Origins of the Cold War
(1945-48)
• After North Korean strike, South
Korean leader threatens 'retaliation'
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By the CNN Wire Staff
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Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- Hours after North Korea's deadly artillery attacks Tuesday, South Korea's president
said "enormous retaliation" is needed to stop Pyongyang's incitement, but international diplomats urgently
appealed for restraint.
"The provocation this time can be regarded as an invasion of South Korean territory," President Lee Myung-bak
said at the headquarters of the Joint Chiefs of Staff here, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
The incident -- in which two South Korean marines died -- is "the first direct artillery attack on South Korean
territory since the Korean War ended in an armistice" in 1953, Yonhap reported.
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• The United States has about 28,500 troops deployed in
South Korea. A U.S. defense official said more than 50
U.S. Navy vessels are in the area, including a carrier
strike group led by the USS George Washington.
• Any other Cold War Legacies/Issues
Today?
• Cuba
• NATO
• Nuclear missiles – Weapons of Mass
Destruction
• Nuclear missile defense
• Afghanistan
• Africa
• Anti-communism/socialism – US
• Space Program
• US military bases
• Underdevelopment in Eastern Europe
• What are the Origins of the Cold War?
• Before WWII
• During WWII
• After WWII
• Before
– Russian Revolution
– Conflicting Ideologies Marxism vs Capitalism
– Russian Civil War Spanish Civil War
– Rise of Fascism/Germany
– Munich agreements
– Nazi Soviet Pact
• During the War
– Atmosphere of distrust
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Nazi-Soviet collaboration
Poland – Katyn Massacre
Spheres of Influence
Second Front
Tehran
Yalta
Potsdam
Russian casualties
Soviet occupation forces
Soviet puppet governments
US nuclear monopoly – Bombing of Japan
Political Division of Europe
• Political vacuum in central Europe (due to
German collapse)
• Pro-western and Soviet spheres of influence
• Each sphere would adopt the political
institutions, economic systems and foreign
policies of its liberators/conquerors
• Western half of continent adopted parliamentary
style governance, capitalist economic structures,
and Anglo-American foreign policies
• Eastern half of continent adopted Soviet political
and economic models and supported the
Kremlin in foreign policies (under the eyes of the
Soviet occupation armies)
What led to Division?
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Suppression in the Eastern Bloc
The determination of the Soviet Union to
establish a protective ring of subservient client
states in Eastern Europe (from the Black Sea to
the Baltic)
Although non-communist political parties were
allowed in Eastern Europe for a time, by 194748 this was no longer allowed
All democratic and non-socialist parties were
purged on orders by Stalin
In 1948, Czechoslovakia’s coalition government
was dissolved and became the last state to
become fully communist in Eastern Europe
Why suppression?
• The Soviet Union will seek this protective
ring, in order to avoid another eastern
invasion of its territory (like in 1914 and
1941)
• What was the U.S. response?
Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” Speech
• March 5, 1946
• Fulton, Missouri
• 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
• Sent a warning to Americans who many in
the government were looking to keep out
of international affairs
• Wartime Propaganda
U.S. Response - Containment
• George Kennan – “Long Telegram”
• Director of the Policy Planning Staff of the State
Department – Deputy Chief US Mission in
Moscow 1944-7
• USSR still lives in antagonistic "capitalist
encirclement" with which in the long run there
can be no permanent peaceful coexistence.
• It was in the national interest of the US to
contain any such expansion by strengthening
the political, social, and economic institutions of
countries subject to such expansionist pressures
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Truman Doctrine
- With the void of German power, the USA
feared a Soviet expansionist policy that
stretched from the Sea of Japan to Western
Europe
- The Anglo-American alliance feared that the
Soviet Union would be in better position for
world domination than even Germany itself
- Policy of containment was created to contain
Soviet expansion to Eastern Europe
- Stalin’s effort to establish a security zone in
Eastern Europe was seen as a drive for
continental hegemony and world domination
• "the policy of the United States to support
free peoples who are resisting attempted
subjugation by armed minorities or by
outside pressures." Truman reasoned,
because these "totalitarian regimes"
coerced "free peoples," they represented a
threat to international peace and the
national security of the United States.
Military Situation in Europe
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1945 – USA had 1.2 million
1947 – USA had 1.4 million
1945 – USSR had 20+ million
1947 – USSR had 4 million
• Why would this make the American’s
European Allies uneasy?
Why such a difference?
• US forces were brought home from
Europe and demobilized , since it would
have been impossible to explain that such
large forces would be needed to oppose
the forces of a wartime ally
• As well, the US monopoly on nuclear
weapons would counter balance such
large conventional (non-nuclear) forces
The Marshall Plan
• US Secretary of State George C. Marshall
• Proposed a plan to of economic aid to
Europe to solve its postwar financial
collapse
• Authorized by the US Congress as the
European Recovery Act
• Between 1948-52, $13.2 billion was given
to western European nations
Effects of Marshall Plan
• By 1952, European industrial production
had risen 35% above pre 1939 levels
• By 1952, European agricultural production
had risen 10% above pre 1939 levels
• The US dollar became the world’s
principal currency
• While USA quadrupled its exports to
Europe, it still only amounted to 10% of its
overall GNP (90% of its wealth was
created in the domestic market)
Soviet Reaction to Marshall Plan
• Marshall invited all the nations in Europe, including the
Soviet Union to participate in this program
• The Soviet delegation walked out of the discussion and
forbade its satellite states from participating
• This was because of two American demands for
economic aid:
• 1) Access to internal budgets of states that accept the
loans and aid
• 2) Washington maintained that much of the aid money
be spent on American exports
• Thus, these terms were unacceptable to the USSR,
since they renounced capitalism and did not want the
USA to have any access to their economic statements
(security threat)
Division of Germany
• By 1947, the divisions in Europe now
spread to Germany
• In all three zones of western occupation
(USA, UK and France), Marshall Plan aid
was used to revive the German economy
• A common West German currency was
established
• The Soviets viewed this with suspicion,
and talks of a “reunification” were put on
hold “indefinitely”
Decolonization
• While the European powers expected to
retain their colonies in 1945, several
colonial people’s now had other ideas
• Due to Japan’s rapid defeat of the UK,
France and the Dutch in WWII, the idea of
European invincibility was now broken
• These actions for independence ranged
from civil disobedience (British India) to
outright war (French Indochina, Dutch
Indonesia)
Civil Disobedience
Revolutionary Struggle