After the defeat of the Germans in World War II, the conference of Yalta was held for the Allies to decide what would happen in Europe.
Specifically for Germany, they were split in four zones in which France, Britain, USA and the USSR had their respective zones.
SOVIET SPHERE OF INFLUENCE
The USSR wanted to surround themselves with friendly countries to ensure they would not be invaded again. [= a buffer zone]
The USSR wanted to surround themselves with friendly countries to ensure they would not be invaded again. [= a buffer zone]
During the war, the Red Army drove the Nazi’s back which occupied large areas of Eastern Europe. In the places the communists “liberated”, their governments took power which enlarged their sphere of influence. The armies in the countries were controlled and secret police was formed to arrest any opponents. Non-communists were beaten, murdered or executed. By 1949, all of Eastern Europe besides Yugoslavia was under Stalin’s regime.
COUNTRIES UNDER SOVIET INFLUENCE:
Albania
Bulgaria
East Germany
Romania
Poland
Hungary
Czechoslovakia
GREEK CIVIL WAR
After Roosevelt passed away, Truman took over as the new American President. He was afraid that Communism would continue to spread around the globe which in turn will one day affect the USA.
In the Greek civil war, it was a battle between the government split in a democratic versus communist ideology. Britain forces in Greece prevented communism from overthrowing the movement, but was growing weak. They turned to ask USA for help and Truman created the Truman Doctrine which advocated containment [stopping the Soviets from becoming more powerful].
Along with the Truman Doctrine in, [1947] came hand in hand with the Marshall Plan. General George Marshall was afraid that Europe was becoming so poor that they’d all turn Communist. So the plan was created to provide aid in forms of food, improvement in transport systems, fuel, raw materials to the countries. It did help improve the Western European country’s economy [“restore and build”].
The Russians started Comecon that provided economic help to the Easter European countries they have liberated.
PROTECTION:
NATO=USA
Warsaw Pact= Russia
BERLIN BLOCKADE
France, Britain and the USA decided to merge their zones to become a new country, West Germany and even introduced a new currency. [This was a violation of the agreement in Yalta which was to have Germany reunited as soon as possible]
In response Stalin initiated the Berlin blockade in April 1948. He cut off all transportation, gas and fuel. If the people wanted food and supplies, they would have to cross back to East Germany.
However the US flew in many airships of supplies for the people of Berlin. Stalin didn’t think that the US would offer so much support to the people of West Berlin, hoping that they’d eventually give up. The Blockade lasted 318 with 1.5 million tons of supplies transported.
Stalin calls off the Blockade in May 1949
The result of this event was the beginning of open confrontation of the Cold War and the two superpowers [Russia and USA] began the Arms race.
In 1949, NATO was to set up a military alliance to resist against Soviet Russia.
KOREAN WAR
In 1945, Korea was split into a communist north and a non-communist south. Communism was growing, China has also been taken over by Communism and the US feared the “domino theory”, that if one country fell into the hands of communism, others will follow, just like dominoes.
In 1950, Kim Il Sung invaded South Korea with the support of Russia and China. North Korea easily crushed South Korea’s army [ROKs]. They had conquered most of South Korea when the US got the United Nations to send troops to defend South Korea. The North Korean forces [NKPA] were driven back and by October 1950 they had conquered most of North Korea. However the Chinese people intervened attacked the UN forces and drove them back. They recaptured North Korea and continued to advance against South Korea. The Americans continued to drop troops and drove the Chinese back to the 38th parallel where Korea was split into two. When war raged on until 1953, with America’s new president, Eisenhower offered peace… or they threatened to throw the atomic bomb if China did not accept the offer.
SUEZ CRISIS [1956]
The Suez Canal is only way to travel from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. It was a very important for the transportation of trade goods between Asia, Middle East, Europe and the United States. This passage was free for anyone to use. However Britain and France wanted to take control over this valuable body of Water. At this time, the Egyptian government was taken over by Gamel Abdel Nasser, and he felt that the Suez Canal should be under his control. The US and Britain promised to give aid to the construction of the Aswan Dam for Nasser. However he nationalized the canal and accepted aid from the Soviets instead. This angered Britain and France and they both allied with the Israelis to fight against the Egyptians. Israel launches a major strike on Egypt, Britain and France uses this event to act as “peacekeepers” to stop the war. What actually happened was they went in to bomb the Egyptians instead. Britain and French forces completely occupied the Suez region and Egypt responded by sinking the ships which block off the passage. The UN stepped into the resolve the conflict and told Britain and France to back down. What Britain and France did earned worldwide condemnation for their actions.
HUNGARIAN UPRISING [1956]
In seeing Poland’s achievement of some freedom from the USSR, it gave hope to the Hungarians the hope of liberalization as well. They demanded independence and the improvement in standards in living. They revolted against Rakosi [a hard-line Stalinist], and the Soviet troops tried to keep as much order as possible. The people wanted to leave the Warsaw Pact, declare neutrality and become a sovereign nation.
The current leader and Russia reacted quickly by replacing him with Nagy. The new leader promised free elections in the near future. It seemed as though they were to achieve their goal of freedom. However when Nagy declared the withdrawal of the Warsaw Pact for Hungarian, the Soviet Union did not allow that and sent back troops and tanks to supress the Hungarians. The Hungarians fought back bravely but they lost in the end. They received no help from the USA since it was a matter “behind the iron curtain.”
TENSION INCREASES…
The two powers agreed to meet in Paris to sort things out. In this time period there was a massive tension in the Cold War. The Arms race had both sides agreed that there needs to be a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. In Berlin the Russians were furious that East Germans were fleeing to the West. In Cuba, the USA feared the new communist leader; Fidel Castro [seized power in 1959].
However thirteen days before the summit was to begin, an American U2 spy plane was shot down in Russia. Khrushchev and Eisenhower did not apologize [for shooting down the plane/sending a spy plane] and the Cold War grew even tenser.
BERLIN WALL
By the 1960’s, Germany was still divided into West and East. Thousands of refugees fled to the West and many of them where skilled workers. Khrushchev demanded that the US should leave the West but Kennedy refused and stay to guarantee West Berlin’s freedom. In 1961, Khrushchev closed the borders and built the Berlin Wall to stop any more people from escaping the east. This only led others to believe what was bad about Soviet rule.
CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
In 1959, Fidel Castro took power in Cuba. He nationalized American companies [took it for Cuba], and in return, America stopped aid to Cuba and stopped buying Cuban sugar. Castro looked to the USSR for help and the USSR agreed to buy sugar from Cuba. Castro was not communist before but he becamse communist after this incident.
With a communist country so close to America, the US was alarmed. Kennedy tried to overthrow Castro in the Bay of Pigs [landing CIA agents in crush him internally] but failed miserably.
In September 1961, Russia promised Cuba weapons to defend themselves against the Americans. That is when missiles were discovered in Cuba. On October 22, Kennedy went on television to inform American citizens that they were in range of the missiles and under threat.
[1962] Kennedy did not want to risk invading Cuba since that would start a war, yet the missiles could not be allowed to be completed. He then decided on a naval blockade to stop Russian ships from delivering missiles to Cuba.
Tension was built up during this time. Khrushchev warned that the blockade would be seen as an act of war. Both powers were alert. However Russia turned their ships back and agreed to take down Cuba’s missile bases if Kennedy promised that the US would not invade Cuba and to lift the blockade.
Kennedy agreed, and the crisis was over.
