The Cold War

Wartime Tensions The slowness in starting a second front had upset Stalin tremendously. The Yalta Conference was supposed to draw the postwar boundaries of Europe, but it was very vague. At Yalta, FDR granted Stalin certain prerogatives in China for Stalin’s help beating the Japanese. Soviets knew about the A-bomb research and were upset to be left out.

German Partition

The Cold War Begins ‘45-’46 - Stalin cancels elections in Poland. Withdraws from World Bank and IMF. 2/46 – Kennan write the Long Telegram 3/46 – Churchill gives “Iron Curtain” speech 3/47 – Truman announces American involvement in Greek civil war, birth of the Truman Doctrine 6/47 – Marshall plan announced 2/48 – Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia 6/48 – Berlin Blockade 7/49 – NATO created

Communism Ascendant 9/49 – Mao Zedong gains control of China 9/49 – Soviets explode their first atomic bomb. The nuclear arms race begins. 2/50 – McCarthy begins his “witch hunt” in the State Department. 6/50 - North Korea invades South Korea

The Korean War

Seeing Red At Home ‘47 – Truman launches a “Loyalty Program”, many groups are targeted. ‘47 HUAC targets Hollywood ’48 – Nixon launches his investigation of Alger Hiss ‘50 – McCarthy gives his Wheeling, WV speech ‘52 – While campaigning, Eisenhower refuses to rebuke McCarthy’s attacks on George Marshall ‘53 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed for treason. ‘54 – Army-McCarthy Hearings: Broadcast on television, McCarthy’s below the belt tactics turn off most Americans.

Eisenhower and the Cold War 8/53 – CIA orchestrates the overthrow of Iran’s popular prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh and replaces him with the Shah of Iran. 5/54 – CIA orchestrates the coup d’etat against popular Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz. 5/54 – Dien Bien Phu falls to the Viet Minh, US stays out. 11/56 – Hungarian uprising crushed by Soviets, New Look proves unwieldy. 10/57 – Sputnik launched, space race begins 1/59 – Castro takes Cuba 5/60 – Powers’ U2 flight shot down, scuttles summit.

Kennedy and the Cold War 4/61 – JFK greenlights the Bay of Pigs invasion (modeled on Guatemala). It fails terribly. 8/61 – Berlin Wall goes up. 10/62 – Cuban Missile Crisis 7/63 – Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed

Vietnam US Military not interested in involvement in Vietnam in the ‘50s 11/63 – US tacitly approves overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem’s government. 8/64 – Gulf of Tonkin incident 7/65 – 150,000 US troops to Vietnam, by the end of the year, there will be 200,000 ‘65-’66 – Small scale protests over American involvement ’67 – Bombing admitted to be ineffective 1/68 – Tet Offensive

Vietnam War

A Country Torn Apart 3/68 – LBJ announces he won’t run again 6/68 – Leading anti-war candidate Bobby Kennedy assassinated 8/68 – Anti-war protestors and police clash at Democratic Convention in Chicago 3/69 – Nixon begin secret bombing of Cambodia 11/69 – News of My Lai massacre reaches the US. 5/70 – Kent State shootings 2/71 – Pentagon Papers released 6/72 – Watergate burglars are caught. Eventually it will lead to Nixon’s resignation

Detente 2/72 – Nixon goes to China, hopes to play off Chinese and Soviet suspicions of each other. 7/72 – SALT I signed. 1/73 – US and North Vietnam sign cease-fire 7/79 – SALT II signed 12/79 – Soviets invade Afghanistan, Carter puts sanctions into effect. 11/80 – Reagan elected, détente period ends

Endgame 8/80 – Solidarity Union challenges communist rule in Poland 3/83 – Reagan unveils the Strategic Defense Initiative, called Star Wars by some, to create a “shield” over the US. Creates a new arms race. 3/85 – Mikhail Gorbachev becomes General Secretary, begins to attempt to reform Soviet Union 10/87 – Reagan and Gorbachev remove all medium and short range missiles from Europe 1/89 – Soviets withdraw from Afghanistan 6/89 – Chinese dissidents are crushed at Tiananmen Square 9/89 – Hungary throws off communist rule 11/89 – The Berlin Wall falls