The end of the fifties and the beginning of the sixties.

 

 

Two new leaders and their foreign policies.

 

Nikita Khrushchev

 

“The contradiction of Khrushchev”

 

Nikita Khrushchev emerged as leader of the USSR after the death of Stalin, by 1956 he was completely in power.

 

Khrushchev is more active in foreign policies than Stalin ever was. Khrushchev travels a lot; 1954 China, 1955 Belgrade, Burma, India, Afghanistan, 1956 England and in 1959 he visited US.

In US he stayed with president Eisenhower on his farm and visited farmers, debated the vice president Nixon in a live debate on TV etc.

 

Khrushchev showed that he was much more interested in world politics than Stalin had ever been.

 

In his speech 1956 he had spoken on different ways to socialism indicating a new thaw in the Cold War on the other hand he had brutally crushed the Hungarian uprising 1956.

 

He was a true believer in the Communist World Revolution, seeing the de-colonization as the future arena for revolutions and socialism. He unlike Stalin showed a genuine interest in making communism work, Stalin had used communism as mean of power where Khrushchev thought that communism would prove superior to capitalism. This at the same time as he launched a disastrous wheat campaign in Kazakhstan causing starvation and misery for tens of thousands and lowering the production of wheat in the USSR to a level lower than 5 years before.

 

Khrushchev’s foreign policy was much colored by his believes that the situation in the third world would tilt the world balance in favor of the USSR. This, of cause affected the American policies and made the Cold War spread from Europe and Asia to all parts of the world.

 

This idea on the third world led to his true believes that the USSR would overhaul the US in production of butter, meat and milk by 1962 and in industrial production by the beginning of the seventies. This increased the intensity of the cold war, it was no longer only about military issues and spheres of interest, but to even greater extent about production, sports and of cause, the Space Race.

 

Khrushchev also understood that nuclear weapons were a threat and that coexistence was necessary. He new that he couldn’t beat the US in military arms and he cherished the security of his revolution and his country to much to risk it in trying to wage war against the US. Maybe this is one explanation on Khrushchev’s expansion of the Cold War making it about other things than only military issues. 

 

On the other hand, Khrushchev is the one who gives an OK to Ulbricht on the Berlin Wall, he puts missiles on Cuba and by that almost causes a third world war. Stalin would never have gotten involved in Cuba, thinking it was outside his sphere and to risky.

 

Khrushchev was increasingly worried about the worsening relations with China. Mao had resented his speech condemning Stalin. We will study this more when we get to Mao.

 

John F. Kennedy

 

Son of former ambassador and multimillionaire Joseph Kennedy he was a decorated war hero, became a Congressman in 1946 and Senator in 1952. Kennedy wrote a book in 1940, Why England Slept, blaming World War Two on appeasement. He was a true anti-communist and hated Castro, making strong anti-Castro statements in his presidential campaign in 1960. he defeated Nixon with a very small marginal in the election 1960, much due to his appearance in the televised TV-debate.

 

In his inaugural speech in January 1961 he proved that he was a man of action, a “doer” who would sit passive when or if the USSR did any naughty stuff in the world:

 

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty.”

 

The Kennedy administration was also unique, he picked the anti-communist Dean Rusk as Secretary of State, but choose to listen more to other advisers, mainly his National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. His decision making was often done in small circles within the government, the president and some of his trusted advisers would make them, not listening so much to other officials. This caused very great irritation from others, used to Eisenhower’s more formal leadership.

 

Kennedy’s foreign policy left containment and became known as flexible response.

The main elements of the Flexible response was:

 

Flexible response must be seen as a response to the new communist foreign policies under Khrushchev. It was also a deliberate attempt to leave the Eisenhower policies of using mainly Nuclear threats as a mean of stopping the Russians.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Berlin Wall:

 

The background.

 

The First phase 1958 – 1960:

 

1957 USSR ICBM + Oct 57 Sputnik Satellite.

 

USSR thought they were beating US on missile tech.

 

This made Khrushchev cocky.

 

“Aching tooth” Berlin. No real settlement after 1949. Khrushchev convinced that US would not go to war over Berlin

 

Ulbricht concerned over West German prosperity. Action needed, thousands were fleeing DDR.

 

Nov 10 1958 Khrushchev speech demanding an end to Berlin status as a occupied city.

Two weeks later he declared the four-power agreement void demanding all troops to be moved within six months.

IF US etc didn’t follow, he would give over control to East German authorities and let them handle the vital land routes to West Berlin.

 

Eisenhower: Didn’t want war over Berlin, proposed East Germans are agents of Soviet and treated like that. Berlin would be a “Free City”, and the troops kept while negotiating with the USSR.

Macmillan ( GB PM): Let the East Germans have the control rather than going to war.

De Gaulle: there will be no such thing, Berlin is to be saved, at any cost. He was backed up by Adenauer who saw this as a USSR attempt to throw out West Germany from Nato.

 

Discussed in the Geneva Meeting, no solution on Berlin, but on Austria.

 

Khrushchev visits US in sept 1959. No result on Berlin and no Disneyland; "Just now, I was told I couldn't go to Disneyland. I ask, why not? Do you have rocket launching pads there? Is there an epidemic of cholera? Have gangsters taken over the place?" (Thanks Måns!)

 

A new summit in Paris 1960 was agreed on.

 

A time of thaw and improved relations seemed at hand BUT:

 

The U2 incident.

 

What happened?

 

May 1 1960 USSR shot down a U-2 spying plane over Russian territory. On the evening of the Paris summit may 5 1960 they announced the news. US responded that it was a weather observation plane (Yeah, right!). On may 9 Eisenhower publicly admitted to the US audience that such spying activity had taken place and necessary for US security. Khrushchev demanded an America apology and that the people responsible would be punished and no more flights would be done. Eisenhower supported by de Gaulle made no such thing.

 

Consequences for the Cold War.

 

Khrushchev went public. Eisenhower didn’t apologize.

 

Intensified the Cold War.

 

Paris summit doesn’t solve the Berlin issue.

 

 

The Bay of Pigs

 

What happened?

 

In Jan 1959 Batista leaves Cuba.

Castro proclaims victory

Castro was anti-american but not necessarily Marxist (maintained relations with fascist Spain for example.

Cuba was independent since 1898, but in real governed from Washington. The economy was fully dependent on Sugar production.

In may 1960 Castro said he was Communist, in an attempt to improve relations with the USSR.

Khrushchev saw Castro as rebellious hero.

July 1960 US embargo.

Nov 1960 Guevara goes to Moscow to sell Sugar.

17 april 1961 Bay of Pigs. 1400 men. CIA, no air support. Massacre.

 

Berlin Wall cont.

 

August 1961.

 

Overnight between aug 12 and 13 East Berlin was cut off. The building of the wall started.

 

“The Berlin Wall was erected in the night of August 13, 1961.
It was a weekend and most Berliners slept while the East German government begun to close the border. In the early morning of that Sunday most of the first work was done: the border to West Berlin was closed. The East German troups had begun to tear up streets and to install barbed wire entanglement and fences through Berlin.
  
The first concrete elements and large square blocks were used first on August 15, 1961. Within the next months the first generation of the Berlin Wall was build up: a wall consisting of concrete elements and square blocks.
  
A second Wall was build in June 1962 in order to prevent from escaping to the West.
The first Wall was improved during the next years and it's difficult to distinguish between the first and the second generation of the Wall.
  
These two first generations were removed by the third generation beginning about 1965. The third generation of Wall consisted of concrete slabs between steel girder and concrete posts with a concrete sewage pipe on top of the Wall.
  
From the year 1975 the third generation of Wall was replaced by the fourth generation. New concrete segments were used which were easy to build up and were more resistant to breakthroughs and to environmental pollutions.”[1]

 

Why was the wall built?

 

The East German authorities:

 

To stop people from moving to the west.

 

Ulbricht warned Khrushchev that the DDR would collapse if the borders were kept open.

 

Khrushchev was not going to let that happen. Kennedy had little or nothing that he could do. A small troop was sent to guard the passage via the autobahn to West Berlin, but nothing else could be done.

In October 22 the east German police tried to stop the American Deputy Commendant nearly causing an incident, and five days later Soviet tanks were facing American at Checkpoint Charlie, although nothing happened.

 

In 1962 the Americans tried to get a solution to the West Berlin access.

 

In January 1963 Khrushchev proved that such a compromise was unnecessary. From his perspective, the wall had proven a complete success, stopping the draining of the East sector and making the division of Berlin and German permanent. 171 people died at the wall trying to flee.          

 

Consequences for the Cold War.

 

It meant a drastic and ugly solution to the German question. It meant that the East German Republic had survived and could start it’s economic recovery.

 

It was a huge propaganda victory for the West.

 

 

 

The Cuban missile crisis.

 

What happened?

 

Consequences for the Cold War.

 

The détente.

 

What happened?

 

Consequences for the Cold War.

 

 

 


[1] From http://history1900s.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailysoft.com%2Fberlinwall%2F