Middle Years of the Cold War

Review

• Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam: divide Germany (and Europe)

• 1944-9: Greek Civil War

• 1948-9: Berlin Airlift• 1949: NATO• 1949: Soviet bomb• 1949: Chinese

Revolution• 1950-53: Korean War

Nikita Khrushchev

• March 1953: Stalin Died

• 1956: Khrushchev became premier

• “Secret Speech of 1956”

– Khrushchev denounced Stalin’s terror

– Denounced Stalin’s crimes against socialism

– Set stage for de-Stalinization of USSR

– Created hope for openness in eastern Europe

1956: Suez Crisis

• Background: UK controlled Suez Canal through leases since 1875

• Revolutionary Abdul Nasser moved Egypt toward left in early 1950s

• Soviet-supported Egypt recognized PRC and then nationalized canal.

• UK, France joined Israel in attacking Egypt, seizing canal

• UN, with US and USSR, forced UK and France to withdraw: western nations could not use force to achieve aims

• Humiliating for UK and France

Cartoon lampooning Australian prime minister Robert Menzies’s attempt to persuade Nasser to end the

nationalization of the canal

1956: Hungary

• 1956: Polish unrest led to minor concessions from Khrushchev, but Poland stayed within Soviet system

• Hungarians rioted in support of Poles: Moderate Nagy installed as Hungarian premier

• Nagy Called for– Removal of Soviet troops– Neutrality– Withdrawal from Warsaw

Pact• USSR invaded, crushing

Nagy government and uprising; US ignored Hungarian pleas for intervention

Hungarian nationalists wave Hungarian flag at start of uprising

Early 1960s

• 1957: Sputnik satellite launched

• 1960: US U2 plane and Gary Powers shot down; tried in USSR; served 21 months before exchange

• 1961– East German refugees

flooded West Berlin– Khrushchev ordered

construction of wall• 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis

– USSR withdrew missiles from Cuba

– USA withdrew missiles from Turkey

– Humiliation for Khrushchev• 1964: Khrushchev resigned,

replaced by Brezhnev

1968: Czechoslovakia

• 1968: Liberal climate around world

• Czech leader Dubcek experimented with liberal communism

– Discussion– Publications– Poetry, Plays, Arts

• Soviet troops seized Prague and installed new pro-Soviet government

• Brezhnev Doctrine: USSR had right to interfere to maintain communist governments