-Ho+Soo+Jin's+Roots+of+the+Cold+War+notes+03.29.11

=Awesomeness= == The idea of the Manhattan Project originated in an August 1939. This is a letter that Hungarian emigre Leo Szilard persuaded his friend Albert Einstein to write, informing President Roosevelt of some troubling developments in nuclear physics.

The first face-to-face meeting of the Big THree took place in November 1943 in Tehran. To FDR, the Tehran Conference represented an eagerly awaited opportunity to test his formidable personal charm against the gruff Soviet leader.

= = =**The Roots Of The Cold War**= - **Two revolution**s took place in Russia, one in March and one in November. - **Bolsheviks**- People who followed Lenin. - When the Bolsheviks was first established, the U.S.A didn't really care. - Russia signed the Treaty of Breast-Litovsk with the Central Powers when US troops came to join Allied side during WW1. - The Bolsheviks wanted **Communism** and the US wanted **Capitalism**. - In 1919 Bolsheviks established the Comintern. - **Reds** vs **Whites** (Russian Civil War) the US troops helped the Whites (anti-Bolsheviks)
 * 1. The Bolsheviks**

- The Soviet state controlled the nation's **large economic enterprises** such as factories, mines, railroads etc... - Under Stalin's **Five-Year Plan**, the nation was more heavily by the Soviet state. - Stalin believed Russia's economic was very far behind compared to advanced countries. - When **Franklin Roosevelt** became the president of USA soon realized that the US policy of nonrecognition no longer made sense. - Japan and Germany started to grow their **military forces**. - Russia allied with Germany. - Russia believed Britain and France would assume defensive positions and let his nation face the Geramn onslaugh on its own. - Russia was not ready to fight. - Hitler tried to avoid fighting in the east untill Germay was victorious in the west. - In fact, Britain held longer than expected. - HItler then **invades the Soviet Union** in June 1941 thinking German victory would demoralize the British into surrendering.
 * 2. The Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact**

- The Soviets entered the War in June, so Roosevelt sent Russia Lend-Lease aid as well. - After Pearl Harbor US and Soviet tried to improve their relationship. - Roosevelt and Churchill had two different ideas. - Winston Churchill believed that the only way to lose the war was to invade **France** prematurely. - Roosevelt accepted Churchill's plan, so in 1942 invaded North Africa. - This made **Stalin** very upset.
 * 3. A Marriage of Convenience**
 * - Lend- Lease Act**- authorized the release of military aid to countries fighting Germany and Japan.

- **U.S.A, Soviet Union, Britain** - Stalin was upset again when US and the British postponed the invasino of France. - The first Big Three meeting took place in November 1943 in **Tehran**. - Roosevelt without giving much info to Stalin, committed the US to a luanch date of May 1, 1944, and Churchill had no choice but to agree. - Nevertheless, Roosevelt came way from Tehran frustrated.
 * 4. The Big Three At Tehran**

- In Feb 1945 the Big Three met again on the Black Sea. - Four issues 1. The creation of an organizatino to succeed the disbanded **League of Natinos** 2. The future of Eastern Europe 3. The status of Geramny 4. Soviet entry into the **Pacific war**. - Stalin wanted veto power for permanent members of the Security Council. - Roosevelt and Churchill conceded nearly all of these demands because, short of declaring war on the Soviets, there was little they could do. - To save face, Americans and British officials filled the texts of the various Yalta agreements with an abundance of empty words.
 * 5. Yalta**

- Once American and British forces crossed the **Rhine** in March 1945, the supreme Allied commander, pursued three main goals 1. Capturing the Ruhr Valley 2. Germany's industiral heratland 3. Preventing a Nazi withdrawal to the Bavarian; and avoiding an unintentinoal clash with Soviet troops heading west. - Shortly before dawn on April 16, the Soviets began their main assualt on the German capital. - The surrender finally came on May7 (Germany), ater which Germany was divided into four occupations zones along boundaires previsoulsy determined by a **joint commission**.
 * 6. The Division of Germany**

- Rossevelt died on APril 12, 1945. - The idea of the **Manhattan Project originated in August 1939**. - The subsequent US atomic effort was supervised by Maj.Gen.Leslie R. Groves of the Army Corps of Engineers. - Most of the Manhattan project site was Los Alamos, New Mexico. - Testing bombs took place on the grounds of a **private school** for boys that Oppenheimer had visited.
 * 7. The Manhattan Project**

- As part of his April 25 Bomb briefing, Truman learned that the British knew all about the Manhattan Project, but the Soviets didn't know yet. - Even a cursory examination of Interim Committee mintues shows that the group had much wider goals than merely the defeat of Japan. - The **Atomic bomb** was dropped in Nangasaki and Hiroshima. - Bayrnes and other wanted to operate from a position of demonstrated strength.
 * 8. Knowledge of the Bomb**

- In July 1945, Truman traveled traveled to the Berlin suburb of Potsdam to meet with Churchill and Stalin. - Stalin was very forthcoming during the meeting because of his **spy**. - The US could end the Pacific war quickly and without Soviet involvement. - Truman didn't tell Stalin about the bomb until nearly a week later. - Stalin already knew about it, because of his spies. - Turman and Churchill confirmed Stalin's deepest fear: that the bomb was meant for **Moscow** next.
 * 9. The Roots of the Cold War**

- After the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, Soviet-American cooperation broke down completely. - After returning to Washington in April 1946, Kennan published his reasoning in a landmark July 1947 Foreign Affairs article that he signed only as X. - **Kennan** believed the postwar USSR had two goals. 1. Establishing a security corridor around its homeland 2. And **exporting communism** to other countires. - Kennan discussed four regions of vital interest to the US: "Western Europe, the Western Hemisphere, Japan, and the Middle East.
 * 10. Containment**

- Truman realized that there was little he could do to liberate territory already uner Soviet control. - The Soviets became the ominant military power in Europe. - Having already spoken with the Greek president, Truman concluded that only substantail American aid could keep **Greece and Turkey out of the Soviet sphere**. - **The Truman Doctrine**: The commitment of the USA to aid, economically and/or militarily, any nation threatened by Communism.
 * 11. The Truman Doctrine**

- At Yalta and agin at Potsdam, it had been agreed that Germany would be reunified uner a central, freely elected gov. - Disputes arose at the Moscow conference over war reparations, the level of industry that should be permitted in a reunited Germany. - The economic and political situation in Western Europe was becoming dire. - Nearly six years of **pervasive Allied bombing** had turned most the large cities into seas of rubble. - The effect that this economic turmoil was having on the political situation in Europe could be seen by everyone, not just the Soviets. - marshal began by instructing Kennan, who had recently been appointed the State Department's new director of policy planning -To investigate the economic situation in Europe and determine what assistance the US might be able to provide.
 * 12. Disarray in Postwar Europe**

- Marshall outlined the foreign policy problems that the U.S was facing in Europe. - Marshall proposed a solution, He wanted the European nations to **devise a joint recovery plan** based on the principles of self-helps, resource sharing, and German reintegration; and he wanted the US to fund it. - Marshall's offer was quickly taken by the French minister. - Soviet however didn't accept. - Stalin didn't like it because Western leaders saw his antagonism simply as another effort to block postwar stabilization. - This grew the international tension. - The European plan became very vital the the **European Recovery Program**. - After a Soviet-backed coup d'etat ousted the democratically elected gov of Czech, opposition to the bill disappeared. - America soon was becoming the global leader.
 * 13. The Marshall Plan**

- As the Soviet preference for a disintegrated, unstable Germany became clear, the Americans and British moved to shore up their sectors. - In March 1948, the French agreed to add their sector, creating Trizonia, the territory that would later become **West Germany**. - US and British abruptly introduced a new currency. - Germany took place on the black market using a barter system. - Shopkeepers began accepting cash again. - A massive **airlift** began on June 26. - The task seemed hopeless in the beginning but Truman quickly sent over a hundred large-capacity C-54s to make up the difference and more.
 * 14. The Berlin Airlift**

- The Soviets weren't likely to deploy armed force beyond their Eastern European security corridor. IF the US took part in the creation of military alliances, Kennan believed, they would only provoke the Soviet Union to do the same. - After WWII they had quickly **demobilized**, but the Soviet Union still retained both a massive army and an extensive military infrastructure. - Treaty of Brussels provoked mutual defense. - Washington concerning a formal, permanent military alliance between the US and its European allies. - The result was the **North Atlantic Treaty Organization**. - NATO on May 9, 1955, the SOviets responded with the creation of a rival military alliance, the Warsaw Treaty Organization, or Warsaw Pact.
 * 15. Nato and the Warsaw Pact**

- On August 5, a poised and elegant **Hiss** appeared before the committee. - Another hearing was held on August 25. - Under intense questioning, especially from Nixon, Hiss lost his cool, and some parts of his story began to unravel. - The documents made by Chambers to defend himself, these documents were proof that HIss had committed espionage. - Between 1941 and 1945, Americans had been told repeatedly that the Russians were their friends.
 * 16. The Hiss Case**

- **Nixon** became famous during the Hiss case. - He became the **Senate** in 1950. - Nixon joined the Permanent Investigations Subcommittee chaired by Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin. - The period was later named for McCarthy because it was characterized by the frequent use of misrepresentation and innuendo in which he specialized. - It didn't matter that during four years of investigations he never documented a single case of disloyalty.
 * 17. Mccarthyism**

- Congress passed the National Security Act of 1947, which reorganized the government's military and foreign policy establishments. - It created the **Central Intelligence Agency** as a successor to the wartime Office of Strategic Services and the **National Security Council** as a focus for natinoal security planning within the executive branch. - In Jan 1950, Truman requested that the **NSC** conduct a comprehensive review of US national security strategy in light of such recent developments as the Soviet bomb and the Communist take over China. - Kennan appeared to be winning the argument until June 25, when Communist **North Korea** invaded US- backed South Korea, leading to more Republication charges that Truman was soft on Communism.
 * 18. NSC-68**

1. How did the Russians already know about the Nuclear bombs? 2. What is NSC-68? 3. What is the Hiss Case? Who were involved? And why is it so important? 4. What is the Manhattan Project? And who did it involve? 5. Who did U.S support? the Reds or the Whites? Please explain why.
 * Questions**

During the Russian Civil War, the US supported the Whites. Since then, the relationship between the US and the USSR became very bad. As WWII started, US helped USSR which helped them get better relationship but soon, after the atomic bombed was used, the relationship got worse. US anti Communist didn't like USSR, economic disarray in Western Europe, the NSC-68 all led to Cold War.
 * Summary**