Chronology of the Cold War

Why was it called Cold War?

Its name is due to the fact that the blocks did not star directly directly, but promoted or involved in subsidiary wars in strategic territories of other countries.

Chronology of the Cold War

From “containment” to “peaceful coexistence” (1946-1962)

1946

• February 9 . Stalin (USSR) pronounces his hard speech: the capitalist world and the communist are incompatible.
• February 22 . Kennan's “long telegram” (American diplomat), which recommends a policy of “containment” against Soviet expansion is spread.
• March 5 . Churchill gives a speech in Fulton, United States, in which the term “steel curtain” popularizes.
• September . The civil war in Greece between the monarchical government and the Communist Party begins.
• December 19 . The communist forces of Ho Chi Minh begin their fight against French colonial domination in Indochina.

1947

• March 12 . President Truman gives a speech before the United States Congress, where he requests help for Türkiye and Greece against communist insurrections (“Truman doctrine”).
• June 5 . G. Marshall (US Secretary of State) gives a speech in Harvard, where he proposes an economic aid plan to Europe (“Marshall Plan”).
• October 5 . The Kominform is created (coordination organ of the Soviet block).
• December . The Civil War in China between the communist forces of Mao Zedong and the nationalists of Chiang Kai-Chek.

1948

• February 25 . A communist coup d'etat develops in Prague.
• March 17 . The Brussels treaty is signed for the defensive and economic cooperation of Western European countries.
• May 14 . The State of Israel is proclaimed and the First Arab-Israeli War begins.
• June 24 . The Soviet block of Berlin begins.
• June 28 . Yugoslavia is expelled from the Kominform.

1949

• January . ComeCon is created (Economic Mutual Aid Council).
• April 4 . The North Atlantic Treaty is signed that gives rise to NATO.
• May 12 . Finish the Soviet block of Berlin.
• May 23 . The birth of the Federal Republic of Germany is proclaimed.
• August 29 . The first test of a Soviet atomic bomb is performed.
• September 15 . Adenauer assumes as the Federal Republic of Germany
• October 1 . Mao Zedong proclaims the People's Republic of China.
• October 7 . The German Democratic Republic is created.

1950

• February 14 . The Chinese-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance is signed.
• June 25 . North Korea attacks South Korea.
• September . The American troops of General MacArthur recover the territory conquered by the North Koreans.
• October and November . Chinese troops intervene in favor of North Korea.

1951

• April 11 . Truman dismisses MacArthur from the front of the troops in Korea.
• September 8 . San Francisco's treaty between Japan and the United States is signed.

1952

• October 3 . Great Britain proves her first atomic bomb.
• November 4 . Dwight Eisenhower elected president of the United States. (Assumes on January 20, 1953).

1953

• March 5. Stalin dies.
• July 27 . The United States and North Korea sign an armistice and concludes the Korean War.
• August 19 . A coup d'etat organized by the CIA overthrows President Mossadegh in Iran.

1954

• May 7 . France is defeated in Dien well Phu, and this determines its withdrawal from Indochina and the division between Northern Vietnam and South Vietnam.
• June 18 . A coup d'etat organized by the CIA overthrows President Jacobo Affenz in Guatemala.
• September 8 . The Southeast Asia Treaty (Seato) is signed.

1955

• February . Jruschov sets his leadership in the PCUS (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) and in the USSR.
• April 5 . The Baghdad Pact (Treaty of the Middle East) is signed that in 1959 will be called the organization of the Center Treaty (CENTO).
• May 5 . The Federal Republic of Germany recovers its sovereignty and four days later joins NATO.
• May 14 . The Warsaw Pact is constituted.

1956

• February 25 . Jrushchov denounces Stalin (for the repression and cult of personality) in his “secret speech” before the XX PCUS Congress, which begins the “de -stating process.”
• June 29 . Workers are developed in Poznan, Poland.
• July 26 . Nasser, president of Egypt, nationalizes the Suez channel.
• October 21 . The Kremlin accepts Gomulka (who had opposed Stalin's policies and was considered a reformist) as a Polish leader.
• October 23 . The Hungary Revolution begins against Soviet power.
• October 29 . The Suez crisis begins: the state of Israel, supported by France and Great Britain, attacks Egypt (nine days later, the UN gets the high fire).
• November 4 . The USSR invades Hungary.

1957

• March 25 . The six (France, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) sign the treaties of Rome, which establish the European Economic Community (CEE).
• October 4 . The USSR launches the Sputnik i To space, the first artificial satellite.

1958

• January 31 . The first American artificial satellite is launched, known as Explorer i.
• December 21 . The General of Gaulle becomes the first president of the V French Republic (assumes on January 8, 1959).

1959

• January 1. Fidel Castro takes power in Cuba.
• September 15 to 27 . Jruschov Visit Ee. UU.

1960

• May 5 . Jrushchov announces the demolition in Soviet sky of an U-2 American spy plane.
• May 16 . The Jrushu-Eisenhower Summit fails in Paris.
• October 19 . The United States imposes a commercial embargo on Cuba.
• November 8 . John F. Kennedy is elected president of the United States (assumes on January 20, 1961).

1961

• January 3. The United States breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba.
• April 12 . Yuri Gagarin, Soviet Cosmonaut, becomes the first human being to travel to outer space.
• April 19 . The invasion of Cuba organized by the CIA (Bay of Cochinos or Playa Girón) fails.
• May. USA sends its first military counselors to Vietnam.
• June 3 and 4. The summit between Jrushchov and Kennedy in Vienna develops.
• August 13 . The German Democratic Republic begins the construction of the Berlin Wall.

From the distension missile crisis (1962-1979)

1962

• October 14 . An American U-2 spy plane discovers Soviet missiles in Cuba: the crisis of Cuba missiles begins.
• October 28 . The missile crisis culminates with the Soviet commitment to withdraw the missiles of Cuba and the American agreement not to go to war with the Cuban government (to which is added a secret commitment from the US.

1963

• January 29 . France vetoes the entrance of the United Kingdom (to which De Gaulle considers an American Trojan horse) in the EEC.
• June 20 . The “Red Telephone” is established, a direct communication route between the White House and the Kremlin.
• November 1 . The president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, is overthrown and killed a day later by a military coup.
• November 22 . John F. Kennedy is killed in Dallas.

1964

• August 2. The incident of the Gulf of Tonkín, which accuses Vietnam of the north of attacking American ships, allows Lyndon B. Johnson, president of the United States. UU. After Kennedy's death, request the Congress a greater military support from South Vietnam.
• October 14 . Jrushchov is dismissed and replaced by Breznev in the General Secretariat of the PCUS.
• October 16 . Popular China proves its first atomic bomb.
• November 3 . Lyndon B. Jonhson wins the presidential elections in the US.

1965

• February 7. The first American bombardment in Vietnam happens.
• March 8 . The first American combat troops arrive at Vietnam.
• April 28 . UU. It intervenes militarily in the Dominican Republic.

1966

• March 7. France retires from NATO military structure, although it remains in the alliance.

1967

• June 5 . The six -day war begins (Israel against an Arab coalition composed of Egypt, Syria and Jordan).
• October 21 . Great protests occur before the Pentagon in Washington against the Vietnam War.

1968

• January 30 . Communist troops of the Norvietnamese army and the Viet Cong begin the tet offensive in Vietnam.
• March . Dubcek starts the “spring of Prague”.
• March 16 . American troops commit the massacre of My Lai in Vietnam.
• August 20 . Warsaw Pact Troops invade Czechoslovakia.
• November 5 . Richard Nixon is elected president of the United States. (Assumes on January 20, 1969).

1969

• March 2 . There is the first military shock in the Ussuri River between the USSR and the People's Republic of China.
• July 20 . American astronauts arrive at the moon (mission Apollo 11).
• July 25 . After having retired 25,000 soldiers, Nixon announces that from now on Asian countries must defend themselves (“Nixon doctrine”).

1970

• April 30 . American and Vietnam troops of the South invade Cambodia. Great anti-war protests occur in the US.
• August 12 . The Federal Republic of Germany and the USSR sign a non -aggression pact (Moscow Treaty) by which they agree to recognize the borders between the two German republics, and between the German democratic republic and Poland (it is part of the “Ostpolitik” of the Western German Chancellor, Willy Brandt).

1971

• October 25 . The People's Republic of China enters the United Nations (UN) as a permanent member of the Security Council.

1972

• January 22 . The nine Europe (the United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland) enters the EEC.
• February 21 . Nixon visit to the People's Republic of China.
• May 26 . SALT I treaties are signed in Moscow for the limitation of armaments.
• June 17 . The Watergate scandal begins.

1973

• January 27 . The peace treaty on Vietnam in Paris is signed. End of American intervention, although war continues.
• September 11 . There is a military coup supported by the CIA against Chilean President Salvador Allende.
• October 6 . The Yom Kippur or Ramadan war begins (Israel against Egypt and Syria).

1974

• August 9 . As a result of the Watergate scandal, Nixon renounces the presidency of the United States. It is replaced by its vice president, Gerald Ford.
• November 23 . Breznev and Ford are in Vladivostok and agree a draft of the Salt II treaty.

1975

• April 17 . The Red Jamers (Cambodian Communist Party) conquer phnom penh, capital of Cambodia.
• April 30 . Northern Vietnam troops take Saigon. The Vietnam War ends.
• August 1 . The Helsinki Act for European Safety and Cooperation is signed, which includes the US signatures, the USSR and most European countries.

1976

• July 2 . Vietnam of the North and the South meet with the name of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
• November 2 . Jimmy Carter is elected president of the United States (assumes on January 20, 1977).

1977

• March 17 . Carter announces that human rights will be the greatest concern of US foreign policy.
• November 19 . Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat visits Israel.

1978

• April 27 . Prosovietic military takes power in Afghanistan.
• September 5 to 17 . Carter, Begin (Prime Minister of Israel) and Sadat sign the Camp David agreements.
• December 25 . Vietnamese troops invade Cambodia and overthrow the regime of the Red Jamers.

Of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan at the end of the Cold War (1979-1991)

1979

• January 1 . The US and the People's Republic of China establish diplomatic relations.
• January 16 . Iran's SAH flees from the country in the face of the advance of the Islamic Revolution (which definitely triumphs on February 11).
• February 17 . China attacks northern Vietnam as retaliation for the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia.
• June 18 . Carter and Breznev sign the Salt II agreements in Vienna.
• March 26 . Israel and Egypt sign in Washington the peace treaty between the two countries.
• July 17 . The Sandinista National Liberation Front overthrows the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua.
• November 4 . Islamist groups assault the US embassy in Tehran (Iran) and take hostages (the hostage crisis will last 444 days).
• December 27 . The USSR invades Afghanistan.

1980

• January 3 . Carter withdraws the Salt II treaty from Congress' consideration in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
• January 23 . Carter announces that the US will use strength in case other power threatens its access to the Persian Gulf (“Doctrina Carter”).
• April 24. An American attempt fails to rescue Tehran's hostages.
• July and August . UU. And another 40 nations boycotten the Moscow Olympic Games, in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
• August 31 . Lech Walesa signs with the communist government of Poland an agreement that means the legal recognition of the solidarity union (first free union of the communist bloc).
• November 4 . Ronald Reagan is elected president of the USA. (Assumes on January 20, 1981).

1981

• October 6. Egyptian fundamentalist officers murder Anwar El-Sadat during a military parade
• December 13 . There is a military coup in Poland. Marcial law is decreed and Walesa is imprisoned (then the solidarity union is prohibited again).

1982

• June 6 . Israel invades the south of Lebanon to avoid the guerrilla attacks of the OP (Palestine Liberation Organization).
• November 10 . Breznev dies and is replaced by Yuri Andropov.

1983

• March 23 . Reagan announces the launch of the Strategic Defense Initiative (IDE), sometimes known as “Galaxias War” (Star Wars).
• April 18 . There is a terrorist attack against the United States Embassy in Beirut, with 63 deaths.
• October 23 . There is a suicidal terrorist attack against a headquarters of US Marines in Beirut, with 241 dead.
• October 25 . The United States invades the island of Granada (in the Caribbean Sea), after a coup d'etat perpetrated from the interior of the revolutionary popular government.
• November 23 . The deployment of the “Euromisiles” begins (ballistic missiles installed by the Warsaw Pact and NATO in different parts of Europe).

1984

• February 9 . Yuri Andropov dies. It is replaced by old Constantin Chernenko.
• May 24. The United States Congress prohibits continuing with the aid to Against Nicaraguan.
• July and August. The USSR and its allies (except Romania) boycott the Los Angeles Olympic Games.
• September 26 . The Chinese-British agreement for the return of Hong-Kong in 1997, whose final version was signed on December 19.

1985

• February 6 . Reagan announces that the US will support the rebels fighting communist regimes in the third world (“Reagan doctrine”).
• March 11 . Mijaíl Gorbachov is elected general secretary of the PCUS.
• June 11 . Gorbachev proposes an in -depth reform of the Soviet economy.
• November 19 . The first summit between Gorbachov and Reagan in Geneva happens.

1986

• February 25 . Gorbachev defends the need to undertake a process of great reforms (Perestroika) In the XXVII PCUS Congress.
• April 26 . The Chernobil nuclear accident happens in Ukraine (USSR).
• October 10 . Reagan and Gorbachev's summit in Reykiavik (Iceland) takes place. An armament reduction agreement is not reached.
• November 13 . The Iran-Contra scandal explodes, which revealed that Reagan government officials had sold weapons to Iran to finance the Against In Nicaragua.
• December 16 . Gorbachev releases Russian dissident Sajarov.

1987

• June 8 to 14 . Pope John Paul II visits Poland. The crowd that receives it fervently supports the solidarity union.
• December 8 . Gorbachev and Reagan sign in Washington the treaty on nuclear forces of intermediate range (INF): an agreement that prohibits intermediate -reach nuclear missiles.

1988

• February 8 . Gorbachev announces the Soviet withdrawal of Afghanistan, which begins on May 15.
• May 29 . The Reagan-Gorbachov Summit takes place in Moscow. The ratifications of the Washington Treaty are exchanged (it enters into force on June 1).
• November 8 . George Bush (father) is elected president of the USA. (Assumes on January 20, 1989).
• December 7 . In a speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Gorbachov announces an important unilateral disarmament.

1989

• February 6. Conversations between the socialist government of Poland and the solidarity union begin.
• February 14 . The Sandinista government of Nicaragua agrees to hold free elections.
• February 15 . Soviet troops end their withdrawal from Afghanistan.
• March 26 . The first elections are given with a small margin of freedom in the USSR: many dissidents get a seat in the new people's congress.
• April 5 . The Polish government agrees to legalize the solidarity union (legalization takes place on April 17).
• June 3 to 4 . The tiananmén massacre in Beijing (China) happens, with a brutal repression against Democratic protesters.
• June 4 . Solidarity was established as a political party and expires in the first free elections in Poland.
• August 24. The first non -communist government begins in Poland since World War II.
• October 18 . Erich Honecker is replaced by Egon Krenz in the direction of the Unified Socialist Party of the German Democratic Republic.
• October 25 . Gorbachev publicly rejects the “Breznev Doctrine” (which established that any threat to a communist government of the Eastern bloc justified the intervention of the Warsaw Pact).
• November 9 . Berlin wall falls.
• December 2 . The summit of Bush and Gorbachev in Malta happens.
• December 25 . The Romanian communist dictator Ceaucescu is executed.
• December 29 . After the so -called “velvet revolution” against the communist regime, Vaclav Havel is appointed president of Czechoslovakia.

1990

• March 11 . Lithuania declares its independence from the USSR. The process of disintegration of the Soviet Union begins to accelerate.
• March 13 . The Communist Party of the Soviet Union loses the monopoly of political power.
• May 30 . The summit of Bush and Gorbachov happens in Washington.
• October 3 . Germany meets.
• November 18 . The 34 members of the CSCE (conference on security and cooperation in Europe), NATO and the Warsaw Pact sign the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which limits its number for both alliances.
• November 21 . Those same countries sign the Paris letter, which formally ends the cold war.

1991

• July 1 . The Warsaw Pact ends.
• July 31 . Bush and Gorbachev sign in Moscow the Start I Treaty of Strategic Weapons Reduction.
• August 19 to 21 . A coup d'etat of the communists of the hard line against Gorbachev fails.
• December 25 . Gorbachev renounces the presidency of the USSR.
• December 31 . The USSR officially ceases to exist, and is replaced by 15 independent states. Russia is the heir of the USSR in the international field.

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References

• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2022). Cold War. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• Powaski, Re (2000). The Cold War: the United States and the Soviet Union, 1917-1991. Criticism.
• Veiga, F., Da Cal, E. & Duarte, A. (2006). Simulated peace. A story of the Cold War. Alliance.