SLO Prep Cold War

The Cold War [1945-1991]: An Ideological Struggle Soviet & Eastern Bloc Nations [“Iron Curtain”] US & the Western Democracies GOAL  “Containment” of Communism & the eventual collapse of the Communist world. [George Kennan] GOAL  spread world-wide Communism METHODOLOGIES: Espionage [KGB vs. CIA] Arms Race [nuclear escalation] Ideological Competition for the minds and hearts of Third World peoples [Communist govt. & command economy vs. democratic govt. & capitalist economy]  “proxy wars” Bi-Polarization of Europe [NATO vs. Warsaw Pact]

Yalta Conference-February 1945 The main purpose of Yalta was the re-establishment of the nations conquered and destroyed by Germany.   Stalin also agreed to permit free elections in Eastern Europe and to enter the Asian war against Japan, for which he was promised the return of lands lost to Japan in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05

Yalta Conference-February 1945 Joseph Stalin, February 1945……. Prime Minister [Churchill] has said that for Great Britain the question of Poland is a question of honor. For Russia it is not only a question of honor but of security….During the last 30 years, our German enemy has passed through this corridor twice. The Yalta Conference, Accordingly, Stalin made it clear that some of his demands regarding Poland were not negotiable: the Russians were to gain territory from the eastern portion of Poland and Poland was to compensate for that by extending its Western borders, thereby forcing out millions of Germans. Reluctantly, Stalin promised free elections in Poland, notwithstanding the recently installed Communist puppet government. However, it soon became apparent that Stalin had no intentions of holding true to his promise of free elections

Potsdam Conference The Big Three—Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Harry Truman—met in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II.

Potsdam Conference The major issue at Potsdam was the question of how to handle Germany by setting up a demilitarized and disarmed Germany under four zones of Allied occupation.

The Division of Germany

The Division of Germany

The Iron Curtain

Potsdam Conference President Truman also informed the Soviet leader that the United States had successfully detonated the first atomic bomb on July 16, 1945.

Distrust of Stalin and Communism Stalin developed a strong Communist Party with a firm control over the country. He did this so that Russia had become a one-party state, in which the people’s political and economic rights had been severely curtailed. To Americans, the Soviet Union was seen as little better than an oppressive dictatorship, depriving its people of real freedoms and anxious to spread its communist ideology abroad. At the same time, communist economics threatened the American capitalist system

Distrust of Stalin and Communism Truman wrote: “The personal meeting with Stalin enabled me to see what the West had to face in the future. Force is the only thing the Russians understand. Stalin showed what he was after ... the Russians were planning world conquest.”

Distrust of Stalin and Communism What will be created from the information described below? Did you know? Churchill was worried about Soviet influence in Eastern Europe even during the war, and clashed with Stalin over it at the Tehran Conference of 1943. In October 1944, Churchill went to Moscow to meet Stalin face-to-face and made the so-called ‘percentages agreement’, where Churchill suggested that Russia and Britain agree ‘spheres of influence’ in the different countries of Eastern Europe (Romania 90-10, Greece 10-90, Yugoslavia and Hungary 50-50 etc.).  Stalin agreed. Although the Soviet Union took complete 100% control of the Iron Curtain countries after the war, Stalin did keep his promise to stay out of Greece.

Distrust of Stalin and Communism Secretary of State Cordell Hull was told in 1943 by the American Ambassador to the Soviet Union that since the Soviet Union had been invaded, that after the war, the communists believed they should a the biggest voice in what should take place after the war was over.

Distrust of Stalin and Communism Formation of the United Nations The United Nations came into existence on October 24, 1945, after 29 nations had ratified the Charter

Soviet Union’s Plans ... Russia saw it as protecting herself from future attack. The West saw it as empire-building. Stalin, 1946

The Cold War Who is the man reaching out and smoking a pipe? What is the significance of this cartoon?

The Long Telegram George Kennan, the American charge d’affaires in Moscow, sends an 8,000-word telegram to the Department of State detailing his views on the Soviet Union, and U.S. policy toward the communist state.  His appraisal of the communist leadership of the Soviet Union became increasingly negative and harsh and his opinion that Soviet expansionism needed to be contained through a policy of “strong resistance” provided the basis for America’s Cold War diplomacy through the next two decades.

Stalin’s Reach

New York Times 1945 Source: The New York Times, February 25, 1948 PRAGUE, Wednesday, Feb 25 – The “action committees” of Communist Premier Klement Gottwald were taking over authority in the capital and throughout Czechoslovakia yesterday in what looked like a revolution. The country was rapidly being turned into a “People’s Front” nation of the typical Eastern Europe variety.

Stalin’s Reach