Restructuring the Postwar World

Main Idea: The Cold War began to thaw as the superpowers entered an ear of uneasy diplomacy.

V. Cold War Thaws

Overview

• The Cold War began to thaw as the superpowers entered an era of uneasy diplomacy.

Eastern Europe: USSR

• Stalin dies 1953

Eastern Europe: USSR

• Stalin dies 1953

• Nikita Khrushchev

– Publicly denounced Stalin for jailing & killing loyal citizens

• Destalinization – purging the country of Stalin’s memory

– Called for peaceful competition with capitalist states

Eastern Europe: Hungary

• 1956

• Attempt to overthrow Soviet-controlled gov’t

• Imre Nagy – liberal Communist leader

– Formed new gov’t

– Promised free elections

– Demanded Soviets leave

– Executed

Eastern Europe: Czechoslovakia

• Leonid Brezhnev – repressive domestic policies

– Limited human rights; censors

• 1968

• Alexander Dubcek – Czech Communist leader

– Prague Spring – loosened censorship

From Brinkmanship to Détente

• Repeated crises force US and Soviet leaders to seek alternatives to the policy of brinkmanship

– U-2 incident

– Cuban Missile Crisis

– Escalated US involvement in Vietnam

• US seeks to lessen tensions and avoid confrontations with the Soviet President Nixon opens talks with both China and the Soviet Union

– Grew from philosophy—realpolitik: realistic politics

– Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT): series of meetings resulted in the SALT I Treaty: five-year agreement limited to 1972 levels of intercontinental ballistic and submarine-launched missiles each country could have.

Détente Cools

• As US-Soviet tensions increase, US presidents Carter and Reagan back away from detente

– US Congress refused to sign the SALT II agreement between Carter and Brezhnev when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan

– Reagan announced Star Wars program: Strategic Defense Initiative but never implemented

Review

• Cold War begins to thaw as Khrushchev denounces Stalinism

• US leaders adopt a foreign policy of lessened tensions