Trials - Cold War

Question 1

When was the Potsdam conference

Answer 1

1945

Question 2

Who attended the Potsdam conference

Answer 2

Truman, Stalin and Churchill

Question 3

Why was the tension high at the conference?

Answer 3

• Truman had delayed the meeting until the new atomic bomb had been tested
• Stalin knew nothing of the bomb so was increasingly suspicious of the allies
• Germany their common enemy had been defeated so they were no longer united

Question 4

What agreements were made at the Potsdam conference?

Answer 4

• set up a council of foreign ministers to organise the re building of Europe
• ban the nazi party and try all surging nazis as war criminals in a special court
• reduce the size of Germany
• divide Germany into 4 zones to be governed by the USA, the USSR, France and GB with the hope of uniting them under one government as soon as possible
• divided Berlin into 4 zones too, despite being deep in the USSR’s zone
• give the USSR a quarter of the industrial equipment from the other three zones because it was the least industrially developed

Question 5

What were the disagreements?

Answer 5

• Reparations (the ussr wanted to impose heavy reparations to cripple Germany but America wanted Germany to be rebuilt)
• The atomic bomb (Truman believed that America had the ultimateweapon and tried to take control of the meeting. Stalin refused to be pushed around, the American’s bomb made Stalin more determined to create the ‘buffer zone’

Question 6

When was the Truman doctrine written?

Answer 6

1947

Question 7

What did the Truman doctrine state?

Answer 7

• the world had a choice between communist tyranny and democratic freedom
• America had a responsibility to fight for liberty wherever it was threatened
• America would send troops and economic resources to help governments that were threatened by by communists
• communism should not be allowed to grow and gain territory

Question 8

What was the significance of the Truman doctrine?

Answer 8

• It was important because it suggested that America rather than the UN had a responsibility to protect the world
• it was also significant because it divided the world according to ideology: capitalism and communism were in opposition
• it was the unofficial end to the grand alliance and the beginning of the COLD WAR

Question 9

When was Marshall plan/aid introduced?

Answer 9

1947 in association with the Truman doctrine

Question 10

What was Marshall plan/aid?

Answer 10

It committed $13 billion of American money to rebuild the shattered economies of Europe. By encouraging prosperity it would weaken the attraction of communism ( if you have more to lose your are less likely to want to share it out)

Question 11

What was the initial reaction to Marshall plan?

Answer 11

• many European leaders were keen to receive Marshall plan

- the ussr representatives walked out of the meeting claiming that America was trying to split Europe into ‘two camps’

Question 12

When was nato formed?

Answer 12

1949

Question 13

What was nato?

Answer 13

An alliance between the USA and many other countries in Western Europe. NATO members agreed that if any countries came under attack, all members of NATO would their defence.

Question 14

Why was NATO significant?

Answer 14

It was a military alliance with the specific aim of defending the west against communism

Question 15

When was the Warsaw Pact formed?

Answer 15

1955

Question 16

What was the Warsaw Pact?

Answer 16

It was the ussr’s response to NATO with Eastern Europe countries including East German, Poland and Czechoslovakia

Question 17

Who was Matyas Rakosi?

Answer 17

The dictator of Hungary from 1949-1956

Question 18

How did Khrushchev respond to Imre Nagy as the leader of Hungary?

Answer 18

Khrushchev believed that the reforms were unacceptable and that if Hungary was allowed to leave the Warsaw Pact,other Eastern European countries would follow.
On November 4th 1956 200,00 soviet troops and 1000 tanks fought in Budapest against Nagy’s supporters. about 2,500 people were killed and Nagy was hung

Question 19

What was Hungary like under Stalinist influence?

Answer 19

• Hungarian land was redistributed to other Eastern Europe countries
• Hungarian coal, oil and wheat were shipped to Russia
• non communist parties were abolished
• Russian officials controlled the government, the police and the army
• cominform began a reign of terror, executing popular leaders and their supporters
• Matyas Rakosi was appointed as Hungary’s dictator

Question 20

Why did Khrushchev start the division of Berlin?

Answer 20

• the East German government was extremely unpopular and therefore many East Germans fled to west Germany
• east Germany was loosing a lot of people including many skilled workers
• Berlin was the centre of the refugee problem because it was easy to get from east Berlin to west and from there to west Germany.

Question 21

How did Khrushchev go about stopping the refugee problem?

Answer 21

In November 1958, Khrushchev declared the whole city of Berlin officially belonged to east Germany. He also issued an ultimatum, giving US troops 6 months to withdraw. The plan was to prevent East Germans fleeing to the west and to humiliate the USA

Question 22

What was Kennedy’s response to the reinstatement of the six month ultimatum?

Answer 22

Kennedy refused to back down. He declared declared that he would not remove American troops from Berlin. He also started preparing America for war, committing the US government than additional $3.2 billion of defence spending.
He also made a decision to spend an extra $207 million on building nuclear fallout shelters

Question 23

Why did Khrushchev build the wall?

Answer 23

• he knew he could not win a nuclear war. In 1961, America had almost 20 times more nuclear weapons than the USSR
• Khrushchev could not force the Americans to leave West Berlin but he still had to solve the refugee. His solution was to build a wall separating east and West Berlin, making it impossible for East Germans to escape to the west

Question 24

When was the Berlin Wall built?

Answer 24

1961

Question 25

Why did the tension relax?

Answer 25

On the 27th of October soviet tanks were deployed to further block the wall, causing an all day stand off with the US tanks. Finally after 18 hours the tanks began to pull back. The crisis had passed and Kennedy said it wasn’t ideal but it as better than a war.

Question 26

What was the Prague Spring?

Answer 26

The ‘Prague Spring’ is a phrase used to describe the liberal changes brought about by Dubcek( the leader of Czechoslovakia) from 1968

Question 27

What were the reforms of the Prague Spring?

Answer 27

• a relaxation of press censorship
• the legalisation of political opposition groups
• official government tolerance of political criticism
• more power given to the regional governments
• more power given to the Czech parliament
• ‘market socialism’, the reintroduction of capitalists elements into the Czech economy

Question 28

What were people’s reactions to the reforms of the Prague Spring?

Answer 28

• the reforms were welcomed enthusiastically by students, intellectuals, workers and the younger members of the Czech communist party.
• older Czech communists were shocked and their horror was shared by the soviet premier, Brezhnev and his allies across Eastern Europe

Question 29

What was the Brezhnev doctrine?

Answer 29

A statement that said the USSR had the right to invade any country in Eastern Europe whose actions appeared to threaten the security of the whole eastern bloc.

Question 30

What was the cater doctrine?

Answer 30

This was president Jimmy Carter’s response to the soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Appalled by the aggression he argued the USA would not allow the USSR to gain control in the oil rich Middle East.

Question 31

What were the steps to remove the soviet troops from Afghanistan?

Answer 31

• he formed an alliance with China and Israel to support afghan rebels, who were opposed to the soviet invasion
• he stopped virtually all trade with the USSR
• he ended diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union

Question 32

What happened as a result of the Carter doctrine?

Answer 32

• the end of salt 2, though it had been signed it was not allowed to become a law
• president carter increased defence spending by 5%
• the Americans boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow
• end of detente ( the lowest point for relations since the Cuban missile crisis)

Question 33

What was the second Cold War

Answer 33

A phrase used to describe the period between 1979 and 1985

Question 34

What did president Reagan do?

Answer 34

• Reagan had no hope of fixing detente he also had no qualifications to be the president
• he scared French and British commentators by saying he could see a limited nuclear war in Europe
• he made a speech referring to the Soviet Union as an evil empire
• he had a plan to win the Cold War which involved taking the arms race to a new level. The plan was called SDI or Star Wars which would stop Soviet nuclear bombs reaching America. SDI broke the outer space treaty and scared the USSR even though it was not possible

Question 35

What was Gorbachev’s new thinking?

Answer 35

He knew that communism had faced problems so tried to reshape Russia.
He introduced perestroika, which had economic reforms designed to make the soviet economy more efficient.
He also introduced glasnost, which meant that censorship of the press would be relaxed

Question 36

Why did Reagan change his mind?

Answer 36

• he could see people were against another arms race and he didn’t want the USA to be seen as a bully
• he could see people liked Gorbachev and they liked his new attitude, they described the love for him as Gorbymania
• he liked Gorbachev and believed he wanted to end the Cold War