Timeline of events in the Cold War

This is a timeline of the main events of the Cold War, a state of political and military tension after World War II between powers in the Western Bloc (the United States, its NATO allies and others) and powers in the Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union, its allies in the Warsaw Pact and later the People's Republic of China).

Part of a series on the
History of the Cold War

Origins of the Cold War
World War II
(Hiroshima and Nagasaki)
War conferences
Eastern Bloc
Western Bloc
Iron Curtain
Cold War (1947–1953)
Cold War (1953–1962)
Cold War (1962–1979)
Cold War (1979–1985)
Cold War (1985–1991)
Frozen conflicts
Timeline · Conflicts
Historiography
Cold War II

1940s

1945
  • February 4–11: The Yalta Conference in Crimea, Russia, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and their top aides. Main attention is deciding the post-war status of Germany. The Allies of World War II (the US, the USSR, United Kingdom and also France) divide Germany into four occupation zones. The Allied nations agree that free elections are to be held in Poland and all countries occupied by Nazi Germany. In addition, the new United Nations are to replace the failed League of Nations.[1]
  • March 6: The Soviet Union installs a puppet government in Romania.[2]
  • March 7: Josip Broz Tito is installed as the head of state of the provisional government of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia.[3]
  • March–April: US and Britain outraged as Stalin excludes them from a role in Poland and turns Poland over to a Communist puppet government he controls.[4]
  • March–April: Stalin outraged at inaccurate reports about Operation Sunrise that American OSS in Switzerland is negotiating a surrender of German forces; he demands a Russian general be present at all negotiations. Roosevelt vehemently denies the allegation, but closes down the operation in Switzerland. A Russian general is present at the negotiations in Italy that lead to surrender.[5]
  • April 12: Roosevelt dies; Vice President Harry S. Truman takes over with little knowledge of current diplomatic efforts, no knowledge of the atomic bomb, and a bias against Russia.[6]
  • July 24: At the Potsdam Conference, Truman informs Stalin that the United States has nuclear weapons.[7]
  • August 6: Truman follows advice of Secretary of War Henry Stimson and gives permission for the world's first military use of an atomic weapon, against the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
  • August 8: The USSR honors its agreement to declare war on Japan within three months of the victory in Europe, and invades Manchuria.
  • August 9: With no Japanese response to his ultimatums, Truman gives permission for the world's second and last military use of an atomic weapon, against the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
  • August 12: Japanese forces in Korea surrender to Soviet and American armies.
  • August 17: Indonesia declares its independence from the Dutch.
  • August 19-September 1: The Việt Minh seizes control of Hanoi after the surrender of the Japanese military. Its leader Ho Chi Minh proclaims the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam.[3]
  • September 2: The Japanese surrender unconditionally to the US. General Douglas MacArthur takes over occupation of Japan, and freezes out Russian and other allied representatives.[8]
  • September 5: Igor Gouzenko, a Russian working in the Soviet embassy in Canada, defects and provides proof to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police of a Soviet spy ring operating in Canada and the U.S. The revelations helps change perceptions of the Soviet Union from an ally to a foe.[9]
  • November: Stalin refuses to relinquish Soviet-occupied territory in Iran, beginning the Iran Crisis. Two short-lived pro-Soviet states, the Azerbaijan People's Government and the Republic of Mahabad, are formed.

1946

1947
  • January 1: The American and British zones of control in Germany are united to form the Bizone also known as Bizonia.
  • January 19: The Polish Workers' Party awards itself 80.1% of the vote in an election marked by ballot-stuffing and violent repression. Poland is set on a path of enforced Sovietization.
  • February 10, establishment of the neutral state Free Territory of Trieste.
  • March 12: President Harry Truman announces the Truman Doctrine starting with the giving of aid to Greece and Turkey in order to prevent them from falling into the Soviet sphere.
  • April 16: Bernard Baruch, in a speech given during the unveiling of his portrait in the South Carolina House of Representatives, coins the term "Cold War" to describe relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.
  • May 22: US extends $400 million of military aid to Greece and Turkey, signalling its intent to contain communism in the Mediterranean.
  • June 5: Secretary of State George Marshall outlines plans for a comprehensive program of economic assistance for the war-ravaged countries of Western Europe. It would become known throughout the world as the Marshall Plan.
  • July 11: The US announces new occupation policies in Germany. The occupation directive JCS 1067, whose economic section had prohibited "steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany [or] designed to maintain or strengthen the German economy", is replaced by the new US occupation directive JCS 1779 which instead notes that "An orderly, prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany."
  • August 14: India and Pakistan gain independence from the United Kingdom.
  • September: The Soviet Union forms the Communist Information Bureau (COMINFORM) with which it dictates the actions of leaders and communist parties across its spheres of influence.
  • October 20: Stanisław Mikołajczyk, leader of the non-communist Polish People's Party, flees the country ahead of impending arrest. Organized, legal political opposition to Polish communism is effectively at an end.
  • November 14: The United Nations passes a resolution calling for the withdrawal of foreign soldiers from Korea, free elections in each of the two administrations, and the creation of a UN commission dedicated to the unification of the peninsula.
  • December 30: In Romania, King Michael I of Romania is forced to abdicate by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, the monarchy is abolished and the Popular Republic of Romania is instituted instead. The Communist Party will rule the country until December 1989.

1948
  • January 4: Burma (today Myanmar) becomes independent from the UK through the Burma Independence Act 1947.
  • February 25: The Communist Party takes control in the Czechoslovak coup d'état of 1948.
  • March 10: Czechoslovakian Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk is reported having committed suicide.
  • April 3: Truman signs the Marshall Plan into effect. By the end of the programs, the United States has given $12.4 billion in economic assistance to Western European countries.
  • May 10: A parliamentary vote in southern Korea sees the confirmation of Syngman Rhee as President of the Republic of Korea, after a left-wing boycott.
  • May 14: The State of Israel is formed, with David Ben-Gurion as its first Prime Minister.
  • June 12: Mátyás Rákosi becomes General Secretary of the Hungarian Working People's Party and becomes the de facto leader of Communist Hungary.
  • June 18: A communist insurgency in Malaya begins against British and Commonwealth forces.
  • June 21: In Germany, the British zone and the French zone launch a common currency, the Deutsche Mark.
  • June 24: Stalin orders the Berlin Blockade, closing all land routes from West Germany to Berlin, in an attempt to starve out the French, British, and American forces from the city. In response, the three Western powers launch the Berlin Airlift to supply the citizens of Berlin by air.
  • June 28: The Soviet Union expels Yugoslavia from the Communist Information Bureau (COMINFORM) for the latter's position on the Greek civil war.
  • June 28 to May 11, 1949: The Berlin Airlift defeats Russia's attempt to starve West Berlin.
  • September 9: The Soviet Union declares the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to be the legitimate government of all of Korea, with Kim Il-sung as Prime Minister.
  • September 18: In Indonesia, the Madiun Affair, an uprising carried out by the People's Democratic Front (FDR), begins led by Musso, of the Communist Party of Indonesia. The uprising ends after three months when the Indonesian army captures and kills most of the rebels.
  • November 20: The American consul and his staff in Mukden, China, are made virtual hostages by communist forces in China. The crisis does not end until a year later, by which time U.S. relations with the new communist government in China had been seriously damaged.

1949

1950s

1950
  • January 5: The UK recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom.
  • January 19: China officially diplomatically recognizes Vietnam as independent from France.
  • January 21: The last Kuomintang soldiers surrender on continental China.
  • January 31: President Truman announces the beginning of the development of a hydrogen bomb.[18]
  • February 3: Soviet Union establishes diplomatic relations with the Indonesia through an exchange of telegrams between Indonesian Vice-president, Mohammad Hatta and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrey Vyshinsky
  • February 9: Senator Joseph McCarthy first claims without evidence that Communists have infiltrated the U.S. State Department, leading to a controversial series of anti-Communist investigations in the United States.[19]
  • February 12: The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China sign a pact of mutual defense.
  • March 11: Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek moves his capital to Taipei, Taiwan, establishing a stand-off with the People's Republic of China.
  • April 7: United States State Department Director of Policy Planning Paul Nitze issues NSC 68, a classified report, arguing for the adoption of containment as the cornerstone of United States foreign policy. It would dictate US policy for the next twenty years.
  • May 11: Robert Schuman describes his ambition of a united Europe. Known as the Schuman Declaration, it marks the beginning of the creation of the European Community.
  • June 25: North Korea invades South Korea, beginning the Korean War. The United Nations Security Council votes to intervene to defend the South. The Soviet Union cannot veto, as it is boycotting the Security Council over the admission of People's Republic of China.
  • July 4: United Nations forces engage North Korean forces for the first time, in Osan. They fail to halt the North Korean advance, and fall southwards, towards what would become the Pusan Perimeter.
  • September 30: United Nations forces land at Inchon. Defeating the North Korean forces, they press inland and re-capture Seoul.
  • October 2: United Nations forces cross the 38th parallel, into North Korea.
  • October 5: Forces from the People's Republic of China mobilize along the Yalu River.
  • October 22: Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, falls to United Nations forces.
  • October 22: China intervenes in Korea with 300,000 soldiers, catching the United Nations by surprise. However, they withdraw after initial engagements.
  • November 15: United Nations forces approach the Yalu River. In response, China intervenes in Korea again, but with a 500,000 strong army. This offensive forces the United Nations back towards South Korea.

1951
  • January 4: Chinese soldiers capture Seoul.
  • March 14: United Nations forces recapture Seoul during Operation Ripper. By the end of March, they have reached the 38th Parallel, and formed a defensive line across the Korean peninsula.
  • March 29: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of espionage for their role in passing atomic secrets to the Soviets during and after World War II; they were executed on June 19, 1953.
  • April 11: US President Harry S. Truman fires Douglas MacArthur from command of US forces in Korea.
  • April 18: The European Coal and Steel Community is formed by the Treaty of Paris.
  • April 23: American journalist William N. Oatis is arrested in Czechoslovakia for alleged espionage.
  • September 1: Australia, New Zealand, and the United States sign the ANZUS Treaty. This compels the three countries to cooperate on matters of defense and security in the Pacific.
  • October 10: President Harry S. Truman signs the Mutual Security Act, announcing to the world, and its communist powers in particular, that the U.S. was prepared to provide military aid to "free peoples."
  • November 14: President Harry Truman asks Congress for U.S. military and economic aid for the communist nation of Yugoslavia.
  • December 12: The International Authority for the Ruhr lifts part of the remaining restrictions on German industrial production and on production capacity.

1952

1953

1954
  • January 21: The United States launches the world's first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus. The nuclear submarine would become the ultimate nuclear deterrent.
  • March 8: U.S. and Japan Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement is signed by the United States and Japan.
  • March 13: The KGB is created as the successor agency of the NKVD.
  • April-June: The Army-McCarthy hearings are broadcast on American television, leading to a loss of support for McCarthyism.[23]
  • May 7: The Viet Minh defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu. France withdraws from Indochina, leaving four independent states: Cambodia, Laos, and what became North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The Geneva Accords calls for free elections to unite Vietnam, but none of the major Western powers wish this to occur in the likely case that the Viet Minh (nationalist Communists) would win.
  • May: The Hukbalahap revolt in the Philippines is defeated.
  • June 2: Senator Joseph McCarthy claims that communists have infiltrated the CIA and the atomic weapons industry.
  • June 18: The elected leftist Guatemalan government is overthrown in a CIA-backed coup. An unstable rightist regime installs itself. Opposition leads to a guerrilla war with Marxist rebels in which major human rights abuses are committed on all sides. Nevertheless, the regime survives until the end of the Cold War.
  • July 8: Col. Carlos Castillo Armas is elected president of the junta that overthrew the administration of Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman.
  • July 22: India annexes the Portuguese territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
  • August 11: The Taiwan Strait Crisis begins with the Chinese Communist shelling of Taiwanese islands. The US backs Taiwan, and the crisis resolves itself as both sides decline to take action.
  • September 8: Foundation of the South East Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) by Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Like NATO, it is founded to resist Communist expansion, this time in the Philippines and Indochina.
  • December 2: Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, is signed between the United States and the Republic of China.
  • December 15: Suriname became a Dutch constituent state.

1955

1956
  • February 25 : Nikita Khrushchev delivers the speech "On the Personality Cult and its Consequences" at the closed session of the Twentieth Party Congress of the CPSU. The speech marks the beginning of the De-Stalinization.
  • March 20: Tunisia becomes independent from France.
  • June 28: in Poznań, Poland, anti-communist protests lead to violence.
  • July: The United States and the United Kingdom cancel offers of aid on the construction of the Aswan Dam in Egypt due to its arms purchases from the Eastern Bloc. Nasser retaliates by nationalizing the Suez Canal.[25]
  • October 23: Hungarian Revolution of 1956: Hungarians revolt against the Soviet dominated government. They are crushed by the Soviet military, which reinstates a Communist government.
  • October 29: Suez Crisis: France, Israel, and the United Kingdom attack Egypt with the goal of removing Nasser from power. International diplomatic pressures force the attackers to withdraw. Canadian Lester B. Pearson encourages the United Nations to send a Peacekeeping force, the first of its kind, to the disputed territory. Lester B. Pearson wins a Nobel Peace Prize for his actions, and soon after becomes Canadian Prime Minister.
  • December: Viet Cong insurgency begins in South Vietnam, sponsored by North Vietnam.

1957
  • January 5: The Eisenhower Doctrine commits the United States to defending Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan from Communist influence.
  • January 22: Israeli forces withdraw from the Sinai, which they had occupied the previous year.
  • February 15: Andrei Gromyko begins his long tenure as Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union.
  • March 6: Ghana becomes independent from the UK under Commonwealth status.
  • May 2: Senator Joseph McCarthy succumbs to illness exacerbated by alcoholism and dies.
  • May 15: The United Kingdom detonates its first hydrogen bomb.
  • October 1: The Strategic Air Command initiates 24/7 nuclear alert (continuous until termination in 1991) in anticipation of a Soviet ICBM surprise attack capability.
  • October 4: Sputnik satellite launched. The same day the Avro Arrow is revealed.
  • November 3: Sputnik 2 was launched, with the first living being on board, Laika.
  • November 7: The final report from a special committee called by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to review the nation's defense readiness indicates that the United States is falling far behind the Soviets in missile capabilities, and urges a vigorous campaign to build fallout shelters to protect American citizens.
  • November 15: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev claims that the Soviet Union has missile superiority over the United States and challenges America to a missile "shooting match" to prove his assertion.
  • December 16-19: NATO holds its first summit in Paris, France. It is the first time NATO leaders have meet together since the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in April 1949.

1958
  • January: Mao Zedong initiates the Great Leap Forward.
  • January 31: The U.S. Army launches Explorer 1, the first American artificial satellite.
  • February 1: The United Arab Republic is formed.
  • May 18: On a bombing mission in support of the anti-Sukarno Permesta rebellion, a B-26 bomber supplied by the CIA is shot down in Ambon, Indonesia. The pilot, US citizen Allen Lawrence Pope is captured and imprisoned.
  • June: A C-118 transport, hauling freight from Turkey to Iran, is shot down. The nine crew members are released by the Russians little more than a week later.[26]
  • July 14: A coup in Iraq, the 14 July Revolution, removes the pro-British monarch. Iraq begins to receive support from the Soviets. Iraq will maintain close ties with the Soviets throughout the Cold War.
  • August: Thor IRBM deployed to the UK, within striking distance of Moscow.
  • August 23: Second Taiwan Strait Crisis begins when China begins to bomb Quemoy.
  • September 1: Iceland expands its fishing zone. United Kingdom opposed the action and eventually deploy some of its navy to the zone, thus triggering the cod wars.
  • October 4: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA is formed.
  • October 8: Guinea becomes independent from France.
  • November: Start of the second Berlin crisis, Nikita Khrushchev asks the West to leave Berlin.

1959
  • January 1: Castro wins the Cuban Revolution and becomes the dictator of Cuba. In the next several years Cuban-inspired guerrilla movements spring up across Latin America.[27]
  • March 10–23: The Tibetan uprising occurs.
  • March 24: New Republic government of Iraq leaves Central Treaty Organization
  • July 24: During the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow US Vice President Richard Nixon and Premier Khrushchev openly debate the capacities of each Superpower. This conversation is known as the Kitchen Debate.
  • August 7: Explorer 6 is launched into orbit to photograph the Earth.
  • September: Khrushchev visits U.S. for 13 days, and is denied access to Disneyland. Instead, he visits SeaWorld (then known as Marineland of the Pacific).[28]
  • October 22: Luna 3 is launched to take photographs of the far side of the Moon.
  • December: Formation of the NLF (often called Viet Cong) by North Vietnam. It is a Communist insurgent movement that vows to overthrow the anti-communist South Vietnamese regime. It is supplied extensively by North Vietnam and the USSR eventually.

1960s

1960
  • February 16: France successfully tests its first atomic bomb, Gerboise Bleue, in the middle of the Algerian Sahara Desert
  • April: Jupiter IRBM deployment to Italy begins, placing nuclear missiles within striking range of Moscow (as with the Thor IRBMs deployed in the UK).
  • May 1: American pilot Francis Gary Powers is shot down in his U-2 spy plane while flying at high altitude over the Soviet Union, resulting in the U-2 Incident, an embarrassment for President Eisenhower.
  • June: Sino-Soviet split: The Chinese leadership, angered at being treated as the "junior partner" to the Soviet Union, declares its version of Communism superior and begin to compete with the Soviets for influence, thus adding a third dimension to the Cold War.
  • July: The Congo Crisis begins.
  • July 31: Communist insurgents in Malaya are defeated.
  • August 3: Niger becomes independent from France.
  • August 9: The Pathet Lao (communist) revolt in Laos begins.
  • August 11: Chad becomes independent from France.
  • August 17: Gabon becomes independent from France.
  • September 23: Nikita Khrushchev travels to New York City to address the U.N. General Assembly, beginning a month long visit to the United States.
  • September 30: Sukarno gives a speech in front of the fifteenth UN General Assembly titled "To Build The World Anew" in which he criticizes the United Nations for not being neutral and questions location of the United Nations Headquarters in New York, United States.
  • November 28: Mauritania becomes independent from France.

1961

1962
  • January 15: Indonesian Armed Forces starts to infiltrate into the Dutch overseas territory of western New Guinea as a part of Operation Trikora, the second and last confrontation between Indonesia and the Netherlands over imperialism.
  • February 10: American pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for senior KGB spy Colonel Rudolf Abel.
  • February 20: John Glenn is launched into space aboard Friendship-7 becoming the first American to orbit the Earth. Despite having many delays in the launch itself, the flight is successful.
  • July 1: Rwanda and Burundi become independent from Belgium.
  • July 20: Neutralization of Laos is established by international agreement, but North Vietnam refuses to withdraw its personnel.[29]
  • August 2: Jamaica is granted independence by the UK.
  • August 27: Mariner 2 is launched to make a flyby of Venus.
  • September 8: Himalayan War: Chinese forces attack India, making claims on numerous border areas.
  • October 9: Uganda becomes independent from the UK under Commonwealth status.
  • October 16: Cuban Missile Crisis: The Soviets have secretly been installing military bases, including nuclear weapons, on Cuba, some 90 miles from the US mainland. Kennedy orders a "quarantine" (a naval blockade) of the island that intensifies the crisis and brings the US and the USSR to the brink of nuclear war. In the end, both sides reach a compromise. The Soviets back down and agree to withdraw their nuclear missiles from Cuba, in exchange for a secret agreement by Kennedy pledging to withdraw similar American missiles from Turkey and Italy, and guaranteeing that the US will not move against the Castro regime.
  • November 1: The Soviet Union successfully launches Mars 1 with the intention of making a flyby of Mars.
  • November 21: End of the Himalayan War. China occupies a small strip of Indian land known as the Aksai Chin.
  • December 14: Mariner 2 reaches Venus becoming the first US spacecraft to reach Venus and another planet.

1963

1964

1965

1966
  • January 31: Luna 9 is launched.
  • February 3: Luna 9 successfully lands on the Moon becoming the first spacecraft to softly land on another extraterrestrial body.
  • March 10: France withdraws from NATO command structure.
  • March 11: President Sukarno of Indonesia signs a document handing over authority to Major General Soeharto, who subsequently establishes the pro-western and anti-communist New Order regime, which remains in power until 1998.
  • May 8: Communist China detonates a third nuclear device.
  • May 26: Guyana becomes independent from the UK.
  • May 30: Surveyor 1 is launched.
  • June 2: Surveyor 1 becomes the first American spacecraft to softly land on another extraterrestrial body.
  • August 11: The Jakarta Accord is signed by the Indonesian Foreign Minister Adam Malik and Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Razak ending the hostility between Indonesia and Malaysia.
  • August 26: South African Border War begins.
  • September 30: Botswana becomes independent from the UK.
  • October 5: Beginning of low-level armed clashes in Korean DMZ between North Korea and South Korea backed by the United States.
  • November 30: Barbados becomes independent from the UK.

1967

1968

1969

1970s

1970

1971

1972

1973
  • January 27: The Paris Peace Accords end American involvement in the Vietnam War. Congress cuts off funds for the continued bombing of Indochina.
  • February 21: Vientiane Treaty is signed as a cease-fire agreement for the Laotian Civil War. The treaty calls for the removal of all foreign soldiers from Laos . The treaty calls for a coalition government to be created but never materialized.
  • June 21: West Germany and East Germany are each admitted to the United Nations.
  • July 10: The Bahamas becomes independent from the UK.
  • September 11: Chilean coup d'état — The democratically elected Marxist president of Chile, Salvador Allende, is deposed and dies of a gunshot wound during a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet.
  • October 6: Yom Kippur War — Israel is attacked by Egypt and Syria, the war ends with a ceasefire.
  • October 22: Egypt defects to the American camp by accepting a U.S. cease-fire proposal during the October 1973 war.
  • November 11: The Soviet Union announces that, because of its opposition to the recent overthrow of the government of Chilean President Salvador Allende, it will not play a World Cup Soccer match against the Chilean team if the match is held in Santiago.

1974

1975

1976

1977
  • January 1: Charter 77 is signed by Czechoslovakian intellectuals, including Václav Havel.
  • January 20: Jimmy Carter becomes President of the United States.
  • June 6: U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance assures skeptics that the Carter administration will hold the Soviet Union accountable for its recent crackdowns on human rights activists.
  • June 27: Djibouti becomes independent from France.
  • June 30: The Carter administration cancels the planned Rockwell B-1 Lancer bomber
  • July 23: The Ogaden War begins when Somalia attacks Ethiopia.

1978

1979

1980s

1980

1981
  • January 17: Martial law was lifted by Ferdinand Marcos in preparation for the visit of Pope John Paul II.
  • January 20: Ronald Reagan inaugurated 40th President of the United States. Reagan is elected on a platform opposed to the concessions of détente.
  • January 20: Iran hostage crisis ends after 444 days.
  • April 1: The United States suspends economic aid to Nicaragua.
  • August 19: Gulf of Sidra Incident: Libyan planes attack U.S. jets in the Gulf of Sidra, which Libya has illegally annexed. Two Libyan jets are shot down; no American losses are suffered.
  • September 21: Belize becomes independent from the UK. 1,500 British soldiers remain to deter Guatemala from attacking the country over territorial disputes.
  • October 27: A Soviet submarine, the U137, runs aground not far from the Swedish naval base at Karlskrona.
  • November 23: The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) begins to support anti-Sandinista Contras.
  • December 13: Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, having been appointed First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party, introduces martial law, which drastically restricts normal life, in an attempt to crush the Solidarity trade union and the political opposition against communist rule.

1982

1983
  • January: Soviet spy Dieter Gerhardt is arrested in New York.
  • March 8: In speech to the National Association of Evangelicals, Reagan labels the Soviet Union an "evil empire".
  • March 23: Ronald Reagan proposes the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, or "Star Wars").
  • July 7: Ten-year-old Samantha Smith accepts the invitation of Soviet premiere Yuri Andropov and visits the Soviet Union with her parents. Smith had written to Andropov to ask if he would "vote to have a war or not?" Smith's letter, published in the Soviet newspaper Pravda, prompted Andropov to reply and invite the girl to the U.S.S.R. The widely publicized event leads to other Soviet-American cultural exchanges.
  • July 22: Martial law in Poland is lifted.
  • July 30: Sri Lankan government bans all it's major communist parties claiming they were involved in ethnic riots, Soviet Union intervenes to unban the parties.
  • August 21: Former senator Benigno "Ninoy" S. Aquino was assassinated at the Manila International Airport (now Ninoy Aquino International Airport).
  • September 1: Civilian Korean Air Lines Flight 007, with 269 passengers, including U.S. Congressman Larry McDonald, is shot down by Soviet interceptor aircraft.
  • September 26: The 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident occurs. The U.S.S.R. nuclear early warning system reports launch of multiple U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles. Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov, an officer of the Soviet Air Defence Forces, correctly identifies them as false alarms. This decision is seen as having prevented a retaliatory nuclear attack based on erroneous data on the United States and its NATO allies, which likely would have resulted in nuclear war and the deaths of hundreds of millions of people.
  • October 25: U.S. forces invade the Caribbean island of Grenada in an attempt to overthrow the Communist government, expel Cuban troops, and abort the construction of a Soviet-funded airstrip.
  • November 2: Exercise Able Archer 83 — Soviet anti-aircraft misinterpret a test of NATO's nuclear warfare procedures as a fake cover for an actual NATO attack; in response, Soviet nuclear forces are put on high alert.
  • December 10: The National Reorganization Process military junta of Argentina is dissolved by democratically elected president Raúl Alfonsín.

1984
  • January: US President Ronald Reagan outlines foreign policy which reinforces his previous statements.
  • February 13: Konstantin Chernenko is named General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
  • May 24: The U.S. Congress ratifies the Boland Amendment banning U.S. aid to the contras.
  • July 28: Various allies of the Soviet Union boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics (July 28 - August 12) in Los Angeles.
  • August 11: During a microphone sound check for his weekly radio address, President Ronald Reagan jokes about bombing the Soviet Union. "My fellow Americans," Reagan says. "I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes." The quip is not aired but is leaked to the press. The Soviet Union temporarily puts its defense forces on high alert.
  • October 31: Indira Gandhi assassinated.
  • December 16: Margaret Thatcher and the UK government, in a plan to open new channels of dialog with Soviet leadership candidates, meet with Mikhail Gorbachev at Chequers.

1985
  • February 6: The Reagan Doctrine commits the United States to supporting anti-Communist insurgencies in the Third World.
  • March 11: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union.
  • March 15: Military rule ends in Brazil.
  • April 11: Enver Hoxha dies. Ramiz Alia takes over as First Secretary of the Party of Labor of Albania, becoming the de facto leader of Albania.
  • April 22: The Trial of the Juntas convenes to prosecute the members of the National Reorganization Process (the military junta that governed Argentina from 1976 to 1983) for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during its existence.
  • May 20: John Anthony Walker is arrested by the FBI.
  • August 6: Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet Union begins what it has announced is a 5-month unilateral moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons. The Reagan administration dismisses the dramatic move as nothing more than propaganda and refuses to follow suit. Gorbachev declares several extensions, but the United States fails to reciprocate, and the moratorium comes to an end on February 5, 1987.
  • November 21: Reagan and Gorbachev meet for the first time at a summit in Geneva, Switzerland, where they agree to two (later three) more summits.

1986
  • February 13: France launches Operation Epervier (Sparrowhawk) in an effort to repulse the Libyan invasion of Chad.
  • February 25: The People Power Revolution takes place in the Philippines, overthrowing President Ferdinand Marcos. The Philippines' first female president, Corazon Aquino, was installed as president.
  • April 15: U.S. planes bomb Libya in Operation El Dorado Canyon.
  • April 26: Chernobyl disaster: A Soviet nuclear power plant in the Ukraine explodes, resulting in the worst nuclear power plant accident in history.
  • October 11–12: Reykjavik Summit: A breakthrough in nuclear arms control.
  • November 3: Iran-Contra affair: The Reagan administration publicly announces that it has been selling arms to Iran in exchange for hostages and illegally transferring the profits to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

1987

1988
  • February 22: Incident: USS Yorktown and USS Caron are rammed off the Crimean Peninsula after entering Soviet territorial waters.
  • May 11: Kim Philby (Harold Adrian Russell Philby), the high-ranking UK intelligence officer who defected to the Soviet Union, dies in Moscow.
  • May 15: The Soviets begin withdrawing from Afghanistan.
  • May 29-June 1: Reagan and Gorbachev meet in Moscow. INF Treaty ratified. When asked if he still believes that the Soviet Union is still an evil empire, Reagan replies he was talking about "another time, another era."
  • November 6: Soviet scientist and well-known human rights activist Andrei Sakharov begins a two-week visit to the United States.
  • December 7: Gorbachev announces in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly that the Soviet Union will no longer militarily interfere with Eastern Europe.
  • December 22: South Africa withdraws from South West Africa (Namibia).

1989

1990s

1990

1991

See also

References
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  2. "HistoryWorld - Cold War Timeline". www.historyworld.net. Retrieved 2020-03-19.
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  5. Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, Volume 7: Road to Victory, 1941–1945 (1986) ch 64.
  6. Arnold A. Offner (2002). Another Such Victory: President Truman and the Cold War, 1945-1953. Stanford UP. p. 174.
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  13. "Novikov telegram". CUNY. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  14. Brune, Chronology of the Cold War, 1917-1992 (2006) p 144.
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  16. Hans-Peter Schwarz, Konrad Adenauer: From the German Empire to the Federal Republic, 1876-1952 (Vol. 1. Berghahn Books, 1995).
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  21. Christian F. Ostermann, and Malcolm Byrne, eds. Uprising in East Germany 1953: the Cold War, the German question, and the first major upheaval behind the Iron Curtain (Central European UP, 2001).
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  26. Powers, Francis (1960). Operation Overflight: A Memoir of the U-2 Incident. Potomac Books, Inc. p. 48. ISBN 9781574884227.
  27. Thomas C. Wright, Latin America in the era of the Cuban Revolution (Greenwood, 2001).
  28. Carlson, Peter (2009), K Blows Top: A Cold War Comic Interlude Starring Nikita Khurshchev, America's Most Unlikely Tourist, PublicAffairs, ISBN 978-1-58648-497-2
  29. Accords ending hostilities in Indo-China (Geneva, 20 July 1954) CVCE. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  30. Boyle, Andrew (1979). The Fourth Man: The Definitive Account of Kim Philby, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean and Who Recruited Them to Spy for Russia'. New York: The Dial Press/James Wade. p. 438
  31. {cite web|editor1=William Burr|editor2=Michael Evans |url=http://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB62/ |title=East Timor Revisited: Ford, Kissinger and the Indonesian Invasion, 1975–76 |work=National Security Archive |date=6 December 2001|accessdate=14 September 2017}}
  32. „Chega!“-Report of Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (CAVR)
  33. Robert M. Gates (2007). From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War. Simon and Schuster. p. 146. ISBN 978-1-4165-4336-7.
  34. "United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Geneva, 1982. U.S. delegation - P.L. 97-157" (PDF). 96 Stat. 16. U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved 19 December 2013. External link in |work= (help)
  35. Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T. "Ronald Reagan: "Statement on Signing a Bill Concerning Human Rights in the Soviet Union", March 22, 1982". The American Presidency Project. University of California - Santa Barbara. Retrieved 19 December 2013.

Further reading
  • Arms, Thomas S. Encyclopedia of the Cold War (1994).
  • Brune, Lester H. Chronology of the Cold War, 1917-1992 (Routledge, 2006) 720 pp of brief facts
  • Hanes, Sharon M. and Richard C. Hanes. Cold War Almanac (2 vol 2003), 1460pp of brief facts
  • Parrish, Thomas. The Cold War Encyclopedia (1996)
  • Trahair, Richard C.S. and Robert Miller. Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies, and Secret Operations (2012). excerpt
  • Tucker, Spencer C. and Priscilla Mary Roberts, eds. The Encyclopedia of the Cold War: A Political, Social, and Military History (5 Vol., 2007). excerpt
  • van Dijk, Ruud, ed. Encyclopedia of the Cold War (2 vol. 2017) excerpt
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