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Ltr 3: Cold War
Marshall Plan
Aims of the Marshall Plan
• Resolve the German problem
• Achieve European economic integration
• Make it difficult for communists to take control
of Western European governments
• Soviet view of Marshall plan?
Soviet view of Marshall plan
Soviet View of MP
•MP is American method to
undermine our position in
Germany and Eastern Europe
•You want to create an antiSoviet bloc
•To isolate us
•To incorporate Europe into the
American economic orbit
•I have to block your (nonsense)
move!
Can Stalin?
American Tax payers had to work
quite hard?
Who received what?
Economic Success of the MP
• 1948-1949: MP gave Europe >$3 billion
• Economy improved
• Standard of living improved
• European and American security enhanced
• Prevented Communist parties from winning
elections in Western Europe
• Criticism of MP?
Critique of MP
• MP was not anything dramatically new
• Economic assistance given during the years
1945-47 was larger
• However MP was innovative
• MP was given out in large portions
Results of MP on relations
• To USA: Rebuilding Western Europe was
more important than cooperation with the
Soviets
• Response of S.U: strengthen hold over
Eastern Europe
• Soviet extended its hold on Czechoslovakia
(February 1948)
• Extension of Molotov Plan
Molotov Plan
• SU responded with Molotov
Plan in July
• A series of bilateral
agreements linking Eastern
European countries to SU
Entrenchment of C.W
• Europe was divided by
1948
• SU consolidated power
in Bulgaria, Hungary,
Poland and Rumania
• Only Yugoslavia
remained democratic
• Tito of Yugoslavia
defied Soviet policies
Two major events: 1948
• Communist coup in Czechoslovakia : 1948
• (Read by yourself if you’re interested)
• We do the Berlin blockade
The Berlin Crisis (BC)
• How it began
• 6 March 1948: London Conference took place
• Objective: Discuss zonal policy in Germany
• To establish a West German state.
• Stalin objected to the reforms
• The Soviet representative, Sokolovsky
walked out of the meeting
• What was Stalin trying to do about Berlin?
Stalin’s Method
• Used a mix of coercion and diplomacy
• To prevent the formation of a West German state
• Coercion: restrict allied personnel entering Berlin by
rail and road from 1 April
• New currency was introduced in the Western zones
• Stalin closed all surface routes into West Berlin on 24
June
• Reason for Soviet behaviour
Soviets were desperate
• A desperate Soviet act
• SU did not want a potentially threatening West
German state to be created
• Aimed to drive the West out of Berlin
• Hopefully to reopen talks on the future of Germany as
a whole
• Even if blockade failed, better prospects for Soviet to
control Germany
• Reaction of West
Reaction of West
• “The Soviet intimidation is a challenge!”
• West mounted an airlift to get supplies into Berlin
• Airlift lasted almost a year
• Thousands of tonnes of supplies were airlifted daily
• Stalin gave in
• Lifted blockade in August 1948
• Analysis of ‘Berlin Blockade’
Analysis of ‘Berlin Blockade’
• Results: militarization of the Cold War
• Formation of NATO
• Soviets now more afraid of emergence of a
capitalist Germany
• Fear that West would use Germany as antiSoviet bloc
• Elaborate on Nato
NATO: North Atlantic Treaty
• NATO formed in 1949
• Members” US and 11 other countries
• A regional defense alliance to deter Soviet
aggression
• Main aim : to contain the S.U
• All signatory states considered "an armed attack
against one or more. . . an attack against them all."
• Next: China fell to the Communists
China’s Fall to the Communists
• 1949: Mao Zedong won the Civil War
• 1/5 world population fell under communist
rule
• Worse! S.U exploded an atomic bomb in
1949
• American monopoly in nuclear weapons
ended
• Formation of NSC- 68
The NSC-68
• NSC-68 report by American Defence
Department (1950)
• Issued by the US National Security Council
• Reviewed American security policy
• Called for massive American rearmament
• NSC-68 was “bible” of American national
security policy
The NSC-68
• NSC-68 analyzed the capabilities of the S.U
and U.S from military, economic and political
standpoints
• Argument: S.U. intended to become dominant
world power
• It would expand Soviet authority
• Recommendation: Adopt policy of
containment to prevent spread of
Communism
US made major shifts in foreign
policy
• NSC-68 marked a drastic foreign policy shift
• From ‘defensive’ to active containment
• US would be militarily prepared at all times
• Aggressively so
• Criticism of NSC 68
Criticism of NSC 68
• NSC 68's rhetoric not realistic
• Soviet Union was not entirely diriven by
expanisionist design
• Kennan, "father" of the containment policy
disagreed
• President Truman himself disagreed
• In fact Truman tried to cut military spending
• Korean War
Korean War : 1950
• On June 25, 1950 North Korea attacked
South Korea
• NSC 68 became important
• Truman signed NSC 68 on September
30, 1950,
• Massive rearmament program began
• Background to Korean War
The Korean War
• At the end of World War II,
Korea had been divided into
two zones to facilitate
Japanese surrender,
• North occupied by the
Soviets; south by Americans
• North Korea invaded South
Korea in June 1950
• Moscow knew about it
• Even gave consent for attack
• Mao too had consented to
the invasion.
The Korean War
• North and South Korea wanted reunification of Korea
• North hoped attack could lead to a revolt in the south
- Korean could be united under Communist
• The United States sent troops in the name of UN
• How did they manage it
• S.U usually vetoed resolutions they did not like
The Korean War
• Soviet Union was absent when Security
Council condemned North Korea’s military
offensive
• Soviet representative was absent
• He boycotted UN Security Council meetings
because Taiwan held the Chinese seat
• UN troops led by American commander
Douglas MacArthur.
Truman and the United Nations
rushing to Korea’s aid
Invasion : June-September
1950
• The North Korean troops advanced rapidly
• Took Southern capital Seoul three days later
• The United Nations condemned North Korea's attack
• U.N. forces landed near Seoul
• Counter Attack : September-October 1950
• Able to overwhelm the Northern troops in South
Korea
• Seoul was taken by U.N. forces
MacArthur tried to unify Korea
• U.N. forces moved north of the 38th parallel
• But this violated American objective of status quo
• China warned it would move in to help Korea
• Some U.N. forces reached the Yalu River- border
between North Korea and China
• And the Chinese soldiers streamed in
• What a shocker
Yalu River
Chinese Advance : October
1950-January 195
• Chinese force estimated at between 130,000
and 300,000
• Pushed U.N. forces into retreat
• U.N. abandoned Pyongyang on December 4.
Armistice: January 1951-July
1953
• In April, MacArthur was relieved of his
command by Truman
• Truce talks began on July 10, 1951
• Armistice was signed in 1953
• UN casualties number > 550,000
• A demilitarized zone along the armistice line
established – remains today
(http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/e
pisodes/05/maps/#)
Results of the Korean War
• US anti-communist involvement in Asia were limited
• Nuclear weapons would not be used in Korea.
• Relations between China and USA deteriorated
• US policy towards China became more harsh than to
SU
• Trade (and virtually all contact) was severed.
• The US increased its economic and military aid to
Taiwan to prevent a communist takeover.
Results of the Korean War
• The growth of U.S.-Soviet tensions
• General Dwight Eisenhower use opportunity
to get elected in 1952
• The Republicans condemned Truman's
containment policy
• Dulles called for the "rollback” of communism
• Massive retaliation
• To use nuclear weapons on Soviet Union if
necessary
• Creation of other regional groupings
Alliances
• 1950s: alliances created
• Southeast Asian Treaty Organization
• Australia-New Zealand-United States
(ANZUS) pact
• Bilateral security agreements with Japan and
Taiwan
• Since UN unable to keep peace
• Each of the five permanent members of the
Security Council could veto any action with
which they disagreed
Relations eased in 1955
• Tension eased after armistice ended fighting
in Korea.
• 1955, Eisenhower and Nikita Khrushchev met
at a summit meeting in Geneva
• This was the first meeting between leaders of
the two countries since 1945
• Meeting was friendly but it accomplished little
• World heaved a sigh of relief
Other world conflicts
• In 1956: "Spirit of Geneva" vanished
• Soviet tanks rolled into Hungary to quell an
anti-communist uprising there
• British, French, and Israel forces invaded
Egypt
• US was unable to help a revolution in
Hungary that it condoned
Soviet Union is ahead!
• 1957 when the Soviet
Union launched the
world's first earth
satellite, Sputnik
• It threatened to use its
missiles if it had to.
U-2 Spy plane incident
• 1960, an American U-2 spy plane shot down
over the Soviet Union
• Rhetoric escalated, and tensions increased
• 1950s-60s: United States and the Soviet
Union developed large nuclear arsenals
• MAD: new version of deterrence developed
• Mutual assured destruction (MAD)
• Even if first strike, will be just as dead
MAD
1960s: Two hostile camps
• First World led by US
• Second World by USSR
• Third World : African, Middle Eastern, and
Asian states ie former colonies
• They adopted the Nonaligned Movement.
• Not allied to superpowers
• But still received economic and military
assistance from either
Latin American states
• Considered as part of the Third World
• Most were American allies, within the
American sphere of influence.
• .
Multilaterism
• Belief that to counter the Soviet Union and
communism successfully, involvement and
multilateralism were necessary
• Multilateralism had now become the key
element of American foreign policy. Even so,
supporters of unilateralism remained vocal
and influential.