The Cold War

The Cold War
The roots of the Cold War (page 94, 95)
After WWII the winners started to argue about what to do next. In particular a conflict between the USA and the USSR developed. Walter Lippmann (American journalist) called it a ‘cold war’ (1940).

Three conflicting explanations for the start of the Cold War:
1 The USSR was to blame. Stalin planned for a communist take-over of the world. The take-over of Eastern Europe was the first step towards world control.
2 The USA was to blame. Soviet actions were defensive. The USA wanted to control its area of influence but refused to allow the USSR to do the same.

3 Neither side was to blame. The Cold War was based on misunderstanding and forces beyond the control of both sides.

The Cold War began in 1945 and ended in 1991.
But one historian said that the Cold War started, not in the 1940s, but in 1917, when the Russian Revolution took place and Soviet communism was born. During the first world war (1914-1918) there was a huge grow in both the USA and in Russia. The two countries were both enormous and both had great natural resources. However, there was no chance for real friendship between them because of the leaders of the new Soviet Union had extremely different beliefs from those of American politicians.
Not only did American and Soviet leaders disagree totally. Each side was completely convinced that it was right and that other countries around the world should follower their lead. As a result the USA and the Soviet Union were very hostile towards each other after 1917. After this year the USA, Britain, France and other countries were destroying Soviet communism by force. They also get support of the White Russians who were engaged in a civil war with the Bolshevik revolutionaries. This use of force failed but the hostility remained.

The hostility between the USA and the Soviet Union stopped in 1941 (during WWII) because their common wish was to destroy Hitler. But after Hitler died and the Nazi was gone the old tension began to occur again. This event and the start of the Cold War was exactly what Hitler predicted. He said:
‘After the collapse of the German Reich, and until there is a rise in nationalism in Asia, Africa or Latin America, there will only be two powers in the world: The United States and Soviet Russia. Through the laws of history and geographical position these giants are destined to struggle with each other either through war, or through rivalry in economics and political ideas.’
And he was right, the end of the war produced a difficult situation. Nazi power over Europe had been destroyed but what should replace it? American and Soviet leaders had very different views on the best type of government for the countries of the new Europe…

American Capitalism Soviet Communism
1 People should be free to make as much money as they can 1 Rich people are wicked and selfish. They should be forced to share their wealth.
2 Factories and other property should be owned by individuals and companies. 2 Factories and other property should be owned by the state on behalf of all the people.
3 The government should interfere as little as possible in the lives of ordinary people. 3 A communist government should get involved in every aspect of life.
4 At elections people should be allowed to choose anyone they want for the government. 4 At elections people should only be allowed to choose communists for the government.

5 The Press should be able to criticise the government. 5 The Press should never criticise a communist government.
6 The government should not interfere in religion. 6 Religious belief is nonsense and should be wiped out by the government.
[ leer dit niet uit je hoofd! Het gaat erom dat je begrijpt dat alles tegenovergesteld is! ]
Freedom > everything state controlled
demand & supply > state controlled

1945: the breakdown of the wartime alliance (page 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103)
After Hitler was destroyed there were new worries for the winners, because there were different views about the future, especially for the USA and the Soviet Union.
In February 1945 the leaders of Britain, the USA and the Soviet Union met at a place called Yalta (Stalin didn’t want to leaf the USSR so the two Western leaders had to go to him, to Yalta). The three leaders were Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. The discussions at Yalta were very wide-ranging but the future of Poland dominated, they disagreed about how Poland should be governed.

Yalta
The terms of the Yalta Agreement
• The three persons: Churchill, Roosevelt & Stalin.

• Date: 4-11 February 1945 (during the war)
• The four most important agreements:
1 European government should be democratic.
2 borders of Poland altered. Modern day Poland formed.
3 Germany divided + Berlin divided
4 Setting the United Nations

2> Poland acts like a buffer between Russia and the western world. If the western world attacked, they first had to cross Poland and this gave Russia the time to react.

3> Germany is divided in four zones. These four zones each belonged to a different country who leads that zone. Northest belongs to England, southwest to France, southeast to America and northeast to Russia. In the Russian's zone there is the capital of Germany, Berlin, which had to be devided also into four zones.

But back in the story, why was Poland the centre of attention at Yalta?
That’s because Poland was the largest country in Eastern Europe. Its post-war settlement was likely to set a pattern for the rest of Eastern Europe but the wartime allies had disagreed strongly about that settlement before Yalta.
Two different groups wanted to from the new government for Poland. Each group had a very different relationship with Stalin:


The London Poles
A ‘government-in-exile’. They were strongly anti-Soviet. The London Poles were Catholics and many were landowners. They hated both the idea of communism and Stalin because he had carved up their country through the German-Soviet Pact 1939. Stalin knew that if the London Poles formed a Polish government, it would be hostile to the USSR.
The Lublin Poles
In July 1944 the USSR set up its own future government for Poland. This first met at the town of Lublin, and they became knows as the Lublin Poles. They were mostly communists and Stalin felt that they could be trusted.

So the London Poles (which were more on the side of America and Britain) wanted to destroy communism and Stalin, while the Lublin Poles felt more safe by the Soviets and Stalin ideas.

The London Poles decided that their only chance of frustrating Stalin was to seize control of part of Poland before the Red Army (Bolsheviks) did. To impress, they attacked the German forces occupying Warsaw, the capital of Poland (August 1944). Stalin didn’t want them to defeat the Germans and to take over Warsaw to get more power, he wanted the Lublin Poles to take over after the war. The British and the Americans were not so happy with the attitude of the Soviets because without Soviet help, they couldn’t defeat the Germans. And they were right, nearly 300,000 Poles were killed. Now the Germans were angry and they sent the surviving people of Warsaw to concentration camps and when the Red Army finally took the city it was completely deserted. The Red Army went on to take control of the whole of Poland. By January 1945 the USSR announced that Poland had been liberated and the Lublin group was now in charge of Poland… (this event was The Warsaw Uprising)

Yalta was the high-point of the wartime alliance. To Roosevelt and many Americans it seemed like the beginning of a post-war period of co-operation. In fact the Yalta Agreement was flawed (=misverstand) in a number of important ways:

Yalta: The Problems
1 The Soviets and the Americans interpreted it differently, The Agreement talked about the need for ‘democracy’ and ‘free elections’. For Roosevelt democracy was the American system of free speech. Stalin’s idea of democracy was a communist one, in which the communist party represented the people and no opposition was allowed.
2 Yalta raised false expectations in the USA. People expected that Stalin would now allow western-style governments to be set up in the Eastern Europe. They were bitterly disappointed when this did not happen.
3 The Agreement tried to achieve compromise over the future of Poland. In fact, compromise was not possible. Either Poland was democratic or it was friendly towards the UUSR. Leading figures in Polish society were anti-Russian. Stalin knew that he could only make sure that Poland was friendly by destroying free speech.


Roosevelt was proud of the Yalta Agreement, but he was disappointed to see how Stalin put it into practise. Stalin said he would bring non-communists into the government of Poland, but he did this on a very small scale. Molotov, the Soviet Foreign Minister, would negotiate the details of the new Polish government with the British and American ambassadors to Moscow, but these talks were not successful and Molotov refused to let the London Poles play a part in the government. Harriman, the American ambassador, was reporting to Truman (the vice president in the USA) that the talks had achieved nothing. And at the same time, Polish opponents of communism were dealt with ruthlessly…

Roosevelt, President of America, had polio since he was thirty, but he never attend this on other people. Because he was lame he couldn’t walk, so if you would look at pictures or film fragments you’ll only see him standing still or sitting in a chair (or wheelchair). When he was about sixty his sickness became worse and on an age of 63 (12 April 1945) he died of a stroke. But who had to take over his job as President?
The Vice Minister Harry Truman became the new American President. He took over the job of Roosevelt as prime minister till the next elections.
Truman was a Democrat politician from Missouri. He had made his reputation in domestic politics. He had only been Vice President for a few weeks and he had almost no experience of international politics. He was very different from Roosevelt and his personality played a part in the development of a tougher American policy. Roosevelt was much more diplomatic than Truman. Roosevelt was sure that the USA and the Soviet Union could remain friendly after the war. Just a few hours before he died Roosevelt sent a message to Churchill. The British leader had been trying to get Roosevelt to take a tough line on communist control in Poland. Roosevelt replied: ‘I would minimize the general Soviet problem as much as possible.’ To the last, Roosevelt remained convinced that the USA would stay on good terms with the Soviet Union. Truman was less certain about Soviet intentions.
Truman showed his different style as soon as he came to power. In April 1945 Truman spoke angrily to the Soviet Foreign Minister, Molotov. He insisted that the Soviets must carry out the Yalta Agreement and allow free elections in Poland. He would not listen to Molotov’s explanations…

A new period began, and the wartime alliance was changing. The leaders of the USA, USSR and Britain met at Potsdam (near Berlin) between 17 July and 2 August 1945. The difference between this meeting and previous conferences are, among other aspects, that there were different leaders. The leader of USA was now Truman, but also Churchill was replaced by Clement Attlee. Only Russia still had the same leader: Stalin.

Changing of leaders
• Russia
Russia isn’t a democracy, so it doesn’t needed to change leadership. Stalin is still in power, while in England, for instance, it’s changed between five months.
• Britain
Churchill > Attlee
The reason for his change was because Churchill had strong ideas and this was needed in time of war, but when the war ended this wasn’t needed, so people choose Attlee who was good in peace situations.
• USA

Roosevelt had died of a stroke. The Vice Minister Truman took over his job until the next elections.

Potsdam
Potsdam: areas of agreement and disagreement.
• The three persons: Attlee, Truman & Stalin.
• Date: July 1945 (after the war)
• The three agreements:
1 Germany pay reparations (Stalin refused)
2 Division of Germany/Berlin should not take too long.
3 Nazi Party should be stamped out in all sections of Germany. “Denazification” => Nurnberg trials
4 Germany should use 1 currency.

The agreements gave problems
Some agreements didn’t work. Which and why?
1. Germany & Berlin divided
Communism and capitalism in one country so near each other must bring problems… (2 ideologies)
2. European Government should be democratic.
Russia isn’t democratic, so if not all countries are democratic you can’t unite.

3. Reparations.
Russia wanted Germany to pay reparation but Germany didn’t agree, because then the economy would become instable and people will become poor again (like after WWI). France, Britain and USA saw this happening and wanted to help Germany. This was against the ideas of Stalin (two different systems: don’t work)
4. Germany should use 1 currency
Four countries (Britain, France, Russia>USSR and USA) in one country. How are you getting one currency (= munteenheid)?

The new hostility towards the Soviet Union was encouraged by Winston Churchill in a famous speed on 5 March 1946. The speech was made at Fulton, Missouri. President Truman was in the audience and had seen the speech before it was given. Churchill called for an American-British alliance to meet the communist menace. At first some Americans felt that he was exaggerating. Gradually most Americans came to agree with him.

Question
What was the main reason for Germany and Japan to lose the war?
It’s about the numbers. Germany and Japan were outnumbered comparing with their enemies who had a much larger amount of production of supplies, vehicles, army, etc. Their industry was very low.

When Truman came into power, things changed a lot. Truman wanted to be confident to be safe in their country so he let a nuclear bomb made by scientists. The first nuclear bomb was a test bomb to see what effects the bomb had to the surrounding. The test bomb which contained 18,000,000 kg TNT was called the “Little Boy” and was put in on Hiroshima, in Japan.
More bombs were created and in the meeting on July 1945 (The Potsdam Conference) Truman told Stalin that America had the atomic bomb. Churchill noticed the sense of power that Truman seemed to feel now that he had this powerful weapon. Truman believed that the bomb put the USA in a strong position in any arguments with the Soviet Union.

But when Japan attacked, he used the nuclear bombs on Japan, on the two big cities: Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Hiroshima: 21,000,000 kg TNT casualties: 80,000
Nagasaki: 17,000,000 kg TNT casualties: 40.000
! The casualties you see aren’t the total amount of people who died. These people were killed immediately but a much greater amount died later of radiation !

These bombs weren’t ‘The World’s Largest Nuclear Bomb’, no, this was the Tsar Bomba, made in Russia. This bomb contained 57,000,000,000 kg TNT! This bomb was exploded in Russia on a place without people so it wouldn’t hurt people. But, the bomb was so big that you could feel the shockwave in Western Europe!!

The Aftermath
Questions+answers
1) What did the Soviets want from Germany?
= Soviets asked Germany to pay reparations, just like after WWI.
2) Why did they make those demands?
= 20,000,000 Russian civilians were dead.
3) The soviets felt threatened by the Western countries. Did this happen before?
= Yes, during the time of Nazi-Soviet Pact. {When Stalin asked support of Britain and there was no reaction, Stalin understood that they were enemies and was afraid for an attack, so he made the Nazi-Soviet Pact}
4) Why did they use hunger as the only hope for communism?

= Russians were hiding the food waiting for the people to become very hungry so they could gave all the food as if they were the ‘heroes’ and everyone would thank the Russians for giving the food.