The Cold War Develops 1945 - 1953

The Cold War Develops 1945 - 1953

1. The Post-War Legacy

   • Defeat of Nazi Germany creates a power vacuum in Europe into which the USA and USSR are drawn
     • Eurocentric dominance of global affairs vanished overnight
       • 'If I had a second chance, I would rather be born an American.' - Winston Churchill
   • European economy shattered and desperate for reconstruction and aid
   • Rising suspicion and distrust between the former wartime allies
     • Allied delay in opening a 'Second Front' in Europe irks Stalin
   • Churchill's' 'Iron Curtain' speech in Missouri 1946 addresses the new superpower balance
   • 1945 Yalta and Potsdam conferences
     • Initial disagreements over Poland at Yalta and agreement for the division of Germany, Berlin and Austria
     • Disagreement over Soviet presence in Eastern Europe at Potsdam 1945

2. American Post-War Attitudes

   • Emerges from the War as the worlds' dominant economy
     • 'We have emerged from this war the most powerful nation in the world - the most powerful nation, perhaps, in all history.' - Harry Truman
     • Viewed an open international economic system as indispensable to future world order
       • Marshall Aid plan designed to flood Western Europe with economic aid at the expense of openness to US investment and trade
     • Military-industrial complex has benefited from wartime production stimulus
   • American security concerns
     • Attack on Pearl Harbour persuades US security planners of need for a comprehensive international defence system
     • A view that no one power should ever again control the European/Eurasian continent
     • Commitment to maintaining supremacy of the atomic bomb
   • Ideological Commitments
     • Nationwide belief in the idea of American/capitalist justice and order
   • Truman replaces Roosevelt
     • Influenced by George Kennan's 'Long Telegram' citing the USSR as an insecure and expansionist world force
       • The 'Truman Doctrine' adopts an 'Iron Fist' approach to the advancement of the communist world

3. Soviet Post-War Attitudes

   • Soviet secuirty concerns
     • Immediate aim to block the 'Polish Corridor'
       • Historical invasion route into Russia - Napoleon/WW1/WW2
     • Stalin's obsession with security difficult for the US to truly understand and was perceived as evidence of communist expansionism
     • Aimed to create a network of buffer states across the European border by using incumbent Red Army forces to establish pro-Soviet governments
   • Ideological Commitments
     • Marxist-Leninism ideology pronounced eventual triumph of communism over capitalism inevitable
       • 'Our ideology stands for offensive operations when possible, and if not, we wait.' - V.M. Molotov
         • The idea is said that everyone will become communist eventually we will just have to help some of them do it
     • Ideology imparted to Soviet citizens a belief in the justice of communism versus exploitative Western capitalism
   • Economy devastated by Nazi invasion, sought to secure reparations from East German territory

4. Events in Europe

   • Berlin Blockade 1948-1949
     • Growing prosperity of West Berlin financed by Marshall Aid in stark contrast to East Berlin
       • Attempts by the West to introduce new currency into West Berlin angers Stalin, who blocks all transport links into the city
         • Berlin airlift successfully supplied West Berlin for nearly a year, and in May 1949 Stalin conceded defeat and lifted the blockade
           • NATO established by the West to coordinate response to future Soviet aggression
           • The blockade from the West forced him to do so as he did not have the resources he needed either and with no help the USSR could not sustain it
   • 1948 communist coup d'etat in Czechoslovakia provides evidence of communist expansion
   • The Truman Doctrine shows that the USA was willing to directly oppose dictatorships-The ussr is a dictatorship so was seen as very aggressive
     • US Government issues the Marshall Plan to help the European economy and strengthen Western governments against communism
       • Financial aid only sent to nations willing to open up their markets to US trade
         • Eastern European nations under Soviet influence did receive aid before the USSR stepped in and stopped it.
       • Stalin launches the COMECON plan in 1949 to coordinate the economies of communist nations

5. Cold War Spreads to Asia

   • Mao Zedong triumphs over Chiang Kai Shek and declares a coomunist People's Republic of China in 1949
     • Viewed in America as surefire evidence of communist expansion
   • Kim Jong Il invades South Korea in 1950
     • Truman issues NSC-68, outlining the new US policy of 'Roll Back' - a basis for a more aggressive US foreign policy
     • Committed to 'Roll Back' American led UN forces land at Inchon and push back North Korean forces to the Chinese border
       • Chinese forces cross the Yalu river and push the UN forces back, until a stalemate is achieved at the 38th parallel
         • Communist China secures a degree of world standing after it's military operations in Korea, and grows ever closer to Stalin and Moscow
   • USSR detonates first atomic bomb in 1949
     • US detonates hydrogen bomb in 1952