Cold War Crises, 1958-70: Increased Tension Flashcards
West Berlin
- Deep inside Soviet-controlled East Germany.
- Divided Berlin gave US a foothold inside Soviet Eastern Bloc
- Some East Germans didn’t like having a communist government
- Better jobs with higher wages in the West
- easy to get to west Germany from West Berlin
Refugee problem in Berlin
- 1949-1961, 2.7 million East Germans crossed into West Germany via West Berlin. Population of West Germany increased with economy benefitting from influx of skilled workers. Many left for West leaving East with skills shortage
- Looked bad for Soviets since people clearly preferred capitalist West Germany
Krushchev’s Berlin Ultimatum
November 1958
* Stated all Berlin belonged to East Germany and occupying troops must leave in 6 months
* USSR knew that if it tried to remove West out by force it woud cause a war it couldn’t win. So a series of summit meating happened between the leaders of the US and USSR
The Cuban Revolution and the effect on the US and USSR
Before 1559 Cuba very close to US, lots of US-owned businesses. Cuba had a socialist revolution 1959 and US refused to deal with new government. Cuba started to build economic links to USSR, trading Soviet oil for Cuban sugar. realtionship between US and Cuba deteriorates
Summit meetings 1959-1961 between USA and USSR
- May 1959-Geneva summit, only foreign representatives-No solution agreed but further summit agreed camp David USA
- September 1959- Camp David, Eisenhower and Krushchev- No solution but further summit at Paris
- May 1960- Paris summit, Eisenhower and Krushchev- Disaster, Krushchev stormed out because U2 US spy plane shot down over Russia
- June 1961- Vienna Conference, Kennedy and Krushchev- Neither willing to back down, Krushchev considered kennedy inexperienced and reissued Berlin Ultimatum for US to remove troops
US response to Fidel Castro
- US refused to recognise Castro’s government because it didn’t want a socailist country in their sphere of influence, especially not one with links to USSR
- CIA tried to assassinate Castro with no success
- CIA convinced Kennedy that an invasion of Cuba, designed to overthrow Castro could solve the problem
Bay of Pigs incident
17 April 1961
CIA told Kennedy
* Invasion would look like a Cuban revolt- Trained Cuban exiles and disguised US planes as Cuban
* Castro’s control of Cuba weak
* Most Cubans hate Castro
What actually happened:
* Planes recognised as US and photographed, published world knew US backed invasion
* Castro knew in advance, 1400 US-backed troops met 20000 Castro troops. US-backed troops surrendered
* Most cubans didn’t want the old leader Batista back because he was corrupt
Impact of Bay of Pigs Incident
- Ended all chances of friendly relationship with Cuba
- Castro announced he was communist
- Cuba and USSR built closer ties, including military defence for Cuba
Impact of Soviet rule in Czechoslovakia
- Czechoslovakia’s economy and living standards decline
- Any oppsoition to communism crushed
- Communist rule became unpopular
Alexander Dubček
- January 1968 became Czechoslovakian leader
- Good friend of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev
- Communist and supporter of Warsaw pact but wanted communism better and easier to live under. Dubček called it ‘Socialism with a human face’
- Reforms resulted in ‘Prague spring’ period of increased political freedom in April 1968, lots of criticism of communism resulted
Dubček’s reforms
- Relaxation of censorship - more freedom to say and write things even critical of communism.
- More democracy- other parties alongside communist party
- More power to Czechoslovakian government and Soviet control reduced
- Economy reformed with ‘market socialism’ allowing some ‘capitalist elements’
- Powers of secret police reduced
How Czechoslovaks responded to Dubček’s reforms
Students, intellectuals, workers and young members of the communist party welcomed Dubček’s reforms. Also led to writers such as Vaclav Havel and Milan Kundera writing books critical of Soviet-style communism.
However not everyone was happy with these reforms
How the rest of the communist world reacted to Dubček’s reforms
- Prague spring horrified many older Czechoslovakian communists, felt it would lead to collapse of communism in Czechoslovakia
- Brezhnev and other communists in Eastern Europe, such as Eric Honecker, leader of East Germany, concerned. Feared Prague spring would lead to demands for reform and a threat to communism in the Eastern bloc
- Brezhnev had a dilemna Dubček was a friend and military action would discredit him but if nothing was done expectations would rise and the Eastern bloc could collapse
