Cold War 1945-1972

Question 1

Who were the two main Superpowers during the cold war?

Answer 1

The United States of America
and
The Soviet Union

Question 2

Why was the cold war ‘cold’

Answer 2

The cold war was cold because there wasn’t any direct conflict between the two Superpowers. (The wars that were fought, were instead proxy wars)

Question 3

What is a Proxy War?

Answer 3

When the Superpowers allied themselves to opposing sides of pre-existing conflicts e.g. the Korean war

Question 4

What is Capitalism?

Answer 4

A political ideology based around working hard, making money and private business as the backbone of the economy.

Question 5

What is Communism?

Answer 5

A political ideology based around sharing money and State-owned businesses and fixed economy

Question 6

What are the key properties of Capitalist states?

Answer 6

Private businesses/enterprise
Free economy
Making money
Democracy
Wealth/class difference

Question 7

What are the key properties of Communist states?

Answer 7

State-owned Businesses
Controlled Economy
Sharing money
One party government
Equal wealth

Question 8

What was the Grand Alliance?

Answer 8

The Grand Alliance was the term for the partnership made between the superpowers to fight the Nazis in the latter half of WW2

Question 9

Who was in the Grand Alliance?

Answer 9

The USA
The USSR
The UK (not as powerful as the others but still had superpower status at the time)

Question 10

What is a Superpower?

Answer 10

An extremely powerful nation (economically, technologically an militarily) that has influence over the world.

Question 11

What was agreed at Yalta?

Answer 11

1. Germany was to be reduced in size, divided, demilitarised and forced to pay $20 bn in reparations
2. The USSR would declare war on Japan
3. The founding of the United Nations

Question 12

What were Stalin’s main aims after WW2?

Answer 12

Stalin wanted to achieve Soviet security by creating a buffer zone in eastern Europe and lessening the technological gap between the soviets and the USA by creating a soviet atomic bomb.

Question 13

What was the Long Telegram?

Answer 13

The long telegram was an 8000 word message (unusually long for a telegram) sent from an American diplomat in Moscow to the US, which declared that the soviets saw the Americans as enemies and that peaceful co-existence was impossible.

Question 14

How did the Soviets expand their influence into Eastern Europe?

Answer 14

When the nazis fell, all of eastern europe was occupied by the soviet red army. During this occupation, the Soviets were able to support local communist parties, pushing them into positions of power until they were able to force non-communists out of coalition governments, rig elections and eventually ban all other parties. The cominform then meant that all these new communist states were loyal to the soviets.

Question 15

What was the cominform?

Answer 15

The cominform was the governing body for the eastern european communist states. It wad lead by the USSR.

Question 16

How did the communists seize power in Czechslovakia?

Answer 16

Despite the communist party being popular in Czechslovakia, they had failed to eradicate other parties and ideologies. Fearing that the communists would eventually lose out to other parties, the Soviet Union backed a full-scale communist coup detat in 1948. On 25/2/1948, Edward Benes, the President of Czechoslavakia, capitulated and Klement Gottwald and his communist party took his place.

Question 17

Who were the key figures in the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia?

Answer 17

Edward Benes, The President of Czechoslovakia and communist opponent

Klement Gottwald, The Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia and leader of the communist party

Rudolf Slansky, second in command of the communist party and responsible for the purging of non-communists

Ambassador Valerian Zorin, the soviet diplomat who arranged the coup

Jan Masaryk, the last prominent non-communist government official. Was eventually assassinated

Question 18

What was agreed at Potsdam?

Answer 18

1. The division of Germany as previously discussed at Yalta.
2. The banning of the Nazi party
3. The trial of nazi leaders as war criminals (Nuremberg)
4. Germans in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia would be sent back to Germany.
5. The Polish and Soviet borders would be moved westwards.

Question 19

Who were the leaders at Potsdam?

Answer 19

President Truman (USA), Roosevelt’s vice President who ascended to power after the former died, Prime Minister Clement Attlee (UK), the labour leader who beat Churchill in a general election, and Joseph Stalin (USSR)

Question 20

What was the major event that occurred during the Potsdam crisis?

Answer 20

The USA dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

Question 21

When was the bombing of Hiroshima?

Answer 21

6th of August 1945

Question 22

What Japanese city was also bombed afterwards?

Answer 22

Nagasaki

Question 23

What were the effects of the bombing of Hiroshima?

Answer 23

1. 70,000 Japanese citizens were killed leading Japan to surrender.
2. End of WW2
3. The USA gained a huge military advantage and was thus more assertive in terms of foreign policy.
4. Security became an even bigger issue for the soviets and soon they launched an atomic weapons programme of their own.

Question 24

What was the Marshall plan?

Answer 24

The Marshall plan was an American economic initiative that aimed to create a market for American goods, help Europe recover from the damage of WW2 and make communism less appealing.

Question 25

Who made the Marshall plan?

Answer 25

US Secretary of State George Marshall

Question 26

What was the soviet response to the Marshall plan?

Answer 26

Stalin considered the Marshall plan to be “dollar imperialism” and soon the soviets responded with their own economic initiative, Comecon

Question 27

How much money did the Marshall plan provide?

Answer 27

$13.15 bn (over $115bn in todays money)

Question 28

What does dollar imperialism mean?

Answer 28

This term meant that the USA was trying to enslave other nations but with money instead of military force.

Question 29

What lead to the Berlin Blockade, 1948-1949?

Answer 29

France, Britain and the USA wanted to combine their German territory. Stalin saw this as an attempt to revive Nazism and a violation of the Potsdam agreement. In response he enforced a blockade around Western controlled Berlin, in an attempt to force the West out.

Question 30

How did the West respond to the Berlin Blockade?

Answer 30

By flying in supplies to Western Berlin, every 3 minutes for an entire year. This huge logistical operation became known as the Berlin Airlift.

Question 31

What other names did the Berlin Airlift have?

Answer 31

Operation Vittles, Operation Plain fare

Question 32

How did the Berlin Crisis, 1948-1949 end?

Answer 32

1. The blockade was lifted in may, 1949
2. The official division of West and East Germany
3. The formation of NATO
4. A propaganda win for the west, a propaganda defeat for the soviets.

Question 33

What is NATO?

Answer 33

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
A military alliance, initially between 12 nations (UK,USA,France, Italy,Canada..). It was primarily against the USSR. It is based on collective security.

Question 34

What does Collective Security mean?

Answer 34

An attack on one member of the alliance prompts a response from all the other members.

Question 35

How did the Soviets respond to NATO?

Answer 35

By forming their own military alliance, The Warsaw Pact (USSR, Poland, Hungary etc)

Question 36

What country developed the atomic bomb, hydrogen bomb and nuclear firing submarines first?

Answer 36

The USA

Question 37

What country developed the ICBM (nuclear missile) first, and created the most powerful hydrogen bomb?

Answer 37

The USSR

Question 38

What was the Arms Race?

Answer 38

The arms race was a period between the 1940s-1960s in which both of Superpowers heavily built up their nuclear arsenal and developed nuclear technology in order to gain an advantage over the other.

Question 39

What did Comecon allow?

Answer 39

Comecon allowed the members of Cominform to provide economic aid to each other.

Question 40

What is Mutually Assured Destruction?

Answer 40

Mutually Assured Destruction or MAD is the idea that in nuclear warfare no side wins as declaring a bomb strike on another country will result in your own country getting bombed.