US-Soviet Relations

Question 1

USSR successfully tests 1st atomic bomb, ending US monopoly

Answer 1

August 1949

Question 2

Mao Zedong proclaims People’s Republic of China

Answer 2

October 1949

Question 3

• Cuba is run by Batista
• McCarthyism

Answer 3

1950s

Question 4

Long Memorandum by National Security Council recommends better military and stronger US response to ‘the Kremlin design’

Answer 4

April 1950

Question 5

Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes president

Answer 5

January 1953

Question 6

Stalin dies

Answer 6

March 1953

Question 7

Eisenhower makes speech hoping for:
- A new start in US-Soviet relations
- A settlement on Austria
- Liberalisation of eastern Europe

Answer 7

April 1953

Question 8

Khrushchev’s 20th party congress speech:
- Denouncing Stalin’s purges
- Denouncing the Gulags and secret police
- Criticising Stalin for his failure to forsee the German attack in 1941
- Denouncing Stalin’s ‘cult of personality’
- Hoping for ‘peaceful co-existence’ with the West
- Expressing interest in newly de-colonised territories in Asia and Africa
- Accepting ‘different roads to socialism’

Answer 8

February 1956

Question 9

Khrushchev dissolves Cominform (information exchange between communist countries)

Answer 9

April 1956

Question 10

Polish uprising and resolution. Hungarian uprising, Imre Nagy becomes Prime Minister

Answer 10

October 1956

Question 11

Soviet tanks intervene in Hungary

Answer 11

November 1956

Question 12

3 million migrants flee from East to West Germany

Answer 12

1949-1960

Question 13

First Berlin Crisis

Answer 13

1958-1960

Question 14

Khrushchev gives ultimatum for new status of Berlin

Answer 14

November 1958

Question 15

Cuban revolution. Batista flees to Florida

Answer 15

January 1959

Question 16

Foreign Minister meetings over new status for Berlin, unsuccessful

Answer 16

May-August 1959

Question 17

Khrushchev visits the US and meets Eisenhower at Camp David, they agree on a 4-power summit in Paris in May 1960 and a visit from Eisenhower to Moscow the following year

Answer 17

September 1959

Question 18

Francis Gary Powers’ U2 spy plane incident

Answer 18

May 1960

Question 19

US trade embargo on Cuba. Cuba starts trading with the Soviet bloc.

Answer 19

August 1960

Question 20

• 200,000 migrants a year flee from East to West Germany
• Second Berlin Crisis

Answer 20

1961

Question 21

Operation Mongoose

Answer 21

1961-1964

Question 22

John F. Kennedy becomes president

Answer 22

January 1961

Question 23

Bay of Pigs incident

Answer 23

April 1961

Question 24

Khrushchev and Kennedy’s first meeting in Vienna

Answer 24

June 1961

Question 25

The Berlin Wall starts being constructed, Khrushchev no longer needs a new status for Berlin

Answer 25

August 1961

Question 26

Checkpoint Charlie incident

Answer 26

October 1961

Question 27

On a visit to the Black Sea area, Krushchev is reminded of US 'Jupiter' missiles in Turkey

Answer 27

April 1962

Question 28

Raul Castro makes secret agreement with the USSR to station missiles in Cuba

Answer 28

July 1962

Question 29

USSR ships to Cuba: - 42,000 Soviet troops - 164 nuclear warheads - 42 intermediate-range missiles

Answer 29

September-October 1962

Question 30

US finds out about Soviet missiles in Cuba, enforces 'strict quarantine', UN General Secretary U Thant tries to reach an agreement, Khrushchev proposes a summit, Khrushchev recieves false news that the US is going to invade Cuba, U2 spy plane is shot down by Soviets but Cuba takes responsibility, negotiations beween Robert Kennedy and Anatoly Dobrygin, withdrawal of US and Soviet missiles

Answer 30

October 1962

Question 31

Khrushchev intends to make missiles in Cuba public

Answer 31

November 1962

Question 32

Test Ban Treaty

Answer 32

August 1963

Question 33

Khrushchev is replaced by Brezhnev

Answer 33

October 1964

Question 34

Outer Space Treaty

Answer 34

January 1967

Question 35

- Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - Alexander Dubcek's 'Prague Spring' in Czechoslovakia

Answer 35

1968

Question 36

- Alexander Dubcek meets with leaders of Yugoslavia and Romania - Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia

Answer 36

August 1968

Question 37

Richard Nixon becomes president

Answer 37

January 1969

Question 38

- End of Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia - 'Brazhnev Doctrine' prohibits satellites to abandon communism

Answer 38

September 1970

Question 39

SALT I

Answer 39

May 1972

Question 40

Gerald Ford becomes president

Answer 40

August 1974

Question 41

USSR deploys SS-20 missiles outside the SALT agreements

Answer 41

1977

Question 42

Jimmy Carter becomes president

Answer 42

January 1977

Question 43

SALT II

Answer 43

June 1979

Question 44

- NATO meeting discusses USSR's SS-20 missiles - USSR invades Afghanistan. US refuses to ratify SALT II

Answer 44

December 1979

Question 45

US deploys missiles across western Europe

Answer 45

1983

Question 46

Ronald Raegan becomes president

Answer 46

January 1981

Question 47

START Treaty

Answer 47

June 1982

Question 48

US's Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI)

Answer 48

March 1983

Question 49

Gorbachev replaces Brezhnev

Answer 49

March 1985

Question 50

Raegan and Gorbachev meet in Geneva

Answer 50

November 1985

Question 51

Collapse of communism in eastern Europe

Answer 51

1989

Question 52

Collapse of USSR

Answer 52

1990