THE COLD WAR1945-1991

• After WWII US and USSR had tensions that could lead to WAR!

• War would be MAD (mutually assured destruction).

• So fight a Cold War

Definition of Cold War

• A state of political tension and military rivalry between nations that stops short of full-scale war, especially that which existed between the United States and Soviet Union following World War II.

• A period of history from 1945-1991 in which the threat of nuclear annihilation was high between the United States and Soviet Union

• a conflict over ideological differences carried on by methods short of sustained overt military action and usually without breaking off diplomatic relations; the ideological conflict between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the second half of the 20th century

Causes of the Cold War

•Beliefs •Aims •Resentment about History

•Events

Beliefs

• One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression.   

• The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio; fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.  

• President Truman of the US (1947)

Aims

• Stalin wanted

• 1. huge reparations from Germany

• 2. ‘buffer’ of friendly states to protect the USSR from being invaded again.

Aims

• Britain and the USA wanted

• 1. to protect democracy

• 2. help Germany to recover

• They were worried that large areas of eastern Europe were falling under Soviet control.

Resentment about History

• The Soviet Union

• 1.1918 Britain and the USA had tried to destroy the Russian Revolution.

• 2. Stalin also thought that they had not given him enough help in the Second World War.

Resentment about History

• Britain and the USA

• 1.Russia had signed a treaty with Germany in WWI

• 2.Stalin had signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Germany in 1939.

• 3. Soviet Union open about spread of communism

Events

• Yalta Conference• Potsdam Conference• Salami Tactics• Fulton Speech• Greece• Truman Doctrine• Marshall Plan• Cominform• Czechoslovakia

• In 1945, the Big Three held two conferences – at Yalta (February) and Potsdam (July) – to try to sort out how they would organize the world after the war.

Yalta Conference• Held during the war, on the

surface, the Yalta conference seemed successful.

• 1. Russia would join the United Nations.

• 2. Divide Germany into four ‘zones’, which Britain, France, the USA and the USSR would occupy after the war.

Yalta Conference

• 3. Bring Nazi war-criminals to trial.

• 4. Set up a Polish Provisional Government.

Yalta Conference

• 5. Help the freed peoples of Europe set up democratic and self-governing countries

• 6. Set up a commission to look into reparations

• After the conference, Churchill wrote to Roosevelt that ‘The Soviet Union has become a danger to the free world.’

Potsdam (July 1945) • At Potsdam, the Allies met after the surrender

of Germany (in May 1945) to decide the post-war peace.

• Potsdam was the Versailles of World War II.

 

• America had a new president, Truman, who was determined to ‘get tough’ with the Russians.  

• The Russians only understand one language - ‘How many armies have you got?’ I’m tired of babying the Soviets. – 1946 President Truman

Potsdam (July 1945)

• When Truman went to the Conference, he had just learned that America had tested the first atomic bomb.  

• The bomb gave the Americans a huge military advantage over everyone else, but Truman did not tell Stalin

• This angered Stalin when the Americans used the atomic bomb at Hiroshima.

  

Potsdam (July 1945)

• The Conference agreed the following Protocols:

• 1. To set up the four ‘zones of occupation’ in Germany and make possible the successful development of democratic ideas.  

Potsdam (July 1945)

• 2. To bring Nazi war-criminals to trial.

• 3. To recognize the Polish Government and hold 'free and unfettered elections as soon as possible'.

Potsdam (July 1945)

• 4. Russia was allowed to take reparations from the Soviet Zone

Potsdam (July 1945)

• But in fact the Allies had disagreed openly about:  

• 1. The details of how to divide Germany.

• 2. The size of reparations Germany ought to pay.

• 3. Russian influence over the countries of eastern Europe.

SALAMI TACTICS

• During 1946–47, Stalin made sure that Communist governments came to power in all the countries of eastern Europe (the countries which Russia had conquered in 1945).

• The Hungarian Communist Rakosi described this process as ‘slicing salami’ – gradually getting rid of all opposition, bit-by-bit. In this way, Russia gained control:                 

SALAMI TACTICS• Albania (1945) – the Communists

took power after the war without opposition  

• Bulgaria (1945) – a left-wing coalition gained power in 1945; the Communists then executed the leaders of all the other parties.  

SALAMI TACTICS

• Poland (1947) – a coalition government took power in 1945, but Stalin arrested all the non-Communist leaders in 1945, and the Communists forced the other non-Communists into exile.  

SALAMI TACTICS

• Romania (1945–1947) – a left-wing coalition was elected in 1945; the Communists gradually took over control.   

SALAMI TACTICS

• Hungary (1947) – Hungary was invaded by the Russians, and in 1945 the Allies agreed that Russian troops should stay there.

• Stalin allowed elections, in which the non-communists won a big majority. However, some communists were elected, led by a pro-Russian called Rakosi. 

SALAMI TACTICS

• Czechoslovakia (1945–48) – a left-wing coalition was elected in 1945. In 1948, the Communists banned all other parties and killed their leaders.

 

• East Germany (1949) – the Russian turned their zone of Germany into the German Democratic Republic in 1949.     

• In February 1946, Stalin said “world capitalism proceeds through crisis and the catastrophes of war”.

• American politicians took it as a threat.      

6 reactions to Communist Threat

• 1. The Russians are determined to destroy the American way of life and will do everything they could to oppose America.

• 2.   This is the greatest threat the US has ever faced.

• 3.   The Soviets can be beaten.

• 4.   The Soviets must be stopped.

• 5.   This can be done without going to war.

• 6.   The way to do it is by educating the public against Communism, and by making people wealthy, happy and free

Churchill’s Fulton Speech

• On 5 March 1946, on the invitation of President Truman, Winston Churchill went to Fulton in America and gave a speech.

      

Churchill’s Fulton Speech• He said ‘a shadow’ had fallen on

eastern Europe, which was now cut off from the free world by “an iron curtain”.

• Behind that line, he said, the people of eastern Europe were ‘subject to Soviet influence . . . totalitarian control [and] police governments

Greece

• By 1946, Greece and Czechoslovakia were the only countries in eastern Europe that weren’t Communist.

• Even in Greece, the government, which was being supported by British soldiers, was having to fight a civil war against the Communists.

• In February 1947, the British told Truman they could no longer afford to keep their soldiers in Greece.

• President Truman stepped in. The USA paid for the British soldiers in Greece.   

TRUMAN DOCTRINE   

• In the 1930s, America had kept out of Europe’s business.

 

• Now, on 12 March 1947, Truman told Americans that it was America’s DUTY to interfere.

TRUMAN DOCTRINE

• His policy towards the Soviet Union was one of ‘Containment’ – he did not try to destroy the USSR, but he wanted to stop it growing any more.  

• This was called the ‘Truman Doctrine’.

The Marshall Plan 

• In June 1947, the American General George Marshall went to Europe.

The Marshall Plan 

• He said every country in Europe was so poor that it was in danger of turning Communist!  

• Europe was ‘a breeding ground of hate’.

• He said that America should give $17 billion of aid to get Europe’s economy going and stop Communism.

• Marshall said that it was up to the countries of Europe to decide what they needed.  

• In July 1947, led by Britain and France, the countries of western Europe met in Paris, and asked for substantial economic aid

Marshall Plan Aid

Cominform

• The Soviet Union hated Marshall aid

• Stalin forbade Communist countries to ask for money.    

• Instead, in October 1947, he set up the Cominform.   Every Communist party in Europe joined.   

• It allowed Stalin control of the Communists in Europe.            

Czechoslovakia• At first, the American Congress did not

want to give the money for Marshall Aid.

• But then, in February 1948, the Communists took power in Czechoslovakia, followed on 10 March by the suspicious suicide of the popular minister Jan Masaryk.

• Congress was scared, and voted for Marshall Aid on 31 March 1948.