Cold War

  • Russian Revolution

    • exploitation of the proletariat -modified Leninism
    • Stalin developed a cult of personality
  • Percentages agreement

    • Churchill aimed to control soviet expansion
    • met in Moscow
    • USSR 90% in Romania -Britain 90% in Greece -Hungary 50/50
  • Period: to

    Yalta Conference

    Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill
    - interallied cooperation
    - agreed on: Germany would be divided into four zones, UN formally ratified, USSR gain land from Poland, declaration on liberated Europe
    -Roosevelt/Churchill: long term cooperation, UN, Germany's reconstruction, IMF
    -Stalin: USSR security granted through spheres of influence, Germany to remain weak, economic reconstruction at Germany's expense
  • USA created the Strategic air command

    headed by General Cutis LeMay
  • more than 300,000 East germans migrated west

  • Period: to

    Eisenhower

  • USA tested H bomb successfully

    1500x more powerful than bomb bused in 1945
  • Austrian state treaty

    • federal republic of Germany is admitted to NATO -Austria would be neutral -diplomacy
  • The Geneva Summit

    • Russia needed extensive conventional forces in EE
    • less confrontational with the west
    • open skies proposal: Eisenhower, each side to provide details of military installations (rejected) -future of Germany: Eisenhower wanted free elections and right to own security (become part of NATO) K wanted Germany to be neutral and demilitarised -agreed to free elections beginning of dialogue even without practical outcomes
  • USSR had H bomb

    100x more powerful than their first attempts
  • Death of Beirut

    Khrushchev appointed Ochab to implement de-stalinisation in Poland
  • USA had 560 Strategic Bombers while USSR had 60

  • 20th Congress of the USSR communist party

    • fundamental shift
    • abandoned Marxist Leninist view that war between the socialist and capitalist camps was inevitable -communism has become so powerful it would win without war -Soviet Union must remain unchallenged leader of socialist world -maintain satellite states -Germany can't rearm -USSR expansion nuclear capability -reduce spending on conventional forces in EE -defuse tension -peaceful coexistence
  • Elections not held in Vietnam

    forced Ho Chi Minh to concentrate on consolidating communist control in the North
    -land reform
    -thousands executed, military had to put down a revolt 6000 killed
    -full scale collectivisation
  • Castro returned to Cuba

    dubbed 'los barbudos'
  • Secret Speech

    delivered by Khrushchev reporting on Stalin's war crimes
  • Polish workers go on strike

    in protest of wage cuts and poor working conditions
    anti - communist armed uprising
  • Period: to

    Polish Uprising

  • Students in Budapest protested

    -listed 16 demands including the appointment of Nagy as PM
    -Nagy: withdraws of soviet troops, freedom of speech, multi party system
    -armed revolt as demonstrations were fired on by the Hungarian secret police
  • Nagy appointed PM

  • Gomulka elected first secretary of Polish United workers party

    Khrushchev met with Gomulka and threatened military action if Gomulka refused to cooperate
    Gomulka could not carry out reforms which woful threaten communist rule e.g. Poland has to remain in Warsaw Pact
    - force was not used
    -Gomulka balanced polish security with the presence of soviet troops in Poland
    -moscow would allow independence with trustworthy men
  • Khrushchev withdrew soviet forces in Budapest

    • pressure from china
  • Moscow reversed decision in Hungary

    • feared collapse of communism if there was a multi party system, dissolution of secret police
  • Nagy announced Hungary would leave the Warsaw Pact

    • declared neutrality
  • red army in Budapest

    • 15 divisions -4000 tanks
    • new government led by Kadar installed -4000 killed -200,000 went into self exile -lack on intervention from west - status quo
  • Gaither Report

    -wrongly predicted missile gap
    -favoured the USSR 100:30 in ICBMs
  • Bermuda Conference

    agreement with Britain to station IRBMs in Britain
  • Sputnik

    USSR launched first satellite to orbit the earth
  • Sputnik II (Laika)

    • soviet space technology was superior to that of the USA
  • Flopnik

    rocket crashed on its take off from Cape Canaveral
  • US gov authorised $1billion for space technology development

  • NASA

  • Khrushchev became USSR's PM

    • wanted soviet space programme to dominate the USA
    • worried that west Germany would be equipped with NATO weapons
    • increased soviet defence in Europe was draining resources -people feeling east Germany -wanted to strengthen economy and defences
  • Fifteenth Plenum of the VWP committee

    committed to reunification
    served as a declaration of war on the south
    use military force to overthrow Diem
    create national unity in the south
  • Berlin Ultimatum

    demanded withdrawal of western troops from west Berlin and Berlin to be declared a free city, rejected by the west
  • USSR - first satellite to orbit the moon was launched

  • Cuban revolution

    Batista's regime collapsed
    Castro introduced a programme of agrarian reform which led to American properties being seized by the state
  • US discoverer programme

    provided long range intelligence gathering photos from space
  • Paris Summit

    -peaceful coexistence
    -American U-2 spy plane shot down over USSR (Gary Powers)
    -confirmed Krushchev was exaggerating soviet capability
  • USA had 550 strategic bombers while USSR had 175

  • 10 point programme

    social and political reform
    NLF
  • first shipment of crude oil from USSR arrived in Cuba

    -Castro nationalised oil companies
    -USA imposed economic sanctions
    -reduced Cuban sugar imports by 95%
  • NLF established

    free the south from US imperialism
    rejection of Diem's quasi imperialist polices
  • Vienna conference

    -JFK and Khrushchev
    - little achieved
    -K saw JFK as easily manipulated
    JFK refused to compromise over Berlin
  • JFK inaugurated

    reaffirmed Truman doctrine
  • 10,000 east germans migrated west

  • Period: to

    JFK

  • USSR launched first manned satellite to orbit the earth

    Yuri Gagarin
  • Bay of Pigs Invasion

    1500 anti-castro exiles to carry out a military coup
    humiliated JFK
  • creation of the Berlin Wall began

    • wire fences
    • 4 recognised crossing points
  • General Taylor sent to vietnam

    presented report with the following recommendations
    - increase helicopter force to assist counterinsurgency measures
    - greater training of ARVN
    - increase US combat forces (10,00)
    - strategic bombing of NV
    JFK refused to send ground troops
  • operation Mongoose

    overthrow Castro through covert operations
    led by general Edward Lansdale
    OPLAN 312 and OPLAN 314
  • USA launched a successful 63 space missions

    compared to the USSR's 15
  • USSR and Cuban $100 million credit deal

    • economic and political relationship
  • Strategic Hamlet Program

    Operation sunrise
    house SV rural peasants
    isolate people from Vietcong
    4 million people, 3000 hamlets
    largely a failure
    led to improved recruitment to vietcong
    couldn't isolate vietcong agents from hamlets
  • Operation Quick Kick

    US military manoeuvres started in the Caribbean
    USSR's defence minister Malinovsky declared that if the US was to attack Cuba would stand for no longer than a week
  • USSR deploy missiles in Cuba

    • provided fighter planes and 1400 ground troops -geostrategic importance -short range missiles
  • U2 spy planes find evidence of missiles in Cuba

  • ExComm created

    • hawks vs doves
    • Kennedy opted for a naval blockade
    • US bases put on maximum alter
  • UN Security Council met

    US ambassador condemned soviet deployment
    Khrushchev called blockade an act of aggression
  • Soviet ships reached quarantine and stopped or turned around

  • Cuban anti-aircraft focus start firing on low levels reconnaissance planes

  • Khrushchev sent telegraph to Kennedy

    • USA to make a non invasion pledge
    • USSR remove military presence from Cuba
  • Krushchev's second telegram

    attempted to redefine conditions
  • Khrushchev removed missiles from Cuba

    Kennedy replied to Krushchevs first letter only
  • Buddhist crisis

    • diem was Roman Catholic
    • brother Ngo Dinh Thuc became Archbishop -Buddhists banned from flying flags -Buddhist leader - Try Quang
    • nine people killed
    • Quang Doc publicly burned himself alive
  • hot line

    connected Kremlin to White House
  • Moscow test ban treaty

    • no provisions for underground Tests
    • banned tests in outer space and underwater
  • JFK speech declared all free men are citizens of Berlin

  • Diem assassinated

    • south Vietnamese rebel generals activated a military coup against Diem and his regime
  • deterioration in Vietnam

    -NLF mission in Moscow
    -China provides military supplies to china
    -PAVN moved down the Ho Chi Minh trail
    -rise in anti - American feeling
    -ARVN lost moral
  • OPLAN 34A

    • covert action
    • designed to force Hanoi to desist from its aggressive policies -increased number of military advisors
  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

    • attack on US naval vessel -presented the president with the power to take whatever action he felt was necessary to resist any armed attacks on US forces and to prevent further aggression
  • Pleiku incident

    vietcong attacked army barracks and a US helicopter base
  • Period: to

    Operation Rolling Thunder

    bombing campaign
    marked the start of the Americanisation of the war
    killed 165,00
  • Nixon -> wanted to start talks with China

  • Period: to

    ARVN increased in size from 82000 to 1 million

  • The Tet offensive

    • tet religious celebrations
    • vietcong launched a series of attacks against US targets in cities across SV
    • massive defeat for vietcong (25,000 killed)
    • turning point
    • cronkite - stalemate
    • USA 550,000 groundtroops
  • artichoke approach

    US removed some trade controls and travel restrictions on China
  • Period: to

    Nixon

  • Operation menu - Cambodia

    aims: sever supply chains (Ho Chi minh trail)
    pressure Nv for peace settlement
    reassure SV
    Prince overthrown by pro US general Lon Nol
    NV backed Khmer Rouge - Pol pot
    SV forces with US air support: cross border raids
    1970 - USA 20,000 ground troops
  • Protests against war in Vietnam

  • US senate voted to remove gulf of tonkin resolution

  • Kissinger visited Beijing

    • agreement to establish a presidential visit and a Sino - American summit Moas designated successor - died
  • Spring Offensive

    • test of Vietnamisation
    • ARVN resisted (8000 casualties)
    • NV - 40,000 casualties
  • Operation Linebacker I

    150,000 tons of bombs dropped on NV
  • Operation Lam Son 719

    30,000 ARVN troops invasion of Loas with US military support
    resistance from NV forces
    leaders of ARVN more interested in appeasing Thieu than winning battles
    Thieu - 3000 casualties - stop advance
    SV forces got halfway than retreated
    move US towards 'peace with honour'