Origins of the Cold War Flashcards
All 26 cards in this deck
What was the Grand Alliance?
The wartime alliance of the USA, the USSR and Britain, formed in 1941 to defeat the Axis powers despite their ideological differences.
What did the Big Three agree about Germany at the Yalta Conference (February 1945)?
That Germany would be divided into four zones of occupation, run by the USA, the USSR, Britain and France.
What did Truman tell Stalin at the Potsdam Conference (July 1945)?
That the USA had successfully tested an atomic bomb, which made the negotiations at Potsdam far more tense.
What was the main ideological difference between the USA and the USSR?
The USA was a capitalist democracy with free elections and private business; the USSR was a one-party communist state with a state-controlled economy.
What was Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech (1946)?
A speech at Fulton, Missouri in March 1946 in which Churchill said an 'iron curtain' had descended across Europe; Stalin regarded it as a deliberate provocation.
True or false? The countries of Eastern Europe freely chose communist governments after 1945.
False. Stalin created satellite states — countries under Moscow's control — through rigged elections and the removal of opposition.
What was the Truman Doctrine (1947)?
Truman's promise that the USA would support free peoples resisting communism (containment), starting with $400 million of aid to Greece and Turkey.
What was the Marshall Plan (1947)?
American aid (around $13 billion) to rebuild Europe's economies; Stalin called it 'dollar imperialism' and forbade eastern European states from accepting it.
What was Cominform (1947)?
The Communist Information Bureau, set up by Stalin to co-ordinate Europe's communist parties under Moscow's control, in response to the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan.
What was Comecon (1949)?
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, set up by Stalin to co-ordinate trade and economic development in the Eastern bloc as an alternative to Marshall Aid.
What was NATO (1949)?
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation: a military alliance of the USA, Canada and western European states, in which an attack on one member counted as an attack on all.
How was Berlin divided after the Second World War?
Into four zones — American, British, French and Soviet — even though the whole city lay deep inside the Soviet zone of Germany.
What was the Berlin Crisis of 1948–49 (blockade and airlift)?
Stalin cut off road, rail and canal links to West Berlin in June 1948; the Western Allies flew in supplies for 11 months until Stalin lifted the blockade in May 1949.
Which two German states were created in 1949?
The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany, May 1949) from the three western zones, and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany, October 1949) from the Soviet zone.
What was the arms race of the late 1940s and 1950s?
The competition to build more powerful nuclear weapons: the USSR tested an atomic bomb in 1949, the USA a hydrogen bomb in 1952 and the USSR in 1953.
What was the Warsaw Pact (1955)?
A military alliance of the USSR and its eastern European satellite states, set up in response to West Germany joining NATO.
What changes did Nagy's government plan in Hungary in 1956?
Free elections, the withdrawal of Soviet troops, and Hungary leaving the Warsaw Pact to become a neutral state.
How did Khrushchev respond to the Hungarian Uprising in November 1956?
He sent Soviet troops and tanks into Budapest to crush it; thousands were killed, many Hungarians fled to Austria, and Kádár was installed as a loyal leader.
True or false? Nagy was arrested and executed after the Hungarian Uprising.
True. He was removed, arrested and executed in 1958, and Hungary was kept firmly inside the Warsaw Pact under Kádár.
What was the international reaction to the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956?
The UN condemned the invasion but the Soviet veto blocked action; the West protested and took in refugees but sent no military help, being distracted by the Suez Crisis.
True or false? Churchill represented Britain for the whole of the Potsdam Conference (July 1945).
False. Churchill was replaced partway through by Clement Attlee, who became Prime Minister after Britain's 1945 general election.
What was the Long Telegram (February 1946)?
A secret report sent to Washington by George Kennan, a US diplomat in Moscow. It warned that Stalin saw capitalism as an enemy, and that the USSR would build up its armed forces while working to split and undermine the Western powers.
What was the Novikov Telegram (September 1946)?
A secret report sent to Moscow by Nikolai Novikov, the Soviet ambassador in Washington. It claimed the USA wanted to dominate the world and was working to reduce Soviet influence in Europe.
What did the Big Three agree about Eastern Europe at the Tehran Conference (November 1943)?
That after the war the USSR would have a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe, and that Poland's borders would be moved westwards, securing the USSR's western border.
How did Khrushchev's de-Stalinisation in 1956 encourage unrest in the satellite states?
He attacked Stalin's methods in a speech, freed political prisoners and dissolved Cominform. Many in Eastern Europe took this as a sign they could have more freedom from Moscow, which encouraged protests in Poland and Hungary.
Who was Mátyás Rákosi?
Hungary's harsh Stalinist leader, put in power with Soviet backing. Discontent with his rule grew in 1956, and he was removed; after protests in Budapest in October, the reformer Imre Nagy became prime minister.