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The Cold War
In this module you will learn:
1. FOUR causes of the Cold War [BARE].
2. NINE events which caused the Cold War.
3. FOUR decisions made at the Yalta Conference.
4. TWO decisions and THREE disagreements at the Potsdam conference.
5. The ‘salami tactics’ that brought Communists to power in Eastern Europe
6. FIVE causes [CABAN] and FOUR results [CENA] of the Berlin crisis, 1948–9.
7. FIVE ‘Berlin Airlift Facts’.
8. FOUR causes of the Korean War [CJD-Kim].
9. FIVE phases of the Korean War, 1950–53.
10. FOUR ways Khrushchev brought a ‘thaw’ in the Cold War.
11. THREE ways ‘peaceful co-existence’ worsened the Cold War.
12. EIGHT countries in the Warsaw Pact.
13. FIVE crises after 1955.
14. FIVE causes, the events and FOUR results of the Hungarian uprising
15. THREE reasons tension grew after 1957.
16. The events and FOUR results of the U2 crisis.
17. THREE causes, the events and FOUR results of the Berlin Wall
18. THREE causes, the events and FOUR results of the Cuban Missiles Crisis.
You might do the following written work:
A paragraph on ‘What was the Cold War?’
An essay: ‘Were the Yalta and Potsdam conferences different?’
A spidergram of the factors bringing Communists to power in eastern Europe, 1945–48.
An essay: ‘Why had the superpowers become suspicious of each other by March 1946,
when Churchill made his Fulton speech?’
Notes on events: ‘Truman Doctrine – Marshall Plan’.
Written notes on the causes of the Berlin Blockade.
A written description of the Berlin Crisis, Jan 1948–12 May 1949.
A spidergram of why the Berlin blockade failed.
Written notes on the causes of the Korean War.
An essay on the events of the Korean War.
Notes on how Khrushchev brought a thaw in the Cold War, and how he made it worse.
An essay: ‘Did superpower relations improve after 1953?’
Notes on the Polish Riots of 1956.
A mini-essay: ‘Why was there a revolution in Hungary in 1956?’
Notes on the events and results of the Hungarian Revolution.
A mini-essay: ‘The events which led to the Berlin Wall 1958–61.’
Notes on the results of the Berlin Wall.
A mini-essay: ‘Why was there a Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.’
Notes on the events and results of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Have you read:
N deMarco and R Radway, The Twentieth Century, pages 184–191.
T Rea and J Wright, International Relations, chapter 7.
Christopher Culpin, Making History, pages 185–192.
JF Aylett, The Cold War and After, pages 2–17.
2
James Mason, Modern World History to GCSE, pages 56–77.
Tony Howarth, Twentieth Century History, pages 235–244.
New Words
Allies: countries
working together.
Communists: believe
that industry should be
state-owned.
Soviet Union: the
Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics –
the USSR –– i.e.
communist Russia.
Dictator: a ruler who
has total power.
Stalin
Capitalists: believe
that property and
industry should be
privately owned.
Democracy: where
the people can elect
their own government.
Truman
Churchill
Tasks
1. Write a paragraph to
explain the meaning of
the term ‘Cold War’.
From Hot War to Cold War
During the Second World War, Britain and the USA
were allies of the Soviet Union, fighting together
against Germany. After the war, they became
enemies.
After Hiroshima, and particularly after 1949 when
Russia developed the atomic bomb, politicians realised
that another ‘hot war’ would kill all humankind – war
would be MAD (mutually assured destruction).
So they stopped short of war – the ‘cold war’.
They didn’t declare war. But they did everything to
oppose each other short of war.
It was called the ‘cold war’. It lasted until 1989.
3
Causes of the Cold War
1 Beliefs
• The Soviet Union was a Communist country, ruled
by a dictator, who cared little about human rights.
• The USA was a capitalist democracy which
valued freedom.
2 Aims
• Stalin wanted huge reparations from Germany, and a
‘buffer’ of friendly states to protect the USSR from
being invaded again.
• Britain and the USA wanted to protect democracy,
and help Germany to recover. They were worried
that large areas of eastern Europe were falling under
Soviet control.
3 Resentment about History
• The Soviet Union could not forget that in 1918
Britain and the USA had tried to destroy the Russian
Revolution. Stalin also thought that they had not
given him enough help in the Second World War.
• Britain and the USA could not forget that Stalin had
signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Germany in 1939.
4 Events
• Neither side trusted each other. Every action they
took (see Source B) made them hate each other more.
Who Caused the Cold War?
Russian historians blamed Churchill (the British Prime
Minister) and Truman (the American president, 1945–
1953). They said Truman and Churchill wanted to
destroy the USSR, which was just defending itself.
At first, western writers blamed the Soviet Union.
They said Stalin was trying to build up a Soviet empire.
Later, however, some western historians blamed the
USA. They said Truman had not understood how much
Russia had suffered in the Second World War.
Nowadays, historians think BOTH sides were to
blame – that there were hatreds on both sides.
Source A
It is useless to try to discover who made the
first move to break the alliance. It is
impossible to trace the first ‘broken promise’.
Written by the historian Isaac Deutscher, Stalin (1969).
Source B:
Events which
caused the Cold
War
Yalta Conference (Feb 1945)
Potsdam Conference (Jul 1945)
Salami tactics (1945–48)
Fulton Speech (Mar 1946)
Greece (Feb 1947)
Truman Doctrine (Mar 1947)
Marshall Plan (Jun 1947)
Cominform (Oct 1947)
Czechoslovakia (Feb 1948)
Tasks
2. Write a paragraph to
explain the meaning of
the term ‘Cold War’.
3. Copy, then learn the
five causes and nine
events which caused
the Cold War, so that
you know them ‘off by
heart’.
4. For each of the five
causes, explain how it
might have caused
relations between the
USA and the USSR to
become tense.
5. Working in twos, one
pupil plays the part of a
Russian historian, the
other a western writer of
the 1950s.
Talk about causes 1–4,
the ‘Russian historian’
arguing that the Cold
War was America’s
fault, and the ‘western
writer’ saying that it was
Russia’s.
4
The Big Three during the War
During the War, Britain and the USA were allies of
the Soviet Union, but the only thing that united them
was their hatred of Germany.
In 1945, the Big Three held two conferences – at
Yalta (February) and Potsdam (July) – to try to sort
out how they would organise the world after the war.
It was at these conferences that the tensions between
the two sides became obvious.
Yalta (Feb 1945)
On the surface, the Yalta conference seemed successful.
The Allies agreed:
1. Russia would join the United Nations.
2. divide Germany into four ‘zones’, which Britain, France,
the USA and the USSR would occupy after the war.
3. bring Nazi war-criminals to trial.
4. set up a Polish Provisional Government of National Unity
'pledged to the holding of free and unfettered elections as
soon as possible'.
5. help the freed peoples of Europe set up democratic and
self-governing countries by helping them to (a) maintain
law and order; (b) carry out emergency relief measures;
(c) set up governments; and (d) hold elections (this was
called the 'Declaration of Liberated Europe').
6. set up a commission to look into reparations.
But, behind the scenes, tension was growing. After the
conference, Churchill wrote to Roosevelt that ‘The
Soviet union has become a danger to the free world.’
Tasks
1. Source B shows the ‘Big Three’ smiling. Does this prove
that Britain, Russia and America were friends?
2. Write two reports of the Yalta Conference: one for the
British newspapers, the other for the British government.
Did you know?
Churchill was so worried about
Soviet domination of eastern
Europe that he tried to get the
British armies to advance
faster. In 1944, he dropped
British paratroopers behind
enemy lines at Arnhem – but
they were cut off and defeated
by the Germans.
This story was told in the
film, A Bridge Too Far.
Source A
The arrows show the Allied
armies advancing into
Germany in 1945 – the British
and Americans from the west,
the Russians from the east.
Notice the large areas of
eastern Europe which fell
under the control of Russia.
Source B
A British cartoon of 1945.
Churchill, Roosevelt (USA) and
Stalin are shown as doctors,
working together to heal the
world. Look at the faces of the
‘Big Three’; what do you notice?
Tasks
1. Describe the events
and decisions of the
Yalta and Potsdam
Conferences. Were
they different?
2. Using page 5,
especially Sources D
and E, explain why
Potsdam was less
successful than Yalta.
5
Source D
The Russians only
understand one
language - ‘how
many armies have
you got?’ I’m tired
of babying the
Soviets.
President Truman, writing in
January 1946
Source E
What is surprising
about the fact that
the Soviet Union,
worried about its
future safety,
wants
governments
friendly to it in
Finland, Poland
and Romania?
Stalin, writing in March 1946
A map of how Germany was
divided into zones.
A map of how Berlin was
divided into zones.
Source C
The thief labelled ‘Russia’ is caught stealing a bag labelled ‘territorial grabs’.
‘It’s alright – he’s with me’, Stalin assures Roosevelt, who meekly answers:
‘Oh, OK’.
Potsdam (July 1945)
At Potsdam, the Allies decided the post-war peace –
Potsdam was the Versailles of World War II
America had a new president, Truman, who was
determined to ‘get tough’ with the Russians. Also,
when he went to the Conference, Truman had just
learned that America had tested the first atomic bomb.
It gave the Americans a huge military advantage over
everyone else. Moreover, in March 1945, Stalin had
invited the non-Communist Polish leaders to meet him,
and arrested them.
So, at Potsdam, the arguments came out into the open.
The Conference agreed the following Protocols:
1. to set up the four ‘zones of occupation’ in Germany.
The government and laws and education ‘shall be
controlled to eliminate Nazi and militarist doctrines and
to make possible the development of democratic ideas.
2. to bring Nazi war-criminals to trial.
3. to recognize the Polish Provisional Government of
National Unity and hold 'free and unfettered elections as
soon as possible'.
4. Russia was allowed to take reparations from the Soviet
Zone, and also 10% of the industrial equipment of the
western zones as reparations. America and Britain
could take reparations from their zones if they wished.
But in fact the Allies had disagreed openly about:
1. the details of how to divide Germany.
2. the size of reparations Germany ought to pay.
3. Russian policy in eastern Europe.
Source D
In this ‘marriage of convenience’, the thought
that a divorce was inevitable had been in the
mind of each partner from the beginning.
Written by the historian Isaac Deutscher, Stalin (1969).
Tasks
3. Looking at the information on this spread, when do YOU
think the Cold War started? Read Source F; when did
Deutscher think it started?
6
Salami tactics: the Soviet take-over of eastern Europe
New Words
sinister: frightening, in an evil way.
totalitarian: where the government
has total power over the people.
imperialistic: wanting to build an
empire. Communists used it as an
abuse-word to describe the western
powers.
During 1946–47, Stalin made sure that
Communist governments came to
power in all the countries of eastern
Europe (the countries which the Soviet
Union had conquered in 1945).
The Communist description of this
process was ‘slicing salami’ –
gradually getting rid of all opposition,
bit-by-bit (see Source A). In this way,
Russia gained control of:
a. Albania (1945) – the Communists took power
after the war without opposition
b. Bulgaria (1945) – a left-wing coalition gained
power in 1945; the Communists then executed
the leaders of all the other parties.
c. Poland (1947) – a coalition government took
power in 1945, but the Communists forced the
non-Communist leaders into exile.
d. Hungary (1947) – see Source A.
e. Romania (1945–1947) – a left-wing coalition
was elected in 1945; the Communists
gradually took over control.
f. Czechoslovakia (1945–48) – a left-wing
coalition was elected in 1945. In 1948, the
Communists banned all other parties and killed
their leaders.
g. East Germany (1949) – the Russian turned
their zone of Germany into the German
Democratic republic in 1949.
Tasks
1. Read Source A, and make a spidergram
showing all the factors that helped
Communists take power in the countries of
eastern Europe.
2. Explain how the case of Hungary on Source
A illustrates ‘salami tactics’.
Source A
Hungary was invaded by the
Russians, and in 1945 the allies
agreed that Russian troops
should stay there. Stalin
allowed elections, and the non-
communists won a big majority.
However, some communists
were elected, led by a pro-
Russian called Rakosi.
Rakosi now started
demanding that groups which
opposed him should be banned.
If not, he hinted, the Russians
would take over the country.
Then he got control of the
police, and started to arrest his
opponents. He set up a sinister
and brutal secret police unit,
the AVH. Soon Rakosi had
complete control over Hungary.
Rakosi’s work was typical of
what was happening all over
eastern Europe.
The historian Jon Nichol, writing in 1990
Source B
Russia saw it as protecting herself from future attack.
The West saw it as empire-building.
Churchill’s Fulton
Speech
On 5 March 1946, Winston Churchill
gave a speech at Fulton in America.
He said ‘a shadow’ had fallen on
eastern Europe, which was now cut off
from the free world by ‘an iron
curtain’. Behind that line, he said, the
people of eastern Europe were ‘subject
to Soviet influence . . . totalitarian
control [and] police governments’.
Source C
Mr Churchill has called for a
war on the USSR.
Stalin, writing in the Russian newspaper Pravda on
13 March 1946.
Source D
. . . the Cold War set in. Churchill
had given his famous speech in
Fulton urging the imperialistic
forces of the world to fight the
Soviet Union. Our relations with
England, France and the USA were
ruined.
Nikita Khrushchev, writing in 1971. In 1946 he
was a member of the Soviet government.
