Cold War > Factor Summaries > Flashcards

Factor Summaries Flashcards

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1
Q

Six Key Questions that divide the course

A

1945-1949: Why did the Cold War start?
1949-1955: How did the Cold War become globalised and militarised?
1955-1963: Did ‘Peaceful Coexistence’ make a global nuclear war more or less likely?
1963-1972: How did internal crises and regional conflicts force the superpowers towards detente?
1972-1985: Why dd the era of Detente collapse into a ‘Second Cold War’?
1985-1991: Why did the Cold War end so suddenly and peacefully?

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2
Q

summarise the cold war tensions in 1945

A
  • change in dynamic with the death of Roosevelt
  • The United Nations
  • future of Germany eg france, reparations
  • Realisation of differences without a common enemy
  • economic/political/ideological differences
  • paranoia and distrust between nations
  • success of the american atomic bomb
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3
Q

summarise the reasons for the Asia-first aim of America

A
  • Protect Japanese markets
  • Influence of McCarthyism
  • Proxy war in Korea
  • ‘Fall’ of China
  • Stability in Europe
  • Russia bordering Asia- led to meddling
  • Post-Japanese power vacuum
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4
Q

Summarise the reasons why Germany become two states by 194

A
  • Berlin Blockade served as trigger
  • incompatible ideologies -> inevitable outcome
  • ACC failed to govern as one as the French were obstinate
  • Soviet demands for reparations were not met as coal from WG was given to France instead
  • currency reform- introduction of the Deustschmark in Trizonia and West Berlin
  • pasturalisation plan fails
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5
Q

Reasons for Mao’s victory

A
  • the Marshall mission
  • Arms embargo from US but Communist arms from the USSR
  • KMT corruption
  • Retreat of KMT to Taiwan
  • Guerilla warfare
  • support from peasantry/grassroots organisations
  • Ideology as a powerful motivation
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6
Q

Reasons for the Cold War in Asia (1945 onwards)

A
  • stability in Europe
  • post war economic crisis
  • US adherance to containment
  • power vacuum post Japan
  • post-colonial movements
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7
Q

Consequences of Korean War

A
  • Set the blueprint for future proxy wars such as Vietnam
  • Stalemate led to reversion back to the 38th parallel
  • Change in the dynamic of containment towards rollback
  • Military-industry complex (stagnates economy & heavy industry relies on military/war)
  • Long term impact on Koreans today
  • Paranoia in America increases McCarthyism/the Second Red Scare
  • Closer relations between China and USSR in some ways
  • Increased US presence and focus on Asia
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8
Q

Reasons for the rise in McCarthyism

A
  • Fear of external enemy becoming internal
  • Spies in state department for ‘fall of China’ with the Marshall Mission
  • Political expediency throigh partisanship (Republicans made Truman look weak)
  • Federalist fears of corrupt central government
  • The HUAC (the House of UnAmerican Activities Committee)- became a standing committee in 1946
  • Actual cases of infiltration increased credibility with the Rosenbergs and Alger Hiss
  • Soviet atomic programme achieved a nuclear weapon 2 years early
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9
Q

Methods for the takeover of Eastern Europe

A
  • rigged elections
  • stalinist puppets
  • red army occupation
  • facade of democracy
  • purge of ‘fascists’
  • collectivisation
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10
Q

reasons for the USSR’s takeover of Eastern Europe and the speed up

A
  • conquest for ideology
  • shield from capitalist ideology
  • economic compensation
  • security of buffer states
  • Marshall Plan, failure to extract reparations and influence of Yugoslavian leader Tito serve as catalysts
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11
Q

why was there conflict in Vietnam

according to the textbook

A
  • Ho Chi Minh’s leadership
  • Diem’s failures
  • The NLF
  • US support for Diem’s ailing regime
  • Kennedy’s flexible response strategy
  • USA and containment
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12
Q

Key factors in the emergence of the Cold War until 1955
(Taken off of BBC Bitesize, hence the dates)

A
  • ideological differences
  • disagreements over Germany
  • crisis over Korea
  • the nuclear arms race
  • superpower foreign policy
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13
Q

What factors brought about detente?

A
  • Nuclear stalemate/MAD
    Neither side could win a nuclear war because they had nuclear parity, so MAD was assured.
  • Domestic economies
    The Soviet economy was struggling, and required external support and trade which detente encouraged, such as grain transfers from America. At home, people wanted less tense relations so spending would decrease –> influenced policy outcomes
    -US Policy
    The US had social pressures from home at the end of the Vietnam War to cut foreign spending down. Kissinger’s idea of LINKAGE said that with better relations with the Soviets, the USSR would be more willing to negotiate with Vietnam.
    –> need to escape from Vietnam
  • Leadership
    Both Brezhnev and Nixon were more practical than ideological, meaning that detente was more successful. This declines under the Carter administration.
  • Ostpolitik
    Under Willy Brandt as chancellor in West Germany, Ostpolitik began which welcomed more diplomacy between East and West, resulting in a joint Non-Aggression pact (1970) and a treaty with Poland recognising the Oder-Neisse border the same year. Reduced tension in Europe and changed the mood for better diplomacy.
  • Sino-Sovet Split
  • Impact of Cuban Missile Cuban crisis on MAD
  • Revamped form of containment (keep weapons low - less confrontations/more focus on spheres of influence)
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14
Q

factor headings for each overarching inquiry question

  1. 1945–1949: Why did the Cold War start?
A
  • Yalta Conference
  • Roosevelt’s death
  • Truman’s succession
  • Attlee replaces Churchill
  • Potsdam
  • Stalin’s Bolshoi Theatre speech
  • Iron Curtain speech
  • Kennan’s Long Telegram
  • Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  • Salami tactics in Eastern Europe
  • Greek Civil War
  • Truman Doctrine
  • The Marshall Plan
  • Cominform created
  • Trizonia created
  • Berlin Blockade
  • Berlin Airlift
  • Formation of NATO
  • Soviet atomic bomb test
  • Communist victory in China
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15
Q

factor headings for each overarching inquiry question

2.1949–1955: How did the Cold War become globalized and militarized?

A
  • NSC-68
  • Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship
  • Defensive Perimeter Strategy
  • McCarthyism and the Red Scare
  • North Korean invasion of South Korea
  • UN “Police Action” in Korea
  • Inchon Landings
  • Chinese intervention in Korea
  • MacArthur’s dismissal
  • Panmunjom Armistice
  • “Reverse Course” in Japan
  • San Francisco Peace Treaty
  • US Hydrogen bomb test
  • Eisenhower’s “New Look”
  • Massive Retaliation doctrine
  • Dien Bien Phu
  • Geneva Conference on Indochina
  • SEATO formed
  • FRG joins NATO
  • Warsaw Pact formed
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16
Q

factor headings for each overarching inquiry question

3.1955–1963: Did ‘Peaceful Coexistence’ make a global nuclear war more or less likely?

Study These Flashcards
A
  • Khrushchev’s Secret Speech
  • De-Stalinization
  • Austrian State Treaty
  • Geneva Summit 1955
  • Hungarian Uprising
  • Suez Crisis
  • Launch of Sputnik
  • Soviet ICBM development
  • Gaither Report
  • Berlin Ultimatum 1958
  • Khrushchev’s visit to the USA
  • U-2 Spy Plane incident
  • Paris Summit 1960
  • Yuri Gagarin’s space flight
  • Bay of Pigs invasion
  • Vienna Summit 1961
  • Berlin Wall construction
  • Checkpoint Charlie tank standoff
  • Cuban Missile Crisis
  • The “Thirteen Days”
17
Q

factor headings for each overarching inquiry question

4.1963–1972: How did internal crises and regional conflicts force the Superpowers toward Détente?

Study These Flashcards
A
  • Moscow Test Ban Treaty
  • Washington-Moscow Hotline
  • Kennedy’s assassination
  • Khrushchev’s removal
  • Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
  • Operation Rolling Thunder
  • US combat troop committal to Vietnam
  • Cultural Revolution in China
  • Six-Day War
  • Glassboro Summit
  • The Tet Offensive
  • Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
  • Prague Spring
  • Brezhnev Doctrine
  • Sino-Soviet border clashes
  • Nixon’s Vietnamization policy
  • Nixon Doctrine
  • Invasion of Cambodia
  • Treaty of Moscow
  • Nixon’s visit to China
18
Q

factor headings for each overarching inquiry question

5.1972–1985: Why did the era of Détente collapse into a ‘Second Cold War’?

Study These Flashcards
A
  • SALT I Agreement
  • Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
  • Basic Principles Agreement
  • Nixon’s visit to Moscow
  • East-West Basic Treaty
  • Paris Peace Accords (Vietnam)
  • Yom Kippur War
  • Watergate scandal
  • Nixon’s resignation
  • Vladivostok Summit
  • Fall of Saigon
  • Helsinki Accords
  • Angolan Civil War
  • Ogaden War (Ethiopia)
  • SS-20 missile deployments
  • Recognition of the PRC
  • Iranian Revolution
  • Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
  • Carter Doctrine
  • Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI)
19
Q

factor headings for each overarching inquiry question

1985–1991: Why did the Cold War end so suddenly and peacefully?

Study These Flashcards
A
  • Gorbachev elected General Secretary
  • Gorbachev’s “New Thinking”
  • Glasnost
  • Perestroika
  • Geneva Summit 1985
  • Chernobyl disaster
  • Reykjavik Summit
  • INF Treaty signed
  • Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan
  • Gorbachev’s UN speech 1988
  • Sinatra Doctrine
  • Solidarity legalised in Poland
  • Opening of the Hungarian border
  • Fall of the Berlin Wall
  • Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia
  • Malta Summit
  • German Reunification
  • CFE Treaty signed
  • August Coup in Moscow
  • Dissolution of the Soviet Union
20
Q

What factors led to the collapse of the USSR?

Study These Flashcards
A
  • Problems inherited from the Brezhnev regime (primarily economic and stirrings of dissent)
  • Gorbachev’s economic reforms
  • Gorbachev’s political reforms
  • Nationalism in the USSR
  • The war in Afghanistan
  • The end of Communism in Eastern Europe
  • The wider Cold War including Reagan’s Star Wars Programme etc.
21
Q

Reasons for increased Cold War tensions by 1953

Study These Flashcards
A
  • America’s key role in the United Nations created Soviet resentment
  • McCarthyism/the Red Scare increased Westerns fears around communism, prompting harsher political action
  • Stalin’s repressive rule hardened anti-Western hostility in the USSR and Soviet Bloc
  • America’s position as the ‘world’s polcieman’ stirred up a Soviet fears of America and impacted American policy
  • In 1949, the USSR tested their first atomic bomb
  • In China 1949, Communists won the Chinese Civil War
  • In 1950 China & USSR allied
  • In 1950, the Korean War began, created fears around increasing communism in Asia and the domino effect
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