US/SOVIET RELATIONS
PRE-1962
By mid 1945 the wartime alliance of America, Britain and Russia, had all but disintegrated. It loosely clung together because of the presence of the Soviet Red Army, who Stalin used to subjugate Eastern Europe on the pretext of seeking Soviet security and the fact that the US had developed the Atom bomb.
By 1946, Europe was clearly divided into opposing blocs- the West, led by America and the East led by the Soviet Union. The "Iron Curtain" had established itself in the minds of political leaders throughout the world
The hostile relationship between these two states formed the substance of the Cold War. A war that, by its very nature did not involve direct military conflict, something ensured possibly by the fear of the new technology, nuclear warfare.
America were determined to contain the spread of Communism, initially gave great economic support to the countries surrounding Russia, particularly Germany and Turkey. The formation of NATO highlighted the American and European effort to contain Communism.
The blueprint for fighting the cold war came with the National Security Council's memo #68. NSC-68 as it was known is seen as the most important cold war document. It was the plan to turn the United States into a garrison state. to increase military expenditure by 400%. This contributed greatly to the "arms race". Both the USA and USSR were determined to be in possession of the most powerful arsenal and advanced technology. This race eventually, in 1957 moved into space with rocket technology that allowed satellites to be put in orbit.
Not only was Germany divided into east and west, Berlin, its capital was as well. Berlin is 170 kilometres into East German territory, however was split into both East and West. West Berlin was under British, French and American occupation. It had a booming economy that reflected that of West Germany. East Berlin however, was under Soviet control and suffered economic and social downturn, not to mention that in twelve months, 3 million people escaped East Berlin to live in the West. To assert Russian dominance in Berlin, and the whole of Germany, in August 1961, the East German police place barbed wire along the 50 kilometre line dividing the two Berlins. By the following day, a concrete wall was being constructed, a wall that was to divide East and West until it was knocked down in 1989.
1961 saw the first real altercation with Cuba before the Cuban Missile Crisis. When Kennedy cam to office, his military advisers endorsed a scheme approved by Eisenhower, to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of Cuba, and the CIA assured him the attack would succeed. On 17 April 1961, 1600 guerrillas landed at the Bay of Pigs on the South Coast of Cuba. This attack was intended to stir an uprising amongst the Cuban people against Castro. This was not to be the case, within 48 hours of the landing, the group were captured by the Cuban army. The result was an embarrassed US government, a fuming Khrushchev and an increasingly popular Castro.
There is no doubt that Castro was wary of another US backed invasion, Is it surprising then that the USSR were turned to for help in increasing Cuba's ability to defend herself from another attack?