Liberalism Challenged viaForeign PoliciesSOC 30

Readings: Chap 7Pages 232-248

Post WWII International Relations Yalta Accords Bretton-Woods

Agreement Containment

Expansionism Truman

Doctrine Marshall Plan

The Iron Curtain Descends

Berlin Divided

Summary

A Chilling Prediction…there will emerge two centers of world significance: a socialist center, drawing to itself the countries that incline towards socialism, and a capitalist center, drawing to itself the countries that incline towards capitalism. Battle between these two centers for command of the world economy will decide the fate of capitalism and of communism in the entire world.

~Josef Stalin, 1927

Feb 1945 Yalta Accords in

USSR May 1945

Germany surrenders

Berlin divided July 1945

Potsdam Conference

War w/ Japan Aug 1945

Atomic bombs Soviet Paranoia

End of WWII TimelineYou can see page 236 in your textbook as well

Changing Leadership

USSR:•-1953: Stalin•1953-55: Malenkov•1955-1964: Khrushchev•1964-1982: Brezhnev

USA: •-1945: F.D. Roosevelt•1945-1953: Harry Truman•1953-1961: Eisenhower•1961-1963: Kennedy•1963-1969: Johnson•1969-1974: Nixon•1974-1977: Ford•1977-1981: Carter•1981-1989: Reagan

Britain:•1940-1945: Churchill•1945-1951: Attlee•1951-1955: Churchill•1955-1957: Eden•1957-1963: Macmillan•1963-1964: Douglas-Home•1964-1970: Wilson

Meeting between Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt

WWII is drawing to a close Plan their

remaining actions

Redraw the map of Europe

However, there was a fundamental ideological divide

The Yalta Accords

The Yalta Accords

Stalin:•Ensure Soviet Union security•Set up Communist-controlled governments in countries bordering the USSR

Roosevelt:•International security & economic prosperity depends on establishing democracies•Capitalist economic actions & principles

Churchill:•Balance of power in Europe•A defeated Germany = power vacuum•Soviets might fill that vacuum (threatens British military interests)

Causes for Tension Postwar treatment of Germany

Stalin: wanted reparations & a weakened Germany

Allies: healthy German economy & unified Germany

US aid to postwar Europe Strings attached which supported American

ideals Stalin refused aid, even with 25 million

homeless Soviets No common enemy for the USA and

Soviet Union

Emerging Superpowers Europe devastated by ground and air

forces in WWII Asia (Japan) devastated by war & atomic

weaponry This leaves the USA and Soviet Union

The United Nations At Yalta, Roosevelt recognized the

fraying seams of the alliance with Stalin He wanted to postpone the controversial

issues Would be settled by an international body

Ideally, this body could succeed where the League of Nations had failed

But for the UN to be a success, both the USA and USSR had to participate

Bretton-Woods Agreement Team effort between American and

European economists Establishes the American dollar as the

world’s reserve currency Fixes exchange rates between its 42

member countries Creates two international organizations

International Monetary Fund – ensure economic stability

World Bank – encourage global development

Bretton-Woods Agreement Roosevelt’s goal:

“…end the system of unilateral action, the exclusive alliances, the spheres of influence, the balances of power, and all the expedients that have been tried for centuries and have always failed”

Stalin & Churchill’s goals: Believe in “…spheres of influence, the

balances of power…” Armed force, not international

organization, would shape the post-war world

Superpowers Begin to Clash

Both the USA and the USSR aimed to enlarge their territorial and ideological influences beyond their country’s borders This is called Expansionism

Accomplished through the establishment of spheres of influence

Ultimately, both superpowers feared each other and attempted to thwart each other’s expansionism alternative means This is called Containment

Spheres of Influence

Truman Doctrine An international relations policy set

forth by Harry Truman in 1947 Represents the beginning of the

containment policy to stop Soviet expansion

The USA lent support to two nations: Greece

Greek communists are fighting government forces. Being funded by Tito, a communist dictator in Yugoslavia

$400 million lent Turkey

$100 million lent

Marsh

all P

lan

Marshall Plan $13-17 billion lent to European

countries Goal: Help countries recover from WWII Conditions:

Balance budgets Stop inflation Stabilize exchange rates

The Soviet Union rejected aid Although it was offered,

how likely do you believe the USA would have lent money to a communist country?

The Iron Curtain

“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…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 very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow…~Churchill, “Iron Curtain speech”, 1946

The Iron Curtain

Berlin Divided

The city itself was divided into four occupation zones

Note: it is 176 km within the Soviet controlled portion of Germany…

Berlin Divided

West Berlin

Capitalist pocket Eagerly accepts

Marshall Plan

East Berlin

Communist Rejects Marshall

Plan

Stalin saw West Berlin as an unwelcome Capitalist intrusion

Berlin Airlift In 1948, Stalin blocked all road,

rail, and transportation to West Berlin 2.1 million cut off from supplies An attempt to force the Western forces

out of Berlin Western response: fly supplies to

West Berliners At the height of the lift, flights were

landing at the rate of 1 every 3 minutes!

Berlin Airlift Over a period of 11

months, the USA, Britain, and France supplied West Berliners with all they needed

On May 12, 1949, Stalin finally lifted the blockade

Berlin Airlift: Legacy

In the spring of 1948, Stalin began his campaign to force the Allied powers from Berlin. Hoping to bring the city under communist control, he tried to break the spirit of its people. On June 24, 1948, he imposed a blockade on Berlin. What Stalin failed to judge, however, was the will of Berliners to defy intimidation, and the resolve of the Allied forces to see them through.~Warren ChristopherUS State Dispatch

See any bias?...

Again, we see the divide…

Allied Actions

Truman Doctrine

Marshall Plan

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Anti-Soviet Alliance

Soviet Actions

Communist Information Bureau (ComInform)

Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CoMEcon)

Warsaw Pact Anti-Western

Alliance

NATO Early form begun in 1948

Officially formed in 1949 Intergovernmental military alliance

around the Atlantic Originally planned as a deterrent for

communist expansion System of collective defense –

member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by an external party

NATO

Greatly expands the sphere of influence of Western Capitalism

Warsaw Pact Warsaw Treaty Organization of

Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance

Mutual defense pact between 8 communist states in central Europe Founded by the USSR in opposition to

NATO, particularly the integration of West Germany into NATO in 1955

The Warsaw Pact was signed in 1955

Warsaw Pact

Greatly solidifies the sphere of influence of Communism

Soviet Nuclear Bomb Both the USA and

USSR researched hydrogen bombs The USA was a nuclear

power But in 1949, the Soviet

Union detonated their first hydrogen bomb

The Soviet threat was now very real to the USA

The Stage Is SetBy 1950, Europe was divided into two hostile military blocs, each dominated by a superpower in possession of a nuclear arsenal