1

The

Truth Is

Out

There

Since 1877 American History

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The World of YaltaCold War 1.0

YaltaTruman Doctrine

»Speech 12 March 1947

»The “fall of Greece

would lead to tumbling

dominoes right across

the map”

»A clash “between

alternative ways of life”

Yalta

Feb 3, 1945:Yalta

–Resort of the Czars (30

miles East of Sevastopol)

–Left satisfied

–But, end of the Grand

Alliance

Yalta

Yalta (like Versailles?)

–Germany would be divided into 4

zones of military occupation

–Reparations

–Polish boundaries; elections

–World organization

–Enter war against Japan

YaltaRoosevelt and Stalin

– One enemy at a time

(allies)

– Overconfident

– Could “do business”

– Saw Russia as a

conventional imperialist

power

– Stalin’s “security

objectives”

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Yalta❖The Declaration on

Liberated Europe

❖Stalin promised that interim governments would be “broadly representative of all democratic elements”

❖A “people’s democracy”

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Yalta❖ Thought Stalin was a

traditional politician (the

European model) who

could be reasoned with

on the basis of territorial

and monetary incentives

❖ Did he understand the

nature of the Soviet

state?

Yalta

Josef “Stalin” (1879-1953)– “man of steel”

Relation to Lenin

– The apparatus; Revolution

from above

– State not class

– Territory first; Ideology

second

YaltaVictory made him more insecure

Was (like Hitler) a radical nationalist

The end justified every and any means; everything was permitted

See this in his comment to Churchill in 1944. Churchill mentioned the importance of Catholic Poland and relations with the Vatican. Stalin asked: how many divisions does the Pope of Rome have?

Churchill had been speaking about moral influence. Stalin made it clear that he respected only power.

Yalta

Respected

Hitler–Helped him

come to

power

–Same enemy

Yalta

❖Learned

from him

–1934 “Night

of the Long

Knives” (the

SA and SS)

YaltaThe “black army”

Supplies for the invasion

of France

The “famine” in the

Ukraine and Volga valley

(1932-33): Holdomor

»The “kulaks”; 2.5 to 7.5

million starved to death

YaltaThe “terror famine”

–Kept secret

–One of the great criminal

acts of the century

1934: assassination

of Kirov

–The Great Terror (1936-38)

Yalta

Red Army purge (1939)

1939 Russo-German Pact» Opened the door to the German invasion of

Poland (secret protocols)

Winter war against Finland

Absorbed Baltic states

❖Estonia; Latvia; and Lithuania

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Yalta❖ Walter Duranty (1884-1957)

covered the Soviet

government for the New York

Times between 1930 and 1942

❖ Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932

❖ But he was a willing

accomplice for Stalin’s

propaganda

❖Denied that the famine in the Ukraine had happened

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Yalta❖Covered up the true

nature of the terror and the show trials of the old Bolsheviks

❖He wrote in 1941, that

in the “basic ways of

life, Russians are not

less free than we are.”

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Yalta❖ At Teheran in 1943 (Nov

23-Dec 1):

❖Churchill had tried to warn the Americans about Stalin

❖“Germany is finished … the real problem now is Russia. I can’t get the Americans to see it.”

❖ The Americans were

concerned about Japan

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Yalta❖At Yalta, Roosevelt made it clear

that American forces would leave

Europe in two years

❖He was suspicious of English

ambitions after the war

❖Clear from the letter he wrote

to Churchill March 18, 1942

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Yalta❖ “I know you will not mind my

being brutally frank when I tell

you that I think I can personally

handle Stalin better than either

your Foreign Office or my State

Department. Stalin hates the guts

of all your top people. He thinks

he likes me better, and I hope he

will continue to do so.”

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Yalta❖ 23 Feb 1945: meeting of the

commission set-up to see that the

free elections promise was honored

❖ Molotov announced that the elections

would be held Soviet style

❖ 25 Feb: Roosevelt was told

❖“We can’t do business with Stalin”

❖Realized the promises had been broken

YaltaRoosevelt dies 12 April

1945

Truman becomes President

– Also a Wilsonian

– Did not believe Stalin’s

search for security was

rational

– April 23 meeting with

Molotov (Blair House)

YaltaLectured Molotov on keeping

agreements:

– “I gave it to him straight. I let

him have it. It was a straight

one-two to the jaw.”

– Molotov complained

– “Carry out your agreements and

you won’t get talked to like

that”

YaltaSaw things in black and white

Russian’s had taken advantage of American generosity

The Russians bore a resemblance to the gangsters he knew in Kansas City?

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YaltaSince Yalta,

growing suspicion

–Katyn forest

(Poland)

–March-April 1940

–25,700 murdered

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Yalta❖Feb 16, 1945: Canadian

authorities announced the arrest

of 22 Soviet spies associated

with the Manhattan Project

❖March 5: Churchill’s “Iron

Curtain” speech at Westminster

College

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Yalta❖Potsdam: July-

August 1945

❖To confirm

Stalin’s

participation

against the

Japanese

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Yalta❖Truman was growing suspicious

of Stalin’s motivation

❖May: Acting Secretary of State,

Joseph Grew

❖World War Two had achieved nothing but “the transfer of totalitarian dictatorship and power from Germany and Japan to Soviet Russia

Yalta

Truman thought the State Department was trying to protect the Russian’s from criticism

By June 1945: “I do not think we should play compromise any longer”

YaltaWould not recognize the Soviet

sphere

❖“Had to remain open”

Changed interpretation of Yalta

Just like World War Two,

Poland stands at the beginning

of the Cold War

Yalta–The Munich analogy

–1945 Eberstadt Report

(National Security Act 1947):

»National Security Council

»Joint Chiefs of Staff

»Central Intelligence Agency

»National Security Resources

Board

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Yalta❖How to understand the

Soviet state?

❖Was it to difficult?

❖Use the traditional

vocabulary of political

science or was another

approach necessary?

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Yalta1946 (Feb): the embassy in Moscow received a query from Washington about Soviet intentions and a speech by Stalin. Had assumed the Soviet’s were committed to a harmonious world order.

35

YaltaThe Ambassador was away and the deputy chief of mission (he was 42) decided to reply. He repeatedly criticized the idea that Moscow embraced the idea of peaceful co-existence and Washington’s attitude of accommodation toward Soviet territorial designs in Eastern Europe.

The result …

1946 (Feb 22): the “long telegram”

36

YaltaThe telegram came in five

parts; 19 single spaced

pages; 8,000 words

1947: article in Foreign

Affairs

Mr. X

37

Yalta

Why sign this way?

–Joseph Davies was

appointed Ambassador

to the Soviet Union in

1936. Gullible and

corrupt.

–His instruction was to

win Stalin’s friendship.

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Yalta

Why sign this way?

–Kennan was worried about Soviet

influence in the State Department.

–Both Kordell Hull and Welles

were anti-British

–Thought English trade restrictions

were the main threat to world

peace

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YaltaThe “Riga Axioms”

Expansionist

Dangerous and

untrustworthy

–An immoral state; no

value on human life; a

revolutionary state

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YaltaThe essence: Stalin was implementing long standing Russian policy; there was nothing new; resulted from Russia’s centuries-old distrust of the West and a revolutionary desire to spread bolshevism into the world; they had devoted their lives and sacrificed the lives of millions to an ideology which posited a fundamental conflict between the communist and capitalist worlds.

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YaltaThe Soviet leadership would not be influenced by good-will gestures.

Marxist dogma had been made more rigid by grafting Lenin’s ideas onto it.

Lenin’s ideas were a “justification for their instinctive fear of the outside world, for the dictatorship without which they did not know how to rule … In the name of Marxism they sacrificed every single ethical value … Today they cannot dispense with it.”

YaltaA combination:– Bolshevik doctrine

– The Russian National character

– East is West?

– Saw continuities with the Czars

– The inherent hostility meant “a contest about the nature of world order was inevitable … undoubtedly greatest task our diplomacy has ever faced and probably greatest it will ever have to face.”

YaltaRealists not ideologues

A “collective personality”– Insecure, aggressive, permanent war and

expansion

What was necessary– Patience; toughness; vigilance

– Victory would not come on the battlefield or through diplomacy but from an implosion of the Soviet system.

The basic recommendation:– … “a policy of firm containment designed

to confront the Russians with unalterable counterforce at every point where they show signs of encroaching upon the interests of a peaceful and stable world.”

– Containment (until the 80s)

Yalta1947 Executive Order 9835:

Issue of internal security

»Federal Loyalty program (March)

»Loyalty Boards

–66% see Soviets as aggressive

(33% in 1945)

–Internal security becomes a

potent internal political issue

Yalta❖1948: April, Berlin

blockade begins (the “candy bombers”)

Marshall Plan (proposed June 1947 at the Harvard Commencement by Acheson); active July 1949

YaltaNSC 48/2

»Extended containment and

Truman Doctrine to Asia

NATO: signed April 4, 1949

–Ratified July 21, 1949

–82 to 13

YaltaBerlin blockade

ends (May 1949)

Chiang to

Formosa

(Dec 1949)

–“who lost

China”

Yalta1949 September 1

–B29 (WB-29) at 18,000 feet detects radioactivity

–Had developed the atomic bomb and delivery systems

YaltaNSC-68 (Feb-March 1950)

–Paul Nitze

–A conflict between social

systems with opposed values

– (1) Collapse of European and

Asian balance of power

– (2) Stalin’s “salami tactics”

Yalta– (3) Resistance had to be backed by

superior force

»Defense budget $12.9 billion to $50

– (4)Long range missiles and

bombers meant the next Pearl

Harbor could be Detroit or

Chicago

–Co-existence was not possible

YaltaWhittaker

Chambers (Karl)

–1939 (Sept 2) with

Isaac Don Levine

–Went to see Adolf

Berle (Assistant Sec.

Of State)

YaltaWhittaker Chambers

–1938: Had broken with a

Russian spy ring in

Washington, D.C.

»Contact was J. Peters

–13 spies (8 “serving” officials)

–Made some notes

–1941: the FBI

Yalta1943: State Department

Berle had determined that

the accusations “were not

really important”

Why? (Two answers)

YaltaElections and Alger

Hiss

Aug 3, 1948:

Chambers testified

before HUAC

Aug 5: Hiss testified

and denied Chamber’s

accusations

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Yalta❖Only Richard Nixon

wanted to proceed

❖Aug 16: Hiss said it

was possible that he

had known Chambers

by another name

❖Aug 17: the two met in

room 1400 of the

Commodore Hotel

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Yalta❖Hiss said he had known

Chambers as George Crosley and challenged him to go public without protection from libel laws

❖ Aug 25: Chambers testified in

open session

❖ Becomes a lightning rod for

those opposed to Roosevelt

(the New Deal) and those

opposed to Truman’s view of

the Soviet Union

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Yalta

❖Hiss represented the

old money elites

❖Harvard Law School

❖Had clerked for Oliver Wendell Holmes

❖Was Chairman of the Carnegie Endowment

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Yalta❖ Hiss had been at Yalta and at

the birth of the United

Nations

❖ Had Roosevelt been naïve

about Stalin and Soviet

communism?

❖ Political lines were drawn

that exist to this day – Nixon

and Northeastern

“liberalism”

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Yalta❖ Two trials for perjury

followed and Hiss was convicted

❖ March 21, 1951: he began serving 44 months of his five year sentence

❖ Who was telling the truth? Resolution would wait for the 1990s.

❖ Chambers died in obscurity on 9 July 1961. He left behind an autobiography, Witness (published in 1952)

YaltaBy 1948, the concern

with internal security

should not have been

surprising

1945: Elizabeth Bentley

went to the FBI. Told

them she had been a

spy between 1938 and

1945.

YaltaHad been a courier for two spy

networks. Gave the FBI 80 names.

She never testified because of

character issues (an alcoholic and

promiscuous). But the evidence

helped to end the careers of those in

the spy rings. Public knowledge by

1948.

Yalta1943: the FBI received an

anonymous letter from someone

claiming to be a Soviet intelligence

officer. The letter said that members

of the embassy were handling agents.

The FBI was able to identify many of

the contacts and turn them into

double agents.

Yalta1950: Harry Gold was arrested as a courier for passing documents from Klaus Fuchs about the Manhatten Project. Had been recruited in 1935. He implicated David Greenglasswho would testify against the Rosenbergs. Had given the Russians the basic plans for the atomic bomb.

The beginning of concerns about internal security and set the stage for McCarthy.

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The

Truth Is

Out

There