InNo+Roots+of+the+Cold+War+Jerry+Liang+April+18th+2011

History Roots of the Cold War 1-12 notes 1. The Bolsheviks • In 1917, Russia went through two revolutions. • Nicholas II was overthrown by the Anti-Tsar groups. • They created the Provisional Government, soon led by the socialist Alexander Kerensky. • However, soon enough, Kerensky and the Provisional Government was overthrown by Lenin’s Communist party. • Lenin’s followers were known as the Bolsheviks. • The U.S., disliked the Bolsheviks. • Bolsheviks new regime was totalitarian, which became clear as Stalin took over right after Lenin’s death. • The U.S., particularly disliked them because when their troops united with the French to join the Allied side of the World War I, the Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany, therefore did not contribute to the Allied side. • The other reason why Bolsheviks were disliked was because they wanted to take out the capitalism in the world and replace it with communism. • They established a Communist International, to unite countries under communist regime. • When the Russian civil-war started, the U.S., decided to send in troops (among with many other Western powers) for the anti-Bolsheviks. • However, Bolsheviks still defeated the anti-Bolsheviks (whites), and Bolsheviks created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. • Immediate antagonism was felt by the U.S., government towards the Bolsheviks regime.

2. The Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact • During the new economic changes in Russia, the Soviets owned all the railways, factories, mines, etc… • There were few small, private companies that were allowed to run. • With Stalin’s Five-Year Plan, the Soviets grabbed even more control of Russia’s economy. • The plan involved trying to forcibly organize peasantry, and increase heavy industry. • Stalin believed that they were severely behind, and that they needed to catch up to all the other advanced countries. • Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, decided that non-recognition of Soviets were useless, as it wasn’t restraining communism. • F.D.R invited the Soviet foreign minister to the white house, and the U.S., & Soviets made diplomatic ties. • When WWII was on its way, Stalin considered which road he should take. • He was worried that Britain and France would not have Russia’s back if it came to war with Germany. • He decided to sign a peace treaty with Germany, with Soviet neutrality. • This was called the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. • The pact was only a delay, as Germany knew it would attack Russia soon, and Russia knew Germany would attack soon.

3. A marriage of Convenience • In March 1941, Roosevelt requested that the Congress make a Lend-Lease Act. • Permit the U.S., to give military aid to any country that was fighting Germany or Japan. • Tactic for F.D.R., to help Britain, China, and other countries to stay alive, while he persuaded America to join the war. • When Russia went into war with Germany, the U.S., recognized it as an ally and sent them aids as well. • After the U.S., joined the war due to Pearl Harbor, many efforts were made to try and improve Russia’s image on Americans. • US still held grudge against Bolsheviks. • Things did not improve, Soviets wanted more military aid (the second front). • Winston Churchill, the prime minister of Great Britain, thought that it would be foolish of the U.S., army to move prematurely. • Us listened to Churchill and did not invade early. • The Soviets disappointed by their plan. • Churchill traveled to Moscow to try and convince the Soviets that Germany will be defeated.

4. The Big Three at Tehran • Stalin disappointed that british and us did not invade france. **Casablanca conference** agreed to postpone invasion. • They decided to focus more on Northern Africa, successfully kicking Germany out of Tunisia. • Stalin thought that it was very suspicious, when Churchill focused on the imperial wealth of Britain (by invading Sicily, a place of interest), when Russian soldiers were dying. • In November 1943, the big three met in Tehran. • F.D.R. tried to convince Stalin, and win him over. • During the talk in Tehran, Germany’s future, postwar borders of Poland and many other issues were discussed. • F.D.R came back disappointed, did not personally meet stalin. Stalin left pleased, knowing that FDR knows that who ever occupies a territory can have. its own social system. 5. Yalta • The Big Three met again in February 1945 at a place called Yalta on the Black Sea. • They discussed 4 things. 1.re-creating League of Nations 2 the future of eastern European countries 3.Germany’s future, 4.Soviet’s entry into the ongoing Pacific War. • F.D.R poor health conditions, found it hard to resist Stalin’s demands. • He wanted the Communist government to continue running in Poland, and requested Germany pay ten billion dollars’ worth of equipments, as a reparations for the war. • Roosevelt could not say no, churchhill and Roosevelt had to go with him because stalin had the high ground. • Soviets had the best military **(Red Army)**, therefore Stalin decided to use this for political gain. • Stalin got what he wanted, as the U.S., and Great Britain signed various Yalta agreements, called the Declaration on Liberated Europe.

6. The Division of Germany • When the Great Britain and the U.S., army crossed the Rhine borders of Germany, the U.S. troop commander Dwight Eisenhower had three main goals. 1. Capture ruhr valley, 2 prevent nazi withdrawal to Bavarian alps 3 avoiding unintentional clash with soviet troops heading west. • To avoid clashing with soviets **Eisenhower** sent their plans to stalin in return they asked for their plans too. • Churchill was angered by this act, because it was basically giving up Berlin to the Soviets. • Britain could not do anything, and the U.S., had bigger concerns, including the Ruhr valley, and hopes to end the war with least deaths. • April 16, Soviets started their attack on the German capital. · April 26th final phase, lots of street fighting. • April 30, Hitler committed suicide. • In May 2, **Karl Donitz**, Hitler’s successor, offered a peace treaty with the U.S., so that Germany could continue fighting the Soviets. • The new president Harry Truman decided against it, and requested for Germany’s immediate surrender. • In May 7, Germany surrendered to all enemies, and Germany was divided into four zones. • The race to Berlin began, as the U.S., Britain, and France closed in on the western side of Berlin, and U.S.S.R., on the eastern side. **7. The Manhattan Project**

· April 12 1945 FDR died, Truman was shocked.

· Shocked about **Manhattan project**

· Kept top secret, vice president did not have the clerance to know about it.

· Formally briefed on april 25th. Within 4 months buld the deadliest weapon in the world.

· August 1939 Leo Szilard persuaded alber Einstein to inform FDR about the difficulties in nuclear physics.

· German war office said the first country to use it would hav the advantage.

· Enrico Fermi working under the football fied of university of Chicago created first controlled nuclear chain reaction.

· Other places they tried to refine uranium and plutonium into the fuel.

· Test sites included Los Alamos and New mexico.

**8. knowledge of the bomb** · British knew about the project, Russia did not. · Niels Bohr wanted Churchill and FDR to tell stalin because stalin was a huge part in the postwar atomic controls · They did not tell him · Truman had new plans but were deciding whether or not to tell stalin. · **Hiroshima and Nagaski** were targeted for this attack · demonstrate the power of the bomb on a untouched surface. · More than just defewating japan, to show the world what they would expect in future wars. · To keep world peace, they need an initial slaughter · Byrnes wanted to operated from a position of strength so Oppenheimer’s idea of negotiating with the soviets before the bombing is refused ** 9. Potsdam ** · July 1945 truman went to berlin to meet chruchill and stalin. · German occupation was on the agenda but had to plan japan invasion (manhattan project) · Stalin reaffirmed that he would help in the pacific war. · Truman was informed that the testing of the bomb was successful. Finish war without Russian interference. · Stalin was informed about this a week later informally. · But stalin had spies inside the Manhattan project so he knew about it already. · His fear was that the bomb would aim for Moscow next.

**10. Containment** us bombed japan in 1945, soviet and american relationship broke down. Geroge F Kennan sent 50 sent word cable to secretary of state to discuss such problem. Us policy towards russia should be long term. USSR had two goals 1. establish a security corridor around its homeland. 2. export communism to other countries. cannot stop first goal but can stop spread of communism. Kennan established 4 regions of vital interest by US: **western Europe, western hemisphere, Japan and Middle East.** counter pressure, no need for cold war to be militarized **11. The Truman Doctrine** truman cannot do anything under soviet controlled land. British and french declining, russia is strongest in military strength. combine with non aligned countries. greece and turkey, soviet supporting group is always winning. greece in civil war that is supported by soviets are winning turkey goverment humiliated by soveiets because of weak military not fighitng back. cannot help greece or france (US) Truman told Undersecretary of State Dean Acheson to meet with the congressional leaders Acheson had a meeting with them and came up with the **Domino theory**, that if Greece and Turkey falls, other countries would fall too republicans agreed to give 400 million dollars in economy and military aid to greece and turkey. **Truman Doctrine** in March 12 shows the commitment of US to aid any country threatened by communism.

**12. Disarray in postwar Europe** -US British French Soviet foreign ministers gathered in Moscow to discuss future of germany. -yalta and Potsdam, agreed that germany would be reunified under a central freely elected government. -Germany pose future threat -disputes arose at Moscow conference, the level of industry that should be permitted in a reunited germany. -no agreement was reached on how centralized the new germany gov should be. -Us secretary of state gerorge c marshall left Moscow convinced that soviets wanted a deadlock because political stalemate aggravated the gorwing economic disarray in occupied germany and in western Europe. -allied bombing turned west Europe into seas of rubble, destroying economic infrastructure. -factories / businesses lacked many industrial supplies to be productive. S -severe unemployment. -food was scarce - Marshall wanted to keep soviets within its boarders, wonder what they needed to do to occupy Europe. **13. The Marshall Plan** - Europe’s requirements are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face economic social and political deteriation of a very grave character. -joint recovery plan, abase on the principles of self help resource sharing and german reintegration. - wanted usa funding. -got together british French plus 22 countries to go to conference in paris. -work of drawing up a cooperative plan. -stalin opposed the plan, it has its vision of an integrated European market, free movement of goods and European plan, became basis of the European recovery program- erp –proposed to congress, for seventeen billion dollars. -us economy could not afford it. -next four years us gov spent 13.3 billion or between 5-10 percent of its annual budget on erp aid.

**14. The Berlin Airlift** soviet did not want to help Germany. america and Britain wanted to make it clear. in 1947 created political unit **(Bizonia)** occupied Germany. French greed and see reared **Trizonia.** US Britain try to create independent state in western Germany, new currency Deutsche mark important part of economic recovery previous currency was worthless. Before 1948 used black market for trade. After the new currency the Soviet cut off the road rail, water and halting the food and fuel and other vital necessities which lead other country to protest for the enter of the region America and British later had to us airlift to carry the supplies.

**15.NAto and the Warsaw Pact** · 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. · was believed that economic and political counter pressure was enough to meet any form of expansionism. · the United States took part in creating military alliances, Kennan believed the Soviets would do the same. · 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. · They wanted to seek for safety in numbers, Britain, France and Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) signed the of Brussels on March 1948 which provided mutual defense. ·, 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. · 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. · The last three countries were initially denied by the European members, claiming that they were too different from each other. · same happened to Greece and Turkey although both were offered to join in 1952. · The addition of West Germany was difficult for NATO since they could not build enough military to fend off Soviet attacks without German manpower. · 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. · 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. · They composed of the USSR and its client states in Eastern Europe, (East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania.)

16.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). · told the congressmen he was once part of a secret Communist cell in Washington DC. · 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. · Another hearing was held on August 25 and was televised live for the first time. · 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. · Chambers provided State Department documents from 1937 and 1938 showing Hiss's hand writing and typings from his own personal typewriter. 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. 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. · 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.

17.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. · 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. · arthy was also making a name for himself as an agresive anticommunist. · On February 9 1950, McCarthy had delivered a Lincoln Day speech to the Republican Women's Club of Wheeling, West Viginia. · 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. · 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.

18.NSC-68 · 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. · It grouped the war and navy departments together into a single Department of Defense. · The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was also formed to take over the Office of Strategic Services · 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. · 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. · This resulted in a 58 page record called NSC-68 and was delivered on April 7 under the direction of Paul Nitze (replaced Kennan). · This document laid out the national security strategy that the US would follow for the next 20 years. · 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. · After pointing out several possibilities, NSC-68 said that the only way to counter the Soviet threat was with massive military buildup. · Others led by Kennan disagreed, not even the new Soviet bomb had shaken Kennan's decision that the threat from the Soviets were political. · He criticized Nitze's assumption that the Soviets wanted to take over the world with force. · Kennan warned that the buildup would not produce security but a destabilizing arms race. · 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. · To respond to this, Truman's administration tripled their defense spending, increasing it from 5% in 1950 to 14% in 1953. ·

**Summary** During the End of World War 2r 2, us and the ussr were allies and had a lend lease pact. As world war 2 ended so did the pact and alliance. Ussr had two goals one was to defend itself and the other was to spread communism around eastern europe. America had intensions to stop that spread .US and British were working on an atomic bomb, the manhattan project which they did not tell stalin about even at the potsdam meeting after it was developed. But stalin knew already because of his own russian spies. Stalin did not trust neither the US or USSR. McCarthyism the nstarted because of the fear of communism. Nato was then created and USSR created the Warsaw Treaty Organization. And at the end a new national security strategy and foreign policy was created the NCS.

**Questions** **1. What were the marriage of the convenience?** **2. What roles did spies take throughout the cold war?** **3. What did US fear that the Russians were doing?** **4. WHat was NATO and the warsaw treaty organization?** **5. What was the NCS?**


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