To what extent was there a thaw in international relations after Stalin's death? Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union during the cold war were tense and on the verge of mutual destruction. Stalin's death in 1953 permitted a thaw in these international relations through various events such as Khrushchev destalinization policy, the recognition of satellite states, conferences and treaties. However, the thaw was only partial. After Stalin's death, the choice of his successor was unclear. Between Malenkov, Bulganin, and various reformers, Khrushchev emerged as the most competent. Therefore, Khrushchev became head of the communist party and was premier of the Soviet Union in 1955 by replacing Bulganin. Khrushchev openly criticised Stalin's methods in his famous Secret Speech in 1956, denouncing the « cult of personality » of Stalin. He applied a policy of destalinisation. This consisted in introducing peaceful coexistence with the West, giving up bases in Finland, abandoning vetoing admission of new countries to the UN, allowing greater freedom to satellite states and re conciliating with Tito in 1955. In the United States there was a toning down of the Red Scare, with McCarthy being discredited in 1954. Americans hoped for diplomatic relations between the two sides. In 1953 the armistice ending the Korean war was signed. The following year, the Indochina war ended as well. But world peace was not yet attainable. At the peak of the cold war, Khrushchev and Eisenhower met at the Geneva Conference in 1955 to discuss issues concerning East West relations, West Germany's admission to NATO, and other issues such as armament. And in 1955, the Austrian treaty gave independence and neutrality to Austria, which was a ground of conflict between USSR and US at the time. Although a thaw took place, it was only partial. In 1955, the Warsaw Pact was created to have a communist equivalent of NATO. In 1956 there were uprisings in Poland and then in Hungary, the latter which led to brutal repression by Soviet and Warsaw Pact tanks. In 1957 the Soviet-s developed the Hydrogen bomb and therefore took a step forward in the arms race. Mutually Assured Destruction became a possibility. The same year, the Soviets launched the Sputnik satellite, which began the space race. After the end of WWI and into the 1960s many countries emerged out of the decolonization process. These, and other poorer nations such as(Guatemala, Iran and other 3rd world countries) had pressure put on them by the superpowers to align with either the East or the West ( the US provided economic aid), leading to the Non-Aligned Movement, where newly independent countries refused to choose between capitalism nor communism. After Cuba became communist, Khrushchev allied with Castro which created tensions between Cuba and the United States and between the United States and USSR which 'stole' one of US's allies. In 1961 to prevent the massive migration from East Germany the Soviets built the Berlin wall, which accentuated the East/West split and increased tensions. Overall the thaw was mainly symbolic: attempts were made to achieve diplomatic relations between the international powers, yet the competition between the two ideologies overshadowed the attempt to t'haw out' the cold war completely.
