The Cold War:Origins

Essential Understandings 1. The Cold War set the framework for global politics for 45 years after the end of WWII. It also influenced American domestic politics, the conduct of foreign affairs, and the role of the government in the economy after 1945.

2. The Cold War was essentially a competition between two very different ways of organizing government, society, and economy.

The American western

nations’ belief in democracy,

individual freedom, and a

market economy.

The Soviet belief in a totalitarian

state and socialism.

Key Definitions and Overview

Cold War

• General Definition: The competition that developed after WWII between the United States and the Soviet Union for power and influence in the world lasting from 1947 to 1991

[Some perspective on the timeline? Ms. Pierce was born in 1991… ]

VS.

Communism

• General Definition: An economic system in which there is no state or private property, all goods are owned in common, and there is no class division of citizens.Traces its origins back to the philosophical works of Karl Marx.

The Communist Manifesto – 1848

Focuses on key ideals of Capitalism as a philosophy and economic system; generally vague on how it would actually occur or should be achieved.

Das Kapital – 1868

Criticizes capitalism as an economic system.

• Soviet Communism serves as one attempt at achieving the key principles of the original philosophy.

Geographic Overview

Origins and Background

1945: A Turning Point

• Cooperation during WWII between United States and Soviet Union was temporary arrangement.

• So with the end of WWII in 1945, the relationship between the two competitive “super powers” was up in the air and filled with tension.

History of Hostility • History of a strained relationship between U.S. and Soviet Union:

Russian Revolution of 1917 – American troops supported anti-Communist resistance.

Soviet Union was not invited to the peace conferences after WWI

U.S. didn’t recognize Soviet government until 1933.

Soviets signed a pact with Hitler before WWII [creates early and long lasting suspicion of USSR].

Soviets disagreed with Americans/British over battle tactics, and postwar plans during WWII.

Americans feared communism – see it as antithesis to capitalism and democracy.

Yalta Conference• Yalta Conference of 1945 – Roosevelt, Stalin,

Churchill met to work out future of Germany and Poland

Germany divided into American, British, French, and Soviet Occupation Zones

American, British, French zones West Germany

Soviet zone East Germany

Conflict over future of Poland

Support for free elections in Eastern Europe

Potsdam Conference

• Potsdam Conference of 1945 – Allies sought to finalize their postwar plans for Germany. The mood at Potsdam was tense.

Agreed to try Nazi leaders as war criminals.

Finalized occupation Zones (Germany, and Berlin).

Stalin refused to loosen his grip on Eastern Europe. (Buffer Zone)

On both sides, suspicions were mounting and positions were hardening.

US had recently successfully tested bomb. USSR already knew due to spies stationed in US.

“We can’t do

business with

Stalin. He has

broken every one

of the promises

he made at

Yalta.” -- FDR

noted shortly

before his death.

Conflicting Goals

United States Soviet Union

1) Fought to bring

democracy and economic

opportunity to conquered

nations of Europe/Asia.

2) Economically strong and

politically open world =

markets for American

product

1) Wanted to rebuild and

protect its own interests =

satellite nations

2) Spread of communism

throughout the world =

supported totalitarian

Communist governments in

Eastern Europe

Conflicting Ideologies on Political Systems

United States Soviet Union

DEMOCRATIC government

Democracy:

government by the people,

either directly or through

elected representatives

TOTALITARIAN government

Totalitarianism:

State controls all aspects of

citizens’ lives, one ultimate

leader

Opposing Economic Perspectives

United States Soviet Union

CAPITALIST

(free market)

Capitalism: economic system in which the

factors of production are owned

individually (private

ownership); different social

classes exist (elite, middle,

lower)

COMMUNIST

(socialism)

Socialism:economic system in which

property/means of production

are owned communally; no

social classes

Competition Begins

Iron Curtain

• February 1946 – Stalin predicted ultimate triumph of communism over capitalism.

• March 5, 1946 – Winston Churchill responded while speaking in Fulton, Missouri

“The United States stands at this time at the pinnacle of world power. It is a solemn moment for the American democracy. For with this primacy in power is also joined an awe-inspiring accountability to the future. As you look around you, you must feel not only the sense of duty done, but also you must feel anxiety lest you fall below the level of achievement. Opportunity is here now, clear and shining, for both our countries. To reject it or ignore it or fritter it away will bring upon us all the long reproaches of the aftertime.

I have a strong admiration and regard for the valiant Russian people and for my wartime comrade, Marshal Stalin. There is deep sympathy and goodwill in Britain -- and I doubt not here also -- toward the peoples of all the Russias…

It is my duty, however, to place before you certain facts about the present position in Europe.

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, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; 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 a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.

The safety of the world, ladies and gentlemen, requires a unity in Europe, from which no nation should be permanently outcast. ”

– Excerpt from “Iron Curtain Speech” in Missouri, Churchill, 1946

Marshall Plan under President Truman Unveiled by Secretary of State George C.

Marshall in 1947

United States supported European economic recovery from World War II

U.S. allocated approx. $13 billion to Western Europe

Russian Response to Aid and Goals of

Allied reunification: Berlin BlockadeSoviets blocked Allied access to West Berlin

Blockade caused severe shortages of food and

supplies for 2.5 million people in West Berlin

British and American aircraft made more than

200,000 flights to deliver food, fuel, other supplies

until May 1949.

Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France,

West Germany, the United Kingdom,

Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy,

Luxembourg, the Netherlands,

Norway, Sweden, Switzerland,

Turkey

Molotov Plan • Created in 1949 to counter the Marshall Plan. Meant to:

Aid in economic recovery of Eastern Europe. Coordinate economies.

Ultimate goal was to keep Eastern European states politically and economically aligned with Soviet Union.

Poland

Czechoslovakia

East Germany

Hungary

Bulgaria

Romania

Satellite Nations • a country that is formally independent

in the world, but under heavy political, economic and militaryinfluence or control from another country:

Served as a buffer between East and West.

Eastern Europe became Soviet satellite nations.

Pro-Soviet.

Containment• American policy that called for the United States to resist Soviet attempts to form Communist governments elsewhere in order to “contain” Communism from spreading.

• Proposed by US diplomat George Kennan upon analyzing a speech by Stalin that stated a peaceful world could never exist as long as capitalism existed.

Truman Doctrine

• Pres. Harry Truman’s 1947 speech before a joint session of Congress, calling United States to take leadership role in the world, and declaring that the United States would support nations threatened by communism.