1945

March 02 Soviet pressure on King Michael of Romania forces him to appoint a communist-controlled, pro-Soviet government under Petru Groza.

March 19 The Soviet Union denounces the Turco-Soviet nonaggression treaty of 1925. Moscow begins to place diplomatic pressure on Turkey over control of the Dardanelles.

April 12 President Roosevelt dies; Harry S. Truman becomes President of the United States.

May 08 Germany surrenders and is divided into four zones of occupation, as is its capital, Berlin. These are administered by the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France.

June 28 A Polish Government of national unity is formed under Socialist Premier Eduard Osobka-Morawski. Although recognized by the West, it displays a marked pro-Soviet orientation.

July 03 James F. Byrnes becomes Secretary of State.

July 17 President Truman begins meetings with Prime Minister Attlee and Soviet leader Stalin at Potsdam.

August 06 The United States drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

August 08 The Soviet Union declares war on Japan.

August 09 The United States drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

August 14 Japan surrenders, ending World War II.

August 17 The United States and the Soviet Union agree to divide their occupation zones in Korea at the 38th parallel.

September 02 Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnamese independence from France.

September 20 Executive Order 9621 dissolves the OSS effective 1 October. The Research and Analysis Branch is transferred to the Department of State, while the espionage and counterintelligence branches are moved to the War Department, where they are renamed the Strategic Services Unit.

September 27 Robert P. Patterson becomes Secretary of War.

November 03 Hungarians vote the anti-Communist Smallholders' Party into power.

November 10 The Communist leader Enver Hoxha becomes Premier of Albania.

November 18 An election with limited choice returns a Communist-controlled government in Bulgaria.

November 27 General George Marshall begins his efforts to mediate a solution to the Chinese civil war.

December 16 Rebels in Iranian Azerbaijan, acting under Soviet protection, declare independence.

December 19 Rebel Kurds in western Iranian Azerbaijan, also acting under Soviet protection, declare independence.

1946

January 06 The Government of Poland begins nationalization of industry.

January 22 President Truman creates the Central Intelligence Group (CIG), appointing Rear Admiral Sidney Souers the first Director of Central Intelligence.

January 31 Yugoslavia adopts a Soviet-style Constitution.

February 09 Stalin raises fears in the West with a speech in which he declares that Communism and capitalism cannot coexist.

February 15 The first Daily Summary is published for the President by the Central Reports Staff of CIG.

February 22 US diplomat George F. Kennan sends his influential "Long Telegram" from Moscow analyzing the sources of Soviet conduct.

March 05 Winston Churchill delivers his "Iron Curtain" speech in Fulton, MO.

March 25 Moscow announces the withdrawal of its forces from northern Iran.

April 22 The merger of the Communist and Socialist Parties in the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany creates the Socialist Unity Party.

May 26 Communists emerge as strong political force in Czechoslovakia after an election to a constituent assembly. Communist Klement Gottwald forms a coalition government with non-Communists.

May The Greek civil war begins, with Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Albania channeling support to Communist guerrillas who aim to overthrow the Greek Government.

June 10 Lt. General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, US Army Air Forces, succeeds Admiral Souers as Director of Central Intelligence.

July 19 The Central Reports Staff is renamed Office of Research and Evaluations to reflect the broader responsibilities given it by National Intelligence Authority Directive No. 5.

July 23 CIG produces its first piece of "strategic and national policy" intelligence, ORE-1, which analyzes Soviet foreign and military policy.

October 20 Strategic Services Unit field personnel are transferred to CIG's new Office of Special Operations.

October 27 Elections for a constituent assembly in Bulgaria that are manipulated by the Communist-dominated government result in a Communist majority. The veteran Communist George Dimitrov returns from Moscow to head the government.

October 29 The name of the Office of Research and Evaluations is changed to Office of Reports and Estimates out of deference to the Department of State, which claims that research and evaluation are State responsibilities.

November 19 Voters in Romania return to power a Communist-dominated government after a campaign of violence and intimidation against the opposition.

December 19 The French war against the Vietminh begins in Indochina.

1947

January 01 The US and British zones of Germany are merged.

January 08 General Marshall ends his efforts to mediate a solution to the Chinese civil war. 19 Manipulated elections in Poland return a huge Communist majority. The United States and Britain protest.

January 21 George C. Marshall becomes Secretary of State.

February 21 The British announce that they will cease providing aid to Greece and Turkey.

February 25 Bela Kovacs, a leader of the Hungary's Smallholders' Party, is arrested, beginning a purge of anti-Communists from that party.

March 12 President Truman, in a message to Congress, articulates the Truman Doctrine of providing aid to countries threatened by Communism.

May 01 Rear Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter is sworn in as the third Director of Central Intelligence.

May 05 Communist ministers in the French and Italian cabinets are dismissed by their premiers.

May 31 Hungarian Premier Nagy is accused of treason by the Communists and resigns. The disorder in the Smallholders' Party permits the Communists to win a general election on 31 August.

June 05 Secretary of State George Marshall calls for a European Recovery Program, soon dubbed the Marshall Plan.

June 06 The leader of Bulgaria's anti-Communist Agrarian Party, Nikola Petkov, is arrested and later executed. His party is dissolved in August.

July 02 Moscow rejects participation in the Marshall Plan. The other East European Communist Parties soon follow suit.

July 15 The leader of Romania's anti-Communist National Peasant Party is arrested and sentenced to life in prison. His party is dissolved later that same month.

July 26 President Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947, which provides for a National Security Council (NSC), Secretary of Defense, and a Central Intelligence Agency.

September 17 Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal becomes Secretary of Defense.

September 18 The Central Intelligence Group becomes the Central Intelligence Agency under the provision of the National Security Act of 1947.

September 27 The Communist Information Bureau is established, signaling the start of the Stalinization of the East European Communist parties.

October 24 The anti-Communist leader of the Polish Peasant Party, Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, is forced to flee the country, and his followers are purged from the party.

1948

January 13 The Dulles-Jackson-Correa Survey Team is formed to assess the performance of CIA and its place in the Intelligence Community.

February 25 A Communist coup in Czechoslovakia ends democracy in that country.

March 17 Alarmed by events in Czechoslovakia, five West European countries sign the treaty of Brussels, establishing the West European Union.

March 18 The Soviet Union recalls its military and technical advisers from Yugoslavia and expels Belgrade from the Cominform on 28 June.

April 01 The Soviets impose restrictions on road and rail traffic into West Berlin.

April 18 Italy's Christian Democrats beat a Communist-Socialist bloc by a surprisingly large margin in the country's first national election under its republican constitution.

May 14 Israel becomes an independent state.

June 18 The Western powers introduce currency reform in their occupation zones in Germany.

June 19 Congress reinstates the draft.

June 24 The blockade of Berlin begins in earnest; Soviet authorities cut electricity and halt all land and water traffic into West Berlin.

August 15 The Republic of Korea [South Korea] is proclaimed.

September 09 The People's Democratic Republic is officially inaugurated in North Korea under the leadership of Kim Il Sung, who had been placed in power by Moscow in 1946.

November 02 President Truman wins reelection by defeating Governor Thomas Dewey of New York.

December 25 Soviet forces complete their withdrawal from North Korea.

1949

January 01 The Dulles-Jackson-Correa Report is submitted to the NSC; it criticizes the performance of the Office of Reports and Estimates.

January 21 Dean Acheson becomes Secretary of State.

January 22 Beijing falls to the Communist forces of Mao Zedong.

January 25 Moscow announces the formation of the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance to counter the Marshall Plan.

January 28 The UN Security Council orders the Netherlands to end its war against Indonesian rebels and grant independence to the country.

March 04 V. M. Molotov is replaced as Soviet Foreign Minister by Andrey Vyshinsky.

March 28 Louis Johnson becomes Secretary of Defense

April 04 Twelve Western countries sign the North Atlantic Treaty.

May 12 The Soviet Union lifts the Berlin blockade.

May 23 The Federal Republic of Germany is established out of the US, British, and French occupation zones.

June 05 The Emperor Bao Dai is restored to power by France in a ploy to win legitimacy away from the Vietminh rebel forces seeking to oust the French from Indochina.

June 29 US occupation forces complete their withdrawal from South Korea.

August 05 The United States halts aid to China's rapidly crumbling Nationalist government.

September 23 President Truman announces that the Soviet Union has successfully tested an atomic bomb.

October 01 The People's Republic of China is proclaimed in Beijing.

October 07 The German Democratic Republic is established in the Soviet occupation zone.

December 08 The Chinese Nationalist Government is established on Taiwan.

December 16 Mao Zedong begins a nine-week visit to the USSR for his first meeting with Stalin.

1950

January 10 The Soviet delegate to the UN Security Council begins boycotting meetings as a protest over the continued seating of Nationalist China in the UN.

January 12 Secretary of State Acheson, in a well-publicized speech, leaves South Korea outside the US "defense perimeter" in Asia.

January 31 The Soviet Union recognizes Ho Chi Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

February 09 Senator Joseph McCarthy attacks the State Department for harboring Communists.

April 25 NSC 68 adopted by the NSC; President Truman approves it on 30 September.

June 25 North Korea invades South Korea.

June 27 President Truman sends US naval and air forces to assist South Korea and orders the Seventh Fleet to "neutralize" the Formosa Strait in order to prevent hostilities between the two Chinas.

June 30 President Truman commits US ground forces to Korea.

August 05 US forces in South Korea are penned within the Pusan perimeter.

September 15 General MacArthur lands behind North Korean lines at Inchon, beginning the rapid disintegration of the North Korean Army.

October 07 Lt. Gen. Walter B. Smith becomes the fourth Director of Central Intelligence. William H. Jackson becomes Deputy Director.

October 26 Wearing Korean uniforms, small numbers of Chinese troops begin fighting in northern Korea.

November 13 The Office of Reports and Estimates is dissolved and replaced by three new offices: the Office of Research and Reports, the Office Current Intelligence, and the Office National Estimates.

November 20 UN forces reach the Yalu River border between North Korea and China.

November 26 Chinese forces attack in strength in North Korea.