Cold War Unit 4 - Three crisis: Berlin, Cuba and Czechoslovakia late 1950s - early 1960s Flashcards
1
Q
Berlin refugee crisis
A
- 1958
- West Germany had a much higher standard of living than the east
- East Germans left to move to West Germany
- 1958 - 3m East Germans left for West Germany - 1/6th of the population
- Many skilled workers left to get higher salaries - engineers, technicians …
2
Q
Berlin Ultimatum
A
- Khrushchev demands Western nations to recognize East Germany as an independent country
- November 27th
- Demands Berlin should be demilitarized and Western troops withdrawn
- Demands Berlin to be a free city
- West had 6 months to make changed or all routes to Berlin handed over to East Germany
- Would have forced the West to talk to East German officials - making the country legitimate
3
Q
Geneva Summit
A
- May 1959
- First summit meeting the foreign ministers
- Held in Geneva, Switzerland
- No agreements reached on Berlin
- Eisenhower invited Khrushchev to the USA for talks
4
Q
Camp David
A
- September 1959
- Eisenhower and Khrushchev meet face to face for the first time
- No agreement on Berlin
- USSR withdraws Berlin Ultimatum
- Established better relations
- Further talks in Paris
5
Q
U-2 incident & Paris summit conference
A
- May 1st - American U-2 spy plane shot down in USSR
- Americans came it was a weather airplane
- USSR interrogates pilot who admits to spying mission
- Eisenhower refuses to apologize
- Khrushchev walks out of meeting
- No decisions made
6
Q
Vienna
A
- June 1961
- Kennedy president of USA
- Khrushchev believes Kennedy is inexperienced
- Both leaders wanted a strong position at Vienna talk
- Kennedy increases spending of armed forces by over $2B to protect USA from war
7
Q
Berlin Wall
A
- East German leader - Walter Ubricht - decides to close border
- August 12th 1961 - East German troops build barbed wire fence around Berlin to separate East and West
- 165km concrete wall made
8
Q
Impact of the Berlin Wall
A
- Escape attempts - 130 killed
- Two walls made with a no-man’s-land in the middle
- Guarded by booby traps, barbed wire, minefields, car barriers and lookout towers with machine-gun nests and searchlights
- Berliners couldn’t visit anyone on the other side
- Wall showed USSR had to lock people away from capitalism
- West Berlin became symbol of freedom and defiance
9
Q
USA relations with Cuba
A
- Scared of communism and pro-soviet regime
- July 1960 - Eisenhower reduced amount of sugar USA buys from Cuba
- October 1960 - banned trade with Cuba
- January 1961 - USA broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba
10
Q
Bay of Pigs
A
- Kennedy didn’t like communism near USA
- Agreed with a CIA plan made with Eisenhower
- Used Cuban exiles to launch an invasion to overthrow Castro - wanted to look like a counter-revolution
- April 17th 1961 - 1400 cuban exiles land on Bag of pigs Cuba to overthrow Castro
- Mission ended as a failure
11
Q
Reasons for failure of Bay of Pigs invasion
A
- Exiles had little military experience
- US could not send ground forces or air strikes to help - did not want to look like an attack from US
- Castro found out about invasion plans - 20000 Cuban soldier ready to fight invaders
- USA and exiles thought Cuban people would help them - didn’t happen
12
Q
Impacts of the Bay of Pigs
A
- Humiliating for USA
- Led to stronger relations between Cuba and USSR
- Castro declared himself a communist
- Khrushchev to help Castro with any further attack - would provide arms as of September 1961
13
Q
Cuban Missile Crisis
A
- October 14th 1962 - American spy planes found USSR building missile launch sites in Cuba
- CIA found USSR ships on the way to Cuba to bring more supplies and equipment for the nukes
- Kennedy had to get missiles out of Cuba
14
Q
Reasons for Missiles in Cuba
A
- NATO had missiles in Turkey - close to USSR - Khrushchev wanted them gone
- Berlin Wall seen as communist failure - wanted to restore reputation
- Khrushchev wanted to prevent a US attack on Cuba - didn’t want another communist defeat
15
Q
Thirteen Days
A
- October 16th-28th, 1962
- Kennedy called together an Executive Committee to meet for every day for 13 days on how to face nuclear war
- October 22nd - Kennedy decides to not launch an attack
- Instead sets up a naval blockade around Cuba - ‘quarantine’
- Kennedy announces news to the US public
- Kennedy prepares 54 bombers and 4 nukes in case of war
- October 23rd - Khrushchev ordered the Soviet ships to turn around
- October 24th - US finds about USSR ships turning around
- October 26th - Khrushchev sends telegram to Kennedy offering to remove Cuban missies if USA doesn’t invade
- October 27th - another telegram from Khrushchev saying he will only remove if US removes Turkey missiles
- Kennedy ignores second and agrees to first
- Khrushchev agrees - October 28th
- Kennedy’s brother - Robert - met with USSR ambassadors secretly and agreed to remove Turkish missiles
