SALAMI TACTICS (1945

1
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLD WAR IN EUROPE.

• SALAMI TACTICS (194548)
• Slice-by-slice, Stalin ensured all E European
  countries had Communist governments
• Albania (1945) the Communists took power after
  the war without opposition
• Bulgaria (1945) the Communists executed the
  leaders of all the other parties.
• Poland (1947) the Communists forced the
  non-Communist leaders into exile.
• Hungary (1947) Russian troops stayed but
  Stalin allowed elections (non-communists won a
  big majority). Communists were led by the
  pro-Russian Rakosi. Rakosi demanded that groups
  which opposed him should be banned. He got
  control of the police, arrested his opponents and
  set up a secret police unit, the AVH.
• Romania (19451947) the Communists gradually
  took over control.
• Czechoslovakia (1948) the Communists banned
  all other parties and killed their leaders.
• East Germany (1949) Russians turned their zone
  into German Democratic Republic.

2
THE IRON CURTAIN. (THE FULTON SPEECH MARCH 1946
CHURCHILL).
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, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, 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 a very high and,
in many cases, increasing measure of control from
Moscow.
3
SOVIET REACTION TO CHURCHILLS SPEECH.
Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech was
never published by the Soviet press -- only in
May 1998 did it appear in Russian in a historical
archival journal. Stalin himself informed his
people about it in Pravda. He compared Churchill
to Hitler and described him as "a warmonger" who
aimed at "Anglo-Saxon ... racial world
domination. At the same time, he claimed that the
Soviet Union, despite recent war losses, was
capable of waging and winning another
war. Stalin's harsh reaction was calculated, not
emotional. After the fall of 1945, the Soviet
dictator had begun preparations for a possible
confrontation with the West. In addition to
atomic and other military projects, he launched a
campaign to disabuse his lieutenants of any
"illusions" about the West's -- and Churchill's
-- good will. The "Iron Curtain" speech gave him
a pretext for mobilizing the Soviet people
against their former allies.
4
WESTERN VIEWS OF COLD WAR IN EUROPE
5
REALITIES OF THE IRON CURTAIN.
6
THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE AND THE MARSHALL PLAN
Background Events The Truman Doctrine was a
response to a crisis.   Behind it lay the
Communist/Soviet takeover of many of the
countries of eastern Europe by salami tactics
which, Truman alleged, was in breach of Stalins
promises at the Yalta Conference.         Then,
in February 1947, the British government which
had been helping the Greek government resist
Communist rebels announced that it could no
longer afford to keep its soldiers there.   It
seemed to Truman and his advisers that, of they
did nothing, it was only a matter of time before
the communists took over YET ANOTHER country.
The Truman Doctrine And so he told the
Congress the nations of the world were faced
with a choice.   This section of the speech is
very famous, in which Truman defined the Cold War
as a conflict between good and bad, and as a
choice between capitalism and communism,
dictatorship and democracy, and freedom and
oppression     At the present moment in world
history nearly every nation must choose between
alternative ways of life. The choice is too often
not a free one. One way of life is based upon
the will of the majority, and is distinguished by
free institutions, representative government,
free elections, guarantees of individual liberty,
freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from
political oppression. The second way of life is
based upon the will of a minority forcibly
imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror
and oppression, a controlled press and radio
fixed elections, and the suppression of personal
freedoms.     In such a world, he told
Congress, America was OBLIGED to get involved
7
Marshall Announces His Plan The speech George C.
Marshall delivered was drafted by Charles E.
Bohlen, a State Department official and future
ambassador to the Kremlin. As its basis, he used
a memo prepared by a State Department Policy
Planning staff directed by Soviet-expert George
Kennan as well as reports by other State
Department officials. Marshall then prepared the
final version. In the speech Marshall outlined
the problem "Europe's requirements are so much
greater than her present ability to pay that she
must have substantial additional help or face
economic, social, and political deterioration of
a very grave character." He then suggested a
solution that the European nations themselves
set up a program for the reconstruction of
Europe, with United States assistance. The
significance of Marshall's plan was immediately
recognized. On June 13, British Foreign Secretary
Ernest Bevin (1891-1951) predicted that his
address "will rank as one of the greatest
speeches in world history."
8
SOVIET REACTION - COMINFORM
The Soviet Union hated Marshall aid (see Source D).   Stalin forbade Communist countries to ask for money.     Instead, in October 1947, he set up Cominform.   Every Communist party in Europe joined.      It allowed Stalin control of the Communists in Europe.             Source E 'Can he block it?'   This cartoon of 1947 about Cominform shows Stalin trying to stop the basketball of 'Marshall aid' scoring the basket labelled 'European recovery'.                                                                 
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THE CZECHOSLOVAKIA CRISIS 1948
At first, the American Congress did not want to
give the money for Marshall Aid. But then, in
February 1948, the Communists took power in
Czechoslovakia, followed on 10 March by the
suspicious suicide of the popular minister Jan
Masaryk. Congress was scared, and voted for
Marshall Aid on 31 March 1948.             
Source F A British cartoon of June 1947 shows
Truman and Stalin as two  taxi-drivers trying to
get customers.  The 'customers' are labelled
'Turkey', 'Hungary', 'Bulgaria', 'Austria'.
             
10
THE BERLIN BLOCKADE