American Foreign Policy

Stalin Declares WWIII

includes US and 22 nations who agree to eliminate trade barriers of all kinds on industrial and agricultural goods. Replaced in 1995 by World Trade Organization

gives military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey to halt spread of Communism

imposed on June 24 by the Soviet Union, blocking traffic into western sectors of Berlin, followed by Operation Vittles, America airlifted massive amounts of food, fuel and supplies into city. Soviet blockade lifted on May 12, 1949.

U.S. gives out $11 billion to rebuild and modernize Western European economies. Increased trade between Europe and the America; no repayment asked for.

America and eleven other nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty, creating NATO, a military alliance with the purpose of countering the Soviet Union and its allies.

roll back UN-US-South Korean forces to below 38th parallel

U.S. sends in troops to stop North Korean invasion; U.N. votes support; (Soviet Union boycotted U.N. and did not veto.) U.S. forces deployed in Korea exceeded 300,000 during the last year of the conflict.

united America, Australia and New Zealand in a defensive regional pact

President Truman fires General Douglas MacArthur as blame game escalates regarding Korean war stalemate

defeats isolationist element in GOP; denounces stalemate in Korea and promises to go there himself; elected president in landslide

Eisenhower threatens use of nuclear weapons in Korean War; China agrees to negotiate; armistice reached (it is till in effect)

U.S., and U.K. governments support shah's coup against Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq

Central Treaty Organization (or CENTO) initiated by John Foster Dulles, members were Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Turkey, U.S. aid.

Dwight D. Eisenhower authorizes Operation PBSUCCESS, a program of "psychological warfare and political action" against anti-U.S. regime; Guatemalan military overthrows Carlos Castillo Armas.government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán

SEATO alliance in Southeast Asia. South Vietnam not a signatory

gives the president authority to determine the necessity to assist any nation requesting assistance against armed aggression from any country controlled by international communism, applied in Lebanon the following year.

Americans embarrassed when Soviets launch Sputnik, the first space satellite and leapfrog America in high technology.

$3.2 billion for military and economic aid; lending authority of the Export-Import Bank raised to $7 billion; U.S. admits 32,000 Hungarian refugees from 1956 revolt

Fidel Castro comes to power. first of 1 million Cuban exiles go to U.S., concentrating in Miami, Florida

makes social reform a prior condition for American economic aid

Cuba seizes $1.5 billion of American properties; America imposes complete trade embargo (except food, medicine) continues in effect in 2012

Nikita Khrushchev cancels summit conference with Eisenhower after U.S. U-2 spy plane shot down over the Soviet Union

inter-regional agreement funded by America to counter the growing regional appeal of the Cuban Revolution

CIA-trained Cuban exiles invaded Cuba and were defeated at the Bay of Pigs; captured and ransomed by President Kennedy

Soviets give East Germany control over East Berlin; in August the Berlin Wall is built to stem wave of refugees escaping to the Western side. Kennedy proclaims "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a citizen of Berlin") to cheering West Berliners.

President John F. Kennedy launches Space Race, promising Americans on the Moon; they landed July 20, 1969

John F. Kennedy on October 22 announces that there exist Soviet missiles in Cuba and demanded their removal while imposing an air sea blockade. Soviet missiles are withdrawn on condition that America will not invade Cuba.

excludes Cuba, sets up trade embargo; dropped in 1975

U.S. and the Soviet Union agreed not to conduct nuclear tests in space, in the atmosphere or underwater. Underground tests permitted; signed by 100 nations, excluding France and the People's Republic of China.

gives President Lyndon B. Johnson Congressional approval to act in Vietnam; repealed in 1970.

in Vietnam causes political crisis at home

Richard Nixon as president and Henry Kissinger as his National Security Advisor; Kissinger serves as Secretary of State 1973-77

Nixon in Moscow opens era of détente with Soviet Union; SALT I

Nixon in Beijing opens era of détente with China

Paris Peace Accords end the American war in Vietnam; POW's returned

North Vietnam invades and conquers South Vietnam; over 1 million refugees eventually come to America

brokered by President Jimmy Carter, saw Egypt's president Anwar Al Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin come to terms, leading to their historic peace treaty in 1979

America supports the Contras fighting against the pro-Communist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

After Afghanistan, President Carter agrees détente has failed; leads worldwide boycott of Moscow 1980 Summer Olympics

after the overthrow of American-backed shah; militants seize 63 American diplomats for 444 days during the Iran hostage crisis; America seizes $12 billion in Iranian assets; American rescue effort fails; hostages and assets are freed on January 20, 1981.

The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan; America works with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in funding, training, and arming Muslim mujahideen insurgency against Soviet occupation.

The U.S. switches diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the People's Republic of China and passes the Taiwan Relations Act.

America officially neutral in war between Iraq and Iran; America flags oil tankers to protect flow of oil in Persian Gulf, and sells arms and weaponry to both sides of the conflict.

125,000 Cuban refugees arrive in America

President Ronald Reagan escalates Cold War with heavy new military spending and research in new weapons; forward strategy for Navy;

in response to a coup d’état by Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard on the Caribbean island.

Acknowledgement of Soviet economic problems

The U.S suspends its ANZUS obligations to New Zealand after David Lange's Labour government bans nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered warships.

White House officials sell weapons to Iran and give the profits to Contras; President Reagan embarrassed

End of Eastern Bloc; fall of Berlin Wall; all East European satellites break away from Moscow

America invades to oust Manuel Noriega

The Soviet Union is dissolved; Mikhail Gorbachev resigns

America leads a U.N.-authorized coalition to repel an Iraqi invasion out of neighboring Kuwait.

America and Great Britain maintain no-fly-zones in the north and south of Iraq with periodic bombings.

held by America and Russia to limit nuclear weapons

Use of precision weapons in desert storm restores american confidence following an overwhelming military victory.

The US and NATO bomb the FR Yugoslavia

U.S. and NATO forces invade Afghanistan and overthrow the Taliban.

orchestrated by Al-Qaeda terrorist network, occur on American soil.

U.S.-led coalition invades Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein; troops remain to fight insurgency against the U.N.-approved elected government.