End of World War II; Yalta and Potsdam conferences

Senate approves U.S. participation in United Nations

George F. Kennan outlines containment policy

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

Truman Doctrine

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

Communist coup in Czechoslovakia

Marshall Plan aids economic recovery in Europe

State of Israel created

Stalin blockades West Berlin; Berlin Airlift begins

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) founded

Soviet Union detonates atomic bomb

Mao Zedong establishes People’s Republic of China

Korean War

NSC-68 leads to nuclear buildup

Joseph McCarthy announces “list” of Communists in government

Dwight D. Eisenhower elected president

Army-McCarthy hearings on army subversion

Geneva Accords partition Vietnam

Nikita Khrushchev emerges as Stalin’s successor

Suez Canal crisis

John F. Kennedy elected president

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

Diem assassinated in South Vietnam