Key Cold War Dates

Key Dates in the Cold War in Chronological Order

Yalta Conference

February 1945

Germany surrenders – End of WWII in Europe

May 1945

Acheson Report on Europe

June 1945

Trinity Test

July 1945

Potsdam Conference

July–August 1945

US atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

August 1945

Japan surrenders – End of WWII

September 1945

Stalin’s Bolshoi Speech

February 1946

Kennan’s Long Telegram

22 February 1946

Churchill’s Iron Curtain (Fulton) Speech

5 March 1946

Clay blocks Soviet reparations from US zone

May 1946

Byrnes’ Speech of Hope

September 1946

Communist governments established in Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria

End of 1946

Communists enter coalition governments in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia

End of 1946

Bizonia created

January 1947

Britain withdraws from Greek Civil War

February 1947

Truman Doctrine announced

12 March 1947

Moscow Conference (Western powers reject centralized Germany)

March–April 1947

Marshall Plan announced

5 June 1947

Soviets walk out of Paris Peace Conference

July 1947

Communists take control of Hungary (rigged elections)

August 1947

Cominform established

October 1947

Reverse Course policy in Japan

October 1947

London Conference plans West German currency and constitution

February–June 1948

Western European Union (WEU) formed

March 1948

Trizonia created

June 1948

Czech Coup

June 1948

Berlin Blockade begins

24 June 1948

Republic of Korea (South Korea) established

August 1948

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) established

September 1948

Tito expelled from Cominform

1948

Gomulka removed in Poland

1948

NATO created

April 1949

Berlin Blockade ends

12 May 1949

Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) created

May 1949

USSR tests atomic bomb

August 1949

German Democratic Republic (East Germany) created

October 1949

Communist victory in Chinese Civil War

October 1949

Defensive Perimeter Speech

January 1950

China–USSR military alliance signed

February 1950

NSC-68 issued

April 1950

Korean War begins (North invades South)

June 1950

China enters Korean War

November 1950

ANZUS Treaty signed

1951

First Korean peace talks

June 1951

San Francisco Peace Treaty (US–Japan)

September 1951

US Hydrogen bomb test

November 1952

Stalin dies

March 1953

East German Uprising

June 1953

Korean War Armistice

July 1953

Soviet H-bomb test

August 1953

First Taiwan Strait Crisis

1954

Mutual Defence Pact (USA–Taiwan)

1954

Guatemalan Coup

June 1954

Diem Bien Phu and Geneva Accords (Vietnam divided)

1954

SEATO established

September 1954

Formosa Resolution

1955

Warsaw Pact established

May 1955

Austrian State Treaty

May 1955

Geneva Summit (Open Skies proposal)

July 1955

Diem refuses Vietnamese reunification elections

August 1955

20th Communist Party Congress and Secret Speech

February 1956

Polish Uprising

June–October 1956

Hungarian Uprising

October–November 1956

Soviet ICBMs developed

August 1957

Sputnik launched

October 1957

US ICBMs developed

January 1958

US naval response to PRC Taiwan threat

1958

NASA established

July 1958

Berlin Ultimatum

November 1958

North Vietnam decides on revolutionary violence

January 1959

Castro overthrows Batista in Cuba

January 1959

Khrushchev visits Camp David

September 1959

Sino-Soviet split dispute in Beijing

October 1959

US develops SLBMs

1960

Castro allies with USSR and US bans Cuban imports

1960

Paris Summit and U2 Incident

May 1960

1500 US advisors in Vietnam

December 1960

Bay of Pigs Invasion

April 1961

Yuri Gagarin first man in orbit

April 1961

Vienna Summit (Kennedy and Khrushchev)

June 1961

Kennedy increases defence spending and NATO troops

July 1961

Berlin Wall built

August 1961

Checkpoint Charlie Standoff

October 1961

Tsar Bomba tested

October 1961

Operation Mongoose authorised

November 1961

USSR has SLBMs

1961

USSR withdraws advisors from China

1962

Operation Ranch Hand begins

1962

Strategic Hamlet Program introduced

March 1962

Operation Quick Kick

March 1962

Khrushchev decides to place missiles in Cuba

May 1962

Cuban Missile Crisis

14–28 October 1962

Quang Duc self-immolation protest

June 1963

Ich Bin Ein Berliner speech

June 1963

Hotline established

June 1963

Moscow Test Ban Treaty

August 1963

Diem assassinated

November 1963

JFK assassinated

November 1963

Johnson rejects settlement with NLF

January 1964