Cold War Events:

The Potsdam Conference

- The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm in

Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945.

- The Big Three were at the Conference. They are Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British

Prime Minister Winston Churchill (replaced on July 26 by Prime Minister Clement

Attlee), and U.S. President Harry Truman.

- On July 26, the leaders issued a declaration demanding ‘unconditional surrender’ from

Japan, concealing the fact that they had privately agreed to let Japan retain its emperor.

Otherwise, the conference centered on postwar Europe. A Council of Foreign Ministers

was agreed upon, with membership from the Big Three plus China and France. Military

administration of Germany was established, with a central Allied Control Council (the

requirement that acc decisions be unanimous would later prove to be crippling). The

leaders arrived at various agreements on the German economy, placing primary emphasis

on the development of agriculture and nonmilitary industry. The institutions that had

controlled the economy under the Nazis were to be decentralized, but all of Germany

would be treated as a single economic unit. War criminals would be brought to trial.

Stalin’s request to define the Polish-German border was put off till the peace treaty, but

the conference accepted his transfer of the land east of the Oder and Neisse rivers from

Germany to Poland. Regarding reparations, a compromise was worked out, based on an

exchange of capital equipment from the Western zone for raw materials from the East. It

resolved a dispute but set the precedent of managing the German economy by zone rather

than comprehensively as the Western powers had hoped. Although postwar Europe
 dominated the Potsdam agenda, the war in the Pacific lurked offstage. Truman received

word of the successful atomic bomb test soon after he arrived at Potsdam; he told

Churchill the news but mentioned ‘a new weapon’ only casually to Stalin. Truman

continued to solicit Stalin’s assistance against Japan, but he knew that if the bomb

succeeded, Russian help would not be needed. Indeed, the bomb would give the United

States unprecedented power in the postwar world

- Stalin, Churchill, and Truman gathered to decide how to administer Germany, which had

agreed to unconditional surrender nine weeks earlier on 8 May (Victory in Europe Day).

The goals of the conference also included the establishment of postwar order, peace

treaty issues, and countering the effects of the war.

Establishing the Iron Curtain

- The term Iron Curtain had been in occasional and varied use as a metaphor since the 19th

century, but it came to prominence only after it was used in a speech at Fulton, Missouri,

U.S., on March 5, 1946.

- It was used by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill

- The Iron Curtain formed the imaginary boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas

from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term

symbolized efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open

contact with the West and non-Soviet-controlled areas.

- The Iron Curtain is the political, military, and ideological barrier erected by the Soviet

Union after World War II to seal off itself and its dependent eastern and central European

allies from open contact with the West and other noncommunist areas.

The Truman Doctrine

 - It was announced to Congress on March 12, 1947, and further developed on July 4, 1948.

- It was announced by President Harry S. Truman.

- With the Truman Doctrine, President Harry S. Truman established that the United States

would provide political, military, and economic assistance to all democratic nations under

threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. Truman asked Congress to support

the Greek Government against the Communists.

- The Truman Doctrine was an American foreign policy whose stated purpose was to

counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War.

The Marshall Plan

- It was enacted in 1948.

- President Truman signed the Economic Recovery Act of 1948. It became known as the

Marshall Plan, named for Secretary of State George Marshall.

- American initiative to aid Europe, in which the United States gave economic support to

help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II.

- In order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism.

The Berlin Blockade/Airlift

- June 24, 1948 to May 12, 1949.

- The Soviet Union and Western Allied powers fought.

- In response to the Soviet blockade of land routes into West Berlin, the United States

begins a massive airlift of food, water, and medicine to the citizens of the besieged city.

The Soviet action was in response to the refusal of American and British officials to

allow Russia more say in the economic future of Germany.

 - It was an obvious effort to force the United States, Great Britain, and France (the other

occupying powers in Germany) to accept Soviet demands concerning the postwar fate of

Germany.

Formation of NATO

- The organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on April 4, 1949.

- Signed by the United States, Canada, and several Western European nations.

- NATO was the first peacetime military alliance the United States entered into outside of

the Western Hemisphere. After the destruction of the Second World War, the nations of

Europe struggled to rebuild their economies and ensure their security. The former

required a massive influx of aid to help the war-torn landscapes re-establish industries

and produce food, and the latter required assurances against a resurgent Germany or

incursions from the Soviet Union. The United States viewed an economically strong,

rearmed, and integrated Europe as vital to the prevention of communist expansion across

the continent. As a result, Secretary of State George Marshall proposed a program of

large-scale economic aid to Europe.

- To provide collective security against the Soviet Union.

Formation of COMECON

- From 1949 to 1991.

- Comecon was formed under the aegis of the Soviet Union

- the Soviet Union and Comecon began to promote industrial specialization among the

member countries and thus reduce “parallelism” (redundant industrial production) in the

economies of eastern Europe. In the late 1950s, after the formation of the European
 Economic Community in western Europe, Comecon undertook more systematic and

intense efforts along these lines, though with only limited success.

- to facilitate and coordinate the economic development of the eastern European countries

belonging to the Soviet bloc.

The Chinese Civil War

- Lasted intermittently between 1927 and 1949.

- A civil war in China fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of

China and the Communist Party of China.

- Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong declared the creation of the People’s Republic of

China. The announcement ended the costly full-scale civil war between the Chinese

Communist Party and the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, which broke out

immediately following World War II and had been preceded by on and off conflict

between the two sides since the 1920’s. The creation of the People’s Republic of China

also completed the long process of governmental upheaval in China begun by the

Chinese Revolution of 1911. The “fall” of mainland China to communism in 1949 led the

United States to suspend diplomatic ties with the PRC for decades.

- Because of a difference in thinking between the Communist Chinese Communist Party

(CCP) and the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT), there was a fight for legitimacy as the

government of China.

The Korean War

- The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea. At the end of

World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States liberated Korea from imperial

Japanese colonial control on 15 August 1945.

 - Occurred between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the

Republic of Korea (South Korea).

- The Korean war began when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army

poured across the 38th parallel, the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic

People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the

south. This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. By July, American

troops had entered the war on South Korea’s behalf. As far as American officials were

concerned, it was a war against the forces of international communism itself. After some

early back-and-forth across the 38th parallel, the fighting stalled and casualties mounted

with nothing to show for them. Meanwhile, American officials worked anxiously to

fashion some sort of armistice with the North Koreans. The alternative, they feared,

would be a wider war with Russia and China–or even, as some warned, World War III.

Finally, in July 1953, the Korean War came to an end. In all, some 5 million soldiers and

civilians lost their lives in what many in the U.S. refer to as “The Forgotten War” for the

lack of attention it received compared to more well-known conflicts like World War I and

II and the Vietnam War. The Korean peninsula is still divided today.

- Today, historians generally agree on several main causes of the Korean War, including:

the spread of communism during the Cold War, American containment, and Japanese

occupation of Korea during World War II.

End of First Vietnam War

- Ended on July 20, 1954.

- The war was fought by France, the long-time colonial ruler in the Indochina, and

Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian Communist rebel forces.

 - The Vietnam War was a long, costly and divisive conflict that pitted the communist

government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United

States. The conflict was intensified by the ongoing Cold War between the United States

and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million people (including over 58,000 Americans)

were killed in the Vietnam War, and more than half of the dead were Vietnamese

civilians. Opposition to the war in the United States bitterly divided Americans, even

after President Richard Nixon ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973. Communist

forces ended the war by seizing control of South Vietnam in 1975, and the country was

unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam the following year.

- Leclerc's primary objectives were to restore public order in south Vietnam and to

militarize Tonkin (north Vietnam). Secondary objectives were to wait for French backup

in view to take back Chinese-occupied Hanoi, then to negotiate with the Việt Minh

officials.

The Hydrogen Bomb

- On November 1, 1952, the world's first hydrogen bomb was detonated on the Eniwetok

Atoll in the Pacific Marshall Islands.

- The United States successfully created the first hydrogen bomb.

- A hydrogen bomb has never been used in battle by any country, but experts say it has the

power to wipe out entire cities and kill significantly more people than the already

powerful atomic bomb, which the U.S. dropped in Japan during World War II, killing

tens of thousands of people.

 - After the Soviet atomic bomb success, the idea of building a hydrogen bomb received

new impetus in the United States. In this type of bomb, deuterium and tritium (hydrogen

isotopes) are fused into helium, thereby releasing energy.

Massive Retaliation/Brinkmanship

- The term "massive retaliation" was coined in a speech on January 12, 1954.

- Coined by Eisenhower administration Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.

- Is a military doctrine and nuclear strategy in which a state commits itself to retaliate in

much greater force in the event of an attack.

- The aim of massive retaliation is to deter another state from initially attacking. For such a

strategy to work, it must be made public knowledge to all possible aggressors.

The Warsaw Pact

- Founded on May 14, 1955 and dissolved on July 1, 1991.

- The treaty was signed in Warsaw and included the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland,

Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria as members.

- The treaty called on the member states to come to the defense of any member attacked by

an outside force and it set up a unified military command under Marshal Ivan S. Konev

of the Soviet Union. The introduction to the treaty establishing the Warsaw Pact indicated

the reason for its existence. This revolved around “Western Germany, which is being

remilitarized, and her inclusion in the North Atlantic bloc, which increases the danger of

a new war and creates a threat to the national security of peace-loving states.” This

passage referred to the decision by the United States and the other members of the North

Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on May 9, 1955 to make West Germany a member
 of NATO and allow that nation to remilitarize. The Soviets obviously saw this as a direct

threat and responded with the Warsaw Pact.

- Although the Soviets claimed that the organization was a defensive alliance, it soon

became clear that the primary purpose of the pact was to reinforce communist dominance

in Eastern Europe.

Hungarian Revolution

- Lasted from October 23 until November 10, 1956.

- A nationwide revolution against the Hungarian People's Republic and its Soviet-imposed

policies.

- Encouraged by the new freedom of debate and criticism, a rising tide of unrest and

discontent in Hungary broke out into active fighting in October 1956. Rebels won the

first phase of the revolution, and Imre Nagy became premier, agreeing to establish a

multiparty system. On November 1, 1956, he declared Hungarian neutrality and appealed

to the United Nations for support, but Western powers were reluctant to risk a global

confrontation. On November 4 the Soviet Union invaded Hungary to stop the revolution,

and Nagy was executed for treason in 1958. Nevertheless, Stalinist-type domination and

exploitation did not return, and Hungary thereafter experienced a slow evolution toward

some internal autonomy.

- An unconditional general ceasefire and amnesty for those who participated in the

uprising; negotiations with the insurgents; the dissolution of the ÁVH; the establishment

of a national guard; the immediate withdrawal of Soviet troops from Budapest and

negotiations for the withdrawal of all Soviet forces from Hungary.

Vienna Summit
 - A summit meeting held on June 4, 1961.

- Between President John F. Kennedy of the United States and Premier Nikita Khrushchev

of the Soviet Union.

- The leaders of the two superpowers of the Cold War era discussed numerous issues in the

relationship between their countries.

- The purpose was to drive home the danger of a nuclear confrontation, specifically that the

danger was real, and that the two superpowers needed to confront it.

The Suez Canal Crisis

- Occurred in October 1956.

- Israeli armed forces pushed into Egypt toward the Suez Canal after Egyptian president

Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-70) nationalized the canal, a valuable waterway that

controlled two-thirds of the oil used by Europe.

- The Israelis were soon joined by French and British forces, which nearly brought the

Soviet Union into the conflict and damaged their relationships with the United States. In

the end, Egypt emerged victorious, and the British, French and Israeli governments

withdrew their troops in late 1956 and early 1957. The event was a pivotal event among

Cold War superpowers.

- The aims were to regain Western control of the Suez Canal and to remove Egyptian

president Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had just nationalised the canal.

The Eisenhower Doctrine

- Enunciated on January 5, 1957.

- President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced the doctrine within a “Special Message to

the Congress on the Situation in the Middle East”.

 - Under the Eisenhower Doctrine, a Middle Eastern country could request American

economic assistance or aid from U.S. military forces if it was being threatened by armed

aggression.

- Its purpose was to contain communism and stop it from spreading to capitalist countries.

Sputnik

- Launched on October 4, 1957, 7:28 pm.

- The Soviet Union launched it into an elliptical low Earth orbit.

- The world's first artificial satellite was about the size of a beach ball (58 cm.or 22.8

inches in diameter), weighed only 83.6 kg. or 183.9 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to

orbit the Earth on its elliptical path.

- As a result, the launch of Sputnik served to intensify the arms race and raise Cold War

tensions. During the 1950s, both the United States and the Soviet Union were working to

develop new technology.

Shooting down the U-2 spy plane

- Shot down on May 1, 1960.

- The plane was used by the CIA and USAF, and shot down in Soviet Union territory.

- An American U-2 spy plane is shot down while conducting espionage over the Soviet

Union. The incident derailed an important summit meeting between President Dwight D.

Eisenhower and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev that was scheduled for later that month.

- At first the plane was used by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the U.S. Air

Force (USAF) to monitor electronic emissions, to sample the upper atmosphere for

evidence of nuclear weapons tests, and to photograph sites deep within the territory of the

Soviet Union, China, and other Cold War enemies.

Flexible Response

- Used in 1961.

- Implemented by John F. Kennedy.

- This was a defense strategy implemented by John F. Kennedy in 1961 to address the

Kennedy administration's skepticism of Dwight Eisenhower's New Look and its policy of

massive retaliation.

- Flexible response calls for mutual deterrence at strategic, tactical, and conventional

levels, giving the United States the capability to respond to aggression across the

spectrum of war, not limited only to nuclear weapons.

The Bay of Pigs Invasion

- April 17-19, 1961.

- Invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles that had become refugees to America.

- Though many of his military advisors indicated that an amphibious assault on Cuba by a

group of lightly armed exiles had little chance for success, Kennedy gave the go-ahead

for the attack. Around 1,200 exiles, armed with American weapons and using American

landing craft, waded ashore at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. The hope was that the exile force

would serve as a rallying point for the Cuban citizenry, who would rise up and overthrow

Castro’s government. The plan immediately fell apart–the landing force met with

unexpectedly rapid counterattacks from Castro’s military, the tiny Cuban air force sank

most of the exiles’ supply ships, the United States refrained from providing necessary air

support, and the expected uprising never happened. Over 100 of the attackers were killed,

and more than 1,100 were captured.

 - The plan anticipated that the Cuban people and elements of the Cuban military would

support the invasion. The ultimate goal was the overthrow of Castro and the

establishment of a non-communist government friendly to the United States.

The Berlin Wall

- Construction of the Wall was accepted on August 13, 1961.

- The Wall was commenced by the German Democratic Republic.

- The Berlin Wall (known as Berliner Mauer in German) was a physical division between

West Berlin and East Germany. Its purpose was to keep disaffected East Germans from

fleeing to the West.

- The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep Western “fascists” from entering

East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of

stemming mass defections from East to West.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

- A 13-day confrontation (October 16-28, 1962).

- Confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union.

- Initiated by the American discovery of Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba.

- Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had gambled on sending the missiles to Cuba with the

specific goal of increasing his nation's nuclear strike capability.

The Hot Line

- Established on June 20, 1963.

- The United States and the Soviet Union signed the Memorandum of Understanding

Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
 Regarding the Establishment of a Direct Communications Link," also known as the

hotline agreement.

- The hotline agreement held each government responsible for the arrangements for the

communications link on their territories respectively. The hotline would comprise of a

full-time duplex wire telegraph circuit with two terminal points with teletype equipment

routed between Washington and Moscow via London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and

Helsinki and a full-time duplex radiotelegraph routed through Stockholm-Helsinki-

Moscow. In case the wire circuit was interrupted, messages would be transmitted via

radio circuit.

- Was designed to help speed up communications between the two governments and

prevent the possibility of accidental nuclear war. It is no coincidence that the agreement

came just a few months after the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis, when the United

States and the Soviet Union came to the brink of nuclear conflict. The new agreement

was designed to forestall such a crisis in the future.

The Limited Test Ban Treaty

- Signed on August 5, 1963, and became effective on October 10, 1963.

- Between the Soviet Union, United States, and United Kingdom.

- Prohibited the testing of nuclear weapons in outer space, underwater, or in the

atmosphere.

- To prevent events like the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Man on the Moon

- Landed on the moon on July 20, 1969.

 - Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar mobile pilot Buzz Aldrin formed the American

crew that landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle.

- Apollo 11 blasted off on July 16, 1969. Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and

Michael Collins were the astronauts on Apollo 11. Four days later, Armstrong and Aldrin

landed on the moon. They landed on the moon in the Lunar Module. It was called the

Eagle. Collins stayed in orbit around the moon. He did experiments and took pictures.

The sign the astronauts left on the moon says, "Here men from the planet Earth first set

foot upon the moon July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind." On July 20,

1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to step on the moon. He and Aldrin walked

around for three hours. They did experiments. They picked up bits of moon dirt and

rocks. They put a U.S. flag on the moon. They also left a sign on the moon. The two

astronauts returned to orbit, joining Collins. On July 24, 1969, all three astronauts came

back to Earth safely. President Kennedy's wish came true. It took less than 10 years.

Humans had walked on the moon.

- Apollo 11's mission was to land two men on the moon. They also had to come back to

Earth safely.

The Domino Effect

- A theory prominent throughout the 1950s to 60s.

- Cold War policy. Americans were fearful of this, and the Soviets were quite content.

- Suggested a communist government in one nation would quickly lead to communist

takeovers in neighboring states, each falling like a perfectly aligned row of dominos. In

Southeast Asia, the U.S. government used the now-discredited domino theory to justify

its involvement in the Vietnam War and its support for a non-communist dictator in
 South Vietnam. In fact, the American failure to prevent a communist victory in Vietnam

had much less of an impact than had been assumed by proponents of the domino theory.

With the exception of Laos and Cambodia, communism failed to spread throughout

Southeast Asia.

- To instill fear within the American population.

The Tonkin Gulf Resolution

- On August 7, 1964.

- Congress passed this resolution.

- Authorizing President Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to

retaliate and to promote the maintenance of international peace and security in southeast

Asia.

- “Take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United

States and to prevent further aggression.”

The Policy of Détente

- From 1967 to 1979.

- Between the United States and Soviet Union.

- The era was a time of increased trade and cooperation with the Soviet Union and the

signing of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) treaties.

- Resulting in productive negotiations and treaties on nuclear arms control and improved

diplomatic relations, events at the end of the decade would bring the superpowers back to

the brink of war.

Nixon’s Trip to China

- Trip occurred in 1972.

 - U.S. President Richard Nixon visited the People’s Republic of China.

- An important strategic and diplomatic overture that marked the culmination of the Nixon

administration’s resumption of harmonious relations between the United States and

mainland China after years of diplomatic isolation.

- Nixon visited China to gain more leverage over relations with the Soviet Union. When

the communists took over mainland China in 1949 and the nationalists fled to the island

of Taiwan, the United States allied with, and recognized, the Republic of China as the

sole government of China.

The SALT I Treaty

- Signed in 1972.

- Signed by the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

- The most important element of the summit concerned the SALT agreements. Discussions

on SALT had been occurring for about two-and-a-half years, but with little progress.

During the May 1972 meeting between Nixon and Brezhnev, however, a monumental

breakthrough was achieved. The SALT agreements signed on May 27 addressed two

major issues. First, they limited the number of anti-ballistic missile (ABM) sites each

country could have to two. (ABMs were missiles designed to destroy incoming missiles.)

Second, the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic

missiles was frozen at existing levels. There was nothing in the agreements, however,

about multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle missiles (single missiles carrying

multiple nuclear warheads) or about the development of new weapons. Nevertheless,

most Americans and Soviets hailed the SALT agreements as tremendous achievements.

In August 1972, the U.S. Senate approved the agreements by an overwhelming vote.
 SALT-I, as it came to be known, was the foundation for all arms limitations talks that

followed.

- Intended to retrain the arms race in strategic ballistic missiles armed with nuclear

weapons.

SALT II / Invasion of Afghanistan

- A series of talks from 1972 to 1979.

- Between the United States and Soviet Union.

- The first nuclear arms treaty which assumed real reductions in strategic forces to 2,250 of

all categories of delivery vehicles on both sides.

- Sought to curtail the manufacture of strategic nuclear weapons. It was a continuation of

the SALT I talks and was led by representatives from both countries.

Glasnost / Perestroika

- During the 1980s.

- Political movement for reformation within the Comunist Party of the Soviet Union.

- Refers to a series of political and economic reforms meant to kick-start the stagnant

1980s economy of the Soviet Union. Its architect, President Mikhail Gorbachev, would

oversee the most fundamental changes to his nation’s economic engine and political

structure since the Russian Revolution. But the suddenness of these reforms, coupled

with growing instability both inside and out of the Soviet Union, would contribute to the

collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1991.

- Reconstruction of the political and economic system established by the Communist Party.

The Wall comes down (reunification of Germany)

- November 9, 1989.
 - Head of the East Germany Communist Party opened entry to the other side.

- The Berlin Wall stood until the head of the East German Communist Party announced

that citizens of the GDR could cross the border whenever they pleased. That night,

ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall. Some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others

brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall itself. To this day, the

Berlin Wall remains one of the most powerful and enduring symbols of the Cold War.

- Unify Germany.

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

- December 16, 1991.

- Collapse of the Soviet Union.

- The process of internal disintegration within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

(USSR), which began with growing unrest in the national republics.

- The main goal of the Bush administration was economic and political stability and

security for Russia, the Baltics, and the states of the former Soviet Union.

Creation of the European Union

- Established in 1993.

- Traces its origins to the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European

Economic Community (EEC).

- The agreement called for a strengthened European parliament, the creation of a central

European bank, and common foreign and security policies. The treaty also laid the

groundwork for the establishment of a single European currency, to be known as the

“euro.” By 1993, 12 nations had ratified the Maastricht Treaty on European Union: Great

Britain, France, Germany, the Irish Republic, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Denmark,
 Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Austria, Finland, and Sweden became

members of the EU in 1995. After suffering through centuries of bloody conflict, the

nations of Western Europe were finally united in the spirit of economic cooperation.

- Set up with the aim of ending the frequent and bloody wars between neighbours, which

culminated in the Second World War. As of 1950, the European Coal and Steel

Community begins to unite European countries economically and politically in order to

secure lasting peace.