1945
February 4 -11: Yalta Conference - Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet to discuss terms of German surrender, Russia's aid in the war in the Pacific and postwar European conditions
April 12: President Roosevelt dies; Harry S. Truman becomes president
May 7: Nazi Germany unconditionally surrenders
June 5: Division of Germany into four zones of occupation by U. S., Britain, France and Soviet Union
June 26: The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco
July 16: First successful atomic bomb (Trinity) is tested at Alamogordo, New Mexico
July 17 - August 2: Potsdam Conference - calls for the unconditional surrender of Japan; military industries are banned in Germany
July 26: Clement Attlee replaces Winston Churchill as British Prime Minister
August 6: Atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima
August 8: Stalin declares war on Japan; sends troops to Manchuria
August 9: Second atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki
August 14: World War II ends - Japan surrenders unconditionally
August 25: Ho Chi Minh's communists seize control of Hanoi
September 2: Ho Chi Minh proclaims Vietnam's independence from France
September 2: Japanese officials surrender to General Douglas MacArthur aboard the USS Missouri
September 8: Korea - U.S. and Soviets disarm the Japanese; Soviets occupy Korea north of the 38th parallel; U. S. occupies Korea south of the 38th parallel
November 20: The International Military Tribunal - Nazi War Crimes Trials begin in Nuremberg
1946
January 19: United Nations - Iran charges the Soviets with interference in Iranian internal affairs; a confrontation between the U. S. and the Soviet Union appears likely
February 9: Stalin delivers his "Two Camps" Speech declaring communism and capitalism to be incompatible and irreconcilable.
February 22: George F. Kennan sends Truman the "Long Telegram" detailing Soviet foreign policy objectives
March 5: Churchill delivers the "Iron Curtain" Speech at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri
March 10: Truman demands removal of Soviet troops from Iran
May 3: The International Military Tribunal for the Far East - Japanese war crimes trials begin in Tokyo
July 4: Philippines - a U. S. colony since 1902, becomes independent
August 1: Truman signs Atomic Energy Act (McMahon Act) - the Atomic Energy Commission of five civilians will control the research, development, testing and construction of nuclear warheads
December 2: The U.S. and Great Britain agree to "Bizone" - an economic merger of their zones of occupations in Germany; leads to tensions with the Soviets
1947
March 12: Truman Doctrine - the president announces U.S. support for "free peoples who are resisting subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures" and asks Congress to approve for $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey
March 22: Truman signs Executive Order No. 9835 creating the Federal Employees Loyalty and Security Program
June 5: Marshall Plan - Secretary of State George Marshall offers U. S. aid to European countries (including the Soviet Union) to help them recover from World War II
July 1: X Article - Foreign Affairs (Long Telegram) publishes unsigned article that recommends U. S. foreign policy should seek to contain communism
July 26: National Security Act - the CIA, the National Military Establishment (later renamed Department of Defense) and the National Security Council are created
1948
February 25: Soviets take over Czechoslovakia and establish a communist regime
March 17: Brussels Treaty signed - collective defense agreement between Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxemburg
May 14: Israel - The United States recognizes the new nation of Israel
June 7: The U.S., Great Britain, and France recommend the creation of a West German state
June 18: U.S., Britain, and France announce a plan for new currency for the three western zones of Germany and West Berlin; Soviets detail a currency plan of their own for Soviet zone and all of Berlin.
June 24: Berlin Blockade - Soviet troops blockade highways and railroads to shut off power to more than two million West Berliners; Truman orders the airlifting (Berlin Airlift) of food, coal and other necessities to the city
July 30: The Big Four meet in Moscow to discuss Berlin
August 3: Whittaker Chambers testifies before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), naming Alger Hiss as a Soviet spy
August 15: The Republic of Korea (South Korea) is established
September 9: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North) is established
October 27: The Voice of America - approved by Congress to broadcast anticommunist radio programs into Iron Curtain countries
November 2: Truman wins the presidency
December 2: The "Pumpkin Papers" - Whitaker Chambers tells of hiding secret State Department documents passed by Alger Hiss inside a hollow pumpkin on his Maryland farm
December 15: Hiss is indicted by a U.S. grand jury on two counts of perjury
1949
January 19: U.S. and British labor unions accuse the World Federation of Trade Unions being a front for the communist party and withdraw
April 4: The North Atlantic Pact - U. S. and eleven other countries pledge mutual defense assistance
May 2: Chiang Kai-shek flees to Formosa (Taiwan)
May 5: China and North Korea sign a mutual defense treaty
May 12: The Berlin Blockade ends
June 16: In a press conference, Truman warns against anticommunist hysteria
June 29: South Korea - U. S. occupation forces withdraw
September 21: The German Federal Republic (West Germany) established - Allies give up control of the American, British, and French occupation zones
September 23: Truman announces the Soviet Union has exploded its first atomic bomb
October 1: The People's Republic of China is proclaimed by Mao Zedong.
October 6: Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1949 - signed by President Truman.
December 1: Chiang Kai-shek established the Nationalist government on Taiwan; the U. S. will not send troops to protect Taiwan
1950
January 21: Alger Hiss is convicted on two counts of perjury in his second trial
January 31: Truman orders the development of the hydrogen bomb
February 3: Physicist Klaus Fuchs is arrested in London for spying for the Soviet Union; he will admit to spying three days later
February 9: Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy charges that communists have infiltrated the State Department
February 14: Sino-Soviet Pact -The Soviet Union and China reach a mutual defense agreement
April 7: NSC-68 - The National Security Council top secret memo describes a Soviet "design for world domination" and calling for a massive military buildup of both nuclear and conventional weapons
May 8: Vietnam - Truman orders first military advisors and $15 million to aid French in the Indochina
June 25: Korean War - war breaks out when North Korea invades South Korea
June 27: UN Security Council approves military aid to South Korea
June 30: U.S. troops enter the Korean War
July 8: General Douglas MacArthur named UN commander in Korea
July 17: Julius Rosenberg is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union; his wife, Ethel, is arrested for spying on
August 11
September 15: Inchon Landing - MacArthur's forces begin the liberation of South Korea
October 1: MacArthur drives North Koreans out of South Korea; American troops pursue North Korean army across the 38th parallel
October 24: American forces approach the Yalu River on the Chinese border
November 1: People's Republic of China enters the Korean War on the side of North Korea
November 25: UN forces are forced to retreat from Yalu River when China enters the Korean War
December 16: Truman declares a state of national emergency exists due to the Korea War
December 19: The NATO appoints General Dwight D. Eisenhower to be the first Supreme Allied Commander Europe
1951
April 11: MacArthur fired - Truman relieved him of his command for openly criticizing the administration's foreign policy
June 21: UN troops push the communist forces out of South Korea
July 10: Truce talks start in Korea
September 8: Japanese Peace Treaty officially signed - The U.S. keeps troops in Japan.
October 22: Turkey and Greece join NATO
November 27: Cease-fire line established at 38th parallel in Korea
1952
March 29: Truman announces that he will not seek reelection
October 24: Republican presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower pledges to go to Korea to seek peace
November 1: The U.S. explodes the first hydrogen bomb at a test site in the Marshall Islands
November 4: Dwight Eisenhower wins the presidential election
