The Cold War

1
The Cold War

• Part I 1945-1960

2
The Cold War Defined

• Period of hostile relations between the U.S. and
  the U.S.S.R. (and respective allies) after the
  Second World War using any means short of direct
  military conflict.

3
Why No Direct Military Conflict?

• The Baker Tests of 1946

4
Origins of the Cold War

• U.S. Russia Rivalry
• Early as 1820s Oregon Territory
• 1890s Over China and Open Door Policy
• Bolshevik Revolution Add ideology

5
Origins of the Cold War

• WWII Alliance a temporary aberration
• Pure necessity Common Foe
• Always tense
• Media portrayed as friendly, but
• Mutual suspicion
• As victory became eminent, cooperation breaks
  down

6
Wartime Conferences

• Tehran (1943)
• Most congenial war still in doubt
• Confirmed May, 1944 date for Operation Overlord
• Agreed that Poland would be moved west.

7
Wartime Conferences

• Yalta February, 1945
• Last Meeting with FDR (dies in April)
• Declaration of Liberated Europe
• pledged to the earliest possible establishment
  through free elections of Governments responsive
  to the will of the people
• to facilitate where necessary the holding of such
  elections.
• Separate declaration on Poland

8
The Declaration on Liberated Europe

• To foster the conditions in which the liberated
  people may exercise these rights, the three
  governments will jointly assist the people in any
  European liberated state or former Axis state in
  Europe where, in their judgment conditions
  require,
• (a) to establish conditions of internal peace
• (b) to carry out emergency relief measures for
  the relief of distressed peoples
• (c) to form interim governmental authorities
  broadly representative of all democratic elements
  in the population and pledged to the earliest
  possible establishment through free elections of
  Governments responsive to the will of the people
  and
• (d) to facilitate where necessary the holding of
  such elections.

9
The Big Three at Yalta
10
Yalta

• Four Power Occupation of Germany
• Reparations
• U.S.S.R. to enter war v. Japan
• War Crimes Trials

11
Yalta Controversies

• The meaning of free elections and responsive
  to the will of the people
• The Yalta Controversy
• Did FDR and Churchill sell out Eastern Europe?
• Was the Declaration meant literally?

12
Yalta Controversies

• Most Cold War Issues date back to Yalta
• Liberated Europe, esp. Poland
• Division of Germany
• FDR dies in April tried to be balance between
  Stalin and Churchill
• Documents v. Understandings

13
Wartime Conferences Potsdam

• Potsdam July 1945
• FDR Dead
• Trumans plain speaking
• Churchill voted out mid-conference
• Mutual suspicion evident

14
Potsdam Major Decisions

• Demilitarization and de-nazification
• War Crimes Trials to be held
• Unconditional Surrender of Japan
• Allied Control Council for Germany

15
The Division of Germany
16
Analysis of Origins

• Salience the quality of being important or
  striking the U.S. and U.S.S.R. were the only two
  great powers left
• Hegemony the dominance of one group over other
  groups, with or without the threat of force
• Ideological differences capitalism v. communism
  democracy v. totalitarianism
• Truman v. Stalin personality conflicts

17
Formalizing the Cold War Two Policy Initiatives

• The Truman Doctrine
• The Philosophical Underpinning of U.S. Cold War
  Policy
• The Marshall Plan European Economic Recovery
  Plan

18
Formalizing the Cold War

• Background to the Truman Doctrine
• Feb. 1947 Britain can no longer support Greece
  against communist rebels
• Turkey under pressure to allow Soviet control of
  Bosporus and Dardanelles

19
Formalizing the Cold War

• The Truman Doctrine
• March, 1947 Special Session of Congress
• Trumans Speech
• I believe that it must be the policy of the
  United States to support free peoples who are
  resisting attempted subjugation by armed
  minorities or by outside pressures.

20
The Truman Doctrine

• Requests 400,000,000 in aid to Greece and Turkey
• Based on a new policy containment
• George Kennans The Sources of Soviet Conduct
• Soviet expansion is traditional Russian policy
• Must be opposed

21
Containment

• The Sources of Soviet Conduct
• The main element of any United States policy
  toward the Soviet Union, must be that of a
  long-term, patient but firm and vigilant
  containment of Russian expansive tendencies.

22
The Sources of Soviet Conduct

• The U.S. must counter Soviet pressure against
  the free institutions of the Western world
  through the adroit and vigilant application of
  counter-force at a series of constantly shifting
  geographical and political points, corresponding
  to the shifts and maneuvers of Soviet policy.

23
The Sources of Soviet Conduct

• Containment would promote tendencies which must
  eventually find their outlet in either the
  break-up or the gradual mellowing of Soviet
  power.

24
Formalizing the Cold War

• The Marshall Plan (June 1947)
• Western Europe also in chaos, years of war
  destroyed basic infrastructure for economy
• Weak economies are subject to communist
  sympathies
• 1947 Secretary of State George Marshall proposes
  that the US provide aid to all European nations
  that need it
• 13 Billion to Europe by 1952

25
The Marshall Plan
26
Formalizing the Cold War

• The Division of Germany
• Western occupied Germany (Allies) Federal
  Republic of Germany
• Eastern occupied Germany (Soviets) German
  Democratic Republic

27
Formalizing the Cold War

• NATO
• The Warsaw Pact

28
Major Crises of the Cold War

• 1948 Berlin Blockade and Airlift
• 1949 Soviet A-Bomb
• Suez Crisis (1956)
• U-2 Incident (1960)
• Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961)
• Berlin Wall (1961)
• Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

29
Berlin Blockade and Airlift

• Two Issues
• Test of will
• Currency reform in Germany
• June 20, 1948 10 billion, 701 million, 720
  thousand of the new German Marks (Duetschmarks)
• Gamble based on free market principles
• Implicit was unification of the western zones

30
Berlin Blockade and Airlift

• March 20, 1948 USSR walks out of Control Council
• March 30, 1948 USSR slows traffic into Berlin
• June 7, 1948 Western allies plan West German
  State
• June 24, 1948 USSR blocks access to Berlin for
  321 days road repairs

31
The Airlift

• Chosen over military option
• 272,000 flights into West Berlin
• May 12, 1949 Soviets reopen West Berlin

32
The Airlift