The origins of the Cold War 1941-58 Flashcards

Question

What was the impact of the Yalta conference on superpower relations? [2]:

Answer 1

- There was a slight increase in tension as a lot of agreements mainly benefitted the USSR. For example, they got the majority of the reparations from Germany - Furthermore, the USSR and Uk being on opposing sides concerning Poland created a small divide between the superpowers

Answer 2

- July-August 1945 | - Only a few months after the Yalta conference

Answer 3

- American President Harry Truman - British Prime minister Clement Attlee - Leader of the USSR Joseph Stalin

Answer 4

Churchill lost the 1945 general election and was replaced by Clement Attlee

Answer 5

He died on the 12th April 1945(before the conference) of old age

Answer 6

- The leaders did not agree on anything and so the relationships between superpowers worsened

Answer 7

- Change in leadership (Harry Truman had a personal vendetta against Stalin and communists) - The new leaders were less experienced then Stalin and so he was able to manipulate them into getting what he wanted

Answer 8

- 6th August the Americans dropped an atom bomb on Hiroshima - three days later they dropped a second on the 9th in Nagasaki - The Soviet Union had made and tested its own version successfully by 29 August 1949 - By 1964 Britain, France and China also had atomic bombs

Answer 9

- The atomic bomb drastically increased Cold war tensions as there was a new sense of betrayal for the Soviets as information on the atomic bomb had been withheld from them - It was released 4 days after the Potsdam conference which was seen as a warning to the USSR about if they continued to disagree with the US

Answer 10

The Grand Alliance (big three) broke up after the end of WW2

Answer 11

8th May 1945

Answer 12

They feared that the break-up of the grand alliance would lead to future conflict between the Superpowers

Answer 13

The UK and US were allies inside the big three, the USSR was not included

Answer 14

- Sent from Moscow to Washington by George Kennan on 22nd of February 1946 - He reported that Stalin wanted to see the destruction of Capitalism - He also reported how Stalin believed the rest of the world was hostile towards communism - Kenan also believed that if the Soviet Union was faced with a strong resistance it would back down

Answer 15

- The information received played a key role in America's policy towards the Soviet union - It made the American government believe there should be a policy of 'containment' in regards to communism to stop it spreading - It reinforced the American view that communists were not to be trusted- creates further hostility against USSR and its communist ideology

Answer 16

America's ambassador in Moscow, he worked in the Soviet Union as a diplomat

Answer 17

He was a Soviet diplomat working in Washington

Answer 18

- Sent from Washington to the government in Moscow - It reported that the US wanted to use its massive military power to dominate the world - He believed that since Roosevelt's death, the Americans no longer wanted to co-operate with the Soviet Union - He also reported that the American public would support their government if they went to war with the USSR

Answer 19

- It had a major impact in Moscow | - It made the USSR change their strategy to developing, more protection Eastern Europe as a countermeasure to America

Answer 20

- March 1946 - Churchill was no longer prime minister at this point but he remained an important figure in the public eye - It was during a visit to Fulton Missouri - It was about how the Soviet Union was a threat to world peace - He was provoked by the fact that communist governments had been set up in Hungary, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria

Answer 21

- Churchill was speaking and the US and so his speech had to be approved by Truman - This made Stalin believe that the speech reflected American beliefs - This speech along with the Novikov telegram created tension and mistrust between the Superpowers - It led to strengthening their military forces and anti-western propaganda, which was not appreciated by the other superpowers

Answer 22

- From 1944-45 the soviet army freed many countries in Eastern Europe from the Nazis - During the war, Stalin used these countries as a buffer zone between the Soviet Union and Germany - After the war, he turned them into Satelite states with communist governments

Answer 23

- 12 March 1947 - President Truman delivered a speech to the US congress - The US was to provide $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey - He presented communism as a way of minority beliefs being forced on the majority, he also said it should not be able to grow - He said that the USA would send troops and economic aid to those trying to resist communism

Answer 24

- The US discarded its old policy of isolationism that they used during the second world war - Instead, they replaced it with a policy of containment and was setting itself up as the leader of the fight against communism - This lead to superpower relations worsening as the USA outright identified themselves as enemies of communism

Answer 25

- Three months after the Truman doctrine - Speech by the US secretary of state, George Marshall - Between 1948- 1952 the USA gave $12.7 billion of aid plus $13 billion already given by the USA before the Marshall plan

Answer 26

- It had a major economic impact in western Europe - It took until the 1950S for the Marshall plan to take full effect - The British foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, branded it ' a lifeline to sinking men, hope where there was none'

Answer 27

- The US was unsure of whether or not they should offer aid to soviet satellite states - They decided that they would only offer aid if the countries agreed to be reviewed of their finances - Stalin did not agree to this and so Eastern European countries did not benefit from the Marshall plan

Answer 28

- President Truman aw his doctrine as a defensive measure to contain communism - Stalin believed that the Truman doctrine showed that the USA was trying to extend its influence in Europe - He also thought that the doctrine was undermining the role of the United Nations by suggesting that it was America's job to protect the world

Answer 29

- Stalin argued that the Marshall plan was the US' way of using economic might to divide Europe - They also believed it was a method for America to establish an economic empire in Europe

Answer 30

- The grand alliance was completely abolished as the US had now set itself in direct opposition to the communism and the soviet union - Stalin's suspicions that the West was trying to crush the Soviet Union were confirmed - The Marshall plan successfully tied Western European countries into supporting the USA

Answer 31

- Also known as the Communist Information Bureau - Was a political organisation set up on Stalin's orders on 22nd September 1947 - Its members were the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Communist Parties of the satellite states (9 members) - Its headquarters were established in Belgrade, Serbia - This new body gave Stalin a means of directing and controlling the governments of the satellite states

Answer 32

They rejected the Marshall plan and began spreading propaganda accusing America of being exactly like Nazi Germany

Answer 33

- Established on 25 January 1949 - Stalin created Comecon to provide aid that still abided by Communist principles - It had 8 members - Comecon was in direct competition with the Marshall plan aimed to support economic development in its member states - At first Comecon's role was arranging trade and credit agreements between member countries - After 1953 the Soviet Union used Comecon to organise industrial planning across all the satellite states

Answer 34

- Germany was divided into 4 zones as agreed at the Potsdam conference - In March 1948 talks between the foreign ministers of the occupying powers broke down and the soviets stormed out - With the soviets no longer co-operating, the remaining allies had to decide how they wanted to run Germany - Germany ended up being split into 2 parts when the allies merged into Trizonia - This later lead to the Berlin Blockade

Answer 35

- The British and Americans had already combined their zones into 'Bizonia' in 1947 - In March 1948 the French added their zone to create Trizonia

Answer 36

- In June 1948 the three allies created a single currency to give Trizonia economic unity - The decision to introduce the Deutschmark took place at an ACC meeting in Berlin - The Soviets were furious about this decision

Answer 37

- The new single currency in Trizonia created a separate economic unit from the east - It acknowledged that there were in effect two Germanys; West and East - To Stalin, this was yet another example of how the West would gang up on the East - This is an issue because it creates a clear divide between the 2 superpowers which brings about hostility

Answer 38

- He saw it, once again, as the West ganging up on the East - He saw the developing of Trizonia as a deliberate attempt to force the Soviet Union into poverty - He believed that had a duty to protect Soviet interests in Germany as he believed it should all be united and communist

Answer 39

- In June 1948, Stalin decided to shut off the land routes across Soviet-controlled Germany into Berlin - He wanted to show France that a divided Germany would not work - The main section of Trizonia was no longer able to communicate with the capital, Berlin, and the people of Berlin would soon run out of food

Answer 40

- Stalin would win a huge propaganda success at the expense of the west - Western powers would have to give up control of their zones in Berlin and allow the whole of the capital to be controlled by the Soviet union

Answer 41

- The West knew that any attempt to force supplies to Berlin along the closed land routes would be seen as a potential act of war and might to lead to direct military confrontation - However, if they flew supplies into their zones in Berlin they could only be stopped if Stalin shot down the planes - This would make Stalin the aggressor and therefore justify war on the Western side - Truman doubted that Stalin was prepared to go that far

Answer 42

- The Western allies launched the Berlin airlift (operation vittles) They flew food, coal and other necessities, assembled in the allied zones - This was a huge risk as the pilots were not sure if the Soviets would shoot them down - The people of West Berlin joined forces to build a new runway at the old Berlin-Tempelhof airport - Ordinary citizens helped to unload the planes and hand out the essential supplies to all who needed them

Answer 43

- In January 1949 no fewer than 170,000 tonnes of supplies were sent into Berlin by Western aircraft - On the 9th of May 1949 (nearly a year later), the Soviets finally gave in and lifted the Blockade - Stalin's attempt to win a propaganda victory over the West backfired as it presented the blockade as an unwise and aggressive act by Stalin, seeing as the West responded peacefully

Answer 44

- On the 23 May 1949(3 days after the end of the blockade) the USA, Britain and France joined their zones once more to form the Federal Republic of Germany - 14th August 1949, the West Germans elected their own parliament called the Bundestag - 15th September Konrad Adenauer was the first democratically elected chancellor of the Federal Republic - They chose Bonn as the new capital of West Berlin

Answer 45

- Stalin responded to the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany by creating the GDR in 1949 - East Germany was much smaller than West Germany - The Federal republic refused to recognise the GDR as its own country as they refused to acknowledge that Germany had been split in 2 until the 1970s - The German Democratic Republic was only recognised by communist bloc countries

Answer 46

- In April 1949 the USA, Britain France and 9 other western countries joined together in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation - The members of NATO agreed that if any member was attacked, all other members of NATO would come to its assistance - NATO resulted n an ongoing American military presence

Answer 47

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

Answer 48

- When West Germany was allowed to join NATO in 1955 the soviet union's fears increased as there was danger of an armed and powerful Germany at the borders of soviet controlled Eastern Europe - to combat this the soviets formed an equivalent defensive military treaty less than a week after West Germany joined NATO - The leadership of the Warsaw pact was entirely soviet and the alliance was under the command of the soviet union

Answer 49

Eisenhower takes office as US president

Answer 50

Stalin dies

Answer 51

- Khrushchev | - It was a speech criticising Stalin and his actions

Answer 52

- USA developed the first atomic bomb in 1945 - The soviets later developed an atomic bomb by 1949 - In response the US developed a hydrogen bomb in 1952 which was 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb - One year later(1953) the USSR also had a hydrogen bomb - In 1957 the USA developed the ICBM - Just a few months later, the USSR was testing its first ICBM

Answer 53

- Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile | - It could fire a nuclear war head more than 4,500 kilometres away

Answer 54

- A force that prevents something from happening - In the cold war many politicians believed in the 'nuclear deterrent' - They thought that a country would be 'deterred' from using nuclear weapons if there was a risk that their enemy would retaliate with an equally devastating nuclear attack

Answer 55

- Dwight Eisenhower was elected president of the USA in 1953 - Stalin also died on the 5th of March 1953 without naming a successor. This lead to a power struggle in the Soviet union - It was only in 1956 that Nikita Khrushchev became the leader of the USSR - The change in leadership made people hopeful on both sides that tension between the US and USSR would dissolve

Answer 56

- During 1956 the people of Hungary began to protest about their lack of political freedom ad problems caused by fuel shortages and poor harvests - In October there were riots in the capital, Budapest, and the police clashed with protestors - Soviet troops restored order but Khrushchev still wanted to replace the old prime minister Rakosi with Imre Nagy - Within days of his appointment, Nagy proposed reforms and reorganised the Hungarian government to include members of non-communist parties - He also authorised the release of many political prisoners and convinced Khrushchev to withdraw Soviet troops from Hungary and to accept reforms as it would calm down the unrest in Hungary

Answer 57

- He was a former prime minister who believed in the communist regime - Khrushchev replaced Rakosi with him Nagy

Answer 58

- On 1st November 1956, Nagy announced that Hungary would be leaving the Warsaw Pact - Khrushchev could not allow this because if Hungary broke away from the Warsaw pact other Eastern European countries might follow - On 4 November Khrushchev ordered the Soviet invasion of Hungary, 1000 tanks were sent into Budapest - Supporters of Nagy put up a fight however it was futile - A new pro-communist government was set up under Janos Kadar - In July 1958 the Hungarian government announced that Nagy had been tried and executed

Answer 59

1st November 1956

Answer 60

- 20,000 | - The Soviet army acted with great brutality

Answer 61

- Nagy and his Hungarian rebels expected support from the US - Radio 'Free Europe', a US government station urged Eastern Europe to rise up against the communist regime - The US and members of NATO offered no military support for fear that they trigger nuclear war

Answer 62

- It made Khrushchev's position in the soviet union more secure and gave him a stronger position in the Warsaw pact - Members of the warsaw pact were now aware that they should not go against Khrushchev unless they wanted to be dealing with a strong military attack from Khrushchev - The failure of the Hungarian uprising reflected negatively on the west as the allies encouraged communist countries to stand up to the soviet union but were not prepared to back up their wors with military support

Answer 63

November 1956