The Origins of the Cold War

Origin of the Term

• The first use of the term "Cold War" to describe post-World War II geopolitical tensions between the Soviet Union and the US has been attributed to American financier and US presidential advisor Bernard Baruch.

• In South Carolina on April 16, 1947, Baruch gave a speech written by journalist in which he said, "Let us not be deceived: we are today in the midst of a cold war.“

• Columnist Walter Lippmann also gave the term wide currency, with the publication of his 1947 book titled Cold War.

Beginning USSR-USA Tension

• Tensions arose from the fundamental differences in political and economic ideologies of the USA and USSR– Democracy and Totalitarianism– Capitalism and Communism

• Tension manifested in different visions of the post-war world.– USA / Atlantic Charter world view: end of military alliances

and spheres of influence, democracy, international organizations arbitrating disputes, right of self-determination

– USSR / Great Britain world view: great powers to control areas of strategic interest. Ex- USSR and Eastern Europe

USSR vs. USA

• USSR & Eastern Bloc• Goals: global spread

of Communism

• USA & NATO• Goals: “Containment”

of Communism

MethodsEspionage (KGB vs. CIA)

Arms Race (Nuclear Proliferation)Ideological competition for the minds & hearts of Third World

peoples (Vietnam, Guatemala)Proxy Wars (Korea, Vietnam)

Bi-Polarization of Europe (NATO vs. Warsaw Pact)

Wartime Diplomacy• Casablanca, Morocco – January 1943

– First war strategy meeting of the Big Three – Stalin declined invitation because FDR and Churchill

did not agree to open a second front in western Europe

– Did agree to demand unconditional surrender from Germany and not to negotiate separate peace treaties.

• Tehran, Iran – November 1943• Yalta, USSR – February 1945• Potsdam, Germany – April 1945

Tehran, Iran – November 1943• Churchill, FDR, and Stalin meet first time• USSR agrees to wage war on Japan once the

war in Europe ends• FDR agrees open front in Western Europe

(Normandy, France) in six months• What about Poland?

– FDR & Churchill agree to allow USSR to annex part of western Poland

– FDR & Churchill supported the London Polish government-in-exile

– Stalin supported the Lublin Poles to run post war Poland

Yalta, USSR – February 1945

• Big Three peace conference. • Agreed to the Dumbarton Oaks plan for creation

of the United Nations.– General Assembly of all member states– Security Council with 5 permanent seats: China,

France, USA, UK, & USSR each with power to veto UN resolutions. 10 revolving seats for other nations.

– UN Charter signed by 50 nations on April 25,1945.

• Poland problem still not settled– Stalin agrees to allow free elections in Poland at

some point in the future.

Yalta, USSR – February 1945• Disagreements over post-war Germany

– FDR wants a reconstructed and united Germany– Stalin wants Germany dismembered & forced to pay

reparations• Allies agree to divide Germany into occupation

zones • Berlin (inside the Soviet zone) would also be

divided• Germany would eventually be reunited at an

unspecified date (how about October 1990)• FDR dies in April, Harry S. Truman becomes

president

Potsdam, Germany – July1945• Truman view of Stalin/USSR is generally distrust,

especially after Yalta Conference– The Red Army occupied Poland and Eastern Europe

– Germany is divided into “occupation zones” with Berlin deep inside the Soviet zone

• Truman gave in to Stalin's demands for Polish territory.• Truman did not agree to reparations payments form the

US, French, and British zones of Western Germany. In effect keeping Germany divided West (NATO) and East

China

• Since 1927, China engaged in a struggle between:– Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists (Kuomintang KMT)– Mao Zedong’s Communists (CCP)

• US continues to support the incompetent and corrupt Nationalist government of Chiang.

• China falls into a full scale civil war which ends with Mao declaring the People’s Republic of China in October 1949.– Chiang Kai-shek retreats to Taiwan establishing the Republic of

China– 1950, Truman sends the 7th Fleet to protect Taiwan from

Communist invasion– Stalemate

Truman Doctrine• By 1946 FDR’s vision of the

postwar world is gone– Stalin is trying to win access to

the Mediterranean through Turkey

– Communist rebels are threatening Greece

• George Kennan- “Containment”• Truman adopts the containment

policy and asks Congress to fund forces resisting communists in Greece & Turkey. Gets it.

• Containment becomes the basis of US foreign policy for 40 years

Marshall Plan• Post war Europe is in a shambles. Industrial capacity

and agricultural production is greatly diminished and almost nonexistent in Germany.

• US wants European recovery and stability– As a market for US goods– Avoid the spread of communist influence

• 1947, Secretary of State, George C. Marshall proposes massive economic assistance to Europe (including the Communist Bloc)

• Marshall Plan (European Recovery Program) 1947– 13 billion spent on economic, technical, and infrastructure– By 1950 the economies of all participating countries (except

Germany) had grown 64% to pre-war levels

Marshall Plan Aid

• UK………………3.3 billion• France……….....2.3 b• W. Germany…...1.5 b• Italy……………..1.2 b• Belgium………..700 million• Greece………….366 m• Turkey………….127 m

Criticism of the Marshall Plan• German Minister for

Economy Ludwig Erhard- US operated a centrally planned economy

• US subsidized failing industry in Europe and did not allow “free market” capitalism to grow

• Form of US economic imperialism over Europe

• Money promoted corruption and waste

Mobilization for a Cold War

• Containment = continued maintenance of US military power– 1947, National Security Council created to oversee all foreign

and military policy• Created Department of Defense to centralize all branches of the

military

• Central Intelligence Agency replaces OSS to collect information on enemies and friends

– 1948, Congress reinstates the Selective Service (draft)– Atomic Energy Commission takes charge of the nuclear

weapons research and development– 1950, US funds development of hydrogen bomb

Berlin Crisis• Truman convinced UK and France to merge Western

German Zones to promote economic recovery• Stalin responded by imposing a blockade around

western Berlin in June 1948• The US responded with an airlift to supply food and fuel

to West Berlin (10 months, 2.5 million tons)• Stalin lifts blockade making Berlin the symbol of western

resolve to contain communist expansion• October 1948 Germany split into two nations

– Federal Republic of Germany- Democratic West– Democratic Republic of Germany-Communist East

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forms in 1949

NSC-68• 1949, USSR successfully tests an atomic bomb

and mainland China falls to the Mao an the Communists

• 1950 the National Security Council issues a report reviewing US foreign policy

• Drawing on Kennan’s “Long Telegram” and “X-Article” NSC-68 relied almost completely on military power rather than diplomacy as a way of dealing with the Soviet threat– "This would be a war of ideas in which the idea of freedom under

a government of laws, and the idea of slavery under the grim oligarchy of the "Kremlin" were pitted against each other.

– “The U.S. as the center of power in the free world," should build an international community in which American society would "survive and flourish" and pursue a policy of containment.

NSC-68• NSC-68 becomes the basis of US foreign policy

throughout the Cold War• Critics contend that NSC-68 overestimated the Soviet

threat– Kennan was wary of the call for massive US rearmament– Evidence shows that the US economy was far more capable

than the USSR of sustaining increased military spending

• However the Korean War led most Americans to conclude that the Soviet Union was indeed bent on world domination, and spurred the mobilization of significant resources to counter the perceived threat.