The Cold War Redux

The Soviet Union

The Soviets were largely concerned about establishing greater security. 

By some estimates, the U.S.S.R. had suffered military and civilian losses of 20 million during the war.

Many more had died in Stalin's brutal political purges.

The Soviet government, for example, often executed as traitors returning Red Army soldiers who had had the misfortune of being prisoners of war

The Soviet Union

The Soviet Union wanted to:

Ward off another attack

Establish defensible borders

Encourage friendly regimes on its western borders

“One cannot forget the following fact: the Germans carried out an invasion of the U.S.S.R. through Finland, Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Hungary....One can ask, therefore, what can be surprising in the fact that the Soviet Union, in a desire to ensure its security for the future, tries to achieve that these countries should have governments whose relations to the Soviet Union are loyal?”

Joseph Stalin

A Clash of Interests

• After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union became increasingly hostile, leading to an era of confrontation and competition that lasted from about 1946 to 1990 known as the Cold War.

“From Stettin on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of central and eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in the Soviet sphere and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and increasing measure of control from Moscow....Police governments are prevailing in nearly every case, and so far, except in Czechoslovakia, there is no true democracy.”

Winston S. Churchill Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri

March 5th, 1946

Containment

• United States followed a policy of "containment" when dealing with the spread of Communist regime

• The Long Telegram by George Kennan

The Long Telegram• The history of Russia has been

one of hostile neighbors and a constant fear of attack; it's inevitable that Russia will try to take over its neighbor states to provide a buffer zone.

• The United States has a duty to confront Soviet aggression with "unalterable counterforce."

• The United States must maintain a policy of long-term containment of Soviet aggression.

Containment

• The policy of containment required the United States to react to Soviet initiatives.

• This policy, gave the President much greater military power.

• The need to respond quickly to foreign crises did not allow the President the luxury of waiting for Congress to approve military action.

• Since the Truman Doctrine 9COVERS Greece and Turkey), many United States military actions, including those in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Somalia, have been undertaken by presidential order.

The Marshall Plan• Marshall believed that the American

economy depended on open markets. • Rebuilding the economies of Europe

would guarantee American prosperity by providing an outlet for the nation's goods.

• Economic stability in Europe would translate into political stability, that Communism would have little appeal to well-fed and employed Europeans.

• Between 1948 and 1951, the United States sent $13 billion in aid to Western European nations.

• "German miracle,(1947-1954)" West Germany's economic output increased 312%.

Belgian metal works before and after Marshall Plan.

The Berlin Airlift

• In response to growing American economic and military power  in Europe, the Soviet Union cut off western links to Berlin, which was located inside the Soviet-occupied zone.

• Truman, in turn, ordered a massive, year-long airlift of medical supplies, food and clothing for West Berliners.

• Eventually, the Soviets lifted the blockade.

NATO• April 1949, twelve nations of Western

Europe and North America signed the North Atlantic Treaty, creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

• The goal of NATO was to coordinate the defense of Western Europe.

• An attack on any of its member nations was equal to an attack on all, with each nation obliged to battle their common foe.

• Primary support, both militarily and monetarily, came from the United States.

• Soviets will counteract with the Warsaw Pact in 1956