Origins and development of the cold war in europe

(1945-1955)
Early tensions between US and USSR

Competing ideologies
- US was democratic and hated and feared communist ideas - felt that
communism would threaten their way of life
- USSR thought US was selfish to build its own economic empire and political
influence in the world
- Resulted in mistrust and tensions between them and competitions as each
country believe its ideology should be adopted by other countries
- Democratic US:
● To spread democracy and ensure that individuals have the right to choose
their own government, to create a world where individual liberty in areas
like freedom of speech, religious freedom, freedom of assembly and right
to own property are protected, to sustain the capitalist world economy and
prevent countries from becoming communist
● Government chosen in free elections which could be contested by more
than one party
● Wealth created through the free market resulting in great inequality
between rich and poor, capitalist with a free market economy, privately
owned businesses and properties
● Valued individual freedom
- Communist USSR:
● To destroy capitalism through class struggles and communist revolutions,
to create an ideal and utopian world where all people are equal with all
property and work shared equally among people
● A one party dictatorship, elections held but all candidates belonged to
communist party
● Wealth shared through state control resulting in low inequality and
unemployment, communist with a command economy, believed goods
should be allocated to people in need, govt controlled resources needed
to produce goods including factories and farms
● Regard individual freedom as less important that protecting the interests of
society
History of suspicion and mistrust before 1939
- 1981 and 1921: civil war between communists in russia and us and britain
- 1920s: red scare - US arrested and imprisoned immigrants from russia claiming
they were communist
- 1930s: policy of appeasement - driven by the fear that USSR was trying to
spread communism and threaten USSR’s security as it implied that hitler could
take over eastern europe

“Marriage of convenience”
- Stalin urged US and britain to quickly open a second front in france to relieve the
pressure that the soviet troops faced because of germany’s attacks
- US and britain only agreed to open a second front through operation overlord
(1944)
- Stalin felt that the allies were delaying the opening of a second front to minimise
their own losses and weaken the USSR

Key events after ww2

Yalta conference (feb 1945)

- Views and reasons of US:
● Believed in having peace, safety and prosperity in a post war world,
believed that democracy and capitalism is a model for international
development which was also a mean to gain political influence and benefit
economically through trade, believed that the recovery of western europe
was essential for international stability
● Alarmed by the soviet supported communist parties in eastern europe who
seemed to be making their moves to seize power according to ideas of the
communist manifesto, and trade with europe was disrupted due to ww2
- Views and reasons of USSR:
● Wanted to establish buffer states in eastern europe to prevent another
invasion, believed that eastern europe must remain friendly to the USSR
for its own security, wanted massive war reparations from germany to
repair its own economy and ensure that germany could not threaten it
again
● USSR was invaded by germany twice through poland and ww2 resulted in
at least 20 million soviet citizens dead and devastation of USSR’s
industries and cities
- Agreements during yalta conference:
 ● USSR to enter war against japan once germany surrendered
● Germany to be divided into 4 zones - US, french, british and soviet and
berlin (german capital) to be divided into 4 zones although it was in soviet
zone
● Nazi war criminals responsible for holocaust to be tried before an
international court
● Countries liberated from german occupation to be allowed to hold free
elections to choose the govt they wanted
● Big 3 to join united nations
● Eastern europe to be a soviet sphere of influence as stalin was concerned
about the future security of USSR
- Disagreements and compromises:
● Stalin wanted the soviet border to move westwards into poland and
argued that poland could more its borders westwards to german territory
● Churchill and roosevelt were unhappy about the plan but churchill
convinced roosevelt to accept it as long as USSR did not interfere in
greece where british were trying to prevent a communist takeover

Potsdam conference (july-august 1945)

- Change in leadership
● US president was now harry truman, britain was now clement attlee
● Truman and stalin didn’t have a good relationship as truman assumed
power after the war-time alliance had broken down and was concerned
about the potential threat
● Both truman and attlee were younger and less experienced than roosevelt
and churchill
- Increasing soviet control
● July 1945: stalin’s troops controlled the baltic states, finland, poland,
czechoslovakia, hungary, bulgaria and romania
● Poland remained a source of tension among the allies as stalin set up a
communist government there and encouraged communists to take over
- Manhattan project
● US secretly developed the atomic bomb as part of a state funded nuclear
development project
● US kept it from USSR until potsdam conference although USSR already
knew cause it had been leaked
● US’s choice not to tell USSR about the bomb earlier further deepened
stalin’s suspicions towards US’s intentions
- Major disagreements
 ● Disagreements over germany: stalin wanted to cripple germany
completely; truman disagreed as he didn't want to repeat TOV, stalin
wanted compensation from germany; truman agreed but then disagreed
and stalin became suspicious of truman
● Disagreement over eastern europe: at the yalta conference, it was greed
that eastern europe would be a soviet sphere of influence. To stalin it
meant that he could set up communist governments loyal to him but
truman thought stalin wanted control of all of europe

Worsening relations after potsdam

- Atomic bomb
● Stalin wasn't concerned by US’s production of an atomic bomb as it was
already leaked to him
● He had already ordered soviet technicians and scientists to develop an
atomic bomb before the potsdam conference so by 1949, both countries
had atomic weapons
- Iron curtain and soviet control of eastern europe
● Stalin cut the non-communists to make sure that communist governments
led by politicians loyal to him took power across eastern europe
● USSR would support coalition governments where local communist
parties were influential and then take control by isolating and suppressing
other parties in the coalition
● Leaders from other parties would be killed and other parties would be
banned
● To stalin, controlling eastern europe made sense as it was the traditional
route where enemies from west attacked russia and if he controlled the
region by creating buffer states, they would have hard time invading USSR
● To Truman, Stalin's actions were evidence of him building an empire.
However, US citizens argued that stalin’s actions were none of their
concern to avoid conflict
● Truman arranged for churchill to give a speech at fulton, missouri in
march 1946 where churchill warned of the dangers of USSR and used
“iron curtain”
● The iron curtain speech alarmed many americans and got truman the
attention and support in getting US more involved in international politics,
and drew angry responses from the soviet media and stalin
Developments of cold war (1947-1955)

Truman doctrine and containment

- March 1947: truman announced the truman doctrine as a result of events in
turkey and greece
- US would provide money, military equipment and advice to democratic countries
threatened by communist influences
- An attempt to stop the spread of communism
- Developments in turkey and greece:
● Greek communist party wanted a communist state but greek royalists
wanted the return of the monarch
● 1946; civil war broke out and british couldn't control the situation so greece
became communist
● Stalin was trying to gain influence in turkey to gain access to the turkish
straits so soviet ships could sail from the black sea to the mediterranean
sea. Truman was worried if the plan worked stalin would spread
communism to the middle east which was important to US as it had oil
reserves

Marshall plan (june 1947)

- US would put US$13 billion into helping europe’s shattered economies recover
- Starting april 1948, food, machinery, animals and countless items were shipped
to democratic countries in europe
- Truman wanted people to get back to work and make money to feel good about
capitalism and not get attracted to communism
- US also needed europe to recover so its industries has a market to export their
goods to
- Countries which did not have democratic, capitalist systems did not receive
financial support
- Provided a massive boost to western europe and brought a speedy recovery -
britain, west germany and france benefited to the extent that west germany
enjoyed an economic miracle
- Helped bind US and its allies closer against communism

USSR’s response
- Cominform (communist information bureau)
 ● Published propaganda that would unite the communist states in europe
and ensure that satellite states implement a soviet style communism and
trade mainly with other cominform countries
● Stalin used cominform to tighten his control over satellite states and
ensure US couldn't get any political influence on them
● At cominform meetings, stalin told the eastern european states which
policies they should follow and to reject support from marshall plan
● Yugoslavia was the only state that argued with stalin and was kicked out
- Comecon (council for mutual economic assistance)
● Set up in response to marshall plan to ensure the satellite states were free
from any control/ influence from US
● Comecon members would trade mostly with one another than the west
and satellite states were promised benefits similar to marshall plan
● In reality, comecon favoured USSR and sold them cheaper goods

The berlin blockade

Escalation of tensions
- Since stalin couldn't stop the allies, the thought forcing them out of berlin would
help
- June 1948: carried out the berlin blockade where USSR cut rail and road links
from the allied zone to west berlin and disrupted water and power supplies
- To counter the blockade, truman ordered the berlin airlift - US and its allies
supplied west berlin with coal, food and medicine by air
- Stalin eventually gave up and lifted the blockade in may 1949

Consequences of the berlin blockade

- Creation of east germany (1949)
● West germany - US, france, britain
● East germany - USSR
● Berlin was also divided into east and west berlin
- Creation of NATO (1949) (north atlantic treaty organisation)
● All NATO members agreed to go to war if any member was attacked -
aimed to make it clear to stalin that US would intervene in western europe
if necessary
● NATO countries would provide US forces with secure bases in europe as it
guaranteed their protection from a possible soviet attack
● USSR saw it as a threat that split the world into 2 military blocs
Continuing tensions (1949-1955)

The warsaw pact (1955)

- Created to agree that if one communist state was threatened, they would help
defend it
- All communist states of eastern europe joined except yugoslavia
- significance:
● Strengthened USSR as it effectively gave USSR command of all armies of
satellite states
● For the next 35 years, both sides put as much energy into plans to stop
possible invasion by the other side - thousands of US troops, tanks,
aircraft and weapons were stationed bases across europe esp west
germany. In return, USSR and other warsaw pact members trained their
military forces and stationed troops in eastern europe in case NATO
attacked
● Warsaw pact entrenched soviet rule in eastern europe - soviet troops were
the ones dealing with protests and uprisings - 4 nov 1956, a nationwide
revolt in hungary was forcefully quelled by soviet troops and tanks
- Warsaw pact sought to make sure communist rule in eastern europe remained
secure and all senior positions in the warsaw pact were held by soviet officials
and commanders