Cold
War
Cold
War
Key Events and Dates of the Cold War:
summary by Jonathan Larr
1945 - Yalta (Eastern Europe)
On February 3, 1945 Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt all met at Yalta in Russia to discuss the fate of Europe, Germany, and what peace meant to them and their countries. The newly found peace meant different things to the different leaders. To Churchill, peace meant a free and democratic Europe with Britain at its head. To Stalin, peace meant an increase in Soviet power and a safeguard against further attacks from the West. To Roosevelt, peace meant a world democracy with the US at its helm. As expected, the conferences produced compromises. Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to temporarily divide Germany, one of Stalin's goals. In return, Stalin agreed to help in the Pacific against Japan and to attend an international meeting in San Francisco, which Roosevelt hoped would be the start of a UN.
1947 - Truman Doctrine and The Marshall Plan
The Truman Doctrine was introduced on March 12, 1947 because of the Soviet Union's invasion of Greece and Turkey. This was the first show of containment, which became an important part of the United State's foreign policy. Containment was the idea of not invading countries that were communist now but preventing other countries from becoming communist.
The Marshall plan was introduced in June, 1947 and it offered aid to from the US to nations of Europe. The total amount allocated to the Marshall plan was $13 billion.
1948 - 1949 - Berlin Blockade, and NATO Ratified.
After WWII, the US, Britain, and France united their zones of occupation in Berlin to form West Berlin. Berlin, however, was deep within East Germany, which was Soviet territory. In an attempt to take over all of Berlin, Stalin closed all the entrances to West Berlin by train or car. This effectively blockaded Berlin. Stalin's goal was to starve the West Berliners into submission.
NATO or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was an organization that was designed to act as an international police between warring countries. They even had their own army for dealing with problems. However, they proved more effective in dealing with human rights issues than handling political matters.
1949 - China turned communist, Soviet Union tested first atom bomb
The basis for the Cold War was democracy versus communism. These two event showed both that communism was spreading and the power of Communist countries. China had at that point, and still has, the most citizens in their country of any in the world. If a country with that large of a workforce and that large of a possible army is swayed to the Communist side, it can mean trouble for the democracies. The power of communist countries was also shown in the Soviet Union testing their atomic bomb. This showed that the Soviet Union was as technologically advanced as the US in terms of weaponry. The threat of nuclear war was also a real possibility and that fear was made worse by the soviets developing atomic capabilities.
1950 - 1953 Korean War
1953 - Stalin died, Khrushchev in power
The death of Stalin was important both due to the amount of time which Stalin had controlled the Soviet Union and, indeed, almost all of Eastern Europe, and that it made clear a problem in the Soviet system. This was that there was no clear was for one leader to succeed another. Consequently, leaders within the Communist party vied for enough power to be named general secretary. For the first few years after Stalin's death, several leaders shared the responsibility of running the Soviet Union. However, one man was able to gain power as time went by. This man was Nikita Khrushchev. No one would have expected him to be the one to gain the most power as he had little formal education. Despite that, by 1958 Khrushchev was both general secretary of the communist party and premier. The most important thing Khrushchev accomplished during his rule was de-Stalinization. Khrushchev declared that Stalin had jailed and killed loyal citizens. Because of Khrushchev's policies workers destroyed monuments of Stalin and moved his body from it's place of honor next to Lenin. Khrushchev was overthrown in 1964 because of both his policies and his loss of prestige as a result of the Cuban Missile crisis.
1954 - Dien Bien Phu
After WWII the French faced the decision of whether to allow their colonial possessions independence or to fight to the Nationalist movements. In Vietnam, the French had abundant natural resources. They did not want to let Vietnam go. As a result they fought hard to keep Vietnam. The loss the French suffered at Dien Bien Phu showed that communism was spreading. It accomplished this in that the Vietminh, or the communist party under Ho Chi Minh, led the army which spearheaded the revolt against the French. (For more information on Vietnam and the Vietnam War click here.)
1961 - Bay of Pigs, Berlin wall
On April 17, 1961 La Brigada attempted to overthrow Castro by making a surprise landing on Cuba's southern coast, also known as the Bay of Pigs. However, a Cuban army of 20,000 men, supported by airplanes and tanks, soon arrived. The US would not help La Brigada, consequently Kennedy ruling out any direct US participation. The most important outcome of this event was that the US's failure to help convinced Khrushchev that America would not resist further Soviet expansion.
In the years following WWII people all over the world spoke of an iron curtain over Europe. Of course there was no real iron curtain, but it represented the two sides of Europe. In the West there were democracies influenced by the US and other democratic countries. In the East existed communist countries and satellites of the Soviet Union, meaning that their policies and government were influenced by the Soviet Union. The Berlin wall was the first physical barricade between East and West Europe. It represented physically what before it had only been felt physically, the deep division of Europe both politically and now physically.
1962 - Cuban missile crisis
On October 14th, 1962 an American spy plane passing over Cuba discovered the 42 missile sites set up by Khrushchev. He built these missiles because he felt the US would react the same way to his expansion into Cuba as they did to the Bay of Pigs, which was to not get involved. The US government agreed that the missiles represented an unacceptable threat to the US. A week after the missiles were discovered, Kennedy announced a blockade of Cuba to prevent further missiles from entering Cuba, and he demanded that the Soviets remove the missiles they had already placed in Cuba. At first, Khrushchev refused to accept the blockade, but he finally agreed remove the missiles if the US did not invade Cuba.
1964 - Khrushcev resigned, Brezhnev took power
After Khrushchev resigned, Leonid Brezhnev stepped into power as leader of the Soviet Union. He quickly adopted a policy of putting down all dissidents. Under his guidance, government censors controlled what the public read and wrote, as well as enforcing laws that limited freedom of speech and worship. Brezhnev also persecuted dissidents who opposed government policies. His idea that the Soviet Union had the right to use force to keep Eastern European allies from turning away from communism became known as the Brezhnev Doctrine.
1968 - Prague spring, Czechoslovakia
In 1968, a new leader came to power in Czechoslovakia, Alexander Dubchek. He responded to students' protests with a program of reforms. He wanted to create "socialism with a human face" without giving up the basic ideas of communism. The time of his reforms became known as the Prague Spring because of the ideas flowering in the capital city of Czechoslovakia, Prague.
1954 - 1975 Vietnam War
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