Cold War

• What term is used to describe the 'marriage of convenience' of the UK, the USA and the USSR- who all fought Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1945?

  Grand Alliance
• In which year did the Tehran Conference take place?

  1943
• What did Churchill and Roosevelt agree to do at the Tehran Conference?

  open a 'second front' in France against the Nazis
• In which yea did the Yalta Conference take place?

  1945
• What was agreed at the Yalta Conference? ( 4 points )

  Germany divided into 4 zones- United Nations would be set up- USSR would declare war on Japan once Germany was defeated- Poland would be in the Soviet sphere of influence but run on a broader democratic basis.
• In which year did the Potsdam Conference take place?

  1945
• Who was US president by the time of the Potsdam Conference?

  Harry Truman
• What was agreed at the Potsdam Conference? ( 4 points )

  Nazi war criminals to be prosecuted- Germany to be divided into 4 zones of occupation run by UK, USA, USSR and France- Berlin was also to be divided into zones of occupation- USSR was to receive 25% of the output from the other 3 occupied zones.
• Why did Truman think that he push Stalin around at the Potsdam Conference?

  USA had developed the atomic bomb by the summer of 1945 ( it would take the USSR until 1949 to match this! )
• Why did western capitalist leaders like Truman dislike communism?

  They said that capitalism enslaved people to the state.
• As a communist, why did Stalin dislike western capitalism?

  He believed that capitalism exploited the workers to make the rich even richer.
• Who sent the Long Telegram to President Truman warning that the USSR saw capitalism as a threat to capitalism that had to be destroyed and that the USSR was building up its military power?

  George Kennan
• In which year was the Long Telegram sent to President Truman?

  1946
• Who sent a telegram to Stalin, warning him that the USA wanted world domination and was building up its military strength?

  Novikov
• In which year did Novikov send his telegram to Stalin?

  1946
• Between 1947 and 1949 in which 6 countries did Stalin fix elections and undermine the rule of law in order to establish communist satellite states?

  Bulgaria-Romania-Poland-Czechoslovakia-Hungary- East Germany ( GDR )
• Why was Truman angry about the setting up of Soviet satellite states in eastern Europe?

  betrayal of the Yalta agreement in which Stalin had made promises about holding democratic elections- he saw it as evidence of Soviet expansion that possibly threatened western Europe, especially as Europe was devastated after WW2 and there were already strong communist parties in France and Italy.
• In which year did President Truman make his famous Truman Doctrine speech?


  1947
• What key points did Truman make in his Truman Doctrine speech?

  USA must try to contain ( hold back ) the spread of communism- and the USA should be prepared to provide money and troops to help governments combat communist takeovers.
• In which year was the Marshall Plan announced?

  1947
• How much money was passed onto western European countries such as the UK and France, as part of the Marshall Plan?

  $13 billion
• What was the name of the organisation set up by Stalin in 1947 to organise and control all the communist parties in Europe? It encouraged communist parties in western European countries to block Marshall Aid economic assistance...

  Cominform
• What was the name of the communist trading bloc- that included the eastern European satellite states-set up by Stalin in 1949?

  Comecon
• What was the name of the military alliance- based around the principle of collective security- set up to protect western European countries, the UK and Canada from a Soviet attack?

  NATO
• In which year was NATO established?

  1949
• Why was Stalin suspicious of the USA's intentions over Germany by 1948?

  he feared that Trizonia was part of a plan to divide richer western Germany from the poorer Soviet zone of occupation.
• What did Stalin do in June 1948, which began the first major Cold War flashpoint?

  blockaded the British, French and US zones of Berlin ( remember that Berlin itself was in the middle of the Soviet zone of Germany...)
• How did President Truman respond to the Berlin Blockade?

  he flew in supplies by plane to West Berlin ( Berlin Airlift )
• What were 3 consequences of the Berlin Blockade?

  division of Germany into West Germany ( FRG ) and East Germany ( GDR )- formation of NATO- perception that Stalin and the USSR were aggressive and threatening.
• In which year did the USA develop the first hydrogen bomb

  1952
• What term is used to describe the doctrine that a nuclear war must never be fought because it would destroy both superpowers?

  Mutually Assured Destruction ( MAD )
• Following West Germany's entry into NATO, what was the name of the Soviet-led military alliance that also included communist satellite states such as Poland, Hungary, the GDR, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria?

  Warsaw Pact
• In which year was the Warsaw Pact established?

  1955
• Following Stalin's death in 1953, who became the leader of the USSR?

  Khrushchev
• What was the name of the brutal Stalinist leader of Hungary before 1956?

  Rakosi
• In which year did the Hungarian Uprising take place?

  1956
• In which year did Khrushchev make his 'secret speech', criticising Stalin?

  1956
• Which liberal reformer became the communist prime minister of Hungary ( for a second time ) in 1956 after demonstrations in which statues of Stalin were pulled down?

  Nagy
• In 1956, what were the aims of Nagy as prime minister of Hungary?

  leave the Warsaw Pact ( strongly opposed by Khrushchev )- hold free, democratic elections
• What did Khrushchev do on 4th November 1956?

  sent 200 000 Soviet troops into Hungary to depose Nagy and restore order