Cold war

Question 1

What was the Grand Alliance

Answer 1

Alliance between the USSR, USA and Great Britain in order to fight the Axis powers (Nazi Germany, Japan and Italy)

Question 2

What were the tensions between the members of the Grand Alliance

Answer 2

Great Britain and the United States capitalist, USSR communist
Great Britain and the United States democracies, USSR dictatorship

Question 3

Tehran conference

Answer 3

November 1943. Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill

Agreements:
Open a second front in France (Normandy invasion, D day)
Soviet Union to join the war against Japan as soon as Germany is defeated
Set up of the United Nations
Past of Poland added to the Soviet Union

Question 4

Yalta Conference

Answer 4

Febraury 1945. Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill

Agreements:
USSR to join the war in Japan
Divide Germany and Berlin into four zones, French, Soviet, English and American
Hunt down the Nazi war criminals
Free elections in the liberated countries
Eastern Europe in the Soviet Sphere of influence

Disagreements:
How much Germany to pay in reparations, Stalin wanted high, Roosevelt and Chruchill lower to stop a situation like the one after WWI and the rise of Hitler
Poland, Stalin watned more territory and a friendly goverment. Churchill opposed for fear of communist expansion

Question 5

Potsdam Conference

Answer 5

July 1945. Stalin, Truman (Roosevelt died) and Attlee (Churchill lost the elections)

Agreements:
Germany and Berlin to be splitted into two parts
Demilitarise Germany
Democracy in Germany
Germany to pay reparations, mostly to the Soviet Union
Banning of the Nazi party

Disagreements
Size of compensations, Soviet Union had suffered a lot so they wanted germany to pay lots, USA and Great Britain wanted smaler ones.
Views on Soviet expansion and free elections. Russia wanted the liberated zones to be in their zone of influence. Truman said no to stop the spread of communism.

Question 6

Changes between Potsdam and Yalta

Answer 6

Many countries liberated from Nazi Germany
Set up of communist goverment in Poland
Roosevelt died, Truman, his vice president became president. He was deeply anti-communist
Nuclear Bomb test by the Americans

Question 7

Soviet expansion at the beginning of the Cold War

Answer 7

Percentage deal: Churchill and Stalin made an agreement on the influence that each of the members will have on the liberated countries.
The Soviet Union took lots of land from Poland and set up a communist goverment

Question 8

Long telegram

Answer 8

George Kennan, the USA’s deputy chief of mission in the US Embassy in Moscow. He sent a telegram to Truman explaining his fears of the Sovier Expansion, presenting it as aggressive and a colonialist power that wanted to expand communism. He recommended a policy of containment (trying to stop the spread of communism)

Question 9

Novikov telegram

Answer 9

Nikolai Novikov, Soviet Ambassor in the USA, sent an email to Stalin. In his telegram, he presented the USA as a power that wanted to establish world dominance.

Question 10

How was Soviet Control carried out, 1945-47

Answer 10

Poland: Rigged elections in 1947 led to the creation of a totally communist goverment. The opposition fled
Romania: The Soviet Amry invervened in March 1945 and forced the goverment to retire and the king to name a communist goverment. The monarchy was later abolished
Hungary: The communists used the economic crisis to seize control by forcing the goverment to resign. The communists then banned all other parties
Bulgaria: A communist goverment was setup in November 1945 and then all political parties were banned
Czechoslovakia: the communists in the goverment in the goverment prosecuted all non-communists and murdered. Parties were banned
Yugoslavia: The communists won the elections, but they were different from the Soviet Union so they were expelled of the Communist International Bureau (comimform) and economic sanctions were applied on the,.

Question 11

Iron Curtain speech

Answer 11

In March 1946, after his defeat in the general elections, Winston Churchill did a speech in the USA. He said that Europe was now separated by an Iron Curtain, an imaginary line that separated the communist East from the capitalist West. He also suggested an alliance to stop the spread of communism. This worsened the USA-Soviet relationships as it was seen as a provocative speech

Question 12

Truman Doctrine

Answer 12

A policy started bt Truman (USA president) in 1947 to stop the spread of communism. The USA did this by using its military and economic resources, for example the Marhsall plan to help reconstruct Europe without Soviet influence, trying to stop the growth of autoritarisms by instating a democracy. The Soviet Union stooped its proxies from receiving aid from America, instead, they introduced the comecon. The most benefitiated countries were England, France and Western Germany

Question 13

The Berlin Crisis 1948-49, causes, events and consequences

Answer 13

First major crisis of the Cold War.

Causes: Soviet Union didn’t want a capitalist part of Berlin as they didn’t want the people of Eastern Germany to get influenced by capitalism. They also wanted Germany to remain weak as they were close to them,which was the opposite to what the West was doing with the Marshall Plan.

Events:
March; the communists Soviets left the Allied assembly taht controlled Germany. complaining that the west made the situation impossible to work in.
April: Allied Zones included in the Marshall Plan. Soviet troops began to investigate cars going into Berlin
June: West announces plan to create a unified West Germany, introducing new currecny, Soviet Union saw this as a threat. The 24th, Stalin cut off the road, rail and canal going into Berlin to try to force the allies out of Berlin
Berlin Airlift: The allies sent planes wit hfood and other resources to Berlin for overe 10 months. The soviets tried to stop it by putting weahter balloons. Truman sent nuclear planes to Britain as a threat to the USSR. 4600 tonnes were sent every day.
12 May 1949, Stalin called off the blockade.

Consequences: Geramny was now more divided than ever. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was created to unite the west against the Soviet Union. Stalin saw that as a threat to the USSR

Question 14

Warsaw Pact

Answer 14

Soviet response to the creation of NATO. Alliance of all the coutries in the soviet sphere of influence, except for yugoslavia.

Question 15

Arms race 41-58

Answer 15

The USSR tried to develop the Atomic Bomb after Manhattan Project and Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both superpowers incerased their military spending. USA from 13.5 to 49.6 in 4 years, USSR from 13.4 to 25,5
The Space Race also affected the relationships. It was a competition to see which system is better. It also caused fear as the space could be used to attack the other countries. The USSR was winning at the time with Sputnik, the first space satellite. The USA responded with a bigger investment and the creation of NASA.

Question 16

Hungarian Uprising

Answer 16

1956

Causes:
Rakosi, the Prime Minister was terrible. The economy went really badly because the Comecon stopped them from trading with the West. He also used terror in order to get rid of the opposition. After Stalin’s death, he was replaced by Imre Nagy. After the creation of the Warsaw Pact, Rakosi was reinstated as Prime Minister, but when Khruschev came to power, he started a process of de-stalination and got rid of Rakosi and put Erno Gero in power.

Events:
23 October 1956: Students demonstrated against the Soviet control and demanidng free elections, free press and the withdraw of the Soviet Troops. The statue of Stalin was pulled down.
Khrushceve sends tanks and troops to stop the protests.
25th october: the tanks open fire, killing many people, Erno Gero resigns and Nagy came back as prime minister.
Nagy and the rebels demanded free elections, press and market to trade with te west. The USA said that Hungary could “count on us”. He also wanted to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact, which Khrushchev didn’t want to look weak so he decided to send the Soviet Army to Hungary. The soviet gained quick control of the territory and arrested and killed Nagy.

Consequences:
Soviet regained control and Hungary stayed in the Warsaw pact
Americans emphasizes with them, Ed Sullivan raised 6 million dollars to send to the refugees

Question 17

Berlin Crisis of 1961

Answer 17

Berlin Wall

Causes:
4 million germans fled from East Germany because of the poor living conditions. They were mainly highly educated people. This was known as the brain drain.
Fear of NATO. West Germany, and technically West Berlin had joined NATO and it was an economic power in opposite to the communist part of the country.

Events:
Khrushchev’s Ultimatum: Khrushchev sent an ultimatum to the West saying that they should leave Berlin in the next six months
.
Paris Summit 1960: Khrushchev and Eisenhower were going to meet in Paries but an American U-2 plane was caught spying the USSR and the USA refused to apologise, this led to the summit being cancelled

VIennta 1961: Khruschev organised a new meeting with the new president, Kennedy. He was hoping to manopulate him as he was new in politics, but he wasn’t able. They didn’t an reach an agreement and they both increased the military spending

Building of the Wall. August 1961 the Soviets started the construction of the wall around West Berlin.

Checkpoint Charlie: October 1961, The USSR placed troops and tanks on their side of checkpoint charlie to dispute the Soviet right to control the passs of people. The Soviets also placed theirs on their side. Kennedy and Khruschev reached an agreement and the troops left.

Kennedy’s visit to Berlin: 1963, he did a speech next ot the wall complaining about it and said”Ich bin eine berlina” I’m from berlin” People from the other side of the wall applauded

Consequences:
German families were now separated and they could not go to the other side

Question 18

Both crisis in Cuba.

Answer 18

1959-1962

Causes:
Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro organised a revolution against dictator and americam friend, Fulgencio Batista. During the revolution, the revolutionaries expropirated American properties in Cuba. This led to the USA imposing sanctions such as stop buying Cuban sugar and stopping american companies from doing deals with them. They were also scared of the spread of communism as Castro was a communist.
Soviets: The soviets became Cuba’s biggest ally after America stopped making deals with them. They traded sugar and sent them economic aid.

Bay of Pigs
Events:
Bay of Pigs: The CIA, under the rule of Eisenhower, started training Cuban refugees to invade Cuba (La Brigada 2506). When the invasion started, in April 1961, there was a new president, JF Kennedy. They were expecting the Cuban population to jjoijoin them but that didn’t happen. They were quickly defeated and the Americans had to pay a rescue in money and resources.

Consequences:
Increase in tension between the USA and the USSR.
Cuba became bigger ally of the USSR, which led to the Cuban Missile crisis

Cuban Missile Crisis 1962:
Events:
Khrushchev decided to install missiles in Cuba, wher they could attack the USA.
14 October 1962: A U-2 spy plane takes photos of the soviet missiles, showing that they could attack the USA.
Kennedy sets up a commitee to decide what to do,
22 October; Kennedy’s speechi n TV announcing a naval quarantine to stop the Soviets finishing the missiles.
24 October: Soviet ships approacedh Cuba, Kennedy demanded the removal of the missiles.
26 October: Khrushchev offers retiring the missiles if the USa promises not invading. USA doesn’t respond.
27 October. Khrushchev now demands the missiles in Turkey to be removed. U2 spy plane shot down in the USSR.
28 October: Kennedy accepts the conditions of the original letter and then sens his brother to the Soviet embassy to say they were going to remove the missiles from Turkey.
Consequences:
Hotline: direct way of communication between White House and Kremlin.
Tension increased
Treaties: they signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty for nuclear bomds, Outer Space treaty (no weapons in space) and the Nuclear Non-proliferation treaty (stop producing nuclear bomds) Beginning of detente

Question 19

Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia

Answer 19

1968

Causes:
Novotny was a hard-line communist, didn’t like reforms and didn’t follow Khrushchev’s process of destalination
The economy was going was going really badly as the Soviet Union forced them to produce materials that they needed and stopped them from producing consumer goods. Novotny’s New Economic Model was unsuccessful.
Novotny was challenged by a series of reformists who invited Brezhnev to see what was going on and after seeing his unpopularity, Brezhnev replaced him with Dubcek as leader of the party and a war hero who followed Dubcek as president

Dubcek promised in the prague spring reforms in 1968, these included: greater political freedo, reduction of the powers of the state, remove ecnomic restrictions, introduce a democratic system and creation of work councils.

Events.
Social Democrats formed a rival party to face the communists.
Ludvik Vaculik published a manifesto, the two thousand words, calling peole of chezchoslovakia to take initiative to get more extreme reofrms.
The Soviet Union was fearful as Chezchoslovakia, due to its location and economy was one of the most important members of the Warsaw Pact. They also wanted to stop those ideas from spreading around the world.
Thousands of troops from Warsaw Pact countries, includign Bulgaira, East Germany and Poland invaded Chezchoslovakia. They took over after fighting against the population and forced Dubcek and the reformists to stop the move towards a democcracy and they got replaced by hard-line communists.

Consequences

Brezhnev doctrine: any coutnry that threatened the security of the Eastern Block could be invaded by the Soviet Union.
Huge protests in chezchoslovakia, a teenager set himself in firee.
Soviet-Western relationships worsened, however the USA didn’t do anything because there was an unspoken agreement between USA and Soviet Union, if they didn’t take part in Chezckoslovakia, the USSR would not take part in Vietnam.
The Eastern Block lost support from the communist parties in Western Europe. They also lost support from other communists countries like China fearing that they will do the same with them.

Question 20

Detente in the 1970s

Answer 20

Reasons for detente:
Fear of nuclear war after the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The USA wanted to end Vietnam War, started by the USA to stop the spread of communism, however it was clearly failing.

Events
Nixon’s visit to Moscow: Nixon visited Moscow in 1972. Nixon wanted to end Vietnam (Brezhnev acted as the middle man between Washington and Hanoi to stop the war) and Brezhnev wanted access to US technology.
SALT I: Strategic Arms Limitation Talks I(SALTI) was a series of agreements to stop the growth of tension. This included limitation of Anti-ballistic missiles and a five year freeze on the number of Inter Continental Ballistic Misslies (ICBM) and Submarine-launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBM)
Yom Kippur War: USSR and USA agreed on a response to the war between Israel and Syria and Egypt, sending a UN peacekeeping force that lead to the a ceasefire in October 1973
Second visit to Moscow: Nixon went to Moscow in July 1974, they agreed to continue peace talks, disarmament, eliminate sources of tension and develop economic, social and scietific alliances
Space kiss: On July 1975, the American spaceship Apollo and the Soviet Soyouz linked in space and there was a handshake betweeen the astronauts
Helsinki agreements: threee baskets of agreements, security (mainly in Europe), cooperation (social, economical and technological) and human rights (respect human rights)
SALT II:limit strategic nuclear weapons, MIRV, ban of new UCBM launchers and deployemtn of new types of strategic offensive arms.

End:
Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 becuase of Islamic fundamentalism, which wanted to overcome the communsit regime in Afghanistan.

Question 21

Second Cold War