The thaw was related to the East-West relationship in early 1950s. 

The reasons of thaw in the Cold War of 1950s can be described in two points : 

The death of Stalin : The death of Stalin was probably the starting point of the thaw. The new Russian leaders like Malenkov, Bulganin and Khrushchev wanted to improve relationship with USA. The probable cause was the manufacture of more nuclear weapons by both the countries in August 1953, Russia and America had developed hydrogen bombs and both sides were so nicely balanced that if there was international tension, nuclear war could not be avoided. In his famous speech of February 1956 over the new policy of Russia, Nikita Khrushchev criticized Stalin and said that ‘peaceful co-existence’ with west was essential. There are two ways—either peaceful co-existence or the most destructive war in history. 

There was no third way’. This never means that Khrushchev had given up his idea or dream of communist world. He wanted to achieve this by showing superior economic system of Russia to western powers. He was also hopeful of winning neutral states by Lavish economic aid. 

McCarthy Discredited : Anti-communist feeling in America started decreasing when McCarthy was discredited in 1954. Actually, McCarthy had stirred up anti-communist feeling in America. When he began to accuse leading generals of having sympathy for the communists, the American senate condem-ned him. It clearly showed that America’s policy towards Russia had been changed. The Republican President, Eisenhower, announced that the American people wanted to be friendly with the Soviet people. 

Thaw was only partial. This can be shown by the following examples : 

• The Warsaw Pact of 1955 between Russianand her satellite states shortly introduction of Germany into NATO. 

• Russia continued building of nuclear armaments. 

• Shooting down of American U-2 spy plane by Russia thousand of miles inside its territory and subsequently defending the act by American president caused more tension. Russia wanted the withdrawal of western powers, from Berlin, while America denied it. This also caused more tension. 

• The most provocating was the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba less than hundred miles from American coast.