Transcript Document
Karl Marx, founder of socialism: “Workers of the world, unite!” Timeline of the Cold War • 1917 Russian Revolution is taken over by the Bolsheviks (Lenin) • 1921 Russian Empire is officially renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (CCCP) • 1924 Lenin dies • 1925 • 1939 • 1942 WWII Stalin gains control of the Communist Party/USSR FDR okays development of atomic weapons (Manhattan Project) U.S. and U.S.S.R. are “uneasy allies” in 1945 Potsdam Conference between Truman, Stalin, and Churchill – the three agree on post-war boundaries 1945 Truman okays bombing of Japanese cities (Hiroshima and Nagasaki), leading to Japan’s surrender. 1945 WWII ends with USSR occupying Eastern Europe and US/Britain/France occupying Western Europe 1946 Communist government set up in Albania, beginning gradual communist takeovers in all of Eastern European countries. 1946 Kennan’s “long telegram” warns of Soviet ambitions to spread communism 1948 Marshall Plan implemented to rebuild Western Europe and save it from communism 1948 Berlin Airlift begins as response to USSR blocking roads and railroads into West Berlin 1949 Chinese Communists (Mao Tse-tung) successfully defeat Nationalists 1949 Russians explode their first atomic bomb 1949 NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) formed as an alliance of free countries 1950-1954 McCarthy “Witch Hunt” era or Red Scare 1952 Eisenhower takes office 1953 Stalin dies 1953 First hydrogen bomb tested (“superbomb”) 1953Korean War observes 60-year ceasefire, but isn’t officially ended (ever). 1955 Warsaw Pact formed, consisting of the USSR and its eastern European satellites Bomb shelter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_Zgyp4HgNU 1955 Nikita Kruschev gains control of the Communist Party 1956 Kruschev delivers “secret speech” denouncing Stalin’s brutality and oppression; within a year he has done a 180-degree reversal 1958-1962 Mao’s Great Leap Forward aimed at transforming Chinese industry 1959-1969 Mao’s Cultural Revolution aimed at “purifying” China by eliminating old (non-communist) ways of thinking 1957 Space Race begins as the Russians beat the U.S. in putting the first satellite into space 1959 Fidel Castro sets up communist government in Cuba 1959 Kruschev visits U.S. 1960 Gary Powers’ U-2 plane shot down over USSR 1960 Kennedy elected president 1961 Soviets are first to put a man into space (Yuri Gagarin) 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion – JFK’s failed attempt to help Cuban exiles win Cuba back from Castro 1961 Berlin Wall constructed overnight to prevent East Germans from escaping into the West 1962Cuban Missile Crisis: The U.S. and U.S.S.R. teeter on the brink of nuclear war over the Soviets shipping nuclear missiles to Cuba; it ends in a compromise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYVPx3x3oCg 1963 Kennedy assassinated; LBJ (Lyndon B. Johnson) takes office 1964 Kruschev forced to resign; Leonid Breshnev takes over 1967 U.S. puts first man on the moon 1968 Prague Spring crushed by Soviet invasion 1968 Nixon elected president 1972 Nixon visits China and USSR; Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT) with USSR bring about détente, a calming of the Cold War 1973 U.S. troops out of Vietnam 1974 Nixon resigns over Watergate Scandal; Ford takes office 1975 South Vietnam falls to communism 1975 Helsinki Accords affirm European borders, agreements on human rights 1976 Carter defeats Ford 1978 U.S. and China establish diplomatic relations; U.S. withdraws support of Taiwan as the “real China.” 1979-1980 USSR invades Afghanistan; US boycotts Olympics 1980Reagan defeats Carter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MDFX-dNtsM 1980 Polish Solidarity movement challenges the authority of the communist government 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev takes over leadership of USSR 1986 Gorbachev announces policies of perestroika and glasnost (restructuring and openness) 1988 George HW Bush elected president 1988 George HW Bush elected president 1989 Berlin Wall is demolished, symbolizing the fall of communism 1990 East and West Germany reunified 1991 The Soviet Union is abolished; Boris Yeltsin becomes president of Russia