Crisis and Escalation
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- Created by: SuzeShep
- Created on: 27-05-16 11:24
Berlin Blockade (June 1948)
- Stalin ordered Soviet forces blocked all rail, road and water access to allied zones of Berlin
- Reponse to Bizonia (Jan 1st 1947) - feared separate West German state
- UK and USA airlifted food and fuel to allied zones from Berlin (1 plane landed every 45 seconds at Temelhof airport)
- Also counter blockade on East Germany that caused severe shortage
- May 12th 1948, blockade lifted
- Outcomes
- Success for containment
- Divided East and West
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NATO (April 1949)
- Collective security against USSR created by USA, Canada and Western Europe
- Response to security concerns (Berlin blockade, Greek civil war, Soviet expansion)
- Brussels Treaty (March 1948)
- Vanderburg resolution = Senator Arthur H Vandenburg proposed resolution suggesting a security treaty with Europe outside of UN (USSR held VETO power)
- North Atlantic Treaty
- Issues with negotiations:
- wording on US intervention
- Scope (Membership on North Atlantic countries)
- Aid to WE
- Final agreement for collective security (one attacked, all respond) and to discuss defence matters and disputes
- Outcomes:
- Military Assistance Programme and Mutual Defence Assistance
- Warsaw Pact
- Put WE under US 'nuclear umbrella'
- 'massive retaliation' doctrine
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Mutual Defence Assistance Programme (April 1949)
- Response to NATO
- Members submitted formal requests for military and financial assistance from Washington
- Programme of military assistance to countries whose independence and freedom were threatened
- Amounted to $1.4 bill for the fiscal year of 1950 ($1 bill for European NATO countries)
- Sec of State Acheson told Foreign Affairs Committee that military aid was "an extremely urgent necessity"
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Korean War
- June 1950, North Korean forces invaded South Korea
- USSR backed NK (after pleading from Kim Il-Sung)
- UN SC called upon every member to render every assistance to ensure NK aggression ended and return Korea to status quo based on restoration of the 38th parallel
- NOV 1950, China entered as NK ally (threatened by potential US invasion of China)
- April 1951, US forces reached 38th parallel
- General MacArthur ignored order to withdraw and advanced North towards Chinese border (Yalu River)
- Massive Chinese retaliation forced US back to 38th parrallel
- Stalemate
- Peace talks accelerated by Stalin's death and Eisenhower's presidency
- 1953, ceasefire agreed to and 28th parallel restored as NK/SK border
- Outcomes
- Rise of monolithic and international communism
- militarised containment
- highlighted Pacific and Far Eastern vulnerability to communism
- reinforced US commitment to containment
- China began to view itself as arbiter of communism - undermined Sino-Soviet
- emphasised ongoing threat from communist expansion
- Respect for UN for promt and direct action
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Austrian State Treaty (May 1955)
- Austria has been divided into zones
- Potential to become major dividing issue
- Treaty agreed to the withdrawal of all occupying power and the neutrality of the state
Outcomes
- removed major source of potential conflict
- mutual cooperation
- Led to summit diplomacy
- Led to West removing forced from West Germany
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Warsaw Pact (May 1955)
- Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance
- Communist counteraction to Nato
- Reaction to FDR acceptance into NATO - German remiliterisation
- Sign of Soviet dominance in EE
- Used as a means to keep allies under control, rather than make and enforce decisions
- Unified Command of Pact Armed Forces (military) and Political Consultative Committee (everything else) made most of the decisions
- Both centered in Moscow with Soviet leaders to ensure Soviet dominance
- To stimulate the development of the EE to relieve monetary pressure on USSR
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Geneva Summit (1955)
- To slow down nuclear race
- to improve relations between East and West
- Incentives:
- USSR needed extensive conventional forced in EE (order and security) = expensive
- Needed to promote internal economic development in USSR
- to protect USSR's national security and superpower status
- K also concerned by German rearmament (FDR admitted into NATO May 1955)
- Open skies proposal (Eisenhower) called for details on each others' military installations and allow aerial reconnaissance
- Rejected by Khrushchev (behind US)
- E proposed a unified Germany with free elections and the freedom to ensure its own security (NATO membership essentially)
- Failed as K would only consider a demilitarised, neutral Germany
- K refused to discuss EE
Outcomes
- Nothing satisfactory
- marked beginning of dialogue between superpowers
- Calm point in IR
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Khrushchev's ultimatum (1958)
- USSR needed to minimise western power in Europe
- USSR needed to reaffirm its leadership (deteriorating sino-soviet relations)
- Economic crisis in GDR
- (1949 - 1958) 188,000 trained, skilled or professional people left for FDR through open boundary
- USA deeply committed to West Berlin's freedom and security (symbol of capitalist success, but geographically vulnerable)
- Declared West has 6 months to recognise GDR and accept FDR as an independent political entity and free city or USSR would surrender control of GDR
- Would mean East Germany would control all access to West Berlin
- Would force USA to accept GDR as a state, and remove troops
- West ignored threats and K withdrew
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Camp David Talks (1959)
- Between Eisenhower and Khrushchev
- First Soviet leader to visit USA
- Number of issues including disarmament and Berlin
- Agreed to settle international issues with force rather than diplomacy
Outcomes
- Reaffirmed belief in peaceful coexistence
- Calmed German issue
- Paris summit
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The Paris Summit (May 1960)
- K wanted a deal over Berlin and to prohibit nuclear weapons in the Pacific and Germany
- China would not be bound by an agreement it was not involved with (growing nuclear arsenal)
- US U2 spy plane shot down over USSR
- Summit collapsed when E refused to apologise, promise never to violate Soviet airspace again or punish everyone involved
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The Vienna Summit (June 1961)
- Between Kennedy and Khrushchev
- Covered Laos, disarmament, ideology and Berlin
- Progress made on Laos, but nothing else
- K thought Ken was young, vulnerable and easily manipulated
- Deep mutual mistrust
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The Berlin Wall (1961)
- Stalemate in East-West relations
- Kennedy refused to compromise on Berlin
- 13th Aug, Soviet and East German troops and police began to deal off East Berlin
- Wire fence eventually replaced with 20 mile concrete wall with 5 crossing points
- West took no action to stop
- dramatically slowed and eventually brought movement to an end
- Seen as trapping East Germans into a communist state
- resolved the crisis
- Failure for Khrushchev
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Cuban Missile Crisis (1961)
- Cuba economically dependent on US
- Socialist revolution
- Failed US invasion attempt (Bay of Pigs)
- Castro agreed to K's request to station nuclear missiles in Cuba
- K's aims:
- defend communism & Cuba
- needed diplomatic victory
- wanted to alter the strategic balance
- USSR had no missiles on foreign soil, compared to US missiles in Turkey, Britain, West Germany and Italy
- Ken's aims
- to overthow Castro
- to demonstrate toughness
- success in Cuban foreign policy
- 12 days of Brinkmanship (Oct 4th-28th)
- Missile sites photographed in Cuba
- Blockade imposed and ultimatum issued fro immediate withdrawal
- K eventually removed missiles and US promised not to invade Cuba
- Outcomes
- Hotline installed between US and USSR to avoid poor communications and public confrontations
- Highlighted risk of nuclear war
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