Download Origins of the Cold War

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
reunification efforts of the West
out of a fear of a reunited
Germany which could
potentially invade the Soviet
Union again.
•  In Oct. 1949, the Soviets
formed a separate government
in E. Germany called German
Democratic Republic while the
W. was united as the Federal
Republic of Germany in May
1949.
•  Constant stream of E. Germans
fleeing to W. Germany strained
E-W relations in the 1950s.
The Soviets sealed the borders
btw E. and W. Germany in
1952 but people cont. to flee
from E. to W. Berlin.
•  August 1961 the construction
of the Berlin Wall began. The
wall ultimately surrounded all of
W. Berlin cutting it off from the
rest of E. Germany. The wall
remained in tact until Nov. 9,
1989.
Formation of NATO
•  The tension that resulted
from the Berlin airlift
convinced Western
powers that they needed
to form a peacetime
alliance against the
Soviet threat.
•  Thus, NATO (North
Atlantic Treaty
Organization) was
established. Participating
nations pledged that an
attack on one was an
attack on all.
•  Participating Nations:
–  Belgium
–  Britain
–  Canada
–  Denmark
–  France
–  Iceland
–  Italy
–  Luxembourg
–  Netherlands
–  Norway
–  Portugal
–  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!)