Conflict and Tension Between East and West, 1945–1972

What Conflict and Tension Between East and West, 1945–1972 covers

Conflict and Tension Between East and West, 1945–1972 is examined in Paper 1, Understanding the modern world. It covers the end of the Second World War, the Iron Curtain and the evolution of East-West rivalry, the significance of events in Asia for superpower relations, military rivalries: the arms race and the space race, the ‘Thaw’, the building of the Berlin Wall, tensions over Cuba, Czechoslovakia and the Prague Spring and easing of tension.

The 9 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• The end of the Second World WarThe Yalta and Potsdam conferences and what was agreed about Germany, the quarrel over reparations, the rival beliefs of the USA and the USSR, the aims and attitudes of Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt, Attlee and Truman, and how the atomic bombs on Japan began an arms race.Open →
• The Iron Curtain and the evolution of East-West rivalryChurchill's iron curtain speech, the satellite states and how communists took power in eastern Europe, containment, the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, Cominform and Comecon, Tito's break with Stalin, and the Berlin Blockade and airlift that led to two German states and NATO.Open →
• The significance of events in Asia for superpower relationsMao's victory in China and the Soviet alliance, the domino theory, the division of Korea and the Korean War from invasion to armistice, the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu and the division of Vietnam, the Vietcong's guerrilla war, and what the fighting meant for the superpowers.Open →
• Military rivalries: the arms race and the space raceThe arms race from the Soviet atomic bomb to the hydrogen bomb, mutually assured destruction, NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and the space race from Sputnik and Gagarin to ICBMs, Polaris, Kennedy's Moon pledge and the Apollo 11 landing.Open →
• The ‘Thaw’The easing after Stalin's death, de-Stalinisation, the Hungarian rising of October 1956, Nagy's promises and the Soviet tanks, the West's response, the U2 shot down in 1960 and the collapse of the Paris summit.Open →
• The building of the Berlin WallWhy West Berlin troubled the USSR, the refugee drain, Khrushchev's ultimatum of 1958 and the Vienna summit, the barrier of 13 August 1961, Kennedy's response, Checkpoint Charlie and the results for the Cold War.Open →
• Tensions over CubaCastro's revolution and the American response, the Bay of Pigs and its consequences, why Khrushchev placed missiles on the island, the crisis from the spy-plane photographs to the blockade and 27 October, the terms of the settlement, Castro's anger, and the results for Kennedy, Khrushchev and the Cold War.Open →
• Czechoslovakia and the Prague SpringDiscontent under Novotný, Dubček and socialism with a human face, the reforms of the Prague Spring, the Warsaw Pact invasion of August 1968 and passive resistance, Jan Palach, Dubček's fall, the Brezhnev Doctrine, and what the crushing of the reforms meant for the Warsaw Pact and East–West relations.Open →
• Easing of tensionWhat détente meant, the Soviet dissidents, why each superpower wanted to reduce tension, the split between the USSR and China, SALT 1 and its limits, and the parts played by Nixon and Brezhnev.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Conflict and Tension Between East and West, 1945–1972 further

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Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Cominform vs Comecon

  Cominform: bureau of 1947 linking the communist parties of Europe to the line laid down in Moscow. Comecon: council of 1949 organising trade and aid between the communist states.

• Marshall Plan vs Containment

  Marshall Plan: offer of American money, goods and machinery to rebuild the economies of Europe from 1948. Containment: American policy of stopping communism spreading beyond where it already existed.

• NATO vs Warsaw Pact

  NATO: western alliance of 1949 treating an armed attack on one member as an attack on all. Warsaw Pact: alliance of 1955 that put the eastern European armies under Soviet command.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   When and where did the Yalta Conference take place, and what was the military situation at the time?

   Model answer

   February 1945, at Yalta in the Crimea, while Germany was still fighting but clearly heading for defeat.

2. 2

   Which three leaders met at Yalta, and which country did each speak for?

   Model answer

   Stalin for the USSR, Roosevelt for the USA and Churchill for Britain.

3. 3

   What did the Yalta agreement say should happen to Germany once it surrendered?

   Model answer

   It would be occupied in four zones by the USA, Britain, France and the USSR, its capital split the same way, and Nazism and the Nazi Party destroyed.

4. 4

   What two promises did Stalin make at Yalta in return?

   Model answer

   That he would enter the war against Japan once Germany was beaten, and that the liberated countries of eastern Europe would hold free elections.

5. 5

   When was the Potsdam Conference held, and why were two of the three leaders different from Yalta?

   Model answer

   July–August 1945; Roosevelt had died and Truman had succeeded him, and Churchill lost a general election partway through the talks and was replaced by Attlee.

6. 6

   Why were relations at Potsdam worse than they had been five months earlier?

   Model answer

   The Red Army now occupied eastern Europe and had installed a communist government in Poland instead of holding the free elections Stalin had promised.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Conflict and Tension Between East and West, 1945–1972 revision questions

What does Conflict and Tension Between East and West, 1945–1972 cover in AQA GCSE History?

9 subtopics: the end of the second world war, the iron curtain and the evolution of east-west rivalry, the significance of events in asia for superpower relations, military rivalries: the arms race and the space race, the ‘thaw’, the building of the berlin wall, tensions over cuba, czechoslovakia and the prague spring and easing of tension. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Conflict and Tension Between East and West, 1945–1972 organised?

By the AQA 8145 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.