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History usa 1929 - 2000 > Cold war rivalry > Flashcards

Cold war rivalry Flashcards

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1
Q

Reasons for US involvement in the cold war

A
  • Fear of communism
    The capitalist USA feared the spread of communism after the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 as they believed in worldwide revolution to spread communism
  • Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe
    Having freed most of Europe from the Nazis, the Red army remained in occupation and the soviet union established communist governments closely controlled from Moscow in the soviet satellite states
  • Attitude of Truman
    Truman distrusted Stalin and was convinced that the USSR wanted to take over the whole of Europe. Truman successfully tests an atomic bomb at a desert site at the USA and Stalin was furious
  • Post-war developments (Yalta and Potsdam)
    Berlin and Germany was divided into 4 sections, USSR, UK, France, and USA. The soviet wanted reparations from WW2 but Truman refused and saw germany as a possible barrier to expansion of soviets.
  • The long telegram
    George Kennan (deputy chief mission at US embassy) saw the USSR as aggressive and suspicious and recommend firm action by the USA against soviet expansion. His telegram greatly influenced Truman policies in the cold war, especially containment.
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2
Q

Truman Doctrine

A
  • US policy of containment
  • Announced in a speech in march 1947
  • Decided to make this doctrine after the Uk could no longer afford financial aid for Greece and turkey and truman feared that this would allow communism to spread into the west of europe
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3
Q

Consequences of the Truman Doctrine

A
  • The greek government was able to defeat the communist
  • The rivalry between the USA and USSR increased and within a year the first serious crisis of the cold war would begin
  • The USA became committed to the policy off containment and far more involved in European affairs
  • The USA decided to provide economic aid to Europe known as the Marshall plan
  • In 1947, Stalin set up the Communist Information Bureau, Cominform to link communist parties in Eastern Europe and worldwide in. common action
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4
Q

The marshall plan

A
  • Truman backed up his policy of containment with economic aid to Europe
  • He believed that communism generally won support in countries with economic problems
  • Many European countries had suffered from WW2 and were struggling
  • If the USA could help these countries then there would be no need to tun to communism
  • This plan was announced in June 1947
  • Aid would take the form of cash, food, machinery and technological assistance. In return these countries would buy US goods and allow US companies to invest capital in their industries
  • Europe became more firmly divided
  • By 1953, the USA had provided $17 billion in Marshall aid
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5
Q

Domino theory

A

This is the belief that if one country falls to communism, this would trigger the fall of its neighbouring countries.

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6
Q

The Berlin Crisis (1948-49)

Reasons

A
  • During the Yalta and Potsdam conferences in 1945, the allies had agreed to divide Germany and Berlin into 4 zones
  • East Germany and the western allies were allowed to access their sectors by road, rail, canal and air
  • The western zones received large amounts of Marshall aid and set up free elections to establish democracy
  • The west announced a plan to create a west German state and new currency, Stalin accused of the west interfering in the soviet zone
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7
Q

The berlin crisis (1948-49)

Events

A
  • 24th June 1948, Stalin cut off road, rail and canal traffic to Berlin from the western zones in attempt to starve to allies out of west Berlin
  • Truman was determined to stand up to the USSR and show that he was serious about containment
  • Truman wanted Berlin to be a symbol of freedom behind the iron curtain
  • The allies decided to airlift supplies fro their bases in west Germany .
  • The airlift began on 28th June 1948 and lasted for 10 months (the brutish called it ‘operation plain fire’)
  • It was the start of the biggest airlift in history
    16-17th April, 1949, the flights nearly landed 13 tonnes of supplies in 24 hours
  • They were supplied with food, clothes, oil and building materials
  • During this period there were a total of 275,000 flights with an avg of 4000 tonnes of supplies each day
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8
Q

The Berlin crisis (1948-49)

Results

A
  • On 12th may 1949, Stalin called off the blockade, he had failed to starve the allies out of west Berlin
  • This greatly increase East and West rivalry
  • Led to the creation of the NATO
  • Trumans policy of containment had worked
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9
Q

NATO

A
  • In April 1949 the North Atlantic Treaty was signed, establishing NATO
  • Its main purpose was to prevent soviet expansion
  • Stalin saw the NATO as an ‘aggressive alliance’ acmes at the USSR
  • In 1955, the USSR made its own rival organisation known was the Warsaw pact, which was an alliance of 8 countries to counter threat to NATO
  • Increased tension of the cold war
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10
Q

The Berlin crisis (1961)

A
  • In August 1961, Khrushchev (leader of USSR) orders the constriction of a wall to separate east Berlin from the west
  • From Jan 1961 the number of refugees leaving the east Berlin had increased to 20,000 per month, Khrushchev thought this had to be stopped
  • In order to bully new president John F Kennedy, Khrushchev created a tense stand off with soviet and US tanks on 27th to the 28th of October. Kennedy was forced to back down.
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11
Q

The Cuban missile crisis

Causes

A
  • The USA had played an important part in Cubans affairs, propping up the dictatorship of Batista since 1934
  • However a revolution in 1959 had bought Fidel Castro into power
  • Castro had ejected all US businessmen and investment.
  • In retaliation, the USA refused to buy Cuba’s biggest export, sugar, but the USSR offered to buy the sugar and extend soviet influence
  • In April 1961, Kennedy sanctioned an invasion of Cuba by exiled who had left Cuba in 1959
  • The bay of Pigs invasion was a failure due to poor planning and lack of support in Cuba, where Castro was popular
  • It was a humiliation for the USA and further strengthened Castro’s position in Cuba and drew Cuba even closer to the USA
  • At the end of 1961, Castro announced his conversion to communism
  • Khrushchev saw the opportunity to extend soviet influence in Cuba. He was concerned by US missile bases in Italy and Turkey and wanted to establish soviet bases in Cuba to redress the balance
  • In 1962, the soviet began to install ballistic missiles on Cuba
  • On 14th October, an Americans U-2 spy plane took photographs of Cuba and it showed the missiles being constructed which posed a serious threat to the country’s security
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12
Q

The Cuban Missile crisis

Events

A

The Crisis lasted 13 days in October 1962

16th October : Kennedy was told that Khrushchev intended to build missile sites on Cuba

18-19th October : Kennedy held talks with his closest advisors. The ‘hawks’ wanted an aggressive policy while the ‘doves’ favored a peaceful solution

20th October : Kennedy decided to impose a naval blockade around Cuba to prevent soviet missiles reaching Cuba. Us forces searched very ship

21st October : Kennedy made a broadcast to the Americans people, informing them of the potential threat and what he intended to do

23rd October : Khrushchev sent a letter to Kennedy insisting that soviet ships would force their way though the blockade

24th October : Khrushchev issued a statement insisting that the USSR would use nuclear weapons in the event of a war

25th October : Kennedy wrote to Khrushchev asking him to withdraw missiles from Cuba

26th October : Khrushchev replied to Kennedy;s letter. He said that he would withdraw the missiles if the USA promised not to invade Cuba and withdrew its missiles from Turkey

27th October : A US spy plane was shot down over Cuba. Robert Kennedy agreed a deal with the USSR. The USA would withdraw missiles from turkey as long as the deal was kept secret

28th October : Khrushchev accepted the deal

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13
Q

Cuban Missile Crisis

Results

A
  • Kennedy seemed to have won the war of words and the perception was that Khrushchev backed down
  • The superpowers had played a game of brinkmanship
  • The superpowers had almost gone to war- a war that would have destroyed much of the world, there was relief that the crisis was over and there was a reduction in tension
  • Further improvement came when the Partial Test ban Treaty was singed in August 1963 whereby both the USA and the USSR agreed to stop testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere
  • The case for intervention to turn back communism had been shows to be too dangerous
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14
Q

Reasons for US involvement in Vietnam

A
  • Vietnam was a french colony but the defeat of the french in 1954 resulted in far greater US involvement
  • It was part of the US policy of containment and the domino theory
  • The USA was convinced that if Vietnam fell to communism it would be followed by its neighboring countries, Laos and Cambodia
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15
Q

Key dates of US and Vietnam involvement

A

The Geneva Agreement 1954

  • Following the defeat of the French at Diem Bien Phu by the Vietminh, Vietnam would be divided along the 17th parallel into north and south Vietnam
  • The north was lead by communist Ho Chi Minh and the south was lead by non communist Diem

Vietcong terror campaign 1959
- Ho Chi Minh issued orders to the Vietminh (Vietcong) to begin a terror campaign against the south

Overthrow of Diem 1963

  • In November ‘63 Diem, who was a corrupt and unpopular ruler was overthrown and replaced by a series of short-lived and weak governments
  • The Vietcong became popular in the south

Failure of ‘Strategic Hamlet Policy’ 1963

  • Under Kennedy, the USA tried to reduce communist influence through this policy
  • It involved moving peasants into fortified villages, guarded by troops
  • It did not stop the communists and was very unpopular with the peasants

Gulf of Tonkin incident 1964

  • President Johnson wanted more direct military involvement in Vietnam but needed an excuse
  • On 2nd august 1864 the US destroyer Maddox was fired on north Vietnamese patrol boats in the Gulf of Tonkin
  • Johnson was able to use these attacks to persuade congress to support greater US involvement
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16
Q

US warfare - ‘Operation Rolling thunder’

A
  • Us bombing campaign of North Vietnam that lasted 3.5 years from 1965-68
  • They hoped it would destroyVietcong supply routes to the south
  • It encouraged even greater support for the war from North Vietnam and didn’t not stop the supplies to the Vietcong from the North
17
Q

US warfare - Chemical warfare

A
  • Chemical weapons such as defoliants were used to destroy the jungle cover for the Vietcong
  • One weapon was called ‘agent orange’ a highly toxic weed killer used to destroy the jungle. The Americans used 82 million litres of Agent orange to spray thousands of km of jungle
  • Napalm was another chemical weapon use by the USA. It was a type of bomb that exploded and showered the victims with burning petroleum jelly
  • It burnt at 800 degrees
18
Q

US warfare - ‘search and destroy’

A
  • US commander in Vietnam established secure and heavily defended US bases in the south near the coast
  • From here, US and south Vietnamese forces launched search and destroy tactics using helicopters
  • This meant that they would decide on a village suspected of supporting got Vietcong and would destroy it
  • The troops called these attacks ‘zippo’ raids after the names of the lighters they used
19
Q

Fails of ‘search and destroy’

A
  • Inexperienced US fighter would often walk into traps
  • Inadequate information often meant that innocent villages were destroyed
  • Civilian casualties were often very high with most having little connection with the Vietcong
  • These raids would usually kill a handful fo Vietcong guerrilla fighters
  • USA and ARVN became very unpopular with south Vietnamese peasants and made them more likely to support the vietcong.
20
Q

Reasons for US defeat

Strengths of communists

A

Fighting for a cause
- The north Vietnamese and vietcong were fighting for
communism and reunification of Vietnam
- They refused to surrender even after the US bomb
attacks
- They were prepared to accept heavy casualties

Effective Guerilla tactics
- The Vietcong rough a ‘low tech’ war using very
successful guerrilla tactics which avoided pitched battle
and reduced the effectiveness of the USAs ‘high tech’
- These methods were ideally suited the jungle terrain

Support from USSR and China
- Both of these countries supported the reunification of
Vietnam under the communist north
- They supplied Vietnam

Support from south Vietnamese

  • Some believed in reunification and communism
  • Others were alienated by US tactics and brutality
  • Their support made the Guerrilla tactics more effective.
21
Q

Reasons for US defeat in Vietnam

Weakness of the USA

A

The US troops

  • Many were too young and inexperienced and unable to cope withe guerrilla warfare
  • Most did not understand why they were fighting in

Vietnam
- Fall in morale and some resulted in drug taking and brutal behaviour (Lai massacre where troops murdered
347 men women and children

Opposition at home
- A failure to achieve quick victory
- 58,000 dead
- Televised pictures showing the horrors of the war such
as the use of napalm

Failure of US tactics
- The US army failed to develop an effective response to
vietconcg guerrilla tactics
- US tactics for example search and destroy’ and chemical warfare encouraged greater peasant support of the vietcong

The Tet Offensive

  • On 31st Jan 1968, the vietcong launched a massive attack over 100 cities and towns in south Vietnam during the Tet holiday
  • It showed that the Vietcong could strike at the heart of the American-held territory
  • It brought further loss of US military morale
  • To the US public, the war seemed unwindable and it fuelled further criticism of US involvement
22
Q

US withdrawal

A
  • By 1969 ever 36,000 members of the US military had been killed in the war
  • Nixon unveiled his plan to end US involvement in Vietnam, known as Vietnamization
  • The idea was that the south Vietnamese soldiers would be trained and equipped to take the place of US troops
  • The strategy did not work because the south troops were no match to the north
23
Q

Peace talks

A
  • Peace talks to end the war had begun as early as 1968 but no action was taken
  • When nixon visited china in 1972, after the cheese encouraged more co-operation from North Vietnam
  • On 23rd January 1973, a ceasefire was singed in Paris, followed 4 dis by a peace treaty in which the USA promised to withdraw fully all its troops and the vietcong was allowed to gold on to all the captured areas of south Vietnam
  • Within 2 years, the communists had defeated the south vietnamese’s armed forced and reunited Vietnam
  • The US had failed in its attempts to stop the spread of communism in south-east Asia
  • Cambodia and Laos also fell to communism proving the domino theory to be true
24
Q

The effects of the war

A
  • US involvement in the war was very expensive and in 1964, the war cot the taxpayer under half a billion dollars but within 4 years this increased to $26.5 billion.
  • The war was the main reason for the rising inflation in 1968
  • The war made president Johnson very unpopular
  • Americans policy if containment had failed. The war showed that even the USAs vast troops could not stop the spread
  • In 1975, Laos and Cambodia had communist governments
  • The Vietnam war was a propaganda disaster and did much to lessen its influence on world affairs
  • Developed detente
  • Nixon doctrine emerged which stated that the USA expected its allies to take care of their own military defence
  • The loss made an unwillingness to become involved in further conflicts

History usa 1929 - 2000 (7 decks)

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