Increasing Cold War Tensions

After 1949

Concepts:

• Policy of Containment
• Superpower Rivalry
• Cold War Crises
 Discuss ways in which your countries are
“economically integrated” with other countries

- Largest trading partners?

- Possible political and social effects of economic integration?
- Pros and Cons of the relationship?
Western Economic Integration?
• A European political and economic union - to rebuild western Europe in the image of the US

• Deter people from communism

• Increase world trade

• Markets for US exports

• Eventually draw eastern Europe out of Soviet bloc

• Schuman Plan - European Coal & Steel Community (ECSC) - 1952

• Enable western allies to use Germany’s coals and steel for their own rebuilding (without the risk
of simultaneously rebuilding a strong and independent Germany)

• Welcomed by West German Chancellor Adenauer - partnership would secure West Germany
from the Soviet threat

• Britain did not fully participate (preferred NATO & control of its own coal & steel)
Eastern Bloc Consolidation
• Cominform - Communist Information Bureau

• to promote ideological unity among communist parties in Europe

• all Soviet bloc communist parties joined, as did the French and Italian communist parties

• main task was to complete the “Sovietization” of the satellite states

• began a peace movement in 1949 - Stalin wanted to appeal to people in the west (fearful and feeling the
strain of rearmament). Stalin hoped for a backlash against NATO and the FRG

• COMECON - Council for Mutual Economic Assistance - 1949

• Soviet response to the Marshall Plan

• Satellite states followed the Soviet pattern of economic development:

• Agriculture collectivised

• Central economic planning established

• Five Year Plans - foundations for large-scale industrialization

Soviet Control Over Eastern Europe
• Treaties of friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance signed between
USSR and satellite states.

• Mutual defense agreements

• Ban on joining a hostile alliance, such as NATO

• Recognition of equality, sovereignty, and non-interference in each other’s

internal affairs (However, the Soviet Union did interfere on a number of
occasions)

• Eastern bloc leaders often summoned to Moscow for instructions.

• Red Army garrisons maintained throughout eastern Europe (defense and to

ensure governments remained under Soviet control).

• Armed forces of the satellite states - formed an integrated system controlled

by the Soviets (with Soviet equipment and armaments).

• Same uniforms and Soviet military commanders were in charge

• Cult of Stalin - celebrated as the builder of Socialism & liberator of E. Europe

Soviet/Yugoslav Split, 1948
• Established their own communist government 

separate from the USSR

• After WWII, appeared to be a loyal client state

to Moscow, but Tito saw himself as an ally,
not a puppet.

• Yugoslav foreign policy decisions (regarding

Trieste, the Greek Civil War, and the idea of a
Balkan Federation) lead to conflict with the Josip Broz Tito
USSR.

• Stalin angry over Tito’s refusal to be a satellite

state 

- Yugoslavia expelled from the Cominform.

• Many unsuccessful attempts to assassinate

Tito.

• Economic blockade by all Cominform

countries.
Tito Turns To The West
• Tito abandoned his support for the 

Greek communists.

• Tito received arms and financial 


assistance from the US and Britain.

• Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey 


signed the Balkan Mutual Defense 

Pact 1954.

• Tito moderated the Soviet model of 


centralized control over the economy 

- worker management over factories. 

State retained control over banking 

system and industrial investment.

• Tito’s break revealed the fragility of the Soviet bloc. Encouraged NATO to find various ways to
weaken the Soviet position in eastern Europe.
Western Attempts To Destabilize Soviet Bloc?

• US and Britain - military and economic support to Yugoslavia.

• Operations by the US and Britain to remove Albania’s communist leader

(1949-1952).

• Filing human rights complaints to the UN about human rights abuses in the
Eastern bloc.

• Eastern European refugees helped financially - encouraged other to flee from

the Eastern bloc.

• Radio Free Europe (sponsored by the US government 


- broadcasted anti-Soviet propaganda to eastern Europe
1953 - New Leaders

• New US President - General Dwight D. Eisenhower

- tough talk on freeing peoples of eastern Europe and that
nuclear weapons were just another type of weaponry.
- However, he followed Truman’s policy of peaceful containment.

• New Soviet Leader - Nikita Khrushchev

-initially shared power with two others
-de-Stalinisation to dismantle the police state
-determined to improve living standards in the Soviet Union
-beginnings of a policy of detente
What is the Domino Theory?

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-QyOLHbXiI

Decolonisation Movements

• Why might the US see itself as the natural champion of the new emerging countries
in the developing world?

• Advantages to US support - financial.

• Fear of US economic imperialism.

• Examples of the US not being a “friend” to democratic states, using covert action:

• 1953 US supported the overthrow of democratically-elected Iranian Prime

Minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh (nationalised oil, US feared Soviet ties to Iran).

• 1954 US helped overthrow a democratically-elected leader in Guatemala (Jacobo

Arbenz). Nationalisation against American company, United Fruit Company.
Non-Aligned Movement

• 1955 Bandung Conference - 29 countries convened to create a new bloc distinct from East
and West.

• Leaders of the movement included Tito (Yugoslavia), Nasser (Egypt) and Nehru (India)

• Most Asian and African states committed to resisting colonialism and to promoting
cooperation.

• Power to influence the UN General Assembly, but had little weight with the more influential
Security Council.

• Increasing Soviet interest in the developing world.

• Video: Which countries stayed neutral during the Cold War?


- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaT1Juv-b6I
Crisis in the GDR - April-June 1953

• First Five-Year Plan launched - East German leader, Ulbricht aimed to increase heavy industries.

• In July 1952, workers’ individual production targets suddenly increased by 10% and there were
steep increases in food prices and pubic transport. Country stressed by ambitious economic
plans. Spring 1953, tension further increased with the arrest of non-communist politicians.

• Many people fled into West Berlin through the “open frontier”. Many skilled professionals and
workers fled.

• Embarrassed the Soviet leadership. Since the GDR was becoming expensive and difficult, some
Soviet leaders considered the idea of an united but neutral Germany. Other Soviet leaders clung
to the idea of gradually working towards a united but communist Germany.

• Message to Ulbricht to moderate targets and to slow down socialization but it was too late.
Some accused Ulbricht of deliberately provoking an uprising in the GDR to trigger Soviet armed
intervention (thus keeping him in power).
Crisis in the GDR - April-June 1953

• Strikes and riots broke out

throughout East Germany on 

June 16, 1953.

• Workers demanded pay increases 


and more political freedom.

• Soviet troops intervened, backed

by tanks. Throughout the summer, 

125 people killed.
Integration of FRG into NATO

• May 1955 - FRG entry into NATO

• Western allies recommitted to work towards a united Germany integrated into

democratic Europe.

• These treaties completed the post-war settlement of western Europe.

• How did this deepen the division of Europe?







 Historian Christoph Klessman referred to this as the “reactive mechanism”



 of the Cold War - the more the FRG was integrated into the west, the

 more tightly bound was the GDR into the Soviet bloc.
1955 Warsaw Pact

• Response of the USSR to the FRG and NATO

• There were negotiations between the USSR

and the west, but they were often deadlocked
over the issue of Germany

• Warsaw Pact - mutual defense agreement

between the USSR and eastern European
countries

• Unified military command structures

• Soviet military units stated in Eastern Europe




Kahoot: Increasing Cold War Tensions
 BBC/CNN Cold War Series, Part 7
De-Stalinization & the 1956 Hungarian Uprising
18:54 - - -
De-Stalinization

• Khrushchev’s Secret Speech “On the personality cult 


and its consequences” - condemned Stalin’s actions, 

but was careful to avoid events which may implicate himself.

• Supposed to be internal but was broadcasted on Radio Free Europe - raised

expectations from people in eastern Europe.

• Hardline communist leaders were against the speech. Mao Zedong (China), Kim Il
Sung (North Korea) and Ever Hoxha (Albania) were leaders who relied on their charisma
and personality to maintain support.

• For other leaders, the Speech appeared to advocate the idea of “different paths to
socialism”. Optimistic doctrine - believed satellite states wished to remain in the Soviet
bloc.
1956 Polish Crisis

• Riots - workers protesting - rejecting collectivization of agriculture and their

weakened economic state. Some workers were killed.

• Soviets were repressing Polish nationalism and the role of the Roman
Catholic Church.

• How was a full-scale Soviet invasion of Poland prevented?

Gomulka promised commitment to the Warsaw Pact and would maintain socialism as a
form of government. In return, Poland gained some autonomy with religion and social
aspects of government rule.
1956 Hungarian Uprising

• 20,000 Hungarians and 1500 Soviet troops

were killed.

• What was the role of Radio Free Europe?

• Confirmed Soviet dominance over their

satellite states.

• Poland showed Soviets would tolerate

some differences within the socialist world
but Hungary showed the Soviets would
not tolerate threats to Soviet security and
defection from socialist ideology.
 Reading:

1956 Crises
-take notes on the questions in the text

Over the next year, students should choose two Cold War Crises to specialize in:

Europe: Berlin Blockade 1948-49

Europe: Hungary 1956

Europe: Berlin Wall 1958-61

Americas: Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

Asia: Korean War 1950

Asia: Soviet-Afghan War 1979

Africa & Middle East: Suez Crisis 1956

Africa & Middle East: Angolan Civil War 1975

 An Introduction to Suez 1956
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF6Xsu18HHc
1956 Suez Crisis
• Egyptian President Nasser - embodied the “Bandung spirit”.

• Determined to play off the US against the USSR to extract concessions from both
powers. (Aswan High Dam)

• Arab nationalism, anti-Israel and ambitious social policies to modernize Egypt (education,
land redistribution, and nationalization of businesses). How to get more money?

• Nationalized the Suez Canal to raise funds for the Aswan High Dam

• Owned by an Anglo-French company. British military presence in Egypt was supposed to end
according to a 1936 treaty.

• This gave Britain, France and Israel the excuse to invade and to topple Nasser - all three states
wanted to remove him from power in Egypt. The US was not consulted and did not support its
allies in this attack.

• Khrushchev decided to take a bold stance in support of Nasser. USSR notified aggressors there
would be Soviet military retaliation against them for their actions in Egypt (Khrushchev’s “nuclear
bluff”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBNIrYU5G3M
Resolution of the Suez Crisis

• Crisis taken to the UN General Assembly who were dealing with the Hungarian Crisis but
Suez was seen as more important.

• The US saw this as an attempt by Britain and France to prop up their disintegrating
empires. America took clear steps against her allies (Britain, France & Israel) - threatened
unilateral sanctions and blocked the IMF from providing Britain with emergency loans.

• The US also wanted to prevent the Soviet Union from gaining further alliances with Arab
nationalists.

• Resolution for immediate withdrawal of all forces.

• Canadian Prime Minister, Lester B. Pearson, proposed the creation of an international

emergency force to enforce ceasefire in Egypt.

• UN “Blue Helmets” - peacekeeping troops to march under the UN flag.

Reading:

• “Significance of the Suez Crisis,” in Cold War: Superpower Tensions and Rivalries.

• Please take notes for discussion next class.