Modern History/Cold War

Cold war timeline

 * 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
Period of tension characterised by conflict at diplomatic, economic and all levels short of direct armed conflict between principles
 * Definition – describes the conflict between USSR and ‘western powers’ in period following WWII (1945-1989)
 * Communism –
 * Capitalism –
 * ‘Superpower’ rivalry

Main personalities

 * 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

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

Effects/consequences

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

Détente to 1975

 * 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
Artillery : NATO 10,750. Warsaw Pact 31,5000
 * Military
 * Troops : NATO 2.6 million. Warsaw Pact 4 million
 * Tanks : NATO 13,000. Warsaw Pact  42,500

Nuclear arms race

 * 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