Origins of Cold War

Give me an example of rivalry in 1919 by President Wilson

• His post-WW1 Peace settlement excluded USSR

How did the US react to the Russian Revolution?

• Send troops to fight it

• Intervention left Stalin & Lenin convinced that West would seize any chance & embrace any ally to destroy communism

What was signed by USSR in 1939 that enraged the West?

• Nazi-Soviet Pact signed by Foreign Minister Molotov (Intention to defend itself against Germany)

• Allowed Stalin to take Lithuania, Latvia & Estonia

What invasion supported by USSR enraged the West? What was the reaction of West?

• Poland in Sept 1939 by Germany

What did FDR say in the aftermath of the Nazi-Soviet Pact & invasion of Poland in 1940?

‘USSR is run by a dictatorship as absolute as any other dictatorship in the world, it has allied itself with another dictatorship’

What was the Potsdam Conference like?

• US attitude towards USSR began to change eg. Truman declared sharply that declaration on Europe adopted at Yalta wasn’t carried out in some countries & that govts were being set up that US wouldn’t recognize

• ‘Bad-tempered’ conference (Hugh Lunghi who accompanied Churchill in Potsdam)

What made the Potsdam Conference difficult?

1. Difficulty over reaching a German Peace Treaty/how to carry out agreements of Yalta

2. Day before conference - ATOMIC BOMB BY US was successfully tested → Stalin had before confirmed that his troops were ready for war with Japan and Truman already consulted with British & own military advisors that he would tell Stalin that he had new powerful weapon without identifying it as a nuclear weapon

Did Stalin know about the nuclear bomb?

Yes through espinoage of own agents over US Manhattan Project

What were the relative situations in the USA and USSR following WWII?

• US - 300k men never found again, US overall happier & wealthy than ever as war production of munitions of armaments put enormous sums of money into economy, putting millions of people to work thereby emerging after war was full employment

• USSR - 27M Soviets unfound, almost 70k villages destroyed & cities lay in rubble, Stalin’s pre-war achievements of the factories & apartment blocks of 5 Year Plans wrecked by invaders

How was Germany administered?

• Divided into 4 occupation zones & each ally took a sector of Berlin

What reparations did the USSR take?

• German population forced to help Russians seize industrial resources

What obsessed Stalin at this time and why?

Poland - Germany’s invader route to USSR

What was the significance of the Greek Civil War?

• British concern that conflict might threaten GB’s oil route to Middle East through Mediterranean , leading them to intervene

• Strongest resistance movement was the Communists who reached for power

What was Stalin’s statement to Churchill regarding Greek Civil War?

• Communists reached for power but didn’t know Stalin told Churchill that he had no interest in a communist Greece

What had the Yalta conference given to the USSR?

Gave USSR control of Central Europe

How was USSR’s control of Central Europe consolidated?

• Idea was for communist parties to cooperate then gradually to build up party making it the most organised, most militant & most active party & gradually increase influence of other parties & gradually take over situation but not a once & continue looking ‘democratic’

• Examples of a prominent member of The Peasant Party of Bulgaria would be kidnapped/disappear

What did Stalin fear?

• Encirclement of Capitalist powers

What agreement was struck between Poland and USSR?

• Close alliance

• Stalin promised to defend new Polish frontiers against any German attempt to win back the lost territories

What did Stalin’s Bolshoi speech warn of?

• Capitalism & imperialism made future wars inevitable

How was the Bolshoi Speech interpreted in the USA and USSR respectively?

• US - ‘Delayed Declaration of war against US’ (Paul Nitze of US State Dept), a prediction of WW3

• USSR - Stalin was saying what he always said & thought (Vladimir Yerofeyev Foreign Ministry)

What did Kenan’s ‘long telegram’ reveal to the USA about the USSR?

• USSR desired to expand across world & this must be contained

What was the reaction to the ‘Long Telegram’?

• Alarmed Washington

How did Churchill reinforce the Kennan telegram?

• Iron Curtain Speech → “from Stetin in the Baltic, to Triest in the Atlantic, an iron curtain had descended across the continent”, “not the liberated Europe we built up”

What was Stalin's reaction to the ‘Iron Curtain Speech’?

• Saw it as a “belligerent call to arms against Soviet Russia”

How did the USSR & US/GB clash over Turkey?

• Stalin placed pressyre on Turkey to grant USSR military presence in the Dardanelles & Bosporus

• US & UK feared a threat to Suez Canal and was determined to keep Turkey free from Soviet interferencd

What was the agreement for post war Iran?

• GB & Soviet troops would both pull out

What happened in reality for Post war Iran?

• When occupation was due, Stalin didn’t want to leave

• Left 6 months later instead due to pressure

What was Truman’s view of USSR's delay to leave Iran?

• Stalin was aiming for world domination

What did the Clifford Elsey 1946 Report

• A war with USSR would be more total than ever previously known

What development in military technology was rapidly advancing at this point?

Nuclear weapons

What was Byrne’s Stuttgart speech?

• Set forth policy of US on Germany

• Marked end of US appeasement of USSR

• “Not in intrest of Germany or world peace that Germany should become a pawn or partner in a military struggle for power between the East & the West”

• "The American people want to return the govt of Germany, the American people want to help the German people to win their way back to an honourable peace among the free & peaceloving nations”

What strengthened Poland’s ties with the USSR?

Poland’ annexation of East Germany

What problems were present in Germany and Britain during the winter of 1946/47?

• Germany: Hunger & disease spreading

• Britain: Industry bought to standstill & economy undermined by war began to seize up, coal ran out/electricity failed & food rationing grew tighter all leading to mass starvation

What were the consequences of Germany & GB situations?

• GB told US they could no longer afford heavy commitments in Mediterranean & intended to pull out from heavy aid into Greece and Turkey

What, according to the documentary, was the official declaration of the Cold War?

• Truman went to Congress and announced that from now on, US would contain the advancement of communism from now on

What was the earliest tension between US & USSR?

• Bolshevik Revolution 1917 led to the First Red Scare (1919-20)

Why has communism always been seen as ‘un-American’?

• If US represents individual freedoms & free markets, then an idea of a one-party communist state represents US fears

For how long did US not recognize USSR for?

1923-33 until FDR took the action

What was founded in 1919 that fuelled tensions further

Comintern which advocated for spread of communism across globe

What war made US sympathise against USSR for opposition side?

• Winter war of when USSR invaded Finaland

What did 1939 US Opinion polls on communism suggest?

70% thought that Congress should prioritise investigating communist ideas that was trying to subvert American ideas over Nazi ideas → Even after War, USSR was seen as a bigger thrreat

When and was the German invasion into USSR called?

• June 1941

• ‘Operation Bsrborossa’

How did Truman (Senator) react to Operation Barborossa?

“If we see that Germany is winning, we ought to help Russia, and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible” → Reflects American attitudes that USSR was no better/different to Germany & reveals how Truman would view USSR when he would become President

How did FDR react to Operation Barborassa?

• My enemy's enemy is my friend

• Decided to supply aid through Lend Lease Programme → Begins relationship between USSR-US

How was the Grand Alliance formalised?

• Stalin signed the Declaration of United Nations

What did FDR state to Churchill in early 1942 about Stalin?

He could “handle Stalin, better than the British foreign office

What conference was taken in Oct-Nov 1943 between the major allies and what happened?

• Moscow conference

• US Sec of State Cirdell tried to get Stalib to agree to a post war system that would allow open access to all areas for everyone & there wouldn’t be spheres of influences

Why did Stalin want his own sphere of influence?

• Because of aggressive expansionism inherently in communism or for a defensive buffer which had been invaded twice by Germans in 3 decades

Why was thre disagreement at the Tehran Conference 1943?

• Stalin wanted a close sphere of influence in Eastern Europe whilst Roosevelt still hoped for an open international system leading to difficulties over Poland

What economic structures for Post war world was decided during a conference at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire in July 1944? What was the intentions?

• International Bank for Reconstruction & Development → To finance reconstruction efforts of war torn European nations following WW2

• International Monetary Fund → To secure monetary cooperation, stabilise currencies & expand International liquidity

I- To create an open, liberal, American style that would stabilise national economies & avoid trade wars and excessive trade barriers of 1930s

What political structures were decided at Dumbarton Oaks Conference Aug-Oct 1944?

• UN was developed where all nations was to be represented in a general assembly → 5 great powers eg. US, USSR, UK, France & China was to dominate UN Security Council and had power to veto power allowing Stalin to join

How did Stalin react to the IMF/world bank?

• Unwilling signalling his desire to do things own way & run own closed sphere of influence in USSR

What happened at the Fourth Moscow Conference in Oct 1944 between Churchill & Stalin?

• Agreed to split influence over in the Balkans with GB dominating Greece & USSR dominating in Romania, Bulgaria & Hu gary

How did Stalin make it clear that he wanted Poland to be a sympathetic puppet state?

• In late 1944, he rejected Polish govt in exile in London & supported a communist regime as provisional govt

What was decided about Poland in the Yalta Conference?

• Declaration of Liberated Europe rrpeated Atlantic Charter 1940 principles & fostered cooperation between signatories

• USSR watered it down by stating that consultations were necessary before actually needed to be taken

What was decided about Japan during Yalta Conference?

• USSR to join war against Japan 4 months after end of war in Europe in exchange for Sakhalin & Kuril Islamds & influence in Mongolia & China

What was the reason behind FDR “selling” Eastern Europe & Asia to Stalin?

• Little he could have done as Red Army was across Eastern Europe and other possible response was another war