Cold War Dates

Cold War Dates

Grand Alliance set up

1940 (in middle of WW2)

Tehran Conference

Nov 28-Dec 1 1943

second front in France set up by USA and UK

May 1944

Yalta Conference

Feb 4-11 1945

Potsdam Conference

17th July- 2nd August 1945

Nuremburg Trials

1946

Hiroshima Bomb Drop

6th Aug 1945

Nagasaki bomb drop

9th Aug 1945

Iron Curtain speech

March 1946

Stalin’s repsonse to Iron Curtain

March 1946

years when Stalin was making satellite states in Europe

1945-48

when were Bulgaria elections and when was one party communist gov put in place

• elections in Nov 1945

• became communist in 1946

Warsaw Uprising

1944

Polish Communist Party set up

1947

Hungary election of communist party and communist party put in place

• elections 1947

• gov put in place in 1949

Romania communist party elections and forced abdication of King Michael

• elections Nov 1946

• forced abdication 1947

Truman Doctrine

1947

Marshall Plan year

1947

Cominform

1947

Comecon

1949

Albania joins Comecon

1950

Berlin Blockade

June 1948- 20 May 1949

Bizonia formed

1947

Trizonia formed

April 1949

new assembly and constitution and Deutschmark set up in W Germany

1948

Federal Republic of Germany set up

3 days after the end of the Blockade; 23rd May 1949

Germans elect their own parliament in West (Bundestag)

14th August 1949

German Democratic Republic set up

October 1949

NATO set up

April 1949

Warsaw Pact set up

May 1955

USA first A-Bomb

1945

USSR first A-bomb

1949

USA first H-bomb

1952

USSR first H-bomb

1952

USA and USSR first ICBMs

1957

death of Stalin

5th March 1953

Khrushchev becomes leader of USSR

1955

Eisenhower elected President and then comes to office

• elected in 1952

• takes office in Jan 1953

Rakosi leader of Hungary

1949-1956

Imre Nagy new leader of Hungary

1956

Hungarian Uprising

1956

Soviet invasion of Hungary

November 1956 (lasted 2 weeks)

Nagy hanged

1958

period of mass defection from E to W Germany

1949-61

10,000 E Germans leaving to the West every day

summer of 1961

Berlin Ultimatum

27th November 1958

Geneva Summit

May 1959

Camp David Summit

September 1959

Paris Summit

May 1960

U2 incident

May 1st 1960 (13 days before the Paris Summit)

period where 207,000 left E Germany

first 7 months of 1961

Vienna Summit

June 1961

Berlin Wall begins (barbed wire placed around W Berlin by the Soviets)

12th August 1961

Kennedy visits Berlin

26th June 1963

year that USA had 20x nukes of USSR and B-52 bombers

1961

Cuban Revolution

1959

Bay of Pigs

17th April 1961

USSR sends 114 Soviet ships carrying missiles to Cuba

25th September 1962

US spy plane flies over Cuba and takes pictures of missile bases being built

14th October 1962

Kennedy finds out about the missile bases in Cuba

16th October 1962

Kennedy places a naval blockade around Cuba to stop more missiles going in

20th October 1962

Kennedy gives a speech saying he has put up the blockade and that USSR has to remove missiles

22nd October 1962

Khrushchev sends a letter to Kennedy saying that he will break through the blockade

23rd October 1962

18 Soviet ships sailing towards Cuba turn back to avoid conflict and Kennedy sends letter to Khrushchev telling him to withdraw or he will invade Cuba

24th October 1962

peak of war threat and Kennedy sends letter to Khrushchev again asking for withdrawal

25th October 1962

Khrushchev sends letter to Kennedy saying he will withdraw if Kennedy doesn’t invade Cuba

26th October 1962

Khrushchev finds out that US planning to invade Cuba in next 24hrs; sends another letter saying he will withdraw if Kennedy promises not to invade Cuba and withdrawals missiles from Turkey, which Robert Kennedy accepts if the withdrawal from Turkey is kept secret

27th October 1962

Khrushchev accepts the secret deal

28th October 1962

Hotline set up

June 1963

Test Ban Treaty signed

5th August 1963

Outer Space Treaty signed

1967

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

1968

France leaves NATO

1966

Novotny becomes president of Czechoslovakia

1957

Dubcek becomes president of Czechoslovakia

1968

Dubcek makes lots of liberal reforms (Prague Spring)

April 1968

Brezhnev and Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia and Dubcek disappears

20th August 1968

Dubcek reappears and calls off all of his liberal reforms

27th August 1968

Dubcek arrested, taken to Moscow and signs the Moscow Protocol

October 1968

Brezhnev Doctrine

26th September 1968