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

[edit] Factors contributing to the Cold War

[edit] Long-term origins (1917-1941)

  • see 'Attitudes of major powers'

[edit] Short-term origins (1941-1946)

[edit] 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

[edit] Attitudes of major powers

The main powers dealt with in the Cold War section are the 'big three': the USA, Britain and the USSR. Each had its own motives and goals.

[edit] USA/Capitalist Position

Mainly, suspicion of Russia from a number of sources:

[edit] Long-term

  • WWI(1917): Communist Bolsheviks come to power and withdraw Russia from 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 (and often still are) seen as naturally opposing systems.
    • Bolsheviks renounced all Russian international debts
      • Capitalist countries lost all investments in Russia
  • Russian Civil War (1918-1921): the Bolsheviks(Reds) had fought the U.S.-supported Whites.

[edit] Short-term

  • 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.
  • 1939 - Hitler and Stalin partitioned Poland, and Polish government-in-exile set up in London
      • 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 for more info or the original text on Wikisource. The original text is worth reading if you have time; it gives good insight into the feelings and suspicions of the time. (:p that sounds like a paper 1 answer)
  • 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."
  • 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

[edit] What they wanted

  • The US primarily wanted access to raw materials in Europe, as well as the right to free trade and export throughout the world
  • The establishment of the United Nations and NATO
  • They wished to continue the post-war period with the triple alliance intact

[edit] British Position

  • Preservation of the British Empire was an important aim for the British Government in the post-war era
  • Wished to remain on good terms with both the US and USSR, seeing that these were two emerging super powers
  • With their empire in consideration, Britain were determined that Soviets would not be allowed to expand into the Middle East and South-Eastern Europe
  • Aimed for the creation of an independent Poland with a democratic government

[edit] 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
  • 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.
  • Russia had been invaded twice in 50 years by Western powers

[edit] What they wanted

  • Russia wanted buffer states to prevent future invasions
    • A key buffer state was Poland, to protect Russia from Germany
    • Also aimed to incorporate Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland into soviet orbit
  • It seems that Stalin essentially wanted a post-war Europe divided into three areas,
    • An area directly under control of the Soviets, known as the Buffer States
    • An "intermediate" zone which would not be fully communist, or fully capitalist, and communists would share power in these areas. These countries included Yugoslavia, Austria, Hungary
    • Then finally, the non-communist world - Western Europe
  • More so than the other powers, the Soviets believed that Germany should be kept weak enough to never begin another war.
  • U.S. and G.B. had delayed opening a second front on Germany. Russia had lost over 20 million soldiers.

[edit] General European Position

  • Great war losses had been incurred.
    • Poland 6 million dead, Germany 4.2 million, etc.
  • Power Vacuum left after fall of Germany
  • Appeasement no longer seen as a good idea

[edit] 1945-1953: The start of the Cold War

"An Iron curtain has descended over the continent" - Churchill, 5 March 1946

[edit] 'Western Bloc'

A poster to promote the Marshall Plan in Europe.
  • 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.
      • 12.7 Billion dollars spent from 1948-51.
      • Successful in repairing economies of Western Europe: industrial production increased by 27%, and agricultural production increased beyond pre-war levels.
        • Historiography: It has been pointed out that such an economic improvement was not only a result of the Marshall plan: don't forget that Europe was recovering from WWII.
      • 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.
  • Truman Doctrine: the U.S. was to "support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures" - Truman
  • NATO(North Atlantic Treaty Organization) established

[edit] Eastern Bloc

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

Russia gains & consolidates power, 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 (e.g. collectivisation)
  • 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
    • e.g. In Hungary, the Communist Party worked with the Smallholders Peasant Party, and then began purges within the coalition to eliminate unwanted members.
  • Red Army

By 1948 all Eastern Europe states were under single party communist rule or had a coalition government dominated by the communists.

Berlin Blockade 1948-49

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

[edit] Action in Asia

  • 1950 - Chinese Civil War ends, China becomes communist
  • 1950-1953 - Korean war (however, it didn't officially end yet)
  • Vietnam War - U.S. gets involved in 1957, heaviest fighting 1967-8, Saigon falls 1975.
  • Indo-china wars

[edit] 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 (1955)
    • Gave up military bases in Finland
    • Allowed 16 more states into the UN which had been blocked by a RUssian Veto
    • Russia-Yugoslavia relations improved when Khrushchev visited Tito after quarels concerning Yugoslavia's independant stature in the cominform
      • Russia wanted more russification and collectvisation as was in the Soviet bloc but Tito seeing the independant rise to power of communism in Yugoslavia wished to keep it mainly seperate from Russian influence
  • The Austrian State Treaty
    • Austria had been split into four zones, as had Germany, with the capital Vienna in the Russian zone
      • Austria was allowed a government of its own as it was not viewed as a defeated state, although it had limited power
      • Whilst the western powers helped rebuild the economy the Russians were determined to squeeze reparations out of their zone
      • In 1955 the Russians were persuaded to be more cooperative, partly because they were afraid of West Germany and West Austria merging together
      • The agreement resulted in all occupying troops being removed and Austria left with her 1937 borders
      • She was also not allowed to join with Germny in any way and was restricted militarily
      • They could not involve themselves in an East-West dispute and were not allowed to join NATO or the European economic community

Continued tensions (reasons for further "freezing" of the "thaw")

  • Continued Russian grip on Eastern Europe
    • Krushchev was lenient in areas such as wishing to improve Russian-US relation but persisted in having tight grip over Eastern Europe
      • He responded to any threat to Eastern Europe to protect communism as in Hungary (1956) when a revolt against the comunists in Budapest was crushed by russian tanks
  • Other actions to protect communism and possibly test US' patience
  • The Warsaw Pact
  • Russia builds up arms
  • Wales sent an army of 30,000 sheep which overwhelmed the British army during a surprise attack at tea-time
  • Berlin problems (Recognition)


[edit] 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 - an attempt to cause an uprising against Castro by landing Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs, but failed as Castro had been aticipating it
  • Missiles in Cuba - August 1962, Kruschev argreed to the Soviet Cuban Accord with Castro. This allowed the Soviets to deploy long range missiles in Cuba.
    • Hapened for two reasons,
      • A Soviet Base from which the USSR could launch medium range missiles at the US, and would balance the fact that the US had missile bases in Turkey and Western Europe
      • Castro also wanted a force to help defend his revolution
  • Naval blockade
  • Consequences

Consequences

  • Deterioration of Relations

[edit] 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


[edit] Communism weakens in East Europe

  • Economic problems
  • New conflicts without communism

Collapse of GDR

[edit] Mikhail Gorbachev

1985 - Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union

  • As Gorbachev came to power, he inherited the problem of the newly proposed "Star Wars" by the US
  • Gorbachev knew that the USSR didn't have the finances or technology to keep up with this
  • The USSR was also suffering from "global over-stretching", fighting a war in Afghanistan that they couldn't win
  • The Soviet economy and industrial output had been suffering greatly since 1975, and needed input from the West
  • Gorbachev's primary aim was to end the Cold War, as he knew that the financial drain on the Soviet Union was far to great, and therefore they could not complete his secondary aim, to economically and technologically develop the USSR
  • He did not follow Marxist ideology, believing that Communism would never succeed in global revolution
  • Instead, he favoured a policy of negotiation and international co-operation
  • Gorbachev, apposed to the use of the Red Army that his predecesors had done so freely, encouraged the Eastern European former satellite states to reform

Gorbachev's Policies:

  • Perestroika, 1986 - Economic policy, which promoted private enterprise, essentially a de-nationalisation of industry
  • Glasnost, 1986 - Encouraged people to put forward their ideas, to further develop the Soviet Unions economy
  • Democratisation - Another move to more openess, trying to get more people involved politically in the Communist Party
  • Negotiated Disarmament - Reduction of spending on military development, as Gorbachev prefered negotiations through summits
  • These policies led to public opinion to favour the economy of the West.

[edit] Poland

With Solidarity, Poland was the first part of the Eastern Bloc to successfully get the Communist party out of power.

  • Solidarity was an independent workers' organization, which was highly popular and had the support of the Catholic Church.
    • 1981: General Jaruzelski suppressed it and declared martial law, but support remained high though it had to be underground
    • With Gorbachev's reforms, martial law was lifted and Solidarity legalized, and elections were held
      • 1989: Solidarity won the election in a landslide. Communist party collapsed, and Gorbachev did not intervene. This signalled to other Eastern European countries that Russia would not intervene if more countries got rid of communism.

[edit] Hungary

1988: long-time hard-line Communist party leader Ka'da'r sacked by reformists within the party

  • Other parties were then allowed to contest elections.
  • Communists lost control by 1990.

[edit] Czechloslovakia

public demonstrations against the Communist govmt.

  • reforms introduced
  • Havel, an anti-communist, elected President
  • there was little violence, so the Czeckloslovakian revolution is referred to as the Velvet Revolution

[edit] Reunification of Germany

  • The DDR had only been created due to tensions caused by the Cold War
  • With Gorbachevs new way of thinking, these tensions were reduced, and there seemed no reason why Germany should remain divided
  • Honecker, the communist leader of East Germany was a hardliner, and the people of East Germany began to greatly favour Gorbachev over him.
  • At a rally to celebrate East Germanies anniversary people cheered for Gorbachev (chanting "Gorbi! Gorbi! Gorbi!") instead of Honecker because of his policy of reform.
    • Gorbachev took the opportunity to warn Honecker that he must change his policies or lose power, but Honecker only became more restrictive in his policies.

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