InNo+seank2013+4.6.11

=Roots of the Cold war=

Awesome
Below is a comic illustrating one of the many arguments about the cold war. And further below that, are some questions you could try answering about it. The answers are all the way on the bottom! Have a try :). The answers are not included in the notes below but if you're interested, you could research more about it here: []. This is an amazing map depicting the conflicting countries and alliances during the cold war. This link is where I found the image, and the website is surprisingly full of information that I haven't included in my notes. Take a look and refer to the map for a better understanding of the information. []

And finally... my created awesomeness. The image depicts the notes below in an obviously visual way, which is very helpful as it organizes all the information in one place. This was created through photoshop, and I hope it to be helpful to you. The blue of the background was to emphasize the "coldness" of the cold war.

The Bolsheviks

 * 1917 - two revolutions against Tsar Nicholas II in Russia results in his resignition.
 * Established a provisional government led by Prince Goergy Lvov and then y socialist Alexander KErensky
 * November 1917 - the government was overthrown once again, but this time by the Vladimir Lenin's Cmomunist party, which seized power in the name of the soviets.
 * Lenin's followers were known as Bolsheviks.
 * 1924 - Lenin died
 * 1928 - Joseph Stalin took power
 * March 1918 - Bolsheviks signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers, taking Russia out of the war. Previously, Russia was fighting with the Allies.
 * March 1919 - Bolsheviks established the Comintern to work "by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie."
 * 1921 - After civil war broke out, United States lost after having sent troops to support the anti- Bolshevik Whites in their fight against the Bolshevik Reds.
 * 1922 - Reds established Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact

 * Under the new economic policy, the Soviet state controlled all the large economic enterprises--factories, mines, railroads, etc.
 * 1929 to 33 - Five-Year Plans forcibly organized the peasantry and compelled the rapid development of new heavy industry
 * March 1933 - FDR invited Soviet foreign minister Maxim Litvinov to Washington, and on November 17 the two nations agred to establish formal diplomatic relations
 * As world war II approached, Stalin considered his options. Although his dislike for the Germans was great, his distrust for the British and the French was even greater.
 * April 1939 - Stalin considered negotiating an agreement to provide Soviet neutrality in the event of war.
 * August 1939 - the two sides secretly negotiated the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. Nine days later, Germany invaded Poland.
 * June 1941 - Hitler invaded the Soviet Union anticipating a swift victory which demoralized the British into surrendering.

Mariage of Convenience

 * March 1941 - Roosvelt persuaded Congress to pass the Lend-Lease Act, which authorized the release of military aid to countires fighting Germany and Japan.
 * 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 of 1904-5.
 * 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**

 * April 12, 1945 - FDR died
 * April 25 - Successor president Truman was briefed of the Manhattan Project (the development of the Atomic Bomb)

**Knowledge of the Bomb**

 * It was kept a secret from the soviets despite efforts to gain Stalin's trust.
 * The bombing was without a doubt to be used in the current war because it would essentially warn the world what would happen if war was to break out again.

**Potsdam**

 * July 1945 - Conference held in Berlin suburb of Potsdam where Truman, Churchill and Stalin discussed the matters of the German occupation, the invasion of Japan, and the Manattan Project
 * The atomic bomb was supposed to be used in order to save the lives that would've been lost due to an invasion to Japan.
 * July 18 - Truman received a brief cable informing him the first atomic test had been more successful than anticipated. Now Us could end the Pacific war quickly without Soviet involvment.
 * The attempt to keep the knowledge of the Manhattan Project confirmed Stalins fear that the atomic bomb was to be used against the USSR as well as Japan.

**Containment**

 * George F. Kennan wrote a 5300 word cable to Secretary of State Bymes discussing the matters of the Soviet Union
 * He said that the US had to have a long-term containment of Russian expansive tendencies, which in other words means to apply sufficient countpressure on them so that there would be no need to militarize the Cold War.

**The Truman Doctrine**

 * March 12 - Truman agreed to the commitment of the United States to aid, economically and/or militarily, any nation threatened by Communism. It was Acheson's argument that convinced the congress which led to four hundred million dollars funding to aid Greece and Turkey. The speech he gave on this day became known as the Truman Doctrine.

**The Dissaray in Postwar Europe**

 * The devastation of nearly six years of war left Western Europe in economic disarray, providing fertile ground for the growth of Communist movements there.


 * The Marshall Plan**
 * The goal of the Marshall plan was to promote European economic recovery and thus halt the political destabilization that economic hardship was causing.
 * June 15, 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.
 * A join 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.
 * 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.
 * The decision was settled by events abroad, after a Soviet backed coup d'etat defeated Czechoslovakia's democratic government in February 1948.
 * 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.
 * Along with the Truman Doctrine, it signaled America's step to become a global leader.

**Berlin Airlift**

 * New currency, Deutsch mark, appeared in West Berlin on June 23 . The next day, the Soviets cut off all shipments of food, fuel and other vital supplies that kept West Berlin alive.
 * The allies' protests were ignored by the soviets, and so they resolved to a massive airlift to carry supplies to West Berlin which began on June 26.
 * By May 12, when the Soviets finally lifted their blockade, West Berlin became a symbol of US resolve to counter Soviet aggression without resorting to direct conflict.

**Nato and the Warsaw Pact**

 * 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.
 * If the United States took part in creating military alliances, Kennan believed the Soviets would do the same.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * The last three countries were initially denied by the European members, claiming that they were too different from each other.
 * The 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.

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).
 * He 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.
 * 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.

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.
 * McCarthy 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.

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
The many reasons for the cause of the Cold war was mostly composed of the ideological differences between USSR and USA. Their differing ruling systems, communism and capitalism respectively, have led to conflicting problems even though they were supposed to work together against Germany. It led to the formation of the NATO and Warsaw Pact, the Hiss case, the secrecy of the atomic bomb, and McCarthyism. Kennan's theory of containment stated that militarization was unnecessary, and influenced many of the decisions of the US government which resulted in the Berlin Airlift event. Due to their geographical locations, USA allied with Western Europe while USSR with the East.

**Questions** Who were the big three? What was the Kennan theory's main point? What became the first symbol of US resolve against USSR agression? Why was NATO created and by who? What and when was the period of McCarthyism?