Timeline of the Cold War

Military conflicts Agreements Policies

1) Potsdam conference July 1945 -> Allied powers divide spheres of influence in Europe.
2) Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki August 1945 -> First instance of nuclear weapons being
used in war, making the threat of a nuclear war real.
3) Creation of the Eastern bloc 1945 -> Division of Germany into communist GDR and pro-
western FRG, “iron curtain” in Europe.
4) Truman’s doctrine 1947 -> “Official” declaration of conflict between the USA and USSR.
5) Marshall plan 1948 -> Financial aid to western Europe, Berlin blockade, Berlin Airlift.
6) Creation of NATO 1949 -> Military alliance in the west; Mao comes to power in China, USSR
develops nuclear weapons, start of the Arms Race.
7) Korean War 1950-1953 -> conflict between communist North Korea and capitalist South
Korea.
8) Warsaw Pact 1955 -> Military alliance of the Eastern Bloc, an opposition to NATO
9) Revolts in Eastern Europe -> Hungarian revolution: 1956, Poznań Protests: 1956, Berlin crisis:
1961. All brutally suppressed by USSR.
10) Construction of the Berlin wall 1961 -> Physically divides East and West Berlin
11) Cuban crisis 1961 -> Communist Cuba under Fidel Castro. USSR removes missiles from Cuba,
USA removes missiles from Turkey.
12) Vietnam war 1955-1975 -> USA intervention in 1964. Continuous Space Race at the same
time (1957 – first Sputnik, 1961 – first man in space, 1969 – Moon landing).
13) SALT 1 1972 -> Strategic Arms Limitation Talks between USA and USSR
14) SALT 2 1979 -> Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in the same year
15) Perestroika 1985 -> Gorbachev becomes leader of USSR
16) Fall of the Berlin wall 1989 -> symbolic end of the Cold War, reunification of Germany.
Afghan war ends the same year
17) Fall of the USSR in 1991.