Cold War

Question 1

When and what was the tehran conference

Answer 1

November 1943
roosevelt churchill and stalin all met to discuss the future of europe
stalin wanted up open up a second front
stalin wanted everyone to agree he could have poland
talked about germany being split into 4
stalin wanted germany to lose land and pay reparations but U.k. n Usa wanted to rebuild germany

Question 2

when and what was the Yalta conference

Answer 2

february 1945
all met to discuss the future of europe
agreed to split berlin in 4 (us uk fr ussr)
stalin given control of eastern europe as long as he promised free and fair elections to countries under ussr control
agreed to create united nations to replace league of nations

Question 3

when and what happened in the potsdam conference?

Answer 3

july 1945
finalised agreement on berlin n germany’s splitting
agreed to put nazi leaders on trial
agreed on new boundaries for poland to allowed the ussr to take over, at the expense that the ussr had to give back to land they took over

Question 4

what were the changes between the yalta and potsdam conference?

Answer 4

nazi germany had been defeated with the uk and us owning west europe n ussr owning the east
ussr owned all of eastern europe after 20 million casualties
roosevelt died and was replaced by truman
the us n sure emerged as the worlds two leading superpowers

Question 5

when and what was the iron curtain speech?

Answer 5

march 1946
churchill described the division of europe between the west and east as an iron curtain
capitalist vs communist
since communists with the help of ussr took over poland, czech, hungary, bulgaria, romania, yugoslavia n albania

Question 6

what and when was the long telegram?

Answer 6

late 1946
over 5,500 words was a report sent to truman by a us spy in moscow, george kennan
he said ussr were insecure and only understood power and force, advising that us stood by a policy of “containment”

Question 7

explain the novikov telegram

Answer 7

1946
soviets version of long telegram
warned that the us only wanted global domination and wasn’t interested in co operating with ussr

Question 8

arguments the US didn’t start cold war

Answer 8

us only wanted free and fair elections across east europe
stalin was seen as a ruthless bloodthirsty dictator
us quickly sent its army home after the war while ussr kept it mobilised and in control on east europe

Question 9

arguments that ussr didn’t start the cold war

Answer 9

only wanted control of east europe to protect themselves from any future attack by the west
they did the bulk of fighting germany so they deserved the land they got
the us didn’t inform stalin of their production of nuclear weapons or plan to use them on japan

Question 10

explain the truman doctrine

Answer 10

march 1947, truman made a speech that promised us help to any country threatened by communism
based on idea of containment

Question 11

explain the marshall plan

Answer 11

1947, us worried decaying countries of west europe would become communist if they didn’t not become prosperous again.
us gave $15 Billion in free aid to help rebuild west European economies
made them stronger trading partners and stopped spread of communism

Question 12

what is a satellite state?

Answer 12

a nation that is officially independent if in reality is controlled by another, sometimes referred to as the Eastern Bloc, not all obeyed ussrs commands.

Question 13

name some satellite states and what happened to them

Answer 13

poland (1947) the communists forced the non communist leaders to exile
Czechoslovakia(1948) the communists banned all other parties and killed their leaders
east germany (1949) russians turned their zone into german democratic republic

Question 14

explain cominform

Answer 14

in 1947 stalin invited communist leaders to warsaw where he set up Cominform. designed to spread communism and prevent US attack.
used to ensure satellite states stayed loyal.

Question 15

explain comecon

Answer 15

the russians version of marshall plan, but not as good.
offered to rebuilt east europes economies but didn’t hand out aid like the usa did
limited western nations links to them
many eastern european disliked the policy

Question 16

explain the division of germany

Answer 16

us n uk wanted to recover germany as they saw ussr as a greater enemy and saw germany as a powerful ally for them and that they were the key to rebuilding west europe as a whole
stalin was looting germany industry
us n uk merged there zones to create Bizonia (1947)
they made a new currency and this destabilised the east german economy, which stalin said was the reason for the blockade
ussr was angry by this and made east germany a satellite state

Question 17

explain the berlin blockade

Answer 17

1948
berlin was the heart of ussr controlled east germany but was divided between west and east berlin (us n ussr)
stalin attempted to gain control of west berlin by stopping links to them (blockade)
he tried to starve them out of supplies from the west so they surrendered.
us n uk could either give in or invade and start WW3

Question 18

explain the berlin airlift

Answer 18

(1948-1949)
us n uk decided to save west berlin from the blockade and avoid war
used aircraft to fly over day and night to keep the city supplied
stalin tried raising pressure by cutting off electricity and offering more food if they moved to east
stalin didn’t shoot the planes down as it would have started WW3
he ended the blockade in may 1949 as he knew it wasn’t working

Question 19

what was de-stalinisation

Answer 19

stalin killed tens of millions of his own people
he died in 1953 and was overtaken in 1956 by Nikita Krushchev.
who was a communist but wanted to end stalins era he said this in his secret speech
he introduced “de-stalinisation” policy which ended the mass arrests, freed prisoners and gave people more freedoms.
krushchev did not intend this to lead to communism being lessened
however people say light at the end of the tunnel and thought they could eventually break free of communism

Question 20

explain peaceful co-existence

Answer 20

krushchev replaced stalins policy of confrontation with this. he didn’t want confrontation with the west just to prove the superiority of communism
it mean avoiding direct confrontation but competing against them when it came to sport, science, technology etc
also the ussr continued to build up its nuclear weapons

Question 21

what was NATO

Answer 21

the north atlantic treaty organisation was set up in 1949 with the western allies.
military alliance who agreed to go to war if anyone was attacked by USSR
members were US, canada, UK, FR, belgium, holland etc

Question 22

what was the warsaw pact

Answer 22

response to nato, ussr got its eastern european allies sign the warsaw pact
all satellite states were forced to join except Yugoslavia as they showed signs of disobedience
meant if any country was attacked by US then all would join

Question 23

explain the nuclear arms race

Answer 23

the us was first country to develop atomic bomb - hiroshima. 1945
US were first to develop the hydrogen bomb which was more devastating than the atom bomb.
USSR caught up by 1952
arms race was created to try build more dangerous weapons against each other

Question 24

explain the space race

Answer 24

both sides joined the space race. as both had developed inter continental middles that could reach any target on earth
the us had apparently developed something capable of destroying nuclear weapons from the sky, countering out any ussr attack

Question 25

explain the causes of the hungarian uprising on 1956

Answer 25

they were very patriotic and hated terror and censorship under ussr control
disliked ussr education, hated troops stationed in their country
Matyas Rakosi the hungarian dictator was very close to stalin and was seen as his puppet
he killed over 2,000 people and imprisoned over 350,000
ussr gave poland some freedom after a revolt to hungarians had hope
inspired by stalins death and de-stalinisation to gain more freedom
they wanted freedom and thought the west would helped them

Question 26

what were the key events of the hungarian uprising of 1956?

Answer 26

october 1956, students and workers protested.
IMRE NAGY a reformer was chosen as a prime minister to calm the situation, troops withdrew from hungary
from october and november the new government brought in democracy and freedom to the hungarians
nagy was on the side of protestors and asked to leave warsaw pact
krushchev saw this as a major threat and didn’t want other satellite states to follow so had to step in
4TH NOVEMBER 1956
1000 ussr tanks rolled into Budapest and fought against the revolution
re-establishing the power was easy really as the hungarians were not well armed, it was believed to have cost 4,000 hungarian lives

Question 27

explain the revolution of 1959 in cuba

Answer 27

led by fidel castro. overthrew pro america government

new revolution