Cold War crises

It was a Western-controlled island lying deep inside the Soviet occupation zone, so its access routes could be squeezed by the USSR.

The merged Western occupation zones of Germany — Bizonia (US + British), then Trizonia when France joined — a step towards a separate West Germany.

Western currency reform (the new Deutschmark) and the merging of the Western zones, which signalled a separate capitalist West Germany.

Stalin cut all road, rail and canal routes into West Berlin to force the West out and reverse the currency reform.

The Western response to the blockade: for nearly a year the USA and Britain flew food, coal and supplies into West Berlin until Stalin gave up in 1949.

The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in the West and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the Soviet-backed East.

His demand that the Western powers leave West Berlin within six months, threatening to hand control of the access routes to East Germany.

Around 3 million East Germans — many young and skilled — fled to the West through open West Berlin, crippling and humiliating the GDR.

To seal the border and stop the refugee exodus, stabilising the GDR by trapping its citizens in the East.

US and Soviet tanks faced each other at the main crossing point for a day before both sides pulled back — a tense but bloodless standoff.

He did not tear it down (that risked war) but defended West Berlin firmly, reinforced its garrison, and later declared 'Ich bin ein Berliner' (1963).

The enduring symbol of a divided Europe and the Iron Curtain between the communist East and the capitalist West.

In 1945 Korea was split along the 38th parallel — a Soviet-backed communist North and a US-backed anti-communist South.

North Korea, under Kim Il-sung, invaded the South across the 38th parallel to unite Korea by force under communism.

The US Cold War policy of stopping communism from spreading to new countries. Korea applied it in Asia for the first time.

The UN (with the USSR absent) sent a mostly-American force under MacArthur. A landing at Inchon pushed the North back.

When UN troops neared China's border, China sent huge numbers of soldiers and drove the UN back to the 38th parallel.

With a 1953 armistice — a ceasefire, not a peace treaty — that left Korea divided at the 38th parallel, with no reunification.

Containment spread to Asia, the Cold War militarised, China rose as a power, and Korea stayed permanently divided.

A failed US-backed invasion of Cuba by exiles. It humiliated the US and pushed Castro closer to the Soviet Union.

To defend his ally Castro and to aim Soviet nuclear missiles at the US up close, mirroring US missiles in Turkey.

A naval blockade of Cuba to stop more missiles arriving, deliberately named to avoid calling it an act of war.

The USSR removed its missiles for a US no-invasion pledge, plus a secret US withdrawal of missiles from Turkey.

The near-miss with nuclear war produced the Washington–Moscow hotline and the 1963 test-ban treaty, easing tension.

The ring of Eastern European states controlled by the USSR after 1945, bound together by the Warsaw Pact.

Khrushchev's move to soften Stalin's harsh rule after 1953. It raised hopes of freedom across the bloc, helping spark the Hungarian Uprising.

The reformer who became Hungary's prime minister in 1956, promised free elections, and declared Hungary would leave the Warsaw Pact. He was later executed.

Nagy announced Hungary would leave the Warsaw Pact and become neutral — the red line that threatened the Soviet defensive buffer.

János Kádár, a leader loyal to Moscow who restored obedient communist control.

Alexander Dubček's burst of reform in Czechoslovakia, relaxing censorship and allowing debate while keeping communism.

Dubček's plan to keep communist one-party rule but make it freer and more humane.

About 500,000 Warsaw Pact troops invaded in August 1968, reversed the reforms, and installed the loyal Gustáv Husák.

The USSR's claimed right to intervene militarily in any bloc state to protect communism — no member could reform or leave against Moscow's wishes.

It condemned both invasions but sent no troops, accepting that Eastern Europe lay within the Soviet sphere of influence.

Nagy pushed a bottom-up popular uprising and tried to leave the Warsaw Pact; Dubček led top-down party reform and stayed loyal to the Pact.

Soviet control was reasserted, the limits of reform under Soviet dominance were exposed, and the West condemned without intervening.