Page 40 - Year 11 Spring 2026 Knowledge Organiser

History: Superpower relations: The Cold War 1943-1991: 1 of 3

Cold War Background Hungarian Uprising 1956 The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
• Grand Alliance of USA, USSR, Britain and France in WW2 to defeat Nazi •Encouraged by Khrushchev’s Secret •1959 Fidel Castro and Che Guevara
Germany speech which criticised the hard, topple the pro-American
• Met at Tehran (1943) and Yalta (1945) to agree how to defeat Germany and repressive policies of Stalin government in Cuba.
how Europe should look after the war. •Imre Nagy wanted to take Hungary •US boycotted buying Cuban sugar,
• Potsdam Conference (1945) agreed to de-nazify Germany and split it (and out of the Warsaw Pact and make the so Castro sold it to Khrushchev, and
Berlin) into 4 zones shared between the 4 allies. Agreed USA would have a country less repressive receive arms from USSR.
sphere of influence in the West, and the USSR would have one in the East. •USSR sent in troops and executed •1961 CIA trained Cuban exiles to
• Atom bomb made and used by the USA in 1945 Nagy. Reforms undone. West didn’t invade Cuba and overthrow Castro
against Japan, began the Arms Race. help at all despite promising to. (Bay of Pigs invasion) but failed as

USA backs out of air support and
Increasing Tension The Berlin Ultimatum and Summits Cuban army superior to exiles.
Long and Novikov Telegrams 1946 : USA and USSR used their ambassadors to •By 1958 3 million East Germans had Makes USA look very bad!
secretly report on the other country Both reported fears that their opponents were crossed to the West (1/3 pop)
building up their armies Showed unpopularity of communism •Khrushchev sent nuclear missiles to
Truman Doctrine 1947: President Truman declared that he feared the spread of •Khrushchev wanted to take over Cuba to help defend from future US
communism and said it was a threat to freedom- the USA had the right to use its West Berlin to stop this- 1958 attacks. USA discovers them in 1962
military and economy to fight the spread of communism demanded West recognise East as •Kennedy decides to blockade Cuba
Marshall Plan 1947: USA offered $13 billion of aid to Europe to stop poverty leading independent country, and Berlin to be to stop missiles arriving from USSR.
to communism demilitarised (Berlin Ultimatum) or he •Khrushchev sent a telegram saying
This upset the USSR who thought USA was trying to bride its satellite states would hand control of Berlin he would remove missiles from
Iron Curtain Speech 1947: Churchill declared Europe was divided into two spheres transport to the East government. Cuba if USA wouldn’t invade.
Cominform/Comecon: In response to the Marshall Plan the USSR united all Camp David Summit 1959 • Khrushchev then sent another
communist parties together from satellite states- Cominform. Also tried to tie all •Eisenhower and Khrushchev met telegram adding he wanted US
satellite states together economically- Comecon and agreed to withdraw ultimatum. missiles removed from Turkey too.
Paris Summit 1960 •Kennedy responded to first
The Berlin Blockade (1947-1948) and its consequences • USSR shot down US U2 spy plane. telegram publicly and second one
• USSR worried the Western allies were trying to unite West Germany into US tried to cover up and Khrushchev secretly, increasing his reputation as
Trizonia so they blocked all road, rail and canal access to walked out of the meeting Vienna a strong leader, making Khrushchev
force them out of West Berlin. Summit 1961 look like he backed downmaybe why
• USA kept Wets Berlin supplies through a huge airlift of supplies • Khrushchev saw Kennedy as weak he was dismissed as leader of USSR
for 11 months. USSR eventually backed down. Couldn’t shoot and reissued Ultimatum. Kennedy in 1954
down planes as would be act of war. refused to make concessions, so •Moscow-Washington Hotline set
• FRG and GDR- Germany became officially divided into 2 different countries- nothing was agreed. up and 3 treaties (Test Ban 1963,
FRG in West and GDR in East. Berlin also official split. NATO- USA and Western Outer Space 1967, Non-Proliferation
European military alliance against USSR Warsaw Pact- USSR responded to 1968) signed to reduce testing and
NATO by creating own military alliance of satellite states in Eastern Europe spread of nuclear weapons.