3 Crises

1953 riots against gov - Soviet gov sent armed forces to restore order, by 1958 - 3 million East Germans crossed to West - over 1/6 population, many skilled workers knew they would earn higher salaries - eg. engineers technicians and teachers

wanted whole of Berlin to be in East - knew West would have to be forced to leave, Nov 1958 - demanded that West should officially recognise East as independent country

still thought Germany could be reunited - didn't want to recognise East as separate country

27 Nov 1958

Berlin demilitarised and Western troops withdrawn, 'free city' - city with its own independent gov, West had 6 months or Khrushchev would hand over control of all routes into Berlin to East German gov

forced them to talk to East German authorities - forcing them to accept it as a legitimate nation

May 1959

both sides made proposals but no agreement, Eisenhower invited Khrushchev to USA for further talks

Sept 1959

presidential ranch, Eisenhower and Khrushchev met face to face for 1st time, Soviets agreed to withdraw Berlin Ultimatum, agreed to further talks in Paris next summer

May 1960

1 May 1960 - Soviets shot down American U-2 spy plane

USA claimed it was a weather plane but pilot Gary Powers admitted to being a spy, Eisenhower embarrassed but refused to apologise - spying operations unavoidable

Khrushchev walked out of meeting - ended with no decisions made

June 1961

Jan 1961 - before Vienna

thought JFK was inexperienced in foreign affairs, knew JFK's reputation had been damaged in failed invasion of Cuba at Bay of Pigs in the same year, took a tough approach and renewed Berlin Ultimatum

refused to make any concessions - meeting ended with no final decisions on Berlin, increased military spending by over $2 billion - USA seemed prepared to fight over Berlin

more East Germans defecting in case Khrushchev decided to close border - one day Aug 1961 - 40,000 crossed

Aug 1961 - East German troops put up barbed wire fence at first, soon began work on 165km concrete wall

43 km section cut through Berlin, 'no man's land' - booby traps, barbed wire, minefields and lookout towers

cut through streets and buildings - one woman jumped onto a mattress in West Berlin but later died of injuries, West fire service tried to catch people in blankets, est 130 people killed, Peter Fechter

shot whilst crossing and fell back into East Berlin - lay dying for 45 mins

West had been hoping for reunification - initial outrage, some protests in East - quickly quashed by secret police, refugee problem had strained relations since 1945

Khrushchev had to abandon plans to unite Germany under Soviet control, people had to be 'locked' in

stopped refugees, showed West that communism would survive in Berlin

Soviets closed border without consultation, people couldn't escape communism

Khrushchev forced to accept Western control in West Berlin, West Berlin became symbol of freedom and defiance against communism

1963

thousands came - threw rice, flowers and shredded paper, speech praised Western freedom and compared with communism, 'Ich bin ein Berliner' - I am a citizen of Berlin

Jan 1959

group of revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara overthrew Fulgencio Batista (head of pro-American Cuban gov)

American businesses invested, lots of land owned by Americans, areas of industry/networks controlled by Americans, important investor in Cuba's main export - sugar, 145km from USA mainland

oil refineries, electricity and telephone networks, railways

reluctantly recognised new gov but refused to provide economic aid unless Cuba followed guidelines set out by International Monetary Fund, Oct 1960 - Eisenhower banned all trade with Cuba, Jan 1961 - broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba

nationalist - didn't want US involvement in Cuban economy, took all land owned by foreigners - paid compensation but US gov refused to recognise scheme - Castro did it anyway, 1960 agreement with USSR

Khrushchev buy Cuban sugar, provide economic aid, secret clause - Cuba recieve arms

agreed by CIA and Eisenhower - group of Cuban exiles trained to overthrow Castro - would look like Cuban counter-revolution - JFK agreed

April 1961

1,400

limited CIA training couldn't compete with experienced Cuban revolutionary army, to present as a Cuban effort USA couldn't send ground forces/air strikes, Cuban gov found out about plan - 20,000 soldiers, many ordinary Cubans happy with Castro - USA and exiles had expected their support

hypocritical - had condemned Soviets in Hungarian uprising, Castro showed wrecked planes etc to journalists around the world - couldn't deny involvement, Soviets pointed out people were happy under Castro - didn't like pro-US and corrupt Batista

Castro declared himself communist and asked Khrushchev to help defend Cuba from future US attack, Sept 1961 - Khrushchev publicly announced he would provide arms to Cuba, JFK warned that he couldn't allow Soviets to use Cuba as base to threaten USA - Khrushchev initially denied

Oct 1962 - US spy plane took pictures showing that Soviets were building missile launch sites in Cuba, missiles could reach most US cities, intelligence agencies informed JFK that fleet of Soviet ships was already on its way with more supplies

NATO had missiles based in Turkey - near USSR, Berlin wall presented as a failure by many Soviet critics, if US overthrew Castro - another defeat for communism

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara advised missiles would be ready to fire in 2 weeks, issues in Berlin at same time, upcoming elections to congress Nov - JFK's democratic party might do badly

JFK called together an Executive Committee (ExComm) - met every day

after several days of discussion JFK decided to set up naval blockade around Cuba - 'quarantine' to avoid being considered an act of war, JFK appeared on TV that evening, prepared 54 bombers each with 4 nuclear warheads in case of war

Khrushchev ordered Soviet ships to turn around - USA didn't know and ships only turned around next day

researchers at Harvard worked out that if USA and USSR had fired nuclear missiles at each other - 1 million from each would have died

few days after ships turned around Khrushchev sent telegram - offered to remove missiles from Cuba if USA agreed not to invade

day after first (before JFK could respond) - Soviets would only remove missiles if USA removed theirs from Turkey

U-2 spy plane shot down over Cuba - Hawks in USA demanded military action - JFK refused

ignored 2nd and agreed to proposal not to invade Cuba, Robert Kennedy secretly met Soviet ambassador in Washington and agreed to remove Turkish missiles, Khrushchev sent his agreement the next day (28 Oct)

'hotline' between Washington and Moscow set up June 1963, 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - agreed not to share Nuclear tech with other countries

strong leader - challenged Khrushchev and Hawks, agreement over Turkey kept secret, popularity gave him more confidence in dealings with USSR

claimed to be winner of dispute, military felt they had been forced into humiliating withdrawal, big factor in his dismissal 1964

1948 - Stalin supported coup that removed non-communists and set up pro-Soviet gov under Klement Gottwald

censorship and no freedom of speech, 1949-54 purges on Stalin's orders, 1966 student demonstrations

first secretary of Czech communist party

1968

committed to Warsaw Pact and devoted communist, 'socialism with a human face' - citizens should be able to speak out against decisions they don't like

censorship relaxed and gov criticism allowed, more power for trade unions, government control of industry reduced, more power for regional govs, trade with West increased, multi-party elections

refusing to attend Warsaw Pact meetings

Tito refusing to accept control from Moscow

asked Dubcek not to go too far with reforms, ordered Warsaw Pact troops to carry out manoeuvres in Czechoslovakia to threaten Dubcek

Dubcek invited Romanian leader and Tito to Prague for talks

1968

500,000

Brezhnev had ordered Czech army to remain in its barracks in case it tried to fight invaders, invading forces told they had been invited to help restore law and order by Czech gov

arrested, sent to Moscow and ordered to reverse reforms, sent back to Prague, later removed from office

1969

Gustav Husak - extreme communist

introduced new wave of oppression - over 1,000 Czechs arrested

set out by Pravda in Sept 1968

actions of a communist country affect all communist countries - if these actions are threatening they must be stopped

Yugoslavia and Romania condemned it, Italian and French communist parties cut links to Moscow

East German and Polish govs felt more secure - wouldn't be challenged by reformers

protested but no action, attempted to pass UN resolution criticising invasion - vetoed by Soviets, Lyndon B Johnson cancelled meeting with Brezhnev

costly - USA beginning to adopt less confrontational approach towards Soviet Union