3.

Challenge from Communism: Origins of the Cold War in Europe

Q. What caused the Cold War?

1) Fundamental Change of International System

→ Power Vacuum → US (hegemon) & USSR (challenger) as Remaining Powers
2) Discord during the War Time
Second Front Problem
3) Conflicts of Post-War Visions
Sphere of Influence type Realism vs. Wilsonian (Capitalist Democracy) Globalism
4) Regional Conflicts
Italy virtually Soviet exclusion from the occupation by US.
Eastern Europe Poland: Katyn, Warsaw uprising, Lublin communist government.
Germany territorial loss, divided occupation, Berlins blockade (1948)
East Asia
5) Asymmetrical Military Balance
Strong Conventional Forces vs. Nuclear Power

1) Establishment of the Cold War System: Western Block=US-Sponsored Security System vs.
Communist Block
Political & Economic Division →　Drawing the line
1947 Truman Doctrine→Aid to Greece & Turkey (surrounded by communist Eastern Europe)
1948 Marshal Plan $13.5 billion (5% of US GDP)
→Continental Allies 4/5 of 1939, G 1/3 of 1936, JPN & Italy 1/2
→By 1953, output in E & J recovered 1938 level. US commitment assured A, E & J
businessmen.
→US removed trade barriers and accepted European and JPN protectionism. US investment
went from 2 bln in 1950 to 41 bln in 1973.
→European Integration (Goal: Europe wide Free Market)→1952 ECSC (coal: Ruhr+iron
ore: Lorraine)Monnet, Schuman+Dulles, Acheson.
→ Iron Curtin
→Eastern Europe: government control of economy before 1939→German occupation
accelerated the trend→Soviet-led Communization(Both are totalitarianism)→1949 Comecon
(Council for Mutual Economic Assistance)
Military Division
1949 Year of Shocks (Communization of China, Soviet success of A bomb testing, and
Communist spy hysteria)
1949 NATO (correlations btwn economic recovery and security)

1
Development of Hydrogen Bomb (US 1952, Soviet 1953)
→　Balance of Terror

Second Front
in World War II (1939-45), a battlefront against fascist Germany, which was opened by the
USA and Great Britain on June 6, 1944, with the incursion of their troops into northwestern
France.
The problem of a second front existed from the time that fascist Germany attacked the USSR
on June 22, 1941 (see WORLD WAR n, 1939-45). The opening of a second front in the west
was necessary to distract significant numbers of fascist German troops from the main Soviet-
German front and to achieve the fastest possible victory for the Allies of the antifascist
coalition. However, in accordance with their policies, which were intended to wear out the
USSR and Germany and establish world supremacy, the ruling circles in the USA and Great
Britain delayed the opening of a second front. Instead, the British and American command
landed troops in North Africa in November 1942, in Sicily in July 1943, and later in southern
Italy. Essentially, these actions did not mean the opening of a second front, and they
distracted an insignificant part of the enemy forces.
https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Second+Front#:~:text=in%20World%20War
%20II%20(1939,their%20troops%20into%20northwestern%20France.

Marshall Plan
https://www.britannica.com/event/Marshall-Plan