Cold War Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Open hostility and escalation (1948–1962)== {{Main|Cold War (1953–1962)}} The twin policies of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan led to billions in economic and military aid for Western Europe, Greece, and Turkey. With the US assistance, the Greek military [[Greek Civil War|won its civil war]].{{sfn|Karabell|1999|p=916}} Under the leadership of [[Alcide De Gasperi]] the Italian [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democrats]] defeated the powerful [[Italian Communist Party|Communist]]–[[Italian Socialist Party|Socialist]] alliance in the [[1948 Italian general election|elections of 1948]].{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=162}} ===Espionage=== {{Main|Cold War espionage|American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation|Soviet espionage in the United States}} All major powers engaged in espionage, using a great variety of spies, [[double agent]]s, [[Mole (espionage)|moles]], and new technologies such as the tapping of telephone cables.{{sfn|Garthoff|2004}} The Soviet [[KGB]] ("Committee for State Security"), the bureau responsible for foreign espionage and internal surveillance, was famous for its effectiveness. The most famous Soviet operation involved its [[atomic spies]] that delivered crucial information from the United States' [[Manhattan Project]], leading the USSR to detonate its first nuclear weapon in 1949, four years after the American detonation and much sooner than expected.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/news/atomic-bomb-soviet-spies|title=8 Spies Who Leaked Atomic Bomb Intelligence to the Soviets|date=21 July 2023|website=HISTORY}}</ref><ref>Christopher Andrew, ''The Sword And The Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (1999).</ref> A massive network of informants throughout the Soviet Union was used to monitor dissent from official Soviet politics and morals.<ref>Raymond L. Garthoff, "Foreign intelligence and the historiography of the Cold War." ''Journal of Cold War Studies'' 6.2 (2004): 21–56.</ref><ref>Michael F. Hopkins, "Continuing debate and new approaches in Cold War history." ''Historical Journal'' 50.4 (2007): 913–934.</ref> Although to an extent [[disinformation]] had always existed, the term itself was invented, and the strategy formalized by a [[black propaganda]] department of the Soviet KGB.<ref name="jowett">{{citation|author1=Garth Jowett|title=Propaganda and Persuasion|pages=21–23|date=2005|chapter=What Is Propaganda, and How Does It Differ From Persuasion?|publisher=Sage Publications|isbn=978-1-4129-0898-6|quote=In fact, the word disinformation is a cognate for the Russian dezinformatsia, taken from the name of a division of the KGB devoted to black propaganda.|author2=Victoria O'Donnell}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Before 'fake news,' there was Soviet 'disinformation'|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/11/26/before-fake-news-there-was-soviet-disinformation/|access-date=13 November 2021|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> Based on the amount of top-secret Cold War archival information that has been released, historian [[Raymond L. Garthoff]] concludes there probably was parity in the quantity and quality of secret information obtained by each side. However, the Soviets probably had an advantage in terms of [[Human intelligence (intelligence gathering)|HUMINT]] (human intelligence or interpersonal espionage) and "sometimes in its reach into high policy circles." In terms of decisive impact, however, he concludes:{{sfn|Garthoff|2004|pp=29–30}} :We also can now have high confidence in the judgment that there were no successful "moles" at the political decision-making level on either side. Similarly, there is no evidence, on either side, of any major political or military decision that was prematurely discovered through espionage and thwarted by the other side. There also is no evidence of any major political or military decision that was crucially influenced (much less generated) by an agent of the other side. According to historian Robert Louis Benson, "Washington's forte was [[Signals intelligence|'signals' intelligence]]--the procurement and analysis of coded foreign messages." leading to the [[Venona project]] or Venona intercepts, which monitored the communications of Soviet intelligence agents.<ref name="benson">{{Cite book|last1=Benson|first1=Robert Louis|last2=Warner|first2=Michael|title=Venona Soviet Espionage and the American Response 1939–1957|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c8NIAQAAIAAJ|access-date=17 September 2021|date=1996|pages=vii, xix|publisher=National Security Agency}}</ref> [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan|Moynihan]] wrote that the Venona project contained "overwhelming proof of the activities of Soviet spy networks in America, complete with names, dates, places, and deeds."<ref name=":4">{{cite book|last=Moynihan|first=Daniel Patrick|url=https://archive.org/details/secrecyamericane00moyn|title=Secrecy: The American Experience|publisher=Yale University Press|date=1998|isbn=978-0-300-08079-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/secrecyamericane00moyn/page/15 15]–16|url-access=registration}}</ref> The Venona project was kept highly secret even from policymakers until the [[Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy|Moynihan Commission]] in 1995.<ref name=":4" /> Despite this, the decryption project had already been betrayed and dispatched to the USSR by [[Kim Philby]] and [[Bill Weisband]] in 1946,<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":0" /> as was discovered by the US by 1950.<ref name="benson2">{{Cite book|last1=Benson|first1=Robert Louis|last2=Warner|first2=Michael|title=Venona Soviet Espionage and the American Response 1939–1957|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c8NIAQAAIAAJ|access-date=17 September 2021|date=1996|pages=xxvii, xxviii|publisher=National Security Agency}}</ref> Nonetheless, the Soviets had to keep their discovery of the program secret, too, and continued leaking their own information, some of which was still useful to the American program.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=West|first=Nigel|date=1 March 2002|title='Venona': the British dimension|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/02684520412331306440|journal=Intelligence and National Security|volume=17|issue=1|pages=117–134|doi=10.1080/02684520412331306440|s2cid=145696471|issn=0268-4527}}</ref> According to Moynihan, even President Truman may not have been fully informed of Venona, which may have left him unaware of the extent of Soviet espionage.<ref name="trumanfas">{{Cite web|title=Did Truman Know about Venona?|url=https://fas.org/irp/eprint/truman-venona.html|access-date=12 June 2021|website=fas.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Moynihan|first=Daniel Patrick|url=https://archive.org/details/secrecyamericane00moyn|title=Secrecy: The American Experience|publisher=Yale University Press|date=1998|isbn=978-0-300-08079-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/secrecyamericane00moyn/page/70 70]|url-access=registration}}</ref> Clandestine [[atomic spies]] from the Soviet Union, who infiltrated the [[Manhattan Project]] at various points during WWII, played a major role in increasing tensions that led to the Cold War.<ref name="benson" /> In addition to usual espionage, the Western agencies paid special attention to debriefing [[Emigration from the Eastern Bloc|Eastern Bloc defectors]].<ref>Cowley 1996 p. 157</ref>{{citation not found}} [[Edward Jay Epstein]] describes that the CIA understood that the KGB used "provocations", or fake defections, as a trick to embarrass Western intelligence and establish Soviet double agents. As a result, from 1959 to 1973, the CIA required that East Bloc defectors went through a counterintelligence investigation before being recruited as a source of intelligence.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Epstein|first=Edward Jay|title=Secrets of the Teheren Archive|url=https://www.edwardjayepstein.com/archived/teheren.htm|url-status=live|access-date=13 November 2021|website=www.edwardjayepstein.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010217081540/http://www.edwardjayepstein.com:80/archived/teheren.htm |archive-date=17 February 2001 }}</ref> During the late 1970s and 1980s, the KGB perfected its use of espionage to sway and distort diplomacy.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Epstein|first=Edward Jay|title=Secrets of the Teheren Archive (page 2)|url=https://www.edwardjayepstein.com/archived/teheren2.htm|url-status=live|access-date=13 November 2021|website=www.edwardjayepstein.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010223043813/http://www.edwardjayepstein.com:80/archived/teheren2.htm |archive-date=23 February 2001 }}</ref> [[Active measures]] were "clandestine operations designed to further Soviet foreign policy goals," consisting of disinformation, forgeries, leaks to foreign media, and the channeling of aid to militant groups.<ref>{{Cite web|title=KGB Active Measures – Russia / Soviet Intelligence Agencies|url=https://irp.fas.org/world/russia/kgb/su0523.htm|access-date=13 November 2021|website=irp.fas.org}}</ref> Retired KGB Major General [[Oleg Kalugin]], former head of Foreign Counter Intelligence for the KGB (1973–1979), described active measures as "the heart and soul of [[List of historical secret police organizations#Soviet Union|Soviet intelligence]]."<ref name="Kalugin">[https://web.archive.org/web/20070627183623/http://www3.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/21/interviews/kalugin/ Interview of Oleg Kalugin on CNN] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070627183623/http://www3.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/21/interviews/kalugin/|date=27 June 2007}}</ref> During the [[Sino-Soviet split]], "spy wars" also occurred between the USSR and PRC.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Soviet-Chinese Spy Wars in the 1970s: What KGB Counterintelligence Knew, Part II {{!}} Wilson Center|url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/soviet-chinese-spy-wars-1970s-what-kgb-counterintelligence-knew-part-ii|access-date=13 November 2021|website=www.wilsoncenter.org|language=en}}</ref> ===Cominform and the Tito–Stalin Split=== {{Main|Cominform|Tito–Stalin Split}} In September 1947, the Soviets created [[Cominform]] to impose orthodoxy within the international communist movement and tighten political control over Soviet [[Satellite state#Soviet Union|satellites]] through coordination of communist parties in the [[Eastern Bloc]].{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=32}} Cominform faced an embarrassing setback the following June, when the [[Tito–Stalin split]] obliged its members to expel Yugoslavia, which remained communist but adopted a [[Non-Aligned Movement|non-aligned]] position and began accepting financial aid from the United States.{{sfn|Papathanasiou|2017|p=66}} Besides Berlin, the status of the city of [[Trieste]] was at issue. Until the break between Tito and Stalin, the Western powers and the Eastern bloc faced each other uncompromisingly. In addition to capitalism and communism, Italians and Slovenes, monarchists and republicans as well as war winners and losers often faced each other irreconcilably. The neutral buffer state [[Free Territory of Trieste]], founded in 1947 with the United Nations, was split up and dissolved in 1954 and 1975, also because of the détente between the West and Tito.<ref>Christian Jennings "Flashpoint Trieste: The First Battle of the Cold War", (2017), pp. 244.</ref><ref>Karlo Ruzicic-Kessler "Togliatti, Tito and the Shadow of Moscow 1944/45–1948: Post-War Territorial Disputes and the Communist World", in ''Journal of European Integration History,'' (2014) vol 2.</ref> ===Berlin Blockade and Airlift=== {{Main|Berlin Blockade}} [[File:C-47s at Tempelhof Airport Berlin 1948.jpg|thumb|American C-47s unloading at [[Berlin Tempelhof Airport|Tempelhof Airport]] in Berlin during the Berlin Blockade]] The United States and Britain merged their western German occupation zones into [[Bizone|"Bizonia"]] (1 January 1947, later "Trizonia" with the addition of France's zone, April 1949).{{sfn|Miller|2000|p=13}} As part of the economic rebuilding of Germany, in early 1948, representatives of a number of Western European governments and the United States announced an agreement for a merger of western German areas into a federal governmental system.{{sfn|Miller|2000|p=18}} In addition, in accordance with the [[Marshall Plan]], they began to re-industrialize and rebuild the West German economy, including the introduction of a new [[Deutsche Mark]] currency to replace the old [[Reichsmark]] currency that the Soviets had debased.{{sfn|Miller|2000|p=31}} The US had secretly decided that a unified and neutral Germany was undesirable, with [[Walter Bedell Smith]] telling General Eisenhower "in spite of our announced position, we really do not want nor intend to accept German unification on any terms that the Russians might agree to, even though they seem to meet most of our requirements."{{sfn|Layne|2007|p=67}} Shortly thereafter, Stalin instituted the [[Berlin Blockade]] (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949), one of the first major crises of the Cold War, preventing Western food, materials and supplies from arriving in the West Germany's exclave of [[West Berlin]].{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=33}} The United States (primarily), Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and several other countries began the massive "Berlin airlift", supplying West Berlin with food and other provisions despite Soviet threats.{{sfn|Miller|2000|pp=65–70}} The Soviets mounted a public relations campaign against the policy change. Once again, the East Berlin communists attempted to disrupt the [[Berlin Blockade#December elections|Berlin municipal elections]] (as they had done in the 1946 elections),{{sfn|Miller|2000|p=13}} which were held on 5 December 1948 and produced a turnout of 86.3% and an overwhelming victory for the non-communist parties.{{sfn|Turner|1987|p=29}} The results effectively divided the city into East and West, the latter comprising US, British and French sectors. 300,000 Berliners demonstrated and urged the international airlift to continue,{{sfn|Fritsch-Bournazel|1990|p=143}} and US Air Force pilot [[Gail Halvorsen]] created "[[Berlin Blockade#"Operation Little Vittles"|Operation Vittles]]", which supplied candy to German children.{{sfn|Miller|2000|p=26}} The Airlift was as much a logistical as a political and psychological success for the West; it firmly linked West Berlin to the United States.{{sfn|Daum|2008|pp=11–13, 41}} In May 1949, Stalin backed down and lifted the blockade.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=34}}{{sfn|Miller|2000|pp=180–181}} In 1952, Stalin repeatedly [[Stalin Note|proposed a plan]] to unify East and West Germany under a single government chosen in elections supervised by the United Nations, if the new Germany were to stay out of Western military alliances, but this proposal was turned down by the Western powers. Some sources dispute the sincerity of the proposal.{{sfn|van Dijk|1996}} ===Beginnings of NATO and Radio Free Europe=== {{Main|NATO|Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|Eastern Bloc media and propaganda|Propaganda in the Soviet Union}} [[File:Truman signing North Atlantic Treaty.jpg|thumb|President Truman signs the [[North Atlantic Treaty]] with guests in the Oval Office.]] Britain, France, the United States, Canada and eight other western European countries signed the [[North Atlantic Treaty]] of April 1949, establishing the [[NATO|North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] (NATO).{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=34}} That August, the [[RDS-1|first Soviet atomic device]] was detonated in [[Semey|Semipalatinsk]], [[Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic|Kazakh SSR]].{{sfn|LaFeber|1993|pp=194–197}} Following Soviet refusals to participate in a German rebuilding effort set forth by western European countries in 1948,{{sfn|Miller|2000|p=18}}{{sfn|Turner|1987|p=23}} the US, Britain and France spearheaded the establishment of the [[West Germany|Federal Republic of Germany]] from the [[Bizone|three Western zones of occupation]] in April 1949.{{sfn|Bungert|1994}} The Soviet Union proclaimed [[Soviet occupation zone of Germany|its zone of occupation]] in Germany the [[East Germany|German Democratic Republic]] that October.{{sfn|Byrd|2003}} Media in the [[Eastern Bloc]] was an [[Eastern Bloc media and propaganda|organ of the state]], completely reliant on and subservient to the communist party. Radio and television organizations were state-owned, while print media was usually owned by political organizations, mostly by the local communist party.{{sfn|O'Neil|1997|pp=15–25}} Soviet radio broadcasts used Marxist rhetoric to attack capitalism, emphasizing themes of labor exploitation, imperialism and war-mongering.{{sfn|Wood|1992|p=105}} Along with the broadcasts of the [[BBC|British Broadcasting Corporation]] (BBC) and the [[Voice of America]] to Central and Eastern Europe,{{sfn|Puddington|2003|p=131}} a major propaganda effort begun in 1949 was [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]], dedicated to bringing about the peaceful demise of the communist system in the Eastern Bloc.{{sfn|Puddington|2003|p=9}} Radio Free Europe attempted to achieve these goals by serving as a surrogate home radio station, an alternative to the controlled and party-dominated domestic press in the Soviet Bloc.{{sfn|Puddington|2003|p=9}} Radio Free Europe was a product of some of the most prominent architects of America's early Cold War strategy, especially those who believed that the Cold War would eventually be fought by political rather than military means, such as George F. Kennan.{{sfn|Puddington|2003|p=7}} Soviet and Eastern Bloc authorities used various methods to suppress Western broadcasts, including [[radio jamming]].<ref name="Hearings">[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000013679477;view=1up;seq=414 Voice of America and Liberty: Strange Policies.{{in lang|en}}] // Hearings on Federal Government's Handling of Soviet and Communist Bloc Defectors before the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Washington, D.C., October 8, 1987. — P. 6 {406}.</ref><ref>''Bamford, James''. [http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/04/books/books-of-the-times-the-labyrinthine-morass-of-spying-in-the-cold-war.html]{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171109023149/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/04/books/books-of-the-times-the-labyrinthine-morass-of-spying-in-the-cold-war.html}}<span> Books of The Times; The Labyrinthine Morass of Spying in the Cold War.</span>{{in lang|en}} // ''[[New York Times]]''. — July 4, 2003.</ref> American policymakers, including Kennan and [[John Foster Dulles]], acknowledged that the Cold War was in its essence a war of ideas.{{sfn|Puddington|2003|p=7}} The United States, acting through the CIA, funded a long list of projects to counter the communist appeal among intellectuals in Europe and the developing world.{{sfn|Puddington|2003|p=10}} The CIA also [[Secrecy|covertly]] sponsored a domestic propaganda campaign called [[Crusade for Freedom]].{{sfn|Cummings|2010}} ===German rearmament=== {{Main|West German rearmament}} The rearmament of West Germany was achieved in the early 1950s. Its main promoter was [[Konrad Adenauer]], the chancellor of West Germany, with France the main opponent. Washington had the decisive voice. It was strongly supported by the Pentagon (the US military leadership), and weakly opposed by President Truman; the State Department was ambivalent. The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 changed the calculations and Washington now gave full support. That also involved naming [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] in charge of NATO forces and sending more American troops to West Germany. There was a strong promise that West Germany would not develop nuclear weapons.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beisner |first1=Robert L. |title=Dean Acheson : a life in the Cold War |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780195045789 |url=https://archive.org/details/deanachesonlifei00beis|pages=356–374}}</ref> Widespread fears of another rise of [[Militarism#Germany|German militarism]] necessitated the new military to operate within an alliance framework, under [[NATO]] command.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Snyder |first1=David R. |title=Arming the "Bundesmarine": The United States and the Build-Up of the German Federal Navy, 1950–1960 |journal=The Journal of Military History |date=April 2002 |volume=66 |issue=2 |pages=477–500 |doi=10.2307/3093068|jstor=3093068 }}</ref> In 1955, Washington secured full German membership of NATO.{{sfn|Byrd|2003}} In May 1953, [[Lavrentiy Beria]], by then in a government post, had made an unsuccessful proposal to allow the reunification of a neutral Germany to prevent West Germany's incorporation into NATO, but his attempts were cut short after he was [[Lavrentiy Beria#Arrest, trial and execution|executed several months later]] during a Soviet power struggle.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=105}} The events led to the establishment of the ''[[Bundeswehr]]'', the West German military, in 1955.<ref>David K. Large, ''Germans to the Front: West German Rearmament in the Adenauer Era'' (U of North Carolina Press, 1996).</ref><ref>James G. Hershberg, "'Explosion in the Offing: German Rearmament and American Diplomacy, 1953–1955." ''Diplomatic History'' 16.4 (1992): 511–550.</ref> ===Chinese Civil War, SEATO, and NSC 68=== {{Main|Cold War in Asia}} [[File:Mao, Bulganin, Stalin, Ulbricht Tsedenbal.jpeg|thumb|left|[[Mao Zedong]] and [[Joseph Stalin]] in Moscow, December 1949]] In 1949, [[Mao Zedong]]'s [[People's Liberation Army]] defeated [[Chiang Kai-shek]]'s United States-backed [[Kuomintang]] (KMT) Nationalist Government in China. The KMT-controlled territory was now [[Kuomintang's retreat to Taiwan|restricted]] to the island of [[Taiwan]], the nationalist government of which exists to this day. The Kremlin promptly created an alliance with the newly formed People's Republic of China.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=39}} According to Norwegian historian [[Odd Arne Westad]], the communists won the Civil War because they made fewer military mistakes than Chiang Kai-Shek made, and because in his search for a powerful centralized government, Chiang antagonized too many interest groups in China. Moreover, his party was weakened during the [[Second Sino-Japanese War|war against Japan]]. Meanwhile, the communists told different groups, such as the peasants, exactly what they wanted to hear, and they cloaked themselves under the cover of [[Chinese nationalism]].{{sfn|Westad|2012|p=291}} Confronted with the [[Chinese Communist Revolution|communist revolution in China]] and [[Soviet atomic bomb project|the end of the American atomic monopoly in 1949]], the Truman administration quickly moved to escalate and expand its [[containment]] doctrine.{{sfn|LaFeber|1993|pp=194–197}} In [[NSC 68]], a secret 1950 document, the National Security Council proposed reinforcing pro-Western alliance systems and quadrupling spending on defense.{{sfn|LaFeber|1993|pp=194–197}} Truman, under the influence of advisor [[Paul Nitze]], saw containment as implying complete [[rollback]] of Soviet influence in all its forms.{{sfn|Layne|2007|pp=63–66}} United States officials moved to expand this version of containment into [[Asia]], [[Africa]], and [[Latin America]], in order to counter revolutionary nationalist movements, often led by communist parties financed by the USSR.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=212}} In this way, this US would exercise "[[power projection|preponderant power]]," oppose neutrality, and [[Grand strategy|establish global]] [[hegemony]].{{sfn|Layne|2007|pp=63–66}} In the early 1950s (a period sometimes known as the "[[Pactomania]]"), the US formalized a series of alliances with [[Japan]] (a former WWII enemy), [[South Korea]], [[Taiwan]], [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]], [[Thailand]] and the [[Philippines]] (notably [[ANZUS]] in 1951 and [[Southeast Asia Treaty Organization|SEATO]] in 1954), thereby guaranteeing the United States a number of long-term military bases.{{sfn|Byrd|2003}} ===Korean War=== {{Main|Division of Korea|Korean War|Rollback}} [[File:IncheonLandingMcArthur.jpg|thumb|left|General [[Douglas MacArthur]], UN Command CiC (seated), observes the naval shelling of [[Incheon]], Korea from [[USS Mount McKinley|USS ''Mt. McKinley'']], 15 September 1950.]] One of the more significant examples of the implementation of containment was the United Nations US-led intervention in the [[Korean War]]. In June 1950, after years of mutual hostilities,{{efn-ua|"South Korea's President Rhee was obsessed with accomplishing early reunification through military means. The Truman administration's fear that Rhee would launch an invasion prompted it to limit South Korea's military capabilities, refusing to provide tanks, heavy artillery, and combat planes. This did not stop the South Koreans from initiating most of the border clashes with North Korean forces at the thirty-eighth parallel beginning in the summer of 1948 and reaching a high level of intensity and violence a year later. Historians now acknowledge that the two Koreas already were waging a civil conflict when North Korea's attack opened the conventional phase of the war."{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2002/summer/korean-myths-1.html| title=Revisiting Korea|date=15 August 2016|website=National Archives|access-date=21 June 2019}}}}{{sfn|Haruki|2018|pp=7–12}}{{sfn|Stueck|2013|pp=252–256}} [[Kim Il Sung]]'s [[Korean People's Army|North Korean People's Army]] [[Operation Pokpoong|invaded]] [[South Korea]] at the [[38th parallel north#Korea|38th parallel]]. Stalin had been reluctant to support the invasion{{efn-ua|"Contradicting traditional assumptions, however, available declassified Soviet documents demonstrate that throughout 1949 Stalin consistently refused to approve Kim Il Sung's persistent requests to approve an invasion of South Korea. The Soviet leader believed that North Korea had not achieved either military superiority north of the parallel or political strength south of that line. His main concern was the threat South Korea posed to North Korea's survival, for example fearing an invasion northward following U.S. military withdrawal in June 1949."{{cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2002/summer/korean-myths-1.html|title=Revisiting Korea|date=15 August 2016|website=National Archives|access-date=21 June 2019}}}} but ultimately sent advisers.{{sfn|Weathersby|1993|pp=28, 30}} To Stalin's surprise,{{sfn|LaFeber|1993|pp=194–197}} the [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 82]] and [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 83|83]] backed the defense of South Korea, although the Soviets were then boycotting meetings in protest of the fact that [[Taiwan]] (Republic of China), not the [[China|People's Republic of China]], held a permanent seat on the council.{{sfn|Malkasian|2001|p=16}} A [[United Nations Command|UN force]] of sixteen countries faced North Korea,{{sfn|Fehrenbach|2001|p=305}} although 40 percent of troops were South Korean, and about 50 percent were from the United States.{{sfn|Craig|Logevall|2012|p=118}} [[File:KoreanWar recover Seoul.jpg|thumb|[[United States Marine Corps|US Marines]] engaged in street fighting during the liberation of [[Seoul]], September 1950]] The US initially seemed to follow containment when it first entered the war. This directed the US's action to only push back North Korea across the 38th Parallel and restore South Korea's sovereignty while allowing North Korea's survival as a state. However, the success of the [[Battle of Inchon|Inchon landing]] inspired the US/UN forces to pursue a [[rollback]] strategy instead and to overthrow communist North Korea, thereby allowing nationwide elections under U.N. auspices.{{sfn|Matray|1979}} General [[Douglas MacArthur]] then advanced across the [[Division of Korea|38th Parallel]] into North Korea. The Chinese, fearful of a possible US invasion, sent in a large army and defeated the U.N. forces, pushing them back below the 38th parallel. Truman publicly hinted that he might use his "ace in the hole" of the atomic bomb, but Mao was unmoved.{{sfn|Paterson|Clifford|Brigham|Donoghue|2014|pp=286–289}} The episode was used to support the wisdom of the containment doctrine as opposed to rollback. The Communists were later pushed to roughly around the original border, with minimal changes. Among other effects, the Korean War galvanised [[NATO]] to develop a military structure.{{sfn|Isby|Kamps|1985|pp=13–14}} Public opinion in countries involved, such as Great Britain, was divided for and against the war.{{sfn|Cotton|1989|p=100}} After the [[Korean Armistice Agreement]] was approved in July 1953, North Korean leader [[Kim Il Sung]] created a highly centralized, totalitarian dictatorship that accorded his family unlimited power while generating a pervasive [[cult of personality]].{{sfn|Oberdorfer|2001|pp=10–11}}{{sfn|No|Osterholm|1996}} In the South, the American-backed dictator [[Syngman Rhee]] ran an authoritarian regime that engaged in [[anti-communist mass killings]].{{sfn|Hwang|2016|pp=61–70}} While Rhee was [[April Revolution|overthrown in 1960]], South Korea continued to be ruled by a military government of former Japanese collaborators until the re-establishment of a multi-party system in the late 1980s. Subsequently, South Korea experienced an economic boom and became one of the most [[List of countries by Human Development Index#Nations|advanced countries on the planet]].{{sfn|Suh|2013|pp=25–35}} ===Khrushchev, Eisenhower, and de-Stalinization=== [[File:1959 NATO and WP troop strengths in Europe.svg|thumb|NATO and Warsaw Pact troop strengths in Europe in 1959]] In 1953, changes in political leadership on both sides shifted the dynamic of the Cold War.{{sfn|Karabell|1999|p=916}} [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] was inaugurated president that January. During the last 18 months of the Truman administration, the American defense budget had quadrupled, and Eisenhower moved to reduce military spending by a third while continuing to fight the Cold War effectively.{{sfn|LaFeber|1993|pp=194–197}} Joseph Stalin [[Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin|died in 1953]]. Without a mutually agreeable successor, the highest Communist Party officials initially opted to rule the Soviet Union jointly through a troika headed by [[Georgy Malenkov]]. This did not last, however, and [[Nikita Khrushchev]] eventually won the ensuing power struggle by the mid-1950s. In 1956, he [[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences|denounced Joseph Stalin]] and proceeded to ease controls over the party and society. This was known as [[de-Stalinization]].{{sfn|Karabell|1999|p=916}} [[File:Voroshilov, Khrushchev, Kekkonen.jpeg|thumb|left|From left to right: Soviet [[head of state]] [[Kliment Voroshilov]], Soviet premier [[Nikita Khrushchev]] and [[President of Finland|Finnish president]] [[Urho Kekkonen]] at Moscow in 1960]] On 18 November 1956, while addressing Western dignitaries at a reception in Moscow's Polish embassy, Khrushchev infamously declared, "Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. [[We will bury you]]", shocking everyone present.{{efn-ua|"[https://web.archive.org/web/20070124152821/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,867329,00.html We Will Bury You!]", ''[[Time (magazine)|Time magazine]]'', 26 November 1956. Retrieved 26 June 2008.}} He would later claim he had not been referring to nuclear war, but the "historically fated victory of communism over capitalism."{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=84}} In 1961, Khrushchev boasted that, even if the Soviet Union was currently behind the West, its housing shortage would disappear within ten years, consumer goods would be made abundant, and the "construction of a communist society" would be completed "in the main" within no more than two decades.{{sfn|Tompson|1997|pp=237–239}} Eisenhower's secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, initiated a "[[New Look (policy)|New Look]]" for the [[containment]] strategy, calling for a greater reliance on nuclear weapons against US enemies in wartime.{{sfn|Karabell|1999|p=916}} Dulles also enunciated the doctrine of "[[massive retaliation]]", threatening a severe US response to any Soviet aggression. Possessing nuclear superiority, for example, allowed Eisenhower to face down Soviet threats to intervene in the Middle East during the 1956 [[Suez Crisis]].{{sfn|LaFeber|1993|pp=194–197}} The declassified US plans for retaliatory nuclear strikes in the late 1950s included the "systematic destruction" of 1,200 major urban centers in the Soviet Bloc and China, including Moscow, East Berlin and Beijing.{{sfn|Bradner|2015}}{{efn-ua|See also: [http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb538-Cold-War-Nuclear-Target-List-Declassified-First-Ever/ U.S. Cold War Nuclear Target Lists Declassified for First Time]. [[National Security Archive]]. 22 December 2015.}} In spite of these events, there were substantial hopes for détente when [[Nikita Khrushchev#Early relations and U.S. visit (1957–1960)|an upswing in diplomacy took place in 1959]], including a two-week visit by Khrushchev to the US, and plans for a two-power summit for May 1960. The latter was disturbed by the [[1960 U-2 incident|U-2 spy plane scandal]], however, in which Eisenhower was caught lying about the intrusion of American surveillance aircraft into Soviet territory.{{sfn|Paterson|Clifford|Brigham|Donoghue|2014|pp=306–308}}{{sfn|Schudson|2015}} ===Warsaw Pact and Hungarian Revolution=== {{Main|Warsaw Pact|Hungarian Revolution of 1956}} {{multiple image | border = infobox | image_gap = 20 | caption_align = center |align=right |direction=vertical |width=220 |header=The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 |image1=Kossuth Lajos utca a Ferenciek tere felől nézve. 1956. október 25-e délután, - Fortepan 24652.jpg |caption1=March of protesters in Budapest, on 25 October; |image2=Sz%C3%A9tl%C5%91tt_harckocsi_a_M%C3%B3ricz_Zsigmond_k%C3%B6rt%C3%A9ren.jpg |caption2=A destroyed Soviet T-34-85 tank in Budapest }} [[File:Soviet empire 1960.png|thumb|left|The maximum territorial extent of Soviet [[Sphere of influence|influence]], after the [[Cuban Revolution]] of 1959 and before the official [[Sino-Soviet split]] of 1961]] While [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]'s death in 1953 slightly relaxed tensions, the situation in Europe remained an uneasy armed truce.{{sfn|Khanna|2013|p=372}} The Soviets, who had already created a network of mutual assistance treaties in the [[Eastern Bloc]] by 1949, established a formal alliance therein, the [[Warsaw Pact]], in 1955. It stood opposed to NATO.{{sfn|Byrd|2003}} [[File:Hole in flag - Budapest 1956.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Flag of Hungary|Hungarian flag]] (1949–1956) with the communist coat of arms cut out was an anti-Soviet revolutionary symbol]] The [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956]] occurred shortly after Khrushchev arranged the removal of Hungary's Stalinist leader [[Mátyás Rákosi]].{{sfn|BBC|1956}} In response to a popular anti-communist uprising,{{efn-ua|{{cite web| url=http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/selection/rip/4/av/1956-44.html |title=Revolt in Hungary |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071117094223/http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/selection/rip/4/av/1956-44.html |archive-date= 17 November 2007 }} Narrator: [[Walter Cronkite]], producer: CBS (1956) – Fonds 306, Audiovisual Materials Relating to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, OSA Archivum, Budapest, Hungary ID number: HU OSA 306-0-1:40}} the new regime formally disbanded the [[State Protection Authority|secret police]], declared its intention to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact and pledged to re-establish free elections. The [[Soviet Army]] invaded.{{sfn|UN General Assembly|1957}} Thousands of Hungarians were killed and arrested, imprisoned and deported to the Soviet Union,{{sfn|Holodkov|1956}} and approximately 200,000 Hungarians fled Hungary in the chaos.{{sfn|Cseresnyés|1999|pp=86–101}} Hungarian leader [[Imre Nagy]] and others were executed following secret trials.{{efn-ua|[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/16/ "On This Day June 16, 1989: Hungary reburies fallen hero Imre Nagy"] British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reports on Nagy reburial with full honors. Retrieved 13 October 2006.}} From 1957 through 1961, Khrushchev openly and repeatedly threatened the West with nuclear annihilation. He claimed that Soviet missile capabilities were far superior to those of the United States, capable of wiping out any American or European city. According to [[John Lewis Gaddis]], Khrushchev rejected Stalin's "belief in the inevitability of war," however. The new leader declared his ultimate goal was "[[peaceful coexistence]]".{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=70}} In Khrushchev's formulation, peace would allow capitalism to collapse on its own,{{sfn|Perlmutter|1997|p=145}} as well as giving the Soviets time to boost their military capabilities,{{sfn|Njølstad|2004|p=136}} which remained for decades until Gorbachev's later "new thinking" envisioning peaceful coexistence as an end in itself rather than a form of class struggle.{{sfn|Breslauer|2002|p=72}} The events in Hungary produced ideological fractures within the communist parties of the world, particularly in Western Europe, with great decline in membership, as many in both western and socialist countries felt disillusioned by the brutal Soviet response.{{sfn|Lendvai|2008|p=196}} The communist parties in the West would never recover from the effect the Hungarian Revolution had on their membership, a fact that was immediately recognized by some, such as the Yugoslavian politician [[Milovan Djilas|Milovan Đilas]] who shortly after the revolution was crushed said that "The wound which the Hungarian Revolution inflicted on communism can never be completely healed".{{sfn|Lendvai|2008|p=196}} ===Rapacki Plan and Berlin Crisis of 1958–1959=== {{Further|Rapacki Plan|Berlin Crisis of 1958–1959}} In 1957, Polish foreign minister [[Adam Rapacki]] proposed the [[Rapacki Plan]] for a nuclear free zone in central Europe. Public opinion tended to be favourable in the West, but it was rejected by leaders of West Germany, Britain, France and the United States. They feared it would leave the powerful conventional armies of the Warsaw Pact dominant over the weaker NATO armies.<ref>David Stefancic, "The Rapacki Plan: A Case Study of European Diplomacy." ''East European Quarterly'' 21.4 (1987): 401–412.</ref> During November 1958, Khrushchev made an unsuccessful attempt to turn all of Berlin into an independent, demilitarized "free city". He gave the United States, Great Britain and France a six-month ultimatum to withdraw their troops from the sectors of West Berlin, or he would transfer control of Western access rights to the East Germans. Khrushchev earlier explained to [[Mao Zedong]] that "Berlin is the testicles of the West. Every time I want to make the West scream, I squeeze on Berlin."{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=71}} NATO formally rejected the ultimatum in mid-December and Khrushchev withdrew it in return for a Geneva conference on the German question.{{sfn|Taubman|2004|pp=488–502}} ===American military buildup=== {{Main|Flexible response}} [[John F. Kennedy]]'s foreign policy was dominated by American confrontations with the Soviet Union, manifested by proxy contests. Like Truman and Eisenhower, Kennedy supported containment to stop the spread of Communism. President Eisenhower's [[New Look (policy)|New Look]] policy had emphasized the use of less expensive nuclear weapons to [[Deterrence theory|deter]] Soviet aggression by threatening massive nuclear attacks on all of the Soviet Union. Nuclear weapons were much cheaper than maintaining a large standing army, so Eisenhower cut conventional forces to save money. Kennedy implemented a new strategy known as [[flexible response]]. This strategy relied on conventional arms to achieve limited goals. As part of this policy, Kennedy expanded the [[United States special operations forces]], elite military units that could fight unconventionally in various conflicts. Kennedy hoped that the flexible response strategy would allow the US to counter Soviet influence without resorting to nuclear war.{{sfn|Herring|2008|pp=704–705}} To support his new strategy, Kennedy ordered a massive increase in defense spending. He sought, and Congress provided, a rapid build-up of the nuclear arsenal to restore the lost superiority over the Soviet Union—he claimed in 1960 that Eisenhower had lost it because of excessive concern with budget deficits. In his inaugural address, Kennedy promised "to bear any burden" in the defense of liberty, and he repeatedly asked for increases in military spending and authorization of new weapons systems. From 1961 to 1964, the number of nuclear weapons increased by 50 percent, as did the number of B-52 bombers to deliver them. The new ICBM force grew from 63 intercontinental ballistic missiles to 424. He authorized 23 new Polaris submarines, each of which carried 16 nuclear missiles. Kennedy also called on cities to construct fallout shelters.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nash |first1=Philip |title=Nuclear Weapons in Kennedy's Foreign Policy |journal=[[The Historian (journal)|The Historian]] |date=1 December 1993 |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=285–300 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.1994.tb01309.x}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Warren |first1=Aiden |last2=Siracusa |first2=Joseph M. |title=US Presidents and Cold War Nuclear Diplomacy |chapter=Kennedy's Nuclear Dilemma|pages=95–124|date=2021 |publisher=[[Springer Nature]] / [[Palgrave Macmillan]] |location=Cham, Switzerland |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-61954-1 |isbn=978-3-030-61954-1 |s2cid=234294333 |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-61954-1}}</ref> ===Competition in the Third World=== {{Main|Decolonization#After 1945|Wars of national liberation|1953 Iranian coup d'état|1954 Guatemalan coup d'état|Congo Crisis|1954 Geneva Conference|Bandung Conference}} [[File:Colonization 1945.png|thumb|upright=2.0|European [[colonial empire]]s in Asia and Africa all collapsed in the years after 1945.]] Nationalist movements in some countries and regions, notably [[Guatemala]], Indonesia and [[Mainland Southeast Asia|Indochina]], were often allied with communist groups or otherwise perceived to be unfriendly to Western interests.{{sfn|Karabell|1999|p=916}} In this context, the United States and the Soviet Union increasingly competed for influence by proxy in the Third World as [[decolonization]] gained momentum in the 1950s and early 1960s.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=121–124}} Both sides were selling armaments to gain influence.{{sfn|Towle|2000|p=160}} The Kremlin saw continuing territorial losses by imperial powers as presaging the eventual victory of their ideology.{{sfn|Tucker|2010|p=1566}} The United States used the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) to undermine neutral or hostile Third World governments and to support allied ones.{{sfn|Karabell|1999|pp=64, 916}} In 1953, President Eisenhower implemented [[1953 Iranian coup d'état#Execution of Operation Ajax|Operation Ajax]], a covert coup operation to overthrow the Iranian prime minister, [[Mohammad Mosaddegh]]. The popularly elected Mosaddegh had been a Middle Eastern nemesis of Britain since nationalizing the British-owned [[Anglo-Persian Oil Company|Anglo-Iranian Oil Company]] in 1951. [[Winston Churchill]] told the United States that Mosaddegh was "increasingly turning towards Communist influence."{{sfn|Gasiorowski|Byrne|2004|p=125}}{{sfn|Smith|1953}}{{sfn|George Washington University|1953}} The pro-Western [[shah]], [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]], assumed control as an [[Autocracy|autocratic]] monarch.{{sfn|Watson|2002|p=118}} The shah's policies included banning the communist [[Tudeh Party of Iran]], and general suppression of political dissent by [[SAVAK]], the shah's domestic security and intelligence agency. In Guatemala, a [[banana republic]], the [[1954 Guatemalan coup d'état]] ousted the left-wing President [[Jacobo Árbenz]] with material CIA support.{{sfn|Stone|2010|pp=199, 256}} The post-Arbenz government—a [[Military dictatorship|military junta]] headed by [[Carlos Castillo Armas]]—repealed a [[Decree 900|progressive land reform law]], returned nationalized property belonging to the [[United Fruit Company]], set up a [[National Committee of Defense Against Communism]], and decreed a [[Preventive Penal Law Against Communism]] at the request of the United States.{{sfn|Bulmer-Thomas|1987|p=142}} The non-aligned Indonesian government of [[Sukarno]] was faced with a major threat to its legitimacy beginning in 1956 when several regional commanders began to demand autonomy from [[Jakarta]]. After mediation failed, Sukarno took action to remove the dissident commanders. In February 1958, dissident military commanders in Central Sumatra (Colonel [[Ahmad Husein]]) and North Sulawesi (Colonel Ventje Sumual) declared the [[Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia]]-[[Permesta]] Movement aimed at overthrowing the Sukarno regime. They were joined by many civilian politicians from the [[Masyumi Party]], such as [[Sjafruddin Prawiranegara]], who were opposed to the growing influence of the communist [[Communist Party of Indonesia|Partai Komunis Indonesia]]. Due to their anti-communist rhetoric, the rebels received arms, funding, and other covert aid from the CIA until [[Allen Lawrence Pope]], an American pilot, was shot down after a bombing raid on government-held [[Ambon, Maluku|Ambon]] in April 1958. The central government responded by launching airborne and seaborne military invasions of rebel strongholds at [[Padang]] and [[Manado]]. By the end of 1958, the rebels were militarily defeated, and the last remaining rebel guerilla bands surrendered by August 1961.{{sfn|Roadnight|2002}} [[File:The Soviet Union 1961 CPA 2576 stamp (The Struggle for the Liberation of Africa. Lumumba ( 1925-1961 ), premier of Congo).jpg|thumb|upright|1961 Russian stamp commemorating [[Patrice Lumumba]], assassinated prime minister of the [[Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville)|Republic of the Congo]]]] In the [[Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville)|Republic of the Congo]], also known as Congo-Léopoldville, newly independent from [[Belgium]] since June 1960, the [[Congo Crisis]] erupted on 5 July leading to the secession of the regions [[State of Katanga|Katanga]] and [[South Kasai]]. CIA-backed President [[Joseph Kasa-Vubu]] ordered the dismissal of the democratically elected Prime Minister [[Patrice Lumumba]] and the Lumumba cabinet in September over massacres by the armed forces during the [[invasion of South Kasai]] and for involving Soviets in the country.{{sfn|Nzongola-Ntalaja|2011|p=108}}{{sfn|Schraeder|1994|p=57}} Later the CIA-backed Colonel [[Mobutu Sese Seko]] quickly mobilized his forces to seize power through a military coup d'état, {{sfn|Schraeder|1994|p=57}} and worked with Western intelligence agencies to imprison Lumumba and hand him over to Katangan authorities who executed him by firing squad.{{sfn|Nzongola-Ntalaja|2011}}{{sfn|Gerard|2015|pp=216–218}} In [[British Guiana]], the leftist [[People's Progressive Party/Civic|People's Progressive Party]] (PPP) candidate [[Cheddi Jagan]] won the position of chief minister in a colonially administered election in 1953 but was quickly forced to resign from power after Britain's suspension of the still-dependent nation's constitution.{{sfn|Rose|2002|p=57}} Embarrassed by the landslide electoral victory of Jagan's allegedly Marxist party, the British imprisoned the PPP's leadership and maneuvered the organization into a divisive rupture in 1955, engineering a split between Jagan and his PPP colleagues.{{sfn|Mars|Young|2004|p=xviii}} Jagan again won the colonial elections in 1957 and 1961, despite Britain's shift to a reconsideration of its view of the left-wing Jagan as a Soviet-style communist at this time. The United States pressured the British to withhold [[Guyana]]'s independence until an alternative to Jagan could be identified, supported, and brought into office.{{sfn|Palmer|2010|pp=247–248}} Worn down by the [[First Indochina War|communist guerrilla war for Vietnamese independence]] and handed a watershed defeat by communist [[Viet Minh]] rebels at the 1954 [[Battle of Dien Bien Phu]], the French accepted a negotiated abandonment of their colonial stake in [[Vietnam]]. In the [[1954 Geneva Conference|Geneva Conference]], peace accords were signed, leaving Vietnam divided between a pro-Soviet administration in [[North Vietnam]] and a pro-Western administration in [[South Vietnam]] at the [[17th parallel north]]. Between 1954 and 1961, Eisenhower's United States sent economic aid and military advisers to strengthen South Vietnam's pro-Western government against communist efforts to destabilize it.{{sfn|LaFeber|1993|pp=194–197}} Many emerging nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America rejected the pressure to choose sides in the East–West competition. In 1955, at the [[Bandung Conference]] in Indonesia, dozens of Third World governments resolved to stay out of the Cold War.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=126}} The consensus reached at Bandung culminated with the creation of the [[Belgrade]]-headquartered [[Non-Aligned Movement]] in 1961.{{sfn|Karabell|1999|p=916}} Meanwhile, Khrushchev broadened Moscow's policy to establish ties with [[India]] and other key neutral states. Independence movements in the Third World transformed the post-war order into a more pluralistic world of decolonized African and Middle Eastern nations and of rising nationalism in Asia and Latin America.{{sfn|LaFeber|1993|pp=194–197}} ===Sino-Soviet split=== {{Main|Sino-Soviet split}} [[File:Soviet empire 1960.png|thumb|Map showing greatest territorial extent of the Soviet Union and the states that it dominated politically, economically and militarily in 1960, after the [[Cuban Revolution]] of 1959 but before the official [[Sino-Soviet split]] of 1961 (total area: c. 35,000,000 km<sup>2</sup>){{Efn-ua|{{convert|34374483|km2}}.}}]] [[File:Sino-Soviet split 1980.svg|thumb|upright=1.25|A map showing the relations of [[Communist state|Marxist–Leninist state]]s after the Sino-Soviet split of 1980: {{legend|#dd0000|The USSR and pro-Soviet socialist states}} {{legend|#FCC200|China and pro-Chinese socialist states}} {{legend|#000000|Neutral socialist states ([[North Korea]] and [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]])}} {{legend|#e0e0e0|Non-socialist states}}]] After 1956, the Sino-Soviet alliance began to break down. Mao had defended Stalin when Khrushchev criticized him in 1956 and treated the new Soviet leader as a superficial upstart, accusing him of having lost his revolutionary edge.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=142}} For his part, Khrushchev, disturbed by Mao's glib attitude toward nuclear war, referred to the Chinese leader as a "lunatic on a throne".{{sfn|Kempe|2011|p=42}} After this, Khrushchev made many desperate attempts to reconstitute the Sino-Soviet alliance, but Mao considered it useless and denied any proposal.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=142}} The Chinese-Soviet animosity spilled out in an intra-communist propaganda war.{{sfn|Lüthi|2010|pp=273–276}} Further on, the Soviets focused on a bitter rivalry with Mao's China for leadership of the global communist movement.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=140–142}} Historian Lorenz M. Lüthi argues: :The Sino-Soviet split was one of the key events of the Cold War, equal in importance to the construction of the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Second Vietnam War, and [[China–United States relations#Rapprochement|Sino-American rapprochement]]. The split helped to determine the framework of the [[Second Cold War]] in general, and influenced the course of the Second Vietnam War in particular.{{sfn|Lüthi|2010|p=1}} ===Space Race=== {{Main|Space Race}} [[File:Buzz salutes the U.S. Flag.jpg|thumb|upright|The United States [[Apollo 11|reached the Moon]] in 1969.]] On the [[nuclear weapon]]s front, the United States and the Soviet Union pursued nuclear rearmament and developed long-range weapons with which they could strike the territory of the other.{{sfn|Byrd|2003}} In August 1957, the Soviets successfully launched the world's first [[intercontinental ballistic missile]] (ICBM),{{sfn|McMahon|2003|pp=75–76}} and in October they launched the first Earth satellite, [[Sputnik 1]].{{sfn|BBC|1957}} The launch of Sputnik inaugurated the [[Space Race]]. This led to the [[Apollo program|Apollo]] [[Moon landing]]s by the United States, which astronaut [[Frank Borman]] later described as "just a battle in the Cold War."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Magazine |first1=Smithsonian |last2=Klesius |first2=Mike |title=To Boldly Go |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/to-boldly-go-133005480/ |website=Smithsonian Magazine |access-date=5 November 2022 |language=en}}</ref> The public's reaction in the Soviet Union was mixed. The Soviet government limited the release of information about the lunar landing, which affected the reaction. A portion of the populace did not give it any attention, and another portion was angered by it.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/apollo-moon-khrushchev/|title=The Moon Landing through Soviet Eyes: A Q&A with Sergei Khrushchev, son of former premier Nikita Khrushchev|magazine=Scientific American|date=July 16, 2009|access-date=January 7, 2019|last1=Das|first1=Saswato R.|archive-date=February 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225085952/http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/apollo-moon-khrushchev/|url-status=live}}</ref> A major Cold War element of the Space Race was [[Reconnaissance satellite|satellite reconnaissance]], as well as signals intelligence to gauge which aspects of the space programs had military capabilities.<ref>{{Cite web|title=U.S. INTELLIGENCE AND THE SOVIET SPACE PROGRAM|url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB501/|access-date=27 October 2021|website=nsarchive2.gwu.edu}}</ref> Later, however, the US and USSR pursued some cooperation in space as part of [[détente]], such as [[Apollo–Soyuz]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=U.S.-Soviet Cooperation in Outer Space, Part 1: From Yuri Gagarin to Apollo-Soyuz {{!}} National Security Archive|url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2021-04-12/us-soviet-cooperation-in-outer-space-part-1-1961-1975|access-date=27 October 2021|website=nsarchive.gwu.edu}}</ref> ===Aftermath of the Cuban Revolution=== {{Main|Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution|Bay of Pigs Invasion}} [[File:CheyFidel.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Che Guevara]] (left) and [[Fidel Castro]] (right) in 1961]] In [[Cuba]], the [[26th of July Movement]], led by young revolutionaries [[Fidel Castro]] and [[Che Guevara]], seized power in the [[Cuban Revolution]] on 1 January 1959, toppling President [[Fulgencio Batista]], whose unpopular regime had been denied arms by the Eisenhower administration.{{sfn|Blumberg|1995|pp=23–24}} Although Fidel Castro's first refused to categorize his new government as socialist and repeatedly denying being a communist, Castro appointed Marxists to senior government and military positions. Most significantly, Che Guevara became Governor of the Central Bank and then Minister of Industries.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=181–183}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|pp=248–252}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|p=162}}.</ref> [[Cuba–United States relations|Diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States]] continued for some time after Batista's fall, but President Eisenhower deliberately left the capital to avoid meeting Castro during the latter's trip to [[Washington, D.C.]] in April, leaving Vice President [[Richard Nixon]] to conduct the meeting in his place.{{sfn|Lechuga Hevia|2001|p=142}} Cuba began negotiating for arms purchases from the Eastern Bloc in March 1960.{{sfn|Dominguez|1989|p=22}} The same month, Eisenhower gave approval to [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] plans and funding to overthrow Castro.<ref>{{Cite web|title=It's Time to Stop Saying that JFK Inherited the Bay of Pigs Operation from Ike {{!}} History News Network|url=https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161188|access-date=3 September 2020|website=historynewsnetwork.org|date=5 December 2015 |archive-date=26 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726153536/https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/161188|url-status=live}}</ref> In January 1961, just prior to leaving office, Eisenhower formally severed relations with the Cuban government. That April, the administration of newly elected American President [[John F. Kennedy]] mounted the unsuccessful CIA-organized [[Bay of Pigs Invasion|ship-borne invasion]] of the island by [[Cuban exodus|Cuban exiles]] at Playa Girón and Playa Larga in [[Santa Clara Province]]—a failure that publicly humiliated the United States.{{sfn|Smith|1998|p=95}} Castro responded by publicly embracing [[Marxism–Leninism]], and the Soviet Union pledged to [[Cuba–Soviet Union relations|provide further support]].{{sfn|Smith|1998|p=95}} In December, the US government [[Operation Mongoose|began a campaign]] of [[Terrorism|terrorist]] attacks against Cuba and [[covert operations]] and sabotage against the administration, in an attempt to overthrow the Castro regime.{{refn|<ref name=Bacevich10>{{cite book |last1=Bacevich |first1=Andrew |author-link=Andrew Bacevich |title=Washington rules: America's path to permanent war |date=2010 |publisher=[[Henry Holt and Company]] |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4299-4326-0 |pages=77–80 |edition=First}}</ref><ref name=Franklin16>{{cite book |last1=Franklin |first1=Jane |title=Cuba and the U.S. empire : a chronological history |date=2016 |publisher=[[New York University Press]] |location=New York |isbn=978-1-58367-605-9 |pages=45–63, 388–392, ''[[List of Latin phrases (E)#et passim|et passim]]''}}</ref><ref name=NSArchive19>{{cite report |editor1-last=Prados |editor1-first=John |editor2-last=Jimenez-Bacardi |editor2-first=Arturo |date=3 October 2019 |title=Kennedy and Cuba: Operation Mongoose |work=[[National Security Archive]] |url=https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cuba/2019-10-03/kennedy-cuba-operation-mongoose |location=[[Washington, D.C.]] |publisher=[[The George Washington University]] |access-date=3 April 2020 |quote=The memorandum showed no concern for international law or the unspoken nature of these operations as terrorist attacks. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191102010542/https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cuba/2019-10-03/kennedy-cuba-operation-mongoose |archive-date=2 November 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=CIP77>{{cite report |date=1977 |title=International Policy Report |location=[[Washington, D.C.]] |publisher=[[Center for International Policy]] |pages=10–12 |quote=To coordinate and carry out its war of terror and destruction during the early 1960s, the CIA established a base of operations, known as [[JMWAVE]]}}</ref><ref name=Miller02>{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Nicola |editor-last1=Carter |editor-first1=Dale |editor-last2=Clifton |editor-first2=Robin |chapter=The Real Gap in the Cuban Missile Crisis: The Post-Cold-War Historiography and Continued Omission of Cuba |title=War and Cold War in American foreign policy, 1942–62 |date=2002 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |location=Basingstoke |isbn=978-1-4039-1385-2 |pages=211–237}}</ref><ref name=Schou11>{{cite book |last1=Schoultz |first1=Lars |title=That infernal little Cuban republic : the United States and the Cuban Revolution |date=2009 |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |location=Chapel Hill |isbn=978-0-8078-8860-5 |chapter=State Sponsored Terrorism |pages=170–211}}</ref>}} ===Berlin Crisis of 1961=== {{Main|Berlin Crisis of 1961}} {{Further|Berlin Wall|Emigration from the Eastern Bloc}} [[File:US Army tanks face off against Soviet tanks, Berlin 1961.jpg|thumb|[[Tanks of the Soviet Union|Soviet]] and [[Tanks of the United States|American tanks]] face each other at [[Checkpoint Charlie]] during the Berlin Crisis of 1961]] The [[Berlin Crisis of 1961]] was the last major incident in the Cold War regarding the status of Berlin and [[History of Germany (1945–1990)|post–World War II Germany]]. By the early 1950s, the [[Emigration from the Eastern Bloc|Soviet approach to restricting emigration movement]] was emulated by most of the rest of the [[Eastern Bloc]].{{sfn|Dowty|1989|p=114}} However, hundreds of thousands of [[East Germany|East Germans]] annually emigrated to free and prosperous [[West Germany]] through a "loophole" in the system that existed between [[East Berlin]] and [[West Berlin]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Berlin-Wall|title=Berlin Wall|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]|date=9 August 2023 }}</ref>{{sfn|Harrison|2003|p=99}} The emigration resulted in a massive "[[Human capital flight|brain drain]]" from East Germany to West Germany of younger educated professionals, such that nearly 20% of East Germany's population had migrated to West Germany by 1961.{{sfn|Dowty|1989|p=122}} That June, the [[Soviet Union]] issued a new [[ultimatum]] demanding the withdrawal of [[Allies of World War II|Allied forces]] from West Berlin.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=114}} The request was rebuffed, but the United States now limited its security guarantees to West Berlin.{{sfn|Daum|2008|p=27}} On 13 August, East Germany erected a barbed-wire barrier that would eventually be expanded through construction into the [[Berlin Wall]], effectively closing the loophole and preventing its citizens from fleeing to the West.{{sfn|Pearson|1998|p=75}} ===Cuban Missile Crisis and Khrushchev's ousting=== {{Main|Operation Mongoose|Cuban Missile Crisis}} [[File:Cuban missiles.jpg|thumb|left|Aerial photograph of a Soviet missile site in [[Cuba]], taken by a US [[Surveillance aircraft|spy aircraft]], 1 November 1962]] The Kennedy administration continued seeking ways to oust Castro following the Bay of Pigs invasion, experimenting with various ways of covertly facilitating the overthrow of the Cuban government. Significant hopes were pinned on the program of terrorist attacks and other destabilization operations known as [[Operation Mongoose]], that was devised under the Kennedy administration in 1961. Khrushchev learned of the project in February 1962,{{sfn|Zubok|1994}} and preparations to install Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba were undertaken in response.{{sfn|Zubok|1994}} Alarmed, Kennedy considered various reactions. He ultimately responded to the installation of nuclear missiles in Cuba with a [[naval blockade]], and he presented an ultimatum to the Soviets. Khrushchev backed down from a confrontation, and the Soviet Union removed the missiles in return for a public American pledge not to invade Cuba again as well as a covert deal to remove US missiles from Turkey.{{sfn|H. Jones|2009|p=122}} Castro later admitted that "I would have agreed to the use of nuclear weapons. ... we took it for granted that it would become a nuclear war anyway, and that we were going to disappear."{{sfn|Blight|Allyn|Welch|2002|p=252}} The [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] (October–November 1962) brought the world closer to [[Nuclear warfare|nuclear war]] than ever before.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=82}} The aftermath led to efforts in the [[nuclear arms race]] at nuclear disarmament and improving relations, although the Cold War's first arms control agreement, the [[Antarctic Treaty System|Antarctic Treaty]], had come into force in 1961.{{efn-ua|National Research Council Committee on Antarctic Policy and Science, p. 33}} The compromise embarrassed Khrushchev and the Soviet Union because the withdrawal of US missiles from Italy and Turkey was a secret deal between Kennedy and Khrushchev, and the Soviets were seen as retreating from circumstances that they had started. In 1964, Khrushchev's Kremlin colleagues managed to [[Nikita Khrushchev#Removal|oust]] him, but allowed him a peaceful retirement.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=119–120}} He was accused of rudeness and incompetence, and John Lewis Gaddis argues that he was also blamed with ruining Soviet agriculture, bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war, and becoming an "international embarrassment" when he authorized construction of the Berlin Wall.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=119}} According to Dobrynin, the top Soviet leadership took the Cuban outcome as "a blow to its prestige bordering on humiliation".<ref>William Taubman, [[Khrushchev: The Man and His Era]] (2004) p. 579.</ref><ref name="The Malin Notes">{{cite web|url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/publication/CWHIP_Bulletin_17-18_Cuban_Missile_Crisis_v2_s3_Soviet_Union.pdf|title=The Malin Notes: Glimpses Inside the Kremlin during the Cuban Missile Crisis|work=Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars|author=Jeffery D. Shields|date=March 7, 2016}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page