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Wall street crash: Cold war and Black america
parallel. Truman sacked MacArthur for criticising his orders.
· 1953 – Truce: America claimed successful containment.
KHRUSHCHEV succeeded Stalin.
1. It seemed he would bring a thaw in the Cold War – He advocated ‘Peaceful Coexistence’/ He met Western leaders at summit meetings/ He was friendly to Yugoslavia, telling Tito there were ‘different roads to Communism’/ He criticised Stalin, executed Beria, set free political prisoners and de-stalinised the eastern bloc countries.
2. In fact 1955–1963 was the time of greatest tension in the Cold War
· Khrushchev used Russian troops when countries tried to leave Russian control.
· By peaceful co-existence, Khrushchev meant ‘peaceful competition’ (He loved to argue (Kitchen debate with Nixon)/ He gave economic aid to countries like Afghanistan and Burma/ Space Race (1957: Sputnik. 1961: Yuri Gagarin orbits the earth)/ Arms Race (1953: Russia got the hydrogen bomb)
· Warsaw Pact (1955) – USSR/ Albania/ Bulgaria/ Czechoslovakia/ E Germany/ Hungary/ Poland/ Romania
3. In retaliation, in America McCarthy conducted a ‘witchhunt’ for Communists/ In 1955, NATO agreed to an army of 0.5 m men in W Germany/ rushed to put a man on the moon/ American U2 planes spied on Russia
HUNGARY (1956)
1. Causes:
· Poverty – When most of Hungary’s food was sent to Russia
· Russian Control – The Hungarians were very patriotic/ They hated censorship, the AVH, and Russian control of education./ They hated having Russian troops stationed in Hungary
· Catholic Church – Communism tried to destroy religion, but Hungarians were Catholics
· Help from the West – The Hungarians thought Esienhower or UN would help.
· Destalinisation –Led to protests against Rakosi’s harsh government.
· Events (3 key dates)
· 23 October – Student riots – attcks on AVH and Russian troops
· 24 October – 3 November – Reforming government led by Imre Nagy (Democracy/ Freedom of speech/ Freedom of religion/ Aimed to withdraw from Warsaw Pact.
· 4 November – Soviets sent 1000 tanks to crush/ Western powers protested but didn’t want a war.
2. Results
Janos Kadar put in control of Hungary/ 27,000 Hungarians killed/ Nagy shot./ 200,000 Hungarians flee to West./ Many westerners leave the Communist party./ Russia stays in control in Eastern Europe./ Western leaders all the more determined to ‘contain’ communism.
U2 CRISIS
1 May 1960 Soviets shot down American U2 spy plane over USSR, and captured pilot Gary Powers./ Americans had to admit he was a spy./ Khrushchev demanded apology + end to spy flights./ Eisenhower refused.
Results
Khrushchev walks out of Paris summit (14 May 1960)/ Eisenhower’s planned visit to Russia cancelled/ Khrushchev demands US leaves West Berlin/ [next page]