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Transcript
Early Crises of the Cold War The Berlin Crisis, the “Twin Shocks,” and spread of the Cold War to Asia Soviet-American clash over organization of Germany • Anglo-American decision to facilitate economic recovery of Germany: - treatment of Germany as a single entity. - fusion of British, French and American zones of occupation into one economic unit. • Soviet insistence on exaction of reparations. • Struggle to win over German public opinion: -Byrnes’s proposal for demilitarization of Germany. - Soviet populist measures in the zone of occupation. • Failure of the session of the Council of Foreign Ministers in March of 1947. West German State and the Berlin Blockade, 1948-1949 • Currency reform in the Western zones of Germany and Berlin, June of 1948. • Plans for convocation of a constitutional assembly. • Imposition of Soviet blockade on Western access to West Berlin to attempt to slow down emergence of the West German state. • American Airlift, June 1948-May 1949 Berlin Airlift, June 1948- May 1949 Formation of NATO, 1949 • Proclamation of the Federal Republic of Germany, May 1949 • Treaty of Brussels, 1948: military alliance of Great Britain, France, and Benelux countries over growing fears of war • Introduction of American forces and nuclear capabilities to Europe -NSC-30: American reliance on nuclear weapons against Soviet conventional forces • Formation of NATO, April of 1949: mutual defense guarantees, integrated military structure Dean Acheson, Secretary of State 1949-1953 The Twin Shocks of 1949: the Soviet Atom Bomb • Soviet atomic project received high priority in 1945. • Public relations campaign for control of atomic energy: - The Baruch Plan • Prior reliance on a conventional strike group of armies to counter the danger of American nuclear strike. • Secret Soviet nuclear test: August of 1949; elimination of American monopoly on atomic bombs. The Twin Shocks of 1949: Chinese Communist Revolution • Two decades of civil war between communists and Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists. • American diplomatic and financial support for nationalists, but no military involvement • Little Soviet aid to Mao Zedong; Soviet preference for weak and divided China • Stalin’s agreement with Chiang Kai-shek: SinoSoviet treaty of friendship (1945) in exchange for recognition of Soviet gains in China at Japanese expense Chiang Kai-shek, Nationalist leader of China The Twin Shocks of 1949: Chinese Communist Revolution (cont.) • Some American diplomats discounted importance of China; expectation of SinoSoviet tensions • Chinese policy of “leaning to one side:” ideological commitment to the Soviet Union and hostility toward the Western powers -Sino-Soviet treaty of friendship and alliance, 1950 Sino-Soviet Treaty of Alliance, 1950 Paul Nitze, author of NSC-68 NSC-68 and Revision of Containment • NSC-68 premises about Soviet foreign policy: -Soviet challenge is ideological and military, not strictly political -communist camp is ideologically united and irrevocably hostile to American interests and way of life -Soviet policies must be judged by Soviet capabilities, not psychological analysis -commitment to expansion, world revolution and subversion NSC-68 and Revision of Containment (cont.) • NSC-68 policy recommendations: -adoption of symmetrical containment -expansion of American armed forces, nuclear arsenal, and increase in defense budget -avoidance of all-out nuclear war with the Soviet Union, but: -fighting of limited regional/proxy wars even with nuclear weapons and push back aggressively Conclusion • Crises of 1948-1949 made the Cold War global. • The United States and the Soviet Union began shifting from political competition to ideological militarized confrontation. • The conflict still remained “cold,” but there was much uncertainty over how it would develop further.