Roots+Of+Cold+War+InNo+4.10.2011

Awesomeness Please excuse my wrong spelling of Manhattan in the title. This Toondo was purely for fun, as i doubt the real Harry Truman got mad that he was never informed of the Manhattan Project while he was still Vice President. What interested me in this though was the fact that the Manhattan Project was so classified that even Harry Truman was not told of it until he became President, and Vice President was already a very high seat in the government.

Unoriginal: This is the Berlin Airlift. Every minute there would be a flight in to supply food and supply and all the necessities too the nearly disintegrated Berlin because of the Soviet Blockade. Clearly the Soviets preferred Germany remaining to be a junkyard and dysfunctional. The British and the U.S wanted to help and so began the desperate massive Airlift. This moment of history was important because it symbolized the United States desperation the help fend off aggression from the Soviet and to save Germany from post-war as it was almost like an apocalypse.

Citation: Photograph. Web. .



here sits the big three of World War II (front left to right): Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill. These three had meetings where they discussed what should be done and what is planned. While they were "supposed" to be collaborating on fighting the common enemy, Roosevelt and Churchill had been keeping Stalin out of many secrets instead of sharing the knowledge, such as the atomic bomb. Tension was already high between the USSR and the rest of the allied forces and keeeping secrets from Stalin made things even worse. Citation: Photograph. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. .

The Bolsheviks
 * During 1917 in Russia, two revolutions broke out, the first one being the provisional government led by Kerensky against the autocrat Nicholas II in March.
 * After the provisional government took over control, the second revolution started when Lenin led the communist party to drive out the provisional government during November.
 * Lenin's followers were known as the Bolsheviks, being the Russian Social Democratic Party. The Russian adverb Bolshe means More, and in this way it was to make it so that Lenin represents the majority of the Russian socialists, which it actually didn't.
 * The U.S government did not care about the Bolsheviks until after Lenin's death in 1924 and until Stalin gained power in 1928.
 * The relationship between the U.S and Russia did not go very well since the start. When U.S forces entered France to fight the Central Power, Russia had surrendered and it seemed as if Russia abandoned the Allied forces.
 * Another thing that caused tension between the Bolsheviks and the United States was that the U.S was capitalist, while the Bolsheviks were communist, and this causes distrust and suspicion between the two factions.
 * The Bolsheviks had wanted to replace capitalism in Russia with communism, and with the Comintern, it caused a civil war within Russia, and the U.S was amongst many countries to send aid to the anti-Bolsheviks in Russia.
 * The Anti-Bolsheviks along with the foreign armies fared badly against the red army due to no cooperation, and soon after the red armies victory, the USSR was established in late 1922.
 * Even though the U.S helped Russia through the famine in 1920 as well as establishing commercial relations with the USSR during 1921-1929, the USSR was only recognized formally in 1933 by the U.S.

The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression pact
 * Under the new economic policies, the USSR controlled all large economic enterprises and with the Five-Year Plan, it moved the country into an even greater economic control.
 * Stalin did this as he feels Russia is fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. He thinks that either they improve theirs within 10 years or be destroyed.
 * On March 1933, Franklin Roosevelt realized the policy of nonrecognition was void and that it made no sense. On November 17th Roosevelt invited Soviet Foreign Minister Litvinov to Washington and formal diplomatic relations were created between the two countries.
 * Stalin did not trust Germany or Hitler before world war II and was weary of Hitler, but his distrust for Britain and France was greater and so he began hinting to Germany that a negotiation could be in place.
 * The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact was made in secret and nine days after it was made Poland was invaded by Germany.
 * The Pact was only used to as a delay tactic for both sides. Hitler wanted to invade the West before taking the East, while Stalin was not ready for war until at least 1942.

A Marriage Of Convenience
 * Roosevelt convinced the Congress to release the Lend-Lease Act, which allowed the U.S to sell supplies to countries fighting against Germany and Japan.
 * When the Soviets entered the war in 1941, the U.S considered them as a friend and also offered the Lend-Lease Act to the Soviets.
 * After the U.S entered the war, they tried to work on a better U.S Soviet relationship, with the U.S posting up propaganda to support how the Russians were hardworking people. But the animosity of Bolshevism could not be fixed and the tension could not be set aside as the animosity had been around for a long time.
 * Stalin wanted a second front on the West, and sent Foreign Minister Molotov to Washington. Roosevelt promised Molotov to invade Germany-Occupied France by the end of that year.
 * Winston Churchill did not agree to the U.S plan of taking France prematurely, and later convinces Roosevelt to follow his plan. This greatly upsets Stalin and Russia is still faring the worst in the warfare.

The Big Three at Tehran
 * Stalin was again disappointed in 1943 when Roosevelt and Churchill postponed an invasion against France.
 * Stalin was already suspicious of his allies, and were made worst when he sees that Churchill pursues his self interest at the cost of numerous Russian lives.
 * On November 1943 the big three of Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt met in Tehran. The invasion code-named Overlord was created and was set to launch on May 1 of 1944.

Yalta
 * The Big Three met again in February of 1944 in Yalta with four main issues: the organization to take over the disbanded League Of Nations, Future of Eastern Europe, Status of Germany, and entry of Russia in the Pacific War.
 * Stalin wanted Germany to pay heavily as well as having recognition of communist government set up in Lublin as well as other demands.
 * Roosevelt, in his poor health conditions, could do nothing to stop Stalin from making the demands and both Roosevelt and Churchill could not really do anything.

The Division Of Germany
 * After British and American forces crossed Rhine in March 1945, Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander, wanted to capture the Ruhr Valley, prevent Nazi troops from withdrawing to the Bavarian alps, and to avoid an unintentional clash with Soviet troops heading West.
 * Germany finally surrendered on May 7th, and the successor of Hitler had previously tried to make an alliance with the Western armies so Germany could keep fighting the Russians. However Harry Truman disagreed and wanted Germany to surrender to all fronts.
 * Germany was divided into four parts.

The Manhattan Project
 * President Franklin Roosevelt died on April 12th of 1945. Vice President Harry Truman now became president.
 * After he was President, he was told of the Manhattan Project, which was the codename for the production of the atomic bomb. He was never briefed on this as he was considered too low-leveled to know this intel.
 * When U.S hears that Germany was creating a bomb using nuclear physics, the U.S government quickly rushed to compete and to build the bomb before Germany does and use it.

Knowledge Of The Bomb
 * The British had been informed about the Manhattan Project while the Soviets were informed yet.
 * Physicists Niels Bohr urged Churchill and Roosevelt to tell Stalin and the Soviets about the project, but they instead decided to not tell the Soviets any of the plan.
 * Truman questions whether they should keep Manhattan Project out of Stalin's knowledge, but continued Roosevelt's policy of hiding the Project from Stalin.

Potsdam
 * Truman, Churchill, and Stalin meets again and Stalin was very forthcoming with his information.
 * Harry Truman finally mentions the atomic bomb, but very briefly and casually.
 * Stalin had already known of the Manhattan Project, due to spies within the project itself and a secret Soviet atomic program was already underway. the secrecy the Soviets and U.S held made Stalin's mistrust even greater and did not help improve relations between the countries.
 * While the Manhattan Project was attempted to be withheld from the Soviets, after Stalin knew about it from the spies, Truman and Churchill see Stalin's deepest fear of that the atomic bomb might be used on the USSR as well as Japan.

Containment
 * After the Nagasaki and Hiroshima were bombed, cooperation between the U.S and Soviets broke down completely.
 * As soon as many countries were liberated from Germany, the Soviets annexed many Baltic States and taking many other countries to be Soviet Satellites.
 * George Kennan wrote a policy for the Soviets and the U.S relations as well as for containing the Soviet expansion.

The Truman Doctrine
 * Truman realized that Kennan was right, but Truman had no way of helping the countries the Soviets took over.
 * The USSR became a dominant military power in Europe and because of communism and pressure of the Soviets, Greece went through a civil war while Turkey became weak.
 * Dean Acheson concluded that if Greece and Turkey are allowed to fall, other small countries will also in a domino effect.
 * As a result of Dean Acheson's argument, aid was sent to Greece and Turkey both economically and militarily to fend off communism.

Disarray In postwar Europe
 * U.S,Britain, France, and the USSR met in Yalta to discuss Germany's future. It was agreed a freely elected government would be in place, but France was scared that the future Germany would be a threat again, while the USSR were just quarrelsome, to no ones surprise.
 * Many disputes were made over reparations, and in the end a deadlock was reached. Germany simply could not pay reparations, most the major cities were rubble, factories were destroyed and there was not much food left, and many were on the verge of starvation.

The Marshall Plan
 * On June 5th 1947, Secretary Of State Marshall did a speech to graduating class of Harvard about the foreign policy the U.S was facing.
 * Marshall concluded that he had a solution where European nations create a joint recovery plan with the U.S funding the recovery plan.
 * Marshall's offer was quickly accepted by the British and French foreign ministers, and a meeting was to be held with twenty two countries invited to take part, with only Soviet Union and five of it's client states refusing.
 * Stalin did not want part of the meeting because he believed if there was free movement of goods and service then there would be a free movement of people.
 * The Western leaders however thinks that Stalin did not want to go because he was trying to block postwar stability, and it added even more international tension.
 * The European Plan was estimated to cost a steep seventeen billion dollars, and while there were some objections to it, the bill was eventually passed and became the most expensive foreign policy.

The Berlin Airlift
 * The Soviet Union preferred that Germany remains disintegrated and unable. This promptly caused the U.S and Britain to shore up their sectors and the two made a single political unit known as the Bizonia. A new currency for Germany was also abruptly made as it is crucial to saving Germany's economy.
 * With the new currency, the Soviet Union withdrew all the support, railway lines, roads, water, and all the necessities that kept West Berlin alive.
 * The Soviet Union refused to support Britain and the U.S, and so the two countries began a massive airlift to send supplies to Berlin.
 * West Berlin became a U.S symbol of countering Soviet aggression by the time the Soviet's lifted their ban.

Nato and Warsaw Pact
 * Kennan had advised that militarization of the cold war was both unwise and unnecessary.
 * All of America's European allies agreed that militarization would cause the Soviet to do the same, but they were nervous as after WWII ended they all demilitarized.
 * The Soviets still retained a massive army and to prepare for any future confrontations, the European countries asked for the U.S for help and so a contract was signed known as the North Atlantic Treaty, which created the North Atlantic Organization (NATO).
 * Five days after the creation of NATO, the Soviet Union did the same thing and created the Warsaw pact.

The Hiss Case
 * On August 3rd of 1948, Time magazine senior editor Whittaker Chambers was called to testify to the HUAC. He admitted that he was once part of a Communist cell in Washington D.C. Chambers also admitted that former State Official Alger Hiss was also part of the cell.
 * Hiss denied everything and acted very calmly, which naturally caused the committee to back of Hiss. But Richard Nixon questioned Whittaker Chambers again privately and believes that he was telling the truth.
 * Another hearing was held on August 25th and after extensive questions, Hiss began to lose his cool and his story unravels. Chambers brings State document that was in Hiss's handwriting and typed on his type writer. If the documents were genuine then Hiss had committed espionage.
 * From 1941 to 1945 the American citizens were told that the Russians were their friends. But if someone with as high of a level as Hiss was really a Soviet spy, then the people would not know who to belief, and so the Hiss case has caused anxiety to arise.

McCarthyism
 * Nixon became very famous after the Hiss case and was able to secure senator nomination within three years.
 * McCarthy was making himself to be an aggressive anticommunist, and during a speech he declared he had a list of 205 people who were in the Communist party and was still in the State Department.
 * A wave of anticommunist hysteria swept over the U.S much to McCarthy s surprise.

NSC-68
 * Congress passed the National Security Act in 1947, which reorganized the government's military and foreign policy establishments.
 * In January 1950, Truman requested the NSC to conduct a review on U.S national security strategy in light of Soviet creation of bombs and the communism taking over China.
 * The review resulted in a fifty eight memorandum under Paul Nitze, and the highly influential document laid out the national strategy that the U.S will take in the next twenty years.
 * Nitze believed that the only way to counter the Russian threat was to do a massive military buildup. Kennan and a few others disagreed to this, and said that to do so would not bring security, but a destabilizing arm race.

Questions
 * Why did Stalin and the USSR refuse to be part of the meeting on Marshall's recovery plan for Germany?
 * How did anticommunist hysteria grow in America after the war?
 * What was NATO and the Warsaw pact?
 * What was the Berlin Airlift, and what was its significance?
 * What was the Manhattan Project?

Summary The USSR started when it was still known as the Bolsheviks party, the Russian Social Democratic Party. Truman gains knowledge of the atomic bomb from the secret Manhattan project after he became president, and Stalin had already known this, and what was already a high tension between the two countries continued to rise. After the war ended the USSR stopped cooperating with any of the other countries and began an expansion for itself and stopped helping its once allies during the war, causing even more tension. The conflict with the USSR made it a decision of whether a war was going to break out with the Soviets as now there are the NATO faction and the Soviet's own Warsaw Pact. With the rise of Communism and also Communism taking over China as well as the Hiss case, hysteria broke through the U.S on the Communist and Russian threat and was only made worst when McCarthy tried to make himself an important aggressive anti-communist and declared he knows who within the State Department was in the Communist party.