Liberalism Challenged viaForeign PoliciesSOC 30
Readings: Chap 7Pages 232-248
Post WWII International Relations Yalta Accords Bretton-Woods
Agreement Containment
Expansionism Truman
Doctrine Marshall Plan
The Iron Curtain Descends
Berlin Divided
Summary
A Chilling Prediction…there will emerge two centers of world significance: a socialist center, drawing to itself the countries that incline towards socialism, and a capitalist center, drawing to itself the countries that incline towards capitalism. Battle between these two centers for command of the world economy will decide the fate of capitalism and of communism in the entire world.
~Josef Stalin, 1927
Feb 1945 Yalta Accords in
USSR May 1945
Germany surrenders
Berlin divided July 1945
Potsdam Conference
War w/ Japan Aug 1945
Atomic bombs Soviet Paranoia
End of WWII TimelineYou can see page 236 in your textbook as well
Changing Leadership
USSR:•-1953: Stalin•1953-55: Malenkov•1955-1964: Khrushchev•1964-1982: Brezhnev
USA: •-1945: F.D. Roosevelt•1945-1953: Harry Truman•1953-1961: Eisenhower•1961-1963: Kennedy•1963-1969: Johnson•1969-1974: Nixon•1974-1977: Ford•1977-1981: Carter•1981-1989: Reagan
Britain:•1940-1945: Churchill•1945-1951: Attlee•1951-1955: Churchill•1955-1957: Eden•1957-1963: Macmillan•1963-1964: Douglas-Home•1964-1970: Wilson
Meeting between Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt
WWII is drawing to a close Plan their
remaining actions
Redraw the map of Europe
However, there was a fundamental ideological divide
The Yalta Accords
The Yalta Accords
Stalin:•Ensure Soviet Union security•Set up Communist-controlled governments in countries bordering the USSR
Roosevelt:•International security & economic prosperity depends on establishing democracies•Capitalist economic actions & principles
Churchill:•Balance of power in Europe•A defeated Germany = power vacuum•Soviets might fill that vacuum (threatens British military interests)
Causes for Tension Postwar treatment of Germany
Stalin: wanted reparations & a weakened Germany
Allies: healthy German economy & unified Germany
US aid to postwar Europe Strings attached which supported American
ideals Stalin refused aid, even with 25 million
homeless Soviets No common enemy for the USA and
Soviet Union
Emerging Superpowers Europe devastated by ground and air
forces in WWII Asia (Japan) devastated by war & atomic
weaponry This leaves the USA and Soviet Union
The United Nations At Yalta, Roosevelt recognized the
fraying seams of the alliance with Stalin He wanted to postpone the controversial
issues Would be settled by an international body
Ideally, this body could succeed where the League of Nations had failed
But for the UN to be a success, both the USA and USSR had to participate
Bretton-Woods Agreement Team effort between American and
European economists Establishes the American dollar as the
world’s reserve currency Fixes exchange rates between its 42
member countries Creates two international organizations
International Monetary Fund – ensure economic stability
World Bank – encourage global development
Bretton-Woods Agreement Roosevelt’s goal:
“…end the system of unilateral action, the exclusive alliances, the spheres of influence, the balances of power, and all the expedients that have been tried for centuries and have always failed”
Stalin & Churchill’s goals: Believe in “…spheres of influence, the
balances of power…” Armed force, not international
organization, would shape the post-war world
Superpowers Begin to Clash
Both the USA and the USSR aimed to enlarge their territorial and ideological influences beyond their country’s borders This is called Expansionism
Accomplished through the establishment of spheres of influence
Ultimately, both superpowers feared each other and attempted to thwart each other’s expansionism alternative means This is called Containment
Spheres of Influence
Truman Doctrine An international relations policy set
forth by Harry Truman in 1947 Represents the beginning of the
containment policy to stop Soviet expansion
The USA lent support to two nations: Greece
Greek communists are fighting government forces. Being funded by Tito, a communist dictator in Yugoslavia
$400 million lent Turkey
$100 million lent
Marsh
all P
lan
Marshall Plan $13-17 billion lent to European
countries Goal: Help countries recover from WWII Conditions:
Balance budgets Stop inflation Stabilize exchange rates
The Soviet Union rejected aid Although it was offered,
how likely do you believe the USA would have lent money to a communist country?
The Iron Curtain
“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…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 very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow…~Churchill, “Iron Curtain speech”, 1946
The Iron Curtain
Berlin Divided
The city itself was divided into four occupation zones
Note: it is 176 km within the Soviet controlled portion of Germany…
Berlin Divided
West Berlin
Capitalist pocket Eagerly accepts
Marshall Plan
East Berlin
Communist Rejects Marshall
Plan
Stalin saw West Berlin as an unwelcome Capitalist intrusion
Berlin Airlift In 1948, Stalin blocked all road,
rail, and transportation to West Berlin 2.1 million cut off from supplies An attempt to force the Western forces
out of Berlin Western response: fly supplies to
West Berliners At the height of the lift, flights were
landing at the rate of 1 every 3 minutes!
Berlin Airlift Over a period of 11
months, the USA, Britain, and France supplied West Berliners with all they needed
On May 12, 1949, Stalin finally lifted the blockade
Berlin Airlift: Legacy
In the spring of 1948, Stalin began his campaign to force the Allied powers from Berlin. Hoping to bring the city under communist control, he tried to break the spirit of its people. On June 24, 1948, he imposed a blockade on Berlin. What Stalin failed to judge, however, was the will of Berliners to defy intimidation, and the resolve of the Allied forces to see them through.~Warren ChristopherUS State Dispatch
See any bias?...
Again, we see the divide…
Allied Actions
Truman Doctrine
Marshall Plan
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Anti-Soviet Alliance
Soviet Actions
Communist Information Bureau (ComInform)
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CoMEcon)
Warsaw Pact Anti-Western
Alliance
NATO Early form begun in 1948
Officially formed in 1949 Intergovernmental military alliance
around the Atlantic Originally planned as a deterrent for
communist expansion System of collective defense –
member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by an external party
NATO
Greatly expands the sphere of influence of Western Capitalism
Warsaw Pact Warsaw Treaty Organization of
Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance
Mutual defense pact between 8 communist states in central Europe Founded by the USSR in opposition to
NATO, particularly the integration of West Germany into NATO in 1955
The Warsaw Pact was signed in 1955
Warsaw Pact
Greatly solidifies the sphere of influence of Communism
Soviet Nuclear Bomb Both the USA and
USSR researched hydrogen bombs The USA was a nuclear
power But in 1949, the Soviet
Union detonated their first hydrogen bomb
The Soviet threat was now very real to the USA
The Stage Is SetBy 1950, Europe was divided into two hostile military blocs, each dominated by a superpower in possession of a nuclear arsenal