Origins of the Cold War

A Chilly Power Point Presentation Brought to You by Ms. Shen What was the Cold War?

• The Cold War was the bitter state of indirect conflict that existed between the U.S. and the Soviet Union for more than four decades after the end of WWII. Why did the Cold War start? • Ever since Russia adopted a communist government after the Russian Revolution, the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union was fragile: – After the Russian Revolution in 1917, the U.S. refused to extend formal diplomatic relations to the new communist nation until 1933.

– The U.S. was angered when the Soviets signed a non-aggression pact with Germany in 1939. However, they found themselves on the same side when Hitler broke the pact.

– Additionally, Stalin was angered when the U.S. first entered the war and went to North Africa to help the British, instead of helping out the Soviets on the western front. • At the war’s end, there were disputes about the futures of Germany and Poland. – Germany was partitioned into four zones (one American, one French, one British, and one Soviet). – Poland’s new government would loosely be controlled by the Soviets until free elections. • Composition of the United Nations rendered the Soviets outnumbered. • Lastly, Stalin was angry that Truman did not tell him about the A-Bomb (worked with Britain, but did not tell Soviets until bomb completed.) Plus, the two sides had totally different visions for the postwar world.

The American Vision: • The U.S. fought in WWII to protect its version of the American Dream. • The U.S. hoped to share with the world the essential elements of a democratic life: liberty, equality, and representative government. • The U.S. also sought to protect its economic interests by ensuring a worldwide market for its products (free trade). The Soviet Vision:

• Remember that communism predicted that through a process of class struggle, the workers of the world would eventually triumph.

• When this happened, everyone would join hands and sing, as well as then split the resources of the land equally.

• Because the Soviets had suffered such significant losses in the war (20 million), they were determined to rebuild on their own terms. On a side note…

• … this never really happened in Russia. Joseph Stalin created a totalitarian state in which he terrorized his people and held total control over them for years. After the war was over, the U.S. and the Soviet Union clashed over the issue of Poland.

• Truman insisted that the new Polish gov’t have representatives sympathetic to Western interests. • Stalin insisted that because Poland was so close to the Soviet Union, the Soviets must be allowed to have a strong influence there. • In essence, Stalin wanted to protect the security of his own nation. He could do so by ensuring that Poland remain under Soviet influence. Meanwhile, the American people renewed their hatred of communists.

• Americans began to transfer their wartime hatred of Nazi Germany to communist Soviet Union.

• Truman himself declared in 1950 that “there isn’t any difference between totalitarian Russian government and the Hitler government.” Perceived Similarities between Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia

• Total control over communications

• Ability to eliminate political opposition

• Usage of terror to silence dissidents

• Stalin’s labor camps in Siberia were likened to Hitler’s concentration camps

• “Big Brother” = a mating of Stalin and Hitler The Cold War was never actually “officially” declared.

• However, two speeches mark the onset of the struggle: – In 1946, Stalin made a speech (“Two Worlds”) in which he declared that the Soviet system would triumph ultimately. – In that same year, Winston Churchill, made his famous “iron curtain” speech. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.

In a great number of countries, .. the Communist parties or fifth columns constitute a growing challenge and peril to Christian civilization.

Last time I saw it all coming and I cried aloud to my own fellow countrymen and to the world, but no one paid any attention. Up till the year 1933 or even 1935, Germany might have been saved from the awful fate which has overtaken her and we might all have been spared the miseries Hitler let loose upon mankind. There never was a war in history easier to prevent by timely action than the one which has just desolated such great areas of the globe. It could have been prevented, in my belief, without the firing of a single shot, and Germany might be powerful, prosperous and honored today; but no one would listen and one by one we were all sucked into the awful whirlpool.

We must not let it happen again. 1. What is the “iron curtain?”

2. What threat do the Soviets pose?

3. What allusions does Churchill make in the third paragraph?

4. What was this speech so significant?

Containment

• To address the concerns that the Americans had about the Soviets, they adopted a policy called ‘containment.’ – Crafted after George Kennan (a top-ranking diplomat stationed in Moscow) wrote an article in “Foreign Affairs” journal (1947) • Wrote under the alias “Mr. X” (didn’t want it to be an official govt. statement) • Said it was necessary to contain the Soviet threat against any part of the world • Image of Soviets (policy) as a “persistent toy automobile wound up and headed in a given direction, stopping only when it meets with some unanswerable force.” – Based on this article, the use adopted a policy of CONTAINMENT (used this article and argument as justification of the U.S. policy in the Cold War)

• Containment is defined as the need for the United States to remove any opportunities for its enemy to establish communist governments in other countries. This was accomplished through both persuasion and force. How did the U.S. implement their policy of containment? • The Truman Doctrine (1947) – Pledged support of U.S. to countries that were in danger of takeover by communist countries. – Gave $400 million in economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey. • The Marshall Plan (1948) – Called for nations of Europe (including communist countries) to draw up a program for economic recovery from the war. The U.S. would then support the plan with financial aid. (This action would both improve the European economy as well as reward the U.S. with strong trading partners.) – Ultimately gave $17 billion over 4 years to 16 western European nations.

Division of Germany • Problems arose almost immediately after the Potsdam Conference. Truman refused to allow the Soviets to use Germany’s industrial plants in Western Germany (most of the nation’s industry was located in the west, the non-Soviet sector.)

• Concerned with the deteriorating economic situation in the western zones, the U.S. pumped aid through the Marshall Plan in to Western Germany which got economic recovery underway.

• The Russians were ticked off by this whole Marshall Plan situation, because they felt it was just a way for the U.S. to buy friends in Western Europe. The Berlin Airlift

• Tension then rose when in June 1948, in an attempt to rebuild Germany’s economy and stop rampant inflation, the 3 western sectors of Germany changed their currency to the Deutsch Mark. The Soviets had not agreed to the currency reform and in response, they blockaded all ground and water routes to West Berlin in June of 1948. • Truman did not want to risk starting a war with the Soviet Union by forcing open the trade routes, nor did he want to give up West Berlin to the Soviets.

• So he started what was known as the Berlin Airlift, in which he moved supplies into West Berlin by plane. This went on for over a year.

• The airlift was a success for the U.S. in that it publicly humiliated the Soviets and served to win the hearts of the residents of W. Berlin.

• By the time the Soviet blockade was ended in May 1949, the Marshall Plan had succeeded in strengthening capitalist nations in Western Europe.

• The Soviets resisted the • Constant stream of E. Germans reunification efforts of the West fleeing to W. Germany strained out of a fear of a reunited E-W relations in the 1950s. Germany which could The Soviets sealed the borders potentially invade the Soviet btw E. and W. Germany in Union again. 1952 but people cont. to flee from E. to W. Berlin. • In Oct. 1949, the Soviets formed a separate government • August 1961 the construction in E. Germany called German of the Berlin Wall began. The Democratic Republic while the wall ultimately surrounded all of W. was united as the Federal W. Berlin cutting it off from the Republic of Germany in May rest of E. Germany. The wall 1949. remained in tact until Nov. 9, 1989.

Formation of NATO • The tension that resulted • Participating Nations: from the Berlin airlift – Belgium convinced Western – Britain powers that they needed – Canada to form a peacetime – Denmark alliance against the – France Soviet threat. – Iceland • Thus, NATO (North – Italy Atlantic Treaty – Luxembourg Organization) was – Netherlands established. Participating – Norway nations pledged that an – Portugal attack on one was an attack on all. – United States Disturbing Events

1. In 1949, a Chinese Civil War between the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party resulted in a victory for the Communists under Mao Zedong. The “loss of China” was very disappointing, and would lead to future efforts to prevent more Asian nations from falling to communism.

2. On September 23rd, 1949, the U.S. learned that the U.S.S.R. had developed a nuclear bomb. From then on, “fear of the bomb” would dictate life in America as well as diplomatic relations. Adoption of NSC-68

• In response to these events, the National Security Council spelled out American policy in a document entitled NSC-68. • This document stated that as the Soviets were not able to back up infiltration with intimidation, the U.S. should: – Increase the size of the army – Form more peacetime alliances – Develop the hydrogen bomb (1000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb!) – Finance military build-up by tripling to quadrupling its defense budget (from $13 billion to $50 billion annually) in order to meet the security needs of the time. (Increased defense spending was to come from increased taxes.)

“Forces of good and evil are massed and armed and opposed as rarely before in history. Freedom is pitted against slavery, lightness against dark.”

--Eisenhower’s inaugural address THE END (of the Power Point, not the Cold War!)