| 1961 | Bay of Pigs invasion. Berlin Wall erected. Kennedy increases military aid to South Vietnam. Peace Corps created. |
| 1962 | Cuban missile crisis. |
| 1963 | President Kennedy assassinated; Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president. |
| 1964 | Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. |
| 1965 | Operation Rolling Thunder begins. First combat troops to Vietnam. U.S. troops invade Dominican Republic. |
| 1967 | Arab-Israeli Six-Day War. |
| 1968 | Demonstrations against Vietnam War increase. Tet Offensive. Johnson decides not to seek second term. Violence near Democratic convention in Chicago. Richard Nixon elected president. |
| 1969 | American astronauts land on moon. |
| 1970 | Nixon orders invasion of Cambodia. Students killed at Kent State and Jackson State. |
| 1971 | Pentagon Papers published. |
| 1972 | Nixon becomes first U.S. president to visit China. Nixon signs arms limitation treaties with Soviets. |
| 1973 | Paris Peace Accords. CIA-backed military coup in Chile. Arab oil embargo following Yom Kippur War. |
| 1975 | North Vietnam takes over South Vietnam, ending the war. Helsinki accords. |