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Turkey and Greece joined in 1952, and West Germany joined in 1955. This agreement meant that America could build air bases in Western Europe, here planes equipped with weapons and nuclear bombs were stationed ready for use of an act of aggression from another threatening power. In 1954 the USSR wanted to join NATO, to preserve peace in Europe, fearing this was a move to weaken the alliance, the NATO member countries rejected them from joining.
I think this contributed to the development of the cold war as these non-communist countries forming an alliance to protect themselves from communist countries and their attacks could have been seen as a threatening alliance to countries uninvolved, that they would plot against them, o plan attacks. This would have increased suspicions between the USA and the USSR, and could have made the USSR want to become stronger, with more weapons and alliances themselves, to protect itself from any attack from NATO. The nuclear arms race began after the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima and the Nagasaki in 1945.
It was between the superpowers, the USA and the USSR, this became an important theme in the cold war. They believed that the more nuclear weapons you had, the more powerful you are as a country. The nuclear arms race was how the USA and the USSR made sure that they did not get left behind the other with the number of nuclear paeans they had, so that they could never be at a disadvantage. However, this race was very expensive for both countries, as they tried to increase the amount of nuclear weapons they owned and develop more effective and deadlier weapons.
Until 1949 the USA had the advantage as the USSR did not want to go to war against the USA because of the destructive power of the bomb. However in 1 949 the USSR exploded their first atomic bomb. The hydrogen bomb, was more powerful and could destroy the whole of Moscow, was tested successfully by the USA in 1952. These bombs were smaller that he bombs used in 1945, yet they were 2000 times stronger. In 1 953 the soviets built their first hydrogen bomb. I think this contributed to the Cold war because it started a rivalry between the USA and the USSR, and kept them competing with each other with their weapons.
Each country felt that it needed to have the best weapons, just in case the other attacked, so it could defend itself. Because of this, they needed better bombs than the other, and were constantly developing new deadly weapons. They both tried to keep ahead in the race. The Korean War. After Korea was freed from the Japanese intro, the north of Korea was occupies by Soviet soldiers and the South of Korea by the American soldiers. It had been agreed that Korea should get free elections and be united in the future.
The Americans supported this as two thirds of Koreans population was in the south, and felt that the communists would be out voted. However this proved impossible and in 1948 the two independent states of North and South Korea were set up, divided by the 38th parallel. The south was capitalist and the north was communist. Even though Soviet and American troops left in 1949 North Korea was still supported by the USSR and the South by the Americans. Because China was a recently turned communist country, it meant that North Korea had a boarder with another communist state, possibly making them stronger.
With the division of their county, a war looked possible. Although nobody knows for certain what caused the war to break out. Stalin supplied the North with tanks and planes and Russian generals, and communist china possibly urged an attack. The communists claimed that they were trying to protect themselves from South Korean troops that had crossed the 38th parallel. The Koreans attacked South Korea in 1950, and advanced quickly, crossing the 38th really, capturing the capital Seoul, and soon occupying the whole of South Korea except the Pupas pocket in the south east corner. The Americans began to move their troops to Korea.
They invaded North Korea, occupying two thirds of the country, and soon reached the Chinese boarder China was worried that the Americans would invade China, so 2500000 Chinese troops entered North Korea, there were too many of them for the Americans, and by January 151 had driven the LINE troops out of North Korea and recaptured Seoul. MacArthur wanted to bomb the Chinese, but Truman felt this would cause a major war and dismissed Macarthur. By June 1 951 UN troops had pushed the communist out of South Korea. In 1953 it was agreed that the frontier would remain at the 38th parallel.
I think that this contributed to the development of the cold war because it showed that Truman was prepared to stick to the Truman doctrine and his policy of containment and not allow communism to be spread. It also showed that neither of the superpowers wanted to make the Cold war a Hot war, as the Soviets did not get directly involved. It proved that the UN was able to resist an act of regression, something the League of Nations had never been able to do. The war showed that Truman would go to almost any lengths to stop communism from spreading, including getting involved into another countries affairs, and getting involved in another war.
Stalin died in 1953. This led to a new direction in Soviet foreign policy. Now that the East and West had the power of the hydrogen bomb it seems sensible to ease the tension of the Cold War. The Americans were willing to negotiate because they regarded Stalin as the main cause of the Cold War, and felt it would be easier to negotiate now that he was no longer in power. This new cooperation was first seen in the purport that the USSR gave to ending the Korean War this was followed in 1955 when the soviets agreed to sign the Austrian state treaty which ended the occupation of Austria.
Austria had been divided since 1945 and had been divided into four zones at the end of the Second World War, this now came to an end, and Austria became independent The new Soviet leader Khrushchev appeared to be keen to make a fresh start with the West, he argued that the days of the hydrogen bomb the ideas are supporting a communist revolution across the world were over, that it was necessary to live in peace with the West even if the Soviets did not like its ideals and policies.
After the Summit conference in Geneva, it meant that this was a turning point in the Cold war, and the East and West were now talking together. I think this contributed to the development of the Cold war because, even though the Soviets had a new leader, didn’t mean that he didn’t want different things, Khrushchev was still communist and wanted communism, however he did also want peace and this was important to America. And even though they were talking again didn’t mean that they agreed on much, in fact, because they were talking ore and trying to agree things mean that even more could go wrong, and they could disagree.
The Warsaw Pact was a military alliance for mutual defense which the USSR signed along with other communist countries, suck as: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, East Germany and Albania. It was signed because when west Germany joined NATO in 1955, it had revived soviet concerns about the re-emergence of Germany. Part of The pact was that the countries of the pact still believed in the idea of the collective security of Nations. For example that all nations of the world should unite to prevent any war it faced.
It was described as a treaty of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance between countries who signed it. All the forces of the pact countries were placed under the leadership of the Soviet commander in chief and it permitted Soviet troops to become station in East countries that the purpose of defense. This became part of the User’s methods of keeping the countries under its control and their troops would be used in the future to prevent Soviet satellite states from leaving soviet control. The Warsaw pact was dominated by the USSR was seen as a response to NATO.