P9.5 - Cold war rivalries 1955-63

Strategic air command

Headed by General LeMay of the US in 1948

-a primary defence system to provide 24 hour readiness to respond to nuclear threats

-by 1957 used for jet force bombers

Arms race

March 1954 - US success in testing H bomb, 1500x more powerful than the ones used in Hiroshima

SEP 1955 - USSR also created a more powerful H bomb

1957- Gather report, USA Intercontinental Ballistic missiles + first satellite in orbit + BR missile station

1959 - Atlas + Titan model of Intermediate range ballistic developed by USA + Submarine Launched ballistics

• NK ordered the production of the more mobile SS-7

Gaither report

NOV 1957 Eisenhower investigated state of USSR missiles

-people thought Soviets were catching US capability

-report suggested the missile gap, revealing USSR gapping 100 to 30 leadin ICBMS

U 2 spy planes

used these instead of Gaither report.

had cameras, radars and radio, flying 75,000 feet

-suggested USSR nuclear production was slow

Bermuda Conference

1957 he negotiated with BR to have IRBM there, if they were manned by BR ppl

Also agreed similar thing with NATO in DEC 1957

could use the Gaither reports to help this occur

Space Race - ussr

idea, the first to create a satellite would gain upper hand

4 OCT 1957 - “sputnik” launched, with soviets having first satellite + NOV dog “Laika” sent 10 days in sputnik II

1959 - 1st satellite orbit moon launched by soviets

APR 1961 - manned satellite launch of Earth by soviet Yuri Gagarin

USA

USA worried with USSR capability + fear of nuclear space attack potential

SEP 1958 - USA develop own space program, being authorised by gov with $1B, but initial fails, with 6 DEC 1957 crash at Cape Canaveral - “Flopnik” + formed NASA

1960 - US Discoverer satellite providing long ranged intel

1962 - US success in launching 63 missions vs USSR 15

Khrushchev - PM 1958

had influences in decesions:

-west GER apart of NATO so could be a threat

-Soviet poor defence spending + bad hold on Eastern EU

want to strengthen economy and defence of USSR

Berlin became focal point

Berlin Crisis 1958-63

wanted minimise US influence in GER, ensuring West Germany won’t be armed by missiles

wanted a propaganda victory + portray themselves as leader of communism and not China

-27 NOV 1958 - sent a 6 month ultimatum demanding withdraw of west troops from west Berlin so it becomes a free city + all soviet rights of Berlin to GDR, forcing West to recognise GDR, making Hallstein Doctrine useless

-31 DEC - West reject but negations for a solution i.e Paris summit + Camp David, until U-2 incident

Berlin Wall

lots of fleeing migrant in 1953 + 56

1961 - 10,000 citizens had migrated to the west, so losing skilled workers.

East German Chancellor persuaded NK to take action

• 13th AUG 1961 - sealed of West Berlin

Impact of the wall

-short term, it caused confrontation of tanks in Berlin streets between USA and USSR

-Kennedy speeches “ich bin ein Berliner” praising the resilience of the Berlin pop

-USA could use this as propaganda