Timeline of events in the Cold War

At its simplest, the Cold War is said to have begun in 1947. However, roots of distrust and tension which are the underlying factors in causing the Cold War can be directly traced back to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. The timeline also lists important dates in the origins of the Cold War, although this page attempts to give a brief explanation on how the events impacted the Cold War.

1910's

1914

June 28: Gavrilo Princip assassinates Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo leading, through a series of alliances, to the outbreak of World War I, a direct cause of the February Revolution, and thereby also the October Revolution (or Bolshevik Revolution) in Russia which saw the emergence of the world's first communist state.
August 1: Outbreak of World War I which led to the formation of the USSR upon the overthrow of the Provisional Government.

1917

February and October: Russian Revolution
October 25: Bolshevik Revolution is a bloodless coup in which the Russian communist party seizes control overnight and ultimately leading to the founding of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Lenin's first role is to negotiate peace with the Germans, cedeing large amounts of Western territory to the German state.
October: Start of the Russian Civil War.

1918

August: Great Britain, the USA and France send troops to try and help the White Army win the Russian Civil War over the Bolsheviks and their Red Army. This is ultimately unsuccessful and the Tsar and the Royal Family are murdered, but the involvement of the West leads to distrust of the West in the minds of the Russians.

1920s

1922

December 29: Establishment of the Soviet Union after the Bolsheviks win the Russian Civil War.

1924

Vladimir Lenin dies after his third stroke in less than a year, leaving a power vacuum.

1928

Joseph Stalin becomes undisputed dictator of the USSR and his aggressive leadership brings the USSR into conflict with the West during and after World War II.

1930s

1939

August 23: Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact also known as the Non-aggression Pact leaves the West insecure about Russia and in particular how Stalin will react later in the war when he joins the US and UK in an anti-Nazi alliance.
September 1: Outbreak of World War II.
September 3: England and France declare war on Germany after Poland's division

1940s

1941

June 22: Germany repudiates the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and invades the USSR in Operation Barbarossa.

1944

June 6th: The UK, US and Canada land in Normandy, France, in the D-Day landings. Russia has been fighting alone for 3 years now, and Stalin is suspicious of the West's motives for delaying the opening of a Second Front, suspecting that the UK and US were attempting to bring the USSR to its knees before invading. The 4 years of war against Germany saw some 27 million Russian dead in contrast to 300,000 American in all theatres of war, and 390,000 British dead. This leads to further distrust on Stalin's part.

1945

February 4: The Yalta Conference occurs, deciding post-war status and visions of both the US and the Soviet Union.
July 24: US president Harry Truman informs Soviet Union president Joseph Stalin that the United States has nuclear weapons (Stalin is already aware, via espionage).
August 2: The Potsdam Conference ends with the Potsdam Agreement that organizes the division and reconstruction of Europe after World War II.
August 6: US President Harry Truman gives permission for the world's first military use of an atomic weapon against the Japanese city of Hiroshima in an attempt to bring the only remaining theatre of war from the Second World War in the Pacific to a swift close.
August 8: The USSR honors its Agreement to declare war on Japan within 3 months of the victory in Europe, and in Operation August Storm invades Manchuria. In accordance with the Yalta Conference agreements, the Soviet Union also occupied and subsequently annexed Sakhalin and the Kuril islands.
August 9: US President Harry Truman gives permission for the world's second and last military use of an atomic weapon against the Japanese city of Nagasaki in order to try and secure a swift Japanese unconditional surrender in the end of the Second World War.
September 2: The Japansese surrender unconditionally to the US onboard the USS Missouri to representative General Douglas MacArthur.
September 5: Igor Gouzenko, a clerk working in the Soviet embassy in Ottawa, Canada, defects and provides proof to the RCMP of a Soviet spy ring operating in Canada and other western countries. The Gouzenko affair helps change perceptions of the Soviet Union from an ally to a foe.

1946

January: Chinese Civil War resumed between Communist and Nationalist forces.
January 7: Republic of Austria is reconstituted, with its 1937 borders, but divided into four zones of control: American, British, French, and Soviet.
January 11: Enver Hoxha declares the People's Republic of Albania, with himself as Prime Minister.
February 22: George F. Kennan writes his Long Telegram, describing his interpretation of the objectives and intentions of the Soviet leadership.
March: The Greek Civil War reignites between communists and the conservative Greek government.
March 2: British soldiers withdraw from their zone of occupation in southern Iran. Soviet soldiers remain in their northern sector.
March 5: Winston Churchill warns of the descent of an Iron Curtain across Europe.
May: Soviet forces evacuate Iran after a crisis.
July 4: The Philippines gain independence from the United States, and begin fighting communist Huk rebels.
September 6: Restatement of Policy on Germany; speech by James F. Byrnes, United States Secretary of State, in Stuttgart. Repudiated the Morgenthau Plan and gave the Germans hope for the future. Stated the U.S. intention to keep troops in Europe indefinitely. Stated the U.S. approval of territorial annexation of 25% of pre-war Germany, but would not condone further claims.
September 8: In a referendum, Bulgaria votes for the establishment of a People's Republic, deposing King Simeon II. Western countries dismiss vote as fundamentally flawed.
December 19: French landings in Indochina begin the First Indochina War. They are resisted by the Viet Minh communists who want national independence.

1947

January 1: The American and British zones of control in Germany are united to form the Bizone also known as Bizonia.
March 12: United States President Harry S. Truman announces the Truman Doctrine. The Doctrine states that the USA would remain committed to "contain" further communist expansion. Truman cites a domino effect as a possibility.
May 22: US extends $400m 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 U.S. announces new occupation policies in Germany. The vindictive 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", was replaced by the new U.S. occupation directive JCS 1779 which instead noted that "An orderly, prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany."
August 15: India and Pakistan granted independence by the United Kingdom.
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.

1948

February 26: Communist Party takes control in Czechoslovakia, after President Edvard Beneš accepts the resignation of all non-communist ministers.
April 3: Truman signs the Marshall Plan into effect. By the end of the programs, the United States had given $12.4bn in economic assistance to 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.
June 18: A communist insurgency in Malaya begins against British and Commonwealth forces.
June 21: In Germany, the Bizone and the French zone in control launch a common currency, the Deutschmark.
June 24: Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin orders the blockade of 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 relieve the civilians of Berlin by air.
June 28: Yugoslavia splits from the Soviet camp.
July 17: The constitution of the Republic of Korea is effected.
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.

1949

April 4: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is founded by the Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States, in order to resist Communist expansion.
May 11: The Soviet blockade of Berlin ends with the re-opening of access routes to Berlin. The airlift continues until September, in case the Soviets re-establish the blockade.
May 23: In Germany, the Bizone merges with the French zone of control to form the Federal Republic of Germany, with Bonn as its capital.
June 8: The Red Scare reaches its peak, with the naming of numerous American celebrities as members of the Communist Party.
August 29: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb. The test, known to Americans as Joe 1, succeeds, as the Soviet Union becomes the world's second nuclear power.
September 13: The USSR vetoes the United Nations membership of Ceylon, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Jordan, and Portugal.
September 15: Konrad Adenauer becomes the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.
October 1: Mao Zedong declares the foundation of the People's Republic of China - adding a quarter of the world's population to the communist camp.
October 7: The Soviets declare their zone of Germany to be the German Democratic Republic, with its capital at East Berlin.
October 16: Nikolaos Zachariadis, leader of the Communist Party of Greece, declares an end to the armed uprising. The declaration brings to a close the Greek Civil War, and the first successful containment of communism.

1950s

1950

January 6: The United Kingdom recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom.
January 31: The last Kuomintang soldiers surrender on continental China.
February 14: The Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China sign a pact of mutual defence.
March 1: Chiang Kai-Shek moves his capital to Taipei, Taiwan, establishing a stand-off with the People's Republic of China.
April 14: United States State Department Director of Policy Planning Paul Nitze issues NSC-68, a classified brief, 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 9: Robert Schuman describes his ambition of a united Europe. Known as the Schuman Declaration, it marks the beginning of the creation of the European Communities.
June 25: North Korea invades South Korea, sparking the Korean War.
June 27: The United Nations votes to send forces to Korea to aid South Korea. The Soviet Union cannot veto, as it is boycotting the Security Council over the admission of communist China. Eventually, the number of countries operating under the UN aegis increases to 16: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
June 28: Seoul, the capital of South Korea, falls to North Korean forces.
July 5: 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 15: United Nations forces land at Inchon. Defeating the North Korean forces, they press inland and re-capture Seoul.
October 7: United Nations forces cross the 38th parallel nortHKIL38th parallel, into North Korea.
October 8: Forces from the People's Republic of China mobilise along the Yalu River.
October 19: Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, falls to United Nations forces.
October 25: China invades Korea with 300,000 soldiers, catching the United Nations by surprise. However, they withdraw after initial engagements.
November 26: United Nations forces approach the Yalu River. In response, China invades 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 had reached the 38th Parallel, and formed a defensive line across the Korean peninsula.
April 11: President 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.
September 1: Australia, New Zealand, and the United States sign the ANZUS Treaty. This compels the three countries to cooperate on matters of defence and security in the Pacific.
September 20: Greece and Turkey join NATO.
December 12: The International Authority for the Ruhr lifted part of the remaining restrictions on German industrial production and on production capacity.[1]

1952

April 28: Japan signs the Treaty of San Francisco and the Treaty of Taipei, formally ending its period of occupation and isolation, and becoming a sovereign state.
June 21: The United States launches the world's first nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus. The nuclear submarine would become the ultimate nuclear deterrent.
June 30: The Marshall Plan ends, with European industrial output now well above that of 1938.
July 26: Gamal Abdel Nasser heads a coup against King Farouk of Egypt.
October 2: The United Kingdom successfully tests its atomic bomb in Operation Hurricane. The test makes the UK the world's third nuclear power.
November 1: The United States detonates the world's first hydrogen bomb in Operation Ivy.

1953

January 20: Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes President of the United States.
March 5: Joseph Stalin dies, setting off a power struggle to succeed him.
July 27: Cease-fire ends fighting on the Korean Peninsula.
August 19: The CIA assisted a royalist coup that ousted Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh (Operation Ajax). The coup was organised because of Iranian nationalization of the oil industry and fears that Iran may join the Soviet camp.
September 7: Khrushchev becomes leader of the Soviet Communist Party. His main rival, Beria, is executed in December.

1954

May 7: The Viet Minh defeat the French at Dien Bien Phu. France withdraws from Indochina, leaving four independent states: Cambodia, Laos, North Vietnam (founded by the communist former Viet Minh) and South Vietnam (anti-communists). The Geneva Accords calls for free elections to unite Vietnam, but none of the major parties wish this to occur.
May: The “Huk” revolt in the Philippines is defeated.
June 18: The elected leftist Guatemalan government was 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 23: Nasser, an Egyptian nationalist, ousts the pro-British King Farouk and establishes a dictatorship. Soon he becomes an important Soviet ally.
August 11: The Taiwan Strait Crisis begins with the Chinese Communist shelling of Taiwanese islands. The U.S. 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.

1955

February 24: The Baghdad Pact is founded by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. It is committed to resisting Communist expansion in the Middle East.
March: Soviet aid to Syria begins. The Syrians will remain allies of the Soviets until the end of the Cold War.
May 9: West Germany joins NATO and begins rearmament.
May 14: The Warsaw Pact is founded in Eastern Europe and includes East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union. It acts as the Communist military counterpart to NATO.
May 15: Austria is neutralized and allied occupation ends.
July: Eisenhower and Khrushchev attend the Geneva Four Power Conference, the first between the leaders.

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.
June 28: in Poznań, mass protest of workers against communists. Fights in town.
July 26: Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal.
October 23: 1956 Hungarian Revolution: 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. Diplomatic pressures from the United States force the attackers to withdraw.

1957

January 5: The Eisenhower doctrine commits the U.S. to defending Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan from Communist influence.
January 22: Israeli forces withdraw from the Sinai which had been occupied the previous year.
A Communist insurgency begins in South Vietnam, sponsored by North Vietnam.
October 1: The Strategic Air Command initiates 24/7 nuclear alert (continuous until termination in 1991) in anticipation of Soviet ICBM surprise attack capability.
October 4: Sputnik satellite launched

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1958

July 14: A coup in Iraq 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 23: Second Taiwan Strait Crisis begins when China begins to bomb Quemoy.

1959

January 1: Cuban Revolution. Fidel Castro becomes the leader of a new Marxist Cuba. Cuban inspired guerrilla movements spring up across Latin America.
March 24: New Republic government of Iraq leaves CENTO
December: Formation of the National Liberation Front in South Vietnam. It is a Communist insurgent movement that vows to overthrow the anti-communist South Vietnamese government. It is supplied extensively by North Vietnam.

1960s

1960

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, declare their version of Communism superior and begin to compete with the Soviets for influence, thus adding a third dimension to the Cold War.
July 31: Communist insurgents in Malaya are defeated.
August 9: The Pathet Lao (communist) revolt in Laos begins.

1961

January 20: John F. Kennedy becomes President of the United States.
February 4: Angolan nationalists, including communists, begin an insurgency against Portuguese rule.
April 15: Bay of Pigs Invasion: A CIA-backed invasion of Cuba by counter-revolutionaries ends in failure.
May 25: John F. Kennedy announces the US intention to put a man on the moon - kickstarting the Apollo program
August 13: The Berlin Wall is built by the Soviets to stop the flood of people attempting to escape East Germany.
August 17: Alliance for Progress aid to Latin America from the United States begins.
October 31: The Soviet Union detonates the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever tested, with an explosive yield of some 50 megatons.

1962

July 20: Neutralization of Laos is established by international agreement but North Vietnam refuses to withdraw its personnel. [2]
September 8: Himalayan War: Chinese forces attack India, making claims on numerous border areas.
October 16: Cuban Missile Crisis: The Soviets have secretly been installing military bases, including nuclear weapons, on Cuba, some 90 miles from the U.S. mainland. Kennedy orders a "quarantine" (a naval blockade) of the island that intensifies the crisis and brings the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. to the brink of nuclear war. In the end, 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 guaranteeing that the U.S. would not move against the Castro regime.
November 21: End of the Himalayan War. China occupies a small strip of Indian land. The war will influence India, one of the leaders of the non-aligned movement, to indeed align itself with the Soviets in a decade.

1963

November 22: Lyndon B. Johnson becomes President of the United States upon assassination of Kennedy.

1964

April 20 : U.S. President Lyndon Johnson in New York, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Moscow, announce simultaneously plans to cut back production of materials for making nuclear weapons.
August 4: United States President Lyndon B. Johnson claimed that North Vietnamese naval vessels had fired on two American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Although there was a first attack, the second attack was later proved unfounded. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident led to the open involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War, after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
October 14: Leonid Brezhnev succeeds Khrushchev to become General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
October 16: China tests its first atomic bomb.

1965

August 15: Second Indo-Pakistani War.
April 28: U.S. forces invade the Dominican Republic to prevent a similar communist takeover like that occurred in Cuba.
March 8: U.S. military build up to defend South Vietnam. North Vietnam has also committed its forces in the war. U.S. begins sustained bombing of North Vietnam.
November 14: Battle of the Ia Drang-1st major engagement between U.S. Troops and regular Vietnamese forces.

1966

March 10: France withdraws from NATO command structure.

1967

May 23: Egypt blocks Straits of Tiran, then expels UN peacekeepers and moves army into Sinai Peninsula in preparation for possible attack on Israel.
June 5: In response to Egypt, Israel invades Sinai Peninsula, beginning the Six-Day War.

1968

January 30: Tet Offensive in South Vietnam begins.
March 31: Johnson suspends bombings over North Vietnam and announces he is not running for reelection.
June 8: Tet Offensive ends in Communist psychological victory over the Americans.
August 20: Prague Spring Reforms in Communist Czechoslovakia cause Warsaw Pact intervention to crush them.

1969

January 20: Richard M. Nixon becomes President of the United States.
March 2: Border clashes between the Soviet Union and China occurs
March 17: The U.S. begins bombing Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.
July 20: The U.S. accomplishes the first manned moon landing, Apollo 11.
July 25: ”Vietnamization” begins with U.S. troop withdrawals from Vietnam and the burden of combat being placed on the South Vietnamese.
September 1: Gaddafi overthrows the Libyan monarchy and expels British and American personnel. Libya aligns itself with the Soviet Union.

1970s

1970

March 5: Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, ratified by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States among others, enters into force.
March 18: Lon Nol takes power in Cambodia. Khmer Rouge Communists begin attacking the new regime, which wants to end foreign presence in Cambodia.
November 18: United States' aid to Cambodia to support the Lon Nol regime begins.

1971

February 8: South Vietnamese forces enter Laos to briefly cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
March 25: Third Indo-Pakistani War, Bangladesh becomes independent from Pakistan.
September 3: Four Power Agreement on Berlin is signed by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France, and the United States.
October 25 : The United Nations General Assembly passes Resolution 2758, recognising the People's Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China.

1972

February 21: Nixon visits China, the first time any U.S. President visited the People's Republic of China.
March 30: North Vietnam invades South Vietnam only to be repulsed by the South with major American air support.
May 26: SALT I agreement signals the beginning of détente between the U.S. and U.S.S.R.

1973

January 27: The Paris Peace Accords end American involvement in the Vietnam War. Congress cuts off funds for the continued bombing of Indochina.
September 11: Chilean coup d'état — The democratically-elected Marxist president of Chile, Salvador Allende, is deposed and dies during a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet supported by the US.
October 6: Yom Kippur War — Israel is attacked by Egypt and Syria, who are eventually defeated after heavy losses on all sides.
October 22: Egypt defects to the American camp by accepting a U.S. cease-fire proposal during the October 1973 war.

1974

September 12: The pro-Western monarch of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, is ousted by a Marxist military junta known as the derg.
August 9: Gerald Ford becomes President of the United States upon resignation of Nixon.

1975

April 17: The Maoist Khmer Rouge take power in Cambodia and begin a genocide later referred to as the "Killing Fields".
April 30: North Vietnam invades South Vietnam. South Vietnam surrenders and the two countries are united under a Communist government.
November 29: Pathet Lao takes power in Laos.
May 12: Mayaguez Incident: The Khmer Rouge seize an American naval ship prompting American intervention to recapture the ship and its crew. In the end, the crew is released from captivity.
June 25: Portugal withdraws from Angola and Mozambique, where Marxist governments are installed, the former with backing from Cuban troops. Civil war engulfs both nations that involves Angolans, Mozambicans, South Africans, and Cubans, with the superpowers supporting their respective ideologies.
1 August: Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe signed by the United States, Canada, the Soviet Union and the countries of Europe

1976

July 20: U.S. military personnel withdraw from Thailand.
September 9: death of Mao Zedong

1977

January 1: Charter 77 is signed by Czechoslovak intellectuals, including Václav Havel.
January 20: Jimmy Carter becomes President of the United States.
June 30: SEATO dissolves because of the failure to prevent Communist expansion in East Asia.
July 23: The Ogaden War begins with Somalia attacking Ethiopia.

1978

March 15: The Ogaden War ends with a Somali defeat.
December 25: A Communist regime is installed in Afghanistan

1979

January 7: Vietnam deposes the Khmer Rouge and installs a pro-Vietnam, pro-Soviet government.
June 18: The SALT II nuclear weapons treaty is signed by Leonid Brezhnev and President Jimmy Carter.
February 17: Sino-Vietnamese War, China launches a punitive attack on North Vietnam to punish it for invading Cambodia.
January 16: The Iranian Revolution ousts the pro-Western Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and installs a theocracy under Ayatollah Khomeini. CENTO dissolves as a result.
May 9: War breaks out in El Salvador between Marxist-led insurgents and the U.S.-backed government.
June 2: Pope John Paul II begins his first pastoral visit his native Poland.
July 3: President Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul, Afghanistan.[3]
July 17: Marxist-led Sandinista revolutionaries overthrow the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua. The Contra insurgency begins shortly thereafter.
December 24: The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan to save the crumbling Communist regime there, resulting in the end of Detente.

1980s

1980

July 19: United States boycotts the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
August 31 : In Poland the Gdańsk Agreement is signed after a strike wave which started at the Lenin Shipyards in Gdańsk. The Agreement allowed greater civil rights, such as the establishment of a trade union independent of communist party control.

1981

January 20: Ronald Reagan becomes President of the United States.
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 3: Poland and the Uprising of Solidarity
November 23: The U.S. CIA begins to support anti-Sandinista Contras.

1982

May 30: Spain joins NATO.
June 6: Israel invades Lebanon to end raids and clashes with Syrian troops also there.

1983

September 1: Civilian Korean Air Flight 007 shot down by Soviet jet interceptors.
October 25: U.S. forces invade the Caribbean island of Grenada to overthrow the government and abort the construction of a Soviet-funded airstrip.
November 2: Exercise Able Archer 83 — Soviet air defenses mistake a test of NATO's nuclear-release procedures as fake cover for a NATO attack; in response, Soviet nuclear forces are put on high alert.

1984

January: President Reagan outlines a foreign policy speech reinforcing his previous thoughts
July 28: Warsaw Pact boycotts 1984 Summer Olympics.
December 16: Margaret Thatcher and the UK government, in a plan to open new channels of dialogue with Soviet leadership candidates, meet with Mikhail Gorbachev at Chequers.

1985

March 11: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union.
August 6: Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the Soviet Union begins what has been announced as a 5-month unilateral moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons. The