Khrushchev and East-West relations, 1955-1960 (9)

Question 1

Khrushchev’s views of the satellite states?

Answer 1

• Begin a process of de-stalinisation to create long term political and economic stability
• Made his ‘secret speech’ in February 1956
• Spread through the satellite states and had huge implications in the Eastern Bloc 1956

Question 2

Polish Uprising

Answer 2

June-October 1956

• Khrushchev appointed Edward Ochab to implement desalinisation in Poland
• After secret speech many Polish citizens demanded political freedoms and national sovereignty
• 28th June 1956 Workers strike and protests turned into an armed uprising
• By October Wladyslaw Gomulka was put in power of the Polish United Workers’ Party
• Khrushchev agreed to not use violence and to keep Gomulka in power if he did not reform the country which would threaten communist rule and stay in the Warsaw Pact
• Poles supported Gomulka as he was a Polish communist who did not concede to Soviet views
• Gomulka balanced Polish security and the threat of Red Army Troops in Poland, the USSR had its deal that they would be protected from German revanchism
• Polish regime showed Moscow it could give some nationalism to its satellites
• Violence not used, mainly due to objections from China

Question 3

Hungary Uprising

Answer 3

October-November 1956

• 22 October students protest and present their 16 demands
• Next day an armed revolt started when demonstrators were fired upon by Hungarian Secret Police Avo
• 24th Nagy was appointed Prime Minister
• 28th October Khrushchev promised to remove Soviet troops from Budapest
• Again there was pressure from China
• 31st October Moscow reversed its decision due to a fear of the collapse of Communism
• 1 November Nagy announced a withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and Hungarian neutrality
• 3rd November, 15 divisions of the Red Army and about 4000 tanks surrounded Budapest
• Kadar placed in power
• 4000 Hungarians killed
• 200,000 went into self-imposed exile
• Lack of Western retaliation meant that the status quo in Europe had been reached
• Rising in the UN was merely a debating issue

Question 4

Khruschev’s foreign policy aims?

Answer 4

• USSR must remain the unchallenged leaders of the socialist world
• Firm grip over Eastern Bloc satellites
• Germany must be prevented from rearming and becoming a threat
• USSR must continue to increase its nuclear arsenal
• Spending on military security, including Soviet conventional forces must be reduced
• International tension has to be defused and care taken to not unnecessarily provoke the USA
• Counter the USA with ‘Peaceful Co-existence’

Question 5

Austrian Treaty 1955?

Answer 5

• End of WW2 Austria had been divided into four and USSR seemed reparations
• Had potential to be great area of tension ‘Europes Korea’
• Four occupying nations had reached a decision in May 1955
• All forces to withdraw
• Austria to become a neutral state
• USSR also pledged to keep Finland and Yugoslavia neutral
• Showed Cold War co-operation
• Removed an area of potential conflict
• Following this the Western Powers removed their occupying forces in Germany
• Led to Summit diplomacy

Question 6

Cause for the Geneva Summit?

Answer 6

September 1955

• Khrushchev accepted the need for flexibility in Soviet policy
• Talks over slowing down the nuclear arms race which would help cut spending but Russia needed a strong conventional force to defend its satellite states
• Khrushchev realised that peace with the USA would help Russia with the economic development it needed and would keep it a superpower
• USSR worried by FRG being admitted to NATO in 1955 and a large US force being implemented in Germany to help ease the fears of the French of German rearmament

Question 7

What was discussed at the Geneva Summit?

Answer 7

September 1955

• ‘Open Skies’ Proposal from Eisenhower, end the deadlock of superpowers inspecting each others arsenal and thus beginning disarmament. Eisenhower suggested that each nation should announce their military installations and allow Ariel reconnaissance. Khrushchev denied this.
• Future of Germany was discussed where Eisenhower proposed a reunified Germany, free elections and Germany’s freedom of security. Khrushchev would not consider this unless it was demilitarised and neutral and refused to discuss Eastern Bloc States
• Significance of Summit came from the dialogue between the superpowers but not what was achieved, which was little

Question 8

What occurred before Paris Conference 1960?

Answer 8

• Khrushchev became first Soviet leader to visit USA with his Camp David talks with Eisenhower in September 1959
• Discussed disarmament and the situation in Berlin
• Agreed to settle matters with diplomacy
• Caused a deterioration of the Sino-Soviet alliance

Question 9

Paris Peace Conference

Answer 9

May 1960

• Chinese nuclear arsenal close to completion by 1960
• Summit collapsed when Gary Powers was shot down in his U2 Spy Plane
• Incident gave Khrushchev a chance to calm opposition from China

Question 10

When was JFK admitted and what did he set out to do?

Answer 10

Took office in January 1961

• Increased defines budget
• Promised more flexible conventional forces
• Favoured expansion of Polaris submarine missiles
• Khrushchev and Kennedy met for first time in Vienna in June 1961
• Khrushchev believed Kennedy was a young, inexperienced leader, worsened by Bay of Pigs fiasco 1961
• Kennedy called for increase in defence spending, build up of NATO forces in July 1961, call up reservists and to reactivate ships ready to be scrapped
• Damned ‘peaceful co-existence’