I feel that, when blogging, it is vitally important to write bout something that one is interested in and something one knows a lot about. The Cold War is part of the module I am currently studying for and although I found it deadly dull when learning the information the first time around I am now beginning to enjoy it!
My revision began about a week ago and so far I have been engrossed in the Origins of the Cold War and the Crises. For me the most interesting part is the failure of Detente and the collapse of communism. I think it quenches my thirst for rebellion and rebirth. So, I am going to use this blog as a history lesson for anyone who's interested. I intend to throw down all I know in a rambling, extended history essay. Here goes:
The Yalta conference was held in the USSR in February 1945. Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt attended and they decided to divide Germany and Berlin into four zones, hold free elections in Eastern European countries and ally themselves with the USSR in the war against Japan.
Things had changed massively by July-August 1945 as Roosevelt had been replaced by Truman, Churchill was replaced by Attlee part-way through and Stalin had broken a promise made at Yalta. The Potsdam conference was intense. President Truman had detonated the Atomic Bomb and Stalin was furious that this level of nuclear technology had been kept a secret from him. (This sparked the Arms Race between the two superpowers which would develop colossally over the next 40 years). There was even more mistrust as Stalin, who had agreed to allow free elections to take place in Europe just 5 months earlier, had set up a communist government in Poland. Truman and Attlee were annoyed and suspicious. Furthermore Stalin wanted to economically cripple Germany which Truman and Attlee knew would be destructive and malicious so did not condone. The Allies also denied the USSR a naval base in the Mediterranean causing tension and conflict. They did manage to agree on the fates of the Nazi Party leaders and where the German-Polish border would be. The Nazi Party leaders were to be trued as war criminals and the Nazi Party was deemed illegal and the Oder-Neisse river was going to mark the border between the two countries.
The A-bomb was used to end WWII. 135'000 people died and although the war was over the tensions between the two Superpowers heightened. Stalin thought the A-bomb was a direct warning to the USSR and he captured the best German nuclear physicists he could find and took them back to the USSR to work on developing their own A-bomb. In addition to this, as soon as Hitler was defeated the Superpowers no longer had a common enemy. They turned on each other.
Communications broke down and Stalin began to conquer Eastern Europe. It was easy for him as he already had Soviet troops stationed in many of the countries. All opponents to communism had either be scared into submission or murdered. By 1948 Stalin had created his Buffer Zone. Churchill gave his famous Iron Curtain speech. It was a warning to Truman. Churchill knew that Stalin's Sphere of Influence was almost impenetrable and could spread even further across Europe. "An iron curtain has descended across the continent". Truman fully understood Churchill's message and set about his policy of containment. This was enforced with the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall
Plan in 1947.
The USA gave money, supplies and military aid to Greece and Turkey to help them restore democracy and stop the Soviets from advancing. The Greek monarchy had been overthrown and Britain could not afford to keep supporting them so the USA took over and prevented communism entering Greece. In Turkey the USA helped with the fight for the Dardanelles and made sure that Turkey remained in control of this passage.
The Marshall Plan focused more on economic aid. George Marshall, Truman's Secretary of State, took a trip to Europe to review the situation. He concluded that the European countries had suffered greatly, especially economically. He thought that this poverty made the countries vulnerable to communism and so they should be pumped with money in order to help the individual economies recover. Although this was incredibly generous of USA they did it to contain communism and provide themselves with excellent markets for American exports. The USA gave the most money to Britain closely followed by France. It is thought that about $13 billion was given to European countries although not all accepted it.
To seem fair, and not anger Stalin, every single European country and the USSR was offered Marshall Aid. However, every country in the Satellite States had to decline Truman's proposal as they were new members of Cominform which was a group Stalin had created in 1947 to spread communist messages and keep control of his Sphere of Influence. He had also set up Comecon in 1949 as a response to the Truman Doctrine. This allowed Stalin to easily co-ordinate trade in the Satellite States but the USSR was favoured above all its other members!
In 1947 and 1948 Stalin was feeling increasingly threatened by Bizonia in West Germany. The USA and Britain had joined their parts of German to form one large part. In addition to this, many East Germans were going to the West as it was prospering because Britain and the USA did not want to cripple their part of Germany. The French were not part of Bizonia because they were not sure whether they wanted Germany to fully recover. However after some persuading in 1948 the French joined and formed Trizonia. The final straw for Stalin was the introduction of the Deutsche Mark, the new West German currency.
He took action in the form of the Berlin Blockade. He closed all the roads off around Berlin and diverted all the rail connections. He felt powerless so this was his attempt to push the Allies out of the capital city. For the USA and Britain withdrawing from the capital was not an option so they proceeded to carry out a huge airlift that lasted a whole year. Everyday hundreds of planes would land laden with food, clothes, oil and even building supplies. Everything that the Berliners needed was brought to them and the steady stream of flights meant they never went without anything. On the 16th to 17th of April the Airlift reached its peak when 1,398 flights landed in Berlin carrying 13,000 metric tonnes of supplies. This 24 hour period showed Stain what the Allies where capable of and that his Blockade was extremely unsuccessful. In May Stalin lifted the Blockade and it was a clear victory for the West. This undoubtedly created tension between the Superpowers. Trizonia became the Federal Republic of Germany in August 1949 and the USSR's zone became the German Democratic Republic in October 1949. In the same month China became communist under the rule of Mao Tsetung.
In the same year as Blockade and Airlift NATO was formed. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation contained the countries of Western Europe and Canada and the USA. It was an important alliance because both Superpowers had the Atomic bomb and no western country had nuclear weapons. The USA had committed itself to the defence of Europe and they could build airbases in Western Europe where they could store their nuclear weapons ready to use against the USSR. Of course, Stalin saw the organisation as a huge threat and although he didn't respond directly NATO was still ominous when Khrushchev was in power and he took action forming the Warsaw Pact.
The 1950s began with the Korean War. After WWII the USA had put Syngman Rhee in charge of South Korea and the USSR put Kim Il Sung in power in North Korea. Korea was divided equally along the 38th parallel but both leaders considered themselves the one true leader of Korea. Relations were fraught and in June 1950 North Korea invaded South Korea. The North Koreans drove the South Koreans into a tiny corner of the country called Pusan. Truman asked the UN to lend its army to help the South Koreans. The USSR were boycotting the UN as they wouldn't allow communist China to join so had no say in the matter. The UN troops pushed North Korea right up to the Yalu river in October 1950. This scared the Chinese as their was a democratic country right on their border so China's People's Volunteer Army joined the war on the North Koreans' side. The UN forces were driven back to just across the 38th parallel and General MacArthur threatened nuclear war on the Chinese. He was immediately sacked by Truman. The UN troops successfully pushed the communists back to the 38th parallel where a truce was agreed at Panmunjon in 1953. The war really ended because the USSR could no longer back the war as Stalin had died on March 6th.
Truman was worried that the Domino Effect would occur in Asia as well as Europe with China being a powerful communist country. The Korean War was successful containment.
With the death of Stain in 1953 there was a large thaw and significant improvements in relations between the Superpowers. Khrushchev wanted "peaceful co-existence" and he did not believe in Stalin's dictatorial ways. Khrushchev indicated that he thought people should have more freedoms and rights in the Sphere of Influence and people acted on the signals he was apparently sending. He signed the Austrian State Treaty allowing Austria to become independent. However, as I previously mentioned, he did have a big problem with NATO and so formed the Warsaw Pact which was exactly the same as NATO in its beliefs. The countries included were Eastern European ones.
One of Khrushchev's most brutal moments occurred in 1956 when he mercilessly crushed the Hungarian Uprising. The people of
Hungary were protesting about their poor standards of living. In Budapest a mob of protesters pushed over a statue of Stalin and dragged it through the city where it got defaced and decapitated. Rakosi the evil dictator that had been in control was forced to step down and Nagy cam into power. He wanted free elections, no more secret police and the Soviet army that was still occupying parts of the country to be removed. Nagy's fatal mistake was demanding to leave the Warsaw Pact. Khrushchev could not allow this as other countries would demand the same if he let Hungary out of the agreement. It could of led to capitalism which was not desired by Khrushchev. He could not allow a gap in the buffer zone that Stalin preserved so well.
1,000 Soviet tanks moved into Hungary and they obliterated anything in their path. Nagy asked the West for help but they were preoccupied with the Suez Crisis. He was captured and shot. 4,000 civilians died and 200,000 refugees escaped across the border. Consequently, no other Satellite State revolted or questioned their communist ruling for 12 more years. Kadar was put in charge of Hungary and although he made the Soviet troops withdraw he implemented strict communism.
PART 2 COMING SOON!
I hope you enjoyed that little history lesson! I am going to... um... well... do some more revision really.
nERD
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I am of the opinion that a buildup of little things can cause far more damage than one colossal disaster. I don't want to begin summer with grudges but are some things better left unsaid? I have many events to look forward to and, although I know I shouldn't, I have and inevitably will, let some people ruin enjoyable occasions for me. 
