Cold War

Summary

Key dates

Key Figures

Joseph Stalin

• communist leader of Russia

• wanted to expand communism in Europe

• compromised a lot with Roosevelt and Churchill at Yalta Conference and Potsdam Conference

• controlled East Germany + USSR

• 1946-1953

Winston Churchill

• prime minister of England

• controlled part of West Germany + West Berlin (English controlled sector)

Franklin Roosevelt

• died soon after ww2

• more willing to compromise with Stalin than Harry Truman

• President of USA 1933-1945

Harry Truman

• not willing to compromise with Stalin

• hated communism

Kennedy

• President of the US

Countries

Global Superpowers

Communist

• Eastern Bloc

• headed by the Soviet Union

Capitalist

• Western Bloc

• US and Allies

Communism

• classless, moneyless society where there was common ownership as a means of production

• state owns the wealth of the country and controls it

• ownership of private property is limited

• one political party

• restricts rights and freedoms

• everyone must work for the state

• strict censorship

• equality for all

Capitalism

• private ownership of capital goods

• means of production is selling goods and services for profit

• individuals own property rather than the government

Socialism

• government owns and controls important public services like utilities, healthcare and education

• people have equal opportunity

• are allowed to own capital goods

Fascism

• right wing government system with centralised power allowing no opposition or criticism

Cold War Definition

• involved the USA and USSR in which no direct fighting actually occurred

• ideological war between communism and capitalism

• Germany was divided after WW2 between Russia, USA, UK and France.

  • Berlin was also divided into these four zones.

  • The rest of Europe did not want Germany to take control again

The Truman Doctrine

• Truman believed that Stalin would encourage a communist revolution across Europe

• Truman released the “Truman Doctrine”

  • World had a choice between communist tyranny and democratic freedom

  • America would help governments that were threatened by communism by sending troops and economic assistance

  • America wanted to contain communism within Eastern Europe

Secret Telegrams

• USA and USSR were suspicious of each other so they asked for secret reports from embassies

• American ambassador reported that Stalin wanted to destroy capitalism and was gathering more military power

• Russia reported that the US wanted to dominate the world and that the American public was preparing for war with the USSR

Satellite states

• USSR turned many countries around it into satellite states

  • Definition: countries that are officially independent but are actually being controlled by other states/countries

• Stalin turned countries such as Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland into satellite states

Origins of the Cold War

• Division of Europe and Germany

• Yalta Conference - decide on division of Europe

• Capitalism v Communism

• Germany and Berlin to be divided into 4 zones

• Stalin concerned over US possession of Nuclear bombs

• Iron curtain fell over Europe dividing East and West

Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan

• Truman Doctrine

  • ‘free countries’ from communist threat

  • containment of communist rule

• Marshall Plan

  • financial assistance to help countries rebuild or resist communism through financial aid

  • Stalin ordered the Eastern Bloc to resist 17 Billion USD

    

Berlin Blockade and Airlift

• Western Sectors of Berlin and Germany had begun rebuilding after World War 2

• Eastern sectors were stripped of any valuables and manufacturing and it was sent back to Russia

  • standard of living was very poor

• 23 June 1948 - Soviets blockaded Berlin

• Allies continued to supply West Berlin via air

  • not enough to keep Berlin

  • Many people donated care packages and chipped in to help keep Berlin alive

• Old Nazi soldiers and American soldiers worked together to keep the airlift going

• 12th May 1949 - First American supply allowed into East Germany

• Blockade lasted 11 months

Berlin Wall

• West Berlin had become prosperous from the Marshall Plan

• East Berlin had food and shelter, but were not prosperous- no supplies eg. appliances

• Soviets took wealth from East Berlin while the West gave lots of money to West Berlin

• East and West Germany were separated however since Berlin was surrounded by the whole of East Germany people could travel freely between East and West

• The Wall was built because of constant comparisons between East and West Berlin

• West Berlin economic boom

• Skilled workers were paid high wages - many skilled workers living in the East illegally relocated to West Berlin

• 3M skilled workers went to the West

  • Walter Ulbricht warned Krushchev in July 1961 that it had to be stopped

  • Western countries were using West berlin as a way of spying on communist countries

• Berlin represented the wider Cold War struggle - Krushchev wanted to make Berlin neutral however Kennedy refused

• 13 August 1961

  • 50,000 East German Police with machine guns lined the border between East and West Berlin with barbed wire

    • followed the exact border of each zone

• Permanent wall was build over the next few days with concrete slabs, searchlights, minefields, watch towers and machine gun posts

• 200 people died trying to cross the wall

Response to the Berlin Wall

• Eastern Response

  • East Berlin - escapes and migration

  • East Berliners were trapped in East Berlin or those who had crossed the border over the weekend had been permanently separated

  • those who tried to escape were shot

• Western Response

  • Middle of the night and weekend in Washington, French were on summer vacation

  • Quick decisions could not be made and Allies were powerless

  • Kennedy would not start a war over Berlin

• Checkpoint Charlie

  • only border crossing for Westerners to enter East Berlin

  • Exchange point for spies

• SUPER TENSE PART OF THE COLD WAR

  • snr american diplomat Allan Lightner was refused access to East Berlin to go to the theatre because he hadn’t shown his passport

  • American troops escorted him and his wife into East Berlin

  • Allied leaders decided to test the East Germans

  • Battle ready soldiers would escort US civillians into the East on meaningless excursions holding guns just to prove a point

  • Krushchev was not happy

    • sent 33 tanks into East Berlin

      • Brandenburg Gate

      • Checkpoint Charlie

  • Soviet tanks pointed cannons at the US tanks

  • everyone was on full alert

  • Commanders were concerned that an impulse decision would start real conflict

  • 16 hours later the tension was broken when a soviet tank reversed 5 metres and began a withdrawal of all the tanks

• Significant Outcomes of the Berlin Wall

  • Transformed the Cold war and became the primary symbol of Cold War tensions

  • Berlin became a principled issue in the war

    • both sides did not want to lose power in berlin

  • 30 year policy called detente - where defined communist territory was tolerated by the US

    • uneasy calm on Europe- both sides knew they would never change their views

NATO

• North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

  • created with western countries to contain communism and protect countries under communist threat

• Warsaw Pact

  • communism countries

  • created in response to NATO

Cuban Missile Crisis

• significance of Cuba

  • 145km from Miami/Florida

  • US had invested lots of money into Cuba

  • 1959 - Anti Capitalist Fidel Castro led a revolution and took power by force

    • anti imperialist

    • turned to communism early 1960s

  • asked for financial assistance - US refused so Cuba made a deal with the USSR

• The Bay of Pigs

  • aid was given to Castro’s enemies to invade Cuba and overthrow him

  • Bag of Pigs was a failure (April 1961)

    • US used ex-Cubans to invade Cuba, 1500 were killed or wounded

    • caused great embarrassment to Kennedy’s admin

  • Why the Bay of Pigs?

    • MAD - Mutually Assured Destruction

  • 13 Days - Cuban Missile Crisis

  • October 13th 1962 - order airstrike on missile launch sites and invasion of the island

  • Cuba and USSR had made a deal

    • USSR was secretly transporting missiles to Cuba and building launch sites→ threat to US, wanted to counteract the threat from US missiles in Turkey and Italy

    • US only had a few options that would not be seen as an ‘act of war’

      • quarantined all packages to Cuba rather than blockading (intercept all shipments)

      • prevented further missiles being transported

  • US demanded missile removal - USSR insisted they were only defensive

  • US Spy plane shot down by Soviets

  • Soviet nuclear armed Submarine was signalled through a deep sea charge to signal it to come up

    • operators thought war had begun → too deep to communicate with surface

    • decision to launch nuclear torpedo had to be made unanimously, 2 commanders said yes 1 commander said no

    • nuclear torpedo not launched

  • US set to Def Con 2 - preparing for nuclear attack

  • Robert Kennedy (defence officer) secretly met with Anatoly Dobrynin (Russian ambassador)

    • intense negotiations

    • US would remove Turkey and Italy missiles, and promise to never invade Cuba

    • USSR would remove all missiles from Cuba under UN inspection

  • CRISIS AVERTED

    • admiration for diplomacy

    • even an impulse decision could have caused a nuclear attack

    • leaders of enemy countries were able to diplomatically avoid crisis

Australia’s Domestic and Foreign Response to the Cold War

• Domestic Response

  • CPA - Communist Party of Australia

    • Menzies wanted to outlaw CPA as he believed there was a threat to national security, peace and stability

    • Menzies targeted the CPA so that numbers declined steeply

  • Communist Party Dissolution Act 1950 was passed, however did not pass when taken to the high court as members of the public believed that it undermined democracy to ban a party

    • also set a precedent to allow the federal government to ban other parties

    • vote was won 50.56% to 49.44%- not to ban

      • Australians were very divided on the issue

  • Communism was feared in Australia

    • Australians thought that democracy was under threat

    • Communism was brought closer to Australian borders as much of Eastern Europe and Asia became communist countries

DAFT

• D - Domino Theory

  • if one country in South East Asia fell to communism, the other countries in the region would gradually fall

  • communism closer to our borders

• A - Allies

  • Australia’s foreign policy was based on these main ideas

    • Australia needed to prove itself as a loyal ally - Australia supporting US and Britain in fight against communism

    • communism posed a threat to Australian security

  • ANZUS

    • Australia, NZ and US

    • September 1951

    • Military alliance

    • binds each of the nations through obligation to meet and discuss action to support each other in the event of an attack

    • Examples of Articles

      • Article III Parties consult each other whenever, in their opinion, the territorial integrity, political independence, or security of any of the Parties is threatened in the Pacific

      • Article IV armed attack in the Pacfic Area on any of the parties is dangerous to its own peace and safety

        • act to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional processes

    • Guarantee? - no, as US is not in the Pacific

  • SEATO Alliance

    • US, UK, France, Australia, NZ, Pakistan, Thailand, Philippines

    • September 1954

    • United Anti-Communist states

    • fear of spread of communism

    • no longer exists

• F - Forward Defence

  • Meeting threats to Australian security before they came too close

  • government commit troops to conflicts abroad to halt the spread of communism to prove Australia was a good ally (ANZUS, SEATO)

  • Justification: maintaining the gap between australia and communism, keeping communism within present boundaries (present at the time)

  • In practice, Australia became involved in

    • Korean War

    • Malaya Emergency

    • Vietnam War

• T - Threat of Communism

  • Mostly perceived as Communist countries weren’t outwardly attacking other Non-Communist countries

  • referendum to ban Communist Party

  • Menzies used ASIO to watch and harass communists or people that were communist

  • ASIO- Australian Security Intelligence Organisation

Nature of the Cold War

• Space Race & Arms Race

  • The Arms Race

    • nuclear arms were used as a deterrent

    • hydrogen bombs were 100x more powerful than nuclear bombs

    • INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC MISSILE- ICBM

    • both sides started stockpiling nuclear weapons

    • turning point in the arms race

    • US responded by putting missile launch sites in NATO countries such as Turkey and Italy

    • Spy planes were used as surveillance to monitor use of ICBMs - both sides

    • MAD- Mutually Assured Destruction

  • The Space Race

    • 1957 - Sputnik Satellite sent into space

    • series of one-upmanship between the US and USSR to send a person to space and eventually the moon

    • countries tried to battle each other for superiority

    • Space race was a race of ideological superiority between USA and USSR

  • Impact of the War on the US

    • CIA- Central Intelligence Agency

    • KGB- Russia

    • MI6- UK

    • the Cold War brings out intelligence agencies in the USSR and USA

    • 1950s - Anti Communist Sentiment was on the rise

      • fear and scared within the US that communists had infiltrated the government

      • people were encouraged to dob in communists

    • espionage and spying was rife at this time

Rights and Freedoms

Aboriginal Rights in Australia prior to 1965

Universal Declaration of human rights

Human Rights

• set of guidelines that recognise the dignity and equality of all people

• Human rights include

  • free movement

  • freedom of choice

  • freedom of speech

  • freedom of expression (religion)

  • freedom of conscience

  • right to work

  • right to fair treatment under the law

  • right to education

  • right to healthcare

  • right to a nationality

  • no slavery

  • public hearing

  • seek asylum

Definitions

• Terra Nullius - land that belongs to nobody, unoccupied

• Settlement- previously uninhabited place where people establish a community

• Invasion - invading an occupied country with armed force

• Protection - legal or formal measure intended to preserve civil liberties and rights

• Self determination - process by which a person controls their own life

• Assimilation- forcing a person to conform to the beliefs, rituals and culture of wider society \

• paternalism- White saviourism

  • gov. tried to control the Aboriginal population through ‘parenting’ because they thought they needed protection

  • the practice by which the government or people of authority deal with Indigenous people the way a father does with a child

Stages in Aboriginal Rights and Freedoms

Dispossession

• Europeans wanted to remove Indigenous people from the land

• forced removal, massacres, disease and warfare

• Aboriginal people fought to protect their right to the land

• special cultural relationship with the land

Protectionism 1869-1937

• policy applied using paternalism

Aboriginal Protection Board

• imposed strict rules to control Aboriginal People

• Established 1883

• permission needed for movement

• traditional celebrations and customs forbidden

• protector controlled their money

• permission required to marry, name children and send them to school

Reserves

• limited success in the 1850s with use of reserves

• policy recognised Aboriginal relationship with the land- not taking into account tribal areas etc,

• Indigenous people lived and worked independently on the reserves, and some retained customs and traditions

• some reserve managers were cruel and used violence and intimidation against those living on the reserves

Missions

• Established as ‘protection’ for the Aboriginal people

• Christianise the Indigenous population

• made to give up culture, language and spiritual belief

• Aboriginal people were attracted to missions because of

  • food

  • chance to learn skills

  • education

  • home

  • safety from abuse by some white employers

• those who managed the missions were sent by the church, however many Aboriginal people living on these missions did not receive enough food, were overworked and living conditions were poor

Assimilation 1937-1965

• forces people to conform to attitudes, customs and beliefs of the majority

• Aboriginals who were ‘half caste’ were absorbed into white society

• segregation continued under assimilation

Changes to Rights under Assimilation:

• child endowment payments granted to families not living a nomadic lifestyle

• eligible for old age and invalid pensions

• certificate of exemption- step towards citizenship- if they cut off all ties to culture, family, traditions or Aboriginal lifestyle

Stolen Generations 1910-1970s

• children forcibly removed from families as part of protection and assimilation

• Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders with white parents/grandparents were absorbed into white society

• A.O Neville wanted to ‘breed out’ the blackness of Aboriginal people

• Assimilation meant different things to different people- some thought it means erasing Aboriginal people altogether, others thought it was breeding out their Blackness

First Nations People were sorted into 3 categories

1. de-tribalised- could be educated to a white standard

2. semi civilised- people who needed passive supervision from the government

3. uncivilised- people who could be preserved in reserves

Early Aboriginal Activism

1. Day of Mourning- 1938

2. Cummeragunja Walk off

3. Yirrkala Bark Petition

1938 Day of Mourning

• 26th January 1938

• Jack Patten led the day of mourning

• 150 years after white invasion

• demonstration at the arrival site of the first fleet

• Jack Patten wrote a 10 point plan for Aboriginal Rights

• William Cooper - Formed Australian Aborigines League

• Margaret Tucker

• Jack Patten + Will Ferguson - Aborigines Progressive Association

• AAL+ APA Staged a day of mourning demonstration in Sydney

Cummeragunja Walk off - 1939

• Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Home

• Arthur McQuiggan - Manager

  • used intimidation and violence

• Jack Patten - born at Cummeragunja

  • organised a strike

• 200 Aboriginal People left the reserve without permission

  • camped on the other side of the river which was under Victorian Jurisdiction

Yirrkala Bark Petition

• 1963 - Aus. Gov. sold part of Arnhem Land to a mining company

• Yolgnu people - local inhabitants

• Wangjuk Marika - wrote a petition to the Aus Gov signed by Yolngu elders

• First legal document written by Aboriginal People to be recognised by the Australian Government

• ultimately unsuccessful but still progress