The COLD WAR, 1945-1991 Part I, 1945-1964

Causes of the Cold War:

1. Sovietization, 1944-48A. Stalin’s 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 Stalin’s 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 Blocnot monolithic

• Josip Broz a.k.a. TITO (r. 1945-1980)

• Yugoslavia

• Non-alignment

Korean War, 1950-53

• Two rival governments:• North: Soviet-supported Kim Il-Sung’s

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, 1890-

1986• Georgy Malenkov, 1902-88• Nikita Khrushchev, 1894-

1971• June 1953: Beria arrested• 1956: Malenkov lost to

Khrushchev• “Virgin Lands” proposal

Nikita Khrushchev (r. 1953-64)

• Enthusiastic• open-minded• mercurial• 1956: 20th CPSU Congress

Peaceful co-existence Secret Speech

• “The Thaw” or De-Stalinization, 1956-64

• GULAG dismantled• But… Smashed Hungarian

revolution of 1956: – 2500 Hungarians killed– 13,000 wounded

Khrushchev’s 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.

Nikita Khrushchev (r. 1953-64)

• 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