The Cold War

End of World War II – Fall of Berlin Wall (1989)/ Break-up

of Soviet Union (1991)

George Orwell “You and the Atomic Bomb” (1945)

We have before us the prospect of two or three monstrous super-states, each possessed of a weapon by which millions of people can be wiped out in a few seconds, dividing the world between them *…+. Unable to conquer one another they are likely to continue ruling the world between them.

(http://tmh.floonet.net/articles/abombs.html)

Factors leading up to Cold War

• Occupation of Germany by Allied armies, lead by USA in the West and Soviet Red Army in the East

• Political and economic vacuum in Europe after Word War II

Important meetings of allied leaders• Teheran 1943

Commitment to open second front against Nazi Germany

Envisaged post-war settlement

• Yalta: February 1945

Plan of final defeat and occupation of Nazi Germany

Discussion of boundaries between Poland, Soviet Union and Germany

Issue of German reparations raised

Agreement of organisation of United nations

Declaration on Liberated Europe

• Potsdam: July/August 1945

Agreement for Germany to be demilitarized, de-Nazified, decentralised, democratised

Divison of Germany into four zones of occupation

Truman informs Stalin about powerful new weapon

Division of Germany into 4 Zones

Key events of Cold War

• 1946 Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain Speech’

• 1947 Truman Doctrine

• July 1947 Marshall Plan

• June 1948 Berlin Blockade: First major crisis of Cold War

• 1949 Establishment of East and West German State

• April 1949 Foundation of Nato

Key events of Cold War contd

• 1955 Formation of Warsaw Pact

• 1961 Berlin Crisis and Building of the Berlin Wall

• 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis

• 1950s/1960s Nuclear Arms Race Part I

• 1970s Détente – Thawing of Relations, arms control agreements, Brandt’s ‘Ostpolitik’

• 1980s Nuclear Arms Race Part II – Star Wars

• 1985 Gorbatchov becomes Secretary General

Protests

• Anti-nuclear protests and peace movement in Western Europe

• Struggle for Democracy and Independence in Eastern Europe

Anti-Nuclear protests and peace movement

• First wave: 1950s and early 1960s

UK: first Aldermastan March, Easter 1958

US: ‘Women Strike for Peace’ march 1961

Protests in France, West Germany and other European countries

• Second wave: 1980s

1981: Mass protest marches in West European cities, 1 Mio people at rally in NY

1983 almost 3 Mio people protest across Europe

Struggle for Democracy and Independence in Eastern Europe

• 1956 Hungarian Revolution

• 1968 Prague Spring

• 1980 Polish government allows Solidarity trade union

• 1989 semi free elections in Poland

• 1989 demonstrations in other Eastern European countries (‘Monday’ demonstrations in East Germany, Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia)

• 9 November 1989 Fall of Berlin Wall

Beginning of end of Cold War

• 1985 Mikail Gorbatchov becomes General Secretary of the USSR

• Gorbatchov implements reforms:

• ‘Glasnost’ (‘openness)’ and Perestroika (‘reorganisation’)

• Renewed talks on economic issues and scaling back of arms race

• 1989 arms control treaty signed by Bush and Gorbatchov

End of Cold War

• 1989 Fall of Berlin Wall• 1989 Semi-Free elections in Poland, Solidarnosz

leader Lech Walesa becomes president• 1989 Vaclav Havel becomes President of

Czechoslovakia• 1989 Soviet forces withdraw from Afghanistan• 1990 democratic elections in Czechoslovakia• 3 October 1990 German unification• 21 December 1991 USSR officially

dissolved, Gorbatchov resigns as president

Manifestations of Cold War Ideology

• Economy

• Politics

• Security

• Science

• Culture