Twentieth Century History (1945 – 1991)

X

Privacy & Cookies

This site uses cookies. By continuing, you agree to their use. Learn more, including how to control cookies.

Got It!

The Start of the Cold War

The wartime allies become enemies

Soon after the end of the war the USA and the USSR became hostiles towards each other. A period of hostility known as the Cold War lasted until the late 1980s.

Yalta and Potsdam

The leaders of the USA, USSR and Britain met twice in 1945 to discuss the world after the war. They had met once before in Tehran, 1943.

Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech in March 1946

From Stettin to the Baltic, to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient cities of Central and Eastern Europe: Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest and Sofia. All these famous cities lie in the Soviet sphere and all are subject to a high and increasing control from Moscow. The Russian-dominated Polish government has been encouraged to make enormous and wrongful inroads upon Germany and mass expulsions of millions of Germans are now taking place. The Communist Parties, which were very small in all of these Eastern States, are seeking everywhere to obtain totalitarian control.

The Soviet take-over

In 1946, Churchill described now an ‘iron curtain’ was put across Europe; the iron curtain divided Soviet-styled states in Eastern Europe from democratic, capitalist states in Western Europe. Between 1945 and 1948 the Soviet Union imposed communist governments on several East European countries:

• Poland
• Bulgaria
• Romania
• Hungary
• Czechoslovakia

The communist coup in Czechoslovakia in 1948 particularly angered people in the West.

For the Soviet leader, Stalin, the take-over was a defensive move: an attempt to build up a friendly buffer between the USSR and the Western capitalist states.

For the American leader, Truman, the take-over was an offensive move: the first step in a Soviet attempt to impose communism on all the countries of the world.

The American response

Between 1945 and 1949, the Americans developed a policy called ‘containment’. This involved using the power and wealth of the USA to try to stop or ‘contain’ the spread of communism, first of all in Europe and later throughout the world.

Containment in Europe

1947: The Truman Doctrine

The American President Truman said that the world was being divided into free, democratic countries and undemocratic communist states. Truman promised help for any people who wanted to resist communism and immediate help to anti-communist governments in Greece and Turkey.

1947: The Marshall Plan

The economy of Europe was in ruins at the end of the war. The Marshall Plan, named after General George Marshall, the US Secretary of State, aimed to re-build the European economy so that it could resist communism. In theory, East European countries could join but the American made it clear that communist states were not welcome.

1949: the founding of NATO

The USA took the lead in organising a military alliance of non-communist countries in Europe and North America. It called the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. All members agreed to defend each other in case of Soviet attack.

1949: the setting up of West Germany

At the end of the war, Germany was divided into the British, French, American and Soviet zones. The city of Berlin was also divided into four zones. At first both the USA and the USSR wanted a unified Germany. When the Soviet Union took control of much of Eastern Europe, America moved towards the setting up of pro-Western state in the British, French and American zones. West Germany, officially known as the Federal Republic of Germany, was established in May 1949.

The Soviet Reaction to Containment

Stalin, in turn, saw American actions after 1945 as aggressive and a threat to the Soviet Union. The Soviet response was as follows:

1948-1949: the Berlin Blockade

West Berlin was an island of democracy and capitalism in the Soviet zone. Stalin was worried by the possibility of a strong West German state. In June 1948, Stalin blocked all road and rail transport with West Berlin. This was a failure. Britain and the USA organised an unprecedented airlift to stop West Berliners from being starved out. The Blockade was ended in May 1949. The blockade accelerated moves towards a separate West Germany and the NATO alliance.

1949: COMECON

In January 1949, the Soviet Union tried to answer the Marshall Plan by setting up a trading bloc of communist countries. It was called the Council for Mutual Economic Aid or COMECON.

1949: the setting of East Germany

After the official establishment of West Germany, the Soviet zone of Germany was turned into a separate communist state, officially known as the German Democratic Republic.

1949: the Soviet atom bomb

The USA had a monopoly of atomic weapons after 1945. Stalin ordered Soviet scientists to produce an atomic bomb and in 1949 they succeed.

1955: the Warsaw Pact

In 1955, NATO was expanded to include West Germany. The Soviet Union created a military alliance of communist countries known as the Warsaw Pact.

Containing Communism

After the communist take-over of Eastern Europe, US governments were preoccupied with the need to stop the spread of communism. This policy was called containment.

The Fall of China: 1949

Led by Mao Zedong, communists took power in China in 1949. Communist success in China convinced American leaders they needed to be more energetic in a worldwide struggle against communism. This led to a huge increase in American spending on defence.

The Korean War: 1950-3

At the end of the Second World War, Korea was divided in two at the 38^th parallel – North Korea was communist and South Korea was anti-communist. North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950. The Americans won UN support for a war against the invading North Koreans. General MacArthur led a fight-back that drove the North Koreans out of South Korea. MacArthur then continued deep into North Korean territory. This was going beyond ‘containment’ and became an attempt to ‘roll back’ communism.

A massive Chinese army invaded to help the North Koreans in November 1950. The US army was driven back close to the original border in early 1951. There was then a military stalemate. MacArthur wanted to widen the war by attacking China itself. President Truman disagreed and dismissed MacArthur. Peace talks dragged on for two years. The war finally ended in July 1953.

The Cuban Missile Crisis: 1962

Led by Fidel Castro, there was a revolution in Cuba in 1959. Castro introduced communist ideas to Cuba. The US attempted to invade and overthrow Castro, but this ended in disaster at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.

In 1962 Khrushchev, the Soviet leader placed nuclear missiles on Cuba. American spy planes discovered them and the American President, Kennedy, insisted that the missiles be removed. There was a real possibility of a nuclear war. Eventually, Khrushchev gave way and agreed to remove the missiles in return for a US promise to remove missiles in Turkey. The ending of the crisis was seen as a victory for Kennedy and a defeat for Khrushchev.

Restricting Soviet influence in the Middle East

Both the United States and the Soviet Union tied to influence states in the Middle East. The US encouraged the new Jewish state of Israel, set up in 1928. Some Arabs, including the governments of Egypt and Syria and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), looked for Soviet help in their conflict with Israel. With American money and weapons, Israel was able to defeat its Arab enemies in a series of wars (1948-9, 1967, and 1973). These defeats convinced the Egyptian president, Sadat, to break with the USSR. The US government enabled Israel and Egypt to sign a peace treaty in 1979.

The Vietnam War: 1965–1975

Vietnam had been a French colony before the Second World War. The French pulled out in 1954 and Vietnam was divided between the communist state in the North and an anti-communist state in South Vietnam. The leader of North Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh.

After 1958 communist guerrillas, known as Vietcong, helped by troops of the regular army of North Vietnam, tried to overthrow the government of South Vietnam. At first the Americans supplied the South with money and weapons and in March 1965 President Johnson sent US combat troops to Vietnam. Eventually there were 540,000 Americans fighting in Vietnam.

The defeat of the United States

The United States was unable to defeat the Vietcong. Many people in the United States were opposed to the war. In January 1968 the Vietcong launched a massive series of attacks called the Tet Offensive. This was not a military success but it convinced American leaders that they would never win in Vietnam. President Johnson was replaced by Richard Nixon, who was determined to pull out of Vietnam. Nixon tried ‘Vietnamisation’ – a policy of reducing American troops and trying to strengthen the forces of South Vietnam. In 1973 the US signed a peace treaty with North Vietnam and American troops left the country. Vietnamisation did not work – without American forces the government of South Vietnam was overthrown by communist forces in 1975. Vietnam became a single, communist state. After the fall of Vietnam several neighbouring countries also became communist. 

After Vietnam: détente

The US presidents of the 1970s – Nixon, Ford and Carter – pursued a policy of ‘détente’. This involved establishing peaceful relationships with the two great communist powers: the USSR and China.

Defeat in Vietnam reduced American self-confidence.

Further disasters followed:

• The pro-American government in Iran was overthrown in a revolution in 1978. American diplomats were taken prisoner and were held hostage from 1979-81.
• A Soviet army invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to support its new communist government.

The End of Détente

The new US President, Ronald Reagan, restored some of America’s self-confidence in the 1980s. He ended détente. He aggressively challenged the Soviet Union and began a new arms race. This period has been called the Second Cold War. Reagan invested in ‘Star Wars’ (officially known as Strategic Defence Initiative). This was intended to be a system for shooting down Soviet missiles in space. The Soviet Union could not compete. Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union and established good relations with Reagan. The arms race came to an end and the Soviet Union pulled out of Afghanistan in 1988-9.

The Soviet Empire 1948-91

The split with Tito

The Yugoslav communist leader, Tito, liberated Yugoslavia from German control without help from Moscow. He argued with Stalin and refused to take orders from Moscow. In 1948 Yugoslavia was expelled from Cominform, the international grouping of communist parties. The Soviet Union opposed a trade ban on Yugoslavia but they survived due to support from the United States. Stalin dealt ruthlessly with other East European countries between 1949 and 1953. He was worried that they might try copy Tito. Leading communists with independent ideas were imprisoned or executed.

Turmoil in the Communist World after Stalin

• After Stalin’s death in 1953 people in Eastern Europe hoped for more freedom from Soviet control.
• The new Soviet leader, Khrushchev, established friendly relations with Yugoslavia in 1955. Hungarians hoped to copy Yugoslavia independence.
• In 1956 unrest in Poland led to reforms and concessions by the communist government. This encouraged Hungarians to demand reforms.

The Hungarian Uprising

In October 1956 unrest in Hungary led to the appointment of a new Prime Minister, the communist reformer, Imre Nagy. People demanded that Hungary should leave the Warsaw Pact and become neutral. Nagy agreed but in November 1956 Soviet troops invaded Hungary and imposed a new pro-Soviet government. There was fierce street fighting in which thousands of people were killed. Nagy was arrested and later executed. The United States did nothing to help the Hungarians: people in the West were preoccupied with the Suez crisis.

The Prague Spring

Economic problems caused unrest in Czechoslovakia in 1967. A new communist leader, Dubcek, took power in January 1968. He introduced democratic reforms while remaining communist. In August 1968 Soviet troops invaded Czechoslovakia to end the reforms. Dubcek lost his job in 1969 a pro-Soviet government was put in place. Afterwards the Soviet leader, Brezhnev, announced the ‘Brezhnev Doctrine’: the Soviet Union would use force to keep communists in power in any country.

1956 and 1968 compared

• In both cases the Soviet Union used force to end reforms in East European countries. New pro-Soviet governments were imposed.
• The Hungarian government wanted to break with the Soviet Union, leave the Warsaw Pact and become neutral. The Czechoslovak government wanted much more democracy at home but promised to stay in the Warsaw Pact.
• In both cases the United States did nothing to help. The West was preoccupied with Suez in 1956 and Vietnam in 1968.
• The Hungarians fought against the Soviet invasion – thousands were killed. The Czechoslovak people offered non-violent resistance. The Hungarian leader, Nagy, was executed; the Czechoslovak leader, Dubcek, lost his job but alive and free.

The Berlin War

Between 1958 and 1961 there was a dispute between the Soviet Union and the United States over Berlin. The Soviet leader, Khrushchev, said Western forces should leave the city and that it should become neutral. The US president, Eisenhower, was prepared to compromise but he was replaced by President Kennedy. Kennedy refused to compromise and both leaders publicly threatened war over Berlin. In 1961 the crisis was resolved and the threat of immediate war disappeared, when a wall was built around West Berlin to stop East Germans fleeing the communist state.

Poland and the rise of Solidarity

Shipyard workers in Gdansk went on strike in 1980 in protest against rising prices. They were led by Lech Walesa and formed a new non-communist trade union called Solidarity. Millions of workers joined Solidarity. The Soviet government considered invading Poland in order to crush the union. To avoid this, the Polish communist leader, Jaruzelski, banned Solidarity in December 1981. He declared martial law and imprisoned Solidarity’s leaders without trial but failed to destroy the union. Solidarity did well in elections in 1989 and formed a non-communist government.

Soviet Communism in decline

The Soviet Union was in crisis by the early 1980s:

• The economy had failed to match the economies of America and Western Europe.
• The arms race further reduced living standards.
• There was widespread corruption.
• The Soviet Union was fighting a disastrous war in Afghanistan.

The second Cold War

After the Vietnam War the United States pursued a policy of détente with the Soviet Union. This involved peaceful co-existence and some arms reductions. Ronald Reagan became president of the United States in 1981 and he ended détente and became a new arms race with the USSR.

Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev, a reformist communist, took control of the Soviet Union in 1985. He wanted to improve the Soviet Union by ‘perestroika’ – ‘restructuring’ or reforming the economy – and ‘glasnost’ – greater ‘openness’ and freedom of speech. His reforms undermined the positions of old-style pro-Soviet leaders in other countries. He renounced the ‘Brezhnev Doctrine’ of interference in other countries.

The whole of communist Europe was swept with revolution in 1989. One by one, the communist authorities were overthrown. The Soviet Union led by Gorbachev did nothing to stop this process. The Berlin War was torn down in November 1989. In 1991 the Soviet Union fell apart. After a failed communist coup in August, the republics that made up by the USSR declared their independence. Gorbachev resigned. Russia became separate state ruled by Boris Yeltsin.