The COLD WAR, 1945-1991

Part I, 1945-1964

Causes of the Cold War:

1. Sovietization, 1944-48
A. Stalins security concerns
B. Ideological goals

2. Truman doctrine, 1947->

A. Containment (announced March 1947)
B. Marshall plan (European Recovery
Program): Total: $13.3 billion

THE SOVIET BLOC

Czechoslovakia
President Edvard Benes
May 18, 1945, returns after seven-year exile
Klement Gottwald, leader of Czechoslovak
Communists
Red Army occupied the country
May 26, 1946, the Communist Party of
Czechoslovakia received 2,695,293 votes: 38.7
percent of the total
Gottwald became premier
CPC got key ministries, but non-communists had a
majority in parliament
But non-communists not really united

Czechoslovakia (cont.)
Stalin insisted that the country refuse the Marshall
Plan
February 1948: non-communist ministers resign over
communist police forces during election (Gottwald did
not)
March 10, 1948: Jan Masaryk (Foreign Minister)
found dead at ministry (murder or suicide)
May 30, 1948: Communists win an absolute majority
Gottwald new president
At Stalins insistence, Gottwald imposes a Soviet
style constitution
Communist Party replaced the government

Berlin Blockade and Airlift, 1948-49

Berlin Blockade and Airlift (cont.)

Western Allies (USA, GB, France) united
their occupation zones
June 1948: New German mark introduced
Stalin ordered blockade of roads and rails
US and GB created airlift:
To May 1949: 278,228 flights
2,326,406 tons of food, coal, other
necessities

1949: Communism
spreading
Soviets removed opposition in
eastern Europe
Soviets exploded first atomic bomb
Chinese revolution
NATO founded, 1949 to present

The Soviet Bloc

not monolithic
JosipBroza.k.a.
TITO(r.1945
1980)
Yugoslavia
Nonalignment

Korean War, 1950-53

Two rival governments:
North: Soviet-supported Kim Il-Sungs
communist government
South: US-supported anti-communist,
autocrat Syngman Rhee

United Nations resolved to allow a

US-led police action

Korean War, 1950-53

36,574 Americans killed

175,000 South Korean soldiers killed
215,000 North Korean soldiers killed
114,000 Chinese soldiers killed
315 Soviet soldiers killed
About two million Korean civilians
killed or wounded

1953: Stalin died

Power struggle, 1953

Presidium, 1952-1966
collective leadership
Lavrentiy Beria, 1899-1953
Vyacheslav Molotov, 18901986
Georgy Malenkov, 1902-88
Nikita Khrushchev, 18941971
June 1953: Beria arrested
1956: Malenkov lost to
Khrushchev
Virgin Lands proposal

NikitaKhrushchev(r.195364)

Enthusiastic
open-minded
mercurial
1956: 20th CPSU Congress
Peaceful co-existence
Secret Speech

The Thaw or DeStalinization, 1956-64

GULAG dismantled
But Smashed Hungarian
revolution of 1956:
2500 Hungarians killed
13,000 wounded

Khrushchevs internal reforms

Agriculture: Virgin Lands

Housing crisis: Khrushchovka
1957: B. Pasternak, Doktor Zhivago
Nov. 1962: A. Solzhenitsyn, One day in
the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Persecuted Orthodox Churches, from
15,000 (1951) to 8000 (1963).
Allowed some displaced peoples to
return, but not Crimean Tatars.

NikitaKhrushchev(r.195364)
Warsaw Pact formed, 1955
Sino-Soviet split (1960):
Mao Galoshes
Nikita the Bull

U-2 incident (May 1960)

Pilot Gary Powers

August 1961: Berlin Wall

constructed.
Oct. 1962: Cuban Missile
Crisis
June 1963: hot line
Aug. 1963: Partial Test Ban
Treaty (PTBT)

Berlin Wall, 1961-1989