Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union with its satellite states (the Eastern Bloc), and the United States with its allies (the Western Bloc) after World War II. A common historiography of the conflict begins between 1946, the year U.S. diplomat George F. Kennan's "Long Telegram" from Moscow cemented a U.S. foreign policy of containment of Soviet expansionism threatening strategically vital regions, and the Truman Doctrine of 1947, and ending between the Revolutions of 1989 and the 1991 collapse of the USSR, which ended communism in Eastern Europe. The term "cold" is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars. The conflict split the temporary wartime alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the USSR and the US as two superpowers with profound economic and political differences." [Wikipedia]
Churchill gives his famous "Iron Curtain Speech" in Fulton, Missouri
War
1946
Kennan's "long telegram" becomes the basis for US foreign policy with the USSR
War
1946
Allied airlift to Berlin counters Soviet blockade & allows democratic West Germany
War
1948
Soviet spy scandal--"Cambridge Spies" Burgess and MacLean defect to Soviet Union
War
1951
East Germans strike against communist regime--leads to brain drain & Berlin Wall
War
1953
Warsaw Pact signed
Peace
1955
Hungary revolts against Soviet rule in October and is crushed in November
War
1956
In July, Nasser nationalizes Suez Canal, provoking conflict with Britain & France
War
1956
Khrushchev begins building Berlin Wall to keep East Germans in
War
1961
U.S. supports failed invasion of Cuba at Bay of Pigs
War
1961
President Kennedy deals with Cuban Missile Crisis
War
1962
President Kennedy powerful speech in Berlin ends Soviet's plan to dominate city
War
1963
Communist hero Che Guevara is hunted down and shot in Bolivia
War
1967
Soviet army enters Czechoslovakia to suppress reforms of Dubcek's government
War
1968
Sandinistas take power in Nicaragua
War
1979
Europeans protest decision to place U.S. "Pershing 2" cruise missiles in Europe
War
1983
"Star Wars" initiative--Reagan proposes to launch missiles from outer space
War
1983
Berlin Wall falls--after reforms of Gorbachev, East Germany collapses
Government
1989
Gorbachev agrees to Conventional Forces Treaty effectively ending the Cold War
Peace
1990