Welcome to

HHIS62116
The World in Crisis
6. The Cold War: Origins, Development and Collapse
 1. Origins of the Conflict
• During WWII need for self-
preservation against Germany by
Britain, USA and USSR
• Despite ideological differences
focused attention on defeating
Germany
• When it was clear that Germany
was on the verge of being
defeated all three sides began to
plan for the post-War period
• Stalin wanted to strengthen
influence of Russia in Europe
• Alarmed Britain and the USA
 2. The Yalta Conference – Feb 1945
• The Big Three: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met at Yalta
 2. The Yalta Conference
• Yalta Conference stated:
• Germany would be divided
into four zones after the war
• Berlin – capital city – also to
be divided into four zones
• Stalin agreed to enter war
against Japan
• Would hunt down and punish
war criminals
• Would all three join the UN
• Eastern Europe would
become a soviet sphere of
influence
East meets West
3. The Potsdam Conference: July to Aug 1945
• Political situation had changed
• Roosevelt replaced by Harry
Truman
• Churchill replaced by Clement
Attlee
• USSR had occupied most of Eastern
Europe: including the Baltic states,
Finland, Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania
• USSR set up a communist
government in Poland
• USA had tested an atomic bomb
 3. The Potsdam Conference
• No agreement could be reached
on Germany’s long-term future
• USSR wanted to punish Germany
harshly
• Germany had to disarm
• Nazi party banned – leaders put on
trial
• Repartitions ?
• Poland issue = humanitarian crisis as
5 million Germans were expelled
from Poland
• Truman was much more anti-
communist
 3. The Potsdam Conference
• Months following Potsdam USSR set
up pro-communist governments all
over Eastern Europe
• Stalin speech in late 1945 alarmed
the West – communism and
capitalism will never be able to
reside peacefully together
• Churchill responded by exclaiming
that an Iron Curtain had fallen
across the European continent
• Stalin tightened his grip on Eastern
Europe = Cominform
 4. Truman Doctrine and Marshall Aid
• US prepared to send money,
equipment and advice to any
country threatened by a communist
takeover
• Truman wanted to follow a policy of
containment
• Europe’s economy ruined by the
war
• Huge war debt to USA
• Marshall Plan made $17 billion
available to anti-communist nations
• Self-interest of US = markets
• Stalin forbade E. European nations
from applying for Marshall Aid
 5. Post-War Germany
• Russia drained Germany of
resources
• West struggled to rebuild the
German economy
• Three Western zones united into
single economic unit with one
currency in 1948
• Marshall Aid led to stark difference
developing between Western and
Eastern zones
• East = poverty stricken
• USSR refused to join its zone with the
western part
6. The Berlin Blockade: 24 Jun 48 to 12 May 49
• Situation became intolerable in
Berlin
• Stalin viewed it as an “Island of
capitalism a hundred miles into the
western zone”.
• Became increasingly embarrassed
by the contrast
• Decided to cutoff West Berlin from
Western Germany
• Closed all roads, railways, canals
• Wanted to force the West to
withdraw from Berlin by literally
starving them
 6. The Berlin Blockade
• Situation tense as any aggression
against the blockade by USA = war
• Thus the Americans decided to fly
supplies into the city
• Truman adamant that Western
Berlin would be a symbol of
freedom behind the Iron Curtain
• 10 month period, 2 million tons of
supplies flown in to make sure the
2.5 million people living in west
Berlin did not starve
• May 1949, Stalin admitted defeat
and lifted the blockade
 7. Formation of NATO - 1949
• The Berlin Blockade led to the
formation of NATO
• North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
• Western nations would stand
together against Soviet aggression
• Divided the world into two military
blocks
• But blockade also showed that
neither side was prepared to go to
war against the other
• Tense balance between the super
powers
 8. Impact on Germany
• Germany was now to be firmly
divided into two nations
• In 1949 West Germany became
the Federal Republic of
Germany
• East Germany formed into the
German Democratic Republic
• West refused to firmly recognise
the GDR
• Germany was to be remain
divided for 41 years
 9. The Arms Race
• After US dropped atomic bombs in
Japan, clear to both USA and USSR
that atomic bombs = weapons of the
future
• In weakening diplomatic relations
between US and USSR, the latter
began to develop its own nuclear
weapons
• 1949 = nuclear bomb
• 1957 = Sputnik satellite
• 1961 = hydrogen bomb (1000X stronger
than atomic bomb)
• Hundreds of missiles faced one another
 10. The Cuban Missile Crisis

Nikita Khrushchev, 1953 to 1964 John F. Kennedy, 1961 to 1963

 10. The Cuban Missile Crisis
• Cuba became involved in the Cold
War when in 1959 Fidel Castro ousted
the American backed dictator Batista
• Castro nationalized American-owned
estates and factories
• Angered the Americans – broke off
diplomatic ties in January 1961
• Castro thought US was planning to
invade Cuba
• Appealed to USSR for help
• Had been buying weapons from the
USSR
 10. The Cuban Missile Crisis
• President Kennedy supplied arms,
equipment and transport to
Cuban exiles
• 1,400 landed at the Bay of Pigs
• Met by 20,000 Cuban troops with
modern weapons and tanks
• Failed – killed and captured in
days
• Kennedy viewed as weak by
Khrushchev
• US looked unwilling to get involved
directly in Cuba
• USSR began to flood Cuba with
arms
 10. The Cuban Missile Crisis
• USA alarmed at all the weapons in
Cuba
• Wondered if the USSR would dare
to supply nuclear missiles to Cuba
• Kennedy warned Khrushchev that
he would not tolerate nuclear
weapons on Cuba
• October 1962 American spy plane
flew over Cuba
• Saw nuclear missile bases being
built by Soviets
• Some had been completed and
already had missiles
 10. The Cuban Missile Crisis
• Matter would test resolve of
Kennedy
• Historians have argued that
Khrushchev intended to use the
missiles a bargaining tool
• Wanted US to remove Jupiter
Missiles it had stationed in Turkey
• Reported that USSR ships with
missiles on its way to Cuba
• Kennedy advised to attack Cuba
• Decided on a blockade
• Demanded ships turnaround and
that missile bases are removed
 10. The Cuban Missile Crisis
• World seemed on verge of nuclear war
• UN urged for restraint
• Khrushchev ordered ships to turn around and also to remove
missiles and bases from Cuba
• US promised not to invade Cuba and to disarm missiles in
Turkey
 10. The Cuban Missile Crisis
• Both leaders gained something from crisis
• Led to thaw in tension between USA and USSR
• Telephone link between Washington and Moscow
• Inconvenience versus destruction of world
 11. The Berlin Wall
• 1961 Khrushchev told Kennedy that the West had to withdraw
from Berlin
• USSR embarrassed by stark economic divide
• People escaping from east to west Berlin (3 million people
since 1945)
• Kennedy refused
• August 1961 – USSR started building a wall to separate the city
11. The Berlin Wall
 12. Détente in the 1970s
• 1970s known as period of Détente
• Refers to relaxation in tension
between the East and West
• Why?
• End of War in Vietnam
• Improved relations between the
USSR and USA with China
• Arms race very costly – USSR
struggled to keep up with USA
• Western European nations
increasingly worried as would be
front line if there was to be nuclear
war
 12. Detente in the 1970s
• Builds on Hot Line at end of Cuban
Crisis
• 1972 signed SALT
• Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
• Slowed down the arms race
• Helsinki Conference in August 1975
• All countries recognised borders
after WWII
• Respect for Human Rights
• Freedom of Speech
• Freedom of Movement
• 1979 USSR invaded Afghanistan =
Second Cold War
 13. Mikhail Gorbachev
• Became leader of USSR in 1985
• Crisis: weak economy
• Too much money on arms race
• War in Afghanistan unwinnable
• Concerned about work ethics of
his people
• Social issues – chronic alcoholism
• Manufacturing goods poor
• Introduced two key ideas:
• Glasnost (Openness)
• Perestroika (Restructuring)
• Did NOT want to END communism
• Wanted humane and democratic
socialist system
 14. Glasnost
• Found expression in human rights and
cultural affairs
• Released some political prisoners
• Long banned films and books shown
and published
• Media freedom – wanted to root out
individual acts of corruption
• BUT the Party itself still had to remain
free from criticism
 15. Perestroika
• Restructuring of the Party, the
economy and the government
• Small-scale private enterprise was
to be allowed
• Realised that patterns of
employment was changing due to
technology
• Quality control in factories taken
over by independent regulation
body
• Instead of local soviet members
being appointed by local
Communist Party would now be
elected
 15. Perestroika
• Policies met with resistance by
radicals and conservatives
• Radicals wanted a free western-
style marked economy
• Conservatives feared that the
Communist Party was loosing
control
• Economic policy could not
modernise USSR fast enough
• Law of State Enterprises measured
by output in terms of value
• Thus shortage of basic necessities
 15. Perestroika
• Within the developing crisis in the
USSR – satellite states in Eastern
Europe also influenced
• Communist Leaders confused
• In Mach 1989 Gorbachev informed
these Communist Leaders that the
Red Army would no longer prop up
their regimes
• Would have to start listening to the
needs of their people
• The matryoshka doll started to
crumble...
 16. Germany - 1989
• May:
• Hungarians start to
dismantle barbed wire
fence with non-communist
Austria
• June:
• Poland free elections. Elects
first non-communist leader.
• Gorbachev visits
Chancellor Helmut Kohl
and in promise for West
German financial aid he
promises freedom for East
Germany
 16. Germany - 1989
• August to September:
• Thousands of East Germans on
holiday in Czechoslovakia refuse to
return to East Germany and escape
through Austria into West Germany
• October:
• Enormous demonstrations in East
Germany.
• Gorbachev visits and orders Erich
Honecker to reform.
• Honecker refuses.
• Orders troops to fire on
demonstrators but they refuse.
 16. 1989
• 9 November:
• Thousands of East Germans march
on the Berlin Wall
• Guards join with the marchers
• Start tearing down the Berlin Wall
• In East German election Kohl’s
party wins and demands
reunification
• Gorbachev promises that all USSR
troops will be withdrawn from East
Germany by 1994
• On 3 October 1990 Germany is
reunited
 17. The end of the Cold War?
• USSR started to collapse as more and more communist regimes
came to a fall in Eastern Europe
• Ukraine voted to become independent
• Gorbachev swept from power in December 1991 by the
popular and radical reformer Boris Yeltsin