Usa Superpower Relations

Question 1

What agreements were made in tehran

Answer 1

Agreed about spheres of influence after the war

Western allies agreed to launch attack on Germany from the West (D-Day)

Question 2

Signs of tensions in tehran

Answer 2

Stalin thought the western allies had deliberately delayed D Day

Question 3

Agreements in yalta

Answer 3

Mostly agreements to do with what happens after the war
Russia to help US defeat Japan
Work for ‘democracy’ in Europe. Set up UN

Question 4

Signs of tension in yalta

Answer 4

Disagreed about definition of democracy

Question 5

Agreements in potsdam

Answer 5

Mostly agreements to do with Germany Ban Nazi party and prosecute war criminals
Reduce size of Germany
Divide Germany and Berlin into 4 zones (USSR, Britain, France, USA

Question 6

Signs of tension in potsdam

Answer 6

Different leaders – Attlee and Truman (Truman did not tell Stalin about A Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Question 7

Who wanted to make a buffer zone

Answer 7

Stalin

Question 8

What was the buffer zone

Answer 8

Forced countries in eastern europe to become communist

Question 9

Who gave the iron curtains speech

Answer 9

Churchill

Question 10

What was the iron curtain speech

Answer 10

Introduced communism to people in the uk at which further led more fears of the threat of communism

Question 11

What were the ussr reactions to nuclear bomb

Answer 11

When saw bomb used in japan in 1945 they were concerned that they made their own

Question 12

Who made cominform

Answer 12

Stalin

Question 13

When was cominform made

Answer 13

1947

Question 14

What was cominform

Answer 14

Its job was to keep the activities

of the communist parties in Europe in line with the Soviet Union.

Question 15

What was comecon

Answer 15

to control the economies of Eastern Europe countries under Soviet influence.

Question 16

What was the truman doctrine

Answer 16

Promised that the usa would help any country threatened by communism

Question 17

What was the marshall plan

Answer 17

Marshall Plan was $17bn to help war damaged European countries to recover (also to stop them turning to communism) Marshall Aid was offered to all the countries of Europe but Stalin ordered E Europe to refuse it as he didn’t want to make communism look weak

Question 18

When was cominform set up

Answer 18

1947

Question 19

When was comecon made

Answer 19

1949

Question 20

When was NATO made

Answer 20

1947

Question 21

What did ussr wanted to do to germany

Answer 21

To keep them weak and took lots of industrial equipment and raw materials from germany

Question 22

What did usa and britain wanted to germany

Answer 22

To become more stronger to prevent communsim spreading

Question 23

What was bizonia

Answer 23

1947 britain and us created this by joining their zones

Question 24

What were the key features of berlin blockade

Answer 24

STALIN WAS DETERMINED TO FORCE THE WEST ALLIES TO LEAVE BERLIN. He set up a military blockade around West Berlin in June 1948. He hoped to force the allies out

Airlift - This included flying in 2.3m tonnes of supplies a day

In May 1949, Stalin called off the blockade. Stalin had no choice since the only other way to get the Allies out of Berlin would have been by force. That would have led to war

Question 25

What were the key features of the nuclear arms race that developed in the years 1945-53?

Answer 25

The Arms Race was a race between the superpowers to build bigger and more destructive weapons.

The USA first used a nuclear bomb in japan in 1945, by 1949 the USSR had caught up. By 1953 both countries had the more powerful hydrogen bomb (H Bomb) and large numbers of weapons were developed throughout the 1950s and 1960s

Question 26

What were the key features of Soviet control in Eastern Europe?

Answer 26

People living in Eastern Europe were unhappy for many reasons:

• Communism had been forced upon them.
• In all communist states, there were no other political parties allowed.
• There was no freedom of speech and the state controlled the media
• The standard of life was generally low

Question 27

Why did people expect improvements after Stalin died?

Answer 27

In the USA there was a new President, Eisenhower – more friendly. Stalin died in 1953 - new Soviet leader Khrushchev seemed to be more moderate.
He spoke about peaceful co-existence with the West
In 1955 Khrushchev withdrew Soviet troops from Austria.
In 1956 Khrushchev surprised many by attacking Stalin and beginning a programme of de-Stalinisation.
However, still wanted to keep a firm grip on Europe - set up the Warsaw Pact in 1955

Question 28

Why did protests start in Budapest

Answer 28

Hungarians wanted to get rid of RAKOSI, the ‘mini-Stalin’ Prime Minister. At first Khrushchev seemed to accept the need for change and ordered the replacement of Rakosi for IMRE NAGY, a more moderate communist.

But Nagy introduced reforms:

1. He set up a NEW GOVERNMENT WHICH INCLUDED NON-COMMUNISTS. 2. Called FREE ELECTIONS.
2. Announced HUNGARY’S WITHDRAWAL FROM THE WARSAW PACT

Question 29

Why and how did the Soviet’s crush the Hungarian uprising

Answer 29

Khrushchev could not afford to let Hungary break free as other countries in Eastern Europe would follow so he ordered an invasion.
There was bitter street fighting; Thousands of Hungarians and Soviet troops were killed in the fighting and Nagy was arrested and executed

Question 30

How did the West react to the uprising and the Soviet invasion?

Answer 30

The Hungarians called on the West for help. Western leaders spoke out against the Soviets, but did nothing:

1. It was afraid that military action would lead to war.
2. GB, Fr and USA were focussed on the Suez Crisis

Question 31

Why did Khrushchev want the Western Allies out of Berlin?

Answer 31

 Many thousands of people had escaped from East to West, since the end of the Blockade in May 1949. 2.7m refugees left Eastern Europe between 1949 and 1961!
 Most refugees were well educated; engineers, teachers, doctors, lecturers. The Communist countries needed these people to modernise its industry & agriculture.
 All this was a propaganda disaster for communism: it proved people preferred to live in a capitalist system rather than a communist one.
November 1958 – Khrushchev announced that the whole of Berlin belonged to East Germany and he gave the USA a 6 month ultimatum to withdraw troops

Question 32

How did Eisenhower and Kennedy deal respond the Soviets’ demand?

Answer 32

The US were never going to give in to Soviet pressure but they also didn’t want to start a war so they met at 4 different summit meetings to discuss a solution

Question 33

What were 4 summit meetings

Answer 33

Geneva may 1959
Camp david summit sept 1959
Paris summit may 1960
Vienna comferance june 1961

Question 34

What were the geneva summit meeting

Answer 34

nothing agreed, but laid the ground work for future discussions

Question 35

What happned in camp david summit

Answer 35

after frank discussions, Khrushchev agreed to withdraw his 6 month ultimatum, and they agreed to another meeting:
Paris summit

Question 36

What was paris summit

Answer 36

a disaster. Just before, an American U2 spy plane was shot down over Soviet air space. The pilot Gary Powers was put on trial in Moscow. Khrushchev was able to use the incident to embarrass the USA and stormed out of the meeting when Eisenhower refused to apologise

Question 37

What was the vienna comferance

Answer 37

Kennedy had replaced Eisenhower. Khrushchev tried to put pressure on the new president by renewing the call on US troops to leave Berlin

Question 38

What was the impact of the Berlin wall?

Answer 38

 It stopped East Germans escaping to the West, and therefore ended the refugee crisis.
 Khrushchev looked strong but did not have to fight a war.
 The wall became a powerful symbol of communist strength as well as a physical
symbol of the Cold War division of Europe

Question 39

How did kennedy respond to the berlin wall

Answer 39

There was not much he could do about it. He said ‘a wall is a hell of a lot better
than a war.’
 He went to Berlin in 1963 and made a speech to hundreds of thousands of West
Berliners, to demonstrate his sympathy for their difficulties.
 He ordered three increases in the US defence budget in the next two years. He
realised that he could not afford to lose out again.

Question 40

Why did the Bay of Pigs invasion fail?

Answer 40

 In April 1961 the CIA tried to overthrow Castro by staging an invasion of
Cuba. 1,400 Cuban exiles were landed at the Bay of Pigs with CIA support.
 It was a disaster and they were all either killed or captured. It was a huge
embarrassment for Kennedy and the USA

Question 41

How had tension between the superpowers grown because of the nuclear arms race?

Answer 41

For Khrushchev, the arms race was a way to show the benefits of Soviet Communism: He put the first satellite, Sputnik, into space in 1957 and the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, in 1961.
He began to build more and more weapons, contributing to the military arms race: In 1957 the Soviets tested the first ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile). By 1963, USA had 550 ICBMs to USSR’s 100

Question 42

Why did Khrushchev build Missile Bases on Cuba?

Answer 42

 The Soviet Union saw Castro as an important ally Cuba was so close to the US
 The Soviet Union was losing the Arms Race: Khrushchev needed to restore the
nuclear balance:
 The USA had missiles in Turkey targeting every city in the south of the USSR

Question 43

How and why did Kennedy respond to the problem? (Cuban missile crises)

Answer 43

When a U2 spy plane took pictures of the Cuban Missiles bases, Kennedy and his advisors discussed a number of options:

1. To launch a nuclear strike on the missile sites in Cuba.
2. To launch a full-scale invasion of Cuba.
3. To impose a naval blockade – stop ships carrying military goods getting to Cuba

Question 44

What were the immediate consequences of the Cuban Missiles Crisis

Answer 44

 Directly after the crisis, the telephone hot-line was established in 1963. This direct teleprinter between the White House and the Kremlin would make it easier for the two leaders communicate effectively in future crisis situations.

 Thus idea of peaceful co-existence was reinforced.

 The Superpowers signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, August 1963. This
banned all nuclear tests except underground ones for an indefinite period.

 Kennedy made a speech in June 1963 which marked the beginning of détente – a relaxation of tension between the superpowers:

 He suggested that the US and USSR should focus on their ‘common interests’.

 The US also agreed to sell the USSR grain

Question 45

What were the long-term consequences of the Cuban Missiles Crisis?

Answer 45

 The Soviets were determined to catch up with the US in the arms race, and increased their production of long-range missiles.

 The Soviet Union were also determined not to suffer such humiliation as Cuba again. In 1964 Khrushchev was replaced by Leonid Brezhnev, a tougher leader.

 The Crisis led France to leave NATO. In 1966, President De Gaulle, who was horrified by the possibility of being dragged into a nuclear war, took France out of NATO, and France began producing her own nuclear weapons.

 After the Cuban Missiles Crisis, the superpowers began to speak less about nuclear deterrence and more about the idea of mutually assured destruction – MAD: both sides now had so many weapons that if a nuclear war did start, it would result in mutually assured destruction. The USA and the USSR would be destroyed by each other if war broke out

Question 46

What was there opposition to Soviet control in Czechoslovakia?

Answer 46

 Communism had been forced upon them.
 No other political parties were permitted.
 The Communist Party censored the media
 Living standards were poor.

Question 47

What was Alexander Dubcek’s idea of ‘socialism with a human face’?

Answer 47

Dubcek replaced the unpopular Antonin Novotny in January 1968. He wanted to make communism more popular by introducing reforms known as the ‘Prague Spring’
 Press censorship was abolished
 Opposition groups were allowed and criticism of government was permitted
 More power was given to regional government
 More power given to the Czech Parliament
 Changes were made to make the economy more ‘market-based’ with some
competition introduced.

Question 48

What was the brezhnev doctrinr

Answer 48

Brezhnev said that if a communist country started to go back towards capitalism, other communist countries were justified in taking action to stop it, so as to protect the security of the Eastern Bloc.

Question 49

International reaction to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia America & the West

Answer 49

 America was heavily involved in Vietnam and could not make further military commitments. Besides Czechoslovakia was in the Soviet sphere of influence.
 The US publicly condemned Soviet aggression, but gave no military help to the Czech people. Other western leaders took a similar stance