Cold War Diplomacy
Clash of the Superpowers
1945-1991
Causes of the Cold War
• Ideological: Despite the WW II alliance,
U.S. and Soviet ideologies presumed the
eventual collapse of the other system
• American Illusions: FDR assumed that postwar U.S.-Soviet cooperation & international
organizations (the United Nations) would
preserve peace and security
• Soviet Motives: Stalin sought greater
security through control of Eastern Europe,
but also sought to justify repression at
home by maintaining an external threat
(capitalism instead of fascism)
• Breakdown of the Yalta Agreement: Stalin
failed to keep his pledge to FDR and
Churchill in February 1945 to respect
Eastern European sovereignty (e.g.,
Poland) and to work with the allies to
restore Germany as a sovereign nation;
FDR has been accused of going “soft” on
communism by conservative critics
The Birth of Containment
• Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech (“Sinews of
Peace”, March 1946) awoke Americans to the new
reality of the “iron curtain” and to America’s new role as
unchallenged leader of the “free world”
• Continued Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, support
for communist rebels in Greece, and Soviet diplomaticmilitary pressure on Turkey and Iran convinced Western
leaders that Stalin could not be trusted
• George Kennan’s “X” article (“The Sources of Soviet
Conduct”, 1947) convinced many of the need for a longterm strategy of containment to deal with Soviet
expansion; Kennan predicted that the Soviet system
could not maintain itself in the face of consistent,
extended pressure and would collapse quickly when the
pressure became too great (1989-91 proved him right)
Views of the “Iron Curtain”
Pillars of Containment
• The Truman Administration (1945-53)
established the basic framework of U.S.
Cold War policy in the face of intense
domestic criticism (both from Republican
isolationists and McCarthyites)
• Political: the Truman Doctrine (1947)
pledged U.S. assistance to nations
fighting against communist movements
(e.g., Greece & Turkey)
• Economic: Marshall Plan (1947) offered
over $13 billion in aid to Western
European nations to rebuild the region
and prevent Communist Party victories
• Military: NATO (1949) created as a
response to the Berlin Crisis; NSC-68
(1950) proposed increased defense
spending, increase of the nuclear arsenal,
and development of the H-bomb (1952)
National Security Act of 1947
• Based on calls for reform after WW II and the
needs of an expanded federal bureaucracy,
Congress authorized the creation of a new
national security structure:
• Department of Defense united the old War and
Navy departments and added the Department of
the Air Force; Joint Chiefs of Staff united the four
major services (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines)
at the senior-most level of the military
• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) succeeded the
Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as the nation’s
intelligence gathering and special operations arm
• National Security Council (NSC) created to
advise the President on national security matters
(4 members – POTUS, VP, SecState, and
SecDef); advised by the Director of Central
Intelligence (now the DNI), JCS Chairman, and
the National Security Advisor (since 1961)
The Cold War in East Asia
• Chinese Communist Revolution (1949)
brought Mao to power and changed the
Cold War dynamic; Truman accused of
“losing” China by political opponents
• North Korea’s invasion of South Korea
(1950) prompted UN intervention and
eventually led to Communist Chinese
involvement in the Korean War
• U.S. faced with a “limited war” for the
first time; General MacArthur argued for
expansion of the conflict and use of
Taiwan and atomic weapons; Truman
wisely fired him but at great political cost
• Cease fire agreed to in 1953 after Stalin
died and Eisenhower threatened to nuke
Eisenhower & Brinkmanship
• The Eisenhower Administration (1953-61) sought
to reduce defense spending while maintaining
containment policy “on the cheap”
• Relied heavily on nuclear deterrence – embraced
concept of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) and
willingness to “go to the brink” in any confrontation
with the Soviets; almost happened in the 1956
Suez Crisis (U.S. & USSR policy instead
converged against Britain, France, and Israel)
• Used CIA covert operations to overthrow anti-U.S.
regimes (ex: Iran – 1953, Guatemala – 1954) and
spy on the USSR (U-2 spy planes)
• Sputnik (1957) provoked concerns that the U.S.
was losing the “space race” – led to National
Defense Education Act (NDEA) and creation of
NASA (both in 1958)
• Eisenhower Doctrine (1958) broadened U.S.
support specifically to the Middle East; matched
with U.S. intervention in Lebanon
Containment Failures: Cuba & Vietnam
• John F. Kennedy elected president in 1960; promised a more “hawkish”
approach to defense spending and dealing with the USSR
• Bay of Pigs operation (1961) failed to overthrow Castro and set the stage for
the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), in which the U.S. secured removal of Soviet
missiles from Cuba in exchange for a pledge to never again intervene in
Cuba against Castro; U.S. also removed missiles from Turkey
• U.S involvement in Vietnam and Laos escalated through the 1960s; JFK
ordered overthrow of President Diem in 1963; Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
gave President Johnson authority to send in U.S. combat troops to support
the South Vietnamese against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese
• By 1968, the U.S. had committed more than 500,000 troops to Southeast
Asia with no clear results; Tet Offensive proved that the U.S. was neither
winning nor losing in the Vietnam War (1965-73)
Nixon, Kissinger, & Détente
The Nixon Administration (1969-74) took a
new approach to containment, sought
“peace with honor”:
1. Nixon Doctrine – increased reliance on
regional allies, such as South Vietnam
and Iran, designed to avoid committing
U.S. troops overseas
2. Détente – opening to China in 1972 led
to “triangular diplomacy” with the two
major communist powers
3. Escalation of the Vietnam War,
including the invasion of Cambodia
(1970) and increased bombing
campaigns designed to force the North
Vietnamese to negotiate a ceasefire;
achieved by January 1973
Triangular Diplomacy
United States
U.S.-Soviet relations thawed
after China move;
led to major arms control
agreements, including SALT I
and the ABM Treaty (1972)
Détente
Soviet Union
U.S.-China opening in 1972
led to normalization of
relations with Beijing; played
the “China card”;
U.S. sacrificed formal
relations with Taiwan
China
Soviet-Chinese relations
temporarily thawed after
ideological differences and
two brief border conflicts
Détente’s Shortcomings
• Withdrawal from Southeast Asia paved the
way for the collapse of South Vietnam and
Cambodia (1975) – Cambodians suffered
terribly under Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge
• The Soviets took advantage of détente to
broaden their influence in Afghanistan,
Africa (Ethiopia, Angola, & Mozambique)
and Central America (Nicaragua)
• While the U.S. and other Western powers
pressed for human rights (examples: 1975
Helsinki Accords and President Carter’s
policies, 1977-81), not much real progress
was made in the Eastern bloc
• The Iranian Revolution and the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan (1979) forced
Carter to adopt a more “hawkish” policy
and effectively scrapped SALT II
Reagan & the “Evil Empire”
• Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980
signaled a shift in American attitudes
towards the USSR – greater distrust and
a desire to rebuild the American military
• Military build-up aimed at achieving
conventional and nuclear parity and
forcing the Soviets into a costly arms
race; Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
led to astronomical cost projections
• Reagan Doctrine (1983) – expanded on
the Truman version by offering support to
rebel movements trying to overthrow
Marxist governments (ex: Contras in
Nicaragua, Mujahideen in Afghanistan)
• Invasion of Grenada (1983) was the first
successful use of American forces in
combat overseas since 1973
The Reagan View of the Cold War:
Good Guys vs. Bad Guys
The End of the Cold War
• Mikhail Gorbachev became Soviet
Secretary-General in 1985 after a
succession of old-line leaders died
• Gorbachev introduced glasnost (political
openness) and perestroika (economic
restructuring) to reform Soviet society
• Gorbachev-Reagan summits produced a
thaw in U.S.-Soviet relations and a series
of significant arms control agreements,
including the INF Treaty (1987) and the
START process
• Increasing pressures on the Eastern bloc
led to Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan
(1988), collapse of East European
communist governments (1989), and
collapse of the USSR itself (1991)