International Relations: Origins of the Cold War Revision Cards

Evidence of ideological conflict

• British and USA intervene in Russian Civil War (1918-20) to overthrow Communist government
• Western powers do not recognise USSR as a legitimate state and refuse entry to the League of Nations
• 1919 'Red Scare' in America - expel left-wing radicals
• USSR's foreign policy (1917-41) assumed West was hostile to Communism
• Soviet propaganda (1917-41) increasingly anti-Capitalist
  

The USA in 1945

• Economic boom - GDP doubles between 1941-5
• The USA has half the world's manufacturing capacity, which is treble the USSR's
• Military supremacy was established with the development of the atomic bomb
• The Bretton Woods Conference established the dollar as the principle trading currency
• Truman becomes President in April 1945
• The Great Depression still lingered within American conscience

The Soviet Union in 1945

• 27 million deaths, 1700 towns and cities destroyed, industrial and agricultural infrastructure demolished
• Major role in defeating Germany = major role in post-war settlement
• Largest army (1 million men) and fastest growing economy
  

Stalin's goals for the Post-War world

• Initial peaceful coexistence with the West
• Soviet dominance over Poland
• Weak and demilitarised Germany
• Extend Soviet influence in Eastern Europe
  

Tehran (1943) and Moscow (1944)

• Churchill and Stalin agreed to British troops in Greece and Russian troops in Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary

Yalta Conference (1945)

• Churchill wanted pro-Western Polish government restored from their exile
• Stalin didn't want Germany to re-emerge as powerful and wanted Polan to remain in Russian sphere of influence
• Roosevelt wanted UN acceptance and Russia to enter war against Japan
  • USA and UK accepted Russian demands, Stalin agreed to enter war and UN creation but only with right to veto

Potsdam Conference (1945)

• Germany divided into 4, new Polish and German borders benefited Stalin
• Unresolved Easter Europe, trilateral agreement for Germany's future
  

Kennan Telegram, February 1946

• Establish containment policy against USSR

Novikov Telegram, September 1946

• Argued that the USA was behaving like an Imperialist country and planned 'global domination'

'Iron Curtain' Speech and Reaction, March, 1946

• Churchill emphasised European divisons, Stalin branded him as a warmonger

Superpower relations at the end of 1946

• Trust had broken between both sides
  • Both sides convinced of the other's 'world domination' plan
• Grand Alliance had effectively ended but continuing negotiations suggest the Cold War had not yet begun
  

Truman Doctrine, March 1947

• Truman begins containment, Soviets respond with Cominform
  

  Marshall Plan, June 1947
  

• Aid given to Europe if the country agreed to free trade with America
  • $13.7 billion between 1948-52
• Reactions:
  • Soviets saw it as 'dollar imperialism'
  • Comecon was established as an alternative
• Significance:
  • 2 European economic areas established - Soviet and American
  • Economic recovery in West Germany outside Soviet sphere of influence
    

Stalinisation of Eastern Europe

• Cominform Stalinised Eastern Europe between 1947 and 1949
• Hungary
  • Taken over in 1947 through rigged elections
• Czechoslovakia
  • Taken over in 1948, coup overthrew elected government and foreign minister, Masaryk, was murdered
    

Differing Perspectives

• Stalin wanted to prevent Germany from re-emerging as a powerful nation, so he felt punishing Germany brutally was the only cause of action
• The USA didn't ant political extremism to re-emerge again like in WW1, which they felt was due to the harsh constraints of the post-war settlement

Germany's Division

• Divided into British, French, US and Soviet areas, initially meant to be temporary
  • Berlin divided into same sections also but was 177km inside Soviet sphere

Stalin's Desire for Reunification

• Believed a united West Germany would threaten Eastern Europe and Russia, argued for a united Germany
  • America feared it would enter Soviet sphere of influence, didn't want this to occur
    

Bizonia and Trizonia, Moscow March 1947

• USA wanted monetary reform in Germany in order to help stimulate the European economy in what they perceived to be the best way possible
  • The Soviets rejected this proposal, fearing that Germany would emerge once more as a powerful nation and invade Russia
• In April 1949, France, Britain and America united to form Trizonia, which was known as West Germany
  

Berlin Blockade, June 1948

• 14th June, new currency is created in West Germany to solve the monetary issues
• Stalin, in response, closes all travel links from Trizonia to West Berlin, effectively isolating the latter within the Soviet sphere of influence
  

  Western Response
  

• Berlin Airlift; 26th June, Operation Vittles (USA) and Plainfare (UK) are launched to fly supplies into West Berlin
• Nuclear Option; August 1948, USA deploys 60 B29 nuclear-capable bombers to the UK

Significance of the Crisis

• 12th May 1949; Stalin recognises the Blockade's failure and concedes
• It illustrated Western resolve to stand-up peacefully to Soviets
• Propaganda disaster for USSR - Stalin was willing to starve 2 million people
• The Soivets failed to stop Western Germany from unifying
  • East Germany was unified as the German Democratic Republic
• April 1949; NATO was established
• Proved that neither side was willing to risk nuclear war

Outbreak

• 1949; USSR tests the atomic bomb and the USA's nuclear monopoly thus ends
  • Mao also manages to create a Communist China in this year
• 1950; Dean Acheson excludes South Korea from the USA's Asian 'defensive perimeter'
  
  • North Korea invades South Korea, supported by Soviet technology
    

    US intervention
    

• Truman is under pressure from the China Lobby and NSC-68
  • Authorises rollback, Douglas MacArthur crosses the 38th Parallel in Korea and heads towards the Chinese border

Chinese intervention

• October 1950; they mobilise a volunteer force to aid North Korea which is initially successful, but short-lived
• 1953; the Korean War armistice is signed, ending the War
  

Significance of the Korean War

• Showed that the superpowers could use military force to defend their interests
• The superpowers wanted to avoid direct conflict, instead using 'proxy wars' to fight one another
• Demonstrated the importance of domestic political pressure upon US foreign policy