A Little History

Just a few of the high points of the Cold War. Most of which are forgotten or ignored.
1945 February 4-11 The Yalta Conference Britian, Russia and USA devise plan to govern post-war Germany. Stalin promises fair elections in Poland.

1946 March 5, Winston Churchill declares the "Iron Curtain"

1947 March 12, President Truman requests money to fight Communism in Greece and Turkey. Pledges aid to any nation threatened by Communism.

1947 June 5 The Marshall Plan was started to aid nations ravaged by WWII, The Soviet Union and communist and Eastern Europe decline the aid.

1948 June 24 the Soviet Union blocks all road and rail traffic in Berlin. From June 1948 to May 1949 the US and Britian fly over 200.000 flights into Berlin deliverying over 1.5 million tons of supplies to Western Berlin.

1949 June Communist China declares victory over government of Chiang Kaishek which flees to Taiwan. On October Mao Tse-tung proclaims the Peoples Republic of China.

1950 June 25 North Korean Communists invade South Korea, June 27 President Truman orders US troops to assist South Korea. Chinese troops enter the conflict by the end of the year.

1952 November 1 the US explodes the first Hydrogen bomb, less than a year later the Soviets announce they had tested their first Hydrogen bomb.

1953 March 5 Joseph Stalin dies. On July 27 an Armistance is signed between North and South Korea; as of this date there is still no peace treaty. President became the first American President to threaten use of the Atomic Bomb. The cost of lives were 36,515, wounded 92,134 and MIA 8,156. It is estimated that ten million pepole lost their lives in the conflict.

1954 June 27 US sponsored forces topple government of Jacobo Guzman.
May 7 Vietnamese forces defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu. In July the Geneva Accords divide the country at the 17th parallel. The United States assumes chief responsibility of providing anti-communist aid to South Vietnam

1955 January 12, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles announces the doctrine of Massive Retalation, threating full scale nuclear attack on the Soviet Union in response to Communist agression anywhere in the world.

1956 February 14, Nakiti Krushchev denounces the policies of Stalin and rejects the Lennin idea of inevitable war

1957 October 4, the Soviet Union launches the first man made satellite, Sputnik into space.

1958 The U.S. creates NASA and the space race is in full force.

1959 January 1, Fidel Castro overthrows the Governernment of Cuba and signs trade agreements with the Soviet Union.

1960 May 1, Frances Gary Power flying a U2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union and captured.

1961 April 17, U.S. organized forces attempt to invade Cuba, three days later they surrender and admit defeat.

1961 August 15, the Soviet Union begins construction of the Berlin Wall to prevent East Germans from crossing into West Berlin.

1962 The Soviet Union installs nuclear missiles in Cuba, capable of reaching the United States.
on October 22 President Kennedy declares a blockade of Cuba. On October 28 the Soviets agree to dismantel their missiles. This ended the period of time in which the world was the closest to nuclear war.

This post is getting rather long so I will continue in another post.