By 3AD.com Staff  Cold War Index      NEXT

A CONCISE TIME-LINE OF THE COLD WAR 1945-1992
including Aftermath

With a 3rd Armored Division Perspective

 

NOTE: Special 3AD-related entries are included below. More entries to be added. The Division, of course, did not "do it alone" at any point. It was always part, and often a key part, of a larger U.S. Army machine.

1940's:

  • 1945: Feb 4-11 -- Yalta Conference -- Genesis of Cold War
  • 1945: March -- 3AD captures Cologne; crosses Rhine
  • 1945: March/April -- 3AD battles in Central Germany
  • 1945: May 8 -- Germany surrenders to Allies
  • 1945: Jul 16 - Aug 2 -- Potsdam Conference
  • 1945: Aug 6 -- U.S. drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima
  • 1945: Aug 8 -- USSR enters war against Japan
  • 1945: Aug 14 -- Japan surrenders -- End of World War II
  • 1945 Nov 9 -- 3AD deactivated in Germany
  • 1946: March -- Winston Churchill delivers "Iron Curtain" speech
  • 1947: June -- Marshall Plan is announced
  • 1947: July -- 3AD reactivated as training unit, Ft. Knox, KY
  • 1948: Feb -- Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia
  • 1948: June 24 -- Berlin Blockade by USSR begins
  • 1949: July -- NATO ratified as a military organization
  • 1949: May 12 -- Berlin Blockade ends
  • 1949: Sept -- Communists take control of China
  • 1949: Sept -- USSR explodes its first atomic bomb

1950's:

  • 1950: June -- Korean War begins
  • 1951: Jan 12 -- Fed. Civil Defense Administration established
  • 1953: June 19 -- Rosenberg spy executions
  • 1953: July -- Korean War ends
  • 1954: March -- KGB established
  • 1954: -- CIA helps overthrow unfriendly regimes in Iran
  • 1954: July -- Vietnam split at 17th parallel after French defeated
  • 1955: March -- 3AD reverts to combat division, Ft. Knox, KY
  • 1955: May -- Warsaw Pact formed
  • 1956: May -- 3AD redeployed to West Germany
  • 1956: Oct - Nov -- Rebellion put down in Communist Hungary
  • 1957: July 1 -- Start of 3AD reorganization under new Army-wide
    system called CARS (Combat Arms Regimental System).
  • 1957: Oct 1 -- Continued reorganization of 3AD with the
    implementation of ROCAD (Reorganization of Current
    Armored Division).
  • 1957: Oct 4 -- USSR launches Sputnik into Earth orbit
  • 1957: Oct -- 3AD first receives tactical nuclear weapons
  • 1958: Nov -- Khrushchev demands U.S. troops leave Berlin
  • 1959: Jan -- Fidel Castro takes over Cuba
  • 1959: -- 3AD begins conversion from M-1 to M-14 rifle

1960's:

  • 1960: May 1 -- U.S. U2 spy plane shot down over Russia
  • 1960: Oct -- Creighton Abrams made 3AD Commander
  • 1960: Nov -- John F. Kennedy elected President
  • 1961: -- 3AD begins conversion to M-60 Battle Tank
  • 1961: April -- Bay of Pigs invasion, Cuba
  • 1961: April 12 -- USSR astronaut Gagarin first to orbit Earth
  • 1961: Aug 13 -- Berlin border closed
  • 1961: Aug 17 -- Construction of Berlin Wall begins
  • 1962: -- U.S. involvement in Vietnam increases
  • 1962: June -- US Army Europe troop strength peaks
    at 277,342 for the Cold War era (1946-1991).
  • 1962: Oct -- Cuban Missile Crisis (nuclear war narrowly averted)
  • 1963: June 25 -- Kennedy visits 3AD troops in Germany
  • 1963: July -- Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified
  • 1963: Sept -- 3AD is completely revamped in organization
    under ROAD concept (Reorganization Objective Army Divisions)
  • 1963: Oct-Nov -- 3AD participates in Operation BIG LIFT,
    forerunner of REFORGER exercises; 2AD air-lifted from Ft. Hood, TX
  • 1964: Aug -- Gulf of Tonkin incident -- Start of Vietnam War
  • 1964: Oct 16 -- China detonates its first atomic bomb
  • 1968: Jan -- North Korea captures USS Pueblo
  • 1968: Aug -- Soviet troops crush Czechoslovakian revolt
  • 1969: Jan -- 3AD in USAREUR's first REFORGER field exercise
  • 1969: July 20 -- U.S. lands first man on moon

1970's:

  • 1970: April -- President Richard Nixon extends Vietnam War to Cambodia
  • 1970: July -- 3AD begins belated conversion to M-16 rifle
  • 1972: July -- SALT I nuclear treaty signed
  • 1973: Jan -- Ceasefire in Vietnam between North Vietnam & U.S.
  • 1973: March -- Last sizable U.S. military units depart South Vietnam
  • 1973: Oct -- Egypt & Syria attack Israel; Egypt requests Soviet aid
  • 1973: -- End of the U.S. military draft
  • 1974: -- 3AD begins conversion to all-volunteer force
  • 1974: -- First female soldiers join 3AD (then still WAC's)
  • 1974: Aug -- President Nixon resigns
  • 1975: April 30 -- Saigon falls to North; the end of South Vietnam
  • 1975: July 27 -- President Gerald Ford visits 3AD
  • 1979: July -- SALT II nuclear treaty signed
  • 1979: Nov -- Shah of Iran overthrown; Iranian Hostage Crisis

1980's

  • 1980: Nov -- Ronald Reagan elected President
  • 1983: -- Reagan reveals Strategic Defense Initiative, "Star Wars"
  • 1985 -- 3AD begins conversion to M1 Abrams Battle Tank
  • 1985: -- Mikhail Gorbachev ascends to power in USSR
  • 1986: -- Gorbachev ends economic aid to Soviet satellites
  • 1986: Oct -- Reagan and Gorbachev resolve to remove all intermediate nuclear missiles from Europe
  • 1987: June 19 -- 3AD wins the Canadian Army Trophy (CAT) with a remarkable performance by 1st platoon, Delta Company, 4th Battalion, 8th Cavalry (formerly 3-33 Armor). It was the first such "world series" victory by a U.S. Army unit in 24 years of this international tank gunnery competition.
  • 1987: Oct -- Reagan and Gorbachev agree to remove all medium and short-range nuclear missiles from Europe by signing treaty
  • 1988: Jan -- 3AD receives its first Bradley Fighting Vehicles
  • 1988: Jan -- 3AD in last full-scale REFORGER exercise
  • 1989: Jan -- Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan
  • 1989: June -- China puts down protests for democracy
  • 1989: June -- Poland becomes independent
  • 1989: Sept -- Hungary becomes independent
  • 1989: Nov -- Berlin Wall falls
  • 1989: Dec -- Communist governments fall in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Rumania

1990's

  • 1990: Jan -- 3AD in scaled-down REFORGER exercise
  • 1990: March -- Lithuania becomes independent
  • 1990: May 29 -- Boris Yeltsin elected to presidency of Russia
  • 1990: Aug 2 -- Iraq invades Kuwait; threatens Saudi Arabia
  • 1990: Oct 3 -- West Germany and East Germany unite
  • 1990: Dec -- 3AD redeployed to Saudi Arabia
  • 1991: Feb -- 3AD in Operation Desert Storm
  • 1991: March - July -- 3AD redeployed back to Germany
  • 1991: April -- Warsaw Pact ends
  • 1991: June 8 -- 3AD battalion-size contingent marches in Desert Storm Victory Parade in Washington, D.C.
  • 1991: Aug -- USSR Dissolved -- Cold War Ends
  • 1992: Jan 17 -- 3AD deactivated in Germany
  • 1992: Oct 17 -- Formal 3AD deactivation at Ft. Knox, ceremony & speeches, including WWII veterans and former Division commanders.

Note: Additional 3AD entries will be made, as research is continuing, as well as an explanation as to why many historians feel that the Cold War began in February, 1945, with the Yalta Conference, which essentially involved a meeting of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin to decide the post-war fate of Germany.

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