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Directions for reading the timeline![]()
The Cold War was a war between the US and the USSR, but it involved many different countries all around the world. Read through the timeline below and respond to the questions on the document provided.
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19401945: July -- Potsdam Conference
1945: August 6 -- Nuclear bomb is dropped on Hiroshima 1945: August 9 -- Nuclear bomb is dropped on Nagasaki 1945: August 14 -- Japanese Surrender in WWII 1946: March -- Churchill delivers "Iron Curtain" Speech 1947: March -- Truman declares role in Greek Civil War establishing the "Truman Doctrine" 1947: June -- Marshall Plan is announced 1948: February -- Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia 1948: June 24 -- Berlin Blockade begins 1948: July -- NATO ratified 1949: May 12 -- Berlin Blockade ends 1949: September -- Communist takeover in China under Mao Zedong 1949: September -- USSR explodes an atomic bomb 19501950: February -- Senator Joe McCarthy begins Communist “witch-hunt” in the US
1950: June -- Korean War begins 1953: June 19 -- The Rosenbergs, suspected spies, are executed 1953: July -- Korean War ends 1954: March -- KGB established 1954 -- CIA helps overthrow unfriendly regimes in Iran and Guatemala 1954: July -- Communist takeover of North Vietnam, dividing at the 17th parallel 1955: May -- Warsaw Pact formed 1959: January -- Communist takeover in Cuba under Fidel Castro 1960 1960: November -- John F. Kennedy elected President
1961: April -- Bay of Pigs Invasion 1961: August 13 -- Berlin’s border is closed 1961: August 17 -- Construction of Berlin Wall begins 1962: -- U.S. involvement in Vietnam increased 1962: October -- Cuban Missile Crisis 1963: June -- Six Day War between Israel and its neighbors. US supports Israel leading to Middle Eastern countries creating an Oil Embargo with the US. 1963: July -- Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified 1963: November -- President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas 1964: August -- Gulf of Tonkin incident is used as an excuse to go to war with Vietnam 1965: April -- U.S. goes to Dominican Republic to fight Communism 1965: July -- Announcement of dispatching of 150,000 U.S. troops to Vietnam 1967: 75,000 Americans March on Washington to protest Vietnam War 1968: Over 200 student anti-war demonstrations held in US 1968: January -- US launches the Tet Offensive in Vietnam 1968: March -- US soldiers massacre Vietnamese civilians in My Lai Massacre 1968: August -- Soviet troops crush Czechoslovakian revolt 1969: July 20 -- Apollo 11 lands on the moon 19701970: April -- President Nixon extends Vietnam War to Cambodia
1970: May -- Ohio National Guardsmen kill 4 student protesters at Kent State 1970: June -- Mississippi National Guardsmen kill 2 student protesters at Jackson State 1973: October -- Israel fights its neighbors again, giving up land for peace 1974: August -- President Nixon resigns due to illegal activity 1975: April 17 -- North Vietnam defeats South Vietnam spreading communism 1979: November -- The Shah of Iran is overthrown, Iranian Hostage Crisis 19801985: -- Iran-Contra Affair (arms sold to Iran, profits used to support contras in Nicaragua)
1985: -- Mikhail Gorbachev ascends to power in Soviet Union 1986: -- Gorbachev ends economic aid to Soviet satellites 1986: October -- Reagan and Gorbachev resolve to remove all intermediate nuclear missiles from Europe 1986: November -- Iran-Contra Affair revealed to public 1987: October -- Reagan and Gorbachev agree to remove all medium and short-range nuclear missiles by signing treaty 1989: January -- Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan 1989: June -- China puts down protests for democracy; Poland becomes independent 1989: September -- Hungary becomes independent 1989: November -- Berlin Wall falls 1989: December -- Communist governments fall in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Rumania; Soviet empire ends 19901990: March -- Lithuania becomes independent from the USSR
1990: October 3 -- Germany is reunited 1991: April -- Warsaw Pact ends 1991: August -- Collapse of Soviet Union, Cold War Ends 1992: First Post-Cold War incident, the Persian Gulf War 1992: Yugoslavian civil war breaks out. 1993: World Trade Center attacked by extremists in NYC. 1995: President Bill Clinton settles the genocide by brokering the Dayton Agreement. 1998: October-- Iraq ends cooperation with UN Special Commission to Oversee the Destruction of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction 1998: December-- US and British Operation Desert Fox bombing campaign aims to destroy Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs |
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2001 February-- Britain, US carry out bombing raids to try to disable Iraq's air defence network
2001: September-- 11 Terrorist attack on World Trade Center 2002: September-- US President George W Bush tells UN Iraq poses "grave and gathering danger," British Prime Minister Tony Blair publishes later-discredited dossier on Iraq's military capability. 2003: March-- US-led invasion topples Saddam Hussein's government, marks start of years of violent conflict with different groups competing for power. 2003: December-- Saddam Hussein captured in Tikrit. 2005: January-- Some 8 million vote in elections for a Transitional National Assembly 2008: US President Obama begins withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan 2008: President Obama increases the US use of drone warfare 2011: May-- Obama leads a raid to kill Osama Bin Laden (responsible for 9/11) |
Should we have gone to Iraq?
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