Ltr 3: Cold War

Marshall Plan

Aims of the Marshall Plan

• Resolve the German problem

• Achieve European economic integration

• Make it difficult for communists to take control of Western European governments

• Soviet view of Marshall plan?

Soviet view of Marshall plan

Soviet View of MP

•MP is American method to undermine our position in Germany and Eastern Europe•You want to create an anti-Soviet bloc•To isolate us•To incorporate Europe into the American economic orbit•I have to block your (nonsense) move!

Can Stalin?

American Tax payers had to work quite hard?

Who received what?

Economic Success of the MP

• 1948-1949: MP gave Europe >$3 billion

• Economy improved

• Standard of living improved

• European and American security enhanced

• Prevented Communist parties from winning elections in Western Europe

• Criticism of MP?

Critique of MP

• MP was not anything dramatically new

• Economic assistance given during the years 1945-47 was larger

• However MP was innovative

• MP was given out in large portions

Results of MP on relations

• To USA: Rebuilding Western Europe was more important than cooperation with the Soviets

• Response of S.U: strengthen hold over Eastern Europe

• Soviet extended its hold on Czechoslovakia (February 1948)

• Extension of Molotov Plan

Molotov Plan

• SU responded with Molotov Plan in July

• A series of bilateral agreements linking Eastern European countries to SU

Entrenchment of C.W

• Europe was divided by 1948

• SU consolidated power in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Rumania

• Only Yugoslavia remained democratic

• Tito of Yugoslavia defied Soviet policies

Two major events: 1948

• Communist coup in Czechoslovakia : 1948

• (Read by yourself if you’re interested)

• We do the Berlin blockade

The Berlin Crisis (BC)

• How it began

• 6 March 1948: London Conference took place

• Objective: Discuss zonal policy in Germany

• To establish a West German state.

• Stalin objected to the reforms

• The Soviet representative, Sokolovsky walked out of the meeting

• What was Stalin trying to do about Berlin?

Stalin’s Method

• Used a mix of coercion and diplomacy

• To prevent the formation of a West German state

• Coercion: restrict allied personnel entering Berlin by rail and road from 1 April

• New currency was introduced in the Western zones

• Stalin closed all surface routes into West Berlin on 24 June

• Reason for Soviet behaviour

Soviets were desperate

• A desperate Soviet act

• SU did not want a potentially threatening West German state to be created

• Aimed to drive the West out of Berlin

• Hopefully to reopen talks on the future of Germany as a whole

• Even if blockade failed, better prospects for Soviet to control Germany

• Reaction of West

Reaction of West

• “The Soviet intimidation is a challenge!”

• West mounted an airlift to get supplies into Berlin

• Airlift lasted almost a year

• Thousands of tonnes of supplies were airlifted daily

• Stalin gave in

• Lifted blockade in August 1948

• Analysis of ‘Berlin Blockade’

Analysis of ‘Berlin Blockade’

• Results: militarization of the Cold War

• Formation of NATO

• Soviets now more afraid of emergence of a capitalist Germany

• Fear that West would use Germany as anti-Soviet bloc

• Elaborate on Nato

NATO: North Atlantic Treaty

• NATO formed in 1949

• Members” US and 11 other countries

• A regional defense alliance to deter Soviet aggression

• Main aim : to contain the S.U

• All signatory states considered "an armed attack against one or more. . . an attack against them all."

• Next: China fell to the Communists

China’s Fall to the Communists

• 1949: Mao Zedong won the Civil War

• 1/5 world population fell under communist rule

• Worse! S.U exploded an atomic bomb in 1949

• American monopoly in nuclear weapons ended

• Formation of NSC- 68

The NSC-68

• NSC-68 report by American Defence Department (1950)

• Issued by the US National Security Council

• Reviewed American security policy

• Called for massive American rearmament

• NSC-68 was “bible” of American national security policy

The NSC-68

• NSC-68 analyzed the capabilities of the S.U and U.S from military, economic and political standpoints

• Argument: S.U. intended to become dominant world power

• It would expand Soviet authority

• Recommendation: Adopt policy of containment to prevent spread of Communism

US made major shifts in foreign policy

• NSC-68 marked a drastic foreign policy shift

• From ‘defensive’ to active containment

• US would be militarily prepared at all times

• Aggressively so

• Criticism of NSC 68

Criticism of NSC 68

• NSC 68's rhetoric not realistic

• Soviet Union was not entirely diriven by expanisionist design

• Kennan, "father" of the containment policy disagreed

• President Truman himself disagreed

• In fact Truman tried to cut military spending

• Korean War

Korean War : 1950

• On June 25, 1950 North Korea attacked South Korea

• NSC 68 became important• Truman signed NSC 68 on September

30, 1950,• Massive rearmament program began • Background to Korean War

The Korean War• At the end of World War II,

Korea had been divided into two zones to facilitate Japanese surrender,

• North occupied by the Soviets; south by Americans

• North Korea invaded South Korea in June 1950

• Moscow knew about it

• Even gave consent for attack

• Mao too had consented to the invasion.

The Korean War

• North and South Korea wanted reunification of Korea

• North hoped attack could lead to a revolt in the south - Korean could be united under Communist

• The United States sent troops in the name of UN

• How did they manage it

• S.U usually vetoed resolutions they did not like

The Korean War

• Soviet Union was absent when Security Council condemned North Korea’s military offensive

• Soviet representative was absent

• He boycotted UN Security Council meetings because Taiwan held the Chinese seat

• UN troops led by American commander Douglas MacArthur.

Truman and the United Nations rushing to Korea’s aid

Invasion : June-September 1950

• The North Korean troops advanced rapidly

• Took Southern capital Seoul three days later

• The United Nations condemned North Korea's attack

• U.N. forces landed near Seoul

• Counter Attack : September-October 1950

• Able to overwhelm the Northern troops in South Korea

• Seoul was taken by U.N. forces

MacArthur tried to unify Korea

• U.N. forces moved north of the 38th parallel

• But this violated American objective of status quo

• China warned it would move in to help Korea

• Some U.N. forces reached the Yalu River- border

between North Korea and China

• And the Chinese soldiers streamed in

• What a shocker

Yalu River

Chinese Advance : October 1950-January 195

• Chinese force estimated at between 130,000 and 300,000

• Pushed U.N. forces into retreat

• U.N. abandoned Pyongyang on December 4.

Armistice: January 1951-July 1953

• In April, MacArthur was relieved of his command by Truman

• Truce talks began on July 10, 1951

• Armistice was signed in 1953

• UN casualties number > 550,000

• A demilitarized zone along the armistice line established – remains today (http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/05/maps/#)

Results of the Korean War

• US anti-communist involvement in Asia were limited

• Nuclear weapons would not be used in Korea.

• Relations between China and USA deteriorated

• US policy towards China became more harsh than to SU

• Trade (and virtually all contact) was severed.

• The US increased its economic and military aid to Taiwan to prevent a communist takeover.

Results of the Korean War

• The growth of U.S.-Soviet tensions

• General Dwight Eisenhower use opportunity to get elected in 1952

• The Republicans condemned Truman's containment policy

• Dulles called for the "rollback” of communism• Massive retaliation• To use nuclear weapons on Soviet Union if

necessary• Creation of other regional groupings

Alliances • 1950s: alliances created

• Southeast Asian Treaty Organization

• Australia-New Zealand-United States (ANZUS) pact

• Bilateral security agreements with Japan and Taiwan

• Since UN unable to keep peace

• Each of the five permanent members of the Security Council could veto any action with which they disagreed

Relations eased in 1955

• Tension eased after armistice ended fighting in Korea.

• 1955, Eisenhower and Nikita Khrushchev met at a summit meeting in Geneva

• This was the first meeting between leaders of the two countries since 1945

• Meeting was friendly but it accomplished little

• World heaved a sigh of relief

Other world conflicts

• In 1956: "Spirit of Geneva" vanished

• Soviet tanks rolled into Hungary to quell an anti-communist uprising there

• British, French, and Israel forces invaded Egypt

• US was unable to help a revolution in Hungary that it condoned

Soviet Union is ahead!

• 1957 when the Soviet

Union launched the

world's first earth

satellite, Sputnik

• It threatened to use its

missiles if it had to.

U-2 Spy plane incident

• 1960, an American U-2 spy plane shot down over the Soviet Union

• Rhetoric escalated, and tensions increased

• 1950s-60s: United States and the Soviet Union developed large nuclear arsenals

• MAD: new version of deterrence developed

• Mutual assured destruction (MAD)

• Even if first strike, will be just as dead

MAD

1960s: Two hostile camps

• First World led by US

• Second World by USSR

• Third World : African, Middle Eastern, and Asian states ie former colonies

• They adopted the Nonaligned Movement.

• Not allied to superpowers

• But still received economic and military assistance from either

Latin American states

• Considered as part of the Third World• Most were American allies, within the

American sphere of influence.• .

Multilaterism

• Belief that to counter the Soviet Union and communism successfully, involvement and multilateralism were necessary

• Multilateralism had now become the key element of American foreign policy. Even so, supporters of unilateralism remained vocal and influential.