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• Churchill had been replaced by Attlee as prime minister in July 1945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