Essays and Notes for the Cold War

Describe the events between 1945 and 1948 which plunged Britain and the
USA into a Cold War with the USSR.

Summary
Nine events 1945–1948 plunged America and Britain into a ‘Cold War’ with
Russia.
Tension was growing even at the Yalta Conference (Feb 1945) and at the
Potsdam Conference (July 1945), the arguments came out into the open.
During 1946–47, Stalin made sure that Communist governments came to
power in all the countries of eastern Europe by ‘salami tactics’. At Fulton, on 5
March 1946, Winston Churchill said that they were cut off by ‘an iron curtain’.
Russia said Churchill had declared war on them.
Then America stepped in. In February 1947, President Truman started to
pay for the soldiers fighting to stop Greece turning Communist. Then, in March
1947, he said it was America’s DUTY to ‘contain’ Communism (the ‘Truman
Doctrine’). The American general George Marshall said America should give
$17 billion of aid to stop Europe turning Communist. Congress voted for
Marshall Aid in March 1948, when the Communists took power in
Czechoslovakia,
Stalin retaliated by setting up Cominform in October 1947.

Nine events 1945 and 1948 plunged America and Britain into a ‘Cold War’ with
Russia.

Tension was growing even at the Yalta Conference (Feb 1945). On the surface, the
conference seemed successful. But afterwards, Churchill wrote to Roosevelt that
‘The Soviet Union has become a danger to the free world.’
At the Potsdam Conference (July 1945), the arguments came out into the
open. In March 1945, Stalin had arrested the non-Communist Polish leaders.
Also America’s new president, Truman, was determined to ‘get tough’ with the
Russians. So, the Allies openly disagreed about how to divide Germany, the size
of reparations and Soviet policy in eastern Europe.

During 1946–47, Stalin made sure that Communist governments came to power in
all the countries of eastern Europe. By ‘salami tactics’, Russia gained control of
Albania, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Romania and East Germany.
Seeing this, on 5 March 1946, Winston Churchill gave his Fulton speech, at
which he said that the countries of eastern Europe – cut off by ‘an iron curtain’ –
were ‘subject to Soviet influence . . . totalitarian control [and] police governments’.
Russia’s reply was that Churchill had declared war on them; it was certainly open
acknowledgement of a rift.
Further events, however, brought America into the conflict.
The Greek government was fighting the Communists, supported by British
soldiers. When, in February 1947, the British said they could no longer afford to
keep soldiers in Greece, President Truman stepped in. He paid for the British
soldiers in Greece.
Then, in March 1947, Truman took this further. He said it was America’s
DUTY to ‘contain’ Communism (the ‘Truman Doctrine’). Truman had officially
declared ‘cold war’ on Russia.
Next, the Americans announced how they intended to wage ‘cold war’. In
June 1947, the American general George Marshall went to Europe. He said every
country in Europe was so poor that it was in danger of turning Communist! He
said that America should give $17 billion of aid to get Europe’s economy going.

Stalin retaliated. He forbade Communist countries to ask for money. Instead, in

October 1947, he set up Cominform. Every Communist party in Europe joined. It
allowed Stalin control of the Communists in Europe.

At first, the American Congress did not want to give the money for Marshall Aid.
But then, in March 1948, the Communists took power in Czechoslovakia.
Congress was scared, and voted for Marshall Aid on 31 March 1948. Russia and
America were at ‘cold war’.

Why had the Superpowers become suspicious of each other by March 1946,
when Churchill made his important speech at Fulton?

Summary
They had different beliefs. Russia was a Communist country, ruled by a dictator,
who cared little about human rights. America was a capitalist democracy which
valued freedom.
They had different aims. Stalin wanted huge reparations from Germany,
and a ‘buffer’ of friendly states around Russia. He took east Germany’s
industrial machinery. America wanted to help Germany recover.
Resentment about history caused suspicion. In 1918 America had tried to
destroy the Russian Revolution. Stalin also thought that they had not given him
enough help in the Second World War. At the same time, America remembered
that Stalin had signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939.
Finally, events made them hate each other. At the Yalta Conference (Feb
1945), tension was growing. At Potsdam (Jul 1945) Russia and America openly
disagreed about how to divide Germany, the size of reparations, and Poland.
Russia’s salami tactics in eastern Europe (1945–48) caused great suspicion – it
seemed as if Stalin was building a Russian empire. At Fulton, Churchill said
that eastern Europe was cut off from the free world by ‘an iron curtain’.
The USA and the USSR became suspicious of each other because they had different
beliefs. The Soviet Union was a Communist country, ruled by a dictator, who
cared little about human rights. The USA was a capitalist democracy which valued
freedom. The superpowers’ different lifestyles caused suspicion of each others’
motives and actions. This caused friction because the two sides did not understand
each other. They believed that their way of life was better, and tended to despise
the way of life of the other side. They wanted to prove that their way of life was
superior – this again caused them to do things which caused confrontation. In
these ways, different beliefs helped to create the Cold War.

Both the USA and the USSR had very different aims. Stalin wanted huge
reparations from Germany, and a ‘buffer’ of friendly states to protect the USSR
from being invaded again. He systematically stripped the Soviet zone in eastern
Germany of wealth and agricultural and industrial machinery. Britain and the USA
opposed this because they believed that it was simply Stalin tightening his grip on
eastern Germany. Britain and the USA wanted to protect democracy, and help
Germany to recover. They were worried that large areas of eastern Europe were
falling under Soviet control. The western powers action caused hostility in Russia
because Stalin feared that they were setting up a strong Germany which might
again threaten the USSR.

Resentment about history made the USA and the USSR suspicious of each other.
The Soviet Union could not forget that in 1918 Britain and the USA had tried to
destroy the Russian Revolution. Stalin also thought that they had not given him
enough help in the Second World War. At the same time, Britain and the USA
could not forget that Stalin had signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Germany in 1939.
These long-standing hatreds from history made both sides suspect each others’
motives and actions. There may have even been an element of revenge for the
past. In these ways, the past helped to create the Cold War.

Finally, because neither side trusted each other, events made them hate each other
more.
The Yalta Conference (Feb 1945) caused problems because, although on the
surface, the conference seemed successful, behind the scenes, tension was growing.
After the conference, Churchill wrote to Roosevelt that ‘The Soviet union has
become a danger to the free world.’ At the Potsdam Conference (Jul 1945) the
arguments came out into the open – Russia and America openly disagreed about the
details of how to divide Germany, the size of reparations Germany ought to pay,
and Soviet policy in Poland.
Also, Russia’s salami tactics (taking over the countries of eastern Europe,
slice by slice 1945–48) caused suspicion because – although Russia claimed it was
simply building a buffer zone between Germany and Russia – the western powers
believed that the Soviets were building an empire in eastern Europe. At Fulton,
Churchill said that eastern Europe was cut off from the free world by ‘an iron
curtain’. Behind that line, he said, the people of eastern Europe were ‘subject to
Soviet influence . . . totalitarian control [and] police governments’.

So, although the Russians claimed that Churchill’s Fulton speech caused the Cold
War, the beliefs, aims, history of the two sides, and events leading up to 1946, had
created the conditions which created hostility.

What was the Truman Doctrine?

Summary
The Truman Doctrine grew out of George Kennan’s 1946 ‘long telegram’ which argued
that the US should follow a policy of ‘containment’ to stop Russian expansion. Then, in
February 1947, the British announced that they were withdrawing their soldiers from
Greece. On 12 March 1947, Truman warned Congress that, without help, Greece would
fall to Communism – and that Turkey and other countries would follow. He said that the
Cold War was a choice between freedom and oppression and that Americans were
OBLIGED to ‘to support free peoples’ and to abandon their decision not to get involved
in European affairs.

However, Truman’s speech did not mention ‘containment’, and most of the $338 million
he sent to Greece went on dive bombers and napalm bombs. In fact, many people in the
Truman administration wanted actively to oppose Russia, and Truman said that: ‘We hope
that in years ahead more and more nations will come to know the advantages of freedom
and liberty.’ It arguable that the Truman Doctrine was not just a policy of ‘containment’
but was ‘an American challenge to Soviet ambitions’.

The Truman Doctrine was beginning to be formulated in 1946, when George Kennan, US
ambassador in Moscow, wrote a ‘long telegram’ claiming that Soviet power was growing,
and that the US should follow a policy of ‘containment’ to stop Russian ‘salami tactics’.
In September 1946, Clark Clifford, Truman’s most trusted adviser, recommended that
America ‘support and assist all democratic countries which are in any way menaced by
the USSR’.

Then, in February 1947, the British government announced that it could no longer afford
to keep its soldiers fighting Communist rebels in Greece. So, on 12 March 1947,
President Truman warned Congress that, without help, Greece would fall to
Communism. Nearby Turkey, he added, was in a similar situation. He introduced an
idea that if America let one country fall to Communism, all the countries round about
would follow (this was later called the ‘domino theory’). Truman said that the Cold War
was a choice between freedom and oppression. Therefore, Americans would have to
abandon their decision not to get involved in European affairs; America was OBLIGED
to get involved: ‘I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free
peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside
pressures.’
Thus Truman’s Speech overturned the Monroe Doctrine and led directly to the Marshall
Plan. It set a precedent for the principle of ‘collective security’ – building up a network
of allies and friendly states to which the US gave military aid free of charge – and
NATO. In America, it whipped up the ‘Red Scare’ of the 1950s. In Russia, it convinced
the Soviets that America was indeed attacking Soviet Communism.

Many historians say also that the Truman Doctrine included the policy of ‘containment’ –
his speech is sometimes called ‘Truman’s containment speech’ The idea here is, as
Clark Clifford said in 1972: ‘we were concerned about preventing Soviet control of larger
areas of the world than they already controlled’.

However, Truman’s speech in 1947 did not mention the word – or the idea –
‘containment’, and most of the $338 million he sent to Greece in the next year went on
dive bombers and napalm bombs. In fact, there were many in the Truman administration
(e.g. Paul Nitze and John Foster Dulles) who wanted actively to oppose the Soviets and,
in 1947, Truman formed the CIA, told the Russian ambassador he was not welcome in
Washington, and said that America was prepared to fight for peace. On 15 May 1947,
Truman said that: ‘We hope that in years ahead more and more nations will come to know
the advantages of freedom and liberty.’

Thus is it arguable that the Truman Doctrine was not just a policy of ‘containment’ but, as
a modern American University suggests: ‘an American challenge to Soviet ambitions
throughout the world’.

What was the Marshall Plan?

The European Recovery Programme (nicknamed the ‘Marshall Plan’) was set up
because the economic infrastructure of Europe had been destroyed by the Second
World War and because this – and the coldest winter on record – had by 1947
reduced the people of Europe to starvation. Also, in response to Soviet ‘salami
tactics’, Congress had in March 1947 decided to ‘support free peoples who are
resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.’

Returning from a fact-finding mission, a shocked General George Marshall told Truman
that all of Europe would turn Communist unless the European economy could be jump-
started. So Truman agreed. An alternative plan to finance regeneration from massive
German reparations – by Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau – was rejected.

Marshall announced his Plan, not in Congress, but to students at Harvard University on
5th June 1947. He explained his idea in simple terms: the European economy had been
destroyed because the Nazis had reorganised it to support their war effort. Now,
townspeople could not produce enough to afford to buy food from the farmers; and
farmers were unable to get from the towns the equipment they needed to produce the
food.

the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal
economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no
assured peace. Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against
hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working
economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in
which free institutions can exist.

He challenged the countries of Europe to get together and produce a plan for
regeneration, which the US would fund. Only countries which refused to co-operate
with others would be refused funding.

The British foreign secretary Ernest Bevin called the Plan ‘a lifeline to sinking men,
bringing hope where there was none’ and by 12 July he had organised a meeting of
European nations in Paris, which asked for $22 billion of aid. Stalin was invited but –
seeing the Plan as a US plot to undermine the Soviet Union – he forbade Cominform
countries to take part. Truman asked Congress for $17 bn, and Congress (after the scare
of the collapse of Czechoslovakia in March 1948) authorised $13 bn.

The first ship set sail from Texas to France with 19,000 tons of wheat. Marshall Aid
took the form of fuel, raw materials, goods, loans and food, US machinery to help
factories to get back to normal, advisers to help rebuild transport systems. There were
nets for Norwegian fishermen, wool for Austrian weavers, and tractors for French
farmers. Britain was the main recipient, getting $3 bn aid. France, Italy, West Germany
and the Netherlands all received huge amounts.

Marshall Aid had a huge effect on Europe; the years 1948-1952 were a time of massive
economic growth. It also stopped the spread of Communism – one of the hungry
teenage boys in Germany who was given soup by American trucks driving onto his
schoolyard was Helmut Kohl: who grew up to be the first Chancellor of a free and unified
Germany.

Describe the events of the Cuba crisis, 1962

The Cuba crisis was when humankind almost destroyed itself. A film, Thirteen
Days, has been made about the crisis.

The crisis had its roots in 1959, when the Communist Fidel Castro came to power
in Cuba. It certainly went back to April 1961 when the CIA supported an attempt
by anti-Castro Cuban exiles to invade Cuba. The Bay of Pigs invasion failed
miserably, but its result was that, in September 1961, Castro asked for – and Russia
publicly promised – weapons to defend Cuba against America.
 On 14 October 1962, an American U2 spy-plane took pictures of a nuclear
missile base being built on Cuba. On 16 October, Kennedy set up a Committee of
the National Security Council to advise him. Kennedy’s advisers told him he had
10 days before Cuba could fire the missiles at targets in America. If established,
they would be able to hit new York and Chicago.

What was the US government to do? Tapes exist of their discussions – it

considered doing nothing, appealing to the UN, a conventional attack, and even a
nuclear strike. In the end, on 22 October, Kennedy announced that he was
mounting a naval blockade of Cuba.
The Soviets reacted violently. In a letter dated 23 October, Khrushchev
accused America of piracy, and of trying to provoke a war which would annihilate
humankind. He warned that Russia would get ready ‘a fitting reply to the
aggressor’. 20 Russian ships were heading for Cuba. The world held its breath.
On 24 October, the first Russian ship reached the naval blockade. It was an
oil ship and was allowed through. The other Russian ships (thought to be carrying
missiles) turned back.

However, the crisis was not over. Russia was still building the missile bases. On
26 October, Khrushchev sent a telegram to Kennedy, offering to dismantle the sites
if Kennedy would lift the blockade and agree not to invade Cuba. Then, on 27
October, before Kennedy could reply, Khrushchev sent another letter, demanding
that Kennedy also dismantle American missile bases in Turkey. On the same day, a
U2 plane was shot down over Cuba.
27 October, therefore, was the crisis point; it looked as if war was about to
happen.

Kennedy ignored the plane incident. He also ignored Khrushchev’s second letter –
he wrote simply that would lift the blockade and agree not to invade Cuba if
Khrushchev would dismantle the missile bases. What the world did not know at
the time was that, secretly, he had told Khrushchev that he intended to dismantle
the American missile bases in Turkey.
On 28 October, Khrushchev agreed the deal. The crisis finished. On 20
November, the Russian bombers left Cuba, and Kennedy lifted the naval blockade.