan People's Government and the Republic of Mahabad, are formed.

1946

• January: Chinese Civil War resumed between Communist and Nationalist forces.
• January 7: The 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 9: Joseph Stalin makes his Election Speech, in which he states that capitalism and imperialism make future wars inevitable.
• February 22: George F. Kennan writes his Long Telegram, describing his interpretation of the objectives and intentions of the Soviet leadership.
• March: The Greek Civil War reignites between the communists and the Kingdom of Greece.
• March 2: British soldiers withdraw from their zone of occupation in southern Iran. Soviet soldiers remain in their northern sector.
• March 6: Winston Churchill warns of the descent of an Iron Curtain across Europe.
• July 4: The Philippines gains independence from the United States, and begins fighting communist Huk rebels (Hukbalahap Rebellion).
• September 6: In a speech known as the Restatement of Policy on Germany in Stuttgart, James F. Byrnes, United States Secretary of State repudiates the Morgenthau Plan. He states the US intention to keep troops in Europe indefinitely and expresses US approval of the territorial annexation of 29% of pre-war Germany, but does not condone further claims.
• September 8: In a referendum, Bulgaria votes for the establishment of a People's Republic, deposing King Simeon II. Western countries dismiss the vote as fundamentally flawed.
• September 24: Truman is presented with the Clifford-Elsey Report, a document which listed Soviet violations of agreements with the United States.
• September 27: Nikolai Vasilevich Novikov writes a response to Kennan's Long Telegram, known as the 'Novikov Telegram', in which he states that the United States are "striving for world supremacy".
• December 15: The Soviet Union withdraws from Iran. Both the Azerbaijan People's Government and the Republic of Mahabad are dissolved.
• December 19: French landings in Indochina begin the First Indochina War. They are resisted by the Viet Minh communists who want national independence.

1947

• January 1: The American and British zones of control in Germany are united to form the Bizone also known as Bizonia.
• January 19: Poland becomes a communist state with the establishment of the Polish People's Republic.
• March 12: President Harry Truman announces the Truman Doctrine starting with the giving of aid to Greece and Turkey in order to prevent them from falling into the Soviet sphere.
• April 16: Bernard Baruch, in a speech given during the unveiling of his portrait in the South Carolina House of Representatives, coins the term "Cold War" to describe relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.
• May 22: US extends $400 million 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.
• July 11: The US announces new occupation policies in Germany. The occupation directive JCS 1067, whose economic section had prohibited "steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany [or] designed to maintain or strengthen the German economy", is replaced by the new US occupation directive JCS 1779 which instead notes that "An orderly, prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany."
• August 14: India and Pakistan gain independence from the United Kingdom.
• September: The Soviet Union forms the Communist Information Bureau (COMINFORM) with which it dictates the actions of leaders and communist parties across its spheres of influence.
• 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.
• December 30: In Romania, King Michael I of Romania is forced to abdicate by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, the monarchy is abolished and the Popular Republic of Romania is instituted instead. The Communist Party will rule the country until December 1989.

1948

• February 25: The Communist Party takes control in the Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948.
• March 10: Czechoslovakian Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk is reported having committed suicide.
• April 3: Truman signs the Marshall Plan into effect. By the end of the programs, the United States has given $12.4 billion in economic assistance to Western 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.
• May 14: The State of Israel is formed, with David Ben-Gurion as its first Prime Minister.
• June 12: Mátyás Rákosi becomes General Secretary of the Hungarian Working People's Party and becomes the de facto leader of Communist Hungary.
• June 18: A communist insurgency in Malaya begins against British and Commonwealth forces.
• June 21: In Germany, the British zone and the French zone launch a common currency, the Deutsche Mark.
• June 24: Stalin orders the Berlin Blockade, closing 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 supply the citizens of Berlin by air.
• June 28: The Soviet Union expels Yugoslavia from the Communist Information Bureau (COMINFORM) for the latter's position on the Greek civil war.
• June 28 to May 11, 1949: The Berlin Airlift defeats Russia's attempt to starve West Berlin.
• September 9: The Soviet Union declares the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to be the legitimate government of all of Korea, with Kim Il-sung as Prime Minister.
• November 20: The American consul and his staff in Mukden, China, are made virtual hostages by communist forces in China. The crisis did not end until a year later, by which time U.S. relations with the new communist government in China had been seriously damaged.

1949

• April 4: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is founded by 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 the re-opening of access routes to Berlin. The airlift continues until September, in case the Soviets re-establish the blockade. Brune argues, "Moscow realized the blockade had nor been successful – it had drawn the Western powers closer together rather than dividing them. Finally, Western countermeasures had inflicted considerable damage on the economic life of East Germany and the other Soviet satellites."
• May 23: In Germany, the Bizone merges with the French zone of control to form the Federal Republic of Germany, with Bonn as its capital.
• August 29: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb. The test, known to Americans as Joe 1, succeeds, as the Soviet Union becomes the world's second nuclear power.
• September 13: The USSR vetoes the United Nations membership of Ceylon, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Jordan, and Portugal.
• September 15: Konrad Adenauer becomes the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.
• 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 7: The Soviets declare their zone of Germany to be the German Democratic Republic, with its capital at East Berlin.
• October 16: Nikos 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.
• December 27: Sovereignty is handed over to United States of Indonesia from the Netherlands through the Dutch-Indonesian Round Table Conference with Sukarno as the first president of the newly formed federation.

1950s

1950

• January 5: The UK recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom.
• January 19: China officially diplomatically recognizes Vietnam as independent from France.
• January 21: The last Kuomintang soldiers surrender on continental China.
• February 12: The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China sign a pact of mutual defense.
• March 11: Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek moves his capital to Taipei, Taiwan, establishing a stand-off with the People's Republic of China.
• April 7: United States State Department Director of Policy Planning Paul Nitze issues NSC 68, a classified report, 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 11: Robert Schuman describes his ambition of a united Europe. Known as the Schuman Declaration, it marks the beginning of the creation of the European Community.
• June 25: North Korea invades South Korea, beginning the Korean War. The United Nations Security Council votes to intervene to defend the South. The Soviet Union cannot veto, as it is boycotting the Security Council over the admission of People's Republic of China.
• July 4: 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 30: United Nations forces land at Inchon. Defeating the North Korean forces, they press inland and re-capture Seoul.
• October 2: United Nations forces cross the 38th parallel, into North Korea.
• October 5: Forces from the People's Republic of China mobilize along the Yalu River.
• October 22: Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, falls to United Nations forces.
• October 22: China intervenes in Korea with 300,000 soldiers, catching the United Nations by surprise. However, they withdraw after initial engagements.
• November 15: United Nations forces approach the Yalu River. In response, China intervenes in Korea again, but with a 500,000 strong army. This offensive forces the United Nations back towards South Korea.

1951

• January 4: Chinese soldiers capture Seoul.
• March 14: United Nations forces recapture Seoul during Operation Ripper. By the end of March, they have reached the 38th Parallel, and formed a defensive line across the Korean peninsula.
• March 29: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of espionage for their role in passing atomic secrets to the Soviets during and after World War II; they were executed on June 19, 1953.
• April 11: US President Harry S. 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.
• April 23: American journalist William N. Oatis is arrested in Czechoslovakia for alleged espionage.
• September 1: Australia, New Zealand, and the United States sign the ANZUS Treaty. This compels the three countries to cooperate on matters of defense and security in the Pacific.
• October 10: President Harry S. Truman signs the Mutual Security Act, announcing to the world, and its communist powers in particular, that the U.S. was prepared to provide military aid to "free peoples."
• November 14: President Harry Truman asks Congress for U.S. military and economic aid for the communist nation of Yugoslavia.
• December 12: The International Authority for the Ruhr lifts part of the remaining restrictions on German industrial production and on production capacity.

1952

• April 28: the Treaty of San Francisco, signed by Japan on September 8, 1951, comes into effect, and Japan signs the Treaty of Taipei, formally ending its period of occupation and isolation, and becoming a sovereign state.
• June: Strategic Air Command begins Reflex Alert deployments of Convair B-36 and B-47 Stratojet long-range nuclear bombers to overseas bases like purpose-built Nouasseur Air Base in French Morocco, placing them within unrefueled striking range of Moscow.
• June 14: The United States lays the keel for the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus.
• June 30: The Marshall Plan ends, with European industrial output now well above that of 1948.
• July 23: 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 tests their first thermonuclear fusion bomb, Ivy Mike.

1953

• January 20: Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes President, with John Foster Dulles as Secretary of State.
• March 5: Stalin dies, setting off a power struggle to succeed him. NATO debates possibility of a fresh start.
• June 17: Uprising of 1953 in East Germany crushed by Soviet troops.
• July 27: An armistice agreement ends fighting in the Korean War After Eisenhower threatens the use of nuclear weapons.
• August 19: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the British MI6 assists a royalist coup that restores Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to power as the Shah of Iran and ousts Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq (Operation Ajax). The coup was organized because of Iranian nationalization of the oil industry and fears of Iran joining the Soviet camp.
• September 7: Nikita Khrushchev becomes leader of the Soviet Communist Party. His main rival, Lavrentiy Beria, is executed in December.
• September 23: The Pact of Madrid is signed by Spain and the United States.
• December 4–8: Eisenhower meets with Churchill and Joseph Laniel of France in Bermuda.

1954

• January 21: The United States launches the world's first nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus. The nuclear submarine would become the ultimate nuclear deterrent.
• March 13: The KGB is created as the successor agency of the NKVD.
• May 7: The Viet Minh defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu. France withdraws from Indochina, leaving four independent states: Cambodia, Laos, and what became North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The Geneva Accords calls for free elections to unite Vietnam, but none of the major Western powers wish this to occur in the likely case that the Viet Minh (nationalist Communists) would win.
• May: The Hukbalahap revolt in the Philippines is defeated.
• June 2: Senator Joseph McCarthy claims that communists have infiltrated the CIA and the atomic weapons industry.
• June 18: The elected leftist Guatemalan government is 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 8: Col. Carlos Castillo Armas is elected president of the junta that overthrew the administration of Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman.
• August 11: The Taiwan Strait Crisis begins with the Chinese Communist shelling of Taiwanese islands. The US 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.

1955

• 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.
• April: The Non-Aligned Movement is pioneered by Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Sukarno of Indonesia, Tito of Yugoslavia, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. This movement was designed to be a bulwark against the 'dangerous polarization' of the world at that time and to restore balance of power with smaller nations. It was an international organization of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.
• May 5: Allies end military occupation of West Germany.
• 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 18: President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the United States, Prime Minister Anthony Eden of the United Kingdom, Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin of the Soviet Union, and Prime Minister Edgar Faure of France, known as the 'Big Four', attend the Geneva Summit. Also in attendance was Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union.
• November 1: Official beginning of the Vietnam War.

1956

• February 25 : Nikita Khrushchev delivers the speech "On the Personality Cult and its Consequences" at the closed session of the Twentieth Party Congress of the CPSU. The speech marks the beginning of the De-Stalinization.
• June 28: in Poznań, Poland, anti-communist protests lead to violence.
• July 26: Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal.
• October 23: Hungarian Revolution of 1956: 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. International diplomatic pressures force the attackers to withdraw. Canadian Lester B. Pearson encourages the United Nations to send a Peacekeeping force, the first of its kind, to the disputed territory. Lester B. Pearson wins a Nobel Peace Prize for his actions, and soon after becomes Canadian Prime Minister.
• December: Viet Cong insurgency begins in South Vietnam, sponsored by North Vietnam.

1958

• January: Mao Zedong initiates the Great Leap Forward.
• February 1: The United Arab Republic is formed.
• June: A C-118 transport, hauling freight from Turkey to Iran, is shot down. The nine crew members are released by the Russians little more than a week later.
• July 14: A coup in Iraq, the 14 July Revolution, 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: Thor IRBM deployed to the UK, within striking distance of Moscow.
• August 23: Second Taiwan Strait Crisis begins when China begins to bomb Quemoy.
• October 4: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA is formed.
• November: Start of the second Berlin crisis, Nikita Khrushchev asks the West to leave Berlin.

1959

• January 1: Cuban Revolution. Fidel Castro becomes the dictator of Cuba. In the next several years Cuban-inspired guerrilla movements spring up across Latin America.
• March 10–23: The Tibetan uprising occurs.
• March 24: New Republic government of Iraq leaves Central Treaty Organization
• July 24: During the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow US Vice President Richard Nixon and Premier Khrushchev openly debate the capacities of each Superpower. This conversation is known as the Kitchen Debate.
• August 7: Explorer 6 is launched into orbit to photograph the Earth.
• September: Khrushchev visits U.S. for 13 days, and is denied access to Disneyland. Instead, he visits SeaWorld (then known as Marineland of the Pacific).
• December: Formation of the NLF (often called Viet Cong) by North Vietnam. It is a Communist insurgent movement that vows to overthrow the anti-communist South Vietnamese regime. It is supplied extensively by North Vietnam and the USSR eventually.

1960s

1960

• February 16: France successfully tests its first atomic bomb, Gerboise Bleue, in the middle of the Algerian Sahara Desert.
• April: Jupiter IRBM deployment to Italy begins, placing nuclear missiles within striking range of Moscow (as with the Thor IRBMs deployed in the UK).
• May 1: American pilot Francis Gary Powers is shot down in his U-2 spy plane while flying at high altitude over the Soviet Union, resulting in the U-2 Incident, an embarrassment for President Eisenhower.
• June: Sino-Soviet split: The Chinese leadership, angered at being treated as the "junior partner" to the Soviet Union, declares its version of Communism superior and begin to compete with the Soviets for influence, thus adding a third dimension to the Cold War.
• July 31: Communist insurgents in Malaya are defeated.
• August 9: The Pathet Lao (communist) revolt in Laos begins.

1961

• January 3: President Eisenhower severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
• January 20: John F. Kennedy becomes President of the United States.
• February 4: Angolan nationalists, including communists, begin an insurgency against Portuguese rule.
• April 12: Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space and first to orbit the Earth when the Soviet Union successfully launches Vostok 1.
• April 17–19: Bay of Pigs Invasion: A CIA-backed invasion of Cuba by counter-revolutionaries ends in failure.
• May 25: John F. Kennedy announces the US intention to put a man on the moon - kickstarting Project Mercury, America's first human spaceflight program
• June 4: Kennedy meets with Khrushchev in Vienna.
• June: Jupiter IRBM deployment to Turkey begins, joining the Jupiters deployed to Italy as well as the Thor IRBMs deployed to the UK as nuclear missiles placed within striking distance of Moscow.
• August 13: The Berlin Wall is built by the Soviets following the breakdown in talks to decide the future of Germany.
• August 17: Alliance for Progress aid to Latin America from the United States begins.
• September 1: The Soviet Union resumed testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere.
• September 28: Syria withdraws from the United Arab Republic.
• October 17: 22nd Soviet Party Congress held in USSR
• October 27: Beginning of Checkpoint Charlie standoff between US and Soviet tanks
• October 31: The Soviet Union detonates the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever tested, with an explosive yield of some 50 megatons.
• December 2: Fidel Castro openly describes himself as a Marxist–Leninist.

1962

• February 10: American pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for senior KGB spy Colonel Rudolf Abel.
• July 20: Neutralization of Laos is established by international agreement, but North Vietnam refuses to withdraw its personnel.
• 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 US mainland. Kennedy orders a "quarantine" (a naval blockade) of the island that intensifies the crisis and brings the US and the USSR to the brink of nuclear war. In the end, both sides reach a compromise. 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 Italy, and guaranteeing that the US will not move against the Castro regime.
• November 21: End of the Himalayan War. China occupies a small strip of Indian land.

1963

• June 20: The United States agrees to set up a hotline with the USSR, thus making direct communication possible.
• June 21: France announces that it is withdrawing its navy from the North Atlantic fleet of NATO.
• June 26: U.S. President John F. Kennedy delivers his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in Berlin.
• August 5: The Partial Test Ban Treaty is signed by the US, UK and USSR, prohibiting the testing of nuclear weapons anywhere except underground.
• November 2: South Vietnamese Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated in coup. CIA involvement is suspected.
• November 22: John F. Kennedy is shot and killed in Dallas. There has been some speculation over whether communist countries or even CIA were involved in the assassination, but those theories remain controversial. Kennedy's vice-president Lyndon B. Johnson becomes President of the United States.

1964

• March 31 / April 1: A military-led coup d'état overthrows president João Goulart in Brazil. Goulart's proposals, such as land reform and bigger control of the state in the economy, were seen as communist.
• April 20: US President Lyndon Johnson in New York, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow, announce simultaneously plans to cut back production of materials for making nuclear weapons.
• May 27: Jawaharlal Nehru dies.
• July 4: The Rhodesian Bush War begins when African nationalist / Marxist insurgents rebel against colonial rule in Rhodesia (modern -day Zimbabwe.)
• August 4: US President Lyndon B. Johnson claims that North Vietnamese naval vessels had fired on two American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Although there was a first attack, it was later shown that American vessels had entered North Vietnamese territory first, and that the claim of second attack had been unfounded. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident leads to the open involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War, after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
• October 14: Leonid Brezhnev succeeds Khrushchev to become General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• October 16: China tests its first atomic bomb. The test makes China the world's fifth nuclear power.

1965

• April 24: Dominican Civil War: Forces loyal to former President Juan Bosch overthrow current leader Donald Reid Cabral.
• August 5: Beginning of the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965.
• October 1: Six Indonesian generals are killed by the 30 September Movement during an abortive coup d'état.

1966

• March 10: France withdraws from NATO command structure.
• May 8: Communist China detonates a third nuclear device.
• August 26: South African Border War begins.

1967

• March 12: General Suharto successfully overthrows Sukarno as president of Indonesia. Indonesia switches sides.
• April 25: 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries sign the Treaty of Tlatelolco in Mexico City, which seek the prohibition of nuclear weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• May 18: Yuri Andropov becomes chairman of the KGB.
• May 23: Egypt blocks the Straits of Tiran, then expels UN peacekeepers and moves its army into the Sinai Peninsula in preparation for possible attack on Israel.
• May 25: Uprising in Naxalbari, India marking the expansion of Maoism as a violent, anti-US and anti-Soviet, revolutionary movement across a number of developing countries.
• May 30: The Nigerian state of Biafra secedes from the rest of Nigeria, declaring itself as the Republic of Biafra.
• June 5: In response to Egypt's aggression, Israel invades the Sinai Peninsula, beginning the Six-Day War.
• June 23: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey for a three-day summit.
• July 1: Beginning of the War of Attrition.
• July 6: The Nigerian Civil War begins in response to Biafra's declaration of independence.
• August 8: Bangkok Declaration is established to quell the communist threat in Southeast Asia. This creates ASEAN.
• November 29: Robert McNamara announces that he will resign as U.S. Secretary of Defense to become President of the World Bank.

1968

• January 30: Tet Offensive in South Vietnam begins.
• March 30: Johnson suspends bombings over North Vietnam and announces he is not running for reelection.
• June 8: Tet Offensive ends; while an American military victory, it raises questions over America's military chances in Vietnam.
• June 17: The Second Malayan Emergency begins.
• July 1: The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is opened for signature.
• August 20: Prague Spring Reforms in Communist Czechoslovakia result in Warsaw Pact for Soviet Red Army to crush Czechoslovakian revolt
• December 23: The captain and crew of the USS Pueblo are released by North Korea.

1969

• January 20: Richard Nixon becomes President of the United States.
• March 2: Border clashes between the Soviet Union and China.
• March 17: The U.S. begins bombing Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.
• July 20: The U.S. accomplishes the first manned moon landing, Apollo 11. Manned by Neil Armstrong, "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins.
• July 25: "Vietnamization" begins with U.S. troop withdrawals from Vietnam and the burden of combat being placed on the South Vietnamese.
• September 1: Muammar al-Gaddafi overthrows the Libyan monarchy and expels British and American personnel. Libya aligns itself with the Soviet Union.
• October 21: Siad Barre overthrows the government of Somalia in a bloodless coup. He declares himself President of Somalia and reorganizes the country into a one-party communist state, the Somali Democratic Republic.

1970s

1970

• March 5: Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, ratified by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States, among others, enters into force.
• March 18: Lon Nol takes power in Cambodia and establishes the Khmer Republic. Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese Communists attack the new regime, which wants to end North Vietnamese presence in Cambodia.
• July 6: The Nigerian Civil War ends with Biafra being re-integrated into Nigeria.
• August 7: The War of Attrition ends with a ceasefire.
• October 24: Salvador Allende becomes president of Chile after being confirmed by the Chilean congress.
• November 18: United States' aid to Cambodia to support the Lon Nol regime begins.

1971

• January 25: Idi Amin launches a successful coup d'état against Milton Obote in Uganda and declares himself President of Uganda. Under Amin, Uganda would switch allegiances to the Eastern Bloc and develop strong ties to the Soviet Union and East Germany.
• February 8: South Vietnamese forces enter Laos to briefly cut the Ho Chi Minh trail.
• March 26: Bangladeshi Declaration of Independence. Bangladesh Liberation War begins.
• May 15: Anwar Sadat's Corrective Revolution purges Nasserist members of the government and security forces, and eventually expels Soviet military from Egypt.
• September: 105 Soviet officials expelled from Great Britain by Prime Minister Edward Heath in Operation FOOT
• September 3: Four-Power Agreement on Berlin is signed by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France, and the United States.
• September 11: Nikita Khrushchev dies.
• October 25 : The United Nations General Assembly passes Resolution 2758, recognizing the People's Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China, causing Taiwan to lose its membership.
• October 26: Mathieu Kérékou takes control of the Republic of Dahomey, renaming it Benin and declaring it a Marxist–Leninist state.
• December 3 : India enters the Bangladesh Liberation War after Pakistan launches preemptive air strikes on Indian airfields.
• December 16 : Lt. Gen A. A. K. Niazi, CO of the Pakistan Army forces located in East Pakistan surrenders unconditionally by signing the Instrument of Surrender which is accepted by Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, joint commander of the Bangladesh-India Allied Forces. Bangladesh is officially recognized by the eastern bloc.

1972

• February 21: Nixon visits China, the first visit by a U.S. President since the establishment of the People's Republic of China.
• March 30: NLF goes to the offensive in South Vietnam, only to be repulsed by the South Vietnamese regime with major American air support.
• May 26: Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I) agreement signals the beginning of détente between the U.S. and USSR.
• September 1: Bobby Fischer defeats Russian Boris Spassky in a chess match in Reykjavík, Iceland, becoming the first official American chess champion (see Match of the Century).
• September 2–28: The Summit Series, an ice hockey tournament between Canada and Soviet Union.
• September 21: Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos declares martial law in response to the growing communist threat in the Philippines.
• December 18: Richard Nixon announces the beginning of a massive bombing campaign in North Vietnam.

1973

• January 27: The Paris Peace Accords end American involvement in the Vietnam War. Congress cuts off funds for the continued bombing of Indochina.
• September 11: Chilean coup d'état — The democratically-elected Marxist president of Chile, Salvador Allende, is deposed and dies of a gunshot wound during a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet.
• October 6: Yom Kippur War — Israel is attacked by Egypt and Syria, the war ends with a ceasefire.
• October 22: Egypt defects to the American camp by accepting a U.S. cease-fire proposal during the October 1973 war.
• November 11: The Soviet Union announces that, because of its opposition to the recent overthrow of the government of Chilean President Salvador Allende, it will not play a World Cup Soccer match against the Chilean team if the match is held in Santiago.

1974

• June: SEATO formally ends after France leaves the organization.
• August 9: Gerald Ford becomes President of the United States upon the resignation of Nixon.
• September 12: The pro-Western monarch of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, is ousted by a Marxist military junta known as the Derg.

1975

• April 18: The communist Khmer Rouge, under the leadership of Pol Pot, take power in Cambodia. Beginning of the Cambodian genocide.
• April 30: North Vietnam wins the Vietnam War. The South Vietnam regime falls with the surrender of Saigon and the two countries are united under a Communist government.
• May 12: Mayagüez incident: The Khmer Rouge seize an American naval ship, prompting American intervention to recapture the ship 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 and involves Angolans, Mozambicans, South Africans, and Cubans, with the superpowers supporting their respective ideologies.
• July: The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project takes place. It is the first joint flight of the US and Soviet space programs. The mission is seen as a symbol of détente and an end to the "space race".
• August 1: Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe signed by the United States, Canada, the Soviet Union and Europe
• November: Beginning of Operation Condor in South America.
• November 20: Francisco Franco dies.
• November 29: Pathet Lao takes power in Laos.

1976

• January 8: Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai dies of cancer
• March 24: The National Reorganization Process takes power in Argentina following a successful military coup and launches military action against Argentine-based guerrillas. Jorge Rafael Videla is installed as President.
• July 20: U.S. Military personnel withdraw from Thailand.
• September 1: Inception of Safari Club.
• September 9: Death of Mao Zedong.

1977

• January 1: Charter 77 is signed by Czechoslovakian intellectuals, including Václav Havel.
• January 20: Jimmy Carter becomes President of the United States.
• June 6: U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance assures skeptics that the Carter administration will hold the Soviet Union accountable for its recent crackdowns on human rights activists.
• July 23: The Ogaden War begins when Somalia attacks Ethiopia.

1978

• March 15: The Ogaden War ends with a cease-fire.
• April 27: President of Afghanistan Sardar Mohammed Daoud's government is overthrown when he is murdered in a coup led by pro-communist rebels.
• October 30: Uganda invades Tanzania, beginning the Uganda-Tanzania War. Uganda is supported Libya and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, while Tanzania is supported by China, Algeria, and Ethiopia.
• December 25: A Communist regime is installed in Afghanistan.

1979

• January 7: Vietnam deposes the Khmer Rouge and installs a pro-Vietnam, pro-Soviet government.
• January 16: The Iranian Revolution ousts the pro-Western Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and installs a theocracy under Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. CENTO dissolves as a result.
• February 17: Sino-Vietnamese War, China launches a punitive attack on North Vietnam to punish it for invading Cambodia.
• April 11: The Uganda-Tanzania War ends with a Tanzania victory at the Fall of Kampala. Idi Amin is deposed as President of Uganda, allowing the Uganda National Liberation Front to take power in the country.
• May 4: Margaret Thatcher is elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, becoming the first female to lead a major Western democracy.
• May 9: War breaks out in El Salvador between Marxist-led insurgents and the U.S.-backed government.
• June 2: Pope John Paul II begins his first pastoral visit to his native Poland.
• June 18: U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, sign the SALT II agreement, outlining limitations and guidelines for nuclear weapons.
• July 3: President Carter signs the first directive for financial aid to opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul, Afghanistan.
• July 16: Saddam Hussein becomes President of Iraq after Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr steps down.
• July 17: Marxist-led Sandinista revolutionaries overthrow the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua. The Contra insurgency begins shortly thereafter.
• September: Nur Mohammed Taraki, The Marxist president of Afghanistan, is deposed and murdered. The post of president is taken up by Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin.
• November 4: Islamist Iranian students take over the American embassy in support of the Iranian Revolution. The Iran hostage crisis lasts until January 20, 1981.
• December 12: NATO Double-Track Decision - NATO offers mutual limitation of ballistic missiles combined with the threat that in case of disagreement NATO would deploy more middle-range nuclear weapons in Western Europe.
• December 21: The Rhodesian Bush War ends with the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement. Zimbabwe is granted independence from the United Kingdom.
• December 24: The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan to oust Hafizullah Amin, beginning the Soviet-Afghan War and resulting in the end of Détente.

1980s

1980

• March 21: The United States and its allies boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics (July 19-August 3) in Moscow.
• April 17: Robert Mugabe becomes Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.
• April 30: Iranian Embassy in London is taken over by DRFLA militants starting a 6 day long hostage situation.
• May 4: Josip Broz Tito, communist leader of Yugoslavia since 1945, dies at the age of 88 in Ljubljana.
• August 31: In Poland the Gdańsk Agreement is signed after a wave of strikes which began at the Lenin Shipyards in Gdańsk. The agreement allows greater civil rights, such as the establishment of a trade union, known as Solidarity, independent of communist party control.

1981

• January 17: Martial law was lifted by Ferdinand Marcos in preparation for the visit of Pope John Paul II.
• January 20: Ronald Reagan inaugurated 40th President of the United States. Reagan is elected on a platform opposed to the concessions of détente.
• January 20: Iran hostage crisis ends.
• 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.
• October 27: A Soviet submarine, the U137, runs aground not far from the Swedish naval base at Karlskrona.
• November 23: The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) begins to support anti-Sandinista Contras.
• December 13: Communist Gen. Jaruzelski introduces martial law in Poland, which drastically restricts normal life, in an attempt to crush the Solidarity trade union and the political opposition against communist rule.

1982

• February 24: President Ronald Reagan announces the "Caribbean Basin Initiative" to prevent the overthrow of governments in the region by the forces of communism.
• March 22: President Ronald Reagan signs P.L. 97-157 denouncing the government of the Soviet Union that it should cease its abuses of the basic human rights of its citizens.
• April 2: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands, starting the Falklands War.
• May 30: Spain joins NATO.
• June 6: Israel invades Lebanon to end raids and clashes with Syrian troops based there.
• June 14: Falkland Islands liberated by British task force. End of the Falklands War.
• November 10: Death and state funeral of Leonid Brezhnev
• November 14: Yuri Andropov becomes General Secretary of the Soviet Union.

1983

• January: Soviet spy Dieter Gerhardt is arrested in New York.
• March 8: In speech to the National Association of Evangelicals, Reagan labels the Soviet Union an "evil empire".
• March 23: Ronald Reagan proposes the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, or "Star Wars").
• July 7: Ten-year-old Samantha Smith accepts the invitation of Soviet premiere Yuri Andropov and visits the Soviet Union with her parents. Smith had written to Andropov to ask if he would "vote to have a war or not?" Smith's letter, published in the Soviet newspaper Pravda, prompted Andropov to reply and invite the girl to the U.S.S.R. The widely publicized event leads to other Soviet-American cultural exchanges.
• July 22: Martial law in Poland is lifted.
• August 21: The late senator Benigno "Ninoy" S. Aquino was assassinated at the Manila International Airport (now Ninoy Aquino International Airport).
• September 1: Civilian Korean Air Lines Flight 007, with 269 passengers, including U.S. Congressman Larry McDonald, is shot down by Soviet interceptor aircraft.
• September 26: The 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident occurs. The U.S.S.R. nuclear early warning system reports launch of multiple U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles. Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov, an officer of the Soviet Air Defence Forces, correctly identifies them as false alarms. This decision is seen as having prevented a retaliatory nuclear attack based on erroneous data on the United States and its NATO allies, which likely would have resulted in nuclear war and the deaths of hundreds of millions of people.
• October 25: U.S. forces invade the Caribbean island of Grenada in an attempt to overthrow the Communist government, expel Cuban troops, and abort the construction of a Soviet-funded airstrip.
• November 2: Exercise Able Archer 83 — Soviet anti-aircraft misinterpret a test of NATO's nuclear warfare procedures as a fake cover for an actual NATO attack; in response, Soviet nuclear forces are put on high alert.
• December 10: The National Reorganization Process military junta of Argentina is dissolved by democratically-elected President Raúl Alfonsín.

1984

• January: US President Ronald Reagan outlines foreign policy which reinforces his previous statements.
• February 13: Konstantin Chernenko is named General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
• July 28: Various allies of the Soviet Union boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics (July 28 - August 12) in Los Angeles.
• August 11: During a microphone sound check for his weekly radio address, President Ronald Reagan jokes about bombing the Soviet Union. "My fellow Americans," Reagan says. "I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." The quip is not aired but is leaked to the press. The Soviet Union temporarily puts its defense forces on high alert.
• October 31: Indira Gandhi assassinated.
• December 16: Margaret Thatcher and the UK government, in a plan to open new channels of dialog with Soviet leadership candidates, meet with Mikhail Gorbachev at Chequers.

1985

• March 11: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union.
• March 15: Military rule ends in Brazil.
• April 11: Enver Hoxha dies. Ramiz Alia takes over as First Secretary of the Party of Labor of Albania, becoming the de facto leader of Albania.
• April 22: The Trial of the Juntas convenes to prosecute the members of the National Reorganization Process (the military junta that governed Argentina from 1976 to 1983) for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during its existence.
• August 6: Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet Union begins what it has announced is a 5-month unilateral moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons. The Reagan administration dismisses the dramatic move as nothing more than propaganda and refuses to follow suit. Gorbachev declares several extensions, but the United States fails to reciprocate, and the moratorium comes to an end on February 5, 1987.
• November 21: Reagan and Gorbachev meet for the first time at a summit in Geneva, Switzerland, where they agree to two (later three) more summits.

1986

• February 13: France launches Operation Epervier (Sparrowhawk) in an effort to repulse the Libyan invasion of Chad.
• February 25: The People Power Revolution takes place in the Philippines, overthrowing the late president Ferdinand Marcos. The Philippines' first female president, Corazon Aquino was installed as president.
• April 15: U.S. planes bomb Libya in Operation El Dorado Canyon.
• April 26: Chernobyl disaster: A Soviet nuclear power plant in the Ukraine explodes, resulting in the worst nuclear power plant accident in history.
• October 11–12: Reykjavik Summit: A breakthrough in nuclear arms control.
• November 3: Iran-Contra affair: The Reagan administration publicly announces that it has been selling arms to Iran in exchange for hostages and illegally transferring the profits to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

1987

• January 16: Natives within the Party who oppose his policies of economic redevelopment (Perestroika). It is Gorbachev's hope that through initiatives of openness, debate and participation, that the Soviet people will support Perestroika.
• February 25: Phosphorite War breaks out in Estonia.
• June 12: During a visit to Berlin, Germany, U.S. President Ronald Reagan famously challenges Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev in a speech: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" (The Berlin Wall).
• September 10: The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, Angola begins and further intensifies the South African Border War.
• September 30: Mohammad Najibullah becomes President of Afghanistan and implements a policy of National Reconciliation as a means of putting an end to the Soviet-Afghan War as well as beginning an end to Soviet influence in the country.
• December 8: The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C. by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Some later claim this was the official end of the Cold War. Gorbachev agrees to START I treaty.

1988

• February 22: Incident: U.S.S. Yorktown (CG-48) and USS Caron (DD-970) are rammed off the Crimean Peninsula after entering Soviet territorial waters.
• May 11: Kim Philby (Harold Adrian Russell Philby), the high-ranking U.K. intelligence officer who defected to the Soviet Union, dies in Moscow.
• May 15: The Soviets begin withdrawing from Afghanistan.
• May 29-June 1: Reagan and Gorbachev meet in Moscow. INF Treaty ratified. When asked if he still believes that the Soviet Union is still an evil empire, Reagan replies he was talking about "another time, another era."
• November 6: Soviet scientist and well-known human rights activist Andrei Sakharov begins a two-week visit to the United States.
• December 7: Gorbachev announces in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly that the Soviet Union will no longer militarily interfere with Eastern Europe.
• December 22: South Africa withdraws from South West Africa (Namibia).

1989

• January 4: Gulf of Sidra incident between America and Libya, similar to the 1981 Gulf of Sidra incident.
• January 20: George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as 41st President of the United States.
• February 2: Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan.
• June 4: Tiananmen Square Massacre: Beijing protests are crushed by the communist Chinese government, resulting in an unknown number of deaths.
• June 4: Elections in Poland show complete lack of backing for the Communist Party; Solidarity trade union wins all available seats in the Parliament and 99% in the Senate.
• August: Parliament in Poland elects Tadeusz Mazowiecki as leader of the first non-communist government in the Eastern Bloc.
• October 18: The Hungarian constitution is amended to allow a multi-party political system and elections. The nearly 20-year term of communist leader Erich Honecker comes to an end in East Germany.
• November 9: Revolutions of Eastern Europe: Soviet reforms have allowed Eastern Europe to change the Communist governments there. The Berlin Wall is breached when Politburo spokesman, Günter Schabowski, not fully informed of the technicalities or procedures of the newly agreed lifting of travel restrictions, mistakenly announces at a news conference in East Berlin that the borders have been opened.
• December 2: End of the Second Malayan Emergency with the Peace Agreement of Hat Yai 1989.
• December 3: At the end of the Malta Summit, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George H. W. Bush declare that a long-lasting era of peace has begun. Many observers regard this summit as the official beginning of the end of the Cold War.
• December 14: Democracy is restored in Chile.
• December 16–25: Romanian Revolution: Rioters overthrow the Communist government of Nicolae Ceauşescu, executing him and his wife, Elena. Romania was the only Eastern Bloc country to violently overthrow its Communist government or to execute its leaders.
• December 20: United States invades Panama.
• December 29: Václav Havel becomes President of the now free Czechoslovakia.

1990s

1990

• January 30: The Polish United Workers' Party is formally dissolved, allowing democracy to be restored in Poland.
• January 31: US Operation Just Cause ends, and Operation Promote Liberty begins in Panama.
• March 11: Lithuania re-declares independence from the Soviet Union.
• May 29: Boris Yeltsin elected as president of Russia.
• August 2: Iraq invades Kuwait, beginning Gulf War.
• September 9: George H.W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Helsinki, Finland and issue a joint declaration condemning the invasion of Kuwait.
• October 3: Germany is reunified.
• October 4: The Mozambican Civil War ends with the defeat of the anti-communist RENAMO, allowing the ruling Marxist party, FRELIMO, to remain in power.

1991

• February 28: Gulf War ends.
• July: Warsaw Pact is formally dissolved.
• August 19: Soviet coup attempt of 1991. The August coup occurs in response to a new union treaty to be signed on August 20.
• December 25: US President George H. W. Bush, after receiving a phone call from Boris Yeltsin, delivers a Christmas Day speech acknowledging the end of the Cold War.
• December 25: Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the USSR. The hammer and sickle is lowered for the last time over the Kremlin.
• December 26: The Council of Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR recognizes the dissolution of the Soviet Union and decides to dissolve itself, ending the Cold War.

See also

• Origins of the Cold War
• Cold War

Further reading

• Arms, Thomas S. Encyclopedia of the Cold War (1994).
• Brune, Lester H. Chronology of the Cold War, 1917-1992 (Routledge, 2006) 720 pp of brief facts
• Hanes, Sharon M. and Richard C. Hanes. Cold War Almanac (2 vol 2003), 1460pp of brief facts
• Parrish, Thomas. The Cold War Encyclopedia (1996)
• Trahair, Richard C.S. and Robert Miller. Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies, and Secret Operations (2012). excerpt
• Tucker, Spencer C. and Priscilla Mary Roberts, eds. The Encyclopedia of the Cold War: A Political, Social, and Military History (5 Vol., 2007). excerpt
• van Dijk, Ruud, ed. Encyclopedia of the Cold War (2 vol. 2017) excerpt

External links

• Home Base of Coldwarspies.com