The Cold War 1945-1980

GCSE Revision

Capitalism vs CommunismCapitalism (USA) Communism (USSR)

leadership president elected by the people in an open election totalitarian dictator

economy capitalist and free economy communist autarky

government intervention

freedom of speech and beliefs held at the heart of the

constitution

close observation and intimidation of the population

citizen rights laissez-faire attitude and rights of the individual removal of personal freedoms

living standardsliving standards generally high -

focus on having living the "dream"

vast majority of the population living on or below the poverty

line

culture/media free press and vibrant cultural opportunities

closed press and state censorship and propaganda

Why Did The USA and USSR Become Rivals In The Years 1945-55?

• In 1945, working together, the Allied forces (the USSR and the Western countries) swept across German, taking control of Germany away from the Nazis. US and British forces came through Western Europe and the Soviet forces captured Berlin in April 1945. However, by 1946 the Allies' alliance had broken and the superpowers had started taking measures against each other

• Treaty of Versailles - no USSR influence, USSR does not join League

• Nazi-Soviet Pact - enemies --> why sign? Stalins plan?

• Dropping of the Atomic Bomb Aug 1945 - dropped by USA, military superiority, USSR had no idea

• The Race For Berlin 1945 - who controlled Berlin?

• Yalta and Potsdam Conferences 1945

Yalta Conference - February 1945

• Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill present

• Agreed that Germany would be divided into 4 zones

• Berlin would also be divided into 4 zones

• Agreed that as countries were liberated from Nazi occupation they would be allowed to hold free elections to choose their government

• Big Three all agreed to join the new United Nations to aim to keep peace after the war

• Agreed that Germany should pay reparations

• USSR suffered greatly and Stalin was concerned about the future security of the country. It was agreed that eastern Europe should be seen as a Soviet "sphere of influence"

• The USSR border to move westwards so that Poland would offer some protection from Germany for the USSR. Roosevelt and Churchill were unhappy, but allowed it to happen as long as Stalin agreed not tin interfere in Greece

• The United Nations should be set up

Changes That Happened Before The Potsdam Conference

• Soviet troops had liberated country after country in eastern Europe, but instead of withdrawing his troops, Stalin had left them there. Refugees were fleeing out of these countries, fearing a Communist take over. Stalin had set up a Communist government in Poland, ignoring the wishes of the majority of Poles. Britain and the USA protested, but Stalin defended his action, insisting that control of easter Europe was a defensive measure against possible future attacks.

• On 12th April 1945, President Roosevelt died. He was replaced by his Vice-President, Harry Truman. Truman was a very different man from Roosevelt: he was much more anti-Communist and was very suspicious of Stalin. Truman and his advisers saw Soviet actions in eastern Europe as preparations for a Soviet take-over

• On 26th July 1945 Clement Attlee was elected Prime Minister of Great Britain and replaced Winston Churchill at the Potsdam Conference. Attlee was deeply suspicious of Stalin. The absence of Churchill meant that the Conference was dominated by rivalry and suspicion between Truman and Stalin

• On 16th July 1945 the Allies tested an atomic bomb at a desert site in the USA. At the start of the Potsdam Conference, Truman informed Stalin about it

(Triumvirate - alliance of power between USA, USSR & GB)

Potsdam Conference - July 1945• In an increasingly hostile atmosphere, the Allies sorted out the details of what they had

agreed at Yalta. They set the boundaries of the four zones of German and agreed how they would be governed. The USSR was allowed to take reparations in the form of equipment and materials from their own zone. The Allies would also contribute an extra 10%. Truman bitterly agreed to recognise the Polish government

• However, there were disagreements:

• Stalin wanted to cripple Germany to protect the USSR against future threats, but Truman did not was to repeat the mistakes of the TofV

• 20million Russians had died in the war and the Soviet Union had been devastated. Stalin wanted compensation from Germany, but again Truman did not want to repeat mistakes of the TofV

• Stalin had suggested that if all the European people were united, then no-one would dare move a finger against them. Truman became unhappy about Russian intentions and soon adopted at "get tough" attitude towards Stalin

The Division of Germany and Berlin

Positives Negatives

prevents extremists rising up no one will agree

leaders happy --> fair Germans don't belong anywhere

hard to get into Berlin

Germany

BerlinBerlin

Stalin's Expansion Through Europe

• Sphere of influence --> buffer

• Expansionism --> protecting himself

• Included East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania

The Effect of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

• USSR doesn't trust USA --> didn't know about the bomb

• Stalin starts building his own

Hiroshima- 6 August 1945 - dropped by America - 78,000 people died - ended the war - USSR enraged at USA

Nagasaki- 9 August 1945 - dropped by America - 74,000 people died - shift in global power - distrust among countries - Stalin begins to build his

own bombs - leads to the Cold War

The Iron Curtain

• The USSR and Communism expanded after the Second World War. Stalin was determined to build his "buffer" states on the western frontier, which would prevent any future invasion of Soviet Russia.

• As each state was freed from the Nazis by the Soviet armies, the army remained in control and communist governments that supported the USSR were set up.

• At Yalta, the powers had agreed that all the countries freed from German control should be allowed to decide their own government in free elections. What happened in the countries freed by the USSR did not follow this principle

Countries Behind The Iron Curtain

Country Type of Government Action Taken

Albania Communists took control in 1944 Little opposition

Bulgaria Communist coalition took power in 1944 The communists executed leaders of other parties

Czechoslovakia Coalition government freely elected in 1946. Communists seized power in 1948

The USSR purged the civil service. Masaryk was murdered and the security police moved in

East Germany Ruled directly by the USSR until 1949 when it became the communist German Democratic Republic

Industrial machinery and resources were moved to the USSR, along with scientists and technicians

Hungary In 1945 communists got only 17% of the vote. In 1948 Communist rule was established Opposition was stamped out

Poland Coalition set up but dominated by communists who were unpopular and ruled alone from 1947 The USSR refused to have free elections

Romania Communist People's Republic formed in 1947 The king was forced to abdicate

Yugoslavia Tito elected president in 1945 - a communist who was not controlled by the USSR Expelled from Cominform by the USSR in 1948

Churchill's Warning• Churchill appeared to fear this Soviet advance as early as

1945. He wanted the Allies to make a dash for Berlin and take it before the Russians could get there. Later in a letter to Truman in May 1945, he warned him of the danger of the Soviet Union, claiming that "an iron curtain is being drawn upon their front". Truman did not seem concerned at first, even when Churchill repeated the expression in his famous Ron Curtain Speech which he made in the USA in 1946. In this speech Churchill called for an alliance of the West to resist the expansion of the USSR in the East. The name Iron Curtain has been used since to mean the imaginary line drawn between Communism in the East and the democratic governments of the West

The Truman Doctrine - March 1947

• In March 1947 President Truman of the US delivered a speech to the US Congress outlining his plans to protect the remaining European countries from falling to Communism. This followed along the alines of his "containment" policy towards communism.

Marshall Plan Marshall Aid

Date June 1947 31 March 1948 (approved)

Description recover Europe to stand against communism

give money to European countries

Reasons For make Europe able to trade

can defend themselves, increase production & trade

Aims help Europe recover economically

make Europe recover & grow, won't fall to communism

Consequences striking & murder in Soviet countries

communists lost influence

The Amount of Aid Given To European Countries by Marshall Aid

- Britain - France - West Germany - Italy - Denmark

Stalin's Response

Comecon - The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance• This was established in 1949 in the Molotov Plan to coordinate

industries and trade in eastern European countries • Members of Comecon traded with each other rather than the West • Comecon provided the USSR with a market to sell its goods. It also

guaranteed a cheap supply of raw materials

Cominform - The Communist Information Bureau• This was established in 1947 to coordinate the various communist

governments in eastern Europe • Cominform ran meetings and sent out instructions to communist

governments about what the Soviet Union wanted them to do • In 1948 Stalin ordered Cominform to expel Tito, the communist leader

of Yugoslavia, because Tito would not give in to Stalin's wishes

NATO vs the Warsaw PactNATO Warsaw Pact

Established 1949 1955

Initial MembershipUK, USA, Canada, Iceland,

Portugal, France, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, West Germany,

Turkey, Greece

USSR, East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania,

Bulgaria

What Was It?an agreement between countries to all go to war if any one of them was attacked (collective security)

a military alliance of "friendship, cooperation and mutual

assistance". A reaction to NATO

Why Was It Established?

to protect the member countries and to form an alliance against

communism. Also, to base troops in the countries (with weapons)

To rival against NATO and show power to the west as they felt

threatened

Consequences of Establishment?

permanent presence of a US army in Europe, deterred against Soviet attack, unified command in Paris, speeds up production of nuclear

weapons

absolutely divided the East and the West

Warsaw Pact StatesNATO States

Berlin Crisis 1948-49 • In 1948 Stalin blockaded all routes by land and rail into West Berlin. This sparked the

first major crisis of the Cold War and worsened relations between the Superpowers even further.

Long-Term Causes• The Soviet Union ensured that the minority communist group took control of their

eastern zone. They tried, unsuccessfully, to secure communist control of the Berlin city council but the socialist majority, supported by the western powers, resisted successfully

• The West wanted to speed up the economic recovery of Germany, which had been devastated by the war and was now facing serious shortages of food and fuel. The Soviet Union wanted quite the opposite to secure itself from future attack. It wanted to keep Germany weak and refused to allow its own zone to trade with the other three zones

• Berlin was in the heart of Soviet-controlled East Germany. The western Allies were allowed access to their sectors by road, rail, canal and air. However, Stalin did not want the Allies inside Berlin, which was well within the Soviet zone. He also realised that the affluent, capitalist way of life would be on show to people in the East. Western countries were determined to remain in Berlin where they could observe Soviet activities on the other side of the Iron Curtain

Berlin Crisis 1948-49Short-Term Causes

• The Western Allies forged ahead by encouraging the economic recovery of their zones, especially in providing a much-needed currency. The western zones received large quantities of Marshall Aid.

• In addition they set up free elections to establish democracy

• This was in sharp contrast with Soviet policies. Stalin feared a strong, democratic and reunited Germany on the borders of the Soviet Union. He feared that "western" currency and democratic ideas would spread to the Soviet zone and undermine control of East Berlin.

• A series of disagreements in the first half brought about the crisis

Berlin Airlift• Truman was determined to stand up to the Soviet Union and show that he was serious about containment.

The only way into Berlin was by air, so the Allies decided to airlift supplies from their bases in West Germany.

• The airlift began on 24th June 1948 and lasted for 10 months. Planes were flying day and night along the air corridors. Soviet planes flew across the air corridors too and weather balloons were placed in awkward positions to make the planes' path more difficult. Truman ordered B-29 bombers, capable of carrying atom bombs, to be sent to Britain as a warning to Stalin

• By September the planes were flying 4600 tons of supplies a day, however this was still not enough. The Soviet Union even tried to persuade people to move from West to East Berlin, but only 3% took up that offer.

• The airlift continued into the spring and reached its peak on 16-17 April 1949 when 1398 flights landed nearly 13,000 of supplies in 24 hours.

• Everything from food and clothing to oil and building materials was supplied, although there were still many shortages.

• On 12th May 1949 Stalin called off the blockade. He had failed to starve the Allies out of Berlin.

Consequences of the Crisis- it greatly increased East-West rivalry - it confirmed the divisions of Germany and Berlin - it lead to the creation of NATO

Consequences for USSR- tracks down Allie planes bringing in resources - called off blockade - turns its zone into the German Democratic Republic (communist)

Consequences for USA- pilots killed - had to fly in supplies - introduced a freely elected government once USA & UK zones had joined - new currency

Background To War In Korea• The Japanese had occupied Korea from 1910 to 1945. After its defeat in WW2, Japan had to pull out

of Korea. The country was divided in two along the 38th parallel. Soviet forces occupied the north and American forces occupied the south. This was meant to be temporary

• In the north a communist state was established under Kim Il Sung. In the south, elections were held. The result was an anti-communist military government led by Syngman Rhee. There were frequent clashes in the supposedly demilitarised zone along the border due to each side claiming it was the rightful government.

• In 1949 China became communist. In the same year, the USSR developed the atomic bomb. US policy-makers felt the need for a more aggressive approach to communism than containment.

• The Americans believed that if a state turned communist, neighbouring states would fall to communism one by one. This belief is called the domino theory. The Americans began to worry that if South Korea fell to North Korean communism then its neighbour, Japan, would soon follow

• When Kim Il Sung visited Stalin and asked for the Soviet leader's permission to attack South Korea, Stalin saw an opportunity to cause trouble for the Americans. He gave the North Koreans aid and military equipment. In June 1950 North Korea invaded the South

Initial North Korean Success

• The North Korean People's Army was successful at first. Most of South Korea fell. Only the Pusan Pocket in the south-east held out. In desperation, South Korea asked the United Nations for help. Normally the USSR would have vetoed any attempt to support South Korea. However, in 1950 the USSR was boycotting UN meetings, so the UN Security Council declared North Korea to be the aggressor

The NKPA Is Driven Back• 16 nations, headed by the USA,

immediately went to Korea. Later, 32 countries participated in the war. In September the commander-in-chief organised a successful naval landing at Inchon that surprised the communist and forced them to retreat. North Korean resistance collapsed, and UN troops advanced into North Korea and towards China

China Intervenes

• Communist China feared for its security and warned UN troops not to approach the Yalu River. MacArthur ignored this warning. He wished to invade China and was even prepared to use nuclear weapons. In November 1950 China sent 200,000 "volunteers" to help North Korea. UN forces were pushed back beyond the 38th parallel

Stalemate• The Americans poured in more

men and drove the Chinese back to the 38th parallel. Truman dismissed MacArthur in April 1951 and appointed General Matthew Ridgway as his replacement. The rest of the war was a stalemate in which neither side made gains and many lives were lost. Finally, both sides agreed a cease-fire in 1953

The Impact of the Korean War• During the Korean War the Cold War intensified. Hostilities spread beyond Europe and into

new areas. The founding in 1954 of SEATO increased mistrust between the USA and the USSR. SEATO was an Asian version of NATO and its goal was to contain communism in the Far East

• Korea was ruined by the war. 1 in 10 Koreas died. However, the South had not fallen to communism. The country remained divided

• The Americans viewed the Korean War as a success. The advance of communism had been halted and the Truman Doctrine upheld. The USA now turned its attention to other areas in the Far East threatened by communism

• Korea was also a success for the UN, which had been formed in 1946. In Korea, the UN had sown that it was prepared to stand up to aggression. It seemed much stronger than the League of Nations

• The Korean War also revealed that China, no longer a weak nations, was prepared to stand up to the West

Khrushchev and Co-Existence• Stalin's regime was cruel and repressive. Anyone who opposed him was arrested and

his secret police were active everywhere.

• When Stalin died in 1953, the Soviet people were relieved. The new leader, Nikita Khrushchev, started to relax the Soviet state's grip on its citizens

• One of Khrushchev's first actions in May 1955 was to sign the Austrian State Treaty. This ended the occupation of Austria and re-established it as an independent sovereign state. Khrushchev also pulled the Red Army out of the Soviet-occupied zone of Austria

• In 1956 Khrushchev denounced Stalin as a cruel tyrant. Stalin's statues came down, cities were renamed, the secret police became less active, Stalin's body was removed from the Kremlin and more consumer goods were produced. This process was called "destalinisation".

• Khrushchev wanted to replace the old policy of confrontation with a new policy of "peaceful co-existence". This caused a thaw in the Cold War.

The Thaw Illusion• Destalinisation in the Soviet Union encouraged people living in the satellite states of

Eastern Europe. They expected similar changes, demanded concessions and tried to weaken Soviet influence

• However, like the West they misunderstood Khrushchev's motives. Khrushchev was not prepared to compromise the security of the Soviet Union, so when revolts against Soviet control took place in East Germany in 1953, and Poland & Hungary in 1956, they were ruthlessly put down. Cold war relationships deteriorated once more, and the thaw ended

• In 1955 West Germany was admitted to NATO. Ten days later, the Soviet Union created the military alliance of the Warsaw Pact. Soon after, the Soviet Union cancelled its wartime alliances with Britain and Grance and took East Germany into the Warsaw Pact.

• After the Warsaw Pact was formed, it was impossible to deny that Germany, even Europe, was absolutely divided between communist East and democratic West

The Arms Race 1949-55• After the formation of NATO, the Western Allies stepped up their spending on armaments.

• Until 1949 only the USA had the atomic bomb. Then in 1950 the Soviets announced that they, too, had developed an atom bomb. A nuclear arms race between the two superpowers began. In 1952 American scientists developed the hydrogen bomb, which was 2500 times more powerful than the atom bomb. By 1953 Russian scientists had developed a hydrogen bomb as well.

• American politicians claimed that the USA had fewer weapons than the USSR. In fact the USSR only had about 50 atom bombs in 1953 and did not catch up with the USA until 1978. On the other hand, the USSR had a huge conventional army. During the Korean War, Truman ordered a massive increase in American spending on conventional weapons. He also also increased spending on American NATO forces stationed in Western Europe.

• The arms race increased the climate of fear between the two superpowers. In particular, each side was afraid that the other might try to win a "hot war" by launching a surprise pre-emptive strike

USA USSR1957 rocket with nuclear warheads could travel thousands of miles rocket that could launch into space

19581959 underground ICBMs, missiles in Turkey

1960 ICBMs placed in friendly countries, Polaris missile from submarine ICBMs placed in friendly countries

19611962 missiles in Cuba

19631964 2416 launchers, 6800 warheads, 7500 megatonnage 375 launchers, 435 warheads, 2300 megatonnage

19651966 2396 launchers, 5000 warheads, 5600 megatonnage 435 launchers, 550 warheads, 2300 megatonnage

19671968 2360 launchers, 4500 warheads, 5100 megatonnage 1045 launchers, 850 warheads, 2300 megatonnage

19691970 2230 launchers, 3900 warheads, 4300 megatonnage 1680 launchers, 1800 warheads, 3100 megatonnage

The Hungarian Rising 1956Causes

- Poverty: Hungarians were poor, yet much of the food and industrial goods they produced was sent to Russia

- Russian Control: The Hungarians were very patriotic, and they hated Russian control - which included censorship, vicious secret police and Russian control of what schools taught

- Catholic Church: The Hungarians were religious, but the Communist Party had banned religion and put the leader of the Catholic Church in prison

- Help From The West: Hungarians thought that the UN or Eisenhower would help them - Destalinisation: when the Communist Party tried to destalinise Hungary, things got out of control. The

Hungarian leader Rakosi asked for permission to arrest 400 trouble-makers but Khrushchev would not let him

Events23 October - riots of students, workers and soldiers smashed up the statue of Stalin and attacked the secret police and Russian soldiers 24 October - Imre Nagy took over as Prime Minister. He asked Khrushchev to take out the Russian troops 28 October - Khrushchev agreed, and the Russian army pulled out of Budapest 29 October-3 November - new Hungarian government introduced democracy, freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Nagy also announced that Hungary was going to leave the Warsaw Pact 4 November - at dawn 1,000 Russian tanks rolled into Budapest. By 8.10am they had destroyed the Hungarian army and captured the Hungarian

Consequences of the Hungarian Uprising

• Khrushchev put in Janos Kadar, a supporter of Russia, as Prime Minister

• 200,000 Hungarian refugees fled to Austria

• Russia stayed in control behind the Iron Curtain - no other country tried to get rid of Russian troops until 1968

• People in the West were horrified - many British Communists left the Communist Party

• The West realised it could do nothing about the Iron Curtain countries - but this made Western leaders even more determined to contain communism

Geneva Summit 1955Main Discussion Points- world trade - the arms race - disarmament

"Open Skies"Eisenhower proposed an "open skies" policy for aircraft where

each side would be free to monitor each other from the air. Neither would be able to stock-pile weapons and suspicions

would be reduced

The U2 Crisis• By the 1950s the Americans had developed the U2, a lightweight spy plane that could fly

75,000 feet above the Earth. Even if Soviet radar detected it, the plane would be too high to be intercepted by Soviet aircraft. Yet the U2 carried hi-tech cameras which could take photographs of military sites in the Soviet Union.

• On 1st May 1960, just a fortnight before the Paris summit, a U2 piloted by Gary Powers took off from a US base in Pakistan. The flight went well, and Powers was able to take photographs deep inside the Soviet Union. Then, as Powers crossed the Ural Mountains, his plane was hit by a Soviet SAM2 missile. It crashed near the Soviet town of Sverdlovsk. Powers ejected from the plane and parachuted to the ground, where he was captured by Soviet forces.

• As soon as the Americans discovered that their plane had been shot down, they mounted an elaborate attempt to cover up what had happened. If they admitted to spying on the Soviet Union, the summit talks would be ruined. At first the Americans announced that a U2 research plane studying weather conditions at high altitude had disappeared somewhere over Turkey.

• What the Americans did not know yet was that Powers had admitted to spying whilst being captured, and Soviet scientists had the remains of the plane along with the thousands of photographs of Soviet territory

End Of Hopes For Peace

• Khrushchev offered to attend the summit as long as the Americans apologised. Eisenhower refused to apologise. He claimed that it was America's responsibility to protect itself from a possible surprise attack. Therefore, the U2 flights were an important part of US defence strategy. Khrushchev was not satisfied with this answer and left the summit before talks had even started. He then cancelled an invitation to Eisenhower to visit the Soviet Union

Beginning of The Berlin Wall• The position of Berlin as a divided city in the Soviet sector of Germany made it a centre of rivalry

between East and West. Stalin’s attempt to gain control of West Germany in 1948-49 had been defeated by the Berlin Airlift. Khrushchev had also demanded that the West gave up West Berlin in 1958, but backed down when he realised that the Americans would oppose any attempted takeover. The Marshall Plan meant that living standards in West Berlin were much better than in the East. West Berlin was an advert for capitalism. The people there were able to buy luxury goods whereas those in East Berlin were much poorer. Many reacted to this by crossing the border and living in the West. Over 2 million people defected from East to West Berlin between 1945 and 1961. This was a severe embarrassment to Khrushchev and to Communism. In 1961 he decided to put a stop to this movement of citizens.

• When the new American President, John F Kennedy, refused to give up West Berlin in 1961, Khrushchev decided to close the border. Overnight on 13 August 1961 the city was cut into two by barbed wire and the crossing points were either sealed or guarded with Soviet tanks. The USA took little action about this other than to issue a protest. Kennedy sent his Vice President, Lyndon B Johnson, to Berlin with some additional troops. All this did was restore West German morale and make the Soviets realise that the USA would resist any attempt to extend communist influence into West Berlin. There was a small confrontation of tanks at the main crossing point, Checkpoint Charlie, in October which could have escalated, but no shots were fired and the tanks withdrew.

The Berlin Wall Goes Up• The barbed wire was soon replaced by a massive stone wall 45km long and about 3.6m

wide. It was built slightly inside the borders of East Germany so that there was no attempt to extend the boundary into West Berlin. Throughout the building process, soldier guarded the border with orders to kill anyone who attempted to defect to West Berlin. The Berlin Wall completely sealed off the boundary between East and West Berlin. Families and friends were separated. Around 60,000 commuters who had travelled daily from East to West Berlin for work were no longer allowed to do so.

• Anyone trying to cross the wall was shot. More than 40 Germans were killed trying to cross into West Berlin in the first year of the wall. Others managed to avoid the guards and escape to the West, normally by climbing the wall in the early days, though later, when the defences of the wall were strengthened, tunnels were used and more inventive methods of escape were devised. Eventually, eight border crossings were set up, one of which was Checkpoint Charlie. Visits from West Germany to East Berlin were allowed, but only if you obtained a permit. It was far more difficult to get a permit if you wanted to travel from East to West Berlin.

• Its main achievement for the USSR was that it reduced the number of defectors. The West accepted the wall was just a protest, but their governments made full propaganda use of the wall. They claimed that it was a failure for Communism because the USSR had to cage in their citizens to prevent them escaping.

Which Was The Greatest Success For Khrushchev and the USSR: The U2 Crisis or

The Building of the Berlin Wall

U2 Crisis Building of the Berlin Wall

gives evidence that USA are spying seems like communism has failed, they have to force people to stay

gives the USSR moral high ground propaganda disaster for communism

shows the USSR to demonstrate peaceful coexistence achieved its purpose, however

Paris Summit -> Khrushchev will go with an apology, he is the better man

makes the West seem dishonest

gives them a reason to build the Berlin Wall, after the Vienna Summit when Kennedy refuses to give

over West Berlin

Czechoslovakia 1968• Leonid Brezhnev - Leader of the USSR 1964-82

• Alexander Dubcek - Leader of Czechoslovakia

• Prague Spring: Dubcek wanted to introduced reforms to Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring, as shown below:

1. Increased standard of living2. Plans to increase trade with the West3. Freedom to travel abroad4. Provision of basic human rights5. Free elections & opposition parties allowed6. Competition encouraged7. End of press censorship8. Less state involvement in everyday life9. Powers of the secret police curbed

• Brezhnev Doctrine:

“When forces hostile to socialism try to turn some socialist country towards capitalism, the suppression of these counter-revolutionary forces becomes a concern of all socialist countries

USSR Response To The Prague Spring

• The Brezhnev Doctrine was announced at the Warsaw Pact meeting on the 3rd August

• 500,000 troops invaded Czechoslovakia on the 20th August

• Prague radio instructed people to carryout out passive resistance

• The outside world was kept from knowing what was going on

• Soviet forces rushed all resistance

• Dubcek was taken to Moscow and forced to resign his post & leave the Communist Party

• A new Czechoslovakian leader, Gustav Husak, returned to the old ways

The Effects of the Prague Spring

• Damaged East-West relations, but not badly

• West was horrified but not prepared to intervene and risk war

• Showed the Soviet Union would not allow any political reform

• Showed the West was powerless to stop the Soviet Union doing as it pleased behind the Iron Curtain

The Cuban Missile CrisisIn 1962, the Cold War was at its coldest. The Russians had built the Berlin Wall the previous year. Kennedy, who had been elected because he promised to get tough with the Communists, felt that Khrushchev had got one over on him at the Vienna Summit in 1961. In April 1962, the Americans put nuclear missiles in Turkey.

Also, in 1959, a rebel named Fidel Castro took power in Cuba, an island just 90 miles away from Florida. Before Castro took over, the government - led by Colonel Batista - had been a corrupt and right-wing military dictatorship, but the Americans had many business interests in Cuba.

When Castro came to power, however, he nationalised American companies in Cuba. In retaliation, the Americans stopped all aid to Cuba, and all imports of Cuban sugar. This was a blow to Castro as sugar was the mainstay of the Cuban economy. Castro was forced to look to the USSR for help, and, in 1960, the USSR signed an agreement to buy 1 million tonnes of Cuban sugar every year. Castro, who had not been a Communist when he took power, became a Communist.

America was alarmed. In April 1961, with Kennedy's knowledge, the CIA funded, trained, armed and transported 1,300 Cuban exiles to invade Cuba. They landed at the Bay of Pigs and made an attempt to overthrow Castro. The invasion was a disaster, and President Kennedy was humiliated

In September 1961, Castro asked for - and Russia publicly promised - weapons to defend Cuba against America. Which is why on 14 October 1962, the Americans discovered the missile sites in Cuba. These sites brought every town in the US within range of Soviet nuclear missiles. President Kennedy called a meeting of the National Security Council and on 22 October went on TV to tell the American people that they were under threat.

Consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis

• Speaking many years later, Khrushchev claimed that he had won the Cuban missile crisis. He had achieved both his aims - America never bothered Cuba again (which is still a Communist country) and the US missile sites in Turkey were dismantled in November 1962.

• The world did not see it that way at the time, because the Turkey deal was kept secret, the West saw Kennedy as the hero who had faced down Communism.

• Meanwhile, Khrushchev lost prestige. China broke off relations with Russia and, in 1964, he was forced to resign as Soviet leader.

• A permanent “hot line” was set up between Kennedy and Khrushchev • Cuba served as good propaganda for Communism: it showed Khrushchev to be a

responsible peacemaker• Kennedy had an improved reputation• It help thaw the Cold War• The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed

Beginnings of Détente

• Détente means relaxation or easing of tensions in French • Brezhnev wanted to extend Khrushchev’s policy of Peaceful Co-

Existence. He also wanted to persuade the West to accept Soviet control of Eastern Europe

• The Iron Curtain countries all had very poor industrial efficiency and needed to trade more with the West

• The USA was experiencing “stagflation” - rising inflation coupled with economic stagnation. This was crippling for the US economy.

• The American failure in the Vietnam War had seriously dented its confidence and produced a huge peace campaign

Détente in the USA and the USSR

USSR

• Brezhnev and the rest of the Soviet leadership felt that the economic burden of the nuclear arms race was unsustainable. The Soviets also hoped that with Détente, more trade with Western Europe would be possible. They hoped for greater access to western technology.

• Worsening relations with the People’s Republic of China, leading to the Sino-Soviet Split, had caused great concern to the Soviet Union. The leadership was terrified of the potential of a Sino-American alliance against them and thus felt improving relations with the US would be necessary.

• Soviet thinkers also felt that a less aggressive policy could potentially detach the Western Europeans from their American ally. More independent minded policies appeared in German and France. But on the other hand, the Prague Spring had undermined the USSR’s relationship with the Eastern bloc and western Communists.

USA

• The American economy was also in financial trouble as the Vietnam War drained government finances at the same time as Lyndon Johnson’s New Society sought to expand the government welfare state. Vietnam also weakened the US psychologically. In Europe, the Ostpolitik of Willy Brandt was decreasing tensions. Improved relations with China also helped thaw the American view of communism in general.

Achievements of Détente

Date Event

1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: powers with nuclear weapons agreed not to give any other countries nuclear technology

1971 The US table tennis team played in China

1971 The US dropped its veto and allowed China to join the United Nations

1972 The US President Nixon visited China

1972Russia and America signed the SALT1 Treaty) Strategic Arms

Limitation Talks) agreeing to limit their anti-ballistic missiles and bombers

1975The Helsinki Agreement recognised Soviet control over Eastern Europe, concluded a trade agreement, and Russia promised to

respect human rights

1975 Russian and American spacecraft docked in space

Limitations of Détente

• The Non-Proliferation Treaty did not stop other countries developing nuclear weapons (eg China, and perhaps South Africa and Israel).

• Neither Russia or America kept to the SALT1 agreement. Neither side reduced their conventional weapons. Further talks were much less successful and a SALT2 Treaty in 1979 added little.

• In the Arab-Israeli War of 1973, America supported Israel, and Russia supported Egypt and Syria.

• The Helsinki Agreement achieved nothing - it confirmed the Iron Curtain and Russia ignored its promises about human rights.

• Table tennis and space meetings were just one-off propaganda stunts.

• Brezhnev said that Communists would still try to destroy capitalism. Some historians suggest that Nixon only went to China to drive a wedge between Russia and China

Criticisms of Détente• The West became frustrated because abuse of human

rights continued in the Soviet Union

• In the Eastern Bloc, dissidents were persecuted and suppressed. Many were exiled or imprisoned

• There were also suspicions about whether the USSR was keeping to the terms of SALT1. In fact, both the USSR and the USA were positioning more missiles against each other

• When the USA tried to get human rights for Soviet Jews written into a trade agreement, Brezhnev cancelled the agreement

The Helsinki Agreements• After Nixon and Brezhnev’s meeting in July 1974, there were continuing

attempts to keep détente developing. The Helsinki Agreements of 1975 were a product of this. The USA and the Soviet Union, along with 33 other nations, made declarations about three distinct international issues:

Security - Recognition of Europe’s frontiers. Soviet Union accepted the existence of West

Co-Operation - There was a call for closer economic, scientific and cultural links - these would lead to even closer political agreement

Human Rights - Each signatory agreed to respect human rights and basic freedoms such as thought, speech, religion and freedom from unfair arrest

Background to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

• On 27th April 1978 the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) overthrew the government of Afghanistan. Nur Muhammad Taraki, Secretary General of the PDPA, became President of the Revolutionary Council and Prime Minister of the newly established Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. During its first eighteen months of rule, the PDPA imposed a communist-style reform programme. Decrees forcing changes in marriage customs and land reform were misunderstood by virtually all Afghans. In addition, thousands of members of the traditional élite - the Muslim religious establishment and intellectuals - were imprisoned, tortured or murdered.

• In September 1979 Hafizullah Amin, the Deputy Prime Minister, seized power from Taraki, but there was continued instability in the country because of the anti-Muslim policies. Thousands of Afghan Muslims joined the mujahideen - a guerrilla movement which proclaimed to be on a holy mission for Allah. They wanted to overthrow the Amin government. The mujahideen declared a jihad - a holy war - on the supporters of Amin. The Soviet military assistance programme, which had begun in 1978, was increased, and Amin’s regime became dependent of Soviet military equipment and advisers. However, Amin did not wish to become too reliant of the Soviet Union and wanted to improve links with the USA. Unrest and chaos continued to grow in Afghanistan. Brezhnev was concerned about the growing power and spread of Islamic fundamentalism and wanted to show the 30 million Muslims in the Soviet Union that there would be no changes to the way the Soviet Union was run. The Soviet Union saw fundamentalism as a great threat to the Soviet system

The Invasion on Afghanistan

• Between 25 December 1979 and 1 January 1980, more than 50,000 Soviet troops were sent to Afghanistan to restore order and protect the PDPA from the mujahideen. Brezhnev said the Soviet Union was only complying with the 1978 Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Good Neighbourliness that former President Taraki had signed.

• On 27 December 1979, Amin was shot and replaced by Babrak Kamal, who had been in exile in Moscow. His position as head of the Afghan government depended entirely on Soviet military support. Many Afghan soldiers deserted to join the mujahideen and the Kamal government then required 85,000 Soviet soldiers to keep it in power.

Effects of the Invasion on Afghanistan

• American Boycott of 1980 Moscow Olympics - America led the boycott, and was supported by 60 other nations. The USA was disappointed by the support from Europe: Britain allowed its athletes to choose whether they wanted to take part. The British team members that did attend the event didn’t take part in the opening ceremony and they didn’t play the national anthem when they won medals

• SALT2 - Carter advised the Senate not to ratify the SALT2 agreement

• Carter Doctrine - US force was sent to the Arabian Sea to protect the oil routes; they stated that the USA would resist any attempt by an opposing force to gain control of the Persian Gulf.