Cold War overview

From Ibstudy

Causes of the Cold War:

• Long-term origins (1917-1941)
• Short-term origins (1941-1945)

The start of the Cold War

• 1945-1953
  • Europe
    • Attitudes
    • Conferences
    • Atomic bomb
    • Eastern Europe
    • Containment and roll back
      • Truman, Marshall, Cominform, Molotov, Comicon
    • Berlin blockade and airlift
      • NATO
  • Asia
    • Korean war
    • Indo-china wars
    • China becomes communist

The “Thaw” (1953-1957)

• Reasons for a thaw
  • Death of Stalin
  • McCarthy discredited
  • End of Korean War
  • 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)

• Détente 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 Détente
  • Solidarity
  • Ostpolitik threatened
• End of the Cold War
  • Gorbachev
  • Détente renegotiated
  • East Europe
    • Economic problems
    • New conflicts without communism
  • Collapse of GDR
  • Reunification of Germany

Collapse of the USSR