Origins of the Cold War – Part II

Iran Controversy (1946)

In Sept. 1944, the British had set up the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which received a deal to operate most of the oilfields

The Soviets also tried to obtain a deal, but failed

Iran Controversy (1946)

After WWII ended, Stalin broke an agreement to remove his troops from Iran’s northernmost province

He had occupied the land during WWII with British and American approval

Why? The Soviets needed the oil It was a supply line to the USSR The Shah was pro-German during

the war

Iran Controversy (1946)

When Stalin used his troops to aid a rebel movement, Truman protested and the problem was taken to the UN Security Council

The USSR backed down

Containment (1946) Developed by a young diplomat and

State Department Soviet specialist, George F. Kennan

The United States would resist Soviet attempts to form Communist governments elsewhere in the world

The U.S. would not invade nations who were currently communist

It confirmed a policy of internationalism

Containment (1946) By 1949, Europe was divided into two rival camps,

each with their own political, economic, and military alliances

Truman ordered development of a hydrogen bomb A peace treaty with Japan was accepted to

guarantee long-term U.S. military bases The U.S. became the “world policeman,” involved

in conflicts all over the world McCarthyism, a period of intense anti-

communism, erupted in 1948

Truman Doctrine (1947)

The Soviets appeared aggressive in Iran, Turkey, and Greece

In March 1947, the Truman Doctrine was created

The policy of the United States must be to support and assist free people who are resisting conquest by armed minorities or by outside pressures

Supported containment of communism

Truman Doctrine (1947) The Soviet Union wanted

control of the Dardanelles (straits in the entrance to the Black Sea) in Turkey and began making threats against them

In Greece, Communists fought to overthrow the government that had returned to power after the Axis withdrew

•Britain was usually Britain was usually the country that the country that would help other, would help other, smaller countries in smaller countries in Europe. However, Europe. However, they were bankrupt they were bankrupt from the war and from the war and unwilling to helpunwilling to help

•Responding to Responding to the Truman the Truman Doctrine, Doctrine, Congress Congress approved $400 approved $400 million in aid for million in aid for Greece and Greece and TurkeyTurkey

Truman Doctrine (1947)

Critics have said it: Divided the world into pro-Soviet and pro-

American camps Instilled fear that the Soviet threat was primarily

military in nature Proponents have said it:

Was Truman’s fear of a revived isolationism that led him to exaggerate the Soviet threat

It made him pitch his message as a global war against godless communism

Origins of the Cold War - The Marshall Plan (1947)

Secretary of State George Marshall created the Marshall Plan

Europeans who worked together for a joint plan for their economic recovery would receive aid from the U.S.

Aid through the Marshall Plan was intended to create strong democracies and open new markets for American goods

The Soviet Union was invited to join, but refused 17 Western European nations joined and received

over $13 billion in grant and loans over the next 4 years

Origins of the Cold War - The Marshall Plan (1947) The Soviet response to the Marshall

Plan was: Americans were buying their way into

European affairs Would’ve had to accept it on difficult terms

– making vast political reforms and have outside controls

They discouraged their satellite nations from joining as well

Origins of the Cold War - The Marshall Plan (1947)

Bilateral trade agreements with Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Poland, and Rumania

The Cominform was established to strengthen links between various communist parties

The Berlin Blockade

COMECON (1949)

Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) was an international organization active between 1949 and 1991 for the coordination of economic policy among certain nations then under Communist domination

It was created to mollify nations who expressed interest in the Marshall Plan

Its members included Albania, Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union

COMECON created a series of five-year plans (1956–85), but most trade was strictly bilateral; planned economies had limited mechanisms for transferring trade surpluses

Red – members

Pink – members who did not participate

Dark Red – associates

Yellow - observers

Berlin Blockade (1948)

The U.S., Britain, and France united their zones of occupation to form West Berlin

The city of Berlin, however, was deep within East Germany, which was Soviet territory

Berlin Blockade (1948)

Stalin decided on the blockade because: Berlin was an excuse for U.S. soldiers to travel

through the Soviet Zone Western aid caused the difference between West

and East Berlin to be dramatic He was angered by the decision of the Western

Allies to govern their zones in matters of the economy differently, instead of by unanimity in the ACC

He did not wish to risk war through an attack

Berlin Blockade (1948) Stalin closed all entrances to West

Berlin by train or car in an effort to starve West Berliners into submission

The blockade lasted 318 days and forced Berliners to survive on dried potatoes and powdered eggs during the winter of 1948-49

In response, 275,000 Allied flights carried in 1 ½ million tons of supplies

In May 1949, the Soviets lifted the blockade

Berlin Blockade (1948)

The Berlin Blockade worsened the Cold War

By October 1949, Germany was divided into: Federal Republic of

Germany (West Germany) German Democratic

Republic (East Germany)

Origins of the Cold War - NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium

Truman didn’t want the U.S. to be the only nation in the Western Hemisphere pledged to defend Western Europe from the Communists

In April 1949, the U.S., Britain, France, and Canada joined 8 other nations in forming NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. They agreed on collective security, meaning if one nation in NATO was attacked, it would be considered an attack on all of them

In response, the Soviet Union created the Warsaw Pact, a similar alliance with its satellite nations in Eastern Europe

Nationalists vs Communists In China A civil war raged for years between

Nationalists and communists Washington halfheartedly supported the

Nationalist government of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek against communist leader Mao Zedong

Ineptitude and corruption within Chiang Kai-shek’s government eroded the confidence of the people and communist armies overwhelmed the Nationalists

In 1949, Chiang fled to the island of Formosa (Taiwan)

Nationalists vs Communists In China

Results of the Collapse of Nationalist China ¼ of the world’s population (500 million) became

communist. This became a huge issue in the U.S. Republicans highly criticized Truman and the

Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, for losing China to communism. They insisted that Democratic agencies were filled with communists and had deliberately withheld aid from Chiang so that he would fall

Democrats replied that when a regime has forfeited the support of its people, no amount of outside help will save it. Truman didn’t lose China, Chiang lost it because he never controlled all of China