The+Cold+War+Notes

=

= The Bolsheviks =
 * Two revolutions in 1917, March which led to Tsar Nicholas II being overthrown and **provisional government** setup.
 * November where **Kerensky government** was overthrown by **Vladimir Lenin's Communist party**.
 * As a result, Lenin's followers were known as **Bolsheviks** and was supposed to imply they represented the majority of the Russian socialists.
 * United States did not really care about Bolsheviks until **Joseph Stali**n began to gain more power in 1928.
 * Relationship with Russia was at a poor start, when US joined Allies in WWI, Russia just left the war.
 * Ideology between **Capitalism (America) and Communism (Russia),** encouraged suspicion and distrust.
 * Russia wanted to replace capitalism with international communist state and established Comintern to over throw the international bourgeoisie.
 * As a result, when **civil war** happened in Russia, the US supported the anti-Bolshevik Whites in the fight against Bolshevik Reds.
 * The Reds won and the forces were withdrawn, this resulted in the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in late 1922.
 * Although trade and aid still happened between the US and USSR during **Lenin's New Economic Policy**, the United states did not formally recognize USSR until 1933.

= The Nazi-Soviet Non-Agression Pact =
 * The Soviet Union was in control of most of the nation's economies, (factories, mines, railroads etc.)
 * Only small businesses with less than 20 people were allowed private operation.
 * The Soviet then gained even more economic control under **Stalin's Five-year Plans** which started in 1928 for the years 1929-1933.
 * The first Five-Year Plan forced peasants to give up private land and compelled rapid development for the new heavy industry.
 * Soviet Union was 50-100 years behind according to Stalin and these plans had to speed things up for them.
 * Soon after **Franklin D. Roosevelt** became president in March 1933, he realized the nonrecognition of the USSR was making cooperation with the Soviets difficult. Such as discussions on major issues like Germany and Japan gaining power.
 * When WWII arrived, Stalin decided to negotiate with the Germans, hinting this in April 1939 that he might provide Soviet neutrality during the war.
 * Undercover talks between the two countries ensued and the **Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression pact** was formed.
 * The **Nazi-Soviet pact** was a **delaying** tactic.
 * Stalin's Five-Year plans could not prepare them for the war until 1942.
 * Germany wanted to focus only on the west before going to attack the east.
 * Hitler wanted to wait until the fall of Britain before invading USSR, but Britain lasted longer.
 * Germany ended up invading the USSR in June 1941, hoping that a quick victory would demoralize the British.

= A Marriage of Convenience =
 * Roosevelt persuaded Congress to pass **Lend-Lease Act**, allowing the US to send aid to countries fighting the Axis on March 1941.
 * Aimed to keep Britain and China in the war until FDR could bring isolationist America around.
 * June 1941 - Roosevelt welcomed the soviets as allies when the russians entered the war. Although the US and Soviets were working together, they still couldn't set aside the US's animosity toward Bolshevism.
 * May 1942, Stalin sent Foreign Minister Vyacheslav M. Molotov to Washington to urge Roosevelt to take some action to relieve German pressure on the Soviet front.
 * British prime minister Winston Churchill disagreed with the Roosevelt's promise of an invasion of German-occupied France before the end of the year.
 * After a great deal of persuading, Roosevelt accepted Churchill's own plan for a late-1942 invasion of North Africa.
 * This however upset Stalin, who continued to bear the worst by far of the fighting against Hitler.
 * August 1942 - Churchill tried to reassure Stalin by telling him they were to pay their way by bombing Germany. Both men knew however that this bombing wouldn't do much to restrain the Nazi offensive on the eastern front.

= The Big Three at Tehran =
 * Januray 1943 - Stalin was forced to accept disappointment when Roosvelt and Churchill postponed once more the invasion of France
 * November 1943 - In Tehran Stalin, Roosevelt and Churcill discussed the status of a defeated Germany and the postwar borders of Poland, but the focus of the four-day conference was the new coross-Channel invasion plan code-named **Overlord**.
 * May 1,1944 was the planned launch date of operation Overlord

=** Yalta  ** =
 * February 1945, the Big Three met for a second time to discuss the creation of an organization to succeed the disbanded **League of Nations**. They also discussed the future of Eastern Europe (especially Poland), the status of Germany, and Soviet entry into the Pacific war.
 * With respect to the new United Nations, Stalin wanted veto power for permanent members of the Security Council and separate General Assembly seats for Belorussia (White Russia) and Ukraine.
 * From a defeated Germany, he wanted ten billion dollars' worth of industrial equipment as war reparations.
 * Finally, in exchance for the commitment to declare war on Japan, he wanted to take back all the territory that was lost to Japan during the Russo-Japanese War of1904-5.
 * Roosevelt and Churchill agreed with nearly all of these demands because there was **little they could do without decalring war on the Soviets.**

=** The Division of Germany  ** =
 * March 1945 - Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme Allied Commander, pursued three main goals: capturing the Ruhr Valley, Germany's industrial heartland; preventing a Nazi withdrawal to the Bavarian Alps; and avaoiding an unintentional clash with Soviet troops heading west.
 * April 16 - Soviets began their main assault on the German capital.
 * April 30 - Hitler suicided in his bunker beneath the Chancellery.
 * May 2 - Berlin surrendered. Admiral Karl Donitz offered to conclude a separate peace with the Western Allies so that the Germany army could continue fighting the soviets.
 * But Harry Truman refused Donitz offer insisting German surrender on all fronts.
 * **May 7 - Germans surrender, Germany divide into four occupation zones, split among the allies.**

= The Manhattan Project =
 * After the death of President Roosevelt on April 12 1945, **Vice President Truman** was shocked to learn what was going on in New Mexico.
 * He never knew of the **Manhattan Projec**t before because he was considered too low-level to be informed about the **development of the atomic bomb.**
 * He was not fully briefed until April 25 when **Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson** said that in 4 months, they would have built probably the most terrible weapon in human history.
 * Stimson was disturbed by this fact, afraid that modern civilization would be completely annihilated
 * The Manhattan Project began in August 1939 when a Hungarian emigre called Leo Szilard convinced Albert Einstein to send a letter to FDR on troubling developments in nuclear physics.
 * Leo Szilard was the first physicist to think up of the idea of nuclear chain reaction and had been monitoring the German research on neutron bombardment.
 * It was stated in a secret German War Office report that the new developments in nuclear physics would probably make it possible to create even more powerful ones, the first to create such a weapon would have a significant advantage.
 * The atomic effort in the US was supervised by Major General Leslie R. Groves and J. Robert Oppenheimer who directed the scientific work.
 * First major step taken in December 1942 when Italian emigre Enrico Fermi created the first controlled nuclear chain reaction.
 * Meanwhile, other scientists in the project worked on refining uranium and plutonium into nuclear fuels.
 * The most famous Manhattan Project site was Los Alamos where the design and testing of the bombs took place.

= Knowledge of the Bomb = = Potsdam = = Containment = = The Truman Doctrine = = Disarray in Postwar Europe =
 * Part of Truman's April 25th atomic bomb briefing resulted in him being informed that the British knew all about the Manhattan Project while the Soviets did not.
 * In the summer of 1944, physicis**t Niels Bohr urged Churchill and FDR to tell Stalin about the project** as Soviet cooperation was needed for postwar atomic control.
 * FDR and Churchill did not listen and chose to **keep it a secret** from him, undermining many efforts to win Stalin's trust.
 * Had they followed Niels Bohr's advice, the Cold War could have been avoided.
 * Although Truman continued to hide the bomb efforts from the Soviet, the final decision was discussed by the Interim Committee.
 * Established in May 1945 to advise the president on atomic policy.
 * The members of this committee believed that dropping the bomb would demonstrate its immense power to the world, and they considered the Soviets nearly as important an audience as the Japanese.
 * Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not intentionally left untouched to demonstrate the bombs power against pristine urban landscapes.
 * Furthermore, top US officials like secretary of state **James F. Byrnes** influenced the language of the surrender term so that Japan would keep on fighting, allowing the use of the bombs.
 * The examination by the Interim Committee shows that the groups had much wider goals besides the defeat of Japan.
 * During one committee meeting, Oppenheimer suggested that if they were to offer information to the Soviets before the bomb was used, the moral position would be greatly strengthened.
 * But this idea was quickly dismissed as Byrnes wanted to demonstrate their strength and claimed using the bomb was the best way to ensure its **usefulness in postwar cooperation.**
 * In July 1945, Truman went to Berlin to meet with Churchill and Stalin. Mostly involved the German occupation, but also included two subjects. Invading Japan and the Manhattan Project.
 * Stalin was remarkably prepared in the conference, saying that he would enter the Pacific war for sure, even giving a date.
 * President Truman was initially happy with the date. However, the next day, his attitude changed, believing that the Japanese **would surrender at the atomic bomb**.
 * The event that changed his mind was the **successful atomic test** and the US could now end the war quickly without the Soviet's help.
 * Truman did not mention the bomb to Stalin only until a week later, and even then, he only told him him informally.
 * **Stalin showed no special interests, this was because he already knew about it from spies in the Manhattan Projec**t.
 * He had begun his own Soviet atomic program. In this case, Bohr's advice may have change the Soviet's behavior.
 * The fact that this secret was kept from Stalin only allowed him to confirm his worst fear, that **the bomb was meant for both Japan and the USSR**.
 * After Hiroshima and Nagasaki was bombed, the Soviet-American cooperation completely fell apart.
 * Soviets rearranged the map of Eastern Europe, allowing Poland to remain nominally independent but annexed the Baltic states.
 * Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania all became Soviet satellites.
 * Two weeks before this on February 22, **George F Kennan**, the charge d'affaires at the US embassy in Moscow sent a 5300 word cable to secretary of state Byrnes which woud soon be known as the Long Telegram.
 * The **Long Telegram** outlined the strategy of containment that soon became the base of postwar US foreign policy
 * After returning to Washington ins April 1946, Kennan published his reasoning in a landmark July 1947 Foreign Affairs article that he only signed as X.
 * Kennan stated that they needed adroit and vigilant application of counterforce at a different geographical and political points following the changes in Soviet policy.
 * In his view, the postwar USSR had two goals, **establishing a security around its homeland and exporting Communism**.
 * The first point could not be resisted peacefully but the second could be contained since Marxist-Lennist ideas mattered much less to Russia than safe borders.
 * Even if efforts to recover Eastern Europe were to fail, firmness in political expansion can be effective.
 * Kennan claimed that the four most important regions to the **US is the Western Europe, Western Hemisphere, Japan and the Middle East since they would be an unlikely target for Soviet invasion.**
 * He was certain that the USSR would limit its political expansion to avoid usurping the leaders which can be countered by creating unstable pro-Western regimes.
 * As long as the US applied enough pressure against the Russians, **there would be no need for fighting in the Cold War.**
 * Truman trusted Kennan's information on the situation and realized that he could not do much to free territory under Soviet control.
 * With the defeat of Germany and decline of Britain and France, the **Soviets grew to become the dominant force in Europe**, and in Eastern Europe they could do anything they wanted.
 * The nonaligned countries on the borders of the Soviet Union were increasingly pressured to join them.
 * For example, the Communist led revolt in the civil war was gaining ground against the pro-Western government.
 * The Turkish government was weak and under pressure to share control of the Dardanelles, giving Soviet's Black Sea fleet access to the Mediterranean.
 * If the British still had power, the would have sent aid and stabilized both government. But in February 1947, the British informed the US that they could no longer afford to help Greece or Turkey.
 * After speaking to the Greek president, it was concluded by Truman that only substantial American aid could keep Greece and Turkey out of the Soviet sphere.
 * To achieve this, the US looked to bipartisan support.
 * He instructed Undersecretary of State Dean Acheson to meet with the congressional leadership.
 * In this meeting, Acheson said what was known as the **domino theory**, that if Greece and Turkey fell, other countries would fall, from Iran in the south to India in the east.
 * The Republican who controlled Congress agreed to appropriate **400 million dollars in economic and military aid for Greece and Turkey** provided that the President personally explain the severity of the crisis in a national broadcast before a join session of Congress.
 * Truman agreed and this speech on March 12 was known as the Truman Doctrine, **the commitment of the US to aid economically or militarily any nation threatened by Communism.**


 * Two months before the **Truman Doctrine** speech the US, British, French and Soviet foreign ministers gathered in Moscow to **discuss the future of Germany**.
 * At Yalta and at Potsdam, it has been agreed that Germany would be reunified under a central and freely elected government.
 * **French and Soviets were proving quarrelsome** over this decision.


 * More disputes rose on war reparations and the amount of industry Germany should be allowed, wether the coal and steel industries of Ruhr should be under international control and how centralized the new German government should be.
 * No agreement was reached in the end and new US secretary of state George C. Marshall was convinced that Soviets wanted a deadlock since political **stalemate worsened the economy in Germany and Western Europe.**


 * The **economic and political situation was getting serious** in Western Europe.
 * 6 years of Allied **bombing** had turn many large cities into rubble, destroying much Europe's of economic infrastructure.
 * The businesses and factories that survived lacked many industrial supplies to be productive, unemployment was severe and those with jobs were demoralized by constant **shortages**.
 * Food in particular was **scarce** and millions were on the verge of starvation.


 * The economic turmoil was also affecting the **political** situation in Europe.
 * The British withdrew from Greece and Turkey.
 * France and Italy had serious shortages, and Communist movements were gaining electoral ground.
 * In Germany, poverty was undermining governmental authority.


 * After returning from Moscow, army chief of staff during the war, Marshall, decided that something needed to be done if they were to contain the USSR in their own borders.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">He began instructing Kennan who was recently appointed the State Department's new director of policy, to investigate the economic situation in Europe and what assistance could be provided.

= The Marshall Plan =


 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">On June 5th 1947, Secretary of State Marshall described the foreign policy problems the United States had in Europe, claiming that Europe requires much more than what they have and they need a large amount of help or they shall face serious consequences.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">In this, he proposed a creative and bold solution, asking for the European nations to **devise a joint recovery plan based on self-help, resource sharing and German reintegration**.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">He also mentioned that all this would be funded by the United States, resulting the in the British and French foreign ministers taking up the offer.


 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">A joint communique was quickly issued and 22 nations were invited along with representatives of occupied Germany. The conference was held in Paris and 16 of the invitees took part to draw up the plan, only exceptions being the USSR and 5 of their client states.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Stalin **opposed the plan because free trade and services meant that people had free movemen**t. Other western leaders saw this as another one of his effort to l**ock postwar stabilization**, this resulted in growth of international tension.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The European plan was presented in September and became the basis of the **European Recovery Program**, proposed to Congress in December.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">It was steep and required 17 billion dollars even though few Americans expected their country to pull out of international engagement, 17 billion was still a lot of money.


 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Opponents argued that the **US economy could not handle this**, while those in favor argued that it would create new export markets for US good and if it was not passed soon, **European democracies may no longer exist**.


 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The decision was settled by events abroad, after a Soviet backed coup d'etat defeated Czechoslovakia's democratic government in February 1948.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">This allowed the bill to be passed in April, and for the next 4 years the US government spent 13.3 billion, 5-10 percent of their annual budget on the ERP aid making it the most expensive foreign policy initiative in US history.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Along with the Truman Doctrine, **it signaled America's step to become a global leader**.

= The Berlin Airlift = =


 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The Soviet's goal for a disintegrated, unstable Germany soon became clear and the Americans and British moved to strengthen their country.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">In January 1947, with Soviet objections, they had merged their occupation zones to create a single political unit known as **Bizonia**.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">In March 1948, France agreed to join, creating **Trizonia**, territory that would later become West Germany.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">In mid-June, the US and British took an even greater step to create an independent state in western Germany and introduced a new currency, the **Deutsche** mark.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">This played a major role in economic recovery of western Germany since the Nazi Reichsmark currency was worthless.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">This resulted in nearly all transactions of postwar Germany being taken place on the black market.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The new currency allowed merchandise to fill empty stores and shopkeepers to begin accepting cash again.


 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The new currency appeared in West Berlin on June 23 and the next day, the **Soviets cut off all road, rail and water access to the city**, halting all vital supplies for the area. The allies protested this, saying that their occupation rights included right of access, but the Soviets still disagreed.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The Americans and British were left with only one option, to being a massive airlift to transport supplies which began on June 26.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">It seemed impossible at first, since West Berlin needed 4500 tons of supplies for 2.5 million people each day while the C-47 cargo planes available could only carry 3 tons a flight.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">However, Truman quickly sent over 100 large capacity C-54s to balance the difference. On April 16-17 of 1949, over 400 Allied aircraft made 1400 flights, each one a minute delivering 13,000 tons of cargo.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">By May 12 when Soviets had lifted their blockade, West Berlin did not become the start of World War III but an **international symbol of the US counter against the Soviet aggression without direct conflict.**

= = NATO and the Warsaw Pact =


 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">According to Kennan's theory, **militarization** of the Cold War was **unwise** and **unnecessary**. The Soviets themselves were not likely to use their army beyond their Easter European security corridor.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">It was believed that economic and political counter pressure was enough to meet any form of expansionism.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">If the United States took part in creating military alliances, Kennan believed the Soviets would do the same.


 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Although America's European allies understood this theory, they were afraid since **they had demobilized their army while the Soviet Union still kept theirs and had extensive military infrastructure.**
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">They wanted to seek for **safety in numbers,** Britain, France and Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) signed the Treaty of Brussels on March 1948 which provided mutual defense.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">However, this alliance had no chance against the Soviet Union without the help of the United States. The blockade of Berlin was an example like this.


 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Negotiations between the European allies and the United States began, resulting in the **North Atlantic Treaty** being signed on April 1949 which established the **North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)**. Along with the US, the European allies, other countries included Canada, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Portugal.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The last three countries were initially denied by the European members, claiming that they were too different from each other.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The same happened to Greece and Turkey although both were offered to join in 1952.


 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The addition of West Germany was difficult for NATO since they could not build enough military to fend off Soviet attacks without German manpower.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">However, the idea of forming allies with the aggressor of World War II was distasteful for countries and they knew the **Soviets would react negatively** to this.


 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">In fact, 5 days after West Germany's formal admission into NATO, the Soviets responded with a similar alliance called the Warsaw Treaty Organization, or the **Warsaw Pact**.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">They composed of the USSR and its client states in Eastern Europe, (East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania.)

= The Hiss Case =


 * On August 3, 1948, just over a month into the Berlin airlift, Time magazine senior editor **Whittaker Chambers** testified before the **House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).**
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">He told the congressmen he was once part of a **secret Communist cell** in Washington DC.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">He also claimed that another member of this cell was **Alger Hiss, the former State Department official** who accompanied FDR to Yalta and watched over the creation of the United Nations.


 * On August 5, Hiss appeared before the HUAC, even though it seemed that Chambers was lying and the committee backed Hiss up. One of its members, Richard M. Nixon questioned Chambers again and decided he was telling the truth.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Another hearing was held on August 25 and was televised live for the first time.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Under intense questioning, Hiss lost his cool and **parts of his story unravelled**, but he could have gotten away if he had not tried to sue Chambers for slander.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Chambers provided State Department documents from 1937 and 1938 showing Hiss's hand writing and typings from his own personal typewriter.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">If these were genuine, the documents would have proved that **Hiss committed espionage**.


 * Even when Hiss's statue of limitations on espionage had run out, he was still charged with perjury and on December 15 was convicted in his second trial and sentenced 5 years of prison where he only served 44 months.
 * The issue is still debated today whether Hiss was innocent or not, however, the important part of the case was its psychological impact.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Between 1941-1945, Americans were told that the Russians were their friends and were not told and proven that this was no longer the case.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The people became anxious over this case, if a man as important as Hiss had been a Soviet spy, it made them wonder if **anyone could be trusted**.

= McCarthyism =


 * Richard M. Nixon became so famous after this case that in 1950 he was able to secure a Senate nomination just three years in the House.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">His opponent was Helen Gahagan Douglas, a Democratic congresswoman whom Nixon called the Pink Lady, based on her "softness" on Communism, a condition Nixon claimed President Truman's administration suffered from.


 * Once Nixon was elected to the Senate, he joined the **Permanent Investigations Subcommittee** chaired by **Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisonsin**.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">McCarthy was also making a name for himself as an **aggresive anticommunist**.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">On February 9 1950, McCarthy had delivered a Lincoln Day speech to the Republican Women's Club of Wheeling, West Viginia.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">He was eager to rouse the bored crowd and held up a sheet of paper, declaring that he has a list of **205 names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist party** and are still working in shaping policy in the State Department.


 * This **unsupported** claim immediately made him famous over night and launched a wave of **anticommunist hysteria** that dominated politics for the next decade.
 * This period was named for **McCarthy** because it was characterized by **constant use of misleading information** and hints which he specialized.
 * It did not matter that McCarthy never produced any names or the fact that he kept changing the number of people or that **in 4 years of investigation** he never documented a **single case of espionage**.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The fears of **Communist infiltration** that the Hiss case had aroused along with the August 1949 explosion of a **Soviet atomic bomb** and the **victory of Mao's Communists** in China a month later created a large anticommunist audience.

**NSC-68**


 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Learning from World War II and the developing Soviet threat, Congress passed the **National Security Act of 1947** which recognized the government's military and foreign policy and establishments.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">It grouped the war and navy departments together into a single **Department of Defense**.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">The **Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)** was also formed to take over the Office of Strategic Services
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">**National Security Council (NSC)** was also formed as a focus for national security planning in the executive branch. Members of the NSC include the President, vice president, secretary of state, secretary of defense, director of central intelligence and several other sub-cabinet officials.


 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">On January 1950, Truman requested the NSC conduct a review of US national security strategy on recent developments like the Soviet bomb and Communist takeover of China.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">This resulted in a 58 page record called **NSC-68** and was delivered on April 7 under the direction of **Paul Nitze (replaced Kennan)**.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">This document laid out the national security strategy that the US would follow for the next 20 years.


 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Nitze's group began with two bases, that the defeat of Germany and Japan and the decline of Britain and France have made the US and USSR the only two world powers.Second was that the USSR followed different political ideas from the US and wants to impose Communism all over the world.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">After pointing out several possibilities, NSC-68 said that the only way to counter the Soviet threat was with **massive military buildup**.


 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Others led by Kennan disagreed, not even the new Soviet bomb had shaken Kennan's decision that the threat from the Soviets were political.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">He criticized Nitze's assumption that the Soviets wanted to take over the world with force.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Kennan warned that the buildup would not produce security but a destabilizing arms race.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Even though he seemed to be winning the argument, on June 25, Communist NOrth Korea invaded the US-backed SOuth Korea resulting in more Republicans claiming Truman was soft on Communism.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">To respond to this, Truman's administration tripled their defense spending, increasing it from 5% in 1950 to 14% in 1953.

= Questions = Why would Alger Hiss, an American help spy on his own country for the Soviet Union? What would happen if America had actually listened to Niels Bohr's advice? If America never increased the military spendings, could have this stockpile have been avoided? Do you think Kennan was right or wrong? What positive effects and negative effects did the Cold War bring to the world?

= Summary = There were many reasons on why the Cold War began, the Russians never got along well with the Americans and British for much of the times since they had different government ideologies. Furthermore, the Americans and British kept secret information like the Atomic Bomb from the Russians, but through spying, the Russians discovered that and got angry. Then Russia began to expand their Communism around Europe and the Americans had to stop into help in the Marshall Plan,the Europeans and America also formed NATO to protect themselves in numbers against the Soviets. The Soviets retaliated with the Warsaw Pact, soon there was even more spying and military spendings began to increase.

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