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.

Share this:

Like this: