cold war unit two

• Berlin Crisis


  1958 - 1961
• Problem of Berlin for the USSR

  • West Germany was democratic and capitalist, East Germany was Communist and tightly controlled by the USSR
  • Life was better for the people of West Germany, especially in West Berlin where people could move between the capitalist and communist parts
  • It was embarrassing for the USSR that East Berliners could so obviously and easily see the benefits of living under capitalism
• In 1949, following the Berlin Blockade, Germany and Berlin had been permanently divided in two
• Lack of Recovery in East Germany


  • Received very little help from the USSR and struggled to recover from the war
  • Living standards and wages were low, there were also frequent shortages of basic goods
• Lack of freedoms in East Germany

  • Many restrictions on what East Germans could say or do
  • Constantly monitored by the secret police and would be punished for any criticism of Communism
• In 1953 the USSR sent the army into East Germany to stop demonstrations, around 50 people were killed and thousands were sent to prison
• Migration crisis


  • Between 1949 and 1961 4 million East Germans fled to the West using West Berlin as an escape route
  • Many of the people who left were exactly the kind of people that East Germany needed to recover and be successful, such as skilled workers
• Khrushchev's Berlin Ultimatum


  Issued an ultimatum in 1958 saying the USA should leave West Berlin within six months or he would seize control of all transport routes into the city with the intention of making West Berlin communist
• Four Summit meetings


  1. Geneva May 1959

  2. Camp David September 1959

  3. Paris May 1960

  4. Vienna June 1961
• No agreement could be made between the two sides so the USSR decided to build a wall around West Berlin to stop East Germans from entering this section
• Berlin Wall


  • Almost impossible to cross as it was surrounded by barbed wire, guard towers, attack dogs and border guards
  • Prevented migration and divided the city until 1989
• Both sides accepted the Berlin Wall as a solution - for the USSR it stopped people leaving for capitalist West Germany, for the Americans it provided a solution to the crisis and meant that they did not have to give up their section of Berlin to the Soviets
• America took advantage of the propaganda that the USSR was having to prevent its people from leaving, and committed themselves to supporting West Berlin and keeping it non-Communist
• Cuban Missile Crisis


  1959 - 1962
• Before the Cuban Revolution of 1959 the USA had strong relations with Cuba and controlled most of the country's industries, with most of the money made by Cuban industry going to America
• Cuban Revolution, 1959


  • Fidel Castro led a revolution against the unpopular dictator General Batista, who was closely linked to the USA
  • Castro took control of all American owned businesses in Cuba, wanting the profits to go to the Cuban people
• In 1960 Cuba and the USSR signed an agreement which saw the USSR give Cuba $100 million of aid and begin to buy sugar from Cuba and provide machinery
• The USA launched the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, using around 1,400 Cuban exiles, but the invasion failed disastrously
• As a result of the invasion, Castro asked the USSR for more protection, and in May 1962 Khrushchev agreed to put nuclear missiles on Cuba
• Events in the Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962


  1. 16 October - Kennedy told the USSR was building nuclear missile bases on Cuba

  2. 18-19 October - Kennedy considered how to respond

  3. 20 October - Kennedy decided to use American boats to blockade Cuba

  4. 21 October - Kennedy made a broadcast to the American people

  5. 23 October - Khrushchev said his ships would ignore the blockade

  6. 25 October - Kennedy wrote to Khrushchev asking him to remove the missiles

  7. 26 October - Khrushchev replied saying he would remove the missiles if America removed its nuclear missiles from Turkey

  8. 27 October - An American U2 spy plane was shot down, but Kennedy sent a message to Khrushchev saying he would withdraw the missiles from Turkey

  9. 28 October - Khrushchev accepted this deal and the crisis came to an end
• Consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis

  • The Crisis almost led to a nuclear war and it made America and the USSR realise how dangerous the Cold War had become
  • The leaders realised they needed to improve relations between the two countries to avoid a situation like this happening again, leading to the establishment of a 'hotline' between Moscow and Washington, the Test Ban Treaty in 1963, the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, and the non-proliferation treaty 1968
  • Khrushchev was seen as weak for not keeping the missiles on Cuba and was forced to stand down as leader of the USSR in 1964
• Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968


  • The people in Czechoslovakia were unhappy with being a 'satellite state' of the USSR and living under Communism
  • In 1968 Alexander Dubcek became leader and introduced changes to allow more freedom and democracy, which the Soviet Union disliked
  • In August 1968 the Soviet Union sent tanks and the Red Army into Czechoslovakia to bring the country back under their control
• Consequences of the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia

  • For the USA, it showed they were unwilling to help 'satellite states' get rid of Communism
  • For the USSR, it strengthened their control over the satellite states and the Brezhnev Doctrine was announced, saying the USSR would prevent any attempts to 'relax' Communism by introducing democracy