Cold War

International Politics, GOV 207
Cold War

World War II Alliance
    United States:               Franklin Delano Roosevelt
                                            Harry S. Truman
    Soviet Union:                Josef Stalin
    United Kingdom:         Winston Churchill
                                            Clement Attlee
    France:                            Charles de Gaulle
    China:                             Chiang Kai-shek

The creation of the United Nations
was one of the last acts of cooperation.

Cold War
arose over many issues.

1. Long history of mutual suspicion ever since the Russian Revolution.
2. Disputes during World War II over a Second Front.
3. Late Entry into the war against Japan and frozen out of the post war administration.
4. US drops nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, to end World War II in Pacific Theater.
5. US Nuclear Monopoly
6. Rival Governments for Poland
7. Administration of Occupied Germany
8. Creating Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe liberated from the Nazis by the Red Army
9. Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech in Fulton, Missouri (March 5, 1946)

Who caused it.
    1. Moscow's Fault.
    2. Some Revisionists blame Washington.
    3. Ideological Conflict between Communism and Democracy (Capitalism)
    4. Leaders Fault.
            a. Roosevelt dead
            b. Churchill defeated at polls
            c. Truman and Attlee inexperienced
            d. Stalin paranoid
    5. System's to Blame
             Only two superpowers. Bipolarity breeds rivalry. Security dilemma.
    6. It was all a misunderstanding. Mirror images. Defensive behavior interpreted as aggression.

Crisis in Iran, Greece, and Turkey
Coup in Czechoslovakia, February 1948
Currency Reform in Western Sectors of Germany
Berlin Blockade of all ground routes, June 1948
Berlin Airlift, June 1948 to May 1949

Truman Doctrine, March 12, 1947
Marshall Plan
Economic Cooperation Act of 1948
North Atlantic Treaty Organization formed in April 1949

United States nuclear monopoly ends in September 1949

NSC-68. National Security Council document on how to deal with the
spread of international communism.

Chinese Civil War is finally won by Communists in October 1949
        Nationalists or Kuomintang (KTM) Party led by Chiang Kai-shek
         Communists led by Mao Zedong formed PRC, People's Republic of China.
        Chiang Kai-shek fled to the island of Taiwan (Formosa)

Korean War: 1950 - 1953
Korea had been a Japanese colony. After the war, it was divided between
Soviet and American occupation troops along the 38th parallel.
    North Korea: Kim Il-Sung (led till his death in 1994)
    USSR withdrew its troops from North in January 1949.
    US. withdrew its troops from South in Summer 1949.
June 25, 1950, North Korea attacked South Korea.
    United Nations authorizes intervention in Korea to repulse aggression.
    USSR was boycotting Security Council meetings at the time.
    UN authorized US led police action.
    Douglas MacArthur landed American forces at the Inchon Peninsula behind
North Korean lines in September 1950. He routed the North Koreans, pushed them
back to the 38th parallel, and then persuaded President Harry Truman to push them
toward the Yalu River, the border between Korea and China. Chinese "volunteers"
intervened and pushed U.S. back toward the 38th parallel. Douglas MacArthur is
dismissed by Truman in April 1951. War becomes a stalemate near where it had begun.

January 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower is elected. Warns Koreans of possible use
of atomic bomb if armistice is not signed. Cease fire is signed in July 1953.

Stalin dies March 5, 1953 at age 73 of natural causes.

Relaxation, 1953 - 1957

1953
    Dwight Eisenhower takes over as President from Harry S. Truman.
    John Foster Dulles becomes his Secretary of State. Talks in a highly moralistic tone about rolling back Communism. Spreads false hopes in Eastern Europe.

    German uprising in East Berlin

Iran. CIA engineered coup ousts Iranian Premier Muhammed Mossadegh and replaces him with Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi

1954
CIA staged coup in Guatemala ousts President Jacobo Arbanz and replaced him with Castillo Armas,

Vietnamese Viet Minh rebels defeated the French at the battle of Dien Bien Phu. Ho Chi Minh. General Giap won victory. U.S. asked for military help. Eisenhower refused. French withdraw from Indochina. Two re-groupment areas established: one for Vietminh in North and one for French and their supporters in South. Becomes de facto North and South Vietnam.

1955
Geneva Summit

1956
    Nikita Khrushchev's Speech to the 20th Communist Party Congress denounces the cult of personality of Stalin's. Speech is long kept secret in the Soviet Union. Eases up internal controls somewhat.
    Polish uprising, 1956
    Hungarian uprising, 1956

    Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized Suez Canal. Led to Israeli, British, and French attack on Egypt. US and USSR oppose British and French action. Humiliating withdrawal by British and French. Anthony Eden of Britain resigns.

    European ideas of nationalism, democracy, and political sovereignty have undermined the colonial powers' legitimacy.

To the Brink, 1957 - 1964

I have not been able to track the precise occasion when Nikita Khrushchev uttered
the notorious phrase: "We will bury you." The closest I have come is a reference
from the U.S. Department of Energy. It would appear that the statement was made
at a Diplomatic Reception in Moscow in November 1956. [On March 16, 2004, I received an
Email from Bill Miller that Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971), Soviet Premier, made the
following remark on Nov. 18, 1956, to Western diplomats the Kremlin in Moscow
and that it was quoted in the Times of London on Nov. 19, 1956 as follows:
Quotation: "Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you."

Another famous episode of confrontation was the Nixon-Khrushchev Kitchen debate
in 1959 in Moscow.

The shoe banging episode took place at the United Nations General Assembly meeting
on October 12, 1960.

_____________________________________________________

http://www.em.doe.gov/timeline/nov1956.html

November 1956

During a diplomatic reception at the Kremlin, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev told Western diplomats:

: "About the capitalist states, it doesn't depend on you whether we (Soviet Union) exist. If you don't like us, don't accept our invitations, and don't invite us to come to see you. Whether you like it our not, history is on our side. We will bury you."

In 1959, while attending the American National Exhibition in Moscow, Vice-President Nixon, recalling Khrushchev's prediction that our grandchildren will live under communism, stated:

: "Let me say that we don't object to his saying this will happen. We only object if he tries to bring it about... We prefer our system. But the very essence of our belief is that we do not and will not try to impose our system on anybody else. We believe that you and all other peoples on this earth should have the right to choose the kind of economic or political system which best fits your particular problems without any foreign intervention."

Both Khrushchev's and Nixon's statements fueled the anti-Communist sentiment prevalent in the United States.

Last Updated 11/16/1999 (mes)

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/n/q115027.html

cites Nikita S. Khrushchev as saying: "I once said, "We will bury you," and I got into trouble with it.
Of course we will not bury you with a shovel. Your own working class will bury you."
It does not state when Khrushchev commented on his earlier comment.
But at least it confirms that he made it.

1957
Sputnik launched by Russians. October 4, 1957

1959
Fidel Castro ousted Fugencio Bastista of Cuba in January 1959

John Foster Dulles dies in May; replaced by Christian Herder as U.S. Secretary of State.

Doctrine of Massive Retaliation.

Vice President Richard M. Nixon visits Russia for the opening of an American trade fair (U.S. Trade and Cultural Fair in Sokolniki Park). Arrives on July 23, 1959, visits Poland on August 2, returns to U.S. on August 5. During this trip is the famous kitchen debate. (See http://history.acusd.edu/gen/20th/kitchendebate.html)

Khrushchev visits the US in September. Arrives Sept 15, 1959 and leaves 13 days later.
Gives speech at United Nations.

1960
    US election year. Kennedy versus Nixon.

    U-2 Spy Plane shot down over Russia. Francis Gary Powers, the pilot, is captured alive.
Eisenhower takes responsibility.

Paris Summit meeting between Eisenhower and Khrushchev is bitter.

Eisenhower's scheduled visit to Soviet Union is called off.

Nikita Khrushchev arrives in US on September 19, 1960 to attend the 20th United Nations General Assembly meeting, which opens on September 20, 1960. UN admits 13 new African states and Cyprus. UN Membership is at 96. Khrushchev stays for 25 days.

Khrushchev denounces Dag Hammarskjold, UN Secretary General, and asks him to resign. Proposes a troika (three person) structure to replace a single Secretary General on Sept. 22.

Khrushchev bangs his shoe on desk at the UN General Assembly Session on October 12, 1960.
(See New York Times for October 13, 1960 [has picture] and Time Magazine for October 24, 1960 at page 34.
[Haven't been able to find picture on WEB])

Presidential Election Campaign. John F. Kennedy against Richard M. Nixon.
Kennedy alleges Missile Gap.

John F. Kennedy elected President on Nov. 4, 1960. Kennedy defeated Nixon
34,227,096 to 34,108,546.

1961
    Kennedy Inauguration
    Flexible response replaces doctrine of massive retaliation
    Summit between Kennedy and Khrushchev leads the Soviet leader to underestimate the young and seemingly inexperienced American President.

August 13, 1961 Berlin Wall is put up.

1962
Cuban Missile Crisis--October. Closest world came to World War III during the era of Cold War.

1963
Ngo Dinh Dien, President of South Vietnam, is killed in a coup approved by the United States. Kennedy is shocked. 16,000 American troops are in South Vietnam at the time of Kennedy's death. In 1968, the maximum number of 550,000 is reached.

November 22, 1963 John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas, by Lee Harvey Oswald. Lyndon Banes Johnson becomes President.

Peaceful Competition, 1964 - 1968

1964
Khrushchev overthrown. Leonid Breshnev and Aleksey Kosygin assume control of the Soviet Union.

Johnson elected U.S. President in a landslide election again Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona. Johnson campaign used Atomic bomb picture as propaganda against Goldwater. Goldwater is pictured as an extremist. Goldwater himself nourishes that idea by stating that "extremism in the defense of virtue is no vice." Johnson promises not to send American boys to do what Asian boys should do for themselves. 89th Congress is elected.

China explodes an Atomic bomb in October

1965
U.S. Marines are used to overthrow Juan Bosch in Dominican Republic.

Tonkin Gulf Resolution used by Johnson to escalate war in Vietnam.
Vietnam War begins in earnest.

Detente, 1969 - 1979

Cold War Returns, 1979 - 1985
   Carter and Human Rights
   Breshnev's Last Years
   Muslim Fundamentalism
    Iranian Hostage Crisis
    Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
    Reagan, The Evil Empire, and the Reagan Doctrine

Cold War Ends, 1985 - 1991
    Mikhail Gorbachev
    Perestroika
    Glasnost
    The Satellite States assert their Independence
        Poland
        Hungary
        Czechoslovakia
        Germany: The Wall Falls
Romania
    The Soviet Union Collapses
The Baltic Republics
The Russian Federation Elects a President
The August 1991 Coup Fails

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