COLD WAR INTENSIFIES

• WARSAW PACT, 1955

  • Created in May 1955 in response to West Germany joining NATO.
  • The Warsaw Pact was a military alliance based on 'Collective Security'
  • If one member was attacked, all members would defend it
  • Under command of the USSR
  • The presence of two military alliances in Europe increased the likelihood of war and led to both groups increasing their military power
• ARMS RACE - ICBM

  • Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles in 1957.
  • The USA wanted to develop nuclear technology that could hit targets from a further distance away
  • In 1957, the USA created the Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)
  • ICBMs carried nuclear warheads - missiles that exploded using nuclear fission or nuclear fusion
  • ICBMs could hit targets over 2,700 miles away
  • Just a few months after the USA created ICBMs, the Soviet Union had developed the same technology
• HUNGARIAN UPRISING, 1956 - 58(p1)

  • In October 1956, there were violent protests in Hungary's capital, Budapest
  • This led to the USSR restoring order in Hungary and Khrushchev appointed Imre Nagy as leader. He believed he would solve the unrest as people liked him.
• IMRE NAGY'S REFORMS

  • He ended the one-party communist state as he believed that there should be non-communist politicians
  • Nagy persuaded Khrushchev to remove Soviet troops from Budapest
  • He released political prisoners, many were innocent.
  • Hungary to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact
  • Khrushchev could not allow this, he did not want any more independent communist states in Eastern Europe. It could prompt other satellite states to do the same.
• KHRUSHCHEV'S REACTION

  • Khrushchev sent an invasion force of 1,000 tanks to Hungary on Nov 1956
  • Nagy and his supporters fought the invasion and begged the West for military assistance
  • Soviet invasion force brutally attacked the Hungarians (estimated 20,000 deaths)
  • Khrushchev ended the uprising and placed Kadar as leader with a strong communist government.
  • July 1958, the Soviet government announced that Nagy had been executed.
• USA'S RESPONSE

  • Ultimately, Eisenhower decided not to give military support to Nagy
  • He did not believe the cause was worth risking a nuclear war for
  • Hungary did receive some support from the West
  • European members of NATO accepted Hungarian refugees
• IMPACT OF HUNGARIAN UPRISING

  • Relations between the USSR and the USA worsened
  • Khrushchev's suppression of Hungary had shocked and appalled the West
  • Khrushchev's actions tightened the Warsaw Pact
  • The Hungarian Uprising ruined the USA's reputation as a protector of freedom 
  • The US had an opportunity to help a country free themselves from communism. They did not take the opportunity
  • The event proved that the USA did not back its words with actions
  • CONSEQUENCES: USA's reputation as a protector of freedom is ruined, Khrushchev's tighter control over the Eastern Bloc through the Warsaw Pact