A list of useful dates

Dear Diary,

I realized I didn't put a date on anything. How rude of me. Well, here's a list for me to work out where it goes at some point:

• The Treaty Of Versailles: 1919
• The Wall Street Crash: October 1929
• Manchurian Crisis:1931 - 1933
• Mukden Railway bombed: 18th September 1931
• Lytton Commision reported back: September 1932

• Abyssinia Crisis: October 1935
• Italian Soldiers killed in border clash - December 1934
• Italian forces invade Abyssinia - October 1935
• Hoare-Laval pact: December 1935

• Rome-Berlin Axis - October 1936
• Hitler's appeasement
• The Saar Votes to return to German Rule - 1935
• Hitler introduces conscription - 1935
• The Remilitarisation of the Rhineland - 7th March 1936
• Anschluss in Austria - 10th of April 1938

• Nazi Soviet Pact - 23rd August 1939
• Anglo Polish Mutual Assistance Pact - 24th August 1939
• Germany invades Poland - 1st September 1939

• The Three conferences:
• Tehran Conference - November 1943
• The Yalta Conference - February 1945
• The Potsdam Conference May 1945

• Rising Tensions between the US and USSR
• The "Long Telegram" received by Truman - 1946
• The "Novikov Telegram" received by Stalin
• Truman Doctrine - 1947
• Marshall Plan - 1947
• Cominform - October 1947
• Comecon -1949
• Berlin Blockade - June 1948
• Berlin Airlift - June 1948
• NATO Formed - 1949
• Warsaw Pact Formed - 1955
• Both countries had developed Hydrogen Bombs - 1960

• Rakosi becomes Dictator - 1949 to 1956
• Stalin dies - 1953

• Cuban missile Crisis
• The Cuban Revolution - 1959
• Paris Conference - 1960
• Geneva Conference - 1961
• Bay of Pigs - April 1961
• The 13 Days - 1962
• THE 13 DAYS
• Kennedy informed of Khruschev's plan to place nukes in Cuba - 16th October 1962
• Kennedy imposes Naval Blockade - 20th October 1962
• Kennedy calls on Khruschev to recall his ships - 21st October 1962
• A letter to Kennedy stating soviet ships would break through - 23rd October 1962
• USSR threaten to use their nukes in a war - 24th October 1962
• US and Soviet armed forces told to prepare for war - 25th October 1962
• USSR say they will withdraw missiles if US agrees not to invade Cuba - 26th October 1962
• US Spy plane shot down by USSR - 27th October 1962
• Khruschev accepts the secret deal - 28th October 1962

• The Washington - Moscow hotline created - June 1963
• Limited test ban treaty signed by US and USSR - July 1963

England

And they think it's all over

Dear Diary,

World Domination avoided tensions back to a reasonable level. I wasn't worried one bit... I'm British. With the 13 days over, Khruschev's reputation crippled and the nuclear threat temporarily avoided. I can relax a bit. They even managed to create a hotline between Washington and Moscow. Maybe this time they can talk it over instead of threatening all out nuclear war. It'd be nice.

Swiftly following this was the "Limited Test Ban Treaty". I'll get round to signing it at some point. This treaty means no one can test detonation of nuclear weapons except underground. Should do some good, maybe not for me though... Don't feel like being dug up if I'm honest.

Well, I'm gonna go sit back and enjoy the rest of the peace. Maybe it'll last forever, we can hope.

England

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What a horrible 13 days...

Dear Diary,

I just got a telegram containing America's blog... How unusual! Well I'll pop it in here:

"Dang it! This is a problem... Russia have nuclear sites in Cuba... Maybe if I ask them nicely they will remove them. Give them free will choice."

Oh there they go with their freedom again, they never stop.

"Then what comes next? 13 days of pure hell. With both I and the Soviets ready to launch hydrogen bombs to blow us all to kingdom come, this was the most tense time of times for America."

There you go again, America thinking about themselves. Don't mind us other countries that you'd take down with you!

 "The date is the 16th October 1962. My guys from the secret service come in and say that Khruschev is gonna place nukes in Cuba! Within reach of the good old land of the free!"

Oh for goodness sake! Shut up about the whole freedom thing.

 "4 days later I decided to impose a Naval Blockade around Cuba. They will never get their nukes in now!"

Thing is America... I don't think that will help anyone... Considering the fact they still have very dangerous nukes and hydrogen bombs...

 "Next day I told Khruschev to recall his ships. That should do it. No one messes with America."

If they have a load of nuclear missiles near your America... I'd say that they are messing with you, pretty badly aswell.

"He considered my proposal for a whole day... Wow, what an idiot. He thinks he can threaten the US with his nukes? I think not."

I think so.

"Only took me a day to get the order out to mobilise my army but he is getting ready soon. How quickly this is escalating! You'd think there were some previous factors that raised tensions..."

Really America? How about producing a MASSIVE bomb?

"It's the 26th and the USSR said they will withdraw the missiles! If I promise not to invade Cuba. Decisions, Decisions."

Easy decision! Blow up the whole world including myself and that amazing England... Or not invade Cuba?

"Do they know how much money it costs to build those spy planes?! Not much but nonetheless, American money! How dare they shoot it down! One day after we reached the decision on Cuba aswell."

STOP WORRYING ABOUT THE MONEY. SAVE THE WORLD.

 "Finally Kruschev has accepted our secret deal. His political career is over because we kept my withdrawal of nukes from Turkey secret. An advantage I didn't expect."

About bloody time.

England

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Looks like I was wrong...

Dear Diary,

"Cuba won't be too much of a problem". Well, not for me. But for America? BIG PROBLEM. I hadn't noticed how close it is to America, close enough to launch nuclear missiles... And with drastically rising tensions with the Soviets... could be a major strategic advantage. With the new leader "Fidel Castro", the rebels will ally with anyone to get enough resources to support their new country. And they chose the communists. To close for my liking as well.

America obviously hadn't done it's homework... Thought a rebellion against Castro would work. Why would people support a rebellion to overthrow a leader they just supported? Needless to say the "Bay Of Pigs" was an embarrassing fiasco for the Americans. The rebels they supported were crushed within a week. After the fiasco Cuba decided to strengthen their relationship with Russia knowing that America was a big enemy to deal with. This was not leading anywhere good...

I heard from America that they just had a report from a Spy Plane that said nuclear missiles sites in Cuba. I sense total destruction soon...

England

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BOMBS

Dear Diary,

From one crazy Russian to another. Stalin died! Hurrah! To be followed by who? Some other insane Russian. Didn't see that one coming. Nikita Kruschev. He has started to De-Stalinize the Soviet Union but I don't know which is worse. His new rule or Stalin's. We shall see.

One thing I can say is that Stalin didn't make such a stir with America. With Kruschev taking over all international relations have gone down the drain. Disastrous. Last thing we need is the worlds 2 largest nuclear superpowers arguing. "Nuclear weapon! It can't get any worse!" I thought... Oh bugger. Both America and Russia have tested Hydrogen Bombs, are they trying to kill us all?!

Tensions are high already because of the Soviets creating a pact to negate the formation of NATO. This pact is called the "Warsaw Pact". Luckily i'm still not really involved. I don't want a bomb dropped on me... Even Cuba is joining in! But let's hope this new communist ally isn't too much of a problem. They shouldn't be.

England

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Berlin causing a racket

Dear Diary,

Berlin. What a nuisance. What a bloody big nuisance. This wont make sense without some background information.

Well, that should do. As you can see I got a nice sector under my secret name, "Britain". Don't tell anyone. I, France and America decided to rebuild our sectors because we are nice. But Stalin? Of course he didn't help his people! He took lots of money from his "Soviet Sector" and paid for repairs from the world war in Russia. As a show of unity, we all decided to unite the French, British and American sector into a new country of " West Germany". But I and America had already joined to make "Bi-zonia".Aren't we nice?

Stalin did not like this though. He still wanted all of Berlin because it was in the Soviet part of Germany. He wasn't subtle about it either. He implemented the "Berlin Blockade", a very rude thing to do. It blocked all rail and road links into West Berlin. I was not having this, at all. With this new blockade the people would starve and die! But we were not going to give up all of Berlin. Backing down? That's the French way not the English way. We decided to simply fly over food for the "East Germans". Well, i'd say mainly me. Overall "West Germany" transported 1.5 million tons into Berlin! I was very chuffed. On the 12 May 1949, success! Stalin finally gave up.

With the Soviet morale and confidence in their leader at an all time low. We decided for a show of unity by forming NATO. Another special group I get to belong to! That'll show Stalin that we allies stick together.

I knew that we couldn't stop these damn Soviets. It's not getting any better.

England

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It's getting hot in here

Dear Diary,

Well, America and Russia are at it again! Trying to boost their spheres of influence to make them larger or stronger. But still, nice to sit back and reap any benefits. Truman made a speech, in this speech he said that Greece was a country with few natural resources and effectively just slagged it off! How unusual. But then he finally reached his new "Truman Doctrine". He asked for 400 million dollars to assist less economically well countries such as Turkey and Greece. He also asked to send military and civilian personal to help reconstruct these countries. Odd actions for a country that believes in isolationism.

Next up on the American list of persuasion? The Marshall Plan! What better to persuade countries to stay capitalist than an estimated pot of 13 billion dollars! I took my fair share of 3.75 billion of course. Who wouldn't?

The Soviets did not like this one bit. I could see the upset the Americans had caused and so could they. Odd thing being, they liked it. But soon Stalin decided he couldn't afford to lose countries to capitalism and created "Cominform", the Communist Information Bureau. I noticed a key word right there! Communist. It was designed to unite all communist governments, or sometimes known as satellite states, and consequently govern them as one.

But that's not enough to combat the Marshall Plan. After all, what's the only thing that can beat money? More money! But sadly Stalin could never hope to counter the money laid out in the Marshall plan. However it did have one thing on its side, a government that can doesn't need to please it's countries. Sometimes I wonder if I would be better like this... Anyhow "Comecon" was created and this was the "Council for Mutual and Economic Assistance".  They provided basic financial and resource aid to invest and support. But I could clearly see it was just to combat the Marshall Plan.

Glad I'm not involved in this,

England.

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The 2 Telegrams

Dear Diary,

Nice to sit back and not be as involved for a bit! If it keeps going as it is then I doubt that'll stay like that for long. I know it's not his fault... But that George Kennan has caused a stir. Whether America did it on purpose or not, that telegram read exactly as the Americans wanted it to. Obviously I haven't heard all of it but America was saying this is about what it says:

• The USSR perceived itself at perpetual war with capitalism;
• The USSR viewed left-wing, but non-communist, groups in other countries as an even worse enemy of itself than the capitalist ones;
• The USSR would use controllable Marxists in the capitalist world as allies;
• Soviet aggression was not aligned with the views of the Russian people or with economic reality.
• The Soviet government's structure prohibited objective or accurate pictures of internal and external reality.

You think that would increase tensions? Well it did, alot. But then, as if that wasn't enough along comes the Novikov telegram! 

It reads exactly how the Russians want to. It says America is a threat to communism. Bit odd if you ask me... Then again, what do I know? I'm only a country.

England

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The 3 Conferences

Dear Diary,

Been busy! Well we do have an angry Nazi to deal with. 3 major conferences in the space of 2 years! Not much is it? But enough.

The Tehran Conference: They code named it "Eureka"! What are they, six? I sent our new chap, Mr Winston Churchill. A competent lad, might even win us the war. He was with Joseph Stalin, Germany upset him in 1941 with the whole invasion thing, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. This meant the 2 greatest superpowers in the world! And us... Ah. We worked on setting up a second front in France and began to concoct strategies to put Germany back in it's place. Not gonna be easy.

The Yalta Conference: Codenamed "Argonaut Conference". Much cooler, well as far as a political conference can be. Same three lads, Stalin, Roosevelt and the good old very very British Winston Churchill. Not much excitement overall but they all had a nice chat and discussed "Europe's post-war reorganisation". Sounds fun doesn't it... We established UN and split the American/ Soviet Spheres of influence to East and West. This should boost relations but I couldn't help but notice some tension between Staling and Roosevelt but as far as I'm concerned, if I'm getting what I want... They can argue all they like.

Potsdam Conference: Didn't get a code name this time but maybe it would be best to forget it.This time 2 new faces. Truman, the new US President, and Atlee, the new British Prime minister. We finally defeated Germany! And we gathered to decide on a fate but sadly it seems that Truman and Stalin can't get along... I think I worked out what was wrong though, here I go: The Soviet Union had gained lots of land and, despite claiming it was "defensive", seemed very aggressive. Britain and America had new leaders, a new slate should be present... But instead all the good relations had gone but communist and capitalist views clashed. Those damn Americans with their freedom freedom freedom, so annoying. Despite these problems many things were established at this conference including:

• Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals.
• War Reparations... AGAIN.
• German military and industrial strength crippled.
• Poland given it's independence back.

Anyhow back to being England and all. Maybe it's all over now, but the judging from the hatred between Truman and Stalin... I fear not.

England

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The Rhineland... Oh and now bloody Poland.

Dear Diary,

That Adolf has buggered everything up. The Treaty? The set of rules dictated by the other countries? Well that's gone down the toilet. He has introduced conscription and marched into the Rhineland! We told him not to! To top it all off, The Saar voted to become German! Why can't things just go to plan? But what can we do? We can't do anything. I don't want war and neither do the French. Better just appease him.

I am getting a bit worried though for poor Poland. In August of this year, 1939, they signed the Nazi soviet pact. We don't need 2 superpowers like that joining together.

Oh, I bloody well give up. Germany has invaded Poland, and the Soviets are soon to follow. Off to war it is then!

England

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Abyssinia Crisis

Dear Diary,

Oh for goodness sake. Not again. Another crisis! We do not need this at all. The League Of Nations is weak enough as it is! Now Italy. All over some silly little bit of land called "Walwal". Silly name anyhow. Italy was all upset about it all. So upset they invaded Abyssinia. How stupid. Abyssinia could never be able to outfight the Italians, large army but poor equipment.

They know this though, that's why they came to us. Their emperor even came to see us in the League Of Nations simply to ask for help. What do they want us to do?! I, and France, need the allies if the tensions with the German Chancellor "Adolf Hitler" rise up. We tried to impose economic sanctions but not oil of course! Can't afford to lose our hold on the market for that. Or block the Suez Canal, far too much effort! So I sent out our foreign secretary Hoare and the french secretary Laval to have some secret negotiations. We agreed with Mussolini, the leader of Italy, that we would allow them some of Abyssinia and the rest later on. But then DISASTER! The press found out about this, so cleverly called "The Hoare-Laval Pact", and the public were in outrage.

As with it seems everything nowadays, the League Of Nations is becoming less respected and consequently less power.

England

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Mukden incident

Dear Diary,


Those Japanese! Those damn Japanese! A bomb exploded on a railway in Manchuria and suddenly they think they can invade! I bet they did it themselves.

Japan always wanted to invade China. After the wall street crash 2 years ago they need the money and I think a lot is about the pride. So we, we being the league of nations, decided we were gonna step in. Problem being... We don't have an army... But the biggest problem being the rising problem of that chap in Germany... Adof... No... Adolf! But we did ask them to stop. We sent a slightly ineffective "Lytton commission"  because we are in no rush to upset anyone or start a war. So what did they do? Left the league of nations! Bloody atrocious.

I bet they did it themselves. Planned it just so they can invade. I don't know... One thing I can say for certain, international relations, and indeed the League Of Nation's power and reputation levels are sure not getting better.

England.

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The Treaty Of Versailles

 Dear Diary,

Dear Diary, A spiffing day today! With the Germans beaten and the allies still united I think we finally managed to stop any attempt at another world war! Fantastic! We all met to sign the "Treaty Of Versailles". Shame it's so french, but hey ho. We invited the Germans so they could sign it, but could they have any say about it? Of course not! They started the war after all. They just sat there and stayed quiet.

 It's odd though, the treaty had so many different aims for different people. The French want to weaken Germany due to their close proximity. But most importantly they were jolly adamant for the reparations. Funny coming from the French! They never do anything in wars.

 The Americans kept going on about freedom again. Free trade, free this and free that. But most importantly Wilson wanted peace. He didn't want to be harsh on Germany but we showed him different!

 We wanted to punish Germany for the pain and economic loss they caused us but personally I am not that bothered about the whole paying back. I'd rather have a stronger self repaired Germany to add to Europe. I and the French both want secret treaties. Let's hope this is the end of the Germans aggression now!

 England.



 

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