The Cold War (1945-1955) * Americans were still getting over WWII and now they were having difficulties with their ally the Soviet Union. This lead to the Cold War, which was based on fear of nuclear warfare.*

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1944 • Franklin D. Roosevelt re-elected

1945 • Start of the Cold War • Yalta Conference, The Big “3” (Soviet Union, England, America) •                 Potsdam Conference • Death of FDR, Truman takes over • August 6 – Atomic bomb dropped                on Hiroshima • August 9 – Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki • United Nations                            established • 1945-1946 – Nuremberg war crimes trials in Germany

1946 • Iran crisis • Council of Economic Advisors created

1947 • “Containment Doctrine” • Truman Doctrine • Marshall Plan • Taft-Harley Act • National                    Security Act – Department of Defense • National Security Council (NSC) and Central                         Intelligence Agency (CIA) created

1948 • May 14 – Truman officially recognized the state of Israel • 1948-1949 – Berlin crisis • 1948-1952 – Harry S. Truman elected 

1949 • China falls • Soviet A-bomb constructed • April 4 -- NATO (North Atlantic Treaty                             Organization) created

1950 • McCarthy’s Red Hunt • 1950-1953 -- Korean War

1952 • United States explodes first hydrogen bomb • 1952-1956 – Dwight D. Eisenhower elected 1953 • Soviet Union suppresses dissent in East Germany

1955 • Warsaw Pact 

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The Fifties (1950-1960) * With the end of a war that engulfed the globe America busied itself with defining its position in the post war world. Two worlds, one of democracy and one of communism emerged as nemesis and began to scuffle for the upper hand.*

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1948-1952 • Harry S. Truman elected

1950 • American economy begins postwar boom • McCarthy Red Hunt begins • McCarran Internal             Security Bill passed

1950-1953 • Korean War

1951 • Truman fires McArthur • Ethel and Julius Rosenberg convicted of treason

1952 • United States explodes first hydrogen bomb 1952-1956 • Dwight D. Eisenhower elected 1953 • CIA-engineered coup installs shah of Iran

1954 • Brown v. Board of Education • SEATO formed • CIA-backed coup in Guatemala

1955 • Montgomery bus boycott, emergence of Martin Luther King, Jr. • Geneva summit meeting •               Warsaw Pact • American Federation of Labor joins with CIO

1956-1960 • Dwight D. Eisenhower elected again

1957 • Little Rock School crisis • Civil Rights Act • Eisenhower Doctrine • Soviet Union launches the             Sputniks • Postwar peak of United States birthrate (Baby Boom)

1958 • U.S. troops sent to Lebanon

1958-1859 • Berlin Crisis

1959 • Castro leads Cuban revolution • Landrum-Griffin Act • Alaska and Hawaii become states 

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JFK and the Sixties (1960-1969) * This was a time of controversy in the United States as we moved past the Cuban Crisis and into the Civil Rights Movement that brought division and murder.

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1960 • Feb. 1 – sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina  begins sit-in movement • Freedom Riders • U-           2 incident sabotages Paris Summit • OPEC formed • Student Non-Violent Coordinating                       Committee (SNCC) formed • 1960-1964 – John F. Kennedy elected (New Frontier begins)

1961 • Berlin crisis • April 17 -- Bay of Pigs incident • Alliance for Progress • August -- Berlin Wall                goes up • United States break diplomatic relations with Cuba • Kennedy sends “military                     advisers” to South Vietnam

1962 • Rollback of steel prices • Trade Expansion Act • Laos neutralized with Geneva conference •               October -- Cuban missile crisis • October – James Meredith requires federal troops to enroll at             University of Miss.

1963 • Anti-Diem coup in South Vietnam • August -- Civil Rights march – Washington, D.C. • United              States enters into a state of détente with the Soviet Union • Nov. 22 -- John F. Kennedy                         assassinated • Lyndon B. Johnson takes over presidency

1964 • 24th Amendment adopted • “Freedom Summer” in the South • August -- Tonkin Gulf Resolution           (“like grandma’s nightshirt”) • War on Poverty • Civil Rights Act • 1964-1968 – Lyndon B.                  Johnson elected

1965 • Great Society begins (Medicaid, Medicare, Project Head Start, etc) • Immigration and                     Nationality Act • March – Operation Rolling Thunder • Voting Rights Act • United States troops           enter Dominican Republic • Malcolm X assassinated

1965-1968 • Race riots • Vietnam War escalates

1967 • Six-Day War (Israel vs. Egypt)

1968 • January -- Tet Offensive • April 4 -- Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated • June 5 -- Robert                     Kennedy assassinated • 1968-1972 – Richard M. Nixon elected

1969 • Astronauts land on the moon 

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Nixon, Nam, and Carter (1970-1979) * This was a time of turmoil for the American people and the growing distrust of the government lead many people away from the political world.

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1968 • 1968-1972 – Richard M. Nixon elected

1970 • Vietnam War - longest conflict in US history – 40,000 killed, / 250,000 wounded •                        “Vietnamization” • Massacre of My Lai (1968) learned by public • April 29 – Nixon orders                 troops into neutral Cambodia • Kent and Jackson State riots • June 29 – Troops removed from             Cambodia • Major inflation • Cost of living triples • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)                 created • Clean Air Act • Indian activists take Alcatraz Island

1971 • Griggs v. Duke Power Co. • Nixon enforces 90-day wage and price freeze • June –                        Pentagon Papers • 26th Amendment adopted • Reed v. Reed

1972 • N. Vietnamese break through demilitarized zone • February – Nixon visits China • May –               Nixon visits Moscow (détente) • Great Grain Deal • SALT and ABM treaties ratified • July 17 –           Watergate scandals • Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) approved by Congress • Title IX of the                Education Amendments passed • Indian activists take village of Wounded Knee, South Dakota           • 1972-1976 – Richard M. Nixon re-elected

1973 • January 23 – N. Vietnamese agree to a cease-fire • Roe v. Wade (abortion made legal) •               Nixon launches 2-week bombing of N. Vietnam • July – public learns that government ordered              3,500 secret bombings of Cambodia • Agnew resigns; Ford appointed to vice presidency •              Endangered Species Act • October 20 – “Saturday Night Massacre” • November – War                  Powers Act • Frontiero v. Richardson

1974 • Milliken v. Bradley • International Energy Agency created • July – Nixon impeached • August            8 – Nixon resigns • Gerald R. Ford takes over presidency (first unelected president)

1975 • N. Vietnam overtakes S. Vietnam • April 29 – all US troops evacuated from Vietnam • July –            end of WWII officially legitimized

1976 • 1976-1980 – Jimmy Carter elected • Energy crisis begins

1978 • United States v. Wheeler • September – Egypt and Israel meet at Camp David • September             17 – Egypt and Israel sign an accord

1979 • January – Mohammed Reza Pahlevi overthrown in Iran • Carter resumes diplomatic relations             with China • Carter works on treaties to turn over Panama Canal to Panamanians by 2000 •             June – SALT II agreements, never ratified by Congress • November 4 – anti-American Muslims             take US hostages • December 27 – Soviet Union invades Afghanistan • 1979-1981 – Iranian           hostage crisis