Cold War Crises, 1958-70: Reaction to Crisis

Question 1

Timeline of Cuban Missile Crisis

Answer 1

All in 1962:
* 16 Oct spy planes find missile sites
* 22 Oct Kennedy decides to blockade Cuba
* 24 Oct 1 Soviet oil tanker allowed through blockade all other ships turned away
* 25 Oct US and USSR prepare for nuclear war
* 26-27 Oct Cuba ready for invasion. Krushchev offers to remove missiles if US does so in Italy and Turkey. Spy planes shot down over Cuba, ‘Hawks’ want retaliation. Kennedy’s brother arranges deal where US secretly removes warheads from Italy and Turkey
* 28 Oct Krushchev accepts, US promises not to attack Cuba

Question 2

Short-term consequences of crisis

Answer 2

• Communist Cuba survived as Kennedy assured US wouldn’t invade Cuba
• USSR looked weak, world didn’t know of removed US warheads. undermined Krushchev, Brezhnev replaced him 1964
• US ‘doves’ came out well, desire to avoid war meant warheads removed.

Question 3

Long Term Consequences

Answer 3

• Caused period of Détente
• Hotline agreement set a hotline between Washington and Moscow
• Limited Test Ban Treaty August 1963- banned all nuclear tests except underground tests
• 1963 Kennedy gave speech about working with USSR for ‘common interests’
• USSR caught up to US in 1965 in arms race. MAD would make war neccessary to avoid
• Outer Space Treaty 1967, banned deployment of nuclear weapons in space
• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 1968 agreement not to share nuclear technology with other countries.

Question 4

Impact of Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia on West

Answer 4

• US and West Germany condemned invasion and Brezhnev doctrine, described as ‘the rape of Czechoslovakia’
• However US and West Germany offered no military support. US already bogged down by Vietnam war and avoided potential International crisis
• Communist leaders, like Jacques Duclos in France and Enrico Berlinguer in Italy, appalled and ended links with USSR

Question 5

Impact of Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia on East

Answer 5

• Invasion and Brezhnev doctrine limited reforms in Eastern Bloc
• Countries such as Poland pursued policies against public demands for change leading to protests
• Invasion strengthened Soviet grip on Eastern Bloc as they could use military force.
• Crisis exposed differences in Eastern Bloc with Romania and Yugoslavia condemning invasion and allying with communist China

Question 6

Impact of Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia on superpower relations

Answer 6

• Did little to damage détente because less than 100 died as a result
• Invasion created complacency in Brezhnev’s mind. Believed Soviet invasion of pro-Soviet countries wouldn’t be challenged by US. Proved wrong by response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan 1979