Transformation of Cold War Cascade

Transformation of Cold War [Revision Cascade]

This Cascade will give you points and ideas for writing an answer about any of the topics in the list. And, when it comes to revision, you can use it to test your memory of the points and ideas you might want to raise in the exam.

Click on the yellow arrows to reveal the paragraph points, and again to reveal ideas for developing the point.

I have given you five points for every topic but, in practical terms for the exam, you will probably get away with remembering three or four.

1. Why was Berlin important: to the USA
- a. “A showcase of liberty”
  - President Kennedy, in a televised address to the American People on 25 July 1960
- b. “The great testing place of Western courage and will”
  - "We cannot and will not permit the Communists to drive us out of Berlin, either gradually or by force.”
- c. Isolated and vulnerable
  - The ‘testicles of the West’, Khrushchev called Berlin.
- d. Kennedy was a new President
  - elected on a promise to get tough on the Soviets .
- e. West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer
  - had let it be known that he did not trust Kennedy to protect West Germany, so Kennedy had to calm those fears.

2. Why was Berlin important: to the USSR
- a. The placing of nuclear weapons in West Germany
  - By NATO, but Adenauer was wanting West Germany to have nuclear weapons too
- b. East Germany’s economic inferiority to West Germany and the flight of East Germans into West Berlin
  - By 1961, 3 million had fled to the west through Berlin – by August 1961, the flow was 1,800 a day.
- c. Ulbricht was pressurising for the border to be closed
  - Cf American historian Hope Harrison’s ‘tail wags the dog’ theory
- d. The Americans used West Berlin for spying & sabotage
  - Khrushchev called West Berlin “a cancerous tumour”. .
- e. Worry about China
  - Mao Zedong denounced Khrushchev's 'peaceful co-existence' as a "bourgeois pacifist concept"

3. Berlin Wall: events
- a. November 1958 – Khrushchev's Ultimatum
  - Khrushchev proposed that all four occupying powers should withdraw from Germany pending a peace Treaty, and gave the USA, UK and France 6 months to comply
- b. 4-5 June 1961 – Vienna Summit
  - Khrushchev tried to bully Kennedy to accept the Peace Treaty, even mentioning war
- c. 25 July – Kennedy's Speech
  - Kennedy publicly refused a Peace Treaty, refused to back down an inch, and announced increased spending on armaments
- d. 3-5 August – Warsaw Pact meeting
  - Khrushchev called a secret meeting of the Warsaw Pact countries, who agreed to the Wall and to economic aid for East Germany .
- e. The Berlin Wall, 13 Aug 1961
  - Overnight the East Germans erected a barbed wire wall (later replaced with concrete); Berlin was split into two

4. Berlin Wall: results
- a. The Berlin Wall, 13 Aug 1961
  - Overnight the East Germans erected a barbed wire wall (later replaced with concrete); Berlin was split into two
- b. Propaganda victory
  - At first the Russians seemed to have won; the USA was forced to accept Soviet control of eastern Europe
- c. Tensions decreased on both sides.
  - Apart from a small ‘stand-off’ at Checkpoint Charlie on 27 October, when Soviet guards attempted to search US diplomats, Berlin ceased to be a flashpoint of the Cold War
- d. ‘I am a Berliner’ speech, 1963
  - Kennedy as relieved, but still made huge propaganda out of the wall, saying it showed the need to oppose Communism .
- e. A symbol of Soviet failure
  - As the deaths mounted from people trying to get through the Wall, it became a symbol of Soviet failure

5. Berlin Wall: historiography
- a. Traditional view – a grand game of US-Soviet diplomacy
  - Sees the crisis as ‘a grand game’ of diplomacy between Khrushchev and Kennedy
- b. ‘Depolarisation’
  - Since the opening of eastern block archives, historians have realised that other countries had influence – China, Korea and the Warsaw Pact on the USSR, West Germany on Kennedy
- c. ‘Tail wags the dog’
  - Hope Harrison’s ‘tail-wags-the-dog’ theory sees Ulbricht, not Khrushchev, as the dominant participant, manoeuvring the Soviets into a corner.
- d. ‘Constructivism’
  - Sees socio-cultural rends and ‘the voice from below’ as important – Mary Fulbrook has shown how East Germany was a ‘participatory dictatorship” .
- e. Mass-migration
  - Patrick Major (2006) sees the building of the Wall as primarily a reaction to the mass-migration – especially of farmers – from East Germany

6. Castro’s seizure of power in Cuba: events
- a. Castro’s Revolution, 1959
  - Fidel Castro overthrew Batista’s corrupt and repressive government
- b. Castro nationalised US companies, Jun 1959
  - Castro nationalised all American companies; the US stopped trading with Cuba
- c. Soviet-Cuban trade agreement, Feb 1960
  - Russia promised to buy Cuba’s sugar; Castro became a Communist
- d. The Bay of Pigs invasion failed, Apr 1961
  - Castro defeated the CIA-backed ‘Bay of Pigs’ invasion .
- e. Khrushchev promised to defend Cuba, Sep 1961
  - Castro asked the USSR for weapons to defend Cuba Khrushchev agreed

7. Castro’s seizure of power in Cuba: results
- a. Increased international tension
  - Castro’s revolution was a victory for communism against the USA
- b. America became nervous
  - Cuba is only 100 miles from Florida, and Cuba was now a hostile power
- c. Kennedy was humiliated
  - The Bay of Pigs failure had humiliated Kennedy, who could not back down again
- d. Cuba was Russia’s opportunity
  - Cuba gave Khrushchev the opportunity to place missiles in the western hemisphere .
- e. Operation Mongoose, Nov 1961
  - Kennedy authorised ‘Operation Mongoose’ – to assassinate Castro

8. Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962: causes
- a. Turkish missile sites, 1959
  - The US had signed an agreement to put 15 Jupiter nuclear missiles in Turkey; this frightened Russia
- b. Russia was winning the Cold War, 1961
  - Russian successes: Gagarin, Vienna Summit, Berlin Wall
- c. Castro made America nervous
  - Cuba is only 100 miles from Florida, and Cuba was now a hostile power
- d. The Bay of Pigs invasion failed, Apr 1961
  - The Bay of Pigs humiliated Kennedy, who felt at a disadvantage to Khrushchev; it also caused Castro to ask Khrushchev for weapons to defend Cuba .
- e. Cuban Missile sites spotted, 14 Oct 1962
  - An American U2 spy-plane took pictures of missile sites being built on Cuba

9. Cuban Missile Crisis: Kennedy’s options
- a. Nuclear strike
  - This would risk causing a nuclear war and the end of humanity
- b. Conventional attack
  - This would risk a war with Russia, which could turn into a nuclear war
- c. Go through the UN
  - This was too slow – the bases would be finished in 10 days
- d. Do nothing
  - Impossible – the missiles would put all the US within range of Soviet missiles .
- e. Blockade Cuba
  - This would stop the missiles getting to the bases, but was not a direct act of war

10. Cuban Missile Crisis: events
- a. Kennedy announced a Blockade, 22 Oct 1962
  - Kennedy announced a naval blockade of Cuba, Khrushchev accused him of ‘piracy’
- b. Russian ships turned back, 25 Oct 1962
  - Russian ships heading for Cuba turned back
- c. Khrushchev’s first letter, 26 Oct 1962
  - Khrushchev sent Kennedy a telegram, offering to dismantle the bases if Kennedy promised not to invade Cuba
- d. Khrushchev’s second letter, 27 Oct 1962
  - Khrushchev sent a second letter, demanding Kennedy dismantle US missile bases in Turkey; a US spy-plane was shot down in Cuba but Kennedy ignored the incident .
- e. Khrushchev agreed, 28 Oct 1962
  - Kennedy offered to dismantle the Turkish bases if that remained secret Khrushchev agreed The crisis ended

11. Cuban Missile Crisis: results
- a. Russia left Cuba, 20 Nov 1962
  - The Turkish missile sites were dismantled, Russian bombers left Cuba, and Kennedy lifted the naval blockade
- b. Cuba remained communist
  - Cuba remained a Communist dictatorship, and America left it alone
- c. Khrushchev lost prestige
  - Although he had won, the Turkey agreement was secret; he fell from power in 1964
- d. Kennedy gained prestige
  - Although he had given up Turkish missiles, that remained a secret; he was seen as the man who had faced down the Soviets .
- e. Disarmament and detente
  - Both sides had got a shock, and took measures to progress nuclear disarmament and to prevent a crisis happening again

12. Progress with nuclear disarmament in the 1960s: facts
- a. Geneva Disarmament Conference, 1962–69
  - Disarmament negotiations restarted
- b. Telephone ‘hot line’, Jun 1963
  - A telephone ‘hot line’ to talk directly in a crisis
- c. Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 1963
  - This banned nuclear tests in the atmosphere, underwater and in space
- d. Non-Proliferation Treaty, 1968
  - This limited nuclear weapons to the USA, the USSR, Britain, France and China .
- e. Overkill
  - By 1960, America had 26,000 warheads, Russia had 12,000 – together, enough to destroy every living thing on earth

13. Cuban Missile Crisis: historiography
- a. Traditional view – ‘a poker game’ won by the hero Kennedy
  - Top-down diplomatic history which made no attempt to see the Soviet PoV
- b. Revisionism
  - Used the same sources, and still US-centric … but blamed Kennedy for almost causing an unnecessary nuclear war
- c. Post-1990 – Kennedy
  - Release of documents post-1991 showed that Kennedy had not wanted war, had promised to take the Jupiter missiles out of Turkey, and had a back-up plan through the US
- d. Post-1990 - Khrushchev
  - Access to Soviet documents showed that Khruschev had not wanted war, and was primarily concerned to protect Cuba from US invasion – Russians call it the ‘Caribbean Crisis’ .
- e. Post-1989 Cuba
  - Studies of Cuba’s role show that Castro was much more aggressive than Khrushchev, wanted the US out of Cuba altogether, and was furious when Khrushchev made an agreement and withdrew the weapons and Soviet soldiers from Cuba.

14. Cuban Missile Crisis: How close did war come?
- a. Traditional AND revisionist view – very close
  - Kennedy had caused Khrushchev to ‘blink’
- b. Post-revisionists – not so much
  - Kennedy and Khrushchev both clearly had no intention of pushing the matter to a nuclear war
- c. Sergei Khrushchev
  - Admitted that the crisis was “one of my father's biggest mistakes”, but confirmed that “Kennedy and my father never wanted to begin the war”
- d. Recently – Black Saturday (27 October)
  - There were others involved in the crisis who might have intentionally or unintentionally provoked a war .
- e. Disarmament campaigner Tom Collina
  - “We got lucky”

15. The space race in the 1960s: facts
- a. Mariner probes, 1962–73
  - Robotic space probes (American) which flew past Venus (1962) and Mars (1964)
- b. Valentina Tereshkova, 1963
  - First woman in space (Soviet)
- c. Alexey Leonov, 1965
  - First spacewalk (Soviet)
- d. Vladimir Komarov, 1967
  - The Soviet space programme was wrecked by technical problems; Komarov died when his Soyuz spacecraft malfunctioned .
- e. Neil Armstrong, 21 Jul 1968
  - First man on the moon (American)

16. The Prague Spring, 1968: causes
- a. Intelligentsia
  - In 1967, the Union of Czechoslovak Writers demanded freedom of the press and democracy
- b. Economic collapse and low living standards
  - Tied in with hostility to Soviet economic demands. Ota Sik’s New Economic Model, 1965 led only to demands for political freedoms
- c. Repression
  - he Czech Secret Police, the STB, were hated, and many people alive in 1968 remembered that, between the wars, Czechoslovakia had been a democracy.
- d. Government weakness
  - Novotny was seen as a failed leader, whom even hard-liners wanted rid of. .
- e. 5 Jan 1968: Novotny fell from power
  - When the Czech leader, Novotny, asked Brezhnev for help, Brezhnev made him resign, and replaced him with Alexander Dubcek

17. The Prague Spring: events
- a. April 1968: Dubcek’s ‘Action Programme of Reform’
  - Dubcek announced ‘Socialism with a human face’, including allowing free enterprise, human rights and opposition parties
- b. 17 June: Vaculik’s Two Thousand Words pamphlet
  - A pamphlet written by Czech reformer Vaculik demanded democracy and reform of the Communist Party.
- c. 3 August: Warsaw Pact assurance
  - Dubcek promised the Warsaw Pact in Bratislava that he did not intend to leave the Warsaw Pact, and would suppress anti-socialist movements
- d. 13 Aug 1968: Brezhnev Telephone Call
  - Brezhnev expressed his "alarm" that the Czechoslovak press was still attacking Communism and the Soviet Union, and warned that “we are considering new decisions”. .
- e. 20 Aug 1968: Warsaw Pact invasion
  - A letter from Czech hard-liners asking for the Warsaw Pact to intervene; next day 500,000 Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia; Dubcek told people NOT to resist

18. What did Brezhnev think of the Prague Spring?
- a. Defection to capitalism
  - Brezhnev and the communist hard-liners decided that Dubcek was not reforming communism – he was introducing capitalism
- b. Destabilising effect
  - Russia’s Warsaw Pact partners warned that they were losing control in their countries
- c. Soviet control of the Iron Curtain
  - Brezhnev was determined to keep total control behind the Iron Curtain
- d. Czech criticism of communism and the Soviet Union
  - Pamphlets like Vaculik’s Two Thousand words were seen as counter-revolutionary and critical of the Soviet Union .
- e. Criticism of Brezhnev
  - China, Albania and hard-liners in Russia were using the crisis to attack Brezhnev.

19. The Prague Spring: results
- a. Gustav Husak
  - Husak replaced Dubcek (who was not executed, but demoted to a woodsman); the reforms were reversed
- b. Jan Palach
  - Jan Palach (and a number of other students) burned themselves to death in protest
- c. The Brezhnev Doctrine
  - Brezhnev declared that the Warsaw Pact would invade any communist country which was trying to introduce capitalism
- d. Weak international protests
  - Western countries protested but did not do anything; Albania left the Warsaw Pact; China, Romania and Finland criticised the invasion .
- e. A ‘watershed’ year
  - The failure of communism to reform in 1968 led, in the end, to the collapse of communism in 1989

20. Detente: causes - USA
- a. Nuclear Woes
  - The Cuban Missile Crisis had frightened leaders on both sides, nuclear war was clearly MAD, and the cost was preventing spending on pressing social and economic issues in the USA
- b. International Difficulties
  - The USA was clearly losing in Vietnam (leading to anti-war protests) and needed Soviet influence over North Vietnam to broker a peace - Jussi Hanhimäki saw detente as a result of the diminishing power and prestige of the USA
- c. Economic & Social problems
  - A period of ‘stagflation’ (rising prices and economic recession), an oil crisis threatened the American way of life - Jeremi Suri saw detente as a result of the challenge from below
- d. China
  - China’s near-nuclear stand-off with the USSR made it impossible for the USA to present itself as the defender of freedom against a global ‘communist’ threat .
- e. Endorsed – the Nixon Doctrine, 1969
  - The ‘Nixon Doctrine’: the USA would maintain a nuclear ‘shield’, but Western countries must pay for their own defence – nb Kissinger’s ‘shuttle diplomacy’

21. Detente: causes - USSR
- a. Nuclear Woes
  - Although pleased to be winning the arms race, the Soviet Union was spending 12% of its GNP on weapons – whilst its people were getting fed up with shortages and a low standard of living
- b. International successes
  - The Berlin Wall, Czechoslovakia and Ostpolitik made Europe much safer, allowing Soviet policy to be more relaxed
- c. Economic & Social problems
  - Failing agriculture & industry/ corruption & the black market/ alcoholism and dissidence in the USSR made Brezhnev want peace and stability
- d. China
  - China’s near-nuclear stand-off with the USSR made Brezhnev worry that the USA would ally with China .
- e. Endorsed – razryadka
  - razryadka was a Leninist concept, and Vladislav Zubok found that Brezhnev’s promoted it in the Politburo

22. Detente: events
- a. Shanghai Communique, 1972
  - Ping-pong diplomacy and Nixon’s visit (1972) led to an agreement seeking peace and trade, and the US stopped supporting Taiwan
- b. SALT1, 1972
  - Nixon went to Mocow in 1972 where he agreed to the Basic Principles of Relations and a Strategic Arms Limitation which ended construction of new ICBMs. A Biological Weapons Convention, Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and Prevention of Nuclear War Agreement followed soon after
- c. Peace in Germany, 1972
  - n 1970, West Germany signed the Treaty of Moscow with the USSR, and in 1972 West and East Germany signed the ‘Basic Treaty’ of mutual recognition.
- d. Apollo-Soyuz Test Project,1975
  - US astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts docked their spacecraft together .
- e. Helsinki Accords, Aug 1975
  - 35 countries, including America and the USSR, signed the Helsinki Accords – a trade agreement which included promises of human rights