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Modern History/Cold War

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Cold war timeline

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  • 1945: February - Yalta conference:
  • Stalin (USSR), Roosevelt (USA), Churchill (UK).
  • Plan what to do about Germany/Europe after war.
    • Key Agreements – Eastern Europe Soviet ‘sphere-of-influence’
    • Germany – four zones: British, French, American and Russian
    • Berlin – four zones: British, French, American and Russian
  • July/August – Potsdam conference:
    • War in Europe over; no Hitler = no unifying force
    • Truman new US leader. V. anti-communist
    • US notified Stalin of A-bomb
    • Disagreements – Germany. Stalin wanted compensation – felt threatened, keep Germany crippled
    • Truman -
  • 1946: Churchill delivers ‘Iron Curtain’ speech
  • 1947: The Truman Doctrine:
    • Active role in Greek civil war
    • Marshall
  • 1949: NATO Treaty signed
  • 1949: Communists take power in China; Nationalists retreat to Taiwan
  • 1950: Korean War begins
    • June 25: North Korea invaded the South in a bid to unite Korea without elections.
  • September 15: USA and Britain led UN troops in military intervention
  • November 25: 500,000 Chinese communist volunteers joined war for North Korea.
  • 1953: Armistice ends fighting in the Korean War.
  • 1955: Warsaw Pact is formed
  • Treaty of friendship, co-operation and mutual assistance, was a military alliance of the Eastern European Bloc countries, who intended to organize against the perceived threat from the NATO alliance
  • 1961: Bay of Pigs
  • April 17, 1961, 1300 members of a CIA-supported counter-revolutionary Cuban exile force stormed beaches of Cuba, ended in total failure. Debacle for Kennedy.
  • August 1961: Berlin Wall is erected, severing Berlin in two
  • 1962: Cuban missile crisis
  • 1963: Nuclear test ban treaty signed: USA/USSR/UK
  • 1964: Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
  • 1965: President Johnson begins escalation of US role in Vietnamese Civil War.
  • 1972: US withdraws from Vietnam.
    • 1972: SALT Treaty signed
    • 1972: Nixon visits China
  • 1975: Vietnam internal conflict ends
  • 1979: The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan
  • 1985: Gorbachev becomes new Soviet leader. Begins policies of "Perestroika" and “Glasnost”
  • 1989: The Fall of the Berlin Wall: COLD WAR ENDS
  • 1989: Tiananmen Square Massacre in China
  • 1991: Warsaw Pact dissolved, Soviet Union collapses, Gorbachev resigns

Revision notes

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  • Definition – describes the conflict between USSR and ‘western powers’ in period following WWII (1945-1989)

Period of tension characterised by conflict at diplomatic, economic and all levels short of direct armed conflict between principles

  • Communism –
  • Capitalism –
  • ‘Superpower’ rivalry

Main personalities

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  • Josef Stalin
  • Winston Churchill
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt
  • Harry Truman
  • Clement Attlee
  • George Kennen
  • Dwight Eisenhower
  • George Marshall
  • Nikita Khrushchev
  • Breshnev
  • John F Kennedy
  • Fidel Castro
  • General MacArthur
  • Dubcek
  • Mikhail Gorbachev
  • Ronald Reagan

Causes/origins

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  • End of the grand alliance
  • Mutual suspicion
  • Fear of communism
  • Conflict of ideals
  • Growth of Communism
  • Europe in ruins

Effects/consequences

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  • Berlin Wall
  • Korean War
  • 1956 > ‘peaceful coexistence’
  • Bay of Pigs
  • Cuban Missile crisis
  • Vietnam War (‘domino theory’)

Détente to 1975

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  • Definition – peaceful coexistence, arms limitations, recognition of China
  • 1975 to the collapse of Communism in Europe
  • Solidarity in Poland
  • Deficiencies in the Communist system
  • Discontent Nationalism
  • Gorbachev’s reforms – Glasnost and Perestroika: opposition from hard liners. 1991 coup.

Statistics

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  • Military
  • Troops : NATO 2.6 million. Warsaw Pact 4 million
  • Tanks : NATO 13,000. Warsaw Pact 42,500

Artillery : NATO 10,750. Warsaw Pact 31,5000

Nuclear arms race

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  • By 1961 – enough bombs to destroy the world
  • By 1981, USA had 8,000 ICBM’s and USSR 7,000 ICBM’s
  • By 1981, USA had 4,000 planes capable of delivering a nuclear bomb. Russia had 5000.
  • USA defence spending for 1981 = 178 billion dollars. By 1986, it was 367 billion dollars.
  • By 1986, it is estimated that throughout the world there were 40,000 nuclear warheads - the equivalent of one million Hiroshima bombs.
  • 1960s – theory of MAD (mutually assured destruction): suitable retaliation = no winners