|
1945 Cold War: The United States
controversially imports 88 German
scientists to help in the production of rocket
technology.
1946 Cold War: India
n Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru
appeals to the United States
and the Soviet Union
to end nuclear testing
and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster."
1947 Cold War: In an effort to fight the spread of Communism
, President Harry S. Truman
signs an act implementing the Truman Doctrine. The act granted $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey
and Greece
.
1947 Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman
signs the National Security Act into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency
, Department of Defense
, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.
1948 Cold War: The Berlin Blockade begins.
1948 Cold War: President Harry S. Truman
issues the second peacetime military draft in the United States
amid increasing tensions with the Soviet Union
(the first peacetime draft occurred in 1940 under President Roosevelt).
1949 Cold War: The Soviet Union
lifts its Blockade of Berlin.
1952 Cold War over Germany
's frontiers intensify
1953 Cold War: The CIA helps to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh
in Iran
and retain Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
on the throne
(see: Operation Ajax).
1953 Cold War: US President Dwight D. Eisenhower
formally approves the top secret
document National Security Council Paper No. 162/2, which states that the United States
' arsenal of nuclear weapon
s must be maintained and expanded to counter the communist
threat.
1955 The Austrian State Treaty is signed by the Allied Powers, restoring Austria
as a sovereign, democratic state, to be neutral in the Cold War.
1957 Cold War: In the United States
, the Gaither Report calls for more American missiles and fallout shelters.
1959 Cold War: Antarctic Treaty signed - 12 countries, including the United States
and the Soviet Union
, sign a landmark treaty
, which sets aside Antarctica
as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on that continent (this was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War).
1960 August 19 — Cold War: In Moscow
, downed American U-2
pilot Francis Gary Powers is sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by the Soviet Union
for espionage
.
1960 October 12 — Cold War: Nikita Khrushchev
pounds his shoe on a table at a United Nations
General Assembly meeting, to protest discussion of Soviet Union
policy toward Eastern Europe
.
1961 A standoff between Soviet and American
tanks in Berlin, Germany heightens Cold War tensions.
1967 Cold War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
meets with Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey, for the 3-day Glassboro Summit Conference.
1969 Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS ''Gato'' in the Barents Sea
.
1969 Cold War: Negotiators from the Soviet Union
and the United States
meet in Helsinki
, to begin the SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.
1976 Cold War: Soviet
air force pilot Lt. Viktor Belenko lands a MiG-25 jet fighter at Hakodate, on the island of Hokkaido
in Japan
, and requests political asylum
from the United States
.
1983 Cold War: Korean Air Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet Union
jet fighter when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspa All 269 on board are killed.
1985 Cold War: In Geneva
, U.S. President
Ronald Reagan
and Soviet Union
leader Mikhail Gorbachev
meet for the first time.
1986 Cold War: Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
meet in Reykjavík
, Iceland
, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe
(the talks break down in failure).
1989 Cold War: The Communist government of East Germany resigns, although SED leader Egon Krenz
remains head of state.
1989 Cold War: East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall
, allowing its citizens to freely travel to West Germany
for the first time in decades (the next day celebrating Germans
began to tear the wall down).
1989 Cold War: TheVelvet Revolution
begins - In Czechoslovakia
a peaceful student demonstration in Prague
is severely beaten back by riot poli This sparks a revolution aimed at overthrowing the Communist government (it succeeds on December 29).
1989 Cold War: Velvet Revolution
- The number of peaceful protesters assembled in Prague
, Czechoslovakia
swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million.
1989 Cold War: Velvet Revolution
- With other Communist regimes falling all around it and with growing street protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces they will give up their monopoly
on political power (elections held in December bring the first non-communist government to Czechoslovakia
in more than 40 years).
1989 Cold War: East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision granting the Communist-dominated SED its monopoly on power. Egon Krenz
, the Politburo and the Central Committee resign two days later.
1989 Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta
, US President George Bush
and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
release statements indicating that the Cold War between their nations may be coming to an end.
1989 Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta
, US President George Bush
and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
release statements indicating that the Cold War between their nations may be coming to an end.
1990 Soviet Union
leader Mikhail Gorbachev
is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
for his efforts to lessen Cold War tensions and reform his nation.
1994 Cold War: Russia
and the People's Republic of China
agree to de-target their nuclear weapon
s against each other.
|
Timeline
