Cold War (textbook and class notes)

• The Cold War was a battle of ideas as opposed to actual fighting between two sides, although there were wars and conflicts linked to the Cold War

• Reasons for the Cold War:

  • Lack of a common enemy (like Hitler)- the two sides did not have any reason to work together and put aside their differences

  • Dropping of the atomic bomb- the Soviets were never officially told that Truman was going to drop it

  • Russian Civil War – USA supported the anti-communist white army, the communist red army won and forever resented and mistrusted the USA for trying to stop them coming to power.

  • Stalin- repressive and secretive, executed people he didn’t like, had secret police/spies. USA did not trust Stalin’s government.

  • Nazi-Soviet Pact – Russia signed an agreement with the Nazi’s not to attack them for a short time at the start of WWII. Russia did eventually fight against Hitler but the USA did not trust them after the pact

  • Russia pulled out of WWI and left the USA to fight Germany without their help

  • Ideological differences between capitalism and communism

  • Propaganda – both sides spread fear about the other ideology

• Communism

  • Ideology thought of by Karl Marx in the 1840s possibly in response to massive difference in rich and poor during industrial revolution

  • State owns and controls businesses and schools

  • Collective rights precede over individual rights so there is no democracy

  • Aims for elimination of class system

  • Adopted in Russia in 1917 (post-WW1) as during times of economic hardship, people are more likely to support extremist parties

    • In practice, everything in the USSR was run by the state

    • Businesses and other parties were banned

    • Most people were equal although members of the communist party often got better goods

• Capitalism

  • The system we mostly have today

  • Emphasis on creation of personal wealth

  • Most things privately owned

  • You can buy products in shops and start businesses and schools

  • Government has minimal role in people’s lives

  • Democratic elections for a range of political parties

  • Some people are very rich and some are very poor- differences in wealth and an established class system

• The USA was the ‘poster child’ for capitalism and the USSR the same for communism. They both wanted to show that their way of living was better

• 1917- Russian Revolution

  • Communists took control and killed the Russian Tsar (King) and a brutal civil war took place

  • US supported the anti-communist “white army” causing long lasting resentment between the communist government in Russia and the USA.

  • Shocking, people became fearful that communism would take control in their countries because under communism if you owned a home or a business the state would take it away from you to make everyone equal.

• 1939-45- WW2

  • 1939- Hitler invades Austria and Czechoslovakia and then Poland.

    • Allies announce war

  • 1940- Nazis take over France, Belgium and the Netherlands

    • Most of Europe is facist, under Hitler or its own facist leader

  • 1942- Pearl Harbour

    • Japan bomb the USA, the USA join the Allies

  • 1943- Operation Barbarossa (turning point of WW2)

    • Largest military operation in human history

    • Nazis invade Russia

    • USSR join the Allies

  • 1943- Stalingrad

    • Soviets push Nazis out of Russia

  • 1944- D-Day

    • Britain and USA land in France

• Each country had different aims at the end of the war and so disagreed about how Germany should be dealt with

• 1943- Tehran (pre end of war)

  • Agreed to defeat Germany first, then Japan

  • Britain and USA agreed to invade Europe

  • Agreed they wanted unconditional surrender

• February 1945- Yalta

• What each country wanted:

  • Churchill

    • Percentages agreement (about how to divide Eastern European countries after Nazi occupation) to limit Soviet expansion

    • Anti-communist

  • Roosevelt

    • United Nations

    • Willing to cooperate with the USSR

  • Stalin

    • Russia had suffered during the war- millions dead and agriculture/industry destroyed

    • Main aim was to make sure this never happened again

    • Wanted Germany kept weak so they couldn’t attack

    • Wanted a buffer of states under Russian influence in Eastern Europe to protect Russia from future attacks

• Actions:

  • Germany- to be split into four zones (USA/USSR/Britain/France)

  • Berlin- also to be split between USA/USSR/Britain/France as it was too important and in the USSR’s zone

• Future of Eastern Europe uncertain

  • Polish government in exile in London, unsure what to do with them

• 1945- Potsdam

• What each country wanted:

  • Atlee (winner of election)

    • Concerned by Soviet Expansion

    • Realised Britain was not as strong as it was before WW2 so stayed close to the USA and followed what they wanted.

  • Truman (replaced Roosevelt as he had died)

    • Not as cooperative as and more aggressive than Roosevelt

    • Relationship with Stalin unfriendly

      • Believed Stalin wanted to grow Soviet power in Eastern Europe

    • Wanted to use the fact that the USA held the world’s first atomic bomb as a way to ensure he got what he wanted

  • Stalin

    • Resentful that the USA had not told them about the atomic bomb before dropping it as they were supposed to be allies

      • In reality Stalin had spies telling him everything anyway.

    • Didn’t trust Truman

• Actions:

  • Germany officially divided

  • Nazi Party banned, former leaders tried as war criminals

  • Germans living in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia returned to Germany

  • Poland to lose territory in USSR

• Future of Eastern Europe still uncertain as USA and Britain wanted them to have free elections but the USSR was occupying them with the Red Army

• Truman chose not to tell Stalin about the Manhattan Project even though they were allies and Stalin had spies to tell him

  • Mistrust between superpowers

• Actions taken to force the Japanese to surrender and end the war in the Pacific as peace in Europe was declared in June

  • 6^th August 1945- atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima

  • 3 days later- atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki

• USSR now determined to build their own bomb

  • 1949- USSR build their own atomic bomb

• The nuclear arms race begins.

• Advantages:

  • Truman more confident in negotiations at Potsdam

  • Countries of Western Europe felt more secure under American protection rather than Soviet protection

  • Mutually assured destruction due to the atomic bombs- USA and USSR more reluctant to go to war

• Disadvantages:

  • Unable to persuade Stalin to allow more freedom for Eastern Europe

  • Stalin more determined to create a buffer zone between Germany and the USSR’s western borders

  • USA nuclear monopoly did not last

    • 1949- USSR have an atomic bomb

    • 1964- Britain, France and China have atomic bombs

• Caused more mistrust

• Written by George Kennan- a US diplomat living in Russia

• Outlined fears about Soviet aggression and expansion

  • Said that Soviets ‘could not force permanent peaceful co-existence’ with the USA

  • Described an ‘instinctive Russian sense of insecurity’

• Said that the Soviets would back down when ‘strong resistance is encountered at any point’

• Speech by Churchill in a visit to the USA

  • Described the divided between communist and capitalist Europe as the ‘Iron Curtain’

  • Publicly accused the USSR of spreading its influence through Eastern Europe and being expansionist

• Stalin saw it as a deliberate attempt to paint the USSR as untrustworthy

• Speech to congress by Truman

  • Argued that the USA should aim to ‘contain’ communism where it had taken hold by whatever measures necessary

  • Effectively accepted nothing could be done about Eastern Europe

• Officially called the European Recovery Programme

• Gave economic aid to European countries to be only spent on American products to

  • Create a thriving economy and market for American products

  • Support them in not turning communist (as people often turn to communism during times of economic hardship)

  • Promote European unity

• 16 nations accepted

• Total of $13.15 billion given

  • $3 billion given to Britain

  • $2 billion given to France

• Provided vital equipment and supplies

  • 1939-51- production in Europe grew by 30%

• However, aid given represented only 3% of GDP and many argue that economic recovery had already begun

  • Also further entrenched the Iron Curtain

• Stalin wanted a set of states as a buffer (sphere of influence) to protect the USSR from invasion

  • 1944- Churchill seemingly agreed to this with the percentages agreement

    • USSR/Other Allies

    • Romania 90/10

    • Greece 10/90

    • Yugoslavia 50/50

    • Hungary 50/50

    • Bulgaria 75/25

• Communist organisations

  • 1919- Comintern

    • Launched by Lenin, re-established under Stalin (1947)

  • Communist international

    • Alliance of communist countries

  • 1947- Cominform

    • Information bureau created to bring unity to the Eastern European countries under the USSR

  • 1949- Comecon

    • Soviet response to the Marshall Plan

    • Created to economically support USSR sphere of influence countries to make communism look good

• Countries that turned communist

  • 1945- Albania, Bulgaria, East Germany (German Democratic Republic)

  • 1947- Romania, Poland, Hungary

  • 1948- Czechoslovakia

• Yugoslavia and communism

  • 1941- Joseph Tito and his partisans (armed civilian freedom fighters) led resistance as the Nazis had invaded

  • After the war, Tito established a federation of socialist republics

  • 1948- Tito and Stalin disagree, Yugoslavia leaves Comintern

• Berlin was divided (agreed at Yalta and Potsdam) but Stalin did not like that the other countries had land “behind the iron curtain” withins Soviet controlled East Germany.

• March 1948- UK/USA/France unite their sectors of Berlin (Trizonia) and make a new currency

• Stalin is unhappy and begins to plan his own currency

• March and April 1948- Stalin attempts to cut off west Berlin from supply routes coming from West Germany in the hopes that the USA would abandon West Berlin and the Soviets could take control

  • They blocked roads and railway lines and left the people of West Berlin living on food and fuel reserves.

  • 300 000 West Berliners protested against Soviet occupation

• 24th of June 1948- blockade enforced

• Berlin Airlift

  • To avoid conflict the US did not fight through the blockade, instead they flew over it into West Berlin with supplies

  • US planes could only carry 3 tonnes of supplies by 10 000 were needed per day

• 26th June 1948- Operation Vittles (US) and Plainfare (GB)

  • Planes arrived in Berlin every 3 minutes and 4 000 tonnes of supplies were delivered per day

• Berlin Blockade continued through the winter of 48-9

• 1949

  • 1949- ‘Easter Parade’ 12 000 tonnes of coal delivered in a day (1383 flights)

  • May- Stalin lifts the blockade

  • May- Federal Republic of Germany created

  • October- GDR created (German Democratic Republic)

• 1946-49- war between communists and nationalists

  • Communists win (led by Mao Zedong)

  • Nationalists pushed to Taiwan

• 1949

  • Becomes communist

  • Renamed People’s Republic of China

  • Led by Chairman Mao

  • USSR recognises PRC whereas Western Allies recognise the exiled nationalist government in Taiwan

• Initially seen as a gain for USSR

  • However, China would never be within the Soviet Sphere of influence

  • China’s relationship with the Soviet Union was not always positive as they had different ideas about communism (Mao was more about peasant farmers and Stalin was more about urban industrial workers)

  • 1950- Treaty of Friendship between USSR and China

    • $300 million of aid to china

    • 95% to be paid back at high interest

    • Money had to be spent on Soviet goods

    • After Stalin’s death the relationship soured

• Impact

  • Visible failure of the Truman Doctrine

  • USA put millions of dollars into Taiwan and Japan

• 1948- Korea divided into North and South along the 38th Parallel as agreed at Potsdam

  • North turned communist with a Soviet trained leader (Kim Il Sung) and the South was capitalist (led by Syngman Rhee), backed by the USA.

• March 1949

  • Kim asks Stalin to support an invasion of SK

    • Stalin provides equipment but no troops

  • 7 500 US troops in SK

• UN

  • The Americans asked the UN to call for a ceasefire

  • The USSR was boycotting the UN as most UN countries had not yet recognised the communist government now in China so could not veto the decision.

  • With UN support the USA sent troops to defend South Korea

  • Demonstrated the US commitment to containing communism

• 1950

  • June- NK invades SK

  • Sept- US forces, led by General MacArthur, landed at Inch’on

    • US troops drove NK back to the 38th Parallel

  • Nov- Chinese counter offensive

• 1951

  • Jan- Chinese retake Seoul

    • US counter and drive forces back to the 38th Parallel

  • MacArthur dismissed due to criticism of Truman and call for nuclear input

  • June- stalemate

    • NK/Chinese army at 1.2 million

    • SK/US army at 780 000

  • 1951-3- fighting continued but not much moving from the 38th Parallel

• 1953

  • Ceasefire

• Impact

  • Divisional effect on superpower relations as USSR and US went head to head

    • Shows nuclear tensions between communism and capitalism

• Causes

  • USA increasingly involved in Vietnam due to concerns about Domino Theory

  • 1954

    • After defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu French withdrew from Vietnam.

      • Worried the US as Eisenhower didn’t want to send troops so a diplomatic solution was needed

    • July- meeting in Geneva agreed to split Vietnam along the 17th Parallel

      • France agreed to leave the North

      • 2 year agreement

      • US did not sign as could not accept a communist North Vietnam- Domino Theory

        • If Vietnam was communist Cambodia and Laos would likely follow as they were in times of economic hardship

  • US wanted to defend democracy- countries should have a choice about becoming communist

  • US wanted to extend it’s sphere of influence to Asia for trade opportunities and allies

• Events

  • 1950

    • North Communist- led by Ho Chi Min- backed by Soviet Union and Chinese

    • South Capitalist- led by Diem- backed by the USA and the French

    • North used guerrilla warfare (Ho Chi Min trail) to dominate the South

  • 1959

    • 150 000 US troops land in vIETNAM

  • 1960

    • Establishment of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (Vietcong) (Vietcong and NVA vs SV army)

      • Aims:

        • Overthrow Ngo Dinh Diem’s corrupt government

        • Establish the Ho Chi Minh Trail

  • 1961

    • JFK saw winning in Vietnam as vital

      • Sent 16 000 military people train the South Vietnamese army

  • 1963

    • November- Diem removed by rebels

    • JFK assassinated

      • Lyndon B Johnson (JFK replacement) ordered a full US military involvement to show the US commitment to containing communism.

  • 1965

    • Vietcong and NVA had 170 000 soldiers

      • Supplied with weapons and equipment by China and the USSR

      • Outnumbered by South Vietnam Army (US)

    • November- La Drang Valley- SV forces killed 20 000 Vietcong and only lost 300 troops

      • SV forces won in open warfare

    • Vietcong turned to guerrilla warfare

      • Tactics: traps

      • NVA spoke to villagers to gain support for communism

  • US (SVA) tactics

    • Patrols- search and Destry

    • Zippo raids- setting fire to village huts

    • Napalm- chemical weapon that burns skin- used to clear forest and on people

    • Agent Orange- defoliant sprayed in jungle to find Vietcong and kill Vietnamese crops and people

      • Made Vietnamese angry and so they joined the Vietcong (bad for USA)

NATO

• 1948- 5 countries signed the Treaty of Brussels to halt the spread of communism

  • More countries wanted to join so NATO was formed.

• 1949

  • 12 member countries

  • Formed for collective security

  • Members worked together- defence and military action jointly organized

  • 50 divisions (25 active)

  • Nuclear weapons:

    • USA, Britain 1952, France 1960

Warsaw Pact

• 1955- West Germany allowed to rebuild its military and join NATO

• At the post-war conferences, Stalin made it clear that he wanted Germany to be weak but now the West was disregarding his concerns

• 1953- when Stalin died Khrushchev could not afford to look weak, so formed the Warsaw Pact, which gave the USSR more direct control over the militaries of the countries behind the iron curtain

• 1955

  • 8 member countries

  • Reponse to NATO

  • Power held in Moscow

  • 175 divisons, 5.5 million men, 35K tanks, 10K aircrafts

  • Nuclear weapons:

    • USSR

• 1957

  • 4^th October- Sputnik satellite

  • 3^rd November- Laika the dog in space

• 1958

  • 18^th December- communications satellite

• 1961

  • 12^th August - Yuri Gagrin in space

  • 5^th May- successful space flight

• 1963

  • 16^th June- Valentina Tereshkova in space

• 1969

  • 20^th July- man on the moon

• 1971

  • 23^rd April- human-crewed space station

• 1975

  • 15th July- Apollo-Soyuz

• USA and USSR competing to show they were technologically superior

• Strategic advantage- spy satellites, weapons based in space

• Moral dimension- provides a ‘gift’ to humanity

• August 1945- Hiroshma and Nagasaki

• August 1949- first Soviet atomic bomb detonated

• M.A.D- theory that if each nation possessed sufficient weapons to destroy each other in an attack, no one would fire

• Brinksmanship- the practice of trying to achieve an advantage by pushing a dangerous policy to the brink of conflict

• 1950’s- America children trained on how to survive a bomb blast

• 1960’s- CND called for Britain to get rid of their nuclear weapons to encourage others to do the same

• October 1961- Soviets detonated the biggest bomb ever seen

• 1962- CMC almost ended the Arms Race

• 1970’s- British households told how to ‘protect and survive’

•1945- communist government, 1947- voters pressured into voting communist, 1949- Hungary was a one-party state

•October 1956- students protested in Budapest to demand freedoms and civil rights

•1^st November 1956- Nagy announced Hungary would leave the Warsaw pact

•Secret Speech-Krushchev promotes peace- seems like Hungary might be able to leave the Pact peacefully

•If Hungary leaves, this risks other European countries following and the collapse of the Soviet Union

•Krushchev orders the invasion of Hungary on the 4^th of November. 1 000 tanks and 200 000 troops arrived in Budapest

•Nagy supports fought back- Hungarian uprising

•20 000 Hungaries killed, 200 000 left the country as refugees

•Pro-communist government installed under Kador

•Nagy hid in the Yugoslav embassy, was kidnapped and executed despite Krushchev saying he woud be able to leave safely

•He was used as a lesson to the leaders of all socialist countries

•America made no official comment as Hungary was in the Soviet sphere of influence and interfering could be seen as a direct attack on the Soviets

• Fear of the spread of communism in the USA in the 1950’s and 60’s, enhanced by the US government propaganda- witch hunt directed at communists

• Businesses and the government were afraid as it threatened their power as communism is a one-party system where all land and businesses are controlled by the state

• McCarthyism- a movement against communism in the 1950’s, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy where people were publicly accused of being communist- lost jobs and/or went to prison and encouraged to inform on others

  • February 9^th, 1950- McCarthy made a speech claiming he had a list of 200+ communists in the state dept and that there were card-carrying communists in government- got the names from the FBI’s loyalty board investigations

  • 35/57 had been cleared already

  • Speech generated so much publicity that republican senators backed him to reap the benefits from elections that were soon

  • Eisenhower appointed him head of White House investigations into communist activities in government after the election

• Thousands of Americans accused of being communists or sympathisers and suffered loss of employment, destruction of careers, imprisonment and death

  • Film industry- 300> actors and directors denied work as they were blacklisted

  • Alger Hiss- accused of being a member of a communist group- unreliable evidence that he’d passed info to the USSR- 5 years in prison after being convicted of perjury in 1950

  • Rosenburgs- accused of passing US atomic secrets to the USSR- flimsy evidence- sentenced to death, executed June 1953

• 1975- Apollo-Soyuz showed US/Soviet relations were improving

• After the ‘Secret Speech’ the thaw started

• Summits had gone well- 1959 Khrushchev met US president at Camp David, which led to the Paris Summit in 1960

• However, this fell through after the US was caught spying on Russia in a spy plane, which the USSR shot down and Khrushchev walked out of the meeting after Eisenhower refused to apologise or end spy flights, only suspend them temporarily

  • The USA claimed it was a ‘weather plane’ that lost its way but the USSR found film inside the plane that proved it was spying

• Discussions on the agenda for the Paris summit in 1960 were a nuclear test ban treaty, Berlin and Cuba

• Nuclear weapons and the need for a Test Ban Treaty: both sides knew the destructive potential of nuclear weapons and wanted to avoid turning more of the planet into radioactive no-go areas.​

• Berlin: The Soviets were exasperated that East Berliners were escaping to the West in significant numbers.​

• Cuba: The Americans were concerned that the recent revolution in Cuba had created a communist government on their doorstep.​

• West Berlin became an island of Western influence behind the Iron Curtain, and was a major source of tension by 1961

• For the Soviets, West Berlin was causing serious economic concern as East Germans could see how much better life was in West Berlin

  • Thousands of East Germans defected to the West- by 1960, over 3 million East Germans had gone to the West

• The Vienna Summit (3rd and 4th of July 1961)- Kennedy and Khrushchev met to try and repair relations

  • Kennedy was committed to keeping WB capitalist and Khrushchev used the opportunity to overpower Kennedy in the discussions which set the tone for superpower relations in following years

• On the 13th of August 1961, East German troops lined the border between EB and WB- no EBers were allowed to pass

  • Barbed wire fences ran through the city

  • Over the following 7 days, a concrete wall was built around WB. People jumped through buildings and were caught by WB firefighters.

  • The USA sent an official complaint to Moscow, but as WB was still free and travel between WB and WG was still possible, no action was taken.

• 1889- USA helped Cuba become independent from the Spanish Empire and American businessmen made huge investments by buying much of the land and industry

• In the 1950's, Cubans became unhappy with Batista's corrupt regime. Fidel Castro called for a revolution in 1953 but was imprisoned and forced into exile in Mexico

  • December 1956- Castro returned to Cuba with 81 supporters who launched a 2-year-long campaign of guerilla warfare

  • 1st of January 1959- Batista's regime collapsed, the dictator fled the country and Casto took control

• Castro and the USSR became friends and the USSR provided loans and oil to Cuba

  • The US government declared a total trade embargo on Cuba

• The US were worried about having a country under Soviet influence just a few miles of the American coast

• The Cuban revolution was embarrassing as the US government were committed to stopping the spread of communism

• Kennedy gave the CIA the go-ahead to deal with Castro

  • They trained a large group of Floridian Cuban exiles to invade Cuba as the US assumed that Cubans hated Castro and would therefore revolt and overthrow the regime

  • Despite advice not to, the CIA didn't want to waste the $5 million they spent on training the exiles. Cuban exiles landed on the beach in the Bay of Pigs on the 17th of April 1961

  • Of the 1500 ground troops, 200 were killed as they landed and 1197 were captured

  • This meant that Castro was able to claim a great victory against a much more powerful country and the USA was embarrassed

• However, BOPI pushed Cuba further into its relationship with the USSR, which led to the CMC.

• In October 1962, the USA realised that the USSR was shipping nuclear missiles to Cuba after a U2 spy plane had photographed a number of nuclear missile sites in Cuba

  • Kennedy made a speech to the American people in which he revealed the existence of the missiles and announced that no ships from any country would be allowed to enter Cuba and that any country that broke the quarantine would face serious consequences including military action

• The Naval Blockade/Quarantine was made of US ships blockading Cuba, who were ordered to fire on any ships that tried to pass through

  • American forces were put on DEFCON 3, two levels below nuclear war

• 23rd of October- a fleet of soviet ships approached Cuba, carrying more missiles.

• 24th of October- the UN Secretary-General, U Thant, called for compromise and  the USA set the troops to DEFCON 2

• Khrushchev ordered his ships to halt but not turn back.

  • At 7.15am on the 25th of October 1962, a Soviet ship entered the quarantined zone but was allowed to pass when it was found to be carrying oil.

• Khrushchev sent a letter to Kennedy, saying that he would withdraw the missiles if no invasion would take place

  • 27th of October- a Soviet submarine was found close to Cuba, but it had had no contact to the outside world for days and the captain wanted to launch a nuclear torpedo in retaliation because they believed a war had started. This was vetoed by one of three people that had to confirm, Vasili Arkhipov

• Khruschev sent a second letter saying that he would remove the missiles from Cuba if US missiles were withdrawn from Turkey and Italy.

  • Kennedy did not want to be seen as weak, so these agreements were made secretly

• Czechoslovakia was a one-party state that answered to Moscow as a member of the Warsaw Pact. Novotny was very corrupt and risked damaging Moscow's image

• In the mid 1960's, Ota Šik called for economic reform, but the USSR rejected him

• January 1968- Novotny forced to resign and Alexander Dubček replaced him. Soviets believed that Dub would manage the situation and calm the calls for change, but he declared a 'new start to socialism'. This worried Moscow

• Brezhnev had to try and maintain influence without aggravating the situation

• June 1968- Moscow put the Warsaw Pact on military training exercises on the CZ border

  • 20th August 1968- Soviet forces invaded CZ

  • Dubcek was expelled from the party and erased from Soviet history

• October 1964- Brezhnev replaced Khruschev as leader of the Communist party. 

• 1964- Soviet political changes involved no bloodshed which was unusual.

• Khruschev expected to be killed or be forced into exile but was allowed to retire peacefully and live out his life just outside of Moscow as a 'special pensioner of the USSR'.

• November 1968- speech in which Brezhnev outlined the future of threats to communism- Brezhnev Doctrine stated that the USSR would strive to keep communist governments in power in Europe and further afield, and that any country that decided to rebel would face the same consequences as Czechoslovakia

  • Opposite of the Truman Doctrine

  • Drove a wedge between the USSR and China as China was in the middle of a cultural revolution and was worried that Brezhnev was suggesting the Soviets would interfere

  • USA's initial response was to end all talks about improving relations or disarmament but changed to not throw progress away and began to view the Soviet policy as defensive.

Vietnam

• USA's involvement had grown since the 1950s and this was a concern for both sides as the Soviets saw it as forcing of the capitalist ideology on a region that was beginning to accept communism, whereas the USA had lost 58K military people to the war by the end of the 1960s

• It became clear to the USA that the war was unwinnable, and withdrawal was necessary, but they couldn’t accept defeat

  • The war ended in 1973 and by 1975, Vietnam was communist

Human rights

• The Soviet union denied its people civil rights and free speech, although Khruschev eased restrictions after Stalin's death, Brezhnev cracked down and limited individual freedoms

  • Some books were illegal, and opponents of the government faced exile in the prison camps of Siberia

• Events in Hungary, and the Prague Spring were high profile examples of the Soviet's lack of respect for human rights

• In the first half of the cold war, Soviet human rights violations changed how many of the West and the USA saw the USSR- freedom vs oppression

• French word for the period of relations improving between the USA and the USSR from the end of the 1960s until the middle of the 1970s

• There was greater dialogue between the leaders after the CMC and agreements that reduced nuclear weapons were made. Summits were frequently held between Brezhnev and Nixon

• China

  • Soviet split facilitated this as communism was no longer a single powerful force. The USSR and China were both willing to work more closely with the USA and America took advantage of this. In February 1972, Nixon became the first US president to visit China.

• The nuclear arms race reached its peak in 1962.

  • The CMC showed that neither side was willing to use nuclear weapons when it could lead to its own destruction (MAD).

  • The Partial Test Ban Treaty was signed in 1963 by JFK and Khruschev and a hotline was established between them.

• The USA and USSR were no longer the only nuclear powers- the UK, France and China had them too.

  • This instilled fear in the USA and USSR as they were worried that unpredictable governments could develop nuclear weapons and so they cooperated.

• The war in Vietnam had shown that possession of nuclear weapons did not necessarily guarantee victory, and that the USA and USSR did not have to directly intervene to win- in the Middle East the USA backed Israel and the USSR backed Syria and Egypt.

• Both countries were spending billions of dollars and there was no end in sight. The arms and space race would have bankrupted the USSR within a few years. In 1969, West and East Germany agreed not to develop nuclear weapons.

• May 1972- SALT I was signed at the Moscow Summit- this banned new ballistic missile launchers and reduced the number of anti-nuclear defence systems that could be built

• When Nixon was re-elected in the November, SALT II talks continued

• Some people argued that Brezhnev and Nixon's extensive cold war experience led them to achieve things that younger leaders could not

• Prior to détente, USA/USSR relations had been volatile. SALT I seemed to bring the nuclear arms race to an end. However, the USA and USSR were far from allies

• From the Helsinki Accords in August 1975 and SALT II almost being passed in 1979, Détente continued with further agreements.

• The Apollo-Soyuz mission in July 1975 showed the USA and USSR were willing to cooperate but by the end of the 1970s, relations were beginning to deteriorate.

• Tension across the globe, mainly in Africa and the Middle East led to the stalling of talks and return to aggression from both governments

• The Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and American involvement in Guatemala and Nicaragua showed that nuclear weaponry still cast a dangerous shadow over the world and that the battle for global influence continued.

• The Cold War ended in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union