The Cold War in the 1950s

The 1950s transformed the Cold War from a European dispute into a global, nuclear and technological competition. Fighting in Korea tested containment on the other side of the world. The Warsaw Pact formalised the Soviet bloc's military structure. The crushing of the Hungarian Uprising revealed the limits of American rollback. The hydrogen bomb, intercontinental missiles and the first satellites created an arms race and a space race that threatened human survival. By the time the U-2 incident destroyed the Paris Summit in May 1960, the hopes of the "thaw" that had followed Stalin's death had largely evaporated.

This lesson covers the 1950s from the Korean War to the end of the Paris Summit. It is a heavy decade for content in the Edexcel specification, and you need to be able to distinguish between proxy wars (Korea), bloc consolidation (Warsaw Pact), satellite control (Hungary 1956) and the arms/space race. Examiners often ask about the importance of specific events such as Hungary 1956 or Sputnik.

The Korean War 1950–1953

Korea had been divided at the 38th parallel in 1945 after the defeat of Japan. The Soviet Union occupied the north and established a communist regime under Kim Il-sung; the United States occupied the south and backed Syngman Rhee. In June 1950 North Korean forces, encouraged by Stalin and Mao, invaded the South.

The United States persuaded the United Nations Security Council — which the USSR was boycotting over the exclusion of communist China — to authorise a military response. A UN force, over 90% American and commanded by General Douglas MacArthur, landed in Korea. The war passed through four phases:

1. North Korean advance (June–September 1950): UN forces pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter.
2. UN counter-attack (September–November 1950): MacArthur's Inchon landings turned the war. UN troops pushed north, reaching the Chinese border at the Yalu River.
3. Chinese intervention (November 1950): 300,000 Chinese "volunteers" swept south; UN forces retreated back past the 38th parallel.
4. Stalemate (1951–1953): fighting settled roughly along the 38th parallel.

Truman dismissed MacArthur in April 1951 for publicly demanding an attack on China, including possible atomic strikes. An armistice was eventually signed on 27 July 1953, leaving Korea divided close to the original 1945 line. Casualty estimates vary widely: around 36,000 Americans, over 400,000 South Koreans, and possibly 1–2 million Chinese and North Koreans dead.

Korea was important for several reasons: it was the first "hot" proxy war of the Cold War; it demonstrated that containment would be enforced militarily, not only politically or economically; it brought communist China into direct conflict with the United States; and it tripled the US defence budget, militarising containment.

The Warsaw Pact, 1955

West Germany was admitted to NATO in May 1955. For the Soviet Union the memory of German invasion in 1941 was still fresh: the idea of a rearmed West Germany inside an American-led alliance was intolerable. Moscow responded within days.

On 14 May 1955 the Soviet Union and seven Eastern European states — Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania — signed the Warsaw Pact. The treaty created a formal military alliance under a unified command based in Moscow. Like NATO's Article 5, it committed members to mutual defence.

In practice, the Warsaw Pact institutionalised Soviet military dominance over Eastern Europe. It gave the USSR a legal basis to station forces in member states and to intervene if communist rule was threatened, as it would do in Hungary the following year and Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Alliance	Formed	Led by	Founding members
NATO	April 1949	United States	12 Western states
Warsaw Pact	May 1955	Soviet Union	USSR + 7 Eastern European states

The Hungarian Uprising, 1956

In March 1953 Stalin died. The new Soviet leader who eventually emerged, Nikita Khrushchev, denounced Stalin's cult of personality in a "Secret Speech" in February 1956. This de-Stalinisation raised hopes across Eastern Europe that Moscow might loosen its grip. Those hopes collided with reality in Hungary.

Hungary in 1956 was ruled by the hardline Stalinist Mátyás Rákosi. Food shortages, low wages and political repression produced widespread discontent. In October 1956, demonstrations in Budapest in support of reforms in Poland turned into a national uprising. A huge statue of Stalin was pulled down. The reform communist Imre Nagy became prime minister.

Nagy's government went far beyond what Moscow could tolerate:

• Released political prisoners.
• Announced plans to legalise opposition parties.
• On 1 November 1956 declared Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and announced neutrality.

On 4 November 1956 Khrushchev ordered Soviet forces to invade. About 30,000 Soviet troops and 1,000 tanks entered Budapest. Fighting lasted several days. Estimates of Hungarian casualties are around 20,000 killed in the uprising and invasion. Roughly 200,000 Hungarians fled abroad as refugees. Nagy was arrested; after a secret trial he was executed in 1958. A loyal communist, János Kádár, was installed.

The Hungarian Uprising mattered because: