US and USSR in the Cold War (Peaceful Co-existence, Detente, Confrontation and Reconciliation)

1953

Death of Joseph Stalin

April 1955

Soviet Union proposed formal peace treaty with Austria

July 1955

Geneva Summit

February 1956

Khrushchev's de-Stalinisation speech

October - November 1956

Hungarian Uprising

January 1957

Eisenhower Doctrine

4 October 1957

USSR launched Sputnik

October 1958

US stopped atmospheric nuclear weapons testing

November 1958

Khrushchev issued 6‑month ultimatum

January 1959

Castro seizes power of Cuba

February 1959

Berlin crisis subsided

May 1959

US believes Cuba is communist

Summer 1959

Geneva Conference of Foreign Ministers

September 1959

Khrushchev accepted invite to the US

March 1960

CIA training for attack on Cuba

1 May 1960

U‑2 spy plane incident

Late May 1960

Paris Summit

November 1960

JFK elected as President

Early 1961

Eisenhower breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba

17 April 1961

Bay of Pigs landing

June 1961

Vienna Summit

13 August 1961

Barbed wire erected between East and West Berlin

1962

Khrushchev put IRBMs in Cuba

14 October 1962

U‑2 spy plane footage

26 October 1962

Khrushchev said he would remove the missiles if US did not invade Cuba

1963

US missiles removed from Turkey

14 October 1964

Khrushchev forced to resign

November 1968

Richard Nixon elected as US president

1968

Nuclear Non‑Proliferation Treaty signed

1969

Nixon’s inauguration

August 1970

Moscow Treaty

1971

Seabed Arms Control Treaty

1972

Nixon visited Moscow

26 May 1972

SALT I signed

June 1972

Final Quadripartite Protocol

December 1972

The Basic Treaty

1973

Brezhnev visited Washington

22 June 1973

Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War

Early July 1973

CSCE Stage I

September 1973

CSCE Stage II

October 1973

Yom Kippur War began

1974

Nixon visited Moscow

1 August 1975

CSCE Stage III

1 August 1975

Helsinki Final Act signed

November 1975

Angolan Civil War starts

January 1977

Jimmy Carter’s inauguration

1977

Carter links economic deals with improved USSR human rights

Mid‑1977

Soviet and Cuban support for Ethiopia against Somalia

1978

Carter warns USSR against involvement in domestic affairs

18 June 1979

SALT II signed

24 December 1979

Détente collapsed at Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

1980

Reagan elected as president

August 1980

Polish Solidarity movement begins

1981

Reagan took office

Early 1982

US defence spending increases 13%

Late 1982

Brezhnev dies

23 March 1983

Strategic Defence Initiative (Star Wars)

September 1983

Korean Airliner shot down

November 1983

US Pershing II missiles deployed

7 November 1983

Able Archer incident

November 1984

Ronald Reagan re‑elected

Early 1984

Andropov dies

March 1985

Chernenko dies; Gorbachev becomes leader

Early 1985

Perestroika and glasnost introduced

June 1985

Anti‑Alcohol Campaign

December 1985

Gorbachev’s Zero Option

April 1986

Chernobyl Disaster

November 1986

Law on Individual Labour Activity

1987

USSR industrial production fell by 6%

December 1987

Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty

January 1988

Law on State Enterprise and the Law on Co-operatives

Mid 1988

Reagan no longer believed in the “evil empire”

1988

Gorbachev reduced military spending

January 1989

George HW Bush becomes president

1989

Strikes in the USSR increased

February 1989

USSR withdrew from Afghanistan and spending on proxy conflicts

August 1989

Solidarity movement legalised

October 1989

Strikes legalised

Nov–Dec 1989

Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia

25 December 1989

Uprising against Ceausescu in Romania

1990

All Warsaw Pact nations relinquished communist rule

November 1990

Berlin Wall opened

August 1991

Gorbachev tried to loosen ties between SSRs

25 December 1991

Gorbachev resigned

December 1991

USSR collapsed