Cold War

June 1941 - Hitler invades the USSR, who allies with Britain and the USA

Late 1941 - USA start research project into Atomic Bomb: The Manhattan Project

Nov 1943 - Tehran Conference

Feb 1945 - Yalta Conference

May 1945 - War ends in Europe

July 1945 - Potsdam Conference

16th Jul 1945 - USA developed Atom Bomb; tested at Trinity Site

Aug 1945 - Atomic Bomb dropped on Japan

Feb 1946 - Kennan's Long Telegram

Mar 1946 - Fulton Speech (Iron Curtain Speech)

Sep 1946 - Novikov Telegram

Jan 1947 - Communist Government in Poland

Feb 1947 - Communists seize Czechoslovakia

Mar 1947 - Truman Doctrine

June 1947 - Marshall Plan

Sep 1947 - First Comiform meeting

Mar 1948 - Trizonia formed (Britain, France and the USA)

June 1948 - Deuchmark introduced into Trizonia

June 1948 - Berlin Blockade

June 1948-May 1949 - Berlin Airlift

Jan 1949 - Comecon formed

Apr 1949 - NATO formed

29th Aug 1949 - USSR tests their first atomic bomb: First Lightning

Feb 1950 - communist China and USSR sign a treaty of alliance

1st Nov 1952 - USA denote first Hydrogen Bomb on Enewetak Atoll

Jan 1953 - Eisenhower becomes president of USA

Mar 1953 - Stalin dies and Khrushchev takes power

8th Aug 1953 - Soviets declare they have a Hydrogen Bomb

12th Aug 1953 - Soviets test their Hydrogen Bomb at Semipalatinsk Test Site

1955 - USA and USSR meet in Geneva and agree to communicate more openly

1955 - USSR officially recognise West Germany as a state

1955 - USSR establish Warsaw Pact

1956 - Fidel Castro begins a guerrila war

1956 - Protest against lack of free speech and free movement in Czechoslovakia

1956 - Uprising in Poland - allowed new government to follow their own version of communism

Oct 1956 - Protest in Budapest against government of Rakosi

Nov 1956 - Nagy announced Hungary would withdraw from Warsaw Pact and hold free-elections

Nov 1956 - Soviet tanks invade Hungary; Nagy arrested and hanged

1957 - Soviets develop Intercontinenal Ballistic Missiles

4th Oct 1957 - Soviets launch artifical satellite: Sputnik

3rd Nov 1957 - Second Sputnik launched, carrying a dog

31st Jan 1958 - USA launch their satellite

1958 - USA tests Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles

1958 - Berlin Ultimatum

1959 - Castro takes over Havana, Cuba's capital and overthrows government

1959 - Khrushchev visits USA

1960 - Paris Summit

Jan 1961 - USA sever all diplomatic relations with Cuba

Apr 1961 - Bay of Pigs

1961 - Vienna Summit; JFK as US President

Sep 1961 - Cuba ask USSR for weapons to defead against USA

13th Aug 1961 - 27-mile barrier built overnight, separating East and West Berlin

Dec 1961 - Castro publically announces that he is communist

Apr 1962 - USA put missiles in Turkey

Jul 1962 - Khrushchev puts nuclear missiles in Cuba

Oct 1962 - American U2 spy planes spot the missile bases

Oct 1962 - JFK orders naval blockade of Cuba

Oct 1962 - US Bombers put in the air with nuclear bombs; world on brink of nuclear war 

27th Oct 1962 - Deal made to dismantle missile bases and lift blockade

1963 - JFK visits West Berlin ('Ich bin ein Berliner' speech)

1963 - telephone 'hotline' established between Washington and Moscow

1963 - The Limited Test Ban Treaty: all future tests to be carried out underground

1964 - Krushchev resigns, seen as a failure by the public

1967 - The Outer Space Treaty: forbids countries to put weapons of mass destruction in space

Jan 1968 - Dubcek becomes leader of Communist Party in Czechoslovakia

Apr 1968 - Dubcek introduces reforms that go against Soviet-style communism: Prague Spring

21st Aug 1968 - 500,000 Soviet troops invade Czechoslovakia; non-violent response

Jan 1969 - Student burns himself alive in protest

Apr 1969 - Ducbek forcibly removed from office; Husak steps up

1969 - Brezhnev Doctrine

1970 - The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: agreement not to give nuclear weapons to those who did not already have them

1970 - Detente

1972 - First Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT 1)

1975 - Helsinki Agreement

1978 - Civil War in Afghanistan

1979 - The Second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT 2)

1979 - Carter Doctrine

Dec 1979 - USSR invade Afghanistan

1980 - Boycott of the Moscow Olympic Games in protest to Soviet-Afghan War

Jan 1981 - Ronald Reagan becomes US President

Mar 1983 - Reagan announces Strategic Defence Initiative: Star Wars

1983 - Detente is over

Mar 1985 - Gorbachev becomes leader of USSR

1985 - Gorbachev introduces 'perestroika' and 'glasnost'

1985 - Geneva Summit

1987 - Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

1988 - Gorbachev announces withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan

1988 - Reduction in USSR weapons stockpile and number of troops in Soviet armed forces

1988 - Brezhnev Doctrine abandoned

1988 - Withdrawal of Soviet troops/tanks/aircraft from Eastern Europe

May 1989 - Hungary opens its border with Austria

Jun 1989 - Free elections in Poland

Oct 1989 - Mass protests against communist regime

Nov 1989 - East German government open border between East and West Berlin

Nov 1989 - Free elections promised and wall torn down

Dec 1989 - Communist governments collapse in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania

1990 - Non-communist government in Poland

Mar 1990 - Hungary's Communist Party defeated in elections

Mar 1990 - Lithuania declares itself independent

Oct 1990 - East and West Germany rejoin to form one state

1990 - Communist Party divided

Jan 1991 - Soviets invade Vilnius, Lithuania; intervention no longer deterred protests

Aug 1991 - Coup plotted against Soviet government; failed

25th Dec 1991 - Gorbachev resigns

26th Dec 1991 - USSR dissolved

1991 - Yeltsin elected leader of Russia and capitalism adopted

• November 1943
• Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill
• Agreed to open a 2nd Front in order to ease pressure on USSR
• Stalin would declare war on Japan once war was over in Europe
• Agreed on principle, Germany would be kept weak after the war
• Agreed on principle, Poland to be given some of Germany's land but USSR would keep siezed land from Poland
• An International Body would be set up to dispute ideas (would be UN)

• February 1945
• Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill
• Germany would be split into 4 zones
• UN was to be established
• USSR was to recieve great reparations
• Stalin would join the war against Japan
• Stalin would have free elections in Eastern Europe
  • Poland's borders and the UN

• July 1945
• Stalin, Attlee, Truman
• Germany and Berlin would both be split into 4 zones
  • Economy would run as one
• The level of reparations were agreed
  • Eastern Europe, Atomic Bomb and Poland's borders

May 1945 - VE Day

No 'Big Three' - Stalin, Truman, and Attlee

No definite decisions were made at Yelta

Tensions begin between the USA and the USSR

There are arguments over boundaries and reparations

There is no trust between the USA and the USSR

• Truman did not tell Stalin about the Atomic Bomb

March 1947

Containing communism

America would give aid to countries where communism was threatening to take-over

America's job ---> Britain could no longer afford to keep their soldiers in Greece

Growth in Soviet power

Britain could not afford to keep soldiers in Greece

Greece would be lost to communism if there wasn't intervention

Truman decided it was the USA's job to contain communism

Shaped international relations

Led to the creation of Cominform and Comecon

• September 1947
• Co-ordinate governments in Eastern Europe so they ran as Stalin wanted
• Communist Party, Satalitte States, Yugoslavia, France and Italy
• 1st Meeting
  • They rejected the Marshall Plan
  • They spread propaganda saying the US were like German Nazis
• Strongest support was from Yugoslovia
  • Expelled in June 1948
• Headquarters
  • Belgrade
  • Bucharest, Romania

Soviet's walk out of meeting about future of Germany

Fulton Speech (Iron Curtain)

Trizonia and the Deutschmark

March 1948 - Trizonia

June 1948 - Deutschmark

Stalin was scared

Western powers had extended control

He was losing control over his area

Berlin Blockade - June 1948 to May 1949

Block road, rail, and water access to Berlin

Stalin had control around Berlin

Trizonia - combination of the USA, Britain, and France

Deutschmark

Went against promise of one economy

Stalin thought he was losing control

West Berlin is isolated, with no supplies

Berlin Airlift

Stalin built the Atomic Bomb

• January 1949
• Soviet's equivilent to the Marshall Plan
• USSR, Bulgaria, Czechslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, East Germany
  • Albania in 1950
• Would give aid in line with communist principles
• 1953, used to organise industrial planning -> 5 year plan

October 1956

Riot in Budapest due to lack of freedom

Nagy - leader of Hungary

Makes a two-party government

People revolt against the Red Army

Seize-fire is called ---> Red Army leave

West say they will send help

Never do, saying it's the Soviet's problem

1000 tanks are sent to regain control

20,000 Hungarians killed

Nagy arrested and executed

1958

People immigrated from East Berlin to West Berlin

West Berlin was more economically developed

Krushchev wanted the whole of Berlin

Force West out

November 1958

Demands Berlin should be an independant country

27th November 1958 - Berlin Ultimatum

Berlin to be demilitarised ---> free-city     Or

Krushchev would hand control of routes to East Germany

January 1959

Revolutionaries topple Pro-American government in Cuba

Led by Castro and Guevara

America accepted the government but would not aid them

May 1959

Cuba takes all its land back from America

February 1960

Cuba makes an agreement with the USSR

Secret clause: Cuba would receive arms for the USSR

12th August 1961

Wall went around Berlin and between East and West Berlin

Erected overnight - originally a fence

12ft tall by 1975

5000 people managed to escape

USA did not oppose it

Threat of nuclear war

Kennedy was a new president

Wall showed the USSR had given up on gaining West Berlin

16th to 28th October 1962

America places missiles in Turkey and Italy

16th October 1962 - Emergency meeting about reaction

22nd October 1962 - Naval blockade

27th October 1962

Plane and submarine hit

Submarine thought war had started

2 out of 3 people agreed to launch attack ---> launch didn't happen

Robert Kennedy - missiles removed from Cuba

missiles removed from Turkey and Italy

'Socialism with a human face'

Trade Unions were given wider power

Censorship was more relaxed

Multi-party elections were discussed

1969 -1980

USSR leader - Dubcek

USA leaders - Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan

SALT - Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty

1975 - FInal Act

Recognise Human Rights

'Just a piece of paper' to USSR

Charter 77 - obey Final Act

Ended when USSR invaded Afghanistan