International relations 1945-1960

Question 1

How much did Russia suffer during WW2?

Answer 1

• Stalin argued hat his country suffered grievously: possibly as many as 27 million dead, 25 million homeless and 6 mill buildings destroyed
• Nazi Germany invaded USSR without warning
• wanted security of knowing it can’t be attacked without warning
• thus wanted to control neighbours
• by invading Eastern Euro countries e.g Poland: demonstrated would influence them in future

Question 2

How were agreements with Russia under Roosevelt?

Answer 2

• Yalta in Feb 1945
• Roosevelt seemed to sympathise with Stalin
• it was agreed that Germany should be divided and forced to pay war reparations
• half would go USSR
• USSR gain land from Poland and Poland compensated with land from Germany

Question 3

What were Truman’s attitudes to Stalin?

Answer 3

• more critical; hadn’t fought war with him
• US endured less than 2% of human losses of USSR
• Truman did not consider this
• Meeting in Potsdam July: less amicable
• poll found 50% of Americans felt wartime co-operations between superpowers should con
• Stalin was imposing Communist regimes on many countries “liberated” from Nazi influence
• Romania: king given 2 hours to introduce pro-communist gov

Question 4

What was the Iron Curtain?

Answer 4

• Truman increasingly worried about Communism
• 1946: Churchill, visiting Fulton, Missouri, spoke of Iron Curtain descending through middle of Europe

Question 5

How was the spread of communism increasing under USSR?

Answer 5

• Soviets forced Czechoslovakia to adopt Communism in 1948
• Countries such as Romania, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia now governed by communists
• Cold War developed

Question 6

What was the Truman Doctrine?

Answer 6

• 1947
• Truman offered support of USA to countries struggling against Communism
• doctrine first applied in Greece: successful

Question 7

What was Marshall Aid?

Answer 7

• 1948
• USA offered $13 billion package to help Euro countries recover from effects of WW2
• conference of 22 nations set up to assess economic needs of affected countries
• USSR refused permission for countries under its sphere of influence to attend
• 16 Western European nations formed OEEC to spend this money
• help them recover + lose appeal for Communism

Question 8

What were the two crises that emerged that were close calls of direct confrontation?

Answer 8

• Berlin Airlift 1948-49
• NATO

Question 9

How was Germany split up?

Answer 9

• Germany divided 4 zones
• Berlin divided but in soviet zone
• Western powers relied on Soviet goodwill to travel through its zone
• 1948: western sectors recovering but soviet zone poor + communist

Question 10

When and what was the Berlin Airlift ?

Answer 10

• 1948-49
• June 1948: West introduced currency Deutschmark
• tried to introduce it to their sectors in Berlin: Stalin ordered all transport links with West cut
• believed could blockade Berlin into accepting Communist rule
• In retaliation Britain and USA organised an airlift of essential supplied to the city under siege
• 1949: 8000 tons of supplies per day being delivered despite Soviet threats to aircraft
• On 9 May: Stalin called off blockade - things back to normal

Question 11

What was the crisis with NATO?

Answer 11

• Berlin Crisis confirmed Truman’s commitment to containment in Europe
• April 1949: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was signed
• main purpose to prevent Soviet expansion
• countries agreed armed attack against one or more of them in Europe and North America would be considered as attack on all

Question 12

When was the Korean War?

Answer 12

• 1950-1953

Question 13

How did the Korean War begin?

Answer 13

• North and South with border at the 38th parallel
• South supported USA
• North Communist + hostile
• 1950: North Korea invaded South
• UN sent forces to stop this invasion; vast majority were American and under an American Commander: General Douglas MacArthur
• succeeded in liberating South Korea

Question 14

What did MacArthur do that he wasn’t supposed to?

Answer 14

• invaded North, ignoring China’s warning of consequences
• President Truman faced tremendous hostility within USA when he fired MacArthur for going beyond his instructions
• “soft on communism”

Question 15

How was North Korea helped by other countries?

Answer 15

• China sent thousands of troops to help the North Koreans
• Soviets secretly sent air forces to help North Koreans

Question 16

Describe the Korean War?
- fatalities
- how it ended

Answer 16

• Effectively became a stalemate for 3 years
• USA alone lost 27,000 troops + 1 million Korean civilians died
• 1953: peace of sorts agreed which Korea remained divided into communist North and non communist south

Question 17

What were the effects of the korean war on the US?
- communism

Answer 17

• USA learned communism global issue
• early 1950s President spoke of domino theory
• if one state fell to communism would be followed by neighbours
• later used to justify full-scale involvement in Vietnam War

Question 18

What were the effects of the korean war on the US?
- china

Answer 18

• Sino-American hostility greatly increased
• USA gave increased support to Taiwan
• Helped to sustain McCarthyism and generally worsened cold war antagonism
• three leaders showed unwillingness for WW3
  
  • sacking of MacArthur signalled stick to plan of containment

Question 19

When was stalin replaced and who by?

Answer 19

• 1955: Nikita Khrushchev

Question 20

What did Khrushchev do to increase communism:
- Pact

Answer 20

• created Warsaw Pact to tighten Soviet bloc militarily

Question 21

What was the Warsaw Pact?

Answer 21

• Stalin saw NATO as an “aggressive alliance” aimed against Soviet Union
• Within 6 years, in 1955. Soviet Union set up Warsaw Pact
• military alliance of 8 nations headed by SU designed to counter threat of nato

Question 22

What did Krushchev do that wasn’t increasing communism?

Answer 22

• returned a naval base to Finland
• decreased the Red Army by 1/2 a million men
• agreed to talks on agriculture and peaceful use of atomic energy with USA
• May 1955: signed Austrian peace treaty, under which the 4 occupying powers at last got out of Austria - which became an independent neutral state
• Eisenhower not convinced

Question 23

What did Khrushchev do with Hungary?

Answer 23

• 1956
• Khrushchev began policy of relaxing controls Stalin had put on eastern Europe
• but when moderate Communists in Hungary, led by Imre Nagy, threatened to leave the Warsaw Pact, Khrushchev sent in tanks to quell rebellion
• Nagy shot and new leader took over
• US gov did not intervene
• risks too high + preoccupied with Suez crisis

Question 24

What were the problems with Berlin under Eisenhower and Khrushchev?

Answer 24

• West refused to recognise legitimacy of East German state
• America, Britain and France used West Berlin for espionage and sabotage
• K tried to force West to recognise East Germany by threatening to give EG control of access routes to West Berlin
• gave the West an ultimatum that they must do something about West Berlin within 6 months or face consequences
• Khrushchev backed down March 1959

Question 25

Describe summit between Khrushchev and Eisenhower

Answer 25

• sep 1959
• made no progress in Berlin
• Khrushchev hoped for a Berlin agreement at the Paris summit in May 1960
• failed as just before meeting:
• Soviet Union shot down U-2 American spy-plane and captured pilot, Gary Powers
• Eisenhower forced to admit plane’s intent and K refused to attend summit

Question 26

What happened with Suez?

Answer 26

• July 1956: Egyptian leader Gamal Nasar took control of Suez canal
• important trade waterway that gave a quicker route from Mediterranean to Indian Ocean
• British and France invaded Canal zone
• not supported by US who forced them to withdraw
• Eisenhower wanted to keep with Arab nations believing west needed their oil and friendship against communist bloc
• furious at B and F for not informing him

Question 27

What were the results of the Suez crisis?

Answer 27

• illustrated that B and F no longer world powers + heavily dependent on US
• increased American intervention in middle east
• 1957: Eisenhower asked Congress for military and economic aid for any Middle East country threatened by aggression or subversion
• Known as Eisenhower doctrine: extension of containment in ME
• Egypt and Syria turned increasingly to the USSR
• USSR sold armaments to allies in this area

Question 28

US relations with china between during Chinese civil war?

Answer 28

• Involved in Chinese Civil War 1945-49
• US gave aid to Chiang Kai-Shek and Chinese Nationalists in struggle against Mao and CCP
• By 1949: USA abandoned Chiang who fled with thousands followers to Taiwan
• American unhappy with Mao’s success in late 1949

Question 29

What were US attitudes to different parts of china?
after war attitudes?

What did Truman do?

Answer 29

• refused to formally recognise the People’s Republic of China (PRC)
• instead USA maintained diplomatic relations with Republic of China gov in Taiwan
• After civil war lost interest in china
• Korean war changed attitude
• Truman sent US Seventh Fleet to the Taiwan Straits and relations with china remained cool under eisenhower

Question 30

What did Eisenhower/ USA think of chinese communism and during korean war?

What did Mao think of US?

Answer 30

• USA hated communism + convinced Beijing was Moscow’s puppet
• Dulles, US secretary of state under E insisted Chinese communism more threatening than soviet: influence in asia + weak countries
• Mao hated capitalism
• resented aid to Chiang
• US interpreted Korean War as a sign of Chinese-sponsored communism was expansionist and threatened US security
• China interpreted as a sign that USA was aggressive + likely to attack china

Question 31

How did relations with china deteriorate after korean war?

Answer 31

• USA put trade embargo on China and kept it out of UN
• established military base in Taiwan
• Mao infuriated by the US-Taiwan Defence Treaty signed in 1954
• 1955: Communist China shelled the Chinese Nationalist Islands of Quemoy and Matsu
• Eisenhower hinted use of atomic weapons to protect Taiwan: china backed down
• similar crisis in 1958: same thing happened

Question 32

When did US test first atomic bomb?
Soviet response?

Answer 32

• 1945 atomic bomb tested
• Soviet atomic research programme transformed over the next few years: soviet spies in US able to find out american atomic secrets

Question 33

When did USSR test its first nuclear weapon?
US response

Answer 33

• 1949: USSR exploded first nuclear weapon
• USA thus lost its monopoly on atomic weapons

Question 34

When did US test hydrogen bomb?
soviet?

Answer 34

• US tested hydrogen bomb in Bikini Atoll, March 1954
• 1953: soviets tested hydrogen bomb

Question 35

When did US test ballistic missile?

how did atomic weapons race end?

Answer 35

• The first American surface-to-surface ballistic missiles tested in 1947
• USSR’s ICBM operational a few weeks before america’s: A humiliated
• 1954: America’s first nuclear-propelled submarine operational
• 1960: tested a missile fired from a submerged submarine
• soviet years behind atp

Question 36

What developed due to prospects of other countries developing nuclear weapons?

Answer 36

• Military-industrial complex developed
• with defence spending between $40 to $50 billion per year in 1950s and 90% of foreign aid to US allies going on military spending
• billions of dollar spent maintaining a military presence throughout western europe and south east asia

Question 37

Military spending:
Where was defence established in America?

Answer 37

• defence establishments in poor areas such as southern sates
• desert areas in Arizona and new mexico became centres for weapon testing

Question 38

Effect of military spending?

Answer 38

• helped to smooth out economic inequalities within US
• California, in particular benefited from military contracts
• led to developments in tech: first IBM computer introduced in 1953