Page 56 - Year 11 Knowledge Organiser

History (Superpower relations: The Cold War 1943-1991): 1 of 2

Cold War Background Hungarian Uprising 1956 The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
• Grand Alliance of USA, USSR, Britain and France in WW2 to defeat Nazi •Encouraged by Khrushchev’s Secret •1959 Fidel Castro and Che Guevara
Germany speech which criticised the hard, topple the pro-American
• Met at Tehran (1943) and Yalta (1945) to agree how to defeat Germany and repressive policies of Stalin government in Cuba.
how Europe should look after the war. •Imre Nagy wanted to take Hungary •US boycotted buying Cuban sugar,
• Potsdam Conference (1945) agreed to de-nazify Germany and split it (and out of the Warsaw Pact and make the so Castro sold it to Khrushchev, and
Berlin) into 4 zones shared between the 4 allies. Agreed USA would have a country less repressive receive arms from USSR.
sphere of influence in the West, and the USSR would have one in the East. •USSR sent in troops and executed •1961 CIA trained Cuban exiles to
• Atom bomb made and used by the USA in 1945 against Japan, began the Arms Nagy. Reforms undone. West didn’t invade Cuba and overthrow Castro
Race. help at all despite promising to. (Bay of Pigs invasion) but failed as
USA backs out of air support and
Increasing Tension The Berlin Ultimatum and Summits Cuban army superior to exiles.
Long and Novikov Telegrams 1946 : USA and USSR used their ambassadors to •By 1958 3 million East Germans had
secretly report on the other country Both reported fears that their opponents were crossed to the West (1/3 pop) Showed Makes USA look very bad!
building up their armies unpopularity of communism •Khrushchev sent nuclear missiles to
Truman Doctrine 1947: President Truman declared that he feared the spread of •Khrushchev wanted to take over Cuba to help defend from future US
communism and said it was a threat to freedom- the USA had the right to use its West Berlin to stop this- 1958 attacks. USA discovers them in 1962
military and economy to fight the spread of communism demanded West recognise East as •Kennedy decides to blockade Cuba
Marshall Plan 1947: USA offered $13 billion of aid to Europe to stop poverty leading independent country, and Berlin to be to stop missiles arriving from USSR.
to communism demilitarised (Berlin Ultimatum) or he •Khrushchev sent a telegram saying
This upset the USSR who thought USA was trying to bride its satellite states would hand control of Berlin transport he would remove missiles from
Iron Curtain Speech 1947: Churchill declared Europe was divided into two spheres to the East government. Camp David Cuba if USA wouldn’t invade.
Cominform/Comecon: In response to the Marshall Plan the USSR united all Summit 1959 • Khrushchev then sent another
communist parties together from satellite states- Cominform. Also tried to tie all •Eisenhower and Khrushchev met and telegram adding he wanted US
satellite states together economically- Comecon missiles removed from Turkey too.
agreed to withdraw ultimatum. Paris
Summit 1960 •Kennedy responded to first
The Berlin Blockade (1947-1948) and its consequences • USSR shot down US U2 spy plane. US telegram publicly and second one
• USSR worried the Western allies were trying to unite West Germany into tried to cover up and Khrushchev secretly, increasing his reputation as
Trizonia so they blocked all road, rail and canal access to force them out of walked out of the meeting Vienna a strong leader, making Khrushchev
West Berlin. Summit 1961 look like he backed downmaybe why
• USA kept Wets Berlin supplies through a huge airlift of supplies for 11 months. • Khrushchev saw Kennedy as weak he was dismissed as leader of USSR
USSR eventually backed down. Couldn’t shoot down planes as would be act of and reissued Ultimatum. Kennedy in 1954
war. refused to make concessions, so •Moscow-Washington Hotline set
• FRG and GDR- Germany became officially divided into 2 different countries- nothing was agreed. up and 3 treaties (Test Ban 1963,
FRG in West and GDR in East. Berlin also official split. NATO- USA and Western Outer Space 1967, Non-Proliferation
European military alliance against USSR Warsaw Pact- USSR responded to 1968) signed to reduce testing and
NATO by creating own military alliance of satellite states in Eastern Europe spread of nuclear weapons.