The Cold War: Superpowers and Key Events

A set of flashcards summarizing key events, concepts, and figures related to the Cold War, based on comprehensive lecture notes.

What were the main ideologies of the USA and Soviet Union during the Cold War?

The USA embraced capitalism and democracy, while the Soviet Union leaned towards communism and dictatorship.

How did the superpowers compete?

Arms Race - competition to develop more powerful weapons, especially nuclear weapons.

Space Race - competition to put the first man in space to prove who was more technologically advanced.

The Grand Alliance Conferences

Tehran Conference (1943) - USSR to control Eastern Europe to weaken Germany. agreement to set up the UN to prevent conflict and keep peace, improved relations between superpowers but caused British fears that USSR would become too powerful.

Yalta Conference (1945) - Germany split into 4 zones controlled by Britain, France, USA and USSR. reparations agreed $20 million total and $10 million go to USSR from Germany. Promised that elections for leader of Eastern Europe would be held but Stalin disagreed with this. Stalin wanted more land in East Germany and argued that Germany should pay USSR higher reparations.

Potsdam Conference (1945) - Relations worsened, UK and USSR leaders struggled to negotiate with Stalin’s communist ideology. Atomic bomb tested by USA angered Stalin. Truman made it clear that he did not trust Stalin. Stalin set up a communist government in Poland which he promised not to do.

Impact of Truman’s atomic bomb in Nagasaki and Hiroshima

President Truman authorised the USA to drop two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

in August 1945. The bombs killed around 120,000 Japanese civilians. Japanease surrender’s immediately leading to the end of WW2.

USA believed the atomic bomb showed their power but Stalin feared it would be used against USSR to attack communism.

Stalin used countries in Eastern Europe as a buffer zone so that the USA would go through countries such as Poland or Hungary before reaching the Soviet Union.

Stalin produced nuclear weapons to show that the Soviet Union were capable of doing so and carried out a test in 1949.

Soviet Satellite States

Eastern European countries on the boarder of the Soviet Union under the control of Stalin’s Soviet Union. E.g Poland and Hungary.

Britain and America expected the Soviet Union to allow free elections in Eastern European countries as democracy was important for Capitalism.

France and Britain were in no position to govern Eastern European countries due to destruction and war debts caused by WW2.

Stalin was known for his strict control over people therefore by putting him in control lead to taming chaos from WW2.

Churchhill’s Iron Curtain Speech 1946

Churchill stated that an ‘Iron curtain had descended across Europe’ and behind this iron curtain, Eastern European states were being controlled by the Soviet Union and their communist governments.He made it clear that he thought the Soviet Union were a threat to freedom and world peace.

Despite the hopes of Britain and the USA, no free elections were held in any Eastern European nation.

The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan

The Truman Doctrine included the plan of containment, to stop the spread of communism. The Marshall Plan then sent economic aid to Eastern European countries. Both policies increased tensions with the Soviet Union.

In 1947, Truman made a speech which explained his plans. It involved giving money and military support to any European governments who wanted to resist communist take overs.

E.g $400 million of economic help and US troops were given to Greece & Turkey who were being threatened by communism.

Truman compared Capitalism and communism to a fight between Good and Evil.

The Marshall Plan was then set out by US Secretary George Marshall. It offered further economic help to European countries to help them re-build after the war.

The USA gave $12.7 billion to help the recovery of countries such as Britain, France, West Germany and Italy who had been affected by war. Money was also offered to the Soviet satellite states, but Stalin refused the money.

The plans meant the end of the Grand Alliance which had existed during the war.

The Creation of Cominform (1947) & Comecon (1949)

Cominform was the ‘Communist Information Bureau’. It took control of all communist political parties in Europe.It made sure that all communist parties followed the direct orders of Stalin.

It made sure the leaders of each communist government or party were loyal to Stalin and the Soviet Union.

It heavily discouraged any contact with non-communist countries.

It began to spread anti-American and anti- capitalist propaganda.

It told communist governments to reject any offers of money from the Marshall Plan.

Comecon was the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. It made sure that all communist governments in Eastern Europe opposed capitalist ideas.

It gave Eastern European countries an alternative to the Marshall Plan and arranged trade links between all communist countries. It provided each communist ruled country with a Five-Year Plan to boost industry.

It stopped any communist ruled country from accessing money from the Marshall Plan.

It banned any communist controlled country from trading with the USA and other capitalist countries. Bulgaria’s trade with other communist states increased from 10% in 1930 to 90% by 1951

The Division of Berlin: Berlin Blockade & Berlin Airlift 1948-9)

By 1948, Berlin was divided into four sectors. The British, French and US occupied zones to the west. The Soviets occupied a zone in the east.

Berlin Blockade In June 1948 Stalin used his troops to block the routes which supplied West Berlin. This was a ‘Berlin Crisis’ for the Western powers as they were cut off.

The Berlin Airlift – Between June 1948 to September 1949 thousands of tonnes of food and supplies were flown into various airports in West Berlin.

• Truman knew the Soviets wouldn’t risk the consequences of shooting down any aircraft and so the

Berlin Airlift continued until Stalin backed down and re-opened the routes.

Creation of NATO (1949) & The Warsaw Pact (1955)

NATO

NATO was a military alliance set up with the aim of protecting its members from the threat of the Soviet Union.

If one country in NATO was attacked, the others would help.The USA and Canada were joined by other countries in Western Europe to

form the alliance.

In 1955, West Germany joined NATO. This angered Stalin as it brought NATO countries up to the border of the Soviet

Satellite states in Eastern Europe. It triggered Stalin’s formation of a similar military alliance – the Warsaw Pact.

The Warsaw Pact was a military alliance established by Stalin. It included the countries from communist controlled Eastern Europe such as

Hungary, East Germany, Romania, and Bulgaria.

Hungarian Uprising

The new leader of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev had hinted that his rule over Eastern Europe would be less strict. However, Hungarian leaders began to resist Soviet control.

Hungarians were unhappy because - There were food and fuel shortages due to poor harvests. The Soviet Union then took food & resources for themselves. People began to protest about food shortages in the Hungarian capital Budapest.Statues of Stalin were torn

down.

Matyas Rakosi was their brutal leader before 1956 known as the Bald Butcher.Communism became hugely unpopular.To ease the tension,

Khrushchev appointed a new Hungarian leader, Imre Nagy. Nagy was still a communist. However, he believed that if the Hungarians were

happier, he could prevent future protests against communism.

Nagy wanted free, democratic elections in Hungary for Hungarians to pick their own leaders. Nagy asked Khrushchev to remove Soviet troops from and threatened for Hungary to leave the Warsaw Pact.

On 4th November, Khrushchev sent the Red Army into Budapest. 200,000 Soviet troops with tanks aimed to capture Nagy and restore control. The Hungarian people, including women and children, took up arms against the Red Army.

Tension in Berlin

Those living in East Berlin saw how much better life in the capitalist West was.

Between 1949 and 1961, nearly 3 million East Germans crossed into West Germany.

This meant East Berlin lost a lot of young skilled workers that could grow the East of Berlin. It also made communism look weak because it proved many preferred living in a capitalist way of life. This led to Khrushchev’s Berlin Ultimatum (Nov 1958)

He wanted the US troops to leave Berlin in 6 months or he would take over transport routes and stop movement into West Berlin.

Summits 1958-61

Geneva Summit May 1959 - politicians from USA and USSR met, no agreements made another meeting made in USA.

Vienna Summet 1961 - Kennedy (new president) and Khrushchev met.

Kennedy decided to increase spending money of USA military by $2 million to show off strength and Khrushchev continued his threat to cut off transport routes to Berlin.

This proved that the USA and USSR struggled to negotiate and tensions increased.

Issues in Cuba

Cuba located near USA and had previously been allies with the US. However, a revolution in 1959 led to Cuba’s new socialist leaders; Gueva and Castro turning to the Soviet Union for support. Soviet oil was traded for Cuban sugar as they became allies, the Soviet Union also helped to economically fund Cuba. The USA wanted to remove the Soviet Union’s influence over Cuba, the CIA tried to assassinate Cuba in 1959 but it failed.

Bay of Pigs: April 1961 ex-Cubans using US planes to disguise as Cuban aircraft in location in Cuba known as the Bay of Pigs. It failed because - Castro found out about the invasion and has 20k troops ready to fight, Cubans were in support of Castro so didn’t want to support an attack against him.

Impact - Castro officially declared his support for communism and the Soviet Union. His relationship with the Soviet Union became stronger. The USA were humiliated in their attempt to overthrow Castro. The failure made President Kennedy look weak. It was now likely that Soviet weapons would be sent to Cuba.

The Cuban Missiles Crisis 1962

Peak tension between Soviet Union and USA in 1962 after Bay of Pigs incident.

Soviet ships entered Cuba with nuclear missiles and were threatened to launch in 2 weeks.

Kennedy decided on 22nd October, he ordered the US Navy to blockade Cuba to stop any ships entering without US permission.

Kennedy also asked for 54 US bombers loaded with missiles to be ready to act if ignored.

This made the US look strong and Khrushchev was replaced by Brezhnev in 1963 as Soviet looked weak.

Long term impacts:

Test Ban Treaty 1963 - both sides agreed to ban all nuclear tests except underground test.

Outer Space Treaty 1967- agreed not to use space for any military reasons including testing nuclear weapons.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 1968 Both sides agreed not to share their nuclear technology with other countries to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

Czechoslovakia and the Prague Spring 1968

Czechoslovakia was a Soviet Satelite rule by communist ideology.

1968 - new communist leader who was more liberal (Alexander Dubcek)

He was a close friend of Brezhnev and wanted to stay in the Warsaw Pact but wanted the Czechs to be happier.

What he did - relaxed censorship,