Arms Race, U2 Incident and Second Berlin Crisis, 1957-61

Key learning aims:

To be able to explain:
- the significance of the arms race and how it reflected growing tensions between East and West;
- the significance of the U2 incident and how it helped create the background to the 1961 Berlin Wall crisis;
- the causes, events and results of the construction of the Berlin Wall.
- Berlin Wall’s effects on relations between East and West and on Germany;

Key events and themes

1956
- July: US develops U2 Spy plane

1957
- May: USSR develops 1st ICBM
- October: USSR launches Sputnik
1958
- January: Puts Satellite into orbit
- November 10th: Khrushchev gives speech at the Moscow Sports Palace demanding that Berlin be unified, demilitarised and declared to be a free city;
1959
- May-August: Geneva Summit regarding Berlin ends without agreement;
- July 24th: Richard Nixon visits Moscow and conducts Kitchen debate with Khrushchev at the opening of the American National Exhibition
- September 15th-27th:Khrushchev visits US, refused entry to Disneyland (‘the bright eye of capitalism’ (Hector Hawkins));
- September 25th: Camp David summit;
- USA develops Atlas and Minuteman ICBMs; USA also develops Polaris that can be fired from Sub. US public fear USSR has more weapons than USA. Eisenhower knows this is false but doesn’t tell the public.
1960
- May 1st: U2 incident and capture of Gary Powers
- May 16th: Paris Conference – Eisenhower refuses to apologise; Khrushchev walks out of meeting;
- November: Election of John F. Kennedy
1960
- January-February 1961: Walter Ulbricht (leader of the GDR) puts pressure on Khrushchev to close the border in Berlin
1961
- April: Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes 1st man in space
- June 4th: Vienna conference of 1961 and Khrushchev makes ultimatum insisting that the city be reunified under East German control or USSR would make a separate peace treaty bringing the 4 power treaty to an end; Kennedy call’s Khrushchev’s bluff and refuses to remove American troops from West Berlin;
- August 12-13th: the Wall is erected;
- October: USSR detonates largest bomb ever seen.
1962
- February 10th: Gary Powers released by Soviets in exchange for Geordie lad, Rudolf Abel; the former is treated as a traitor, the latter as a hero in their home countries.
- October: Cuban missile crisis
1963
- June: Kennedy’s visit to Berlin, ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’

The Arms Race
A key consequence of Korea, Hungary and the increasing tensions between East and West was a growing Arms Race. We need to understand this and how it contributed to subsequent events.

Key terms you will need to familiarise yourself with:
- The Arms Race:
  - Deterrence
  - Hydrogen bomb
  - The Space Race
  - The Missile Gap
  - U2 Spy Planes
  - ICBMs (Atlas and Minuteman)
  - SLBMs (Polaris)
  - First Strike
  - Second Strike
  - MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction)
Key developments
Read:
- Edexcel, pp. 94-95: The Cuban Missile Crisis: Origins
- Walsh, pp. 343-346
- Videos about the arms race can be found here
Activities:
- Create a mind map or some other graphical presentation of the key terms of the arms race (listed above) explaining the significance of each
- Create your own timeline of the key events in the arms race between 1945 and 1961
- B question (4 marks): Explain one effect on the relationship between the USA and the Soviet Union of the arms race
- Complete the basks on p. 95 of the Edexcel textbook
- Did the arms race help people feel safer?
- Research an aspect of the arms race you find interesting and present your conclusions to the class

The U2 Incident, May 1st 1960
Read
- Walsh, p. 344
- John D. Clare’s page on the U2 Crisis
- The BBC News magazine article ‘Gary Powers, the U2 spy pilot the USA did not love’
- Steven Spielberg’s movie, ‘Bridge of Spies’
Activities:
- Explain the U2 incident (May 1st 1960) and its effects on the Paris Summit Conference (May 16th 1960);
- Why do you think the US chose this moment to reveal the Great Seal Bug?
- Why were Gary Powers and Rudolf Abel treated so differently in their respective countries?

Berlin Crisis no. 2

Key learning aims:
- To be able to explain:
  - the causes, events and results of the construction of the Berlin Wall.
  - Reasons for construction of Berlin Wall (1961);
  - Berlin Wall’s effects on relations between East and West and on Germany;
Key personalities and issues:
- The refugee crisis
- Walther Ulbricbht, Chairman of the State Council of the German Democratic Republic, 1960-73
Read:
- Edexcel, pp. 90-91: The Berlin Crisis: a divided city; pp. 92-93 The Berlin Crisis: the Berlin Wall.
- See John D. Clare’s page on the Berlin Wall
Tasks:
- Carry out the card exercises on p. 93 of the Edexcel textbook
- Write an answer to the C question ‘Why did the USSR build the Berlin Wall in 1961? Explain your answer.’ N.b. What do you need to do to pick up full marks from a C question?
- Summarise the key consequences of the Berlin Wall crisis
- Paired task: each pair produces two different headlines for the day after the building of the Berlin Wall
  - One for East Berlin
  - One for West Berlin

Drawing Conclusions
- Group task: Each group given a grid which has the main crises of 1945-61 including the Berlin Crisis 1948-49, Hungarian Uprising, the U2 Crisis and the Berlin Wall Crisis.
  - Carry out further research on each crisis
  - Decide which was the most serious giving each a rating of 1-5 with 5 being the highest
  - Give a presentation to the rest of the class explaining their decisions.
  For an excellent diagram exercise on this topic see School History
  
  Also, see the electronic quiz from the same site.

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