CWB - How much Destalinization is too much Destalinization?: The Khrushchev Years, continued. (Lesson)

How much Destalinization is too much Destalinization?: The Khrushchev Years, continued.

Cold War in 1960s.

U-2 incident: U.S. spy plane shot down over USSR

  • Khrushchev demanded an apology from Eisenhower; Eisenhower refused
  • Promising Paris Summit in 1960 between Khrushchev and Eisenhower aborted

Photograph of German soldiers building the Berlin WallBerlin Wall built in 1961

  • 2 million East Germans escaped to West Berlin between 1949-1961; Soviets frustrated
  • Khrushchev threatened President Kennedy: USSR would sign peace treaty with East Germany who would then control access to Berlin; Soviets would protect East Germany's right to control flow into Berlin
  • Berlin Wall built instead of enforcing ultimatum to U.S.; ended future crises over Berlin

 

Cuba.

  • Cuba became a communist country in 1959 under leadership of Fidel Castro
  • Quickly became an ally of the Soviet Union
  • Bay of Pigs Invasion, 1961: U.S.-trained Cuban exiles tried unsuccessfully to invade Cuba
  • Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962: U.S. demanded Soviets remove their newly installed nuclear missiles from Cuba
  • Crisis became the closest USSR and US came to nuclear war
  • U.S. placed blockade (naval quarantine) on any further missiles into Cuba, results in 13 day standoff
  • Khrushchev agreed to remove missiles in return for U.S. removing its missiles from Turkey and vowing not to invade Cuba in the future

Crisis weakened Khrushchev and contributed to his downfall in 1964.

 

Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 1963.

  • Khrushchev, Kennedy & Britain signed historic treaty banning atmospheric testing in an attempt to reduce Cold War tensions
  • France refused to sign (was in the process of developing own nuclear weapons program)
  • China became a nuclear power in 1964 leading to its estrangement with Soviet Union

 

Fall of Khrushchev, 1964.

  • His cold war foreign policies were erratic & ultimately unsuccessful (Berlin, Cuban Missile Crisis)
  • Expensive space and armaments programs postponed any significant industrial shift to consumer goods
  • Most important reason for his fall → agricultural projects backfired
  • Resurgence of conservative Stalinists led to quiet removal of Khrushchev in October, 1964

Leonid Brezhnev became new General Secretary (1964-1982)

  • Beginning in 1964, USSR began a period of stagnation and limited re-Stalinization
  • Massive arms buildup started in response to humiliation of Cuban Missile Crisis.
  • USSR avoided direct confrontation with the U.S. and seemed more committed to peaceful coexistence than Khrushchev had been.

 

Soviet Bloc since 1968.

  • 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia was the crucial event of the Brezhnev era
  • Intense conservatism of Soviet ruling elite determined to maintain status quo in Soviet bloc
  • Dictatorship was collective rather than personal—through the Politburo
  • Celebrated nonconformists as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn permanently expelled from country

 

 

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PHOTOGRAPH OF GERMAN SOLDIERS BUILDING THE BERLIN WALL COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES (PUBLIC DOMAIN)