Cold war 2

Cold war 2

1. Berlin Blockade

   • Stalin> starve West Berlin into submission
   • Increased the division of Germany
   • Berlin airlift
     • All roads into west Berlin shut off
       • Continue to supple city by aircraft
         • 200,000
         • 1.5m tonnes
     • Stalins attempt to prove that a divided Germany wouldn't work> proven wrong
     • Propaganda success for America
       • Divided Germany 1949
   • Causes
     • Bizonia and Trizonia
       • 1947
       • view as act of betrayal
       • Bizonia> new currency
         • Strengthen western Europe

2. NATO

   • 1949
   • military alliance
     • all members agreed to go to war if any of them attacked
     • West Germany joined in 1955
       • Soviet Union felt threatened
         • Warsaw pact
           • 1955

3. Arms Race

   • Increased military spendings
   • Soviets developed an atomic bomb
     • beginning of nuclear arms race
     • Had 50 a-bombs by 1953
   • USA
     • developed a hydrogen bomb
       • 2k times more powerful than a-bomb
       • 1952
       • Then USSR developed h-bomb
     • West Germany received first nuclear weapons
       • 1953
     • 1955
       • 2000 nuclear war heads
       • ovr 1k b-29 bombers
     • more atoms bombs but weaker conventional army
       • Increased spending on c-a during Korean war
   • Both sides grew so powerful they feared each other and a war would be completely destructible

4. Krushcev

   • Stalin died in 1953
     • Speech slating Stalin
       • 1956
       • Stalin statues torn down, secret police less active
         • "destalinisation:
           • Tried to weaken Soviet influence
       • Revolts put down ending "thaw" in cold war
   • Relax soviet states grip
     • Signed Austrian state treaty
       • Pulled red army out of Austria
   • 'peaceful co-existence
     • each side allow each other to compete equally
     • raised political influence
     • solve problems with country in Soviets "sphere of interest"
     • Challenged the west
       • lead to u2 crisis
     • Election of John.F Kennedy