Modern History Unit 2 AoS 1 - Cold War

End of WW2

• 8:16am on 6 August 1945: Atomic bombs drops on Hiroshima

• 9 August 1945: Atomic bomb drops on Nagasaki

Yalta and Potsdam Conferences

• 4-11 Febuary 1945: Yalta Conference (Churchill UK, Roosevelt US, Stalin USSR)

• Unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany was signed on 7 May 1945.

• Creation of the UN on 24 October 1945.

• Stalin demanded US$20 billion from their controlled part of Germany, which the others disagreeing on the figure. Stalin also agreed to allow Poland universal suffrage within one month of the conference which never occurred.

• 17 July - 2 August: Potsdam Conference (disagreements over the treatment of Germany and controversy of the atomic bomb) (Attlee UK, Truman US, Stalin)

• Agreed to the ‘humana and orderly’ transfer of ethnic Germans to move back to Germany (10 million forcibly moved, approximately 500,000 expelled people died due to starvation/hypothermia/violence.

• Disagreements regarding reparations, Poland’s government and atomic bombs (A day before Potsdam, 16 July 1945: US successfully tests an atomic bomb under the Manhattan Project, but Truman only personally told Stalin a week later)

The Iron Curtain Speech

• 5 March 1946: Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech expressed to Truman his concerns regarding a metaphorical divide between eastern and western Europe.

• 9 Febuary 1946 at an electroal district of Moscow: Stalin argued that World War 2 was caused by capitalism because it promoted unequal economic development.

• 22 Febuary 1946: George Kennan (US embassy diplomat) replied with an 8000-word telegram stating his views on the Soviet Union.

Salami Tactics

• Slicing of the non-communist parties in Eastern Europe to create one party dictatorships.

• Eastern Bloc: A buffer zone of satellite states between East Germany and Russia which Stalin gained control of (communism spreading).

• Albania 1945: Communists took power without opposition

• Bulgaria 1945: A communist party gained power and then executed the leaders of all other parties

• Romania 1945: Communists were elected in and gradually took control. They were forced to pay US$300 million in reparations to USSR.

Truman Doctrine

• Policy of containment, aimed to strengthen the economies of non-communist countries to stop communism spreading. (Simple terms: Aimed to contain the spread of communism)

• 21 Febuary 1947: Britain announced it could no longer support Greek/Turkey financially or militarily.

• 12 March 1947: Truman asked US Congress for US$400 million to assist Greece/Turkey. Greece received US$125 million for economic aid.

• 85% of Greek children contracted tuberculosis.

• France post-war elections: French communist Party became the biggest single political party (26%), similar to Italy with 1.17 million national communist party members, but both parties were expelled in May 1947.

Marshall Plan

• Wider, more general aid given to European countries (even USSR was offered money, however they declined)

• 16 countries received a total of US$13 billion in loans/grants through the Marshall Plan.

• 5 June 1947: European Recovery Program was announced by Marshall to rebuild economies.

• Strategic grants: UK and France received highest (3.1 billion and 2.7 billion respectively)

• Lack of media attention: 51% of Americans had not heard of the European Recovery Program.

The Berlin Blockade

• 24 June 1948: Stalin ordered blockade between East and West Germany. Cut off West Berlin, was designed to force the US, Britain and the French to hand control of Berlin to USSR.

• 12 May 1949: USSR lifts blockade

• Berlin Airlift stats: 68,000 people flown out

• Cost US$350 million

• By 1949: A plane arrived every minute

• 700 aircrafts

• Gave each person 2300 calories (bragging)

• 272,000 flights into Western Berlin

• 17 July 1948: Candy would be dropped off for children (estimated 150,000 chcolate flier parachute drops); propaganda win, Americans could donate candy for the children.'

NATO + Warsaw Pact

• 4 April 1949: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, under US leadership, was signed and broughts most of Western Europe and North America into one common alliance AGAINST the USSR.

• 14 May 1955: Warsaw Pact was creating, causing another alliance that would further divide the world.

• 36.5 million Europeans died in WWII, 19 million of them civilians.

• Some areas: Infant mortality rates were one in four

• Hamburg: Half a million were homeless

• Article 5: “an armed attack against one or more of them… shall be considered an attack against all” (heightened stakes while lowering odds of war).

Chinese Civil War

• 1947-1949: War between the Guomindang (Nationalists, led by Jiang Jieshi) and CCP (led by Mao Zedong)

• Ceasefire was signed on 10 January 1946 (only gave Communists breathing space), by May the two sides were again at war.

• 1 May 1946: Communist forces were officially named the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

• 1947: Land Law took away all rights of landlords, empowering peasants. Rural people supplied the PLA with food, shelter, intelligence and recruits.

• After one battle, 327,000 GMD prisoners were taken and given the choice to either join the communists or go home.

• 1 October 1949: Mao Zedong proclaimed the foundation of the People’s Republic of China.

Korean War (Forgotten War)

• 5 June 1950-27 July 1953

• 25 June 1950: North Korea (with Russia + Chinese aid) invaded South Korea (over 230,000 troops)

• 28 June 1950: Seoul was captured by the North

• 1.78 million US troops would serve in the Korean War

• China had 180,000-400,000 casualties, 2-3 million Korean civilian casualties and US lost 36,634 servicemen

• Ceasefire signed in 1951, 1953 armistice caused north and south to return to pre-war arrangements.

• Resolution 83, passed by the UN Security Council, helped to create a UN Command Force and 21 countries offered equipment. 16 countries, including Australia, sent troops to assist the south.

• Stalemate occurred from July 1951-July 1953, and armastice was signed on 27 July 1953.

The Arms Race

• Number of operational nuclear warheads was highest in 1986 (USSR with 40,000), however nuclear threat level was highest between 1952-1959.

• 1949: USSR started developing their own nuclear weapon

• Duck and Cover (1951) Bert the Turtle: Was used to underestimate the fear by claiming that ducking and covering should be done when an atomic bomb occurs in the US. Was shown in schools.

• The Arms Race led to the creation of the hydrogen bomb (1000 times more powerful than atomic bombs)

• Mutual assured destruction (MAD): Theory that once both sides (eg. US vs USSR) had nuclear weapons, they would both be destroyed if one attacked and the other retaliated.

• 200,000 fallout shelters built by 1965 for Americans (costing US$100-5000) to ‘protect’ people, highlights that fear felt

• Washington, DC had 1000 fallout shelters by 1965, with some being able to provide for 36,000 people.

• 30 October 1961: Soviet Union detonates most powerful nuclear bomb, nicknamed ‘Tsar Bomba.’ (50,000 kt).

The Red Scare

• J. Edgar Hoover was first director of the FBI when it was established in 1935. He abused his power significantly (collecting secret files, harassing dissenters and illegally gathering evidence).

• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for espionage in 1951, accused of leading a spy ring that passed secrets to the USSR.

• House Un-American Activities Committe (HUAC) was established in 1939 (became permanent in 1945) to investigate anyone undertaking subversive actions. Refusal to answer questions could lead to prison or blacklisting (lose jobs + reputation). Mistrust in the US.

• Some were sentenced to prison for one year and ordered to pay a US$10,000 fine.

• Joseph McCarthy (1908-1957)

  • Elected to US Senate in 1946

  • 9 Febuary 1950: He announced that ‘card carrying communists’ had infiltrated the government

  • 1953: Became chairman of Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

  • Encouraged the blacklisting of 324 Hollywood personalities

  • 9 March 1954: Ed Murrow, a television journalist, broadcasted an episode of his show where McCarthy ended up condemning himself with his own words.

  • McCarthyism: Publicly accuse someone of being subversive or disloyal without substantial evidence.

Khrushchev and The ‘Thaw’

1. Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969)

• New Look Policy: emphasized reliance on strategic nuclear weapons

• Led to economic prosperity (over 5 million TVs sold each year in the US.

• Eisenhower’s speech “The Chance for Peace (16 April 1953) promoted peace

2. Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971)

• Replaces Stalin after his death in 1953

• Was general secretary of the CPSU (1953-1964) and leader of the USSR (1956-1964)

• De-Stalinisation: Decentralised the economy, ended the role of large-scale forced labour

The Berlin Wall

• Uprisisng against the communist regime in East Germany was crushed in June 1953

• Controlled media by government

• Lower wages

• Very limited private ownership of businesses, economy controlled by the state

• West had economic prosperity; ranging from 6 to 10% annual economic growth between 1950-1960

• 331,000 migrants from the east to the west in 1953'

• Between 1953-1961: 2 milion migrated from the east to the west, known as the brain drain

• 13 August 1961: Troops prevented people moving between the east and west

• 17 August 1961: Permanent structure built

• 26 June 1963: President Kennedy’s ‘I am a Berliner’ speech where he pointed out faults of the USSR

• Over 100 people died attempting to cross the Berlin Wall (which was the divison between the capitalist and communist)

The Stasi

• Stasi were secret police (successor of Gestapo) between 1950-1990)

• Employed over 90,000 people

• One every 63 worked as an informant (telling information and snitching to Stasi)

• Approximately 189,000 informants

• 10% of pastors were informants

• Files that the Stasi would collect would be 111km long

• 41 million file cards, 1.95 million photos

• 15,500 bags of shredded material discovered

• 1.67 million reconstructed shredded files

• Only in January 2015 were some files made available online.

• June 1953: During the East German Uprising, Stasi collaborated with Soviet forces to violently crush demonstrations, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of arrests.

• Zersetung: Tactic to destroy one’s reputation

• Use of performance-enhancing drugs became systematic from the 1970s and was monitored by the Stasi (led to infertility and miscarriage)

The Space Race

• USSR was initially leading. Begun with Sputnik 1 being launched using an ICBM (long range missile), the first satellite into orbit on 5 October 1957, starting competition between the 2 countries

• Soviet Union achivements included the launch of Sputnik 2 on 3 November 1957, Vostok 1 (first man in space), Vostok 6 (first women in space), Voskhod 2 (First spacewalk). Had a developed ICBM.

• 29 July 1958: NASA formed

• Between 1961-1964 (under Kennedy), NASA budget increased almost 500%, needed 400,000 employees

• Achievements include Exploreer 1 (US’s first satellite), Mercury-Atlas 6: First American to orbit Earth)

• Most known was Apollo 11 (broadcasted to 600 million worldwide) when images of Neil Armstrong on the moon was shown on 21 July 1969

The Cuban Missile Crisis

• 14 October - 20 November 1962

• Fidel Castro (1926-2016): overthrew a dictator (Fulgencio Batista) who was an American ally

• Cuba became an overtly communist state in October of 1965

• 17 April 1961: Failed ‘The Bay of Pigs Invasion’ by the US

• Of the invaders (Americans side), 114 were killed and over 1100 were taken prisoner

• Missiles near the US would kill approximately 80 million people within 6 minutes of the rockets being launched

• A possible nuclear war had been averted by less than 24 hours as Khrushchev accepted the US’s offer