Cold War Timeline by Nicholas Tournas https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r (1917-1991) en-us 2022-03-08 13:32:14 UTC 2025-10-02 20:54:53 UTC hello@padlet.com 1917 - When Bolshevik revolutionaries overthrew the regime of Czar Nicholas II in 1917 they established a new government based on communist principles. 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084034117 2022-03-08 14:00:06 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084034117 1918- Hence, in 1918, the United States and several other European states sent a small expeditionary force to help Russian monarchist, counterrevolutionary forces trying to topple the Bolsheviks and restore the czarist regime. 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084036051 2022-03-08 14:01:01 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084036051 1920-This effort was unsuccessful, however, and the foreign troops had left Russia. 24tournasn1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084037357 2022-03-08 14:01:38 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084037357 1933-Americans established a climate of mistrust between the two nations that prevented them from establishing diplomatic relations until 1933. 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084037627 2022-03-08 14:01:46 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084037627 1939- The British and Americans never entirely trusted the Soviets, who had actually cooperated with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler between 1939 and 1941 until Germany repudiated their agreement and invaded Russia. 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084038040 2022-03-08 14:01:57 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084038040 1939- WWII starts when Germany invaded Poland. Great Britain and France responded by declaring war on Germany on September 3. The war between the U.S.S.R. and Germany began on June 22, 1941, with Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. 24tournasn1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084038408 2022-03-08 14:02:06 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084038408 1945-As the war ground to a close in the spring of 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt died, and his successor, Harry Truman, emerged as a more determined opponent of communism 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084038622 2022-03-08 14:02:12 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084038622 March 5 1946: These actions alarm the United States and other Western governments. Winston Churchill, the wartime leader of Great Britain, gave one of his most famous speeches at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084039138 2022-03-08 14:02:25 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084039138 1947- speech by Bernard Baruch: coined the term that would come to define the open struggle for power and influence between the Soviet Union and the United States in the decades after World War II. 24tournasn1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084039975 2022-03-08 14:02:45 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084039975 1948-The situation came to a head in 1948, when Stalin responded to what he viewed as increasing provocation from the West by setting up a blockade of the western half of Berlin. 24matikc1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084041357 2022-03-08 14:03:23 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084041357 1947-The second major U.S. initiative of this period was the Marshall Plan, which Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposed in a commencement address at Harvard University on June 5, 1947 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084041447 2022-03-08 14:03:25 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084041447 1949- Stalin had lifted the blockade, but Germany remained definitively divided into two separate nations, while Berlin remained a divided city. 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084042067 2022-03-08 14:03:41 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084042067 1948-Stalin's actions in Berlin had been in response to the increasingly tense nature of the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. By 1948 24matikc1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084042083 2022-03-08 14:03:41 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084042083 1950-This new level of intensity was reflected in the Truman administration's response to developments on the Korean peninsula in the spring 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084044070 2022-03-08 14:04:36 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084044070 1953-The new American president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, ended the war in 1953, with the peninsula still divided into two nations maintaining an uneasy peace. 24tournasn1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084044274 2022-03-08 14:04:42 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084044274 1953- Stalin died. Also, with Eisenhower scaling back American military spending and relying more on nuclear weapons for defense, the Cold War seemed to be stabilizing 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084044675 2022-03-08 14:04:51 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084044675 1954-When the French were defeated in the Indochina War in 1954, Vietnam was divided into a communist North and a U.S.-supported South 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084045117 2022-03-08 14:05:03 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084045117 1954- Many lives and reputations were ruined, often unjustly, and some Americans even went to jail for their beliefs. The hysteria died down in 1954, but the atmosphere of paranoia and fear was deeply destabilizing for the American public. 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084045436 2022-03-08 14:05:12 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084045436 1959-The most alarming development for Americans, however, was the Cuban Revolution in 1959, when revolutionary Fidel Castro established a communist government a mere 90 miles from the coast of Florida and promptly signed an alliance with the Soviet Union. 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084045796 2022-03-08 14:05:22 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084045796 October 1962- Americans discovered that the Soviets were installing nuclear missiles on Cuban soil, posing a direct threat to American cities. 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084046125 2022-03-08 14:05:30 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084046125 1964-At first, American soldiers were in Vietnam in very small numbers in a merely advisory role, but by 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson was beginning to commit even larger numbers of combat troops. 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084046400 2022-03-08 14:05:38 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084046400 1967-1968-The war quickly became unpopular among the American public, provoking large protests on the home front by 1967 that reached phenomenal proportions by 1968. 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084046807 2022-03-08 14:05:50 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084046807 1973-Johnson's presidency was ruined by his commitment to Vietnam, and by the time President Richard Nixon ended U.S. involvement in the conflict in 1973, nearly 60,000 American soldiers had died, along with millions of Vietnamese. 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084047070 2022-03-08 14:05:58 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084047070 1975-North Vietnamese forces finally overran the South, ending a conflict that was deeply humiliating for the United States and that had bitterly divided the nation. 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084047305 2022-03-08 14:06:05 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084047305 1972 - In early 1972, Nixon visited China in a bid to normalize relations with that nation's communist government. 24matikc1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084051879 2022-03-08 14:07:57 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084051879 1972 - The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (1972) placed limits on the number of nuclear warheads and weapons systems that each country could maintain, thus reining in somewhat the costly arms race that had characterized Soviet-American relations since the invention of the atomic bomb. 24matikc1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084052369 2022-03-08 14:08:10 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084052369 1979 - Despite a second treaty signed by Brezhnev and President Jimmy Carter, the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II (1979), the end of the decade brought renewed tensions. 24tournasn1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084053951 2022-03-08 14:08:50 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084053951 1979 - The two superpowers clashed in various areas of the world as they tried to influence revolutionary movements. Particularly disturbing to the United States was Soviet and Cuban support for communist revolutionaries in Nicaragua and Brezhnev's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan to prop up a pro-Soviet regime there. 24matikc1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084054322 2022-03-08 14:08:59 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084054322 1980- The 1980s saw an escalation of tensions that equaled those of the early Cold War. After ascending to the presidency in 1980, Ronald Reagan pledged to stand firm against what he termed "the evil empire" of the Soviet Union 24matikc1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084054779  ]]> 2022-03-08 14:09:10 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084054779 1985- Yet despite this environment of fear and mistrust, the Cold War was nearing its end. Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union, pledging thoroughgoing reforms of the entire communist system. 24matikc1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084055207 2022-03-08 14:09:22 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084055207 1989- They began to give way to popular democratic revolutions, mostly nonviolent, such as Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution. 24matikc1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084055601 2022-03-08 14:09:32 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084055601 1990- East and West Germany were reunited under a liberal democratic regime. 24matikc1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084056551 2022-03-08 14:09:57 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084056551 1991- Cold War ends 24tournasn1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084057024 2022-03-08 14:10:09 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084057024 24fischettim1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084063534 2022-03-08 14:12:54 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084063534 24fischettim1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084068605 2022-03-08 14:15:03 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084068605 24fischettim1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084072403 2022-03-08 14:16:47 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084072403 24fischettim1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084075727 2022-03-08 14:18:22 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084075727 24fischettim1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084077285 2022-03-08 14:19:06 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084077285 24fischettim1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084079986 2022-03-08 14:20:19 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084079986 24fischettim1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084085675 2022-03-08 14:23:00 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084085675 24fischettim1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084095140 2022-03-08 14:27:04 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084095140 24jarviem1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084095529 2022-03-08 14:27:15 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084095529 24fischettim1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084096475 2022-03-08 14:27:41 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2084096475 24matikc1_1 https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2088542575 2022-03-10 15:13:02 UTC https://padlet.com/24tournasn1_1/pasfwlbs5zd5bu0r/wish/2088542575