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Describe the key features of the Berlin crisis.
During the 1950s many refugees from the Soviet zone fled to the West. Between 1950 and 1961, the refugees continued to leave at a rate of 100,000 to 200,000 a year. Workers were attracted by the jobs and houses open to them in West Germany. By the late 1950s, most of those leaving were professional people and students whose skills were needed for national .
In November 1958, Soviet Premier Khrushchev gave USA six months to agree to withdraw from Berlin and make it a free and undivided city and this making sure people of East Germany were not tempted by the Capitalist way of life which had begun to send a message worldwide that Capitalist was superior to that of Communist. Soviet said that at the end of that period USSR will take complete control of Berlin, USA would have access to West Berlin only by permission of the East German government. USA, Great Britain, and France replied to this demand by saying that they were to remain in West Berlin and to maintain their right of a quarter of the city each as they had decided in previous meetings of the Big Four. In 1959 the Soviet Union withdrew its deadline and instead met with the USA in a Big Four (USA, USSR, France and Great Britain) .
Early in 1961, the governments looked for means to stem the flow of emigration to the West. By the early summer of 1961, East German President had persuaded the Soviets that the only solution was to stop the emigration was by force. During the spring and early summer USSR began to get building materials for the building of the Berlin Wall. Although this was widely known, only the high up soviet leaders and planner new that it would seal West Germany completely off. Around 32,000 troops were used to build the Berlin wall. Once they were completed, the Border Police began to improve the wall making it even more secure. The Soviet Army was there to make sure no large scale protest would take place. In June 1961 Premier Khrushchev threatened to sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany, which he said, would end American, British, and French access rights to West Berlin. The construction of the Berlin Wall started at around 2:00 A.M. on August 13, 1961. The Wall effectively sealed off the best escape route open to East Germans to the West. After it was build no longer could refugees emigrate so easily as before.
4) How did Relations Between USA and USSR change between 1962 -1969?
Many events occurred between 1962 and 1969 that affected the relations of these two superpowers. At the beginning of this period relations were poor and short fused, with a nuclear war looking inevitable at some point. The issue was - how these great nations would react to such events.
Early in the year of 1962, something happened which would scar the relationship between USA and USSR. This would come to be known as the “13 days Cuban Missile Crisis “. John F Kennedy (JFK) was the current president of USA and was informed that Khruschev, the USSR Premier was planning to place nuclear missiles on Cuba. This worried JFK due to the fact that Cuba was so deep in America’s “Sphere of Influence” and posed a great threat to America. So JFK ordered a naval blockade around Cuba to prevent any more missiles reaching Cuba. JFK then addressed his naval blockade and called on Khruschev to recall his ships. Khruschev replied that he wouldn’t and his ships would break through the blockade and they would launch nuclear weapons if America declared war on them.
USA and USSR each put their military forces on highest alert and told them to prepare for war. JFK ordered American citizens to build themselves fallout shelters; these consisted of basic design which would not prove much projection to resist an atomic bomb. Khruschev agreed that he would remove nuclear missiles from Cuba if USA promised not to invade Cuba but Khruschev received intelligence that USA were planning a mass invasion of Cuba within the next twenty four hours. He proposed a new deal to the USA leader that they if USA redrew their weapons from Turkey that USSR would agree to remove their weapons from Cuba. JFK reluctantly accepted this proposal but asked Khruschev to keep it a secret that America would withdraw weapons from Turkey.
The consequences of the “13 days Cuban Missile Crisis “highlighted how easily international relations could break down. So USA and USSR set up the following measures to prevent such an event recurring. The “Hot Line” was established in 1963 which was a direct communication link, from Washington to Moscow, between the president of USA and the Soviet Premier. Also the “The Limited Test Ban Treaty” was signed in 1963. The USA and USSR agreed to ban testing of nuclear weapons above land, in sea or in space but testing was still permitted underground. This was created to ease tension between the two superpowers so relations seemed to improve slightly and a nuclear was seemed less inevitable. This was made clear when JFK announced his commitment to improve relationships with USSR in his speech in July 1963. This signalled the start of “Detente” which was a relaxation in tension.
Soviet powers were determined to never to get pushed around by America, as occurred in the “13 days Cuba Crisis”. So they made a huge push to catch up in the arms race whereby they would increase the amount of nuclear weapons they were producing to make sure they matched USA on all fronts. By 1965 they were on level footing as far as nuclear ability so they agreed to sign a doctrine of “ Mutually Assured Destruction “ (MAD) whereby both nations agreed to stop producing nuclear bombs unless the technology became outdated. This was another treaty designed to ease the tension, which suggests Detente was working effectively and acting as previously designed. This build up of agreements lead to a rapid improvement of relations between the two nations.
Czechoslovakia “Prague Springs” occurred in 1968 in the capital of Czechoslovakia, Prague. The events that followed were similar to that of Hungary in 1956. Czechoslovakia was a satellite state which meant that they were independent, but in reality were controlled by the USSR. This relationship had very few benefits for Czechoslovakia, as they were still run by secret police that were very brutal and ruthless. The country’s economic state was poor and it was in turmoil and struggling. Citizens of Czechoslovakia were unhappy with this way of life, especially students and intellectuals. The citizens agreed that they would revolt against the communist government. They overthrew the current leader, Antonin Novotny. This left the Russian Premier, Brezhnev, in a dilemma of who to select as the new Czechoslovakian leader. It seemed the natural choice to replace Novotny was Dubcek.
Dubcek was perfect because he was committed to communism and was close friends with the Russian Premier. Also his aim was to create a popular form of communism which suited the requirements of the Czechoslovakian people. He called this new form of communism “socialism with a friendly face”. Within this concept he planned to reduce the oppressive aspects of communism and bring in common capitalist aspects. He announced his reforms including: a relaxation of press censorship; the legalisation of political criticism and political opposition groups. These reforms were very popular amongst the citizens of Czechoslovakia but not with older Czechoslovakian communist traditionalists and certainly not with Brezhnev, the new Russian Premier.
Brezhnev’s reactions to “Prague Springs” would damage Czechoslovakia for many years to come. He was not happy and thought that Dubcek was taking too many aspects of Capitalism, and he thought that Czechoslovakia might threaten the integrity of the “Warsaw Pact - the group of satellite states in Eastern Europe. This concern was published by the Russian media.
Brezhnev’s response to Dubcek’s reforms was ruthless. He quickly ordered the USSR army to invade Czechoslovakia with tanks. Dubcek’s response to this was to ask his people not to be violent in their protests against the USSR army, and he said only peaceful protests would be needed. Many Czechoslovakian civilians were killed in this invasion, including Dubcek. Czechoslovakia got its time of freedom, though it was short lived, as Brezhnev ripped the country apart.
In 1969, Brezhnev introduced “The Brezhnev Doctrine” for all the satellite states. It stated that no-one within the Warsaw Pact could introduce such reforms as Dubcek had introduced in Czechoslovakia.
International reactions to this series of events varied in Europe. Most of Western Europe was appalled and the French Communist Party declared that they had no partnership with USSR or Brezhnev in any way. USA, throughout the revolution, was supporting the Czechoslovakian people, though gave no military help to them. This was due to the fact they were held up in a bloody war, with high death tolls in Vietnam, against communism. Both USSR and USA seemed to have a mutual agreement that neither would interfere with each other’s wars and this saw the end of the Czechoslovakian’s “Prague Springs”.
To conclude about how the relations between the USSR and the USA changed during this period we can see that even though events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Czechoslovakian Prague Springs were major events which didn’t improve the relations between the two superpowers, Detente remained intact and mutual agreements were able to be maintained between the two nations. Therefore relations did not deteriorate as much as they might have.
By Jacob Gentile