Cold War

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The Cold War was a conflict that threatened to steep the world in a nuclear war.

It lasted from the end of WWII(1945) until the fall of the Soviet Union around 1991. Beware though, since this is such a large topic, exam questions will normally ask you to focus on a certain time period. Overshooting the time period won't help you.

Contents

Factors contributing to the Cold War

Long-term origins (1917-1941)

  • WWI(1917): Communist Bolsheviks come to power and withdraw Russia WWI, where it had been in alliance with the United States.
    • Bolsheviks executed Tsar Nicholas II and his family
      • Bad because they were related to British royalty
    • Bolsheviks were Communist. Just thought that should be repeated, because it's really important. Capitalism and communism were seen as naturally opposing systems.
  • Russian Civil War (1918-1921): the Reds fought the U.S.-backed Whites.

Short-term origins (1941-1946)

1945 Meetings:

  • Yalta:
    • Germany to be split into four zones(American, British, French, Russian), Berlin too.
    • Eastern Europe to have free elections
    • U.N. to be created
    • Stalin agreed to join the war against Japan
      • Condition: Japanese-occupied territory given to USSR
  • Pottsdam
    • Couldn't agree on what to do with Poland or Germany

Attitudes of major powers

American/Capitalist Position

Mainly, suspicion of Russia from a number of sources:

  • Kennan's Long Telegram (1946, followed later by the "X Article"):
    • telegram sent by George Kennan, Charge' D'affaires (second to the Ambassador) at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, basically said that Russia believed that communism and capitalism could not peacefully coexist, and one would have to make way for the other.
      • 1946: Stalin had made a speech that was translated as having said that capitalism and communism could never coexist peacefully. Kennan used that
      • See Wikipedia page for more info or the original text on Wikisource
  • NSC-68: National Security Council report on Communist aims. Note: this was not until 1950!
    • Main jist was that the USSR wanted to "impose its absolute authority over the rest of the world."
    • Depicted the USA as "the center of power in the free world."
  • During the Russian Civil War, the Bolsheveiks had fought U.S. supported forces and, after winning, renounced all Russian international debts.
    • Capitalist countries lost all investments in Russia
  • At the end of WWII, Russia appeared to forcefully impose communist governments in Eastern Europe.
    • Free elections did not happen as agreed at Yalta
  • These led to the American policy of containment of communism

Soviet Position

Mainly, suspicion of the West from these sources:

  • USSR was not well-informed of the development and planned use of the atomic bomb.
  • Old tensions from the Russian Civil War
  • Russia had been invaded twice in 50 years by Western powers
  • The dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan prevented Russia gaining back territory lost in the Russo-Japanese war which they had been offered if they helped defeat Japan.
    • Russia had declared war on Japan on the 8th of August, the bomb was dropped on the 10th.
  • Therefore Russia wanted border states to prevent future invasions
  • U.S. and G.B. had delayed opening a second front on Germany. Russia had lost over 20 million soldiers.

General European Position

  • Great war losses had been incurred.
    • Poland 6 million dead, Germany 4.2 million, etc.
  • Power Vacuum

1945-1953: The start of the Cold War

  • Europe
    • Atomic bomb
    • Eastern Europe
    • Containment and roll back
      • Truman, Marshall, Cominform, Molotov, Comicon
      • NATO
  • Churchill says that "An Iron curtain has descended over the continent"


'Western Bloc'

  • 1947 - Marshall Plan
    • USA offers economic aid to all European countries. Idea: Europe is in danger of economic recession, and that would affect the USA. Strong European economies are good trading partners for the USA, and will prevent the spread of communism.
      • Billions of dollars spent. Successful in repairing economies of Western Europe (NEED DATA)
      • Churchill called it "the single least selfish move in history"
    • Countries under Soviet influence were not allowed to accept the aid
      • Led to a difference in quality of life between Eastern and Western Europe.

Eastern Bloc

Many Eastern European nations owed their liberation from Nazi occupation to Russia, with the exception of Tito's Yugoslavia.

Russia consolidates, using:

  • Cominform (Communist Information Bureau) to coordinate Communist parties in Europe
    • State members were expected to follow foreign policies set by the USSR
    • It dictated economic ideas
    • Collectivisation of agriculture
    • Nationalisation of industry
  • Comecon - Unification of economies of countries under Soviet influence. Different industries were assigned to different countries.
    • Accompanied by Stalinisation: adapting societies to match Stalinist Russia
  • Warsaw Pact
    • Formed in 1955
    • Any attack on a member would cause a military response by all other members
    • Soviet troops were positioned throughout Eastern Europe
    • Most military technology was supplied by the USSR
    • A demonstration of Socialist Unity
  • Salami Tactics
  • Red Army

Gaining Control

  • To establish communist governments in Eastern Europe, salami tactics were utilised
  • In Hungary, the Communist Party worked with the Smallholders Peasant Party, and then began purges within the coalition to eliminate unwanted members.
  • By 1948 all Eastern Europe states were under single party communist rule or had a coalition government dominated by the communists.

Collapse of Soviet control over Eastern Europe

    • 1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union

Berlin Blockade 1948-49

  • Berlin is within the Russian sector of Germany, but the city is partitioned between the different powers. France, G.B. and the USA each have their own part, but they have unified economic systems and widespread cooperation between the sectors. The USSR's section is isolated.
  • Russia cuts off transportation lines in and out of East Berlin, hoping that East Berlin will starve and surrender itself to the USSR.
  • American response: the Berlin Airlift. Unprecedented amounts of supplies are airlifted to East Berlin, keeping the city supplied for a year.
    • Result: Soviet embarrassment, psychological victory for capitalism

Action in Asia

    • Korean war 1950-1953 (however, it didn't officially end yet)
    • Vietnam War (U.S. gets involved in 1957, Saigon falls 1975)
    • Indo-china wars
    • China becomes communist

The 'Thaw' (1953-1957)

Reasons for a thaw:

  • Death of Stalin
    • New leaders came to the forefront who wanted to improve relations with the US, prevent nuclear warfare now the hydrogen bomb was held by both sides
      • Malenkov, Bulganin, Khrushchev
      • Khrushchev wanted a "peaceful co-existance" to prevent the most destructive war in history
      • The Russsian focus shifted to accomodate this pressing situation, and allow what Khrushchev still hoped to obtain in world communism to occur through the great offers of economic aid to countries and the economic superiority of communism rather than warfare
  • McCarthy discredited
    • His anti-communist ideas in the US were levelled out slightly with his discredit as his fanatic ideas were taken less seriously, he did things such as:
      • Acused generals of communist sympathies and was then condemned by the senate but lashed out at Eisenhower fro supporting them
        • This lost him his credible opinion in intrnational affairs, and decreased the spread of the "red-scare" with the US soon expressing their wish to be friendly with the USSR
  • End of Korean War
    • A conflict that involved the US and USSR supporting different sides ended with the signing of the peace agreement at Panmunjom
  • End of Indo-china war
  • Russian concessions
  • The Austrian State Treaty

Continued tensions

  • Continued Russian grip on Eastern Europe
  • Actions to protect communism
  • The Warsaw Pact
  • Russia builds up arms
  • Berlin problems (Recognition)

The Khrushchev Era (1956-63)

Destalinisation Polish Crisis (1956) Hungarian Uprising Suez Crisis Increased power of Khrushev and USSR Second Berlin crisis (1958-1962)

  • Threats by Khrushchev against Western powers in west Germany/Berlin (Berlin Ultimatum)
  • Demands to get rid of West Berlin
  • Geneva conference
  • Berlin Wall

The Arms race (1949-1958 and onwards) Cuban missile crisis (1962)

  • Fidel Castro
  • Bay of pigs incident
  • Missiles in Cuba
  • Naval blockade
  • Consequences

Consequences

  • Deterioration of Relations

The 'Long Peace' in Europe (1963-91)

Detente in Europe

  • Distracted super powers
    • Vietnam
    • USSR and China
  • Controlling nuclear development
  • France withdraws from NATO
  • The Hamel report
  • Brezhnev doctrine
  • Ostpolitik
  • China and the USA

The Third Cold War (1979-1985)

  • Weakening of De'tente
  • Solidarity
  • Ostpolitik threatened

End of the Cold War

  • Gorbachev - reforms, destalinization
  • Detente renegotiated

Communism weakens in East Europe

  • Economic problems
  • New conflicts without communism

Collapse of GDR

Solidarity

Poland was the first part of the Eastern Bloc to successfully get rid of the

  • Reunification of Germany

Collapse of the USSR

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