The Cold War TimelineSignificant Events 1945-1989

 

Adjunct Professor Joe BoisvertClass 4

Gulf Coast State College Encore

*    The Marshall Plan - Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion - By 1952 as the funding ended, the economy of every participant state had surpassed pre-war levels

*   The Truman Doctrine-policy of containment

*   Communist takeover of Czechoslovakia *   Berlin Blockade-Airlift *   Korean Conflict - Korean War: Cost: $54

billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion

1945-1950

Marshall delivered his famous European Recovery Act address at Harvard University's commencement on June 5,

1947. 

General MarshallWestern Europe began to recover from war, and although Marshall made efforts to include the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the recovery, his design was rejected by Moscow.

November 1945, and George C. Marshall, had been Army Chief of Stafffor sixty-two months

*    Eisenhower-doctrine of Massive Retaliation

*    3 rd Armored Division activated *    West Germany enters NATO-

doctrine of Forward Defense *    Formation of the Warsaw Pact

1951-1955

This policy sought to counter the growing Soviet threat.

It viewed nuclear weapons as a means of deterring war and as a first recourse should deterrence fail.

The premise of the policy was that if the Soviet Union attacked Europe, the United States would use tactical nuclear weapons to blunt the assault.

In addition, Strategic Air Command would be used to destroy the Soviet heartland with strategic nuclear weapons. 

President Eisenhower adopted a foreign policy of “massive retaliation.”

B-52 Late Cold War

B-52 Pay Load

Tupolev Tu-16 'Badger', Bomber, Cold War, Russian, Soviet

The continental air defense mission evolved during the Cold War to detect and intercept Soviet bombers attacking North America via the North Pole.

Warsaw Pact

The Soviet Union and seven of its European satellites sign a treaty establishing the Warsaw Pact, a mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the member states.

*   3rd Armor Division deploys to West Germany

*    Hungarian revolution crushed *    Suez Crisis Alert *    Lebanon crisis *    Khrushchev demands U.S. troops leave Berlin

*    Castro takes over in Cuba

1956-1960

*    Bay of Pigs *   Kennedy increases military budgets- presses for doctrine of Flexible Response

*   Berlin border closed-construction of Berlin Wall

*   Cuban Missile Crisis *   JFK Assassination *   Gulf of Tonkin Resolution-Vietnam

War

1961-1965

Cuban Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world ever came to nuclear war. 

 In the summer of 1962, Nikita Khrushchev secretly decided to install ballistic missiles in Cuba. 

Where were you?? I was sitting

On a Gym Floor watching on TV, Scared to Dead As the Two Ships

Approached Each Other

*    Vietnam War strips resources from USAREUR

*    Warsaw Pact troops crush Czech revolt

*    NATO adopts Flexible Response Doctrine

*    Willi Brandt's Ostpolitik-Detente

1966-1970

"Peace, like freedom, is no original state which existed from the start; we shall have to make it, in the truest sense of the word."

"Peace is something more than the absence of war, although some nations would be thankful for that alone today. A durable and equitable peace system requires equal development opportunities for all nations.

May all those who possess the power to wage war have the mastery of reason to maintain peace.

 

Willi Brandt - QUOTES

Viet Nam - Napalm

*    SALT I *    Nixon resigns *     Vietnam War ends

1971-1975

*    SALT II *    Iranian Hostage Crisis *    Ronald Reagan initiates massive build-

up of U.S. Forces *    Mikhail Gorbachev launches policy of

openness in Soviet Union *    Soviet empire collapses *    Berlin Wall falls *    CFE Treaty initiated-planning starts

for reduction of conventional forces in Europe

1976-1989

Bay of Pigs - Cuba

THE END CLASS 4

Vietnam