cold war

Question 1

grand alliance

Answer 1

UK, USA, USSR.

Question 2

yalta confererence

Answer 2

1945. US and UK wanted collective security made by the UN, no spheres of influence, and germany to be reconstructed as a democratic country. roosevelt wanted stalins help to defeat Japan.
      stalin wanted to expand the USSR’s spheres of influence into eastern europe
      germnay and berlin would be divided into four parts, UN would be set up, USSR would gain land from poland, stalin agreed to democratic elections in europe. the precentage agreement

Question 3

the precentage agreement

Answer 3

division of countries into spheres of influence. agreement between stalin and churchill in 1944, roosevelt was briefed and made no objections

Question 4

potsdam conference

Answer 4

1945. allies sceptical of soviet involevemnt in the middle east, stalin was anxious of soviet security due to US atomic bomb

Question 5

kennan’s long telegram

Answer 5

1946. introduced containment and the domino effect. increased US involvement in foriegn affairs, and the introduction of th marshall plan

Question 6

iron curtain speech

Answer 6

churchill 1946. condemned soviet policies and promoted a special relationship between US and UK. stalin claimed that this was an anti-soviet attack, they were ‘demonizing’ him

Question 7

truman docterine

Answer 7

1947 containment and aiding countries that could be offers of communism

Question 8

cominform

Answer 8

1947 consolidation of european communist states after the split into spheres of influence. introduced collectivization = similar economic and foreign policies

Question 9

the marshall plan

Answer 9

1948. financial aid to prevent countries from becoming communist. some of teh money must be spent on US export and share of financial info with US

Question 10

comecon

Answer 10

1949. mutual economic assistance as they traded together

Question 11

nato

Answer 11

1949. formed after china became communist and teh berlin blockade. all members pledged to defend attacked member

Question 12

the warsaw pact

Answer 12

1955. equivalent to nato

Question 13

berlin blockade

Answer 13

ussr blocked all enterances to berlin as opposition to bizonia and their new currency. allies used airlifts to deliver food and coal

Question 14

revisionist perspective collapse of grand alliance

Answer 14

us is the reason due to us foreign policies,

Question 15

orthodox perspective collapse of grand alliance

Answer 15

ussr was at fault due to them being inevitably expansionists, us had to defend themselves

Question 16

chinese civil war

Answer 16

sino-soviet treaty of 1950 (mao made a speech saying that china will align itself with the ussr), china became communist, civil war in 1949

Question 17

mccarthyism

Answer 17

republican sentator, anti-communistic crusade within the US, cliamed that many state department officials were members of the communist party, causing the red scare

Question 18

korean war

Answer 18

1950-53. Korea was divided into two during the Potsdam conference; North = China and South = USA. The USSR had removed their troops from North Korea, but there were still 7500 troops in the American zones. The Soviet Union agreed to help China in 1950.

The USA feared that another communist victory would unsettle Europe - the domino theory and requested involvement from the UN. The UN ordered a ceasefire, and the USSR was unable to veto the decision due to them boycotting the UN after they failed to recognize Mao’s government.

Question 19

sino-soviet relations

Answer 19

1950-53: the Korean War; Soviet encouraged China to sed troops, material assistance. China had to pay for it.

1953-56: Honeymoon period; relaxation of tension, attempts by the USSR to make treaties mor equal and supple further technology and loans

Great Leap Forward: launched in 1958. Idea: rapid development of China’s agricultural and Industrial sector but was VERY unsuccessful.

USSR: the GLF as ‘faulty in design and erroneous in practice’

Mao wanted revenge against Moscow – decided to back any communist country that dissented from Moscow

1956-64: Khrushchev era; He believed that Stalin was bad – destalinization, the secret speech. Mao saw Khrushchev’s peaceful coexistence with the West as heresy

Question 20

sino-us relations

Answer 20

Containment – 1949-1971

US tries to disrupt, destabilize and weaken China’s communist government

US encouraged allies to refrain from entering diplomatic relations with China

Rapprochement – 1971-1979

Kissinger secretly visits China in 1971, Nixon visits in 1972. They signed the Shanghai Communique, acknowledging that Taiwan is a part of China.

Sino-US unofficial relations begin to develop with trade, education and cultural exchanges.

Question 21

us motivating factors for detente

Answer 21

growing impact of the Vietnam war (on the US and its global position and economy), growing awareness of nuclear dangers, and some evidence suggesting that the USSR might be on the same level as the US on nuclear weaponry.

Nixon had won the 1968 elections, he believed that continuing the Vietnam war will have a negative impact on the US’s economic and militarily superiority over the Soviet Union.

Question 22

ussr motivating factors for detente

Answer 22

Soviet economy was showing signs of stagnation, fear that the risk of nuclear war had increased, and the USSR being worried due to the Sino-Soviet split potentially resulting in an alliance between the US and China.

Question 23

salt 1

Answer 23

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, arms control, not reduction. Agreed upon a 5-year freeze on some weapons. Also included the Basic Principles Agreement, which committed both sides to work together to prevent conflict and build peaceful coexistence.

Question 24

helsinki conference and accords

Answer 24

first – recognized the borders of Europe as secure from assault. Second – collaboration with each other in terms of economy, science and culture. Third – human rights.

Question 25

decline of detente revisionist

Answer 25

The USSR believed that the US still believed that they could do as they want, especially in foreign involvement – US support of Israel attacks despite UN ordered ceasefire.

The USSR believed that the US was supporting anti-communist governments in the ‘Third World’

The US was not benefiting financially from détente as compared with the beginning of détente.

Question 26

decline of detente orthodox

Answer 26

Many in the US believed that the USSR benefited more from the arms agreements

The USSR were continuing to support left-wing revolutionary groups in Africa

The USSR did not follow the third basket of the Helsinki agreement.

The USSR occupied Afghanistan - the US saw it as a threat to world peace.

Question 27

second cold war

Answer 27

soviet occupation of afghanistan in 1979, reagan elected in 1980, “soviet nuclear superiority”, 1980 olympics, evil empire

Question 28

end of cold war gorbachev

Answer 28

Introduced two key reforms

Perestroika: aimed to restructure the economy

Glasnost: the principle that every area of the regime should be open to public scrutiny.

Reduced economy spending, wanted to abandon the arms race

Question 29

end of cold war reagan

Answer 29

Positive perspectives

He moderated and abandoned personal convictions about the nature of communism

Reagan victory school

His actions in the early 1980s in ending détente and stepping up tensions in the Cold War through increased arms spendings were key for ending the Cold War

Question 30

geneva conference

Answer 30

1985. agreed to avoid nuclear war and militarily superiority

Question 31

reysjavik conference

Answer 31

1986. Gorbachev: Proposed total elimination of nuclear missiles. Accepted NATO’s zero-zero option. Acknowledged the importance of human rights.

Reagan: proposed total elimination in 10 years (would result on a major USSR economic drain)

Both: agreed that strategic nuclear weapons should be cut by 50%. Medium range missiles removed from Europe.

Question 32

washington conference

Answer 32

1987. Both: signed the INF treaty – all land-based and shorter-range missiles would be removed from Europe.

Gorbachev: announced that the USSR would withdraw from Afghanistan without insisting on a certain form of government.

Question 33

end of cold war soviet economy

Answer 33

Reforms were not met with support from within the Soviet Union, as there was not a system in place to cope with a market economy, and a fall in the world’s oil prices resulted in a major economic decline in 1991 (1990 = -5%, 1991 = -15%).

Glasnost allowed for openness and discussion, thus allowing for criticism on the old Soviet system and the new reforms - this led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war

Question 34

end of cold war people power

Answer 34

The actions of nationalist leaders also aided in the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Discontent was due to:

Continued deterioration of living standards

Growing disillusionment with the Communist Party (repressive and corrupt)

Implication of Glasnost and Perestroika

Gorbachev stated in an address to the UN Geneal Assembly in 1988 that all peoples should have the right to choose their own government and that universal human rights should exact in both capitalist and socialist blocs.

Question 35

historiography

Answer 35

orthodox (ussr at fault), revisionist (us at fault), post-revisionist (both)

Question 36

orthodox

Answer 36

argue that the Soviet regime initiated the Cold War by seeking to expand and exert control over Europe and Asia. They attribute this to Russia’s inherent expansionism, the doctrine of Marxist-Leninism which preached international revolution and world communism, as well as Stalin’s anti-Western paranoia.

Orthodox historians argue that Stalin broke the agreements forged at Yalta and Potsdam, in order to expand Soviet communism into eastern Europe and throughout the world. The Soviet leader’s duplicitous actions led to the collapse of the Grand Alliance and the beginnings of the Cold War

Question 37

revisionism

Answer 37

US policy after World War II was neither passive nor benign. It was driven more by economic considerations and national self-interest than the principles of democracy and self-determination

they wanted a European continent populated with capitalist nations open to trade and American exports. Policies such as lend-lease, post-war loans and the Marshall Plan all worked toward this objective