Cold War
Timeline - by Shani Able
12 March 1947
The Truman Doctrine
24 june 1948
The Berlin Blockade
26 June 1948
The Berlin Airlift
2. Tanks blasting their way through the blockade
3. The American military sending its troops through the autobahn towards Berlin
None of the options available provided a promising and successful outcome so the government decided on a middle course in order to avoid provoking war. This was to send its troops in by aircraft. Although the wellbeing of the citizens of Berlin was a significant priority, an ulterior motive for this mission was to ensure that the USSR would not take over West Berlin. This mission was carried out successfully until the blockade was removed on the 30th of September 1949. The USA had managed to deliver over 1.5 million tons of food, fuel and equipment to Berlin. Stalin was forced to admit that his plan had failed and that the blockade had a counterproductive effect as it accelerated moves towards a powerful, pro-Western state.
The formation of Nato and the Warsaw Pact
NATO - April 1949
Warsaw Pact - May 1955
This alliance was a mutual defence treaty and regional economic organisation between 8 communist states of Central and Eastern Europe in existence during the Cold War.
16 october 1962
cuban missile crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was 'a confrontation between the two giant atomic nations, the USA and the USSR, which brought the world to the brink of nuclear destruction.'
13 March 1954
KGB Formed
The KGB was Russia's secret intelligence agency. This service was headquartered in Moscow and their aim was to spy on the US and other western countries. They wanted to stop those countries from spying on the Soviet Union, and to hunt down political dissidents that attempted to cause trouble.
1 november 1955
The vietnam war
Militarily speaking, the war was the result of North Vietnam and the Vietcong attempting to overthrow the South Vietnamese government. However generally speaking, the Vietnam War was an indirect conflict between the United States and Soviet Union, with each nation and its allies supporting one side. Neither the Soviet Union nor the USA could afford a war against each other considering the nuclear military might of both. However, they had client states that could carry on the fight for them. The Americans trained the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and provided military advisors to help combat the guerrillas in Vietnam and the Soviet Union supplied China (it's fellow communist state) with arms and weaponry, who would in turn, arm and equip the North Vietnamese to fight the Americans.
This war lasted approximately 15 years.
The casualties were:
South Vietnamese civilians - 195,000-430,000 lives
North Vietnamese civilians - 50,000-65,000 lives
25 june 1950
The Korean War
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) launched a surprise attack on South Korea.
The war had begun with North Korean leader Kim Il Song's desire to expand Communist rule. South Korea was aided by the UN troops and the US troops, led under McArthur.
North Korea survived for as long as they could, then turned to the People's Republic of China for assistance.
With the use of thousands of foot soldiers, the Chinese were able to push the UN and US troops back.
The result was a three-year war in the peninsula, ending in 1953 with an armistice.
This is another example of the conflict between communism and capitalism.
9 november 1989
Berlin's wall breached
The demolition of the wall surrounding Western Germany represented the beginning of the end of the Cold War. This barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic that began on the 13th of August 1961, was finally breached when crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. The governments later used industrial equipment to remove most of the wall. The physical Wall itself was primarily destroyed in 1990, this paved the way for German reunification.
31 december 1991
conclusion of cold war
Once the Soviet Union had finally been defeated, the end of this Cold War was imminent, due to the lack of military force.
All countries involved in NATO were waiting for this intense and hostile conflict to end.
The threat of the nuclear war was slowly decreasing allowing for relief and recovery.