1945- 1959

With the defeat of Nazi Germany imminent, the Big Three Allies meet in the Crimean resort town of Yalta from February 4-11. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agree to jointly govern postwar Germany, while Stalin pledges fair and open elections in Poland.

On March 5, at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill declares, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent."

On March 12, President Truman requests $400 million in aid from Congress to combat communism in Greece and Turkey. The Truman Doctrine pledges to provide American economic and military assistance to any nation threatened by communism.

On June 24, the Soviet Union makes a bid for control of Berlin by blockading all land access to the city. From June 1948 to May 1949, U.S. and British planes airlift 1.5 million tons of supplies to the residents of West Berlin. After 200,000 flights, the Soviet Union lifts the blockade.

In June, Chinese communists declare victory over Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces, which later flee to Taiwan. On October 1, Mao Tse-tung proclaims the People's Republic of China. Two months later, Mao travels to Moscow, where he negotiates the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance.

On June 25, North Korean communist forces cross the 38th parallel and invade South Korea. On June 27, Truman orders U.S. forces to assist the South Koreans while the U.N. Security Council condemns the invasion and establishes a 15-nation fighting force. Chinese troops enter the conflict by year's end.

On March 29, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of selling U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. The Rosenbergs are sent to the electric chair in 1953, despite outrage from liberals who portray them as victims of an anti-communist witch hunt.

On November 1, the United States explodes the first hydrogen bomb at a test site in the Marshall Islands. Less than a year later, the Soviets announce their first test of a hydrogen bomb.

Korean War ends

1954 -- Guatemalan coup

1954 -- Dien Bien Phu

After a long siege, Vietnamese communists under Ho Chi Minh defeat French colonial forces at Dien Bien Phu on May 7. In July, the Geneva Accords divide the country at the 17th parallel, creating a North and South Vietnam. The United States assumes the chief responsibility of providing anti-communist aid to South Vietnam

On January 12, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles first announces the doctrine of Massive Retaliation. It threatens full-scale nuclear attack on the Soviet Union in response to communist aggression anywhere in the world.

In a speech before Communist Party members on February 14, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounces the policies of Stalin. Khrushchev rejects the Leninist idea of the inevitability of war and calls for a doctrine of "peaceful coexistence" between capitalist and communist systems.

On October 4, the Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit the Earth. In 1958, the U.S. creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the space race is in full gear.

On January 1, leftist forces under Fidel Castro overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba. Castro soon nationalizes the sugar industry and signs trade agreements with the Soviet Union. The next year, his government seizes U.S. assets on the island.