Title: Origins of the Cold War
1Origins of the Cold War
(Dirty Harry)
2Feb 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
3Attitudes 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
4Deterioration 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
5- 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
6- 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
7Why 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
8- 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.
9NSC-68
- Released in 1950, the report by the National
Security Council advocated a shift in policy from
containment to the roll back of communism
10The 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
11Historiography
- 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
12- 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.
13- 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.
14School 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.
15Exam 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?
16(No Transcript)