TIMELINE

1945
  • End of World War II; Yalta and Potsdam conferences

  • Senate approves U.S. participation in United Nations

1946
  • George F. Kennan outlines containment policy

  • U.S. sides with French in war between French and Vietminh over control of Vietnam

1947
  • Truman Doctrine

  • House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigates film industry

1948
  • Communist coup in Czechoslovakia

  • Marshall Plan aids economic recovery in Europe

  • State of Israel created

  • Stalin blockades West Berlin; Berlin Airlift begins

1949
  • North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) founded

  • Soviet Union detonates atomic bomb

  • Mao Zedong establishes People’s Republic of China

1950–1953
  • Korean War

1950
  • NSC-68 leads to nuclear buildup

  • Joseph McCarthy announces “list” of Communists in government

1952
  • Dwight D. Eisenhower elected president

1954
  • Army-McCarthy hearings on army subversion

  • Geneva Accords partition Vietnam

1956
  • Nikita Khrushchev emerges as Stalin’s successor

  • Suez Canal crisis

1960
  • John F. Kennedy elected president

1961
  • Kennedy orders the first contingent of Special Forces (“Green Berets”) to Vietnam

1963
  • Diem assassinated in South Vietnam