The Cold war in the 50's

The Korean War 1950-53:

• After WW2, Korea had been divided at the 38th parallel (a border line) into the Soviet-backed communist North Korea and non-communist, American-backed South Korea.

• In June 1950, with the support of China and the Soviet Union, North Korea launched an attack on South Korea across the 38th parallel.

• Fearing a communist takeover, the USA sent troops to support South Korea. UN troops were deployed to Korea and the communists were eventually driven back to the 38th parallel.

• One effect was the proof that the US and Soviet Union were capable of fighting each other in their first proxy war (2 countries supporting different sides in a war). This had an advantage of avoiding direct military conflict.

• Another effect was that the US encouraged the formation of other organisations similar to NATO in different global regions. This also aimed to stop communism spreading; eg, SEATO and CENTO was formed.

Warsaw Pact 1955:

• The Warsaw pact was a mutual defence organisation like NATO. The soviet union set up troops in all the Warsaw pact countries.

• The main reason for the pact was that West Germany was becoming a member of NATO

Khrushchev and peaceful co-existence:

• Joseph Stalin died in 1953 - Nikita Khrushchev was the new leader

• He rejected Stalin’s methods and wanted to reduce cold war tension. Instead, he argued for ‘peaceful co-existence’ with the West which meant encouraging good trade and diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and capitalist countries.

• Khrushchev wanted to spend les on military and more on improving living conditions for Soviet people. But this meant threat of war with the west.

• Leaders in the West were not convinced. Khrushchev was still completely committed to communist ideologies which saw the destruction of capitalism as the necessary first step.

Hungary in 1956:

• Hungary is now in the Warsaw pact and in the middle of the buffer zone. The Hungarians began protesting because there was a lack of political freedom and food shortages.​The leader of Hungary at the time was Imre Nagy​. Communism was very unpopular and so was the Soviet Union.

• Therefore, the leader of the Hungarian communist party ordered the arrest of anyone likely to be against communism using a ‘secret police force’. 350,000 Hungarians were imprisoned and over 2,000 had been executed.

• In June 1956 the Hungarian people began to protest against Rakosi’s regime, and Moscow replaced him with Erno Gero. Gero was no more popular and, following huge demonstrations, the Soviets agreed to the formation of a new government under the more liberal Imre Nagy. This caused Khrushchev to end troops to invade and take over Hungary​

• The USA did nothing to help as if they sent soldiers to help Hungary as it could cause a nuclear war.​​

• Kruschev now looked strong in the buffer zone and made other countries not ask to leave - this increased tensions.

The Arms Race​​​:

• The USA exploded 2 atomic bombs on Japanese cities in 1945, winning the war against Japan. Stalin immediately put together teams of scientists and spies to work and develop a Soviet atomic bomb - this was achieved in 1949

• USA then developed the hydrogen bomb - this was successfully tested in 1952. The Soviet union the followed in 1953.

• The next development was ICBMs

• One impact was the fear of MAD (mutually assured destruction). This meant that whichever side launched their missiles first didn’t really matter: the response from the other side would ultimately mean USA and USSR would be devastated by multiple nuclear strikes. This meant that the Cold war never went ‘hot’ as the risks were far too high. However, the risk of a nuclear war was not out of the picture as one could be started by mistake, accident or misunderstanding.

• Another impact was that the arms race demanded huge investment. It drained the budget of both countries and left less money for other priorities such as improving living standards