Cold War

  • Russian Revolution

    • exploitation of the proletariat -modified Leninism
    • Stalin developed a cult of personality
  • Period: to

    Russian Civil War

    The North Russia intervention was part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War after the October Revolution. The intervention brought about the involvement of foreign troops in the Russian Civil War on the side of the White movement.
  • Period: to

    WW2 and the lend - lease act

    US included USSR (despite ideological differences)
    provided the USSR with economic help worth $11.3bn
  • Anglo soviet pact

  • ACC established in Bulgaria

    Local communist-dominated Patriotic (or Fatherland) Front ousted pro-German gov, seized power and started a communist revolution (over 10k executions) before Red Army's arrival in Sofia.
    Stalin persuaded them to pursue a more moderate and inclusive policy not to antagonise USA-UK.
  • Percentages agreement

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

    plan drawn up by the US Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau Jr which envisaged a postwar Germany as an agricultural, deindustrialized country which would be divided into a northern and a southern half, with the Rhineland, the North Sea coast, and other important strategic or industrial areas coming under international control.
    After initial acceptance by Roosevelt, it was quickly withdrawn as completely impractical, as such a Germany would continue to be reliant on foreign finance.
  • Percentages agreement

    A secret informal agreement between Churchill and Stalin in October 1944 (Moscow conference) establishing East-West percentages of control over Eastern European countries (spheres of influence).
  • France liberated

    Western Allies
    Paris liberated in Aug44.
    De Gaulle (Free France) established independent gov.
    Dec44 Franco-Soviet treaty: against German invasion. Objective: French-led Western Europe against UK-USA influence.
    Thorez's communists popular (Resistance) but Stalin needed France's alliance.
  • Bretton woods conference

    • 44 countries
    • financial arrangements post war
    • feared that economic instability would lead to war
    • restore and preserve economic stability through International organisations like the world bank
  • Czechoslovakia liberated

    USSR
    Invaded Autumn44, annexed areas.
    Beneš' Gov in exile friendly with USSR as it felt betrayed by UK-FRA at Munich (1938), so it cooperated with Gottwald's communists.
    1945: Coalition provisional government – key communist ministers but Beneš as president.
  • Romania liberated

  • Italy liberated

    Western Allies
    Invaded Jul43, armistice Sep43, gradually liberated until Apr45 with the help of partisans, especially communists.
    UK-USA ACC (USSR excluded) supervised provisional coalition gov, which included Togliatti's communists (PCI).
    Stalin supports PCI's cooperation to avoid tension.
  • Poland liberated

    Invaded Jan44, liberated by Jan45. Annexed East; waited for failure of Warsaw Uprising(Aug44-Oct44) and systematically destroyed Polish Home Army.
    Jul44 established Committee of National Liberation (Lublin Committee) - recognised as provisional government in Jan45. USA-UK hoped in democratic elections and supported London Poles but de facto did not oppose Lublin Committee to preserve Grand Alliance.
  • Yata conference

    • German and Berlin divided into 4 zones
    • Germany would be demilitarised and pay reparations
    • UN formally ratified
    • USSR would keep Eastern Poland occupied in 1939 along the Curzon Line
    • Poland would expand north/west Oder-Neisse border
    • declaration of a liberated Europe - free and fair elections
    • USSR to join war against Japan
  • 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
  • Potsdam conference

    •5Ds in Germany (democratised denazified, demilitarised, decentralised,deindustrialised)​
    •USSR received reparations (extra 10% for nothing and 15% in exchange for supply of food and raw materials for Western zones)- $20b total ​
    •Pro-Soviet Lublin Poles recognised as official Polish government​
    •Council of Foreign Ministers (Big 5 coordination)​
    •Removal of German populations from Eastern Europe
  • Hiroshima

  • Nagasaki

  • Azerbaijan crisis

    Britain feared that the Wehrmacht might attack oil-rich countries
    Shah sought to modernize Iran and looked to Germany for economic and technological partnerships
    In 1943 at the Tehran Conference tensions surfaced, leading to interference in Iran’s elections and a continued British and Soviet occupation of Iran.
    The troops withdrew after the Soviet Union was granted an oil concession in northern Iran, following diplomatic pressure from the US and the UN
  • Kennan long telegram

    Kennan warned US gov of impossibility of peaceful coexistence
    USSR aiming "for total destruction of rival power".
    This view aid foundations for containment (Truman Doctrine) and Marshall Aid – beginnings of ‘dollar imperialism’ in the West.
    Stalin found out = Novikov telegram.
    Kennan denied direct responsibility in persuading Truman to commit the USA to the containment of communism.
  • Iron curtain speech

    Iron curtain’ became a symbol of the East-West divide throughout the Cold War.
    Churchill’s speech laid foundations for Truman doctrine and together made clear that a Western bloc was emerging.
    Formalised the existing division through an official announcement.
    Stalin denounced speech as warmongering.
    Churchill was no longer PM and therefore was not representing the UK when giving his speech.
  • Paris peace conference

    Soviet intelligence learned US offer to USSR was only a demonstrative gesture but ERP not really open to USSR.
    Molotov accused West of dividing Europe into two hostile camps.
  • Poland absorbed into communist bloc

    • Rigged elections
    • Poland has asked the west to monitor elections but as Poland is in the USSR's sphere - declined
    • Gomulka - leader of the communist party
  • Kennan's x article

    • introduction of containment
  • Bizonia

    • merge of British and American zones too costly for the British wanted to avoid soviet influence over industrial rhur region
  • Cominform

  • Moscow conference

    Marshall met in Moscow with the Soviet (Molotov), British and French foreign ministers to decide on Germany's future.
    No decisions made.
    Marshall thought the Soviet were stalling and waiting for situation to worsen – communism would spread.
  • Truman doctrine

    Foundations for the development of the Marshall Plan.
    Led to a lasting policy of containment which will be followed until 1953 when Eisenhower becomes President.
    JFK and LBJ will return to the policy.
    Remembered as a quasi-declaration of war
    stalin dismissed the Truman speech as propaganda, so did not allow this to influence his view.
    Stalin still sent Molotov to attend the Paris conference in June-July 1947
  • USA created the Strategic air command

    headed by General Cutis LeMay
  • communist party seized power in Czechoslovakia

    • crisis due to Govs acceptance of Marshall plan
    • in may 146 communists only one 38%
  • Marshall plan

    5bn dollars
    20% loans, 80% grants.
    Food, fertilisers, agricultural machines.
    In 4 years, 13.5bn dollars to 16 countries
  • Yugoslavia expelled from Cominfrom

    stalin - tito split
  • Deutsche mark

    • western backed currency reform in Trizonia
  • Moscow talks

    unsuccessful – heightened tension as West unwilling to reverse decision to create Western state or new currency
  • Berlin blockade

    USSR closed all roads, rail and canal links between West Berlin and Western Germany.
    12,000 tons every day could not be accessed
  • Period: to

    Berlin airlift

    Airlift started on 24th June 1948
    2000 tons of supplies a day + "chocolate propaganda
    Easter Sunday 1949 13,000 tons delivered
    12 May 1949. Stalin ended it as it failed to drive Allies out of Berlin and the counter-blockade was hurting the Soviet zone.
  • Rigged elections in Hungary

    • only candidates from communist dominated Hungarian peoples independent front allowed to run
  • creation of GDR

    based on a ‘make believe constitution’ which disguised a one-party dictatorship. ​
  • USSR atomic bomb

  • comecon

  • Creation of FRG

    • KPD only won 5.7% of vote
  • NATO

  • end of Marshall plan

    • 2 years early
    • beacuse of Korean War
  • European industrial production increased by 35%

    • result of Marshall plan
  • 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
  • Warsaw Pact

  • 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
  • Mao bombed Taiwanese islands of Quemoy and matsu

  • 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

  • Khrushchev indirectly supported India in its border dispute with China in 1959

  • 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

  • USSR withdrew technological aid from China

  • 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
  • Kennedy assassinated

  • 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
  • China called for a return of territory that it claimed the USSR had occupied

  • 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
  • Brezhnev

  • 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
  • Cultural Revolution

    • USSR - revisionist
    • Mao wanted to strengthen his own power
    • Chinese Red guard
    • USSR's embassy in Beijing was besieged by.a red guard mob
  • USSR forces in Mongolia and Kazakhstan

    increased hostility with china
  • 6 day war

    territorial disputes, water rights, and the presence of UN peacekeepers.
    USA: Strongly supported Israel politically and supplied arms.
    USSR: Supported Egypt and Syria with military equipment, advisors, and intelligence.
    USSR threatened to intervene militarily after Israel’s rapid success
    The Security Council, with heavy involvement from both Washington and Moscow, passed UN Resolution 242 (Nov 1967) promoting withdrawal from occupied territories and recognition of all states in the region.
  • demonstrations in Prague

  • Dubcek Action programme

    • distinct path
    • basic freedoms
    • recognition of Israel
    • economic enterprise
    • other parties
    • Club K-231
  • Warsaw Pact countries conducted military exercises in Czechoslovakia

  • Warsaw letter

    • argued that challenges to socialism within one country were a threat to the entire socialist movement
    • Brezhnev and Dubcek - series of meetings
  • Nixon -> wanted to start talks with China

  • crisis in Czechoslovakia

    • economic downturn
    • corruption
    • Ota Sik reforms e.g. individual enterprise - communist party would not allow those to take place
    • Sik gained support of intellectuals and students
    • USSR felt that changes had to take place in Czechoslovakian leadership to maintain the communist government
  • the nuclear non - proliferation treaty

    • all signatories agreed they wiped mot transfer to any recipient weapons or other nuclear devices nor assist in the manufacturing of them
    • allowed the development of research for peaceful purposes france and china didn't sign until; 1992
  • Novtony reigned and was replaced by Dubcek - CZ

    • prevent protest
    • socialism with a human face
    • eliminated press censorship
    • democratic 'infection'
  • Albania left Warsaw Pact

  • 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
  • Warsaw Pact forces invaded Czechoslovakia

    • undermined the possibility that change could be achieved through party led reform
  • Brezhnev Doctrine

    • outlined the responsibility of communist states to intervene in order to protect the good of the whole communist community
    • defined what deviation from communism would lead to
  • artichoke approach

    US removed some trade controls and travel restrictions on China
  • Willy Brandt - chancellor of West Germany

    • abandoned Hallstein Doctrine
    • Ostpolitik
  • Period: to

    Nixon

  • Deng visited USA

  • soviet border control near Zhenbao island ambushed by china

    Zhenbao island - eastern USSR
  • 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

  • Non-agression pact between Brandt and USSR

  • Oder - Neisse border

    West Germany signed a treaty with Poland that recognised the post - war Oder-neisse border
  • Kissinger visited Beijing

    • agreement to establish a presidential visit and a Sino - American summit Moas designated successor - died
  • US military sent 119 advisors to Cambodia

  • Ubrict -> Honecker

  • Nixon visited China

  • Spring Offensive

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

    150,000 tons of bombs dropped on NV
  • Kissinger secret diplomacy

    vietnam
  • The Moscow summit

    12 principles
    - nuclear weapons are no alternative to peaceful coexistence and mutal relations
    - avoid situations that could develop into nuclear war
    - special responsibility - won't increase international tensions
  • two Germanies recognised each other

  • 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'
  • SALT I

    • anti ballistic missile treaty:
      • limited ABMs to two fields, no more than 100 missiles Interim agreement
      • freeze on strategic missiles foundation of detente
  • the basic treaty

    normalise relations between the two Germanies
    potential economic relations
    territorial inviolability
  • Both Germanies -> UN

  • Watergate

    Nixonn caught planting bugs in democrats hotels - forced to resign - replaced by Ford
  • war powers act

    gave congress the power to declare war
  • Paris peace agreement

    • ceasefire
    • each sides forces would keep to areas they controlled
    • within 60 days USA would withdraw
    • free elections - eventual reunification
    • 'peace with honour'
    • halt bombung in cambodia HOWEVER dec 1972 Nixon ordered bombing of Hanoi and USA sent $1bn in arms to SV
  • NV assault -> Thieu's regime doomed

    US congress rejected to SV
  • The Vladivostok summit

    • agreement on framework for 10 year plan
    • soviets agreed to equal levels of ICBM launchers and SLBM launchers
    • HOWEVER USA argued that limit on air to surface missiles applied only to ballistic missiles while the Soviet Union argued it included cruise missiles
  • Thieu fled SV

  • Khmer Rouge capture Phnom Penh

  • SV surrendered

    Vietnamese communists achieved aim of a united, socialist Vietnam
  • The Helsinki Accords

    • 35 states
    • Basket 1 Security in Europe: consisted of 10 principles (respect for sovereignty and equality among states, rejection of force, peaceful settlements)
    • Basket 2 Cooperation in economics and technology
    • Basket 3 cooperation in Humanitarian and other fields (cultural and educational exchange)
  • SEATO disbanded

  • Carter's new proposals

    • disagreed with Vladivostok agreement
    • list of new proposals
    • e.g.further reducing the level of strategic systems from 2400 to 1800
    • reduce ICBMs to 150 Brezhnev regarded Vladivostok as binding - Carter acting unilaterally
  • collectivisation introduced in vietnam

    1.5 million fled
  • agreement on Taiwan

    Deng conceded chinas demand that the USA should cease to aid Taiwan militarily
    assured USA solved peacefully
    formal diplomatic relations take effect in 1979
  • Vitamins invaded cambodia

    USSR military aid
    pro Vietnam heng Samrin installed
  • Carter convinced NATO to increase expenditure

    • USSR refused to end the deployment of SS-20 missiles
    • increase by 3%
  • The Vienna Summit

    • both wanted SALT II to proceed
    • agreement signed at Vienna
    • direct communication