The Origins of the Cold War
1917-1949
Capitalism
Communism
Capitalism
Free Market
Communism
Command Economy
GOAL: A free society were people,
pursuing their self-interest, may
create a society that is better for most
and rewards those who strive.
GOAL: A society were resources and
wealth are distribute evenly and fairly.
Workers would hold the power, not
the rich.
1. Private ownership of factors of
production
2. No or minimal government regulation
3. Buyers and Sellers coordinate
economic activity within markets – the
“invisible hand” of the market will lead
to maximum output of wanted goods
and services.
4. Labor is also “sold” in this system in
exchange for wages.
5. Profit the primary goal of economic
activity.
1. Historical determinism
a. Inevitable movement from one
economic stage to the next
b. An industrial society would
become socialist
2. No private ownership
3. Central control of economic decisions
by the workers. This includes what
and how much of a good or service is
produced and its “price”
4. Economic equality, a society without
separate social classes.
Origins and Beginnings of the Cold War
-Ideological Roots
-Tensions between the West and USSR 1917-1941
-West support of Whites in Civil War
-Nature of Stalin’s regime
-Cooperation with Hitler (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact)
-Finland
-The Grand Alliance
-Second Front
Yalta and Potsdam are
-Cooperation, or lack of, for Victory
important in illustrating
-Spheres of Influence in the post-war world
these issues
-Germany and Japan
-The Atomic Bomb
-The “security dilemmas”
-Iran, Turkey, and the Mediterranean (45-46)
-The Long telegram (2/46)
-Truman Doctrine (3/47) and Marshal Plan (48-52)
-Czechoslovakia (48)
-Yugoslavia (6/48)
-Berlin Blockade (6/48 – 5/49)
-The Perception of weakness in the West
-USSR gets the Bomb (8/49)
-China becomes Communist (49)
-The Korean War (50-53)
US – USSR Relations
Strained pre-WWII
• Communism was regarded negatively by most
elites in US
– US deeply committed to concept of free-market
capitalism – communism would close markets
– Calls for world revolution and rise of Communist
parties during Great Depression viewed with distrust
• Capitalist powers were seen as a threat by the
USSR
– US, GB, and West had supported Whites in civil war.
US – USSR Relations
Strained pre-WWII
• Stalin was an activate partner with Hitler at
start of War
– Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
– Invasion of Finland
• After Barbarossa, USSR became allied
with US and GB in a “shotgun marriage”,
not an alliance of partners with similar
goals or ideology
Divergent Goals
Atlantic Charter
Aug. 1941 Meeting between Churchill and FDR off coast of
Newfoundland
“First, their countries seek no aggrandizement, territorial or other;
Second, they desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes
of the peoples concerned;
Third, they respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will
live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored to those who have been
forcibly deprived of them;
Fourth, they will endeavor, with due respect for their existing obligations, to further the enjoyment by all States,
great or small, victor or vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the
world which are needed for their economic prosperity;
Fifth, they desire to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field with the
object of securing, for all, improved labor standards, economic advancement and social security;”
Divergent Goals
• Stalin’s goals:
– Ensure the security of his nation through
victory in the war – to the victor go the spoils
• Russia had been invaded once by the French,
twice by Germany and once by the Poles since
1800.
• He wished to ensure that a buffer zone or glacis
was created to prevent further fighting on Soviet
territory.
Relations during the War
The Second Front Issue
• USSR wanted a Second-Front
– USSR was initially desperate for a second
front to relieve pressure
– This was not as much of an issue after
Stalingrad
• USSR was suspicious that the delay of
opening a second-front was intentional
– “They want to bleed us white in order to
dictate their terms to us later.” -Stalin
Relations during the War
Nature of Aid
• Us provided Lend-Lease to USSR through
WWII.
– USSR interpreted interruptions in supplies (UBoat attacks and build up for Overlord) as
suspicious
– Aid was terminated immediately at conclusion
of war with Japan when it was needed for
reconstruction
F.D.R
– Collective Security /
Internationalism
– Economic Integration – threat to
world was Economic Collapse and
Depression
– “The Four Policeman”
•
•
•
•
United States
Great Britain
USSR
China
– These powers would act to enforce
peace, a kind of board of directors
of the world
Winston Churchill
– Balance of Power
• Churchill wanted a traditional
balance of power relationship in
Europe. Greta Britain, France
and even Germany needed to
be rebuilt in order to counter
threat of USSR
– Great threat to world peace
was US isolation
Joseph Stalin
– Real Power
• Wanted to use USSR victory to
expand into Central Europe
– IDEOLOGY: World revolution of
workers
– TRADITIONAL RUSSIAN
STATESMAN: Desire to secure
borders against future invasions
– Germany should not be rebuilt
J
???
???
Structuring the Post-War World
• There were three main conferences that
occurred between the Big Three to
establish the nature of the alliance itself
and the shape of the post-war world
– Tehran November 1943
– Yalta February 1945
– Potsdam July 1945
Moscow 1944
Churchill and
Stalin
% agreement
San Francisco
April 1945
Creation of
United Nations
Tehran
• First meeting between Big
Three
• Major, and minor Decisions
– A Second Front in France would
be opened in Europe in May
1944
– Borders of Poland would be
shifted to the West
– United Nations would be
created
– The USSR would attack Japan
after the defeat of Germany
Without American production the United
Nations could never have won the war.
- Joseph Stalin
"The Three Governments realize that the war has caused special economic difficulties for Iran, and they are
agreed that they will continue to make available to the Government of Iran such economic assistance as may be
possible, having regard to the heavy demands made upon them by their world-wide military operations, and to the
world-wide shortage of transport, raw materials, and supplies for civilian consumption."
- Declaration of the Three Powers Regarding Iran—December 1, 1943
FDR was focused on military issues at Tehran, not on
the potential political issues.
Stalin appeared to know exactly what he wanted at the Conference.
This was also true of Churchill, but not so of Roosevelt. This is not
said as a reflection on our President, but his apparent indecision
was probably the direct result of our obscure foreign policy.
President Roosevelt was thinking of winning the war; the others
were thinking of their relative positions when the war was won.
Stalin wanted the Anglo-American forces in Western not Southern
Europe; Churchill thought our postwar position would be improved
and British interests best served if the Anglo-Americans as well as
the Russians participated in the occupation of the Balkans.
- General Deane, a member of the American delegation at
Teheran
”We concentrated so heavily on the actual conduct of the war that we
overlooked the need for
political thinking.”
- John J. McCloy
Yalta
•
Convened in the Crimea
February 1945
Issues to be dealt with
•
–
–
–
–
–
What to do with Germany after it was
defeated
The exact details of how the new
United Nations Organization was
going to work
Getting the USSR to enter the war
against Japan
Reparations to be paid by Germany
to the USSR
The borders of Eastern Europe,
particularly the questions of what
would happen to Poland.
"I just have a hunch, that
Stalin doesn't want anything
but security for his country,
and I think that if I give him
everything I possibly can and
ask nothing from him in return,
noblesse oblige, he wouldn't
try to annex anything and will
work with for a world of
democracy and peace.“
- President Roosevelt to
William C. Bullitt prior to Yalta
“He never wasted a word. He never
stormed, he seldom was even irritated.”
Eden of Stalin
Yalta
Agreements
1. Created the United Nations, a new and improved League of Nations. The
USSR would join it.
2. Declaration of Liberated Europe
- Help the freed peoples of Europe set up democratic and self-governing
countries by helping them to
(a) maintain law and order;
(b) carry out emergency relief measures;
(c) set up governments
(d) hold free elections
3. Germany would be “dismembered” and Britain, the USA and the USSR
would occupy and administer it after the war. France would also be granted
a “zone of occupation”.
4. Reparations
- Destroy “the war potential of Germany” by removing equipment and
capital within two years
- Annual contributions of produced goods for “a period to be fixed”
- “Use of German labor”
5. Set up a Polish Provisional Government of National Unity “pledged to the
holding of free and unfettered elections as soon as possible.”
Agreements
6. Nazi war criminals would be tried
7. The USSR would join the war against Japan “within two or three months” of
the end of the war against Europe in exchange for:
• Sakhalin Island and those islands adjacent to it
• Port Arthur returned to USSR and port of Dairen “internationalized”
• Kurile Islands
• Manchuria
• Control over Chinese-Eastern Railroad in South Manchuria
After the conference, Churchill wrote to Roosevelt that, “The Soviet union has become a
danger to the free world.”
Yalta
• FDR made concessions to Stalin in the
belief that he had to have Stalin’s
assistance to finish the war against
Japan.
– Questions of who would control what
territories and how they would be
administered (free elections?) were left
unresolved in order to maintain positive
relations with Stalin.
Potsdam
• “Bad Tempered Conference”
– Truman had replaced FDR
• Determined to “get tough” with the
Communists / Stalin
– Stalin had arrested non-Communist
leaders of Poland in March.
– Churchill replaced by Atlee
• Truman had a different view of
Stalin and Russian behavior
than did FDR
– Did not trust USSR or Stalin
The Atomic Bomb
• The Trinity test occurred during Potsdam
• Truman told Stalin of “a new weapon of
unusual destructive force.“ – Stalin already
knew and did not react as expected
– There was some hope among the US that the
atomic bomb could be used to leverage
agreements from the USSR
Controlling Germany
• Germany would be
administered by Great
Britain, the United States, the
USSR, and France in four
zones
– "During the period of
occupation Germany shall be
treated as a single economic
unit. "
– "for the time being, no central
German Government shall be
established"
Poland
• The Polish Provisional Government of National
Unity would be recognized and “free and
unfettered elections” would be held.
– "The Three Powers note that the Polish Provisional
Government of National Unity, in accordance with the
decisions of the Crimea Conference, has agreed to
the holding of free and unfettered elections as soon
as possible on the basis of universal suffrage and
secret ballot"
New Borders
• Germany's eastern
border was to be
shifted westwards to
the Oder-Neisse line.
• German people would
be expelled.
The ethnic cleansing that Hitler imagined would at last be achieved at the end of
WWII through mass migration and deportations.
Reparations
• The USSR would take reparations from its zone of
occupation
• It would also receive from the Western zones of
occupation:
– “15 per cent of such usable and complete industrial capital
equipment… as is unnecessary for the German peace
economy… in exchange for an equivalent value of food, coal,
potash, zinc, timber, clay products, petroleum products, and
such other commodities as may be agreed upon. “
– “10 per cent of such industrial capital equipment as is
unnecessary for the German peace economy…without payment
or exchange of any kind in return.”
Punishing the Nazis
• Nazi war-criminals were to be tried
– "War criminals and those who have
participated in planning or carrying out
Nazi enterprises involving or resulting in
atrocities or war crimes shall be arrested
and brought to judgment."
Iran
• Allied troops would withdraw from the
capitol, Tehran, immediately.
• The remaining troop removal would be
discussed at a later conference.
Japan
• Russia reiterated the Yalta agreement to
assist in the war against Japan
"We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim now the
unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces, and to
provide proper and adequate assurances of their good faith
in such action. The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter
destruction."
- The Potsdam Declaration
A major cause of the Cold War was a failure by
FDR or Truman to deal with “contradictions” in
US policy.
- Walter LaFeber
What were these contradictions?
Could they have been resolved or was conflict inevitable?