Let’s see how things changed in 1955 regarding these moves

Important to stress the disarmament dilemma for the US – seeking disarmament publicly but at the same time not sure if that’s what they want but situation improves during this period – two powers prepared to talk

Difficult to say whether the US were seeking disarmament for peace’s sake or to be the victors of the cold war, massive amount of distrust between the two powers

The Soviets were intent on moving towards some sort of arms control organisation, in 1955 Soviet pressure regarding disarmament was added to by the British and the French, whose public were also worried about the threat of nuclear war. In February 1955 the British and French Total ban on the manufacture of nuclear weapons, reductions in nuclear and other forces, they proposed a Central organ to do this

In early 1955 the Soviet proposed inspections of nuclear weapons by a central agency, Jan 1955 – Malenkov had stated that as a result of nuclear weapons on both side, need for peaceful coexistence

Soviet proposals of inspections of nuclear weapons were at first angrily rejected by Eisenhower

Also important in this period regarding a relaxation of the atmosphere was the agreement over Austria – from the middle of 1955 American and Soviet troops left Austria and it became an independent country again- shows the Soviets were prepared to move somewhat

In July 1955 the big four – presidents and prime ministers (+foreign ministers)of US, Britain, Soviets and France met up in Geneva to talk about global security, issues about disarmament and peaceful coexistence. Important as people came to the table to discuss the issues. Although nothing important in principle was agreed and all powers not prepared to be concrete about disarmament.

One crucial thing which came out of the Geneva conference was Eisenhower’s open skies speech

Eisenhower proposed the free exchange of security information, aerial photography of opponent’s bases – reacted to with horror by Soviet and American diplomats – Soviet reject the proposal

Debatable that the US actually wanted disarmament - was open skies just an attempt to bring down communism?

Important however that both sides by the middle of 1956 had basically come to accept the idea of peaceful coexistence – as Hot war was to high a price to pay

Disarmament was however not as lucky, In some respects however this was the high point of US-Soviet cooperation in 1956 – Hungary in October 1956, Sputnik, Berlin crisis

Soviets and the US wouldn’t discuss disarmament again until well into the 1960s – nice ideas behind Soviet-US disarmament policy – but no real action taken

Let’s now look at some of the specific major issues during the period which caused stress and tension between the Soviets and the US

In 1953 as Eisenhower came to power and Stalin died the situation in Germany had still not been resolved – still tension in the air.

The major debates in this period in Germany surrounded the following issues. Firstly the major powers were unsure how best to harness a united Germany’s economic and military strength, how strong was a new Germany to be? What weapons would it have? Would it be capitalist or socialist – big discussion.

Should Germany be reunited or should they stay divided? This was debated constantly over this period. Both the US and the Soviets sought to contain the threat of Germany (worries they would emerge as strong as they had before the war) but the US wanted to integrate it into the West and the Soviets wanted to control it, could unification occur?

Soviet fears surrounded the possibility of a revanchist Germany rearming and attacking the Soviet Union

There fears mostly surrounded Germany qcquiring Nuclear weapons – would have been disastrous for the USSR

-It was also clearly worried that West Germany would rearm and be integrated into the West, therefore they put forward proposals that would neutralise the threat of West Germany

Their aims were as follows:

Demilitarisation – they wanted to prevent Germany from rearming.

Unification – Malenkov in April 1953 for example called for provisional elections across the whole of Germany (rejected) but as time moves on the Soviets put more emphasis on the strengthening of East Germany and less on the idea of unification (especially as they see the West further integrating West Germany – regarding rearmament).

Soviets focus on East Germany, Soviet troops gauranteed on East German soil from 1955 onwards and in 1956 East Germany began to rearm and was included in the Warsaw pact

US position – US were worried that negotiations over the issues of a united Germany would bring divisions within the West as important non US diplomats were afraid of a United Germany

Secondly they feared that a United Germany may turn towards Communism – something the US definitely wanted to prevent