# Modern History/Cold War
## Cold war timeline

* 1945: February - Yalta conference:
* Stalin (USSR), Roosevelt (USA), Churchill (UK).
* Plan what to do about Germany/Europe after war.
** Key Agreements – Eastern Europe Soviet ‘sphere-of-influence’
** Germany – four zones: British, French, American and Russian
** Berlin – four zones: British, French, American and Russian
* July/August – Potsdam conference:
** War in Europe over; no Hitler = no unifying force
** Truman new US leader. V. anti-communist
** US notified Stalin of A-bomb
** Disagreements – Germany. Stalin wanted compensation – felt threatened, keep Germany crippled
** Truman -
* 1946: Churchill delivers ‘Iron Curtain’ speech
* 1947: The Truman Doctrine:
** Active role in Greek civil war
** Marshall
* 1949: NATO Treaty signed
* 1949: Communists take power in China; Nationalists retreat to Taiwan
* 1950: Korean War begins
** June 25: North Korea invaded the South in a bid to unite Korea without elections.
* September 15: USA and Britain led UN troops in military intervention
* November 25: 500,000 Chinese communist volunteers joined war for North Korea.
* 1953: Armistice ends fighting in the Korean War.
* 1955: Warsaw Pact is formed
* Treaty of friendship, co-operation and mutual assistance, was a military alliance of the Eastern European Bloc countries, who intended to organize against the perceived threat from the NATO alliance
* 1961: Bay of Pigs
* April 17, 1961, 1300 members of a CIA-supported counter-revolutionary Cuban exile force stormed beaches of Cuba, ended in total failure. Debacle for Kennedy.
* August 1961: Berlin Wall is erected, severing Berlin in two
* 1962: Cuban missile crisis
* 1963: Nuclear test ban treaty signed: USA/USSR/UK
* 1964: Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
* 1965: President Johnson begins escalation of US role in Vietnamese Civil War.
* 1972: US withdraws from Vietnam.
** 1972: SALT Treaty signed
** 1972: Nixon visits China
* 1975: Vietnam internal conflict ends
* 1979: The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan
* 1985: Gorbachev becomes new Soviet leader. Begins policies of "Perestroika" and “Glasnost”
* 1989: The Fall of the Berlin Wall: COLD WAR ENDS
* 1989: Tiananmen Square Massacre in China
* 1991: Warsaw Pact dissolved, Soviet Union collapses, Gorbachev resigns

## Revision notes

* Definition – describes the conflict between USSR and ‘western powers’ in period following WWII (1945-1989)
Period of tension characterised by conflict at diplomatic, economic and all levels short of direct armed conflict between principles
* Communism –
* Capitalism –
* ‘Superpower’ rivalry

## Main personalities

* Josef Stalin
* Winston Churchill
* Franklin D. Roosevelt
* Harry Truman
* Clement Attlee
* George Kennen
* Dwight Eisenhower
* George Marshall
* Nikita Khrushchev
* Breshnev
* John F Kennedy
* Fidel Castro
* General MacArthur
* Dubcek
* Mikhail Gorbachev
* Ronald Reagan

## Causes/origins

* End of the grand alliance
* Mutual suspicion
* Fear of communism
* Conflict of ideals
* Growth of Communism
* Europe in ruins

## Effects/consequences

* Berlin Wall
* Korean War
* 1956 > ‘peaceful coexistence’
* Bay of Pigs
* Cuban Missile crisis
* Vietnam War (‘domino theory’)

## Détente to 1975

* Definition – peaceful coexistence, arms limitations, recognition of China
* 1975 to the collapse of Communism in Europe
* Solidarity in Poland
* Deficiencies in the Communist system
* Discontent Nationalism
* Gorbachev’s reforms – Glasnost and Perestroika: opposition from hard liners. 1991 coup.

## Statistics

* Military
* Troops : NATO 2.6 million. Warsaw Pact 4 million
* Tanks : NATO 13,000. Warsaw Pact 42,500
Artillery : NATO 10,750. Warsaw Pact 31,5000

## Nuclear arms race

* By 1961 – enough bombs to destroy the world
* By 1981, USA had 8,000 ICBM’s and USSR 7,000 ICBM’s
* By 1981, USA had 4,000 planes capable of delivering a nuclear bomb. Russia had 5000.
* USA defence spending for 1981 = 178 billion dollars. By 1986, it was 367 billion dollars.
* By 1986, it is estimated that throughout the world there were 40,000 nuclear warheads - the equivalent of one million Hiroshima bombs.
* 1960s – theory of MAD (mutually assured destruction): suitable retaliation = no winners