Cold War Europe Lecture

History M01B - Krister Swanson - Moorpark College

Yalta

• Big Three: Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin agree that:
• Germany will disarm & denazify
• Germany will be split into 4 occupation zones
• Sovs will essentially have free hand in Eastern Europe
• Sovs will enter fight against Japan in Spring
• UN will be formed, Sovs will be a part

Potsdam (7/45)

• different 3 (Attlee & Truman)
• final deals & differences
• Big clash over reparations and gov’ts for East Europe
• Divisions here become permanent & lead to Cold War

Cold War Heats Up

• U.S. & USSR are “Superpowers” (they have resources, military strength, population, etc.) clash over interests & ideologies
• USSR: expansion is justified è resistance to expansion is threat
• U.S. takes role of GB to stop expansion,, Churchill’s “Iron Curtain”

Soviet Domination in East

• satellites = buffer against invasion (Nap. & Hitler)
• install one party governments & purge those who are opposed
• Yugoslavia (Tito) only satellite to break free

Division of Germany

• USSR destroys EG Industry & claims equipment, US wants WG self-sufficient
• 2/48- Sovs blockade Berlin in response to W. German state, U.S. starts airlift in response
• 9/49- Final division (FDR & GDR), will last until 1989
• U.S. pours resources into West, USSR pillages East

U.S. Contains Communism

• Truman Doctrine- support for resistors of Comm. (military strength required)
• Marshall Plan- economic aid to help nations rebuild & not go Communist
• Soviets block satellites from participating

United Nations (2/45)

• Central theater in playing out of Cold War tensions
• General Assembly & Security Council (US, GB, Fr., Ch., & USSR + 2)
• voluntary contributions make action difficult
• Soviet Veto blocks many actions
• no control over nukes (tension)
• ‘49- Sovs have nukes – arms race begins

NATO & Warsaw Pact

• Two alliances that shape sides of Cold War
• 4/49- NATO:Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, GB, US, Canada, W.Germany, Greece, Turkey)
• 5/55- series of bilateral treaties formed in to Warsaw Pact (USSR, Poland, E. Germany, Hungary, Romania, Cz., Bulg.)

Mao & the Korean War

• 1945- Sov & US occupied Korea
• 1949- Mao(C) finally beats Chiang (N) in China
• 1949- S&U leave Koreaè war between NK & SK
• NK wins early, then SK & U counter
• China intervenes, NK pushes back
• deadlock at 38th parallel

The End of Stalin

• people expect rewards after WWII, don’t get them
• Secret police, cult of per., & bur. remain
• Focus on heavy industry, not consumer goods
• early ‘53- more purges?
• Stalin diesè brief period of collective leadership è

Nikita Khrushchev

• NATO & Warsaw Pact bring stability (balance of power)
• retreat from Stalinism (not freedom) “peaceful coexistence with U.S.”
• intellectual freedom, consumer goods
• Pushes space program (Sputnik)
• removal of agricultural restrictions, virgin lands, etc.
• Secret Speech of 1956- denounces Stalin & crimes è signal that satellites have more freedom è

The Crises of 1956

• Poland-PM dies, Poles won’t take Sov. successor è tension
• Gomulka emerges as choice of Poles, acceptable to Soviets (will cooperate)
• Hungary- people demonstrate for Poles è fighting in streets, Nagy wants out Warsaw Pact
• Sovs invade & Nagy’s deposed
• U.S. doesn’t respond- recognizes Soviet control behind Iron Curtain
• Suez Crisis- Egypt takes Suez from GB & Fr., starts war w/ Israel, GB & Fr intervene but US refuses to back them (powers need U.S.)

Things take a turn…

• 1957- Sputnik è space & arms races
• Sovs want U.S. out of W. Berlin
• 1960- U-2 shot down before Paris Conf. è USSR backs out, U.S. embarrassed

The Arms Race

• Russians test bomb in 1949 (Rosenbergs?)
• Next step is the Hydrogen Bomb – much more destructive
• Next step is missile technology (Sputnik – Space Race) ICBMs in 1958
• By the early 1960’s there are enough nukes to destroy the world 10 times over

Want Peace? Prepare for War!

• Mutually Assured Destruction
• 1970’s – negotiating SALT and introducing MIRVs all at the same time
• 1980’s Reagan & Brezhnev’s huge buildup – Star Wars (SDI)

Cold War Tension Peaks

• 1959- Castro to power in Cuba, moves toward alliance with Soviets
• 4/61- Bay of Pigs failed CIA invasion using exiles
• 8/61- Berlin Wall stops flow of refugees to West, U.S. doesn’t act
• 10/62- Cuban Missile Crisis 2 wk standoff as U.S. blocks Soviet Missiles 10/64- Khrus steps down
• Focus shifts to Vietnam & Arab-Israeli conflict

Vietnam War

• Ho Chi Minh leads resistance to French (1945 to victory in 1954)
• 1957: Geneva Settlement - split Vietnam
• U.S. support for Diem in South
• 1959-1975: U.S. military action vs. N. Vietnam & Viet Cong (2nd Indochina War), N. Vietnam wins

Arab-Israeli Conflict

• SPs need OIL
• pre-WWII- Palestine controlled by GB, Balfour Dec in 1917
• Nazis unite Jews, 1947-UN splits Pal. into Arab & Jewish States
• 5/48- declaration of Israel, U.S. recognizes, Israel wins “war of ind.”, Arabs won’t recognize
• Suez Crisisèassoc. with powers
• 1967- Six Days’ War: Egypt cuts off Is. shipping, Is. attacks, Syria & Jord. join Eg., Is. wins, gets Sinai Peninsula
• 1973- Yom Kippur War, OPEC cuts off oil to U.S. & Eur.
• 1978- Sadat (Eg.) & Begin (Is.) sign Camp David Accords è ongoing peace talks

PLO blocks process (terrorism)

• 1982- Is. invades Leb. to go after PLO
• 1987- Intifada in West Bank
• 1988- PLO “Is. has right to exist”
• 1991- Persian Gulf War
• 1993- Palestinians get self gov’t in Gaza

Brezhnev Squashage

• tightening up
• Dubcek expands freedoms in Cz.è
• Prague Spring (1968) - suppression in Cz.
• Brezhnev Doctrine: Sovs will intervene to protect a socialist country from going capitalist
• repression of dissidents (Solzhenitsin, Sakharov)

Brezhnev Abroad

• Détente (grain, weapons agreements) & military buildup
• 1979- invades Afghanistan- US embargoes grain & boycotts Olympics (end of détente)
• 1981: Reagan the Cold Warrior- Star Wars?

Solidarity in Poland

• Gomulka-reforms but tough econ & strikes
• Gierek- repressive government & bad economy
• 1980- Solidarity (Walesa) & return of RC (Pope John Paul II)
• 1981- Martial Law & Crackdown
• Solidarity becomes a symbol through late ‘80s

Collapse of USSR

• Brez dies in ‘82, ‘85 Gorby to power
• mil buildup of Brez. neglects all else è USSR must change
• massive reforms ècollapse of USSR
• Perestroika- decentralize, private prop., more dem. elections è stagnation è nobody’s happy
• Glasnost- “openness” (free speech, etc.) è minorities speak up

Revolutions of 1989

• Poland: Solidarity met with Martial Law
• economy stinks, strikes è prisoners released, free elections
• revolutions break out elsewhere when USSR approves of Poland:
• Soviets won’t back EG Communists è Demonstrations è wall down & Germany reunifies
• Cz.: young replace old, repression in 1968 denounced, Havel elected
• Ceausescu: nepotism & Stalinism in Romania, demonstrators killed, tries to flee, caught & killed

Polishing off the USSR

• Gorb had trouble from Cons, Libs (Yeltsin- Pres. of Russia), republics
• 8/91- Conservative Coup, Gorb’s assoc. with it, Yeltsin opposes it
• 12/91- USSR è CIS
• 10/93- Yelts probs w/ Par. (trying to slow reform), pro-Par riots break out
• bombards Par. building to squash revolt

Yugoslavia

• created after WWI, 6 ethnic groups:
• Croats & Slovenes: RC
• Serbs, Monts & Macs: Orthodox
• Bosnians: Muslims
• Comm. but ind from USSR
• 1980- Tito dies è instability & econ probs. follow
• face discrimination outside of ethnic area
• 1990- Slovenia & Croatia declare independence, Serbia wants Yugoslav state
• Serbia & Croatia clash, Muslims caught in between
• Serbs & Croats fight for control of B-H