Cold war : 1943-72

Origins of the cold war 1917-43

* ideological differences expressed in 1917-18, in the communism of Lenin’s Bolshevik revolution and the democracy and freedom demanded by Wilson’s 14 points
* direct conflict between western allies and the Bolsheviks in russian civil war - west supported whites against reds
* after Hitler’s invasion of USSR and Pearl harbour in 1941, USA, UK and USSR became allies - tensions continued throught the war

Tehran conference - 1943

* USSR (stalin) , US (roosevelt) , UK (churchill) present
* decisions about how to win the war against Germany + Japan
* agreed on forming the UN
* USA and UK would open a 2nd front by invading France to help the USSR

liberation of Eastern Europe - 1945

* controlled by communist forces
* held rigged elections
* stalin claimed he needed control of eastern europe as a buffer zone to protect the USSR from future attacks

Yalta conference - 1945

* deciding what to do after Hitler is defeated - military division of Germany between allies
* tension over punishment for Germany - USSR wanted huge reparations, USA wanted to avoid the mistakes of ToV

atomic bomb - 1945

* USA tested their first atomic bomb
* bomb used after Potsdam meeting
* the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - August

Potsdam conference - July-Aug -1945

* tensions grew
* new US president Truman more hardline than FDR had been in his distrust of Stalin - opposed communism heavily
* arguments over reparations continued
* Truman’s new atomic bomb encouraged him to be more aggresive in negotiations

Iron curtain speech - 1946

* Churchill had been replaced by Attlee as prime minister in July 1945
* his speech in 1946 was in support of Truman - was to ensure that USA didn’t retreat into an isolationist policy, but instead stood up to the danger the USSR posed in Europe and the world
* referred to communism as lowering an “iron curtain”

Stalin’s takeover of Eastern Europe - 1947-48

* his final coup took place in Czechoslovakia in Feb 1948 - elected gov was replaced by communists
* the US gov recieved a report from their diplomat in Moscow, underlining the threat that Stalin’s regime posed
* UK had no resources to stand up to USSR - Truman put forward a policy

Truman doctrine - 1947

* stated that USA would to everything it could to contain the spread of communism with a policy of containment
* a huge amount of money would be sent to Europe to restore it’s economy and make it less vulnerable to communism
* greece and turkey were given 400 million dollars to stop them being influenced by communism

Marshall Plan - 1947

* practical outcome of the Truman doctrine
* 17 billion dollars was offered to countries to aid with recovery post WW2
* Stalin refused to allow eastern europe to accept aid as he feared it would lead to greater US influence and control


* western europe benefited

Cominform - Oct 1947

* Stalin’s response to the Truman doctrine + Marshall plan
* cominform - the communist information bureau
* included all communist govs in eastern europe + communist parties in west europe
* it’s function was to allow Stalin to gain further control over communists across europe
* re-inforced the division between East and West

reasons for Berlin blockade 1948-49

* in Yalta and Potsdam, Germany was decided to be split into 4 military zones occupied by : US, USSR, UK + france
* stalin wanted to impose communist control over a unified Germany
* western powers proposed to unite their three zones into a new country + currency (trizonia, soon to become West Germany)
* stalin felt threatened and isolated
* berlin was inside the soviet military zone so the western troops were surrounded by soviet troops + access to the western zones of Germany could be easily cut off

Berlin blockade 1948-49

* stalin cut of the rail/road access through Berlin hoping to force the West into surrendering the city to him

Berlin airlift - 1948-49

* west supplied 1.5 million tons of supplies to the city by plane
* tensions were very high but USSR didn’t shoot planes down to avoid war
* successful - in May 1949, Stalin re-opened the roads to west berlin

Comecon - 1949

* stalin imposed greater control over eastern europe
*  COMECON - the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance
* to administer its own **Molotov Plan** of financial aid to keep the Eastern Bloc countries on side.
* enabled the USSR to extract resources from these countries

NATO - 1949

* **military alliance** between 12 counties where they would help each other if any were attacked
* formed as a direct result of the berlin blockade
* it was to prevent the spread and influence of communism

Nuclear arms race beginning - 1949

* months after NATO was formed, USSR tested their first atomic bomb
* communist Mao took over China
* mirrored in the space race

Korean War - 1950-53

* when the two opposing korean govs threatened each other, Stalin provided weapons to the North who invaded much of South Korea in June
* US had to respond
* truman sent troops who re-took the south and then invaded the north
* after 3 years, millions died and China and USA despised each other
* Korea divided along the 38th parallel

SEATO and CENTO 1954

* two alliances formed with the USA to prevent further communist expansion
* prevented communist excursion in the middle east

US paranoia

* USA expanded NATO and formed more alliances in an effort to contain the USSR
* possibility of nuclear war in Korea as both sides had created the Hydrogen bomb
* US feared that the USSR had been able to created their H-bomb

Death of Stalin - March 1953 + Expansion of NATO - 1955

* offered the hope that relations might improve with a new leader in power
* in 1955, NATO expanded and west germany joined - USSR furious

Warsaw pact - 1955

* formed as a result of west germany joined NATO
* its aim was to resist an attack on the Soviet bloc by the USA or its NATO allies.
* formal military alliance of eastern european countries :
* USSR, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, East Germany (GDR), Albania.

Rise of Khrushchev - 1955

* after stalin’s death there was a two year power struggle in the USSR
* Khrushchev won in 1955
* he made a secret speech in 1956 denouncing Stalin and started a policy of de-Stalinisation
* he wanted tension with the west to end

Hungarian uprising 1956-57

* in Hungary, communist leader Rakosi was replaced by Imre Nagy in Oct 1956
* Imre demanded : that soviet troops leave hungary
* that free democratic elections take place
* that Hungary leave the Warsaw pact

Khrushchev’s response to Hungarian uprising -1956-57

* Khrushchev felt that he had to act since losing Hungary would mean that USSR had lost its military buffer zone
* he had to re-impose his authority
* soviet troops were sent to Hungary in nov 1956
* thousands were killed
* Nagy was executed and replaced by hardliner Kadar
* western countries did little as they were focused on their argument over suez

Geneva + Camp david - 1959

* In geneva, representatives agreed to more meetings
* in Camp David, Khrushchev agreed to withdraw his ultimatum

Arms race continues + U2 plane 1960-62

* missiles were now able to carry nuclear bombs instead of planes increasing tension
* USA had more long range missiles that the USSR created a ‘missile gap’ in the race
* the US used U2 planes to spy on the soviet nuclear programme
* in may 1960, the USSR shot one down - Eisenhower denied it was a spy plane, but the pilot confessed
* this led a breakdown in relations

Reasons for the Berlin wall - 1961 (refugee crisis)

* between 1941-61 2.7 million people moved from E. to W. Germany
* around 2,000 per day from 1949, since West Berlin was seen as a window to the West and people began to flee for a better life
* Khrushchev had to stop this since it damaged the GDR’s economy
* in 1958-61, Khrushchev issued an ultimatum to the West
* 'remove troops from Berlin or all routes in and out would be controlled by the east’

Berlin wall - 1961

* Khrushchev resolved the crisis by starting to build a wall between E. and W. Berlin in Aug
* the divide became a symbol of cold war divisions
* the wall solved the GDR’s refugee crisis whilst not threatening western control of W. berlin

Bay of pigs - 1961

* in 1959, communist Fidel Castro had taken control of Cuba and turned to the USSR for help
* Kennedy sent troops to cuba in an attempted counter-revolution in Aug 1961
* but when they landed at the Bay of pigs, they were easily defeated by Castro’s forces
* Kennedy appeared weak

Theory of Mutually Assured Destruction

* The theory of MAD - was that the USA and USSR would never start a nuclear war since they knew the enemy could launch it’s own missiles before they were all destroyed
* this theory was severely tested in 1962 in Cuba

Cuban missile crisis 1962

* Khrushchev secretly sent missiles to Cuba in 1962
* his motives were that it would negate the missile gap that had grown
* the U2 spy planes discovered the missile bases being built on Cuba
* USSR agreed to removed Cuban bases if the USA agreed not to invade Cuba and to not removing their secret bases in Turkey

Result of cuban missile crisis

* Kennedy seen as strong but also a defender of peace
* hardliners criticised Khrushchev for backing down and in 1964, he was replaced by Brezhnev
* Brezhnev invested heavily on building more long-range missiles

Hotline - 1963

* to improve communications a direct hotline was set up in 1963 between Moscow and Washington DC
* used to good effect

Limited Test Ban Treaty - 1963

* sought to end all nuclear weapons tests; expect underground ones
* largely respected

Outer space treaty - 1967

* two sides agreed not to develop weapons systems to put into space or eventually the moon
* successful

Non-proliferation treaty - 1968

* stated that only the countries who already had nuclear weapons (USA, USSR UK, France and China) should be allowed to have them
* tried to make future nuclear war less likely
* partially successful

Prague spring - 1968-69

* Dubeck became in charge of Czechoslovakia and wanted socialism + in March 1968 introduced a series of limited reforms known as the ‘prague spring’
* Brezhnev feared their independence and demanded that strict communist rule was re-imposed
* dubeck took no action + 500,000 soviet and WP troops entered
* 70 died and Dubeck was replaced

Brezhnev doctrine - 1968

* Brezhnev stated that the USSR had the right to invade countries in Eastern europe who threatened the security of the eastern bloc

Improved relations - 1968-

* detente developed
* USA needed relations to improve to end the costly war in Vietnam
* the USSR wanted to cut the huge amount of money it has spent of the arms race which was hurting the economy
* the rise of China forced the USA and USSR to improve their relations

SALT 1 - 1972

* limited the number of ICBM’s on both sides
* showed evidence that both sides wanted to slow the arms race down

Establishment of diplomatic relations -1971-73

* USA finally accepted that the communists should take up China’s seat on the security council at the UN
* Nixon made a public visit to Beijing in 1972
* the USA and USSR improved relations by working together in space exploration