Cold War Flashcards
What are your 4 paragraphs for an “Account for the emergence of detente” question?
- Fear of nuclear war
- Economic
- Political and social
- International
Account for the emergence of detente - paragraph 1.
Fear of nuclear war
1962 Cuban Missile Crisis - highlighted danger of superpower confrontation
- White House-Kremlin Hotline in 1962: direct and immediate communication
- Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963) - cease atmospheric nuclear testing
1969: US and USSR reach nuclear parity - MAD
- around 24,200 warheads
- need to reduce risk of nuclear war
Account for the emergence of detente - paragraph 2.
Economic issues in the US and USSR
USSR:
- ineffectiveness of the command economy in sustaining the arms race (USSR economy 2/3 the size of the US’ GNP)
- arms race made it difficult to transfer production capacity in industry to consumer goods
- us technology and wheat needed to break Brezhnev’s era of “economic stagnation” (Historian Dmitri Volgonov)
- poor living standards, farmers 1/6 as productive as US farmers
US:
- vietnam war –> huge budget deficits and high inflation
- 1965-72: over $100 billion spent
- 1965-68: defence spending increased by 60%
- inflation at 4%, highest since start of cold war
- Johnson knew he had to make cost cuts through reduction of arms
BOTH:
- after the US and USSR matched nuclear capability, USSR kept producing arms –> US needed to maintain expensive arms race for security –> desired detente to ease economic spending
Account for the emergence of detente - para 3.
Political and social issues
USSR:
- humiliated after CMC
- wanted western recognition of their power and influence over the eastern bloc, hoping it would stabilise the dissent arising from warsaw pact nations
- Czechoslovakia 1968 uprising - heightened fears of Warsaw pact dissent
US:
- social impact of Vietnam War saw a re-evaluation of US power in the world
- plagued with dissent, anti-war protests and civil rights movements
- 1968 urban riots
- 58,000 dead, more than 300,000 wounded
Social reform goals had been abandoned for arms race
- Kennedy’s New Frontier
- Johnson’s New Society
Account for the emergence of detente - para 4.
International developments
China:
- the US used detente to undermine soviet power through peaceful diplomacy with China
- this encouraged the USSR to build a more friendly relationship with the US to avoid being isolated
- “China’s new realism in foreign affairs” - Historian Kort
Following the political instability that had been growing up to 1968: 1956 Hungarian Crisis, 1961 Berline Wall, 1962 CMC, 1968 Czechoslovakia uprising
- West German politician Willy Brandt: Ostpolitik
- initially to build better relations between East and West Germany
- other nations started adopting it, e.g. France and Romania
USSR:
- satellite had begun developing national policies outside of the soviet model –> needed long term solution –> relations with west germany (ostpolitik) –> need detente
US:
- unpopular due to presence in Vietnam war
- losing influence in West Germany as it grew better relations with East Germany
What are your 4 paragraphs for a containment essay?
- Alliances
- Foreign aid
- Overt and covert intervention
- Militarisation –> security dilemmas
To what extent did the policy of containment affect the development of the Cold War - alliances.
ALLIANCES
Truman: NATO, a military alliance with 12 both European nations, including France and Great Britain
- strengthened US relations with Western Europe, threatening the security of Eastern Europe, much of which was allied with the Soviet Union
Eisenhower:
Pactomania - alliances with 42 separate nations and nearly 100 treaty relations
- cemented spheres of influence
- expanded cold war to a global scale - highlighted the clear divide in the world
- significantly involved in the creation of SEATO (1954) and Baghdad Pact (1955), although the US was not a member
USSR: responded to the increasing threat with the eight-nation Warsaw Pact (1955)
- used to reinforce communist dominance in Eastern Europe, such as in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968)
To what extent did the policy of containment affect the development of the Cold War - foreign aid.
FOREIGN AID
Truman Doctrine: US sought to stabilize foreign capitalist economies so they did not fall to communism after WWI
- these ideas were put into action with the Marshall Plan: provided $13 billion to European nations including $376 million to Greece and $137 to Turkey
While the Marshall Plan successfully stabilized foreign capitalist economies, it revealed the US’’ intentions to interfere in foreign affairs to contain the spread of communism.
- The plan prevented indirect USSR control by ensuring economic dependency on the capitalist US, thereby seeking to leave the USSR economically isolated which aggravated tensions.
USSR responded with the Molotov Plan
- provided economic and military aid to Eastern European nations such as Hungary and Romania
Both saw each other’s respective plans as attempts to limit the other’s influence –> aggravated tensions
To what extent did the policy of containment affect the development of the Cold War - covert and overt intervention.
COVERT AND OVERT INTERVENTION
WWII –> nations became decolonised –> power vacuums the US and USSR sought to fill
US, seeking to contain communism and prevent it from spreading to these new developing nations engaged in a series of covert operations run by the CIA to gain control over these areas.
- assassinations, instigate coups, manipulate elections, provision of aids
- 1954: deposed Guatemalan President Arbenz through a propaganda terror campaign and air raids and installed US backed military dictator Carlos Armas
Proxy wars: fought on foreign land, first time US and USSR directly engaged, used ideological proxies to exercise hostilities
- Vietnam War (1955) and Korean War (1950)
- highlighted the lengths each side would go to defend their respective ideologies
To what extent did the policy of containment affect the development of the Cold War - militarisation.
MILITARISATION –> SECURITY DILEMMAS
Truman: NSC-68 called for the rapid development of hydrogen bombs and conventional forces to deter Soviet aggression
- tripled military expenditure from 5% to 14.3% of America’s GNP from 1950-1953
- “defend against any possible aggressor” - January 1950, Truman
- between 1950-1955, the Red Army expanded by 3 million troops to form an army of 5.8 million
Eisenhower’s “New Look policy”: focus on nuclear weapons to decrease defence spending and minimise human cost in war
- US H bomb in 1952, USSR in 1955
- rejected the conclusions of NSC 68 which called for a build-up of both conventional and nuclear
- New developments in nuclear weaponry - Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (1959)
Kennedy’s “Flexible Response” continued this militarisation
- increased defence budget by 19% to 53.6 billion (1954)
- increased conventional forces from 2.5 million to 2.7 million in 1954
Disarmament agreements
1985 Geneva Summit
- Joint statement proposed a fifty percent reduction in the superpowers’ nuclear arms arsenal
1986 Reykjavik Summit
- SDI was a stumbling block: Gorbachev wanted it abandoned, Reagan insisted it be kept
- Soviets refused to give up SS-20 missiles
- Although no agreements were reached, it changed the way the leaders saw each other
- Historian Kennedy “humanised Gorbachev in Reagan’s eyes”
1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty
- US destroy 856 intermediate range missiles, Soviets 1752
- Symbolic as it eliminated a whole class of missiles and was the first case of arms reduction, not control (not significant as it only accounted for 4% of total missiles)
Start I (1991)
- US missiles from 12000 to 9000, USSR from 11000 to 7000
- Gorbachev made serious concessions as he needed US technology and grain
- Reveals weakening USSR power
Disarmament essay - Reagan.
While his hardline anti-Soviet rhetoric inflamed tensions in the short term, it pushed Soviet policy towards cooperation and negotiation
- hardline anti-soviet policies and rhetoric inflamed tensions
- Historian McMahon: die-hard anti-Communist with a visceral hatred of the regime
- 1983 Evil empire Speech: “focus of evil in the modern world” “totalitarian darkness”
- Largest peacetime arms build-up in US history
SDI: complex shield of satellites and lasers that would destroy incoming USSR missiles
- estimated $26 billion over 5 years
- Many scientists believed it was impossible and dangerous as it would destabilise the superpowers’ belief in mutual destruction
- sparked fears the US were seeking a first-strike capability and negating the theory of mutually assured destruction
The US’ military and economic policies pushed the USSR to “sue for peace” (Powoski) as they placed strain and pressure on the USSR economy
- SDI: reorientation of Soviet foreign policy to avoid an expensive arms race
- Called for New Thinking under the Soviet policy Novomyshlenie which assumed the need for cooperation and negotiation which were needed for the end of the Cold War
Reagan’s shift towards arms reduction after NATO discontent and the public’s fear of nuclear war made disarmament agreements possible
- Enabled the resuming of talks on reduction in intermediate-range nuclear weapons resulting in the 1987 INF Treaty
Features and consequences of detente - paragraph 1
ARMS LIMITATIONS
Sucess in arms limitations, failures: too modest, not enough arms
Salt I: ratification of peace-making treaties that reduced the threat of nuclear conflict
- ABM Treaty 1972: limited ABMs to capital cities and one other site
- Interim Treaty: 1618 ICBMs for USSR, 1054 for US
- Basic Principles Agreement –> pledged to avoid direct military conflict, banned the placement of warheads on the seabed, fostered friendlier relations
Limitation: did not include new technologies like MIRVs, which is how the arms race would ultimately be won
- Still left enough weapons for both sides to destroy the other multiple times
- Only limitations on existing weapons, not potential –> limited effectiveness and enforceability
Salt II: initial achievement, but never ratified
- placed equal limits on missile launchers but left our cruise missile launchers and strategic bombers where the US had a significant lead
Merely a continuation of the cold war through other means
- Historian Raymond Garthoff agrees detente was just a “less belligerent way of waging the Cold War, rather than an alternative”
Features and consequences of detente - paragraph 2.
Improved relations
Ostpolitik (late 1960s)
- improved relations between East and West
- came at the cost of west Germany accepting soviet control over East Germany, but this resulted in a decreased threat of military action
Helsinki Agreements 1975
- European borders were “inviolable” –> acceptance of the legitimacy of USSR in Eastern Europe
- Trade and technology exchanges across the Iron Curtain
- West tried to gain a human rights agreement from the USSR to undermine their repressive regimes –> USSR only paid lip service or ignored
Limitations: limited enforceability and non-binding
Features and consequences of detente - paragraph 3
Fundamentally different understandings of detente
US:
- way to manage soviet aggression by imposing arms limitations
- increase trade
- enhance us values
- decrease soviet intervention in the third world through linkage (connect political and military issues)
USSR:
- confirmation of us-ussr equality
- should not restrict their actions in other nations, just end direct antagonism with the US
1973: Arab Israeli War (Yom Kippur War) - Egypt and Syria (USSR) against Israel (US)
- both threatened to use force, against the spirit of detente
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979)
Marked an end to detente
- first time USR had invaded a non-Warsaw Pact nation since the start of the Cold War
- US feared it would spread to the persian gulf, threatening US oil supplies, feared it would lead to a destruction of democracy and capitalism
Steeled the resolve of Americans to pursue a hard-line foreign policy
- Carter was pressured by conservatives who felt America had “lost its way”
Carter Doctrine: refocused on containment, but in the Persian gulf –> any attempt to gain control over the Persian gulf would be repelled by any means necessary, including military force
America felt USSR had violated the spirit of detente, USSR had not realised the importance of linkage to the US - by involving themselves in the Middle East, it led to a deterioration of the relationship
HISTORIAN McMahon: harboured “fundamentally different understandings of the meaning of detente” and detente was merely “competition continued in the third world”
