COLD WAR REVISION GUIDE PART I

Summarized by: __________________________________________

I. Origins of the Cold War

What role(s) did ideological differences play in the origins of the Cold War?


The Western world wanted to retain liberty and liberalism through capitalism
while Stalin wanted to spread communist. He used it to permeate eastern Europe
and create a bloc of countries under his control. The spread of communism
obviously made the Western leaders very uncomfortable. Truman based his
entire strategy of containment on George Kennans analysis of communism and
its leaders in the USSR, perhaps inferring that he judged ideology to be the most
prevalent problem in the USSR and that his opposition was towards communism
and not the Russians himself: Kennan recognised the Russian people as being by
and large, friendly to outside world, eager for experience of it, he implies the
entire problem is the ideology, and the leaders who believe in it. The American
hostility to communism (and Soviet distrust of capitalism) therefore played a
huge role in the shaping of the Cold War as it was to become.

Moreover, Winston Churchill could be said to have helped cause the Cold War
because of his ideological differences with Stalin. His 1946 Iron Curtain speech
certainly caused tension: it unveiled to the world Stalins increasing Soviet
sphere and increasing measure of control from Moscow, strongly showing his
disapproval of Stalins swooping over Eastern Europe and inferring his strongly
anti-communist stance. However, this speech was given in 1946, and Churchill
was no longer the Prime Minister; that role had passed to Clement Attlee,
inferring that he felt he was only able to make such a blunt statement of his
views once he was out of power. Conversely, when he was in high office,
Churchill was able to work well with Stalin he called him Uncle Joe, inferring
they were more than just cordial allies working purely against Stalin. In fact, the
Iron Curtain speech could be seen as hypocritical as Churchill made an
agreement with Stalin which allowed him to have 75% of influence in Bulgaria
and 90% in Romania, two of the places he referenced in the speech. Conversely,
it could be construed that Churchill knew he had to work with Stalin the best he
could, but nonetheless did not share his ideas. While their relationship during
the war could have been seen as constructive, ultimately Churchills anti-
communist stance caused tension, inferring that ideological differences did have
more input into the origins of the Cold War.
Alos, the core ideologies of the Western and Eastern powers did help form the
base of the Cold War. National priorities such as the need for a free market to
sell goods are often dictated by the ideology which the country supports.
However, this seems to be more relevant to the USA than the USSR; it has been
suggested that the USSR lost its priority to spread international communism in
1921, as civil war loomed. Eastern Europe seemed to be affected more by Stalins
need to protect and build up his country than any real desire to spread
communism; the ideology seemed to be a means to an end, rather than the
integral purpose of creating the Eastern bloc.


What role(s) did mutual suspicion and fear play in the origins of the Cold War?

The mutual suspicion, fear, and outright hostility between the United States and
the Soviet Union grew out of ideological differences and concrete actions
stretching back to World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. These
differences were briefly set aside for a portion of World War II. Following the
Nazi invasion of Russia in June 1941, Washington and Moscow entered into what
has been called a strange alliance. This anti-German union of convenience and
necessity temporarily muted the tensions between the two countries. But
disagreement over such issues as the timing of the second front and antagonistic
visions of postwar Europe pushed the United States and the Soviet Union into a
Cold War within months of the end of World War II.

Look at the causes/ roots of the Cold War
Kennan Policy of Containment; fear of the spreading of Communism.
Communism is viewed as a danger and aggressive, however communist
countries view capitalism as such. This idea of containment led to the
involvement of the US in the Vietnam War.

Nuclear weapons changed how international relations were conducted. The
nature of security was psychological as the US and the Soviet Union were unsure
and acted on what they assumed to happen. For example, the creation of the
atomic bomb by the US, created fear in the Soviet Union because they were
unsure if it would be used against them; they felt insecure so they sent spies to
see how the atomic bomb was made s they could make their own and potentially
feel safer or have a way to strike back if attacked.

The Soviet Union under Stalin was paranoid Russia was invaded three times at
the beginning of the twentieth century in 1914, 1918 and 1941. Stalin had
always felt that the western leaders wanted to see communism crushed. During
the Russian Civil War in 1918, the Western power which included Britain, France
and US had fought on the side of the hwites against the communist government.

The US was driven in large part by the fear of another depression.
How did the West and the USSR shift from being wartime allies to post-war enemies?
The reason why the USA and UK fought alongside the USSR during the Second
World War was their common will to defeat Nazi Germany. This was also
the motivation behind Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchills cooperation
during the Yalta conference of February 1945, as the war against
Germany, although in its final stages, was still raging. This changed at
the Potsdam conference of July, by which time Germany had already
surrendered; the common enemy was no longer a binding force, the old
allies were left to fall apart. This disintegration continued from 1945
until its climax at the Berlin Blockade of 1948.

The orthodox reason for the change from allies to enemies, incessantly
campaigned in IGCSE textbooks, is that, as the Wehrmacht retreated
between the Yalta conference in February and the Potsdam conference in
July 1945, the Red Army remained mobilised. Stalin, apparently defying
decisions made at Yalta, did not liberate the countries in Eastern
Europe, but instead occupied them with his troops, much to the vexation
of the Western allies. It is customarily argued that it became
established Soviet policy to make them voluntary satellite state through
infiltration and subversion




















II. Nature of the Cold War

How did ideological opposition play out in the policy decisions and actions of the two sides in
the Cold War?

One area upon which the Allies could not agree, however, was Poland a stormy
point in national interests which may have contributed towards the onset of Cold
War. The British had invested their interests in Polands freedom, as they had
gone into the war to fight for its liberty from Germany, and the Polish
government in exile was stationed in London. Conversely, Stalin had set up a
Committee for National Liberation for the Polish in Moscow, framing a wish for
communism as coming from the Polish people, as well as creating a new puppet
government in Lublin, in the south east of the country. Poland was of significant
importance to Stalin as the Polish corridor had been used to attack Russia twice
in the previous thirty years; by having the country under his control, he could
stop armies from making their way to the actual border of the USSR and
attacking Moscow or Stalingrad, the latter of which suffered heavily from attack
in the Second World War.

Stalins biggest national priority was to protect the USSR from attack, and the
buffer zone he intended to create (including Poland) was an important part of
this plan. Though, from a Western point of view, this could be seen to promote
the spread of communism, but Stalins ideas did not seem to be so insidious; his
primary aim seems to be more related to protecting his country than spreading
his communist ideals. For instance, in Hungary, Stalin allowed a democratically
elected government to stay in place in 1945, rather than using his influence and
the three important positions that communists had taken in order to overthrow
the government with a communist regime. Stalin was apparently aware that
though he required communist influence to keep his country safe, he could not
afford to distance himself from the West completely. It may have simply been a
case of Stalin trying to recoup the territory the USSR lost to Germany in both the
treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the Nazi-Soviet Pact, and parts of the old empire that
Russia had once had for instance, Finland. As Britain at the time still had most
of its empire intact (India, the jewel in the British Empires crown, gained full
independence a year later in 1947), Stalin could also be seen to regaining what
was his previously.

Americas priority was not territorial; instead, it intended to help Europe rebuild
itself. While this in itself seems innocent enough, its underlying motives
potentially caused tensions which could have sparked the Cold War. Through aid
supplied by the Marshall Plan, America aided Western nations which had
previously been destroyed by the war to build their economies back up. Italy, for
instance, took Marshall Aid and consequently moved to a democratic system of
governance and a capitalist market. The USA had not suffered the damage to its
industrial districts that the Europeans had suffered during bombing; it therefore
had goods to export, and needed a large, free market in which to sell those. This
which could only be gained through the spread of capitalism or Dollar
Imperialism, as it was dubbed. To a communist, this could be seen as an indirect
attack on their ideology, and that this spreading of capitalism, though it
promised freedom and liberty, could be inferred to make nations dependant on
American goods and loans until their own economies recovered.



















How did the superpowers delineate and interact with their spheres of influence?

















What role(s) did alliances and diplomacy play in the Cold War?
Yalta and Potsdam Conference.












I. Development and impact of the Cold War (a)

How and why did the Cold War spread from its European origins, and briefly summarize the
major battlefields/areas of contention outside Europe.


The strategy was supported by America's allies in NATO but opposed by a growing youth
movement hostile to what was seen as a new form of imperialism, and anxious about the
growing threat of nuclearwar. The first major test for containment came in 1959 when Fidel
Castro led a Communist-inspired revolt in Cuba. The new revolutionary regime was
supported by the Soviet Union. When it became clear in 1962 that Castro was being supplied
with Soviet Union missiles, Washington issued an ultimatum to the Soviet Union to remove
them, and ordered a naval blockade of Cuba.
The confrontation was one of the most dramatic episodes of the postwar period. At the final
moment, Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev ordered Soviet Union vessels bound for
Cuba to turn back. U.S. president John F. Kennedy was saved from having to make a final
decision for military action. A year later, Kennedy was assassinated; in 1964 Khrushchev was
removed from office by his party colleagues.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the Cold War came to direct conflict between the
two superpowers. The conflict was played out thereafter by proxy: one side or the other
lending support to third-party states, engaging in espionage and covert operations, and
arming and funding guerrilla movements and insurgencies. In 1964 the United States, led by
President Lyndon Johnson, made the decision to commit troops and aircraft to the civil war in
South Vietnam, and for 10 years the U.S. fought to contain the spread of communism in
Southeast Asia. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviet Union. In 1975, following
prolonged antiwar protests in the United States and Europe, the last American forces were
withdrawn.
Four years later, the Soviet Union sent troops to fight in Afghanistan in support of the
Communist regime, an intervention that lasted 10 years and cost the lives of thousands of
Soviet Union soldiers. The United States provided aid and arms for the anti-Communist
guerrilla movement. In 1989 the Soviet Union withdrew its forces. Both the Vietnam and
Afghan wars were the longest periods of active fighting for both states since World War II.
Both involved high casualties, considerable cost, and eventual defeat. Cold War by proxy
proved deeply damaging to both of the superpowers that fought it.