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The Cold War 1945–1991

Peaceful Co-existence

Paul Brown
Camden High School

Outcomes

Students:

H1.1 describe the role of key features, issues, individuals, groups and events of selected twentieth-century studies
H1.2 analyse and evaluate the role of key features, issues, individuals, groups and events of selected twentieth-century studies
Extract from Modern History Stage 6 Syllabus Board of Studies NSW 2004.

Key features and issues

Developments of the Cold War to 1968

From this tutorial you will learn about the development of the Cold War to 1968.

The emergence of peaceful co-existence

Peaceful co-existence was a policy that emerged from the Soviet Union in response to a number of different situations, domestically and internationally, during the 1950s. The death of Stalin in 1953 allowed for a new approach to the Cold War.

There were a series of problems facing the Soviet Union in 1952-53.

The United States was well advanced in nuclear warheads and delivery systems
The Soviet Union was ringed by United States bases in Europe
The Soviet Union’s prestige was at stake in Korea
Yugoslavia and its leader, Marshall Tito, were proving difficult, as Tito would not allow his country to be absorbed into the Eastern bloc.
Soviet influence on Third World countries was waning
There was no clear successor to Stalin following his death in 1953

Malenkhov, one of Stalin’s successors, believed a form of accommodation with the West had to be found. “At the present time,” he said, “there is no dispute or unresolved question that cannot be settled peacefully by mutual agreement of the interested countries.” Successful examples to illustrate this belief included:

Soviet citizens who had married foreigners being allowed to leave the Soviet Union
Diplomatic relations with Greece, Yugoslavia and Israel being re-established
An agreement to end the Korean War being made.

In 1955 Nikita Kruschchev emerged as leader of the Soviet Union. His views included:

That the Soviet economy needed modernising
That defence spending be reduced
A proposal to compete through political, economic and ideological ways with the West. (This was now possible because while the Soviet economy was nowhere near as strong as the US economy it was growing very rapidly. Between 1950-58 there was an annual increase of 7.1% in GNP (Gross National Product). This was far greater than the US. This allowed an easing of repression in the Soviet Union and a new confidence in their system of government and ability to influence other countries in both Europe and the Third World.)
A belief that nuclear weaponry had made nuclear war untenable
That Third World and other socialist countries should be won over to his cause of peace
A stress that Eastern European countries under Soviet control should be allowed to take ‘different roads to socialism.’

In respect to Stalin, Kruschchev:

condemned the excesses of the Stalinist year
dissolved the Cominform, Stalin’s favoured method of maintaining control over – Eastern Europe.
advocated of a policy of peaceful co-existence”

When Kruschchev made the alarmingly provocative statement, “We will bury you”, to the UN it was not meant to be taken literally.

To make sure that the Soviet Union was not disadvantaged Kruschchev:

strengthened the Warsaw Pact in May, 1955.
flew to see Tito in Yugoslavia and delivered a personal apology for Stalin’s treatment – Stalin had called it ‘a military Fascist dictatorship’.
won Communist China back to the Soviet Union’s influence.

Further Crises over Berlin

Even after the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49 there continued to be a crisis over Berlin. There had not been a formal peace treaty that ended World War II and settled the frontiers of Eastern Europe. In 1958 Khrushchev proposed that the US, Britain, France and the Soviet Union all sign, with the two Germanys, a peace treaty recognising the de facto frontiers (the frontiers as they currently were). He proposed making Berlin a free city that would be de-militarised and self-governing. Its integrity and access to the rest of the world would be guaranteed by all the signatories.

This was not acceptable to the Western powers because:

Land access would pass from the Soviet Union to East Germany
It would signal a retreat from the outpost that they had supplied during the crisis of 1948-49
It would look like Western withdrawal from West German interests. West Germany was at the heart of NATO and the new EEC (European Economic Community)
It would remove a Western outpost that had outstanding propaganda value in the heart of the Soviet Empire.

Krushchev was blunt about the offer and gave the West six months to decide or otherwise he would allow East German control of the access to Berlin. This had the potential to become a nuclear crisis. This crisis passed when Khrushchev dropped his deadline and Eisenhower offered to negotiate and invited Khrushchev to the US. Little was decided at this meeting but the parties did agree to meet again in 1960 in Paris.

Proposed Paris Summit, 1960

Before the Summit got underway, a U2 American spy plane that was capable of flying up to 70,000 ft (21538 m) was shot down over Soviet Territory. It had been on a mission to photograph potential missile bases in the Urals. At first the Americans denied that it was spy flight but eventually Eisenhower was forced to admit it. There was much posturing over this and the Summit never took place.

After this:

The Soviets walked out of the Geneva disarmament talks
A major split occurred between the Soviets and the Chinese (Sino-Soviet split).
Khrushchev knew that Eisenhower was now a lame duck with only a few months left of his presidency.
Events in South and Central America now presented some new opportunities for the Soviets. Cuba became the next flashpoint.

Results of the policy of peaceful co-existence

There was little impact from this policy on US-Soviet relations because the United States didn’t trust the Soviets (See John Foster Dulles attitude, Secretary of States under Eisenhower, he called Soviet peace initiatives ‘Trojan Doves’.) Other crises arose such as continuing problems over Berlin and the failure to hold the proposed Paris Peace Summit in 1960. All of this led to increasing tensions and further crises - in the Bay of Pigs, Cuba, April 1961, in the erection of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 and finally; in the Cuban missile crisis in August-October, 1962. Peaceful co-existence as a policy had failed.

Bibliography

McDougall, Derek. Soviet-American Relations Since the 1940s, Hodder & Stockton, Melbourne, 1989.
Spenceley, Geoff. A World In Shadow, US-Soviet Relations in the Nuclear Age, Oxford University Press, New York, 1989.
Walker, Martin The Cold War. Vintage, Great Britain, 1994.