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Period: to
Cold War
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Harry Truman announces Truman Doctrine and the provision of aid to Greece.
The Truman Doctrine arose from a speech delivered by President Truman before a joint session of Congress on March 12, 1947. The Truman Doctrine was an American foreign policy whose stated purpose was to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War. It was announced to Congress by President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947, and further developed on July 12, 1948, when he pledged to contain threats in Greece and Turkey. -
General George C. Marshall announces the Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was an American initiative passed in 1948 to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave over $12 billion in economic assistance to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II. -
Government in Hungary announces a three-year plan of nationalization
On January 31, 1946, National Assembly representatives approved a law proclaiming Hungary to be a republic, thereby abolishing—perhaps permanently—the Kingdom of Hungary that had existed since the year 1,000 with the exception of a sixteen-month period immediately following the First World War. The new republic was the second in Hungary’s history after that which had existed from November 1918 to March 1919. -
Jan Masaryk, foreign minister in Czechoslovakia, found dead
On March 10th, 1948, Masaryk was found dead, dressed only in his pajamas, in the courtyard of the Foreign Ministry below his bathroom window. The Ministry of the Interior claimed that he had committed suicide by jumping out of the window, but it was widely assumed that he was murdered by the nascent Communist government. On the other hand, many of his close associates have always defended the suicide story. -
The start of the Berlin Airlift
The U.S. began Berlin Airlift. U.S. and British pilots begin delivering food and supplies by airplane to Berlin after the city is isolated by a Soviet Union blockade. When World War II ended in 1945, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet, American, British and French zones of occupation. -
Nokrashy Pasha, prime minister of Egypt, is assassinated by Muslim terrorists
Less than three weeks after these activities against the Brotherhood, Nokrashy Pasha was gunned down by Abdel Meguid Ahmed Hassan, who was a veterinary student at the University of King Fouad I and a member of the Brotherhood. Hassan shot him twice. -
Israel agrees an armistice with Egypt
Dr. Bunche announced that Egypt had finally, consented to start talks with Israel on an armistice. The talks began on the island of Rhodes on 12 January, and, shortly after their commencement, Israel agreed to the release of a besieged Egyptian brigade in Faluja. At the end of the month, the talks foundered. -
The Berlin Airlift comes to an end
On May 12, 1949, an early crisis of the Cold War comes to an end when the Soviet Union lifts its 11-month blockade against West Berlin. The blockade had been broken by a massive U.S.-British airlift of vital supplies to West Berlin's two million citizens. -
Israel ignores the United Nations resolution and moves its capital to Jerusalem
The Israel Premier emphasized that Jerusalem always has been and always will be the capital of Israel. He said that there is nothing to prevent the Israel parliament from holding its sessions in Jerusalem, that the government will continue to transfer its offices to Jerusalem and that he hopes to complete the transfer as soon as possible. -
Harry Truman orders the development of the hydrogen bomb
A group of scientists led by Edward Teller supported its development. They made direct approaches to the military and the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. In 1950, President Harry S. Truman announced work on the hydrogen bomb was to continue. -
Harry Truman orders US troops to Korea
On June 27, 1950, President Harry S. Truman announces that he is ordering U.S. air and naval forces to South Korea to aid the democratic nation in repulsing an invasion by communist North Korea. -
US Army make an amphibious landing at Inchon
On September 15, 1950, during the Korean War, U.S. Marines force made a surprise amphibious landing at the strategic port of Inchon, on the west coast of Korea, about 100 miles south of the 38th parallel and 25 miles from Seoul. The location had been criticized as too risky, but United Nations Supreme Commander Douglas MacArthur insisted on carrying out the bold landing. -
Winston Churchill announces that Britain has an atom bomb
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill publicly announced the plans to test a British nuclear weapon, and on October 3 a 25-kiloton device–similar to the U.S. atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan–was successfully detonated in the hull of the frigate HMS Plym anchored off the Monte Bello Islands. -
General Douglas MacArthur advocates the use of atom bombs in Korean War
Once again the commander of U.S. forces in the Korean War, General Douglas MacArthur, had gone public with his differences with the commander in chief over the conduct of the war—this time in a letter to House Republican Leader Joseph Martin. -
United Nations troops recapture Seoul
The operation was preceded by the largest artillery bombardment of the Korean War. On the middle, the US 25th Infantry Division quickly crossed the Han and established a bridgehead. Further to the east, IX Corps reached its first phase line on 11 March. Three days later the advance proceeded to the next phase line. During the night of 14-15 March, elements of the ROK 1st Infantry Division and the US 3rd Infantry Division liberated Seoul. -
Fulgencio Batista overthrows the Cuban government of President Prio Socarras.
Batista worked in a variety of jobs until he joined the army in 1921, starting as a stenographer. He rose to the rank of sergeant and developed a large personal following. In September 1933 he organized the “sergeants’ revolt”; it toppled the provisional regime of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, which had replaced the dictatorial regime of Gerardo Machado y Morales. In the process Batista became the most powerful man in Cuba and the country’s de facto leader. -
General Douglas MacArthur is relieved of his command in Korea.
General MacArthur did not think a ceasefire was an appropriate solution. The two men clashed. For Truman, the war represented an opportunity to stop the spread of communism into South Korea. On April 5, 1951, President Truman officially relieved Douglas MacArthur of his command. -
Rudolf Slansky is executed in Czechoslovakia for Titoism
Rudolf Slansky was a leading Czech Communist politician. Holding the post of the party's General Secretary after World War II, he was one of the leading creators and organizers of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. In Czechoslovakia, Slánský was one of 14 leaders arrested in 1951 and put on show trial en masse in November 1952, charged with high treason. After eight days, 11 of the 14 were sentenced to death. Slansky's sentence was carried out five days later. -
Fidel Castro leads an attempt to overthrow Fulgencio Batista in Cuba.
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt conducted by Fidel Castro's revolutionary 26th of July Movement and its allies against the authoritarian government of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. -
The United Nations, China and North Korea sign an armistice at Panmunjom
The Korean Armistice Agreement is the armistice which brought about a complete cessation of hostilities of the Korean War. The armistice was signed on 27 July 1953, and was designed to "ensure a complete cessation of hostilities and of all acts of armed force in Korea until a final peaceful settlement is achieved." -
Lavrenti Beria executed in the Soviet Union.
Lavrenti Beria Executed. Stalin's security chief was executed on December 23rd, 1953. Beria, who went on to run the Soviet network of slave-labour camps, was notorious for his sadistic enjoyment of torture and his taste for beating and raping women and violating young girls. -
The United States tests a hydrogen bomb in the Marshall Islands.
In 1946, the islands had a population of 52,000. Between 1946 and 1958, the United States conducted 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands. The U.S. conducted 23 of these tests at Bikini Atoll, and 44 near Enewetak Atoll, but fallout spread throughout the Marshall Islands. -
The dictator Fulgencio Batista wins uncontested election in Cuba
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar, an exceptionally competent administrator, a shrewd judge of character and a man of engaging personal charm, was a mulatto from a poor Cuban farming family. He joined the army as a shorthand typist in 1921, rose to the rank of sergeant and at the age of thirty-two took a leading part in the ‘Sergeants’ Revolt’ of 1933, which deposed the president and installed a new regime under a middle-class academic, Ramon Grau San Martin. -
The Senate votes by 67 to 22 to censure Joseph McCarthy
Exchanging the count relating to General Zwicker for one regarding his behavior to the Watkins committee, the Senate, on a vote of 67 to 22, censured Joseph McCarthy "for his non-cooperation with and abuse of the Subcommittee on Privileges and Elections in 1952" and "for abuse of the Select Committee to Study Censure" of 1954. -
Imre Nagy forced to resign as prime minister
In July 1955, just eleven days after Malenkov left office, Nagy was forced to resign. In November 1955, he was expelled from the Communist Party and cast into the political wilderness. The hard liner Rakosi – a man loyal to Moscow – once again led the country. -
China agrees to provide North Vietnam with economic aid
China had already been providing support to the Communists in Vietnam since the war against the French. When the U.S. became decisively involved after the Gulf of Tonkin incident, China increased the support to both North Vietnam and the insurgents in South Vietnam. It was this support and that provided by the Soviet Union that permitted the North Vietnamese to prosecute the war against South Vietnam and the U.S. forces there. -
Diplomatic relations restored between West Germany and the Soviet Union.
This Mission has noted among important American officials and private citizens visiting Berlin an apparent lack of understanding of the U.S. policy of non-recognition of the Soviet Zone regime. -
Nikita Khrushchev denounces former leader Joseph Stalin.
The twentieth congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union assembled in Moscow in the Great Hall of the Kremlin on February 14th, 1956. It was the first since the death of Josef Stalin in 1953, but almost nothing was said about the dead leader until, in closed session on the 25th, 1,500 delegates and many invited visitors listened to an amazing speech by Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the party, on ‘The Personality Cult and its Consequences’. -
The Soviet Union abolishes the Cominform
It was founded with nine members, the Communist parties of the U.S.S.R., Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, France, and Italy. The Cominform was dissolved on April 17, 1956, after the Soviet rapprochement with Yugoslavia and the process of De-Stalinization. -
President Josip Tito visits the Soviet Union
Tito lectured on trade unions to foreign communists, and attended a course on military tactics run by the Red Army, and occasionally attended the Bolshoi Theatre. He attended as one of 510 delegates to the Seventh World Congress of the Comintern in July and August 1935, where he briefly saw Joseph Stalin for the first time. After the congress, he toured the Soviet Union, then returned to Moscow to continue his work. -
President Dwight Eisenhower resumes aid to Israel
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles today announced at his press conference that the United States will resume aid to Israel as soon as the conditions which led to the suspension of aid are corrected. Resumption of American aid, he said, would be on a “country by country” basis, and as each country to which aid was suspended meets conditions for resumption, a decision would be made. The U.S. would not withhold aid from one country if another has not met conditions, he declared. -
The Soviet Union appeals to the United States and Britain to cease nuclear testing
Discussions between the United States and the Soviet Union concerning a ban on nuclear testing began in the mid-1950s. Officials from both nations came to believe that the nuclear arms race was reaching a dangerous level. -
Britain carries out its first hydrogen bomb test over Christmas Island
The British hydrogen bomb programme was the ultimately successful British effort to develop hydrogen bombs between 1952 and 1958. During the early part of the Second World War, Britain had a nuclear weapons project, codenamed Tube Alloys. At the Quebec Conference in August 1943, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Quebec Agreement, merging Tube Alloys into the American Manhattan Project, which many of Britain's top scientists participated in. -
Nikita Khrushchev replaces Nikolai Bulganin as prime minister of the Soviet Union.
When Khrushchev won, Bulganin on Feb. 8, 1955, replaced Malenkov as chairman of the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R. (i.e., as premier of the Soviet Union). ... But when an “antiparty group” tried to oust Khrushchev from his position as leader of the party (June 1957), Bulganin joined them. -
Nikita Khrushchev meets Mao Zedong in China and call for an end of all nuclear testing
Cold War tensions reached a high point in October 1962 when the United States discovered Soviet nuclear missiles stationed in Cuba. The world appeared to be on the brink of nuclear conflict, but, after a 13-day standoff, Khrushchev agreed to remove the weapons.In July 1963, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union negotiated a partial nuclear test ban. -
The Soviet Union demands that all foreign troops should be withdrawn from Berlin.
As far as the western Allies were concerned, withdrawal from the city was not an option. Using military force to strike back against the Soviet blockade seemed equally unwise: The risk of turning the Cold War into an actual war was just too great. Finding another way to re-provision the city seemed to the Allies to be the only reasonable response. -
Fidel Castro and his victorious troops enter Havana.
When the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista fled Havana in the early hours of 1 January 1959, Fidel Castro was 550 miles away, at the opposite end of the island. While Castro was stuck in the south-eastern hinterland, his rivals for power were headed north-west to the capital. Knowing he would lose the race, Castro turned his positional weakness into a strength and embarked on an eight-day, island-long victory parade or caravana. His task was to ensure he would be Batista’s successor. -
Member states vote again against the admission of China to the United Nations.
The Republic of China (ROC) was a charter member of the United Nations and one of five permanent members of the Security Council until 1971. Thus, despite opposition from other leaders, especially Winston Churchill, China became a permanent member of the Security Council from its creation in 1945. -
The United Nations decide not to intervene in the independence struggle in Algeria.
Since France is not willing to negotiate for an Algerian peace, the Algerian nationalists are calling on the United Nations for help, Abdelkader Chanderli declared last night. Speaking at the quincy House Forum on Africa on the subject "Algeria Before the U.N.", Chanderli stated that the Front of National Liberation (FLN) is urging the U.N. to encourage free elections in Algeria so that the six-year-old war with France can be ended. -
American U-2 spy plane shot over the Soviet Union
American U-2 spy plane shot down over Soviet Union. An American U-2 spy plane is shot down while conducting espionage over the Soviet Union. The incident derailed an important summit meeting between President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that was scheduled for later that month. -
Nikita Khrushchev walks out of summit meeting in Paris because of the U-2 incident
In the wake of the Soviet downing of an American U-2 spy plane on May 1, Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev lashes out at the United States and President Dwight D. Eisenhower at a Paris summit meeting between the two heads of state. Khrushchev’s outburst angered Eisenhower and doomed any chances for successful talks or negotiations at the summit. -
United States ends all aid to Cuba
In the climax of deteriorating relations between the United States and Fidel Castro’s government in Cuba, President Dwight D. Eisenhower closes the American embassy in Havana and severs diplomatic relations. -
Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba
On January 1, 1959, a young Cuban nationalist named Fidel Castro drove his guerilla army into Havana and overthrew General Fulgencio Batista, the nation’s American-backed president. For the next two years, officials at the U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency attempted to push Castro from power. -
The first American troops arrive in South Vietnam
The first U.S. combat troops arrive in Vietnam as 3500 Marines land at China Beach to defend the American air base at Da Nang. They join 23,000 American military advisors already in Vietnam. -
The United Nations rejects a proposal by the Soviet Union to admit China
Jacob Malik, the Soviet representative to the United Nations, storms out of a meeting of the Security Council, this time in reaction to the defeat of his proposal to expel the Nationalist Chinese representative. At the same time, he announced the Soviet Union’s intention to boycott further Security Council meetings.
