The Cold War (IB History Paper 2)

What was the main impact of the Korean War on the Cold War?

The Korean War froze Sino-American relations into a pattern of hostility that would last two decades

How did the Korean War (1950 - 1953) affect the Cold War?

It shifted the Cold War to be more focused on Asia and the resumption of limited, conventional warfare.

-It spread the threat of Communism to Korea

What was an event that happened right after World War II that made the US realize communism was a growing potential problem?

1949 the People's Republic of China (Mao's Communist Party) was formed after winning the Chinese Civil War against U.S.-supported Nationalists

(U.S. then suddenly saw Japan as a potential ally)

What was the Marshall Plan?

Effective in April 1948, it was an American initiative to aid Western Europe, in which the United States gave $13 billion in economic support to help rebuild Western European economies after the end of World War II

When did Dwight Eisenhower become president?

What "threats" did Eisenhower make upon his election?

- Jan. 1953

-He made veiled threats to expand the Cold War...perhaps with nuclear weapons

How did the North Korean attack on South Korea in June 1950 challenge the UN?

The attack posed a direct challenge to the UN's ability to resist aggression.

How did the North Korean attack on South Korea in June 1950 affect America?

It led to the US's decision to support South Korean troops which ultimately began America's crusade to contain Communism in the third world.

What was the end result of the Korean War?

An Armistice agreement was signed in June 1953 which said Korea would remain divided along the 38th parallel

What was the Point Four program?

A program designed primarily to combat the spread of Communism in the third world by ameliorating the effects of poverty

(1) When was NSC-68?

(2) What was it?

(3) Why was it created?

(4) What did it ultimately do?

(1) 1950

(2) a new secret strategy based on the premise that a defeat of free institutions anywhere was a defeat everywhere

(3) the threat of the spread of Communism / to support the French position in Vietnam (part of the revised containment strategy)

(4) helped the US be the policemen of the world

- said a USSR nuclear threat could be countered by a hydrogen bomb

- assumed the USSR would promote /support satellite states

- increased U.S. defense spending

Why did the US abandon isolationism?

- the oceans no longer offered them much protection from attack

-the USSR (+ communism) was a growing threat

-the USSR was building an atomic bomb

(1) What caused NATO?

(2) What was NATO?

(3) When was it formed?

(1) The Soviet atomic bomb

(2) an alliance that held that if the U.S. again withdrew into isolation, Western Europe would fall to the USSR and the situation would require U.S. intervention

(3) 1949

Name a relevant communist Alliance created in 1950

Sino-Soviet Treaty of 1950 (USSR promised aid ($$) to China)

How did the Korean War affect the US's relationship with China?

The US branded China as an international aggressor, imposed a tighter economic embargo on trade with the Chinese, and banished any thought of giving the communists China's seat in the UN

Relate the Korean War to a proxy war

-The Korean War seemed to confirm European fears that the Soviets were prepared to use their satellite states to fight proxy wars against the West in the Cold War

- through the North Atlantic Treaty, the US was now firmly committed to come to the assistance of Western Europe in the event of a Soviet attack

How did NATO take steps to enhance its military capabilities?

- agreeing to build a 96 division Ground Force to counter the Soviet military presence in Eastern Europe

- strengthening NATO's Mediterranean flank by accepting Greece and Turkey as full alliance members in 1952

-Providing an additional four billion dollars of military assistance in fiscal year 1951 to help European allies rearm

What was the Non-Alligned Movement and who was Gamal Nasser?

-the Movement Included 29 countries which agreed to resist colonialism and imperialism in all forms and promoted Afro-Asian co-operation

-Nasser (leader of Egypt in 1954) was a primary leader of the N.A. Movement who sought to remove Western influence from the Middle East and was known as the father of Arab nationalism

What was the Suez Canal Crisis?

- July 1956 - the Egyptian Army nationalized the Suez Canal

- British and French shareholders of the Canal collaborated with the with the Israelis who were instructed to invade the Sinai Penninsula (Oct.) and secure the Canal.

- The UN issued a proposal for the withdrawl of Israeli troops and opposed military action.

- November 1956 - the U.S. sent an emergency force to the Middle East and stabilized the situation

Why was the UN's resolution to the Suez Canal Crisis important?

- it created the Eisenhower Doctrine (as seen during the Crisis, the UK and France had lost their influence in the region and were no longer seen as dominant world powers....they needed U.S. assistance)

What was the Eisenhower Doctrine?

- A plan stating that the U.S. would provide assistance to Middle Eastern countries to prevent the spread of communism and Soviet influence in that area

- it gave the president the right to use force in the Middle East against overt armed aggression from any nation controlled by international communism

- the administration was granted to send 200 million dollars a year in economic and military assistance to the Middle Eastern countries willing to resist Soviet control (by 1958, this involved 45 countries)

When did Stalin die and how did his death have an important impact on the Cold War?

- March 1953

- new leaders took over the USSR and began to show that both foreign and domestic Soviet policies were changing

When was Khrushchev's De-Stalinization speech and what did it do?

- February 1956

- the speech condemned Stalin's actions against the people of the Soviet Union

-Mao = critical of speech / accused Khrushchev of revisionism (which strained Sino-Soviet relations)

-Khrushchev began to loosen some of the USSR's governmental control over the private lives of citizenry

How could the death of Stalin be seen as a lost chance for accomodation?

Some historians believe the death of Stalin created the opportunity for a Cold War "thaw" that never happened

How did Eisenhower formally react to the death of Stalin?

-Eisenhower believed that Stalin's death might clear the way for fundamental changes in Soviet behavior and improvement in East-West relations.

- he expressed willingness to begin arms reduction talks if the Soviets would take concrete steps to resolve outstanding differences with the West

- he proposed the Soviets allowed free elections in Eastern Europe

When was the Hungarian Uprising? Why is it significant to the Cold War?

- October - November 1956

- in the satellite states, many were encouraged by Khrushchev's de-Stalinization attitude and began to challenge the authority of their own communist government and party leaders

- having seen the Poles successfully challenge the established system and effect changes for their country, the Hungarians were inspired to to act themselves

- the results proved to be disastrous as the U.S. policy of containment did not mean direct U.S. support for the revolutionaries in Hungary even though that's what they anticipated

How did the failure of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution confirm Soviet dominance over their satellite states?

- October 1956 - Hungarian students began the revolution with demonstrations and a list of demands. They destroyed several Soviet tanks and gov. buildings

-Nagy took over and abolished the one-party state and announced Hungary would be neutral

- Nov. -Warsaw Pact troops moved in and crushed the revolution, the Communist party was reinstalled as the only legal party, and Nagy was deported

- U.S. was complicit by doing nothing and made it clear they would not use force to assist independence from the Soviet sphere

Explain the Red Scare and why it ultimately hurt the U.S.

- 1953 - the president signed an executive order authorizing the heads of all federal departments and agencies to fire any employee whose loyalty, reliability, or good contact and character were in doubt (= suspicion of people supporting communism... commonly known as McCarthyism)

- the decline of expertise and morale in the foreign service that resulted from this purge did much to prevent the formation of a realistic policy toward communism in the years ahead

How did the Berlin Conference of 1954 further separate Cold War enemies rather than work on resolving their differences?

- The Western Powers insisted that German reunification could only result from free elections in both l Germanys but the demand was rejected by the Soviets

- the Soviets demanded that a reunified Germany be neutralized and that NATO was dissolved which was rejected by Western powers

- the Western allies implemented their own solution by granting West Germany sovereignty and permitting them to rearm/ join NATO

- 1955 - the Soviets retaliated by creating the Warsaw Pact

What was the Warsaw Pact of 1955?

an alliance that bound East Germany and other satellite states to the military doctrine of the Soviet Red Army

Explain the U.S.'s massive retaliation strategy in the mid 1950s

- 1954 - a new US military strategy for dealing with the Communist challenge was announced: the US would react massively with nuclear weapons in the event of communist aggression to any level, strategic or tactical

- there would be a massive buildup of nuclear weapons

- the size of the Army and Navy = reduced while the Air Force = increased

- jet bombers created (B-52s)

- considered the threat of communism in the Third World

/ CIA expanded there

What were the nuclear "gap" scares? Were they true?

- U.S. fears of Soviet lead in amount of nuclear weaponry

- although Khrushchev accelerated the Soviet nuclear weapons program, the US was still in the lead and this myth was only created to scare Americans

How did the US react in 1953 when the Iranian prime minister Mossadeq asked Eisenhower for U.S. assistance in counteracting a boycott of Iranian oil by the international oil companies?

- U.S. turned Mossadeq down so he received Soviet aid

- U.S. decided Mossadeq had to be overthrown to ensure continued Western access to Iranian oil and to prevent Iran from becoming a Soviet satellite state

- U.S. initiated a successful countercoup, securing American companIes 40% interest in Iranian oil operations....In return, the U.S. gave Iran increasing military support over the next two decades

In the mid 1900s, why was Latin America ripe for communist infiltration?

Latin America was full of poverty, illiteracy, disease, and a rapidly growing population. There was an extremely unjust distribution of wealth with the upper class controlling the government and army and having a strong resistance to reform

Why did Dien Bien Phu fall?

- in the spring of 1954 the French Garrison at Diem Bien Phu in Northern Vietnam was surrounded by Vietminh forces

- Eisenhower warned of the domino effect and wanted to send U.S. military assistance to the French, but there was a strong resistance to this by many

- without assistance, the French garrison fell in May 1954 / France withdrew

What were the Geneva Accords regarding Vietnam?

- Vietnam was partitioned at the 17th parallel

- the communists in North Vietnam established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

- the South remained under Bao Dai

- foreign military bases were prohibited on Vietnam soil (supported by Soviets/China & not supported by U.S./South Vietnam)

Explain U.S. aid to South Vietnam in the 1950s

- Nov. 1954 - U.S. military advisers began training a South Vietnamese Army

- Dulles negotiated the creation of the Southeast Asian counterpart to NATO called SEATO which promised to cooperate to prevent the expansion of communism in Southeast Asia

What conclusion did Eisenhower and Dulles come to in the 1950s regarding China? What did they do about it?

- It was inconsistent to maintain diplomatic relations with a communist government in the Soviet Union but not one in China

- 1953 - Dulles instituted plans for implementing a policy of gradually expanding U.S. trade with China with the hope of modifying its behavior

- Dulles assumed the Soviets would soon not be able to bear the added burden of assistance to China

What main things lead to the gradual Sino-Soviet split?

- Chinese disillusionment (the Chinese expected more aid from the Soviets than they were actually getting)

- Khrushchev was determined to put more emphasis on domestic reform rather than focus on foreign issues

Define "pactomania" in terms of the U.S.

Critics charge the U.S. of suffering from this-- an unwarranted expansion of massive military commitment

When were Sputnik 1 & 2 launched into orbit? Why is this important?

- Sputnik 1: 4 October 1957

- Sputnik 2 carrying a dog: 3 November 1957

- the Soviets had launched the very first earth-orbiting satellites into space...NOT the Americans (even though they were planning to do the same)

- these successful launchings validated Khrushchev's boast that the USSR had developed an intercontinental ballistic missile

Why was the National Defense Education Act (1958) passed and what did it do?

- to overcome the "alleged" Soviet technological superiority seen after Sputnik

-the Act called for spending 5 billion on higher education in the sciences, foreign languages, and humanities to counter the perceived Soviet threat and a massive increase in spending on missle development

- Sep. 1959 - the first ICBM was created

According to some historians, what was the main reason Khrushchev decided who place ballistic missiles in Cuba in 1962?

The growing imbalance in the Soviet-American strategic power regarding nuclear weapons

When where the Test Ban Talks first proposed and who proposed them? Did they go into action?

10 December 1957 - the Soviets first proposed a two to three year suspension on nuclear weapon tests but in the wake of Sputnik, the Eisenhower Administration feared that the suspension of tests would be politically unacceptable

- 31 October 1958 the U.S. and Britain announced they were suspending nuclear tests for a year... Soviets did so too on 3 November 1958

What happened on 1 May 1960 that increased Soviet-American tensions?

The Soviet Union had shot down an American U-2 spy plane in Soviet territory

- Gary Powers, the pilot, had survived the crash and was being held in captivity

When did the Cold War spread to sub-Saharan Africa? Why/how?

- Summer 1960

- Belgium forces gave Congolese complete independence even though they were totally unprepared for it. So, the Congolese turned on their police system. The UN sent troops to restore order.

- January 1961 - Congolese Prime Min. assassinated with probable CIA involvement

- 16 new African nations admitted to the UN

What did Castro do once in power of Cuba?

-Castro launched programs to drive organized crime from Havana, reduce illiteracy, and improve housing and medical care for the majority of the population.

-He also initiated an agrarian reform program aimed at breaking up large estates and redistributing land to families, ending foreign domination of the economy (aka the U.S.)

Assess the Eisenhower years

- Eisenhower did not have much success in improving relations with the Soviet Union

- Dulles seemed to have a large influence on him

- US combat troops did not see much action during his presidency

Assess the Kennedy years

- While Kennedy was inclined to improve Soviet-American relations, his ability to do so was restricted by his determination to appear tough towards communism

- rather than ignoring or minimizing Khrushchev's threats as Eisenhower usually did, Kennedy personalized them and converted them into tests of will

What was the Bay of Pigs invasion? Was it successful?

- a plan for an invasion of Cuba by 1400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro

- began on 17 April 1961 but was quickly crushed by Castro's forces

What was "Operation Mongoose?"

The U.S.'s plans to overthrow (and allegedly assassinate) Castro

(1)'When was the Alliance for Progress introduced? (2) What was it? (3) Was it successful?

(1) 13 March 1961

(2) a program designed to reduce poverty, illiteracy, and disease in the hemisphere and thereby ameliorate the conditions that encouraged the growth of communism.... And hopefully encourage the growth of democracy instead

- U.S. planned to give Latin American countries 10 billion in aid over the next 10 years

(3) the program did not achieve any of its goals

When was the Berlin Wall first erected and why? What effects did it have on Soviet-American relations?

- 13 August 1961

- Khrushchev wanted to halt the outflow of East Germans to the west side

-many feared a nuclear exchange between the two nations

- 30 August 1961 - Khrushchev announced he was resuming nuclear weapon tests.... 5 September - Kennedy announced he was doing the same

What was Kennedy's "flexible response" strategy?

- Kennedy insisted that the U.S. must be able to deal with all levels of communist aggression without automatically triggering a nuclear holocaust

-this meant more emphasis on diplomacy, covert action, and conventional forces

What happened to the military under Kennedy?

There was a large and expensive military buildup

Explain the events that lead to the Cuban Missle Crisis

- Early 1962 - Khrushchev decided to deploy ballistic missiles to Cuba

- this was allegedly because the US had developed IRBMs in Turkey

- October 14 - a U.S. U-2 plane first spotted the Soviet missiles in Cuba

What are some probable reasons why Khrushchev placed missles in Cuba?

He wanted:

- to neutralize US nuclear superiority

- to possibly distract attention from the Soviet's growing domestic problems

- to solidify the leadership of the Soviet Union in the international communist movement

What were Kennedy's decisions regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis?

- Kennedy decided to force Khrushchev to remove the missiles

- Kennedy decided on a naval "quarantine" or blockade

- he ordered armed forces to prepare for the possibility of nuclear war

Why is the date 28 October 1962 extremely important?

On this day, Khrushchev agreed to withdraw the Soviet missiles from Cuba.... In return, Kennedy publicly promised that the US would not attempt another invasion of Cuba and secretly told Khrushchev that once the crisis ended, he would withdraw the US IRBMs from Turkey

According to W. Medland, what did the Cuban Missile Crisis do for the U.S.?

The crisis contributed to the development of "arrogance of power"--- a belief that the US had the Communists on the run. The new attitude helped to explain the growing U.S. involvement in Vietnam

Why was Kennedy's speech on 10 June 1963 important?

- Many considered this speech the first step toward detente (Kennedy called on Americans to re-examine their attitudes toward the Soviets and to support his efforts to conclude a nuclear test ban agreement)

What happened on 11 October 1963?

The Limited Test Ban Treaty went into effect (which drove the nuclear arms race underground)

When was Kennedy shot and killed?

22 November 1963

Explain the Johnson Doctrine

- Johnson cut funding for the Alliance of Progress by 40%

- U.S. military assistance to Latin American governments increased

How was Johnson's involvement in Vietnam different from Kennedy's?

- Johnson transformed Kennedy's program of limited U.S. assistance in South Vietnam to an open-ended commitment to defend the country

- he believed South Vietnam would collapse if the U.S. did not expand participation in the war....He didn't want to "lose" Vietnam

What was "Operation Rolling Thunder?"

- 7 February 1955 - when Johnson initiated a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam (after South Vietnam seemed to be on the verge of collapse)

How did Johnson's strategy in Vietnam fail?

- the gradual escalation of the U.S. bombing strategy allowed North Vietnamese sufficient time to disperse their population and resources and to develop a dangerous air defense system

- U.S. Gen. Westmoreland miscalculated North Vietnam's willingness to suffer huge losses in manpower as well as its capacity to replace those losses

- the North Vietnamese received both Soviet and Chinese military and economic assistance

What did Johnson announce in March 1968?

Johnson announced he was freezing U.S. troop levels in South Vietnam and ordered a partial suspension of the bombings in North Vietnam and hope of starting peace talks....and then dropped out of the presidential race

What was Vietnamization?

- the Nixon Administration decided that U.S. troops would have to be gradually withdrawn from South Vietnam and the responsibility for defending the country would be turned over to the South Vietnamese themselves

Explain Nixon's "peace with honor"

- Nixon's plan to extricate the U.S. from the Vietnam conflict without suffering a humiliating defeat

What did Nixon announce upon his election?

- He declared the U.S. was prepared to enter an era of negotiations with the Communist world

- he needed SALT agreements due to the alarming Soviet nuclear buildup (Soviets basically had parity with U.S. over nuclear weapons at this time)

After Nixon's election into office, what did the Soviets realize was necessary regarding their relationship with the U.S. (in terms of their survival)?

The inability of the Soviets collectivized farms to feed its people / the declining rate of industrial growth and backwardsness of technology made the Soviets realize that the relaxation of tensions with the U.S. was the prerequisite for obtaining badly-needed Western economic and technical assistance

- this made the Soviets eager to pursue SALT

Discuss Henry Kissinger's outlook on the Cold War

- Kissinger criticized the traditional U.S. approach to the Communist world with its heavy emphasis on Military rather than diplomatic solutions to the problems of the Cold War. He believed that the US had to rely on both if it was to advance its national interests effectively

- believed the administration should use a carrot-and-stick approach: rewarding the Soviets when they cooperated with the U.S., checking them when they did not

- Championed SALT in a policy called "linkage" where he endeavored to connect progress in SALT to the willingness of the Soviets to cooperate on the issues of Vietnam, the Middle East, and the Berlin problem (Soviets hated this)

What was the Nixon Doctrine?

- it resembled the Kennedy-Johnson flexible response strategy in insisting the U.S. must be able to deter communist aggression with both conventional and nuclear forces

- the size of U.S. conventional forces would diminish appreciably

- reflected the assumption that it would be unnecessarily costly to maintain U.S. nuclear superiority in numbers of strategic missiles (called "sufficiency")

What was the Nixon administration's outlook on China?

The administration took the first steps toward improving U.S. relations with China (for example, Nixon lifted the embargo on trade with China and recognized them as members of the UN)

What the Brezhnev Doctrine?

1968 - proclaimed the right of the Soviet Union to intervene to uphold socialism in neighboring states (the Chinese feared this included China)

Explain Kissinger's use of (triangular) diplomacy in Vietnam

- Kissinger offered a ceasefire proposal to North Vietnam but they refused to embrace it until the U.S. agreed to the replacement of the current South Vietnam Thieu government with a coalition government dominated by the PRG

- Kissinger believed the only way North Vietnam could be made to accept a negotiated settlement was to isolate it from its main sources of supply: the Soviet Union and China

What resulted from the North Vietnamese offensive in 1972?

- after North Vietnamese troops struck into SV across the demilitarized zone, Nixon still refused to permit South Vietnam to fall...

- Nixon resumed the massive bombing offensive against NV (using B-52 bomber strikes)

- May 1972 - the northernmost province of SV fell to NV

What were two important things that happened at the Moscow Summit of May 1972?

- The ABM Treaty was signed which established the ceiling of 100 ABM launchers for each of the two ABM sites that each country was permitted

- Interim Agreement was signed which limited for five years the number of ICBMs and SLBMs to those deployed in 1972 or under construction

Why was the Basic Principles of Retaliation Agreement (May 1972) important in establishing detente?

- under the agreement, both sides agreed that their differences in ideologies and social systems would not be permitted to jeopardize detente

- they also pledged to avoid military confrontations, to prevent the outbreak of nuclear war, and expand economic/commercial/scientific/cultural/technological ties

Explain why the Nixon administration bombed the shit out of NV in December 1972

14 Dec 1972 - Nixon and Kissinger sent a cable to NV gov. Warning them that grave consequences would follow if they did not resume serious negotiations within 72 hours

- Dec. 18 - the ultimatum expired, so Nixon gave orders to execute an intensified bombing campaign of NV in which he wanted to inflict the maximum amount of damage possible (= the most intense and devastating attacks of the entire War / Nixon's popular approval rate dropped to 39%)

What happened at the Paris Peace Settlements of January 1973?

It was decided that the U.S. would withdraw all of its military forces in SV and cease all air attacks on NV (this did not end the conflict in Vietnam but simply permitted the U.S. to withdraw without loss of face)

The 1973 Yom Kippur War _______ detente.

Strained

Why did the Soviet-American Trade Agreement die?

1972 - the Soviet government had clamped a higher tax on Soviet citizens wishing to emigrate from the Soviet Union to discourage the emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel

- 1973 - this was not acceptable to the U.S.

How did Watergate effect detente?

- Kissinger was unable to produce a conceptual breakthrough on SALT II

- the Soviets were reluctant to conclude an agreement with a president who appeared to be on his way out of office (= Ford takes office)

- Nixon lost credibility

What was significant about the end of U.S. Military and economic support to South Vietnam?

it directly contributed to the collapse of South Vietnam

Why was Reagan's presidency contradictory?

- Reagan had no background in national security affairs / limited knowledge of communism and the Soviet Union

- he demanded that the Soviets agree to massive reductions in the size of their nuclear arsenal, paradoxically insisting his administration had to increase the size of its nuclear arsenal in order to close a window of vulnerability

What was Reagan's Grand Strategy? What did it ultimately do?

- 1981 - 1986 - the Pentagon's budget rose from 171 billion to 376 billion

- Reagan's advisers wanted to use the arms race, one they would emphasize America's technological superiority, to strain and bankrupt the Soviet economy

- intended to deny the Soviet economy critical resources and access to Western high technology

- this military buildup and economic squeeze undoubtedly increased the strain on the Soviet economy and contributed to the collapse of the USSR a decade later.... But also put the U.S. in massive debt

Why was Reagan's assumption that the Soviet Union was the underlying cause of tensions in the Third World flawed?

Reagan ignored the view that the political instability of the region was indigenous...that is, the consequence of low commodity prices, unjust land distribution, and the extremes of wealth and poverty

What was the Iran-Contra Affair?

- Dec. 1981 - Reagan administration authorized the overthrow of the Marxist government in Nicaragua

- when asked by Congress about their intentions to do so, the admin. denied involvement...

- Congress established that none of the aid to Nicaraguan Contras was to be used to overthrow the regime

- The admin. sneakily sold weaponry to Iran and used the $ to give to the Contras

The Reagan Doctrine in (1) the Third World (2) East Asia and (3) Europe

(1) the US should confront not cooperate with the Soviets in the third world

(2) China was not viewed as a potential ally anymore (China had no real navy or high tech weaponry and could not be counted on for support) ....soon backfired on Reagan when the Chinese and Soviets began talks to repair relations

(3) March 1982 - Reagan declared the US would seek to "neutralize" Soviet control over Eastern Europe (mostly by encouraging the liberalization of the Soviet Union's Eastern European satellite states)

What was the KAL tragedy?

1983 - Soviets mistook a Korean Airlines flight to be a U.S. spy plane flying over a secret missile test site and shot it down

How did Gorbachev's mindset contribute to the end of the Cold War?

- he was determined to end the Cold War

- he recognized the Soviet's deep-seated structural and economic problems (economy restrained Soviet growth rates / could no longer absorb technological innovations)

- realized there was rising alcoholism / low worker morale

- foresaw the detrimental outcomes of the rising costs of maintaining the Soviet Satellite Empire

- realized communism was no longer destined to triumph over capitalism

- USSR badly needed western assistance

Why was the INF Treaty (1987) exceptionally important in helping cool Soviet-American relations?

1987 - it was the first major arms reduction agreement of the entire Cold War

An iconic line from Reagan's speech in West Berlin in June 1987

"Mr. Gorbachev....tear down this wall!"

What did the Revolutions of 1989 in the Soviet Bloc States indicate about the Brezhnev Doctrine?

-The Soviets did not intervene militarily when their Soviet Bloc States began rebelling against their communist governments and overthrowing their leaders (The Sinatra Doctrine)

-Gorbachev let the communist regimes fall apart... indicating the Brezhnev Doctrine was DEAD

When was the fall of the Berlin Wall?

9 November 1989

When was East Germany's first non-communist government formed and why?

- April 1990

- East German leader Krenz resigned and was replaced by moderate communists who promised free elections

-the free elections ousted the communists from power

What happened on 1 October 1990?

The WW2 victors formally surrendered their 4-power rights and responsibilities over Germany and Berlin

When was Germany reunified?

3 October 1990

What was discussed at Yalta in 1945?

February 1945:

-Poland: Declaration of Liberated Europe

-Japan: Stalin promised to declare war on Japan 2 to 3 months after war in Europe ended

-United Nations: collective security agreed upon

-Germany: zones of occupation established

(PJUG)