Confrontation
with Communism:
Chronology
1945-1964
Philip Jenkins
http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/p/jpj1/
1945 July - first explosion of
atomic bomb
July
- Potsdam conference
November
- Communists win Yugoslav elections
1946 February - arrest of Klaus Fuchs leads to exposure
of Òatom spyÓ ring; George KennanÕs ÒLong TelegramÓ warns of Soviet
expansionism.
March
- ChurchillÕs ÒIron CurtainÓ speech at Fulton, MO.
May
- East/West confrontation over Azerbaijan and northern Iran
September
- Bulgaria becomes a PeopleÕs Republic
September
- Archbishop Stepinac on trial in Yugoslavia
October
- Two British warships mined by Albanians in ÒCorfu IncidentÓ
November - Communists represent largest element in governing
coalition in France
1947 January - Communist-dominated
coalition wins Polish elections
March - Truman doctrine proclaimed
May
- Communist domination established in Hungary
May
- French Communist Party goes into opposition
May - US House Committee on Un-American Activities begins
investigation of Hollywood
June
- George Marshall calls for economic aid to Europe
Fall - wave of labor unrest in France splits union movement
between Communist and non-Communist factions
October
- HCUA hearings of ÒHollywood TenÓ
US
National Security Act creates CIA
1948 February - Communist regime
in Czechoslovakia
March
- Czech Foreign Minister Masaryk dies mysteriously
March
- Soviets reject four-power control system in Germany
March
- Rumania a PeopleÕs Republic
March
- US Congress approves Marshall Plan
April
- Communists defeated in critical elections in Italy
June
- Berlin Airlift begins
June
- Yugoslavia expelled from COMINFORM
June
- Communist leader Gottwald becomes President of Czechoslovakia
June
- mass purges and arrests in Albania and Hungary
July
- Leaders of US Communist Party convicted under Smith Act for advocating overthrow
of government
August
- Whittaker Chambers accuses Alger Hiss
October
- Communist led minersÕ strike in France
December
- Hiss indicted
December
- arrest of Hungarian Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty
1949 January - COMECON formed
February
- Cardinal Mindszenty convicted
April
- NATO Treaty signed
May
- Berlin blockade lifted
May
- German Federal Republic (West Germany) in existence
May
- Communists win general elections in Hungary
September
- Soviets detonate their first atomic bomb
October
- PeopleÕs Republic declared in China
October
- German Democratic Republic declared
October
- Communists defeated in Greek civil war
1950 January - Alger Hiss
convicted of perjury, in second trial
February - Senator McCarthyÕs speech warning of massive Communist
subversion in the US government
June
- outbreak of Korean war
November
- China intervenes in Korean war
1951 April - General Douglas
MacArthur relieved of command of Allied Forces
May
- US tests partially successful fusion bomb at Eniwetok Atoll
May
- British diplomats Burgess and MacLean defect to USSR
1952 October - Britain tests
atomic bomb
November - US explodes first successful hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok
(ÒMikeÓ test)
1953 January - Senator McCarthy chairs US SenateÕs
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
March
- death of Stalin
June
- anti-Communist rising in East Berlin
June
- Rosenbergs executed in US
July
- armistice signed in Korean war
August -first Soviet hydrogen bomb detonated
October
- McCarthy committee begins hearings into US Army
1954 January - John Foster Dulles
declares policy of Òmassive retaliationÓ
March - US explodes 15-megaton fission/fusion bomb in the ÒBravoÓ
test at Bikini atoll
March
- US administration attacks work of McCarthy and Roy Cohn
May
- Fall of Dienbienphu ends French war in Indo-China
June - Crucial confrontation between Senator McCarthy and Joseph
Welch begins discrediting of McCarthyism
July -Vietnam partitioned
August
- US passes Communist Control Act, outlawing CPUSA
September
- Southeast Asia Treaty Organization formed
December
- US Senate votes to condemn McCarthy
1956 February - KhrushchevÕs secret
speech to Soviet XXth Party Congress
October
- riots in Poland
October/November
- Hungarian uprising
1957 May - British explode
hydrogen bomb
August
- Soviets test first ICBM
October
- Soviets launch Sputnik
1958 US and Britain declare
moratorium on nuclear testing
1959
January - Castro takes power
in Cuba
1960 February - French explode
atomic bomb
May
- U2 incident disrupts Paris summit conference
1961 April - Failed invasion of
Cuba ends at Bay of Pigs
August
- Berlin Wall erected
1962 April - USA resumes nuclear
testing
October -Cuba missiles crisis
1963 August - nuclear test ban
treaty signed
1964 October - Chinese test atomic
bomb