Download The Cold War

In February 1945, with the end of war in sight, the Big Three of world leaders, Franklin D. Roosevelt
(U.S.A.), Winston Churchill (Britain) and Joseph Stalin (U.S.S.R.), met at the Yalta Conference to settle
some major post-WWII decisions. Despite initial hopes that international peace would be achieved, the
conference, and it’s follow up later that year at Potsdam, signified the start of a new era of distrust and
deception that would continue for almost 50 years.
In diplomatic terms, a Hot War is
actual warfare, all talks have failed and
the armies are fighting. A Warm War is
where talks are still going on and there
is a chance of a peaceful outcome but
military operations are being fully
mobilised and war plans are being put
into operation ready for the command to
fight. The Cold War is a term frequently
used to describe the relationship
between America and the Soviet Union
from 1945 to 1989. Neither side ever
fought the other - the consequences
with nuclear arms would have been too
appalling - but they did ‘fight’ for their
beliefs using client states who fought
on their behalf. During the Cold War, suspicion and fears of each country towards the other led to increased
tensions that almost, during The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, escalated into a hot war.
Both the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as “Superpowers” in the post-war world.
At the Yalta Conference it was determined that one of
the major causes of the war had been the failures of the League
of Nations. Lacking both the support from the U.S.A. and an
army to implement its policies, the League was impotent It was
determined that a United Nations (UN) would be formed with
the USA as a permanent member as well as a peacekeeping
force that could be raised, when required, to implement its
decisions. Representatives of 50 nations met in San Francisco
in April 1945 to adopt the Charter of the United Nations. This
statement of principles outlined that members would try to settle
their differences peacefully, promote justice and cooperation in
solving international disputes and try to stop wars from starting
and take required measured to stop those that did start. In
addition to the General Assembly of all member states and a
Security Council of 5 permanent and 6 non-permanent members,
the Charter provided for an 18-member Economic and Social
Council, an International Court of Justice, a Trusteeship Council to
oversee certain colonial territories, and a Secretariat under a
Secretary General. The UN also decided that Germany would be
divided up into 4 occupied zones. The U.S.A., U.S.S.R., France
and Great Britain would be responsible for
controlling each zone until each was ready to
unite into one new country. Other countries were
divided as well i.e.) Korea was divided on the
38th parallel with the Soviets controlling the north
and the Americans controlling the south.
Truman described the UN as “a
victory against war itself.”
Permanent members were the
US, Soviet Union, Great Britain,
France and China.
Question 1:
What motivated the Big Three to divide Germany and Berlin into
4 occupied zones?
What problems
ariseTruman
from this
arrangement?
When Roosevelt
died in April might
1945, Harry
became
the 33rd President of the United States.
Truman had been appalled by the pre-war allied policy of Appeasement and was determined to stand up to
any Soviet intimidation. At the Potsdam Conference Truman learned of the successful atomic tests in New
Mexico and informed Stalin that the US had a new weapon of extraordinary force (Cayton et al., 870). Stalin
(who already knew of the bomb) only nodded and said that he hoped it would be put to good use. His calm
response masked his anxiety over the American advantage. It would be four more years before the Soviet
Union succeeded in creating a nuclear weapon.
In 1946, Stalin called on all Communists to spread their system through the Cominform agency, an
organization that would coordinate the actions of Communists parties around the world. It was Winston
Churchill, recently defeated for re-election as the British prime minister, who first described Stalin’s actions
as an “iron curtain” that had “descended across the Continent” (Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946). He
implored the Americans to prevent the
enclosure of more nations behind this
“iron curtain” of Communist power and
subjugation.
In February 1947, the British,
suffering from the economic effects of the
war, requested American assistance to
defend Greece and Turkey. Stalin wanted
to control the Dardanelles, a strait in
Turkey that would provide access for the
Soviets to reach the Mediterranean Sea,
and Communists in Greece were uprising
against their government. In March,
Truman promised that the United States
would “support free peoples who are
resisting subjugation by armed minorities
or by outside pressures.” This policy
became known as the Truman Doctrine
and it signalled the end of America’s
isolationist tendencies. Truman was
responding to fears of the spread of
communism and his promise meant that
the United States was prepared to
intervene, throughout the world, to protect
democracies against communism. This
policy is also referred to as Containment;
the “patient but vigilant containment of
Russian expansive tendencies” (Kennan,
1947). The United States feared that the poverty, unemployment, and dislocation of the post-war period
would reinforce the appeal of communist parties to voters. Congress approved a program designed to
rehabilitate the economies of western and southern European countries in order to create stable conditions in
which democratic institutions could survive. The US Secretary of State, George Marshall, was sent to Europe
to assess its post-war economic condition and he concluded that 17million dollars was needed to loan to
Europe to help it rebuild and stabilize. Initially, Congress was against the European Recovery Plan (ERP –
later called The Marshall Plan) however their concern escalated when the Soviet influence spread to
Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and East Germany. Between the years 1948-1951
the United States would allocate $13billion in grants and loans to Western Europe. The Soviet Union was
offered aid but it refused and forbade its satellite nations to accept financial assistance from the United
States.
Question 2: What is the message of the cartoon? Use details of the cartoon and your knowledge to
answer.
Question 3: Identify three ways the United States would benefit from the success of the Marshall Plan.
Question 4: Why would Stalin refuse assistance to the plan and prevent his satellite nations from
accepting it?
In March 1948, the Western Allies (US, France and Britain) merged their occupied zones in Germany
to create the new nation, the Federal Republic of Germany or West Germany. The western part of Berlin,
which lay in the Soviet zone of Germany, became a part of West Germany. The Soviets responded in 1949
by forming of the German Democratic Republic or East Germany, a Communist state, When hundreds of
thousands of Eastern Europeans fled Communist ruled nations to first East Berlin, then West Berlin and
finally countries such as the US, Canada or Western Europe, Stalin reacted by cutting electrical power to
West Berlin and blockading Allied access and shipments (Cayton et al., 878). The Berlin blockade lasted
320 days. Truman wanted to avoid a military confrontation but knew that the west couldn’t give West Berlin
to Stalin. The Berlin Airlift became the solution. During this time Great Britain and the United States
supplied up to 13,000 tons of food, fuel, and other items daily to West Berlin in an airlift codenamed
"Operation Vittles." A total of 200,000 flights were made and a total of 1.5 million tons in supplies were
delivered (Thinkquest 2008). The blockade ended on May 12, 1949 when the Soviet Union gave in to
Western plans.
As tensions increased during these early years of the Cold War, roughly half the world was on the
side of the US and the other half was on the side of the USSR. The countries on the US’s side formed an
alliance in 1949 called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and by 1955 the countries on the
USSR’s side had formed their own “friendship” pact of mutual cooperation and assistance called the Warsaw
Pact.
While the US was attempting to prevent the spread of the Soviet sphere of influence internationally,
they were also taking action to curb internal support for Communism. Truman developed a federal loyalty
program in 1947 to investigate several million government employees and their ideological beliefs. Of the
many interviewed, there were a few hundred who were actually removed from their posts due to the
escalating climate of suspicion. As will be discussed in class, Congress established the HUAC (House of
Un-American Activities Committee, 1938-1975 – eventually called the House Committee on Internal
Security) to prevent any Communist infiltration within government agencies and the Hollywood movie
industry. As a result of the HUAC’s actions many Hollywood actors were blacklisted for their apparent
connections to communism or expression of anti-government sentiments. The film industry, which had
previously made some efforts tackle social issues such as anti-Semitism and racism, now became solely
focused on pure entertainment. This period of time in American History has been called the “Red Scare”
and was launched by Senator Joe McCarthy. It dominated US politics from 1948 - 1953 and helped to
pressure President Truman into the Korean War, a costly and ultimately stalemated conflict. Given the
combination of China falling into the hands of the Communist dictator Mao Zedong, the Soviet creation of
their own atomic bomb (both in 1949) and the interrogation and perceived communist threat to everyday
Americans, the level of panic becomes understandable. In 1953, the “scare” reached a climax when Julius
and Ethel Rosenberg, American citizens who were members of the Communist Party, were convicted of
espionage and executed.
McCarthyism: During the late 1940s-1950s, the paranoid
hunt for infiltrators and a period of anti-communist
hysteria that was notoriously difficult on writers and
entertainers, many of whom were labelled communist
sympathizers and were unable to continue working.
Some were jailed, some had their passports taken away,
other were put on well publicised trails. i.e. Charlie
Chaplin, Arthur Miller, Leonard Berstein, Lena Horne
(PBS)
Question 5: Explain the historical significance of
the city of Berlin to both Soviets and
Americans in the early Cold War years.
Question 6: Were the US governments actions
during the 1940s-50s towards
Communists at home justified?
Question 7: What is the message of the cartoon? Use
details of the cartoon and your knowledge to
answer.