Cold War

1943 - FDR, Stalin, Churchill  

Churchill didn't make many contributions making it clear there were only 2 real superpowers.

1)Open a second front (D DAY 1944) to relieve pressure on USSR 

2) To discuss the group’s planned invasion of Nazi occupied France. Stalin, the leader of the USSR, was keen to see this happen, as at this point the Soviet Red army was the only army fighting the Nazis on land.

3)The USSR would join the USA and Britain in the war against Japan, once Nazi Germany was defeated

1945 - FDR, Stalin, Churchill 

Aim was to discuss Post-War Settlements in Europe, especially in Germany

Outcomes:

• Germany Divided into 4 zones (and Berlin)
• Declaration of liberated Europe (Stalin was offered a Sphere of Influence in Eastern Europe where communist ideals would dominate
• Established United Nations 
• Pursue punishment of NAZI war criminals 
• USSR would help fight against Japan
• $20Billion reparations from Germany (1/2 to USSR)

1945 Death of FDR -> Truman takes over 

1945 - Attlee, Stalin, Truman

The main objective  was to finalise a post-war settlement and put into action all the things agreed at Yalta. 

Descibed as being hard tempered with disagreements (Truman displayed hatered for communism)

USA Tested nuclear bomb before confrence (dishonesty and threat towards stalin)

There was no sign of Stalin allowing free elections in Eastern Europe and a communist government was being set up in Poland

German economy was to be run as a whole 

USSR allowed 1/4 of equipment from other 3 zones as had poorest and most damaged zone 

Poland was given chunck of Germany to make up for USSR claims 

• USA more confident at Potsdam 
• Made Western countries feel that they could be protected 
• Made Stalin more determined to secure USSR 
• Made Stalin Keener on the Buffer zones 
• Tensions rose 
• Both sides more cautios about going to war.

• 1944/45 Soviets freed many countries in EE and then occupied 
• Stalin did not want to give them up
• Wanted a buffer zone between the East and the West so buffer zones under Russian control was the perfect answer 
• Communist often trained in Moscow set up coalition governments 
• Took key positions in government, opposition leaders removed 
• Elections were fixed, Coups were staged

March 5 1946

• Churchill delivered speech in America condemning USSR's expansion in EE
• Said the 'Soviet Union is a threat to freedom an world peace"
• Recent communist governments were imposed in Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria 
• Truman must have approved the speech for it to have been delivered
• Stalin was furious 

• It declared Marshall Aid to be ‘dollar imperialism’ and claimed the USA was throwing its economic weight around, using it to gain influence in Europe.
• It forbade the Eastern Bloc countries under its control to apply for Marshall Aid.
• September 1947 set up Cominform (Communist Information Bureau) which had as its aim to tighten Soviet control in Eastern Europe, 9 members (USSR & satelite states) Meeting 1: reject Marshall Plan (USA = NAZIs) However, its effectiveness was limited, as demonstrated when Yugoslavia left the group in June 1948.
• Jan 1949 Comecon: Council for economic assistance, direct competition for Marshall plan. Economic aid for all Eastern bloc states, arranged trade and credit agreements. The group became more important after Cominform disbanded in 1956.

Stalin lost patients with way West were acting in Berlin and wanted to push them out because wanted Germany to remain weak and act as a buffer zone between the west.

What were the West doing that angered Stalin?

• Using money from the Marshall Aid programme,the Allies were helping the Germans to rebuild their economy
• Under the Marshall Plan, the USA supplied goods to German shops for workers to buy. This was a nice way of showing the communists that America’s capitalist economy was flourishing.
• At a meeting in London in January 1948, Britain and the USA joined their zones together to create ‘Bizonia’ and make it easier to administer them. (France would later join and they’d change the name to West Germany).

• Berlin would remain a source of tension in Europe for the duration of the Cold War.
• In April 1949 the USA, Britain and France officially announced the formation of the German Federal Republic (West Germany).
• Elections in the Germany Federal Republic in August 1949 resulted in victory for the anti-communist politician, Konrad Adenauer, and the Christian Democratic Union.
• The formation of NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) in April 1949 – an alliance of countries around the North Atlantic for their mutual defence.
• The USSR responded to the formation of NATO with the Warsaw Pact in May 1955– similarly an alliance of the communist countries of Eastern Europe for their mutual defence.
• Finally, on 29 August 1949, the USSR exploded its first atomic bomb. The USA no longer had a monopoly on nuclear weapons.

Stage 1

• Khrushchev now leader of USSR 
• 1956 Secret speech
• 1956 poor harvest/ bread shortages-> hungarians protested, soviet tanks were sent in 
• Khrushchev appoints a liberal Imre Nagy 
• popular 
• reformer
• promised to remain loyal to Moscow 

Stage 2 

• Nagy as prime minister becomes 'revolutionary' 
• Free multi party elections 
• Freedom of worship/speech/press, political prisoners freed 
• Developed trade links with the West 
• Removes secret police 
• Leaves Warsaw Pact
• Gives land back to farmors & workers control of factories  

• 2500 Hungarians killed 
• 700 soviet troops in total 
• Nagy- government deposes, he was arrested tried and excecuted 1958
• Janos Kadar 15 point program to re-establish communist rule 
• 200,000 Hungarians fled as refugees
• 10,000's political arrests 
• Eventually 26,000 of these brought before Hungarian courts, 22,000 sentenced, 13,000 imprisoned, several hundred excecuted, Several hundred deported to USSR 
• UN condemned soviets 
• US aids Hungary ( money & medicine) 
• Satelite states saw USA wouldn't protect them against Soviets (soviets tighten grip)
• Reflects badly on the West

• 1959 Batista overthrown by Communist revulution lead by Caestro 
• Castro seizes US property and nationalises it 
• US Trade embargo(deprives Cuba of sugar and tobacco market in US so Cuba turns to USSR)
• Bay of Pigs invasion ( political disaster)
• Arms race-> USSR agreed to supply Cuba with arms but promised Kennedy no nuclear missiles 
• USSR removed missiles from Cuba only because USA removed missiles from Turkey

1967 Czech students began peacefully demonstrating against Novotny’s rule. Novotny asked Brezhnev, for help to crackdown on the protests, but Brezhnev refused, & in early 1968 Novotny replaced by Alexander Dubcek.

In April 1968, Dubcek announced plan to deliver 'Socialism with a Human Face’ which meant removing state control of the economy and allowing freedom of speech.

Dubcek’s reforms began to worry the Soviets because although he claimed to be a committed communist, Dubcek proposed allowing non-communist political parties to be set up and to put up candidates for election and reduce the power of the secret police. Also Dubcek said that Czechoslovakia would remain in the Warsaw Pact

• Arms race was expensive 
• USA wanted to end Vietnam War 
• Sino-Soviet split ( USSR and China's relations had soured so USA established diplomatic relations with China)
• SALT 1 Signed by Nixon and Brezhnev
• Handshake in space between USA and USSR 
• Helsinki agreement 

• 1977, a new US President, Jimmy Carter
  • Dislikes detente 
  • U**R &Carter questioning questions of Detente 
• Between 1977 and 1979 the U**R began to replace its out-of-date nuclear missiles in Eastern Europe with **-20 missiles. (US repsonded by developing Cruise missiles)
• USA refused to ratify SALT 2 because U**R had broken its commitment to limiting the creation of new nuclear weapons.

• USSA wanted communist gov so Taraki seized power in Kabul in April 1978.
• Wanted to stop spread of radical Islamic beliefs but many Afghans rejected new communist leader 
• The communists imprisoned, tortured and murdered many Muslim religious leaders. This led to the formation of an anti-communist resistance movement known as the Mujahadeen 
• September 1979 Afghan politician, Amin, arranged for the murder of the communist Prime Minister, Taraki, and Amin seized control. Amin entered into discussions with the US.
• This alarmed the USSR who didn’t want American influence on their Southern border. On 24 December 1979, Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan. Amin was assassinated and a pro-Moscow leader, Babrak Karmal, was installed in his place.