1950

1949

1948

1947

1946

1945

Year

Berlin Blockade
Berlin Airlift
Israel founded
Arab-Israeli conflict
NATO founded
Soviet A-bomb
Peoples Republic of
China founded
Republic of China
founded on Taiwan

International
events
Germany surrenders
Atomic bombs
detonated over
Hiroshima, Nagasaki
Japan surrenders
Greek civil war
Truman Doctrine

GDR: Ulbricht
FRG: Adenauer

USA: Truman

G: Hitler dies

Leaders

May 23: FRG founded

Oct 7: GDR founded

SED founded
Iron Curtain phrase

Stunde Null
First Nuremberg trials
begin

Culture & Division

GRU: Kurasov

CIA established
U.S. National Security
Act
CIA: OPC established
Operation Gehlen
begins

SMAD established in
Karlshorst
OSS dissolved
NKVD becomes
MVD/MGB
HUAC established

Agencies

HVA: Felfe and Clemens turn

double-agent in Op Gehlen

KGB, SIS: Philby becomes

MCB liaison in Washington,
D.C.

CIA: manipulates elections in

Italy

Viet Nam: OSS supports Viet

Minh

Espionage

This timeline is a bit experimental. Im not sure how usable itll be to someone who didnt compile it. Let me know!
Under Leaders, an entry like GDR: Ulbricht means that person took the leadership role of that country in that year,
whether as Premier, President, or whatever. Under Agencies, the same applies to heads of intelligence agencies.

By Ron Edwards, copyright 2005 Adept Press

Cold War Timeline

SPIONE: Story Now in Cold War Berlin

May 9: FRG joins

NATO
May 14: Warsaw Pact
North Viet Nam
declared a nation
Hungarian rebellion
suppressed by Red
Army
Suez Crisis

Sputnik launched

PRC: Great Leap

Forward

1955

1957

1958

1956

French defeat in Viet

Nam
Lavon Affair

Korean War ends

Workers strike in
GDR; suppressed by
Red Army

Korean War begins

1954

1952
1953

1951

Berlin: Brandt
(Mayor)

USA: Eisenhower
USSR: Khruschev

USA: Eisenhower
USSR: Stalin dies
Yugoslavia: Tito

Border guards receive

shooting orders
Passport law

Hallstein Doctrine

Border closed,
telephones disrupted

HVA named, merges

with MsF
BND named, based in
Pullach
SIS: Sinclair resigns,
replaced by White
SIS subordinated to
MI-5

MVD split into MVD

and KGB
Beria executed
Angleton heads CIA
counterintelligence

Mossad established,
headed by Shiloah
Mossad: Harel
SIS: Sinclair (the
horrors)
MVD: Beria arrested
HVA: Wolf

HVA: Schlict recruited

KGB: Stashinsky assassinates
Rebet in West Germany
GRU: Popov arrested

KGB, SIS: Philby avoids

exposure
KGB, SIS: Blake posted to
West Berlin
GRU: Whalen spies vs. USA
KGB: Berlin Tunnel
discovered
Crabb crisis
CIA: Operation Wakeful in
Egypt

Vulcan Affair
CIA and SIS: instate the Shah
in Iran
KGB: Kokhlov spares
assassination target, defects
to west
GRU: Popov offers his services
to the CIA
CIA: Operation Success in
Guatemala
CIA, SIS: Operation
Stopwatch/Gold

SIS: Burgess & Maclean flee

to USSR

Cuban trade
agreement with USSR
OPEC formed

Bay of Pigs
Tank confrontation at
Checkpoint Charlie
Non-Aligned
Movement
Cuban Missile Crisis

1960

1961

US invasion of
Dominican Republic
PRC: Cultural
Revolution

1965

1966

Tonkin Resolution
PLO founded

1964

1963

1962

Cuban Revolution

1959

FRG: Kiesinger
(Chancellor);
Brandt (Foreign
Minister)

USA: Kennedy
killed
FRG: Adenauer
resigns; Erhard
USA: Johnson
USSR: Khruschev
ousted; Brezhnev

USA: Kennedy

Brandt: Small Steps

GDR: compulsory
currency exchange

Kennedy: Ich ein

Berliner

Peter Fechter killed

The Wire
The Wall (August 13)

Mossad: Amit

CIA: Helms

CIA moves to Langley

CIA: McCone
DIA established
KGB: Semichastny

KGB: Shelepin

SIS: Blunt confesses

GRU: Nosenko defects to USA
CIA: Viet Nam, Laos
Le Carres The Spy Who Came
in from the Cold
Ramparts Magazine expose of
Operation Chaos

GRU: Penkovsky arrested

FBI: Whalen arrested
SIS: Philby exposed, flees to
USSR
GRU: Penkovsky executed

CIA: Operation Zapata in

Cuba
KGB: Stashinsky assassinates
Bandera
GRU: Popov arrested and shot
CIA: U2 overflight; Powers
scandal
StB: Goleniewski defects to
USA
GRU: Penkovsky begins
spying for CIA
FBI: Polyakov recruited to spy
against USSR
KGB: Golitsyn defects to USA
SIS: Blake arrested

GDR: Honecker
ousts Ulbricht

USA: Nixon
GDR: Honecker

1972

USA: Nixon

Guevara captured
and killed

1971

1970

Watergate Scandal
Munich Massacre
Anti-Ballistic Missile
Treaty
Shanghai
Communique

Prague Spring
FRG: protests
Tet Offensive
USS Pueblo incident
Brezhnev Doctrine
Apollo 11: moon shot
Helsinki Declaration
SALT talks begin
Polish protest crushed
Black September in
Jordan

1968

1969

Arab-Israeli War (SixDay War)

1967

USSR guarantees
western access to W
Berlin
Quadripartite
Agreement
Border travel revised
Telephone lines restored
30/45 day passes
Brandt receives Nobel
Peace Prize
GDR recognized by UN
Basic Treaty signed

Ostpolitik
Hallstein Doctrine
abandoned

Brandt: One nation

FBI: Hoover dies; Felt;

Gray

SIS: Rennie
BND: Gehlen retires;
Wessel
Mossad: Zamir

KGB: Andropov

CIA: Operation Banner

HVA: Stiller begins career
CIA: Kuklinski begins spying
in place in Poland

CIA: Big Bird satellite

launched

KGB: Walker begins spying on

US Navy
CIA: Operation Phoenix in
Viet Nam
HVA: Gast recruited

GDR: Church-State
Agreement

FBI: Webster

Camp David Accord

Wall: Grenzmauer 75

FRG and GDR open

diplomatic relations

SIS: Oldfield
CIA: Schlesinger; then
Colby
FBI: Kelley
Church Committee
investigation of CIA
Rockefeller
investigation of CIA
Hughes-Ryan
Amendment
CIA: Angleton fired
Mossad: Hofi
USA: Committee on
Internal Security
abolished
Church Report on CIA
CIA: Bush

1978

USA: Carter
PRC: Mao dies

USA: Nixon
resigns; Ford
FRG: Brandt
resigns; Schmidt

GDR joins UN

CIA: Turner
Halloween massacre

US withdrawal from
Viet Nam
Civil War in Lebanon
U.S. deployment of
SS-20 missiles

US ceasefire in Viet
Nam
Yom Kippur War
Energy Crisis

1977

1976

1975

1974

1973

Agees Inside the Company

Carlos the Jackal becomes
famous
CIA: KH-11 satellite launched
CIA: Filatov blackmailed into
spying in Soviet Foreign
Ministry
Multiple moles unmasked in
HVA
Mossad: Operation Entebbe in
Uganda
HVA: Rupp penetrates NATO
CIA: Kampiles leaks KH-11 to
Soviets; arrested
FBI: Boyce & Lee arrested
CIA: Filatov arrested and shot

BND: Guillaume exposed

Marchetti and Marks The
CIA and the Cult of
Intelligence

FRG: GSG-9
Mossad: Lillehammer Affair
CIA: coup vs. Allende in Chile

Exercise Zapad-81

Falklands Crisis
Lebanon War

PLO attacks
American targets in
Beirut
Deployment of
Pershing missiles

1981

1982

1983

1985

1984

1980

Nicaraguan
Revolution
Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan
Shah of Iran
overthrown
SALT II talks
Solidarnosc founded
Miracle on Ice

1979

USA: Reagan
USSR: Andropov
dies; replaced by
Chernenko
USSR: Chernenko
dies; replaced by
Gorbachev

USA: Reagan
Yugoslavia: Tito
dies
USA: Reagan shot,
recovers
Egypt: Sadat
killed
USSR: Andropov
FRG: Kohl

GB: Thatcher

Glasnost & perestroika

Border law revision:

Order 101

Walls final form

SIS: Curwen
BND: Hellenbroich;
Wieck

USA: Intelligence
Identities Protection
Act
Boland Amendment
MVD: Fedarchuk
KGB: Chebrikov
Mossad: Admoni
BND: Blum

CIA: Casey

BND: Kinkel

FBI: Walker arrested; Pollard

arrested
GRU: Polyakov arrested
KGB: Gordievsky defects to
USA
CIA: Iran-Contra begins

Mossad: Operation Sphinx

against Iraq

FBI-CIA: Operation Courtship

HVA: Stiller defects to USA

1992

1991

1990

1988
1989

1987

1986
1987

Gulf War begins

Warsaw Pact
dissolved
December: USSR
dissolved

Solidarnosc legalized
and elected to power
Tienanmen Square
massacre
US invasion of
Panama
Iraqui invasion of
Kuwait

LaBelle bombing

USA: Clinton
GDR: Brandt dies

Russia: Yeltsin

GB: Thatcher
resigns

USA: Bush
GDR, Oct 17:
Honecker ousted;
replaced by Krenz
Aug 23: Hungarian
border opens
Oct 9: Leipzig protest
Nov 1: Czech border
opens
Nov 9: The Wall opens
Mar 18: first free GDR
elections
Sept 12: USA-USSR
Final Settlement Treaty
Oct 3: Reunification
Berlin reinstated as
capitol

Berlins 750th
Anniversary
celebrations

Reagan: Mr.
Gorbachev, tear down
this wall

CIA: Webster resigns;

Gates
KGB disassembled

Mossad: Shavit
BND: Porzner

MsF: headquarters
stormed; disbanded

HVA: Wolf retires

Tower Commission
CIA: Casey dies;
Webster
FBI: Otto, Sessions

Ostrovskys By Way of
Deception

Iran-Contra scandal
Wrights Spycatcher