The Cold War Key Events till 1955

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  • Created by: jroe99
  • Created on: 09-06-18 19:00
Situation by 1941
Comintern (international organisation to promote communism), Stalin created Popular Front, Nazi-Soviet Pact August 1939
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Grand Alliance
Britain, USA, USSR. Britain and USA signed Atlantic Charter in 1941.
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Second Front
No Second Front created til June 1944, suspicion in the USSR was the West wanted the dicatorships to fight each other till standstill.
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Tehran
28th November to 1st Decmber 1943. Created UN (Britain, USA, USSR, China). Agreed Oder-Neisse River as border. Russia to keep Baltic states. Future partition of Germany.
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Winner & losers of Tehran
Roosevelt had gained Russian support, good relations with Stalin. Allies' acceptance of expansion in E.E. Churchill upset over large areas of Poland were to be given to Russia.
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Yalta
4th-9th February 1945. Churchill feared Stalinists would exclude democratic Polish representatives in London. 4 zone occupation of Germany. Stalin wanted greater representation in UN.
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Potsdam
17th July til 2nd August 1945. 10 million Soviet troops in Europe. Truman more suspicious. Bevin hostile. Arrest of 16 non-communists in Poland. Atomic bomb mentioned to Stalin. ACC set up in Germany. 15% of reparations from West would go to Russia.
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Western liberation
Mussolini removed from Italy 1943. Britain supported royalists in Greece. Aid given to German civilians.
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Eastern liberation
Deportation of prisoners for work in USSR, forced removal of ethnic Germans. Baltic states and eastern Poland taken illegally 1939-40. Annexation of Poland, Finland, Baltic States, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania. 470,000 sqkm and 24 million people.
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Political influence of Eastern liberation
1 million sqkm, 90 million people. Coup in Romania 1945. Coalition in Hungary. ACC in Bulgaria, 1944. National Liberation Committee in Poland. Communists in Czechoslovakia strengthened by military.SED in Germany. 47,000 anti-communist Poles arrested
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Churchill & Roosevelt
Personally close 1941-3. Signed Atlantic Charter. By 1943, USA having doubts about Britain fighting for British Empire, ran counter to USA's beliefs.
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Churchill and Stalin
Churchill anxious about establishing good relations with USSR. Unwilling to agree to Stalins demands for a second front, alarmed about advance of Russian forces after 1943. October 1944, Churchill went to Moscow, Percentages Agreement.
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Roosevelt and Stalin
Less concerned with domination of E.E, accepted by 1945. Britain could no longer exert influence on world affairs.
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New leaders
Truman tougher on communism. Bevin was a tough negotiator who dislied communism.
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Iron Curtain Speech
March 1946 in Missouri. 'An iron curtain has descended accross the continent'
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Key Ideas of Iron Curtian Speech
Europe was firmly divided. West need to negotiate from a position of strength. USSR wanted to expand, especially doctrine of communism.
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Reactions to the Speech
Stalin said had right to ensure its security. USA moving away from isolationism to containment.
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Accuracy & importance
Flawed. Berlin not under Soviet control, nor was Vienna. Little awareness of Soviet security. Created anti-Russian sentiment.
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Soviet control in Poland
Provisional Government in June 1945, obvious there would be no free elections.
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Soviet control in Romania
New government imposed by USSR in December 1945. National Democratic Front in 1946, won 80% of vote in election of November 1946. December 1947, king forced to abdicate. Communist People's Republic founded April 1948.
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Soviet zone of Germany
SPD formed to merge with Socialist Unity Party, basis of government when East Germany established 1949.
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Soviet control in Bulgaria
October 1946, 1/3 of votes to non-communist parties. By 1947, Stalin told communists to repress all opposition.
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Soviet control in Hungary
Free elections in November 1945. 1947, leading opposition arrested. March 1948, Independent Front only party.
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Soviet control in Czechoslovakia
March 1946, communists won 38% of vote, was genuinely free. Benes worked with communists. By 1947, more pressure, czechs forced to not accept US Marshall Aid. February 1948, communist coup with Soviet support.
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Elements of Soviet domination
Salami tactics. Elections controlled by violence and intimidation.
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Kennan's Long Telegram
Stated Soviet leadership was suspicious and aggressive. Only a hard-line approach would be effective in containing communism.
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Truman Doctrine
12th March 1947. Wanted free institutions, representative government, free elections etc. Resist attempted 'subjugation'.
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Marshall Plan
June 1947, Stalin forbade its satellite states from attending. Attended by 16 other countries in Paris. Congress approved in 1948.
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Why the policies were adopted
Fighting had broken out in Greece Septemebr 1946. By 1947, clearn Stalin wasn't sticking to Yalta. Large communist partys in Italy and Germany.
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Results of policies
Mutually hostile blocs. Red scare. Dollar diplomacy, aid went to 17 countries, mostly to UK and West Germany, France and Italy. $12.7 billion. Supported re-industrialisation of West Germany. After 1951, $7 billion under Mutual Security Plan.
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Cominform
Prevent communist parties being lured by dollar diplomacy. Originally in Belgrade, moved to Bucharest after expulsion of Yugoslavia in 1948. Aimed to undermine Truman Doctrine. Abolished in 1956.
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Comecon
1949, to create an economic alliance. USSR, Albania (left 1961), Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia. DDR joined 1950, Mongolia in 1962, Cuba in 1972, Vietnam in 1978. Lasted until 1990's. Direct economic aid to E.E.
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Significance of Cominform and Comecon
Marshall Aid would have required a convertable currency, creating a division. Cominform emphasised Moscow's control of information. Solid bloc of communism. Boosted USSR's control of satellites.
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Tensions over Germany
USA initially favoured decentralised, deindustrialised Germany as in Morgenthau Plan. 1946, talks between UK and USA to merge zones. January 1947, Bizonia, ceased reparations 1948. Trizonia April 1949.
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Attempts at unity
February 1948, Benelux countries met to discuss a seperate West German nation. June 1948 created democratic constiution and new currency.
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Currency reform
Deutschmark, Ostmark in the East.
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Berlin Blockade
In retaliation to Deutschmark, 23rd June 1948, cut off road & rail links & electricity. 2000 tons of supplies, 60 B29 stationed in England. By February 8000 daily. Ended May 1949
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Who to blame?
USSR could not allow Germany to exercise political freedom. Soviet control of E.E worried West.
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Seperate development, 1948-49
West approved Basic Law, elections 1949. Adenauer became new Chancellor. 1948, National German People's Council to draw up constitution, dominated by communists. May 1949, approved constituion.
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Results of division
France and USSR unhappy about independent states. Stalin remained uncommitted to seperate states till 1952, reunification in return for neutral Germany.
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NATO & Warsaw Pact
March 1947, France & Britain sign Treaty of Dunkirk, now a greater fear of Soviet expansion after seizure of power by communists in Czechoslovakia in February. March 1948, Brussels Pact.
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NATO
September 1949, Stalin had atomic weapons, China fell to communism, 1950 NK invades SK. NATO countries Korean War. Standardised weapons and signalling. 1952, Lisbon conference set up permanent HQ in Paris, 35 divisions.
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Warsaw Pact
Signed 14th May 1955, USSR and most E.E satellites (DDR signed in 1956). Response to the entry of German Federal Republic into NATO. Political rather than defensive.
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Atomic weapons
16th July 1945 successfully tested atomic bomb. 6th & 9th August 1945, bomb dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki. September 1949, Russians successfully tested own atomic weapon. MAD. Novemebr 1945, UN commission to control weapons, veteod by USSR.
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Arms Race
29th August 1949, testing of atomic bomb in Kazakhstan. USA developed hydrogen bomb, 1954. Russians tested thermeonuclear bomb 1953, equivalent to USA by 1955.
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Espionage
Julius & Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 executed for espionage. Anti-communist hysteria stirred up by McCarthy, Red Scare.
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Massive Retaliation
January 1954, Dulles created doctrine of massive retaliation. Intensified Cold War. Development of missiles.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Grand Alliance

Back

Britain, USA, USSR. Britain and USA signed Atlantic Charter in 1941.

Card 3

Front

Second Front

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Tehran

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

Winner & losers of Tehran

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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