AP EUROPEAN HISTORY

POSTWAR EUROPE: RECOVERY, COMMUNISM, AND THE COLD WAR 1945-1970 PRACTICE ESSAY QUESTIONS 1. Explain the major confrontations of the Cold War before the death of Stalin To “detail” is the task. First, determine what is meant by “confrontation.” The very essence of the Cold War was that the superpowers never directly confronted each other militarily. Before 1953 and the death of Stalin, one of the most serious confrontations involved the United States and the USSR over the Berlin Blockade. Through the winter of 1948-1949, mostly American aircraft flew over Soviet-held East Germany to supply West Berlin. The forces of each of the superpowers were within easy shooting distance, but moderation prevailed on both sides. The Korean War brought the United States and other U.N. forces into a shooting war with the new Communist China, which was considered a close ally of the Soviets and was supplied with Russian arms and aided by Russian “volunteers.” President Truman’s sacking of Gen. MacArthur limited the scope of the war. The Truman Doctrine and NATO, the West’s responses to the Communist threat in Europe, could be considered elements of the overall confrontation. 2. Evaluate the role of NATO in the defense of Western Europe. “What minuses?” you ask. Did its establishment in 1949 increase tensions between the West and the Soviets? Should West Germany have been rearmed by 1950? Should it have been authorized to create a “national army” by 1954? Did its role in NATO exaggerate the importance of the United States in Europe? Would the Warsaw Pact have been consummated if not for the existence of NATO? Were there alternatives? The pluses? It seems to have averted an invasion of Western Europe after its inception. The stationing of hundreds of thousands of American troops on European soil not only aided the Western Europeans in their defense, but it enabled them to invest in their economies the huge sums needed for defense. The United States also gave billions of dollars to other NATO powers to build up their military forces, and U.S. bases boosted their local economies. 3. Analyze the movement toward economic union in Western Europe. Recall that the Marshall Plan inspired the Organization for European Economic Cooperation. Did this set the tone for the Schumann and Monnet plan? What was the European Coal and Steel Community? How did it evolve into the Common Market? Who were the Common Market’s first members? Why wasn’t Britain one of them? What was the role of the French in delaying British membership? How has European consolidation gone beyond the economic? . 4. Contrast and compare the status of Eastern European satellites before and in the two decades after the death of Stalin. Eastern Europe before the Soviet takeover after World War II was an agricultural, not an industrial, region. How did land redistribution and Soviet-type Five Year Plans change this? What was the political situation for the satellites? How did the East Berlin riots of 1953 set a new precedent in the relations between the Soviets and their satellites? How did “de-Stalinization” help precipitate revolts in Poland and Hungary in 1956? How did these revolts affect the political and economic reform of Eastern Europe? How did the suppression of Czechoslovakia in 1968 diminish the soviet reputation as anti-imperialistic in the Third World? What changed, what remained the same after Stalin’s death? 5. Analyze how and why the Cold War gradually thawed Again, the death of Stalin cannot be underestimated as an influence. Be aware, though, that while the “cult of personality” disappeared from Soviet political life, the edifices of the totalitarian state remained. The so-called thaw involved a number of “quick-freeze” crises. The summit meetings played an invaluable role in decreasing superpower tensions. The Cuban Missile Crisis may have alerted the United States and the USSR to the ultimate disaster that “brinkmanship” could lead to. The year 1963 was significant in that the Test Ban Treaty was signed and the monolithic Communist Bloc cracked with the Soviet-Chinese rift. Nixon’s policy of detente, despite the Vietnam War, was a giant step. The Nonproliferation Treaty and the SALT treaties were significant.