Origins of the Cold War

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Origins of the Cold War
(Dirty Harry)

• Copestake Reaich

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Feb 1945 Yalta Conference
Jul 1953 Ceasefire in Korea
Mar 1947 Truman Doctrine issued
Feb 1948 Communist coup in Czechoslovakia
Sep 1949 Communists take over China
Apr 1949 NATO established
6 Aug 1945 Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
Jun 1950 Start of the Korean War
Jul 1945 Potsdam Conference
Mar 1946 Churchills Iron Curtain speech
Jun 1947 Marshall Plan established
Jun 1948 Berlin Blockade begins
Feb 1950 Sino-Soviet Alliance signed
May 1949 Berlin Blockade lifted
Mar 1953 Death of Stalin
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Attitudes of the USSR, USA and Britain

• USSR
• 20million Soviet citizens died in the war after
  invasion from the West wanted buffer zone of
  friendly states to prevent a recurrence.
• USA
• Truman moved policy to hard line containment due
  to Kennans Long Telegram, the military-industrial
  complex, threat to US oil in Iran and his
  insecurity in international relations
• Britain
• Needed the USAs help to resist communism in
  Europe, persuaded them as such

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Deterioration of superpower relations

• Yalta and Potsdam Conferences
• Established UN, division of Germany Austria,
  set Polish post-war borders to give large areas
  to the USSR
• Russian influence in Eastern Europe
• Salami tactics set up pro-communist governments
  in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania
• US government saw this as a betrayal of the
  promise to hold free elections, so Truman didnt
  notify Stalin before dropping the atomic bomb on
  Hiroshima

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• Churchills speech at Fulton, Missouri
• Said an iron curtain had descended across
  Europe called for an alliance between the USA
  and Britain versus the Soviet threat
• Stalin was outraged, called him a warmonger
• Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan
• Prompted by the Greek Civil War, USA announced it
  would aid any country under attack by armed
  minorities
• Sec. of State George Marshall announced aid to
  war-torn European nations that would meet
  conditions of financial transparency
• Churchill called it the most unselfish act in
  history, in contrast to Molotov who derided such
  dollar imperialism

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• Czechoslovakian Crisis
• Communist party staged a coup, further increasing
  US fear of communist expansion
• Berlin Blockade
• Contrasting living standards between East and
  West embarrassed the USSR Stalin cut off all
  supplies to the Western side.
• USA airlifted in all supplies for the two million
  inhabitants Stalin was forced to concede defeat
  and lift the blockade after eleven months
• Highlighted the need for a coordinated Western
  defence force, leading to the establishment of
  NATO in 1949
• FDR and GDR split in 1949 marked growing
  entrenchment of Cold War tensions

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Why did the Cold War extend to the Far East?

• Spread of communist
• Maos communists took power in 1949
• North Korea presumed by the West to be under
  direction of Mao and Stalin invaded the South
  in 1950
• Ho Chi Minhs communist and nationalist forces
  threatened to seize power in Vietnam
• Missile gap
• USSR developed the atomic bomb in 1949, American
  sense of security severely dented

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• Red Scare and McCarthyism
• Anti-communist scaremongering by Senator
  McCarthyism caused widespread alarm

Overall the eagerness and determination of the US
government to stand up to the threat of communism
in the Far East led to the imposition of Cold War
tensions on conflicts which were essentially
local in origin and nationalist in nature.
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NSC-68

• Released in 1950, the report by the National
  Security Council advocated a shift in policy from
  containment to the roll back of communism

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The Korean War

• North invaded the South in June 1950. UN troops
  under General Mac Arthur pushed the North back to
  the 38th Parallel and beyond
• At Stalins request and worried by the proximity
  of capitalist forces, the Chinese army aided
  North Korea and pushed UN troops back beyond the
  previous border
• After a long stalemate, a ceasefire was agreed in
  July 1953

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Historiography

• How was the USA responsible?
• Revisionists see the US rejection of isolationism
  post WWII as key
• Post-revisionists argue that in 1945 an
  accommodation with the USSR was possible, but in
  1947 after the Truman Doctrine and Marshall
  Plan negotiation and compromise was impossible
• The US administrations failure to understand the
  USSRs desire for security after its horrific
  losses in the war led them to interpret Stalins
  defensive actions as aggressive

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• How was the USSR responsible?
• The Soviet desire to spread its ideology and
  found an empire upon it would inevitably involve
  armed conflict with the other global superpower.
• Their expansionist policies were as much
  nationalist as ideological in nature, and
  exacerbated by Stalins suspicious nature.
• What was the role of ideology?
• The Marxist principle of dialectical materialism
  saw capitialism and communism as diametrically
  opposed. As such conflict was inevitable.

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• To what extent were economic factors responsible?
• Pressures on both sides from the
  military-industrial complex forced the
  continuation of military development after the
  end of the WWII.

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School Viewpoint who was responsible?
Orthodox Aggressive expansionism of USSR
Revisionist Provocative actions of the USA
Post-revisionist Multi-causal Such as J. L. Gaddis
Soviet historiography Argue that Stalins foreign policy aimed to safeguard the USSR, Trumans aggressive stance forced the Soviet hand
Russian writers since 1991 Moving away from who was responsible to what was the cause.
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Exam Styles Questions

• How far do you agree with the view that the
  development of the Cold War in the period 1945-50
  was the result of the USAs foreign policy?
• On page 70 Sources S, T U Use sources S, T
  U and your own knowledge. How far do you agree
  with the view that Stalins foreign policy was a
  major contributing factor to the emergence of the
  Cold War in the period 1945-50?

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