Topic 5: The Cold war

Question 1

Main causes of the cold war?

Answer 1

• Russia and american did not get on and were opponents.
• Germany was divided - East and West.
• Divided by the Berlin wall
• There was no actual fighting although often at the brink of war.
• Fought using politics, spies and propaganda.

Question 2

East Germany was controlled by…….

Answer 2

Russia

Question 3

West Germany was controlled by……

Answer 3

America

Question 4

Why did Russia and America find it hard to work together?

Answer 4

Communist Russia was a direct contrast to capitalist America. They found it very difficult to work together.

Question 5

What is capitalist?

Answer 5

People keep there own money

Question 6

What is communist?

Answer 6

A fair distribution of wealth among the people - equal wealth

Question 7

USSR?

Answer 7

Russia

Question 8

Soviet?

Answer 8

Political group set up after abolition of the Russian monarchy. This ends up being the basis of the communist party in Russia.

Question 9

Soviet Union?

Answer 9

Communist empire / russia

Question 10

Soviet control?

Answer 10

Russian control

Question 11

Red army?

Answer 11

Russian army, red is the color of communists

Question 12

‘Buffer Zone’?

Answer 12

neutral or protection country, i.e. a country that stopped the spread of communism or capitalism.

Question 13

After the defeat of Germany in 1945, what problems would the Allies now face?

Answer 13

• How to control Germany
• Whether Germany would be capitalist or communist.
• The president and prime-minister will have different views.
• What should they do with the German people
• How will they achieve equality among civilians
• They will have to deal with strong Nazis

Question 14

What were some of the main differences between USSR and USA?

Answer 14

• Politics - America was capitalist, Russia was communist.
• Lifestyle - America had freedom and a two-party democracy; Russia had secret police and a one-party state.
• Aims - America wanted Germany to recover as a trading partner; Russia wanted to weaken Germany and create a buffer zone of friendly states around Russia.

Question 15

What did Stalin want to do with Germany?

Answer 15

Stalin wanted huge reparations from Germany, and a ‘buffer’ of friendly states to protect the USSR from being invaded again.

Question 16

What did Britain and the USA want to do with Germany?

Answer 16

Britain and the USA wanted to protect democracy, and help Germany to recover. They were worried that large areas of eastern Europe were falling under Soviet control.

Question 17

Why Roosevelt’s death was a turning point in the Cold War?

Answer 17

This is because of the fact that Roosevelt and Stalin got on well, Truman was very anti communist so as the war finished relations fell apart.

Question 18

How did the USA react to Soviet expansion?

Answer 18

• Truman was concerned
• 12 Feb 1947 Truman was informed that the British were moving forces out of Greece and Turkey, the soviets would then take control.
• There for the USA paid for troops to be based there.
• ‘containment’ polices to stop the spread of communism.
• The policy was announced at a speech by Truman 12 march 1947 This is known as the Truman Doctrine.

Question 19

When was the containment policy announced?

Answer 19

It was announced 12 Feb 1947 by Truman

Question 20

What is the Truman doctrine?

Answer 20

This was the speech that Truman made on Feb 1947 to announce the USA’s plan for containment - preventing further spread of communism. Truman said that they were prepared to help any country under threat from communism.

Question 21

What was the Marshall plan?

Answer 21

In June 1947, General George Marshall made a visit to Europe to see what was needed. He came away thinking Europe was so poor that the whole of Europe was about to turn Communist. Marshall and Truman asked Congress for $17 billion to fund the European Recovery Programme nicknamed the Marshall Plan - to get the economy of Europe going again. Congress at first hesitated, but agreed in March 1948 when Czechoslovakia turned Communist. The aid was given in the form of food, grants to buy equipment, improvements to transport systems, and everything “from medicine to mules”. Most (70 per cent) of the money was used to buy commodities from US suppliers: $3.5 billion was spent on raw materials; $3.2 billion on food, feed and fertiliser; $1.9 billion on machinery and vehicles; and $1.6 billion on fuel.

Question 22

What were Stalin’s actions in result of the Marshall plan?

Answer 22

Stalin forbade the Cominform countries to apply for Marshall Aid.

Question 23

What was the iron curtain?

Answer 23

line that separated capitalism with communism. ‘political border’

Question 24

What were the main points that Churchill said in his iron curtain speech?

Answer 24

• ‘All the cities used to be great now they are not’
• ‘Moscow is like the central, hub of the communist’
• ‘Cities, losing control and identity, there new capital is moscow.’

Question 25

What was the Berlin Blockade and Berlin airlift?

Answer 25

- Stalin cut off all rail and road links to west Berlin - the Berlin Blockade. The west saw this as an attempt to starve Berlin into surrender, so they decided to supply west Berlin by air. - The Berlin Blockade lasted 318 days. During this time, 275,000 planes transported 1.5 million tons of supplies and a plane landed every three minutes at Berlin's Templehof airport.

Question 26

In the Operation 'little vittles' what were the americans veiwed as?

Answer 26

- Good guys - Positive propaganda - they wanted future generations to support them - It was genuine kindness - shows they have money and they care. - However possible bribing children - Motives fabricated?

Question 27

What was operation little vittles?

Answer 27

Idea of Liet. Gail S Halvorsen. He was so impressed by the friendliness of the German children he made a promise that he would drop sweets for them the next day. He made small parachutes out of scrap cloth and used them to drop sweets for the children. By Jan 1948 more than 250,000 of these parachutes had been dropped.

Question 28

What was USSR's response to little vittles?

Answer 28

-They discredited stories said it was a bad idea. Also made up stories that the children had badly damaged a cemetery whilst chasing the candy. -They were paranoid of capitalism -Making the pilot feel guilty - They wanted to reinforce capitalism -Jealous and bitter

Question 29

Who was to blame for the start of the cold war, USA?

Answer 29

- the Truman Doctrine - Berlin airlift - Marshall plan - Potsdam conference - USA threatened USSR with N bomb

Question 30

Who was to blame for the start of the cold war, USSR?

Answer 30

- Russia wanted control of the whole of Germany. - The Berlin Block aid stopped a lot of things coming into Germany - Yalta conference, Russia did not keep to there agreements.

Question 31

Why could the USSR not trust the USA?

Answer 31

The Soviet Union could not forget that in 1918 Britain and the USA had tried to destroy the Russian Revolution.

Question 32

Why could the USA not trust the USSR

Answer 32

Britain and the USA could not forget that Stalin had signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Germany in 1939.

Question 33

What is the Warsaw pact?

Answer 33

Khrushchev set up the Warsaw Pact in 1955 - a military alliance of communist countries - to rival NATO. America responded by increasing the number of NATO troops in Germany.

Question 34

What is NATO?

Answer 34

- NATO stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. This was set up in 1949. It was a military alliance that contained many of the Western European states as well as Canada and the US. The main purpose was to help defend each of its member’s e.g if one member was attacked then all the other countries would help to defend it. When the USSR developed its own Atomic bomb in 1949, NATO seemed even more important because none of the Western European countries had atomic weapons. - NATO was important because it proved that the US was committed to protecting and defending Western Europe. Stalin didn’t see NATO as a defensive alliance; he saw it as a direct threat to the USSR. The formation of NATO meant that the US was able to have air bases in Western Europe where planes that were armed with nuclear weapons would be ready to use in the case of an attack.

Question 35

Why the USA and the USSR were suspicious of each other in the years after the Second World War.

Answer 35

They did not trust each other. They had very different political ideology. they both wanted to do very different things with Germany.

Question 36

What was the cold war?

Answer 36

This was a war that was not fought with weapons but was a war fought in politics, ideology and spies. It was called a war because of the fact that a lot of the time it was on the brink of war.