A world divided: superpower relations, 1943-72

• Leaders in the West were against the Soviet Union from its very beginning.
• This was because the Soviet Union completely rejected the West's capitalist ideology and wanted to encourage ordinary people in the West to overthrow capitalism and get rid of the rich.

Communism and the Soviet Union

• The Soviet Union was formed soon after a revolution in the Russian Empire in 1917.
• The revolution was led by communists, who wanted the Soviet Union to develop into the world's first communist state.
• In a communist state there would be no private property or inequality: everyone would work for the benefit of everyone else.
• The rights of individuals would be seen as less important than the good of society as a whole.
• The first step to communism was for the state to take control of everything.
• Only one party was allowed: the Communist Party. This controlled the state.
• However, the Soviet Union needed other countries to become communist too: otherwise it did not have the industrial base it required.
• Consequently, the Soviet Union worked to encourage communist revolutions in other countries.

Capitalism and the USA

• The USA was built on the idea that every American had the chance to make a great life for themselves based on their own effort: the American Dream.
• The rights of individuals, and their individual freedoms, were the most important thing.
• Freedom was an essential core belief for the USA: this included the freedom to vote in democratic elections, freedom of speech and freedom of religion (to believe what you wanted).
• The USA was a capitalist state. This meant individuals owned businesses and worked to make them as profitable as possible because the bigger the profits, the richer they became. By doing this, these individuals created jobs for others.
• However, capitalism also created inequalities: poor people whose lives were not as good as rich people's. The USA was worried that its poor people would like the sound of communism, which took everything away from the rich and shared it among everyone.

• Joseph Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. After Hitler 1941 - Stalin joined the allies.
• The Soviet Union suffered terribly from the German invasion. It is estimated that 27 million Soviet citizens were killed in the Great Patriotic War (the Soviet name for the Second World War). 
• The Allied invasion of German-occupied France in 1944 meant Germany was now fighting on two fronts. But Stalin had been demanding this invasion go ahead since 1941. He was convinced the Allies wanted to see the Soviet Union weakened by fighting Germany. Stalin thought the Allies left the invasion of France for as long as they could in order to achieve this - possibly with the plan of attacking the Soviet Union as soon as it had defeated Germany.
• There were also tensions between the Allies over what should happen to Germany once it had been defeated. The Soviet Union wanted to make sure Germany could never be a threat to it again. The USA and Britain, in particular, did not want to see Germany destroyed.
• Churchill, the British leader, was suspicious about Stalin's plans for Eastern Europe after the war. As the Soviet Union's Red Army advanced on Germany, it took control in Eastern European countries such as Poland which had been occupied by the Germans. Churchill thought Stalin planned to keep hold of these countries after the war.

The Tehran Conference

• Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt (the President of the USA) met at the Tehran Conference, Iran, in November 1943. They agreed that:
• The USA and Britain would invade France in May 1944, opening up a second front that would help the Soviet Union against Germany.
• The Soviet Union would join the USA in fighting Japan once Germany was defeated.
• A new organisation called the United Nations (UN) would be set up after the war to sort out disagreements between countries and help to prevent more wars.
• Part of eastern Poland would become a part of the Soviet Union after the war.

The Yalta Conference

• Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met again in Yalta, in the Soviet Union, in February 1945.
• At this point, the war was nearly won. The Allies agreed that:
• Germany would be divided into four occupied zones after it was defeated: a Soviet zone, a US zone, a British zone and a French zone.
• In the same way, the German capital Berlin would be divided into four zones (Soviet, US, British, French) - even though the city was located in the Soviet zone of Germany.
• Countries that the Allies liberated from German occupation (for example, Poland) would choose the sort of government they wanted after the war had ended, in free elections.
• The Soviet Union agreed to join the USA to fight Japan once Germany was defeated. In return, the Soviet Union would get territory taken from Japan. There was one main area of disagreement between the Allies at Yalta: Poland.
• Stalin said he wanted a strong Poland (to help protect the Soviet Union from any future attack by Germany), but the Soviet Union would not give up the eastern part of the country. Instead, he said Poland should be given some of Germany's territory to the west.
• The other Allies were not happy about this, but agreed because Stalin promised that Poland would have free elections after the war. Stalin also said the Soviet Union would not support communists trying to lead a revolution in Greece.

The Potsdam Conference

• German city of Potsdam, July 1945 - Germany ahd surrendered. The changes since Yalta:
• Roosevelt died - the new president was Harry Truman. While R and S had a good realtionship, Truman did not trust the Soviet leader.
• Winston Churchill had lost the election - the PM was Clement Atlee.
• Nazi Germany had been defeated. The USA and Britain began bringing their troops home: for example, US troops in Europe decreased from 3 million in 1945, to 300,000 in 1946. The Soviet Union did not pull its troops out of Eastern European countries, however.
• During the conference, Truman told Stalin that the USA had a 'powerful new weapon': four days after the conference, the USA dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. On 9 August, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered six days later.

Agreements at the Potsdam Conference

• The Allies agreed where the new border would be between Poland and Germany. Stalin achieved his goal of gaining territory from eastern Poland, while in return Poland gained territory from Germany.
• They also agreed to ban the Nazi Party and to put its leaders on trial as war criminals.

Disagreements at the Potsdam Conference

• Stalin wanted very high reparations payments from Germany ($10 billion) to pay for all the damage done by Germany to the Soviet Union. The USA and Britain did not want to do this because setting high reparations in the First World War had been bad for international peace and for trade.
• Britain and the USA wanted reconstruction for Germany - to rebuild its economy, which would mean more trade and stronger capitalist economies. Stalin suspected his allies wanted to make Germany strong again so it could help them control or destroy the Soviet Union.
• Poland remained a divisive issue: the British had hosted the Polish non-communist government during the war and believed it should now be restored to power there. However, in 1947, Stalin put a communist government in charge of Poland.
• Stalin wanted a base for the Soviet navy in the Mediterranean. The USA and Britain refused to agree to this. Stalin saw this as more proof that his former allies were against the Soviet Union becoming more powerful.

The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

• Stalin wanted to protect the Soviet Union from any future attacks from Germany (and the West) by setting up governments in Eastern Europe that were friendly to the Soviet Union.
• In 1944, Churchill had agreed with Stalin that Eastern Europe would come into the Soviet Union's 'sphere of influence' after the war.
• This meant that the Soviet Union would have a close relationship with the countries of Eastern Europe and could expect the West not to try to build links with Eastern Europe that competed with the interests of the Soviet Union.
• At Yalta, however, it was agreed by Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt that every country in Europe would be free to choose the government it wanted after the war.
• By the time of the Potsdam Conference, Truman was very suspicious about the Soviet Union's intentions in Eastern Europe. He did not think Stalin was going to allow free elections.
• Truman was proved right when, in 1947, Poland held its first election. Before the election, there was violent intimidation of non-communist political parties and the results of the election were changed to benefit communist and socialist parties. The Communist Party won with 80 per cent of the vote. After its election, the Polish communist government followed orders from the Soviet Union.

• Truman believed that communism was evil, while Stalin believed capitalism was evil.
• Stalin was convinced the Allies had deliberately delayed the invasion of Occupied France in order to hurt the Soviet Union. Truman believed the Soviet Union had helped to start the Second World War by agreeing a pact with Hitler in 1939.
• Truman declared that the Soviet Union should be treated with 'an iron fist' - this meant the USA should aim to win all arguments rather than agree compromises with the Soviet Union. Truman believed reports that the Soviet Union was planning to spread communism throughout the world by any means, including making the USA a communist state.
• Some advisors in the US government did not want to use atomic bombs on Japanese civilians. However, Truman was keen to use the bomb to end the war against Japan before the Soviet Union became involved. That would mean the USA had complete control over Japan after the war, without having to share any influence in this region with the Soviet Union.

Reasons for the Cold War - Long term rivalry (ideological differences), Tensions and disagreements during WW2, disagreements at the conferences, The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and Attitudes of Truman & Stalin.

• After WW2 the Soviet Union kept tight control over its zone of Germany and Eastern European countries.
• Governments were taken over by communists trained by Moscow and countries took their orders from the Soviet Union.

Reasons for Soviet expansion

• The USA and western allies were convinced that Stalin wanted to spread communism throughout the world, starting with Eastern Europe.
• Evidence for this was the 'Long Telegram'. This was sent by George Kennan who worked at the US Embassy in Moscow. Kennan warned that Stalin was determined to expand Soviet power.
• However, Stalin's reasons for expanding Soviet control were more about defending the Soviet Union from any attack by the West.
• Attacks (from Germany) had usually come through Poland. Stalin's plan was to have a zone of Eastern European countries loyal to the Soviet Union between Germany and the Soviet Union, to help protect it from an attack from the West.
• The Allies had also agreed, that Eastern European countries would be in the Soviet Union's 'sphere of influence - that is, friendly towards the Soviet Union.

• The phrase 'iron curtain' was used by the West to describe the way Soviet control came down over Eastern Europe after the end of the Second World War.
• The phrase was first used by Winston Churchill in a speech he made in 1946, while he was on a trip to the USA.
• Churchill described the area behind the 'iron curtain' as not only being influenced by the Soviet Union, but also being under Moscow's control.
• During the war, Churchill and Roosevelt had accepted that Eastern Europe would be in the Soviet Union's sphere of influence.
• But they were shocked when the Soviet Union went on to dominate these Eastern European countries; for example, by the way the Soviet Union controlled elections in Poland.

• The USA was worried that Soviet control would spread further into Europe.
• People devastated and lost everything from war - communism was an attractive ideology.
• Many left with nothing liked the idea of equality.

The Truman Doctrine

• A terrible civil war took place in Greece between 1946 and 1949. The country was divided between monarchists (supporters of the king) and communists, who wanted Greece to follow the Soviet Union.
• British troops stayed in Greece after the Second World War. They helped to keep the monarchists in power, but the government was very weak.
• In 1947, President Truman announced that the USA would help Greece to stay free of communism. - They sent $400m to the Greek govt.
• In fact, Truman pledged that the USA would help any country where freedom was under threat from 'armed minorities or outside pressures'. This meant the USA would send money, equipment and advisors to stop the spread of communism.
• This policy aimed to contain the spread of communism - to stop it spreading any further. This was known as containment.
• The policy became known as the Truman Doctrine - lead to NATO.

• In 1948, the USA decided to give around $13 billion ($200 billion in today's money) to European countries to help them recover from the devastation caused by the Second World War.
• This was because Truman believed communism was much more attractive to people when they had nowhere to live, no job to go to, and not much to eat. The faster European countries could recover, the less attractive communism would seem.
• This $13 billion fund was known the Marshall Plan, after George Marshall, the American secretary of state in charge of the programme.
• In return for the Marshall Plan's aid, countries agreed to buy US products and allow US companies to invest in their industries - Marshall Plan made economic sense for the USA.
• 1yr before - the US Congress had refused to agree to the Marshall Plan - it was such a huge sum of money. But then, in 1948, communists took control of Czechoslovakia's government.
• This convinced Congress to support the Marshall Plan because of fears that communism was spreading.
• Stalin quickly decided that the Marshall Plan money could weaken Soviet control over Eastern Europe. He told governments there to refuse to accept it because the Marshall Plan was actually about the USA making countries dependent on it for money.
• 17 western European countries, including West Germany, took part in the Marshall Plan.

• Cominform was an alliance of nine European communist parties that Stalin set up in 1947, at least partly in response to the Marshall Plan.
• Cominform existed to make sure that other European communist parties followed the approach set out by the Soviet Union, and by Stalin in particular.
• The communist parties in countries such as France and Italy were told to try to block the take up of the Marshall Plan in their countries.
• They failed to do this.
• Cominform ended in 1956, following new leadership in the Soviet Union after Stalin's death.

• Comecon was an economic organisation that aimed to coordinate economic development between the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies.
• At first it was mainly about setting up trade links between the six original members - the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania.
• After Stalin's death, in 1953, Comecon began to encourage its Eastern European members to specialise in different types of production: so one country would produce oil, for example, that it would exchange with another for machinery.
• The aim of Comecon was, like Cominform, to prevent Eastern European countries from being attracted away from the Soviet sphere of influence by Western policies, like the Marshall Plan.
• However, differences between countries made Comecon very difficult to organise.
• In fact, all the Eastern European countries increased trade with Western countries more than with the Soviet Union through the Cold War.

• The Soviet Union wanted Germany to be as weak as possible after the war so that it would not threaten the Soviet Union with invasion again.
• USA and western allies wanted Germany to recover - USA wanted to trade with Germany.
• Britain and France did not have the resources to keep feeding the German people - they needed to become self-sufficient.
• The Allies had agreed to divide Germany after the war into four zones of occupation.
• The different Soviet and western views about Germany meant the Soviet zones and western zones of Germany quickly became very different.
• The Soviets were supposed to supply the western, industrial parts of Germany with food from rural eastern Germany in return for machinery.
• The western zones started to send machinery in 1946, but the Soviet Union did not send food.
• In January 1947, the USA and Britain merged their two separate zones into one zone, known as Bizonia.
• The western Allies' aim was to make Bizonia self-sufficient. In August 1948, the French zone was added to Bizonia, too, to become Trizonia.

Causes

• Because Berlin was located in the Soviet zone of Germany, the decision to divide Berlin into four zones, or sectors, meant that the USA and its western allies occupied areas deep within the Soviet zone.
• The western Allies were allowed access to their sectors of Berlin by specific road, rail, canal and air routes.
• Berlin had its own city government. The western powers prevented the Soviet Union from installing a socialist city government in Berlin.
• This frustrated Stalin, who wanted Berlin's government to be under Soviet control.
• The formation of Bizonia (1947) increased tensions between the superpowers over Germany.
• The Soviet Union wanted to keep Germany divided and weak. Stalin believed that the USA wanted Germany to recover in order for it to help control the Soviet Union.
• Western zones of Germany benefited from the Marshall Plan.
• The Soviet Union did not want Germany to recover so its zones of occupation had much lower standards of living.
• But, at the same time, Stalin did not want a successful capitalist West Berlin showing up the low living standards of East Berlin.

Causes of the Berlin Crisis

• In 1948, the US and British zones of occupation were merged to form Bizonia. In June 1948, without telling the Soviet Union, Bizonia introduced a new currency to their zones - including West Berlin: the Deutschmark.
• The Soviets said this broke the Potsdam agreement over Germany because the Allies had agreed that they would not govern Germany in different ways. The Soviet Union liked Germany having its old, weak, devalued currency (the Reichsmark) because it prevented the country from recovering. The new Deutschmark threatened this - and, besides, the Soviet Union had been kept out of planning this new currency.
• In response, Soviet troops blockaded all rail, road and water routes used to reach the western sectors of Berlin.

Events

• In March 1948, the Soviet Union pulled out of the Allied Control Council. This was the organisation set up by the Soviet Union, USA and Britain to run Germany. There had been friction between the Allies since 1946, but the creation of Bizonia and plans to introduce a new currency had crossed a line for the Soviet Union and it refused to return to the Council.
• When the western sectors of Berlin were included in Marshall Plan funding in April 1948, Soviet troops began to stop road and rail traffic coming into Bizonia so they could search it. These delays impacted on life in Bizonia, which was dependent on imports from western zones of Germany.
• On 18 June 1948, the western powers announced their plans to create a new West Germany and to introduce a new currency. In response, the Soviet Union announced, on 22 June that it would introduce a new currency of its own in Soviet-controlled areas: the Ostmark.
• On 24 June 1948, the Soviet leadership blocked all routes into western Berlin by road, rail and canal. Soviet food supplies to West Berlin were ended and electricity supplies were shut off. West Berlin only had enough food to last one month, and enough coal for a month and a half, so the situation was very serious.

Events

• Stalin offered to drop the blockade if the West stopped the Deutschmark being used in Berlin. Instead, the USA and its allies organised the Berlin airlift. 
• The Berlin airlift started on 26 June 1948 and lasted until 30 September 1949. It involved the USA, Britain and other allies bringing in supplies for West Berlin's population by air.
• The airlift was very challenging to organise. Every day, 4,000 tonnes of supplies needed to be flown in to meet the needs of West Berlin's population. At one point in the airlift campaign, one plane landed every 45 seconds at Berlin's Tempelhof airport. But the USA and its allies showed that they could keep the airlift going indefinitely. West Berlin was not going to starve.
• On 11 May 1949, the Soviet Union lifted the blockade of West Berlin. Stalin had failed to force the western allies out of Berlin.

Results

• The Berlin Crisis was the first major crisis of the Cold War. It greatly increased tensions between the Soviet Union and the USA. Truman saw it as a great victory in which the West had stood together against the Soviet Union's threats.
• Berlin became an important symbol of the Cold War. West Berlin symbolised freedom and democracy, deep in the heart of Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe.

• War between the USA and its allies and the Soviet Union seemed very likely during the Berlin Crisis. Berlin was surrounded by over 1 million Soviet troops: at any moment, Stalin could have ordered them to take over all of Berlin.
• On 4 April 1949, just before the Soviet Union ended the blockade, NATO - the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - was set up by the western Allies. It had twelve members to begin with, including the USA, Britain, France and Italy.
• NATO was a defensive military alliance. It did not aim to start any attack itself. Instead, any armed attack on one of the members of NATO was to be considered an attack on them all, and they would all come to the aid of the attacked country.
• The formation of NATO meant the USA was now committed to defending Western Europe from Soviet expansion. Any Soviet move to take control of a NATO member, for example, Norway, would mean war with the USA.
• The Soviet leadership did not agree that NATO was defensive: Stalin saw it as an 'aggressive alliance'. When West Germany was allowed to join (in 1955), this increased Soviet fears about NATO - the idea of arming Germans again was very alarming for the Soviet Union.
• NATO increased Cold War tensions. In response to NATO, the Soviet Union set up the Warsaw Pact in 1955.

• In May 1949, two weeks after the end of the Berlin Crisis, the state of West Germany was created out of the occupied zones of the Western allies: the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).
• Soon after, in October 1949, the Soviets responded by overseeing the creation of the state of East Germany out of their occupation zone: the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
• The USA refused to recognise the GDR as a state and declared that they would support the FDR in its aim of reunifying all Germany as a free and democratic state.

How did it start?

• In the Second World War, the USA had liberated the south of Korea from the Japanese. The USSR had liberated the north of Korea.
• The leader in the North, Kim Il-Sung, followed Stalin's orders.
• In 1950, Stalin agreed to Kim Il-Sung's plan to invade South Korea and unite the country under his rule. There were three main reasons why Stalin agreed:
• 1 The Soviet Union now had atomic weapons: this meant the USA no longer had an overwhelming advantage over the Soviet Union.
• 2 China was now communist and could help North Korea's invasion.
• 3 The USA had pulled most of its troops out of South Korea.
• However, Stalin would not send Soviet troops to Korea in case this caused a war between the USA and the Soviet Union.
• On 25 June 1950, the North attacked. The South Korean forces retreated.
• Within weeks, the North had almost complete control of Korea. 

The USA's Response

• At the time the Korean War began, in 1950, the USA was deeply concerned about the spread of communism. In 1950, a US senator called McCarthy began a campaign against communists in the USA, whom he blamed for weakening the country.
• China had become a communist country in 1949. The USA had spent millions of dollars supporting the Nationalists - the opposition to the Chinese Communist Party. The USA blamed the Soviet Union for helping the communists win in China.
• President Truman was determined not to let communism spread to South Korea as well.
• President Truman ordered the US navy and army to organise troops and supplies to be sent to aid South Korea.
• Truman also pressured the United Nations to take military action against North Korea. The UN agreed that North Korea had broken world peace and ordered it to withdraw its troops from South Korea.
• When North Korea did not obey, the UN's Security Council agreed to send troops to Korea. Sixteen UN countries were involved, but the USA provided 50 per cent of the UN troops and 90 per cent of the naval and air forces.

Key Features

• In September 1950, UN forces launched attacks on the North Korean army and forced it back to North Korea. South Korea was free again.
• However, the UN forces continued to advance into North Korea. This was partly because Truman wanted to defeat communism in the North and see the whole of Korea become an ally of the USA.
• Truman's military chiefs were very confident that neither the Soviet Union nor China would stop the UN's invasion of North Korea. However, on 20 October 1950, when U forces approached the border between North Korea and China, 300,000 Chinese soldiers attacked them and drove them back to South Korea.
• This was a disaster for the USA because many US soldiers were killed. A communist army had defeated the USA.
• The Korean War continued with fighting along the border between North Korea and South Korea. In March 1953, Stalin died. The North Koreans and Chinese could not be sure if a new Soviet leader would keep supporting the war. They agreed to a ceasefire agreement with the UN on 27 July 1953.

Impact

• For the Soviet Union, the Korean War was a failure. South Korea did not become communist. Stalin had not expected the USA to fight to save South Korea, so the strong US response was bad news - it meant the USA was not bluffing in its determination to stop communism spreading.
• For others, the Korean War showed that the USA and Soviet Union could fight each other by supporting opposing sides in another country's civil war. This is called a proxy war. Proxy war had the advantage of avoiding direct military conflict between the superpowers, which could lead to a nuclear conflict. The Korean War set a pattern for more Cold War proxy conflicts, such as the Vietnam War (1955-75).
• After the Korean War, the USA encouraged the formation of other organisations similar to NATO in different global regions, which also aimed to stop communism spreading: for example, SEATO (South East Asia Treaty Organization, 1954), CENTO (an organisation of Middle Eastern countries) and ANZUS (Australia and New Zealand)
• The Korean War also showed how the United Nations could take action to stop one country from invading another. The United Nations could be used to intervene to stop or reduce conflict between the superpowers.

• In 1955, six years after NATO was created (see pages 52-53), the Soviet Union set up its own military alliance - the Warsaw Pact.
• As well as the Soviet Union, the Pact included Albania (which withdrew in 1968), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania.
• The Warsaw Pact was a mutual defence organisation - like NATO. It also meant that Soviet troops were stationed in all the Warsaw Pact countries, and set up a single military command for the armed forces of all the member countries (led by the Soviet Union).
• The main reason for the Warsaw Pact was West Germany becoming a member of NATO (1955). The Soviet Union also felt surrounded and threatened by the new anti-communism organisations set up after the Korean War (for example, SEATO). The Warsaw Pact was its response.

• Stalin died in 1953.
• By 1955, a new leader, Nikita Khrushchev, was fully in control of the Soviet Union. He rejected Stalin's methods (de-Stalinisation) and indicated that he wanted to reduce Cold War tension.
• Instead, he argued for 'peaceful co-existence' with the West. This meant encouraging good trade and diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and capitalist countries.
• One reason for peaceful co-existence' was that the Soviet Union was spending huge amounts on its military. Khrushchev wanted to spend less on the military and invest more on improving living conditions for the Soviet people, but this meant reducing the threat of war with the West and improving trade with western countries.
• However, leaders in the West were not convinced by 'peaceful co-existence'. After all, Khrushchev was still completely committed to communist ideology, which saw the destruction of capitalism as a necessary first step to the development of communism in every country.
• Also, the Soviet Union responded with force in Eastern Europe when people there protested against Soviet rule, as happened in Hungary in 1956.

• Hungary had been an ally of Germany in the Second World War, which meant that once the Soviet Union took control of Hungary, it treated the country very harshly.
• Even though Hungary was devastated by the war, the Soviet Union insisted on $200 million in reparations from Hungary.
• It also held 1 million Hungarians as prisoners of war for many years after the war.
• The Soviet Union also required Hungary to collectivise its farming in 1948, which produced a widespread famine.
• Despite another political party, the Smallholders' Party, winning 57 per cent of the vote in elections in 1945, the Soviet Marshal in charge of the Soviet occupation of Hungary refused to let them become the government. Instead, a coalition government was set up, including the Communist Party which had won only 17 per cent of the vote.
• This all meant that the Communist Party was not popular in Hungary, and neither was the Soviet Union.

• The Soviet Union chose Mátyás Rákosi to lead the Hungarian Communist Party after the Red Army occupied Hungary in 1945.
• Rakosi followed Stalin in everything: he said he was "Stalin's best pupil'.
• Rákosi made the Communist Party the only political party in Hungary. Like Stalin, he ordered the arrest of anyone likely to be against the Communist Party.
• A secret police force called the AVH was set up: its brutality meant it was detested and feared by Hungarians. There were also Soviet troops stationed in Hungary.
• By 1956, 350,000 Hungarians had been put in prison and over 2,000 had been executed.

• When Stalin died in 1953, the new Soviet leadership launched a policy of de-Stalinisation', which meant removing all the negative aspects of Stalinism from Soviet politics, economics and society.
• For example, Stalin was accused of a 'cult of personality. This meant using propaganda to create an image of the leader as almost like a god. For example, whatever Stalin said was what everyone else immediately agreed with.
• Stalin also imposed totalitarian control (total control over every aspect of life) and used his secret police force to arrest anyone suspected of any kind of criticism or opposition to his leadership - even joke telling.
• In 1956, Khrushchev gave a 'Secret Speech' to the Twentieth Congress (meeting) of the CPSU (the Communist Party of the Soviet Union). It became known as the 'Secret Speech' because it was delivered at an unpublicised, closed session of delegates, with guests and members of the press excluded. This speech strongly criticised Stalin - although he did not mention Stalin's greatest crimes, which Khrushchev had helped carry Out.

• The secret Speech was designed to clear the way economic and social reforms. One of the first and biggest reforms was the release of millions of political prisoners, arrested under Stalin and sent to gulags - forced labour camps.
• The KGB, the Soviet secret police, was also no longer able to sentence criminals without a court, or torture people to make them confess.
• In the Soviet Union and across Eastern Europe, Khrushchev's "Secret Speech' led to a relaxation of the strict controls on people's lives.
• This was called the 'Thaw!. Across the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, people (especially young people) took advantage of the new sense of freedom to enjoy new music, films, books and fashions.
• Conservatives were worried that this freedom was quickly getting out of control.

• After Stalin's death, the Soviet leadership was worried that Rákosi's brutal leadership would cause unrest in Hungary. In 1953, Imre Nagy was installed as leader instead. Nagy was a Communist Party member who had introduced popular farming reforms.
• Nagy's attempts at introducing reforms to Hungary were wrecked by Rákosi. Rakosi was able to convince the Soviet leadership to make another conservative, Gero, Hungary's leader instead.
• Then came Khrushchev's "Secret Speech', in February 1956. Rákosi was sent to Moscow and Nagy was again made leader.
• The relaxation of Soviet control triggered changes across Eastern Europe. In Hungary, the 'Thaw' meant more freedom of speech. There was criticism of Rakosi's crimes. Victims of his purges were reburied in public ceremonies in October 1956.
• Following the reburials, students began demonstrating in Hungary's capital city, Budapest.

• On 22 October, students read out a list of sixteen demands on national radio. These included free elections, free speech, the return of prisoners of war from the Soviet Union, trials of all those involved in Rákosi's purges, trade links with the West and that Soviet troops should immediately leave Hungary.
• A giant statue of Stalin was pulled down - point thirteen of the sixteen points. Protestors fought with Soviet troops stationed in Hungary. Members of Hungary's secret police, the AVH, were lynched (hanged) in the streets. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 had begun.
• Nagy was told to sign a request for help from the Soviet Union to put down the unrest. He refused to do this. Instead, he came out as a supporter of the students' demands.
• Nagy announced on radio that he was going to discuss with the Soviet Union:
• O the removal of all Soviet troops from Hungary
• O the introduction of multi-party democracy in Hungary
• O Hungary withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact.
• On 3 November, Nagy announced that a coalition government would be formed.

• 31st October 1956 - Soviet leadership decided to use a massive force to crush the Hungarian Revolution

Why?
1. International attention was focused on the Suez Crisis - involving an invasion of Egypt by British, French and Israeli forces. Soviet leadership believed it was less likely that USA and UN would choose to intervene w/ Hungary at this time as they were involved in sorting out the Suez.

2. Khrushchev had only just begun his leadership and reform programme. He was worried about being seen as a weak leader if he did not crack down hard on Hungary.

3. Could not accept Nagy's demand to leave the Warsaw Pact as it would weaken the Soviet Union's defences and might also lead to other countries also trying to leave.

4. Worried Hungarian Rev would spread to other countries. 

• On 4 November, 200,000 Soviet troops and 6,000 tanks entered Hungary. They quickly took control of the country's communications.
• Hungarians fought against the Soviet troops, even though they had little chance against the tanks and heavily armed soldiers; 2,500 Hungarians were killed and 20,000 were wounded; 200.000 Hungarians fled the country.
• On 10 November, a ceasefire was agreed and fighting stopped. Communist Party control was re-established under a new leader, Kádár, who was loyal to the Soviet Union. Around 100,000 people were arrested for taking part in the Revolution, 26,000 were put in prison and more than 300 people were executed, including Nagy.

• International reaction from the West was very critical of the Soviet invasion. There were demonstrations in the USA and UK against the invasion, and millions of dollars in donations were made to an appeal to help Hungarian refugees. Many communists in Western countries ended their support for the Soviet Union.
• The United Nations set up a special enquiry into the Revolution and invasion, but both the Soviet Union and Hungary's new government refused to take part.
• Hungarians had counted on the USA and its allies to help it fight against the Soviet occupation. US President Eisenhower had previously talked about 'rolling back' communism and many Hungarians thought that Radio Free Europe (a radio station funded by the USA) had promised that Western powers would intervene to stop the Soviet invasion.
• However, unlike in Korea, this time the USA and its allies did not take any action to stop the invasion. The UN's enquiry was very critical of the Soviet Union and Hungary's new government, but it also took no action.
• The Suez Crisis was one reason why nothing was done by the West. Britain and France had invaded another country (Egypt), telling lies to try to cover up their actions. This made it very difficult for the USA to act against one invasion but not the other.
• The main reason for inaction was that the USA was worried that taking military action against the invasion might start a nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

• USA was first to develop nuclear weapons - exploded 2 on Japan in 1945
• Stalin immediately put teams of scientists and spies to work to develop a Soviet atomic bomb - achieved in 1949.
• • US scientists began developing a much more powerful nuclear weapon, the hydrogen bomb. This was successfully tested in 1952.
• The Soviet Union followed with its own hydrogen bomb in 1953.
• The next development was intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Instead of bombs dropped from aircraft, these rockets could be launched from one continent and fly to targets on another continent. Such missiles carried nuclear warheads.
• Both sides invested massively in rocket technology - much of it developed using the expertise of former Nazi scientists.
• In 1957, the Soviet Union was the first to successfully test an intercontinental ballistic missile: the **-6. This was also the year when the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite, Sputnik.

• The USA was shocked by the Soviet successes and piled investment into their own ICBM programme to bring out ICBMs in 1958: the budget for missile development increased by 20 per cent.
• Both these first ICBMs were actually shorter in range than true ICBMs and needed to be stationed closer to their targets: in Britain for the US's Thor and Jupiter missiles, and in the north of Russia for the **-6s. They also took about an hour to fuel, meaning launching these ICBMs was not immediate.
• Both sides then began developing quicker launching ICBMs, with longer ranges.

• The arms race demanded huge levels of investment. This was a drain on the budgets of both countries. It reduced the amount that could be spent on other priorities, such as improving living standards.
• Both sides wanted to achieve a technological breakthrough that would give their side a devastating military advantage, such as the USA had enjoyed in 1945-9 as the world's only nuclear power. But neither achieved this: as soon as one development was achieved, the other side would very quickly catch up.
• Both sides used extensive spying networks to find out what the other was working on. For the USA this was achieved with spy planes, such as the U-2, which flew too high to be shot down by Soviet missiles (until the 1960s). The Soviets used human spies. Both types of spying caused conflict when the spies were caught. 

• The sides were fairly evenly matched after 1949. By the 1960s and 1970s, the USA had more 'nukes' but the Soviets' 'nukes' were more destructive. Whichever side launched their missiles first didn't really matter: the response from the other side would mean both the USA and the Soviet Union would be devastated by multiple nuclear strikes.
• This was known as MAD - mutually assured destruction. MAD meant that the Cold War never went hot: the risks were far too high. However, there was always the chance that a nuclear war could start because of a mistake, an accident or a misunderstanding.
• This risk actually meant communications between the superpowers had to improve after one of the three major crises of the Cold War: the Cuban Missile Crisis.

• There are two Berlin crises to revise in your course: the first Berlin Crisis of 1948-49 (Berlin airlift), and the second Berlin Crisis of 1961. This is the second!
• Tensions between the superpowers over Berlin were building up throughout the 1950s: in 1955, West Germany joined NATO and West Berlin became a showcase for the capitalist redevelopment of Germany.
• In contrast, living conditions in East Germany were poor and there was little personal freedom. Large numbers of East Germans left their state for West Germany through Berlin - 4 million people between 1949 and 1961 - braindrain.
• Berlin was also a problem for East Germany and the Soviets because large numbers of western spies operated there, getting information from East Germans.
• In 1958, Khrushchev told the Western allies to leave West Berlin in six months so that the whole city could become a neutral city the Berlin Ultimatum. President Eisenhower was not against this idea. He was interested in the United Nations taking control of Berlin.

• Khrushchev and Eisenhower planned to meet at the Paris Summit on 14 May 1960 - Berlin would certainly have been discussed, as well as talks about nuclear disarmament.
• However, on 1 May, just before the summit began, an American U-2 spy plane was shot down by the Soviets over the city of Sverdlovsk. The American pilot, Gary Powers, was captured.
• The Soviets had known about the spy flights before, but had not been able to shoot them down until the development of a new, long-range, surface-to-air missile.
• At first, Eisenhower said it was not a spy plane but a weather plane, then he was forced to admit publicly that the USA had been spying on the Soviet Union with spy planes for several years. This increased tensions further.
• As a result, Khrushchev declared the Soviet Union would not take part in the Paris Summit.

• Khrushchev's Berlin Ultimatum and the fear that western powers may leave the city had intensified the flow of refugees from the East to the West.
• 1959 - 150 000 left 1960 - 200 000 and in 7 months of 1961 - 180 000. Nearly half were under 25 years old and included the skilled workers that East Germany really needed.
• It was probably the East German leadership that decided that the best solution to the refugee crisis was to build a wall around West Berlin. The Soviet Union backed the decision.
• 13th Aug 1961 - overnight, the border between East and West Berlin was closed.
• Troops constructed a barbed wire fence around West Berlin.
• The train network connecting the two zones was closed.
• At first, the soldiers patrolling the barrier were ordered not to shoot people trying to cross the barbed wire but the East German govt soon gave the order to shoot people trying to escape.
• Eventually, the temporary barrier was replaced by a 3.6m high concrete wall, 43km long, patrolled by troops with machine guns and attack dogs: the Berlin Wall.
• In East Germany - the 'ant-fascist wall'.

• The construction caused serious problems for Berliners. East Berliners with jobs in West Berlin lost their jobs. Families with relations in both parts of the city were split up. For many, it was not possible to meet again.
• West Germany felt let down by the USA. The USSR had broken the 1949 agreement over Berlin, and yet the USA took no action against the wall.
• East Germans did not believe that the wall was to keep fascists out of East Berlin - if that was true, why were there machine guns in the lookout towers pointing towards East Berlin rather than outwards at the 'fascists'?

• The building of the wall immediately intensified tensions between the USA and Soviet Union.
• Soviet troops were used to guard checkpoints along the wall. The USA objected to this. American troops and tanks were brought in to guard the western side of the checkpoints. In response, the Soviets brought tanks up to their side of the checkpoint. For eighteen hours both sides waited to see what the other would do - war could easily have started at this crisis point.
• However, the new US President, John F. Kennedy, helped reduce the tensions by agreeing with Khrushchev that the USA would remove its troops from the checkpoints if the Soviet Union did the same with their troops.
• Although Kennedy chose peaceful means to reduce tensions over Berlin, he did also order that nuclear testing should start again in 1962.

• In 1959, there was a revolution in Cuba. The pro-America government of Fulgencio Batista was replaced by a socialist state led by Fidel Castro.
• Many US businesses had invested in Cuba. Castro took over all the American property in Cuba.
• The USA responded by banning the import of sugar from Cuba. Sugar was Cuba's main export and the USA was its main market, so this was an economic disaster for Cuba.
• The Soviet Union offered to buy Cuba's sugar instead. Links between Cuba and the Soviet Union increased. The USA saw this as unacceptable: Cuba was only 145 kilometres from the USA.

• President Kennedy approved a plan for an invasion of Cuba that aimed to remove Castro and return the island to supporting the USA.
• In this plan, the CIA trained around 1,400 Cuban exiles - men who had left Cuba because of the revolution - as the invasion force, and equipped them with US weapons and equipment.
• The invasion took place in April 1961. First, on 16 April, old US bomber planes, painted to look like Cuban air force planes, attacked the actual Cuban air force. The bombing was not accurate and not all the Cuban planes were destroyed. Then, on the following day (17 April) the Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba.
• The exiles (and the USA) had anticipated that the Cuban people and. especially, parts of the Cuban army, would help them to get rid of Castro. But in fact the Cuban people supported Castro. The 1,400 exiles faced a Cuban army force of around 20,000 men, plus Cuban air force planes, and were defeated.

• The defeat of the invasion made Castro's position more secure because the attack from the USA united the Cuban people behind his government. He negotiated $53 million of baby food and medicines from the USA in return for the US prisoners seized during the Bay of Pigs invasion.
• The defeated invasion was very embarrassing for Kennedy, who had only been president since January 1961. He became even more determined to remove Castro from power, even allowing the CIA to make plans to assassinate Castro, and to make sure that communism did not spread to other countries in Latin (South) America.
• The defeated invasion was positive news for Khrushchev. Castro was sure that the USA would attack again, and the Soviet Union was happy to send military advisors to Cuba to help Castro increase his defences. Cuba was pushed further towards the Soviet Union.

• Khrushchev was concerned that the Soviet Union was falling behind in the arms race. He was also worried about US missile bases positioned close to the Soviet Union, in Italy and Turkey. Cuba was a good opportunity to restore the balance: positioning Soviet missiles close to the USA.
• Castro was keen to have a strong deterrent against further US attacks. He requested that Soviet nuclear missiles should be installed on Cuba. In September 1962, Soviet specialists began secretly building a number of missile bases there.
• US suspicions about what was happening on Cuba were confirmed on 14 October 1962, when an American U-2 spy plane took photographs of Soviet strategic missile launch pads in Cuba.

• President Kennedy also received reports that twenty Soviet ships were on their way to Cuba, and these ships were very probably carrying nuclear missiles for the Cuban missile base.
• This was a very serious situation for the USA: the bases meant that medium-range nuclear missiles could be launched from Cuba that could very quickly hit anywhere in the USA.
• The President had to decide quickly how to respond - once the missiles reached Cuba, military experts thought they would be ready to launch in just two weeks' time.
• Options for Kennedy included:
• 1. an invasion of Cuba
• 2.air strikes to destroy the bases
• 3. a blockade of Cuba to stop Soviet ships reaching the island (all three of which could have triggered a nuclear conflict)
• 4. involving the United Nations in diplomacy
• 5. or do nothing.
• His decision (made on 20 October) was to order a blockade of Cuba.

• 16 October: Kennedy informed about the missile bases on Cuba.
• 22 October: Kennedy announced a blockade of Cuba by the US Navy. US military bases around the world were put on DEFCON 2: one step down from maximum readiness for an ICBM attack.
• 23 October: Kennedy received a letter from Khrushchev announcing that the Soviet ships would continue to Cuba, regardless of the blockade.
• 24 October: The Soviet ships approached the blockade - then turned back or stopped.
• 26 October: A long letter from Khrushchev reached Kennedy. Khrushchev said that the missiles on Cuba would only ever be used to defend Cuba. He stated that if the USA promised not to attack Cuba again, then there could be negotiations about removing the missiles.
• 27 October: A second personal letter to Kennedy from Khrushchev arrived in which the Soviet leader said the USA would need to remove their missiles from bases in Turkey before the Soviet Union would remove its missiles from Cuba.

• A U-2 spy plane was shot down over Cuba; the pilot was killed. Kennedy was advised to launch an attack on Cuba. Instead, Kennedy communicated to Khrushchev that the USA would agree not to attack Cuba again in return for the removal of the missiles from Cuba. But if Khrushchev didn't take this deal, the USA would attack.
• 28 October: Khrushchev accepted the deal and said the Soviet Union would dismantle the missile systems and take them back to the Soviet Union. The crisis was over.

• Kennedy was seen as having stood up to the Soviet Union and forced Khrushchev to back down. He was also recognised internationally as a great statesman because he had chosen peaceful means to deal with the crisis instead of launching attacks on Cuba and the Soviet Union, which risked nuclear war.
• In the Soviet Union, Khrushchev was seen to have failed as leader because he had been forced to back down over the missile bases. It did not look as though the Soviet Union had gained anything from the deal - a US agreement to remove missiles from Turkey was kept a secret. Khrushchev's failure over the crisis was one reason why he was forced out as Soviet leader in 1964.
• Both sides recognised that there were points in the crisis where nuclear war nearly happened, not because either side wanted it, but because communications to clarify the situation took too long. As a result, a hotline teleprinter link was installed that connected the US president in Washington directly to the Soviet general secretary in Moscow. This made accidental nuclear war a lot less likely to happen because now the two leaders could communicate directly with one another.

• The superpowers also agreed treaties to reduce the numbers of nuclear weapons and the ways new nuclear weapons could be tested.
• O In 1963, the USA and Soviet Union signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty: this meant no testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere.
• O In 1968, the superpowers and other nuclear allies signed the Outer Space Treaty, which agreed not to position nuclear weapons on satellites in orbit around the Earth.
• O In 1968, the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty was signed: countries with nuclear weapons promised not to help other countries to develop nuclear weapons of their own. The spread (proliferation) of nuclear powers was reduced, as was the risk of a nuclear war that wasn't started by the superpowers.
• The Cuban Missile Crisis therefore meant a reduction in tension between the superpowers because of how close the crisis had come to turning into a nuclear conflict that would have devastated both countries and many others.
• However, despite treaties to reduce nuclear proliferation and control testing, both superpowers continued the arms race.

Causes

• A new leader in Czechoslovakia brought in reforms that promised more freedoms and better standards of living to the Czechoslovakian people.
• The reforms encouraged others within Czechoslovakia to demand more radical changes.
• The Soviet leadership was increasingly concerned about Czechoslovakia leaving the Warsaw Pact and about demands for change in Czechoslovakia spreading to other Eastern European countries.

• In January 1968, Dubèek (pronounced Dub-check) became the leader of Czechoslovakia's Communist Party. The old leader, Novotny, was unpopular because of purges under his leadership in the 1950s.
• Dubèek was a committed communist, but he wanted to reform communism from within: to make it more democratic and to make the economy work for the people.
• Czechoslovakia's economy was declining in the 1960s, mainly because it was being forced to send the steel it made to the Soviet Union, which meant its own industries lacked materials. Nor were Czechoslovak factories producing the things that people wanted to buy - consumer goods such as fridges and furniture.

• Dubek's economic reforms brought in an Action Programme in April 1968, which increased investment in consumer goods and reduced central controls on what was produced. Better working conditions in factories were introduced to motivate workers to be more productive.
• His political reforms were extensive: other parties were allowed to share some power in Czechoslovakia with elections planned within a ten-year period, victims of Novotny's purges were freed from imprisonment and censorship controls were almost completely removed. Travel restrictions on Czechoslovaks were dropped and there were more contacts with the West.

• Removing censorship meant free speech. Czechoslovaks used their new freedom to criticise the Communist Party and the Soviet Union.
• There were student demonstrations demanding more change. Intellectuals also published a programme for further reforms.
• On 17 July 1968, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and the leaders of Bulgaria, East Germany (GDR), Hungary and Poland sent Dubèek a letter warning him of their concern that if radical changes continued in Czechoslovakia, there was a threat to communism in their countries.
• Dubéek replied that he was loyal to socialism and the Warsaw Pact. He agreed not to allow other political parties and tried to bring back censorship in Czechoslovakia.
• Dubèek's actions led to huge demonstrations. When police broke up the demonstrations, national strikes - where everyone in the country Would stop work - began to be organised. To Brezhnev and the other Warsaw Pact leaders, this looked like an uprising against the Communist Party and Soviet control.

• On 20 August 1968, 120,000 Soviet troops and 80,000 troops from other Warsaw Pact countries invaded Czechoslovakia - Brezhnev had run out of patience with Dubéek's attempts to restore control.
• Petrol bombs were thrown at Soviet tanks, some Czechoslovak students even climbed onto tanks to try to convince the Soviet soldiers to turn back. Around 100 people were killed. The Czechoslovak army did not join the protests against the invasion.
• Martial law was declared; Dubéek was arrested and taken to Moscow. In August 1968, the Moscow Agreement required the Czechoslovak Party to reverse the reforms and agree to Soviet troops staying in Czechoslovakia.
• Protests continued into April 1969 - in January 1969 a student, Jan Palach, set himself on fire to protest against the invasion.
• In 1969, Brezhnev was frustrated by the slow rate of change in Czechoslovakia. He said that the Czechoslovaks should 'learn to do what they were told' by the Soviet Union: restore order, bring back censorship, stop any talk of sharing power with other political parties - or expect the Soviet Union to invade again.

• In Czechoslovakia, the Communist Party demoted Dubéek and chose a new leader, Husák. Husák oversaw a crackdown: reformers were expelled from the Communist Party (including Dubèek), censorship was brought back, the secret police had their surveillance powers increased, and traditional Soviet central planning of the economy was restored.
• Relations between the superpowers did not change. This was because the USA was becoming more deeply involved in the Vietnam War. US President Johnson had an agreement with Brezhnev that the USA would not intervene in Czechoslovakia if the Soviet Union did not intervene in Vietnam.
• Relations between the Soviet Union and China did worsen: this was because China's ruling Communist Party did not like the idea of the Soviet Union invading a fellow communist country.

• Brezhnev first announced what came to be known as the Brezhnev Doctrine before the invasion of Czechoslovakia, on 3 August 1968. He made it mainly because of his concerns about Dubéek's reforms and their likely consequences for Eastern Europe.
• The Brezhnev Doctrine stated that although socialist nations were free to choose their own path, no socialist nation should be allowed to damage socialism itself or damage the interests of other socialist nations.
• One effect of the Brezhnev Doctrine was a justification for the Soviet invasion. The invasion had been necessary, according to the Brezhnev Doctrine, because Czechoslovakia's 'counter revolution' against socialism weakened socialism against the capitalist countries (what if Czechoslovakia became a western ally?) and risked spreading uprisings to other socialist countries (such as Poland).
• A second effect of the Brezhnev Doctrine was that it meant no other Eastern European country risked making significant reforms until the 1980s. This was important because it meant Soviet-style economies in Eastern Europe stagnated, while young people in these countries felt disconnected from socialism.

• Khrushchev's reforms as leader began with the release of political prisoners from the Stalin era, and a relaxation of strict controls on people in the Soviet Union by the security services. Leaders across Eastern Europe followed the same approach, and it was this "Thaw' in the Cold War that encouraged demands for more freedoms from Soviet and Party control which led to the revolution in Hungary in 1956.
• When Brezhnev fully took over the leadership of the Soviet Union in 1964, Khrushchev's reforms were stopped and the Thaw ended. Under Brezhnev, there was a strong campaign to shut down any criticism of the Soviet Union from Soviet citizens. However, in his foreign policy, Brezhnev wanted to reduce tensions with the USA. This was partly to allow more trade between the Soviet Union and the West.

• Détente is a term used to describe the reduction of tensions during the Cold War. The main period of Détente was between 1967 and 1979, beginning with US President Johnson suggesting talks to limit the arms race in 1967, and ending with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
• Moves towards Détente began with the installation of the 'hotline' in 1963, between the Pentagon and the Kremlin: a teleprinter line that meant the leaders of the USA and Soviet Union could communicate directly and immediately. The hotline was installed as a result of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Tension had increased during the Crisis because of delays in communications. Because the hotline was designed to reduce tension between the Cold War sides, it can be seen as a move towards Détente.
• In 1963, the Soviet Union, USA and Britain signed the Test Ban Treaty. This banned all testing of nuclear weapons apart from testing them underground. Previous tests created nuclear fallout, which spread radioactive particles from the explosion over wide areas, affecting human populations and also contaminating the environment. This led to protests against nuclear testing in the atmosphere. The Test Ban Treaty also made developing new nuclear weapons a little more difficult, so it did slow the arms race slightly. It was a move towards Détente because it involved the USA and Soviet Union meeting and agreeing a treaty to slow the arms race.

• In 1967, the USA, Soviet Union, Britain and several other countries signed the Outer Space Treaty. This treaty banned putting nuclear weapons in space - for example, in orbit around the Earth, or on the Moon. Again, it is significant because the two Cold War enemies had to cooperate together to agree the terms of the treaty, and it closed off any possibility of a Cold War in space.
• In 1968, the United Nations agreed a US-Soviet treaty called the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Under this treaty, the USA, Soviet Union and Britain all agreed not to help any other state obtain or develop the technology to make nuclear weapons. Instead, states with nuclear weapons would help other countries to develop nuclear power.
• Another part of the treaty was that nuclear states would try to agree ways to disarm. Despite the Treaty's terms, disarmament did not follow and other states, such as India and Pakistan, did develop nuclear weapons. However, the intention behind the treaty was another example of the USA and Soviet Union working together to reduce Cold War tensions.

• The arms race: the cost of always having to develop new technologies and keep on increasing military investment was becoming unsustainable, especially for the Soviet Union. Reducing tensions through Détente was a way of reducing spending on the arms race.
• The oil crisis (1973): the international price of oil increased by 400 per cent between 1972 and 1973. This was because of the 1973 oil crisis, when important Arab oil-producing countries in the Middle East stopped selling oil to countries, including the USA, which supported Israel in its war with a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt. The USA needed to import oil to meet its energy needs, so higher import prices were making it weaker.
• The Soviet Union had large supplies of oil and gas and became the world's biggest producer in the 1970s. This enabled it to invest more in military spending, making it stronger. The USA was therefore keen to reduce superpower tensions at this time.

• The Vietnam War: the USA was involved in a civil war in Vietnam that was very unpopular with many Americans, and also extremely expensive.
• O President Johnson launched major, expensive social reforms in the USA, but the cost of the Vietnam War made these much more difficult to achieve.
• O By the time Nixon became US President in 1969, the USA wanted to find a way out of the Vietnam War, and wanted the Soviet Union's help to achieve this. Brezhnev assisted the negotiations between the USA and North Vietnam (the USA's enemy) which produced a peace treaty in Vietnam in 1973.
• West Germany: the leader of West Germany, Willy Brandt, wanted to reduce tensions between East and West Germany. The Soviet Union supported this, because they believed that more trade between East Germany and West Germany would mean West Germany would become less closely tied to the USA.

SALT

• SALT stands for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.
• SALT involved negotiations between the USA and the Soviet Union with the aim of reducing the arms race.
• President Johnson suggested the talks in 1967, both sides agreed to have them in 1968, and the negotiations began in 1969.
• The talks, which were held in Helsinki and in Vienna, continued for nearly three years.

• There were two main agreements as a result of SALT, signed in Moscow in 1972 by Nixon and Brezhnev:
• 1 The Treaty on Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Systems.
• 2 The Interim Agreement on Limitation of Strategic Offensive Weapons.
• Anti-ballistic missile systems were designed to destroy incoming enemy ICBMs before they could hit their targets by firing interceptor missiles at them. The Treaty on ABM Systems said that each superpower could only have one area that was protected by an ABM, and that an ABM could only have 100 interceptor missiles.
• The reason for the Treaty on ABM Systems was that if one superpower thought its ABMs protected it completely from the ICBMs of the other, then it would be much more likely to risk launching its own nuclear weapons. The Treaty kept the deterrent of MAD - mutually assured destruction.
• Each side was allowed to use satellites to check the other was not breaking the Treaty.
• The Interim Agreement imposed a five-year freeze on the numbers of ICBMs and SLBMs that each side could have. It was a temporary agreement until a new round of talks (SALT 2) could be completed. This Interim Agreement was designed to reduce the arms race.

• There was no limit on the development of coventional (non-nuclear) weapons.
• The number of strategic bombers that could carry nuclear weapons (and which could be used instead of missiles) was not limited.
• SALT 1 only lasted 5 years.
• Although the number of missiles was limited by the Interim Agreement, there was no limit on the number of warheads each missile could carry. Both sides intensified development of MIRV systems: the USA in particular.

• Both sides in the Cold War had important reasons to reduce Cold War tensions: the USA needed the help of the Soviet Union in agreeing a peace treaty in Vietnam, and both the USA and Soviet Union wanted to spend less money on the arms race and more on improving life for their citizens.
• Fears of nuclear conflict had been significantly reduced from the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (1968) helped limit the spread of nuclear weapons to other countries, however SALT only slowed the arms race slightly: both sides found ways to get round the Interim Agreement.

• By 1972, Détente had produced important increases in communication and respect between the two sides. However, neither side gave up their ideological commitments: Brezhnev continued to declare that it was inevitable that communism would defeat capitalism.
• Each side continued to build up for an attack on the other. Some historians suggest that Détente was just a less risky way for both sides to continue to fight the Cold War.
• In 1972, US President Nixon visited China, a communist ally of the Soviet Union: this diplomatic visit suggested that the USA was willing to be more friendly towards communist governments.
• However, it is possible that the USA did this in order to increase the split between the Soviet Union and China, which would weaken the Soviet Union.