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Cold war crisis, 1958-70 (Why did the Soviet Union invade Hungary?…
Cold war crisis, 1958-70
Cold war intensifies
Impact of the arms race
Both USA and USSR had the atomic bomb. They began to pour money into projects to build more and bigger bombs and new delivery systems.
MAD- Mutually assured destruction
Both sides suspected the other side would build up enough weapons to 'strike first' and in doing so wipe out the other side so they couldn't strike back.
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A competition between USA and USSR to build up the biggest and most powerful supply of weapons+ military might (nuclear and non-nuclear)
Impact of the Warsaw pact, 1955
6 years after NATO Soviet Union set up the Warsaw pact. Military alliance of eight nations headed by the Soviet Union. They were to support each other if attacked
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Created the existence of the two rival alliance systems in the Cold War- NATO in the west and Warsaw pact in the East > Increased rivalry between USA and USSR and intensified arms race
Hungarian uprising, 1956
Stalin died 1953
No change in Soviet control when deputy Georgy Malenkov took over control
After 2 years Khruschev took control and within a year he had denounced Stalin's policies in a 'Secret speech'and referred to as 'De-stalinisation'> He believed in a peaceful co-existence ( superpowers could exsist peacefully together)
For a time it was peacful 'thaw' in the cold war > until USSR brutally put down uprising in Hungary
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23rd October 1956- Students demonstrated in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, demanding free elections, free press and the withdrawal of Soviet troops. Statue of Stalin was pulled down and dragged through the streets
After demonstrations began in October 1956 Krushchev sent troops and tanks to Budapest to try and restore peace. The tanks opened fire and killed 12 people injuring many more
Krushchev's response
Krushchev didn't want to seem weak to other memerbs of the Warsaw pact. Aswell as the leader of China Mao Zedong urging him to stand firm against any deviation from communism.
He decided that Nagy had gone too far and on November 4th 200,000 Soviet Troops and 6,000 tanks returned to Hungary
International response
As the crisis was raging in Hungary, world attention was drawn away to events in the Middle East with the Suez Crisis.
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