A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

THE ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR(1945-50)

Definition: Martyn Walker calls it the “civil war of the human race” about the balance of global power, with an ideological element. It was the indirect conflict between the USA and USSR that went on from 1945-1991. And it was expressed in everything from an arms

and space race to chess tournaments - and even ice hockey

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

matches.

The Long-Term Reasons

Many regard the Cold War as having roots going back decades before the end of WWII in 1945.

Both sides did things that made the other mistrust them from the period 1917-1945.

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USA’s Actions

USSR’s Actions

Delayed Second FrontThe US and GB refused to

attack the Germans in France until June 1944 (D-Day). To the Soviets, the Americans

and British were letting them do the brunt of the fighting

and dying. The Americans lost 300 000 young men; the

Soviets maybe 27m citizens!

Nazi-Soviet PactThis shocking act saw Stalin and Hitler divide up Poland

and the Baltic States between them. It helped to trigger WWII, when Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939.

Bolshevik RevolutionThe Russian Revolution in 1917 was the world’s first successful

communist takeover. In the process the Bolsheviks

(communists) murdered and starved millions including the

royal family.

Russian Civil WarThe US along with other

western powers (like Japan, Poland, GB and France)

interfered in Russia’s Civil War in 1918-21. They were

intent on destroying the Bolshevik revolution and recovering tsarist debts,

which had been repudiated by the communists.

IsolationismDuring the 1920s and 1930s the US pursued an isolationist policy

with regard to Europe and Asia. To the Soviets this was not so much

isolationism as pro-fascist. The US would not recognize the USSR and establish diplomatic relations until

1933.

Anti-CommunismThe US was a capitalist

nation with a fierce hated of not only Marxism but even socialism. The ideology of

the USSR was seen as threatening fundamental

American values like ‘rugged individualism’.

JapanThe Soviets never helped the

Americans fight the Japanese in the Far East. They entered the

war against them in the final days merely to grab territory.Poland

Not only had Stalin carved Poland up with the Nazis, but he then allowed the Polish Home Army to be destroyed in 1944, as well as

murdering thousands of Polish officers in the Katyn woods in 1940.

A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

Ideological Differences

The Cold War has often been seen as an ideological struggle between two mutually incompatible systems: capitalism and communism. Though this is a vast over-simplification, ideology did play a role. Ambrose and Brinkley certainly see its significance: “ideology cannot be ignored. Men like Truman, Harriman and Kennan were appalled by Russian brutality and Communist denial of the basic Western freedoms”.

USA USSR

Leadership

Election System

Economy

Freedoms

3

2. Free & Fair Voting, in multi-party elections takes place on a regular

basis

6. A dictatorship runs the country, and a single man is appointed, not elected, to

power

1. Communist, command system of production (the State decides what is

produced); where unemployment is not a problem

7. People do as they are told and are sent to gulags (prison) if they protest

3. People can say what they like & go where they please

4. Capitalist system (where the market decides);

individuals are encouraged to work hard and become

wealthy

5. No freedom of the press. Censorship & oppression are commonplace.

8. People are not guaranteed a job or even a home in a ‘dog eat dog’

society

A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010 4

9. Elections are neither free nor fair

10. Democratically elected president controls the military as well as the civil aspects

A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

Note-Taking Exercise On ‘The Cold War – Beyond Ideology’ By Gregory Slysz

Read the article and makes notes on the following longer-term reasons for the Cold War. Remember you must summarise as clearly and concisely as possible the arguments employed by the various historians mentioned.

1. What is Slysz’s basic argument?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2. What is John Gaddis’ view on when the Cold War began?______________________________________________________________3. Give two actions by Stalin that suggest he was a ‘tricky customer’____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4. What does John Lukacs basically say about Stalin’s attitude towards

ideology?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5. What do Donaldson and Nogee argue was Stalin’s approach?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6. What is Richard Pipes’ argument about Stalin?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7. What did Suvorov and Weeks controversially argue about Stalin’s foreign

policy?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________8. What does Martin van Creveld suggest Stalin was always planning to do?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________9. What ‘glue’ disappeared to make the Wartime ‘Grand Alliance’ collapse?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________10.What arguments are there that ideology did not always play a major role,

in Cold War actions and alliances?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________11.What six reasons does Slysz ultimately give for the Cold War coming

about?

___________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ ______________________________

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

The Wartime Conferences – Yalta & Potsdam, 1945

During 1941, the US president, Franklin D. _______ and the British Prime Minister, Winston _______, met on a battleship in the middle of the Atlantic and decided what type of world they were fighting for. This was known as the Atlantic Charter. However, their democratic, free-trade views and hopes for the future were not something likely to be held in common by the dictatorship that was the _______.

In 1943, at the Teheran conference, the leader of the USSR, Josef _______ demanded that the British and _________ open a second front in Western Europe to help ease the Soviet burden. He was very suspicious about the western allies who had always been anti-__________.

Yalta - 'The Big Three'

Yalta

In ______________1945, at Yalta, the Big Three allied leaders:_____________, _________and _________ met to discuss what to do with _________after the war was won. At this stage Hitler was still alive and the war was still to be won, and so relations were still amicable, though the Soviets did want to be ________ with Germany than GB and the USA.It was decided that:

Germany would be divided into _____ zones. Each one would be occupied by one of the Allies: Britain, the USA, ______, and the USSR. The USSR was not happy about this but Britain and Churchill wanted ________ to have a zone as well in order to balance out the Soviet and American dominance of Europe;

The capital of Germany, ______ would also be divided into ______ sectors;

Germany would be forced to pay _________, half of which would go to the USSR; and Germany would give land to Poland along the ________ -_________river line;

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

Countries that had been occupied by Germany, including Poland would be free to _______ governments of their choice;

The USSR would declare war on ________ three months after the end of the war against Germany;

The ___________, an organisation to discuss and settle world problems, would be set up to replace the discredited __________.

Potsdam

Held in______/_____1945, this conference confirmed the decisions made at Yalta in a number of areas.

Germany was divided into ______ zones, each occupied by one of the four Allies - Britain, ______, the USA, and the USSR;

The capital ______ was also divided into ________ sectors, even though it was inside the ______ zone; this would lead to enormous problems in the future!

Germany would be run by a military ___________ and disarmed; Nazi leaders would be put on trial for war crimes at the German city

of___________; A policy of ______________would take place in Germany to get rid of its

fascist influences;

But there were disagreements and changes since Yalta and this made Potsdam far more tense:

The war in _______ was over and so the allies no longer needed each other so much;

There was a new British prime minister, Clement_______ who was not used to dealing with Stalin;

The new US President Harry ________ was far more distrustful of the Soviets ______ (and had announced that he was going to 'get tough with the Russians.'). He tried to insist on _______ elections in the ________European countries that had been occupied by the USSR at the end of the war. The ____ ___ had continued to occupy the countries they had ‘liberated’ and refused to leave. The meeting broke up without agreement being reached on this issue;

Stalin started going back on his promises at Yalta about allowing ____elections and he tried to grab more reparations and territory in eastern Europe (he demanded more reparations from the western sectors of Germany, for example);

The Americans had just exploded an ________ bomb and refused to share its secrets with the Soviets; the US president only told the British about it and not Stalin;

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

When the Soviets did eventually attack ______in the Far East they did so to grab territory from ________and ________ not to help the British and Americans;

These differences led to: A build-up of distrust and _______ between the USA and the USSR, and

even more distrust between Britain and the USSR; a British diplomat later accused Stalin of “grabbing” territory and breaking his promises made at _______;

The breakdown of the alliance that had existed between the allies during the Second World War = the beginning of the ___________.

Yalta and Potsdam really saw the start of the Cold War. Agreements over Poland were meaningless if both sides had different concepts of the term “democracy”. Plus Poland had been a corridor for invasion of Russia throughout its history (by the Swedes, Poles, French and Germans). This was something Stalin stressed and the West seemed, at best, indifferent to. France’s inclusion as one of the occupying powers as been regarded as insulting by Stalin, given how quickly France had folded and even collaborated with the Nazis.

The conferences helped to destroy American illusions and naivety. Averill Harriman, the US ambassador in Moscow, warned Truman of a new ‘barbarian (Soviet) invasion of Europe’. The US, literally, ‘losing’ a Soviet request for $6 billion loan deepened the mistrust. When it came to money though, the US was also not above back-stabbing the British! The A-Bomb not only damaged Soviet-US relations, but also Anglo-American ones, as Washington refused to share its secrets with their closest ally. The Bomb also meant the USSR’s help was not needed against Japan and allowed them to exclude the Soviets from Tokyo and the occupation of Japan itself.

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

George F. Kennan, author of containment

Truman – Cold War originator?However, Walker points out Truman had not completely abandoned FDR’s traditions of trust. He:

De-mobilized the US army at a rate of 15 000 men a day; so a army that had been 8 million strong in 1945, was by 1948 only 550 000 in number; the Soviet Red Army also shrank dramatically, but was still 3m strong by 1948;

He was also prepared to share some atomic secrets (though not on how to manufacture a weapon) and set up the first international atomic agency, in 1946; this meant atom bombs outside the US were under the new Atomic Energy Commission’s control;

But the fact remains that Truman was the first Cold War president.

He sacked his conciliatory Vice President Henry Wallace; To Ambrose and Brinkley Truman saw the USSR as a “barbaric nation bent

on world conquest”; His military drew up a strategic plan to nuke twenty Soviet targets, of

which Walker says:

“The importance of the ‘Strategic vulnerability’ paper should not be overrated, but the fact remains that just ten weeks after the end of WWII, US military

planners were contemplating the targets of World War Three”.

The liberal, left-leaning Walker though still believes that neither Stalin nor Truman is to blame for the Cold War. He seems to want to put it down to the consequence of events and circumstances, and “2 mutually uncomprehending camps”. He even implies that had FDR lived (and circumstances been different) there might have been no Cold War in the first place.

Early US-Soviet responsibility for the Cold War 1945-6

Truman’s Actions Stalin’s Actions

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

The Iron Curtain Speech

Winston Churchill made a speech in Fulton, Missouri, in March, 1946 claiming that Stalin was controlling and imprisoning all the old capitals of central and eastern Europe behind a communist ‘iron curtain’. He went on to talk also of an ideological threat. He was, in effect, speaking the language of US officialdom.

This highly dramatic speech, from a great orator, had a profound effect in the US. Initially, it was criticized by liberals as un-necessarily antagonistic. Truman, who had read the speech beforehand and fully approved of it, denied that he knew what was in it! However, Churchill had not been the first to bring the State Department’s attention to the Soviet threat. As early as 1944, Averill Harriman and George F. Kennan, US diplomats in Moscow, had pointed out the need for a policy of containment, and the threat the USSR posed.

In many ways Churchill’s speech was just a British echo of George F. Kennan’s famous ‘Long Telegram’ of 1946, which had warned in explicit terms about Stalin and his intentions, and was, according to Walker an invitation to a life and death struggle between East and West. As early as January, 1946, Truman had written he was “tired of babying the Soviets”. So, in many ways, official American reaction to Churchill’s speech was disingenuous.

Stalin, of course, saw it all very differently. He pointed out that ‘spheres of influence’ had been agreed upon at conferences in 1944 and 1945. The USSR would watch over Eastern Europe; GB could have Greece and the Mediterranean. The Balkans would be shared. He also pointed out that Prague (the capital of Czechoslovakia) far from being in Soviet hands had an independent government. The Red Army had also liberated these nations from the Nazis, dying in their millions doing so. He accused Churchill of Nazi-like tendencies and a racist, Anglo-Saxon bias. He re-iterated the argument that the Soviets were merely seeking security, a buffer zone of friendly states.

Churchill and Truman could point out that Stalin was going back on his promises at Yalta of establishing free and fair elections in the liberated countries. But to Stalin ‘democracy’ meant something completely different to the West’s definitions.

The Soviets though had effectively taken over Poland, Bulgaria and Romania by the end of 1946. By 1947 they would have Hungary. By 1948,

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

Czechoslovakia had fallen (its leader, Jan Masaryk, quite literally – out of a window). In 1949, they created the GDR. They were putting pressure on Turkey to allow passage through the Dardanelles Straits, and in 1946 were occupying Northern Iran.

An essentially bankrupt GB could not continue to support Greece and Turkey’s struggle against communism and the Americans stepped in to help.

The Iron Curtain Speech Crossword

1. 3.

8.

5. 6.

4.

2.

9.

7.

Across1. “From……..in the Baltic [7]2. The US president …… liked what Churchill said in the Iron Curtain…. [6]4. …………..[6]5. Czech capital not under Soviet control until 1948 [6]7. Country not really behind the Soviet iron curtain either [10]9. US worried this Black Sea country might go Communist [6]

Down1. The Iron Curtain speech was made in nineteen forty-_______? [3]3. to …… in the Adriatic…” [7]4. The Soviet leader….. was furious with Churchill’s speech[6]6. Soviet occupying force [7]8. One of the countries definitely behind the ‘Iron Curtain’ ![8]9. Anti-Soviet but still communist leader of 7 across [4]

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

Churchill at Fulton–preaching to the converted?

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

Greece and Turkey

Effectively the first battlegrounds of the Cold War were these strategically vital Black Sea and Mediterranean nations.

If they could be controlled by friendly communist regimes, Stalin’s fleets could gain easy access to the Mediterranean. The US was determined otherwise.

The Greek Civil War was fought from 1944-49. The communists were backed by the Bulgarians, Albanians and Yugoslavians, effectively Stalin’s proxies. The anti-communist, royalist forces were supplied first by the British, then by the Americans, and by 1950 had secured a hold over the Aegean nation. However, this government was never popular nor effective - but it was not Marxist.

To resist such Soviet infiltration and because it was feared it would then spread (the first rumblings of the ‘domino theory’) Truman made a provocative speech in March 1947 that effectively declared ideological and strategic war on the USSR. It became known as the Truman Doctrine. In it, Truman made no direct reference to the USSR, but his words were easily (and correctly) interpreted as an attack on Soviet communism. The language was emotional and included phrases like: “I believe it must be the policy of the US to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures”. In increasingly simplistic US strategic thinking, the world was divisible into the free and the enslaved. Its terms included $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey. From the Truman Doctrine, would come the Marshall Plan three months later, the practical implementation of Truman’s stance.

The Dardanelles Straits – gave access from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean

The Black Sea

The USSR

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

George C. Marshall

The Marshall Plan

Find the labels and put them into the correct box.

US MOTIVES

EUROPEAN MOTIVES

SOVIET REACTIONS

Social

Economic

Socio-Economic Political

PoliticalEconomic

Political

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

The Impact of Marshall Aid

According to Walker, Molotov, the Soviet foreign minister, was initially serious about accepting Marshall Aid. He later realised the Plan would effectively split Europe into two economic halves and railed against US capitalism and its ‘open door’ globally capitalist policies. But, I would argue, the Soviet Union never had any intention of accepting US aid. It would be too humiliating and whatever strings were attached they would be completely unacceptable.

The Soviets instead forced the iron curtain nations to reject the aid packages. Opponents like the Czech Jan Masaryk were murdered. COMINFORM was created in 1946 as a result of the Plan. COMINFORM’s first meeting saw an explicit denunciation of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan. The French and Italian Communist party representatives were encouraged to go home and foment dissent and protest. As a result, there were riots and strikes, which failed, ironically because the Marshall Plan saw an influx of American and Canadian food. When communist Yugoslavia, under the nationalist Marshall Tito, accepted US aid, it was ejected from COMINFORM by an enraged Stalin.

The Europeans created the OEEC (a fore-runner fro the alter EU) to implement the Marshall Plan in 1948. In 1949 the Soviets responded with COMECON, a body designed to exploit its iron curtain nations. Thus Poland was forced to sell its coal to the USSR, at only 1/10th its true market value!

The newly-created (1947) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Council (NSC) were already embarking on undermining communism in Western Europe politically, as well as economically. The Americans could be accused of using methods not dissimilar to those of the Soviets:

Propaganda and disinformation were spread; Secret payments were made to non-communist parties like the Christian

Democrats in Italy; Public threats about with-holding aid from a communist government were

made in order to sway voters; Special training and equipment was supplied to the Italian armed forces; Former Nazi intelligence agents and their skills were utilized; Military intervention in Italy was even recommended by Kennan - if the

Communists won the elections!

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

German Occupation Zones

The Berlin Blockade 1948-49

The Blockade (or Airlift) was perhaps the zenith of the early Cold War era.

Causes The West was being provocative. The British and Americans had

merged their two zones in 1946 to form Bizonia. They then introduced a new currency (the Deutschmark) first into western Germany and then in June into West Berlin. This made the eastern sectors look poor. It also went against the terms of Yalta. The West seemed to be re-building Germany, a nation that had invaded the USSR twice in the last 30 years.

Stalin was hardly innocent in all this. He had never been happy at the presence of western forces behind the iron curtain (see map). As early as 1946, the Soviets had tried to force the allies out of Berlin altogether. Now Stalin closed all land, water and rail routes into the western sectors of the city. The problem was also that the west seemed much more attractive to east Germans, many of whom fled to the allied zones. This made communism look bad and, moreover, deprived the Soviets and their zone of much needed skills and expertise.

Nature The allies in response to the Blockade launched an airlift of food and

fuel supplies that lasted nearly a year, and kept two million Berliners alive. Planes flew into Berlin’s airports at a rate of one every three minutes. The allies were helped by a mild winter.

Stalin, however, was not prepared to shoot down these planes. To do so would mean war and only the Americans had nuclear weapons at this stage. The Americans had also ostentatiously flown 50 B-29 nuclear bombers to Britain to help intimidate the Soviets.

Consequences The Blockade massively increased tensions in some ways. It led to the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) by

the West in September, 1949; they also created a new “Free University” because the old University of Berlin was now in the Soviet sector. The Russians responded with the German Democratic

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

Republic (GDR) in the tit for tat fashion so typical of the Cold War (Walker likens it to a tennis match);

The airlift increased the popularity of the Americans, especially in Germany, and showed their commitment to Europe.

In April, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was created. NATO, in effect, saw the division of Europe now into two armed camps, to match the economic divide. An attack on one member would be regarded as an attack on all. In 1954, the FRG was allowed into NATO. In 1955, tactical nuclear weapons were stationed on its soil.

REASONS FOR THE BERLIN BLOCKADE AND AIRLIFT – WHO WOULD SAY WHAT?

US Diplomat West Berliner Soviet Diplomat West German

1. “We cut off all land communications to the Western sectors of Berlin, because the West was being provocative. They were re-building Germany and reforming its currency. We needed to show who was boss in Berlin, especially as the city lay in

our sector of Germany”

2. “If the Soviets take control over the whole of Berlin who will be next? I have heard dreadful

stories from Berliners fleeing to us. They say there is no freedom in the eastern sectors and if the USSR takes over the whole of Berlin we might be next on

their target list”

3. “The Soviets are determined to push us and our allies out of Berlin. We will not leave! We must protect the

people of Berlin and keep a careful eye on what goes on behind the iron curtain. Sure, we’re re-building Germany,

but not to threaten the Soviets, simply to ensure they stand on their own two feet and don’t become prey to

communists”4. “My friends and relatives in the eastern sectors complain all the time about conditions there. I know most will leave soon and come here. The Soviets are

determined to get us out of our city so they do not have that option. Every east Berliner that leaves weakens their economy and shows their system to be the mess it

is”

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE BERLIN BLOCKADE (1948-49)

MANY WEST BERLINERS LEFT THE CITY DUE TO THE ENORMOUS

SHORTAGES

NATO WAS ESTABLISHED AS A MILITARY DEFENCE STRUCTURE IN 1949. EUROPE WAS NOW DIVIDED MILITARILY AS WELL

AS POLITICALLY AND ECONOMICALLYBERLIN BECAME THE CENTRE OF

COLD WAR CONFRONTATION AND A POTENTIAL FLASHPOINT

MANY PLANES CRASHED FLYING IN SUPPLIES, AND HUNDREDS OF AIRMEN WERE KILLED SUPPLYING BERLIN WITH FOOD & FUEL

THE COLD WAR BECAME FROSTIER AS BOTH SIDES BECAME EVEN MORE

STUBBORN

IT ESTABLSIHED A PATTERN FOR THE COLD WAR OF INTIMIDATION, SUSPICION &

PROPAGANDA, BUT ALSO A TENSE BALANCE IN BERLIN ITSELF

STALIN HAD LOST FACE AS A

RESULT OF HIS DEFEAT

THE WEST FORMALLY SET UP THE FRG AND THE SOVIETS RESPONDED WITH THE GDR

US AND WESTERN EUROPE DEVELOPED CLOSER POLITICAL TIESLESS IMPACT

LEGEND

= ECONOMIC

= MILITARY

= POLITICAL

= SOCIAL

MAJOR IMPACT

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

German exhibition poster

Tit For Tat – Typical Cold War Acts

Match up the action on the left with the appropriate response on the right. Place them in chronological order from first to last. Then say who instigated the original action: USA or USSR?

Initial Act Response Culprit1. Takeover of Poland a. A-Bomb (1949)

2. Marshall Aid b. GDR3. A-Bomb (1945) c. Aid given to Greece & Turkey

4. Iron Curtain d. Berlin Airlift5. FRG e. Free University of Berlin

6. NATO f. Iron Curtain Speech & Truman Doctrine

7. H-Bomb (Jan. 1953) g. COMINFORM created8. Berlin Blockade h. COMECON created

9. University of Berlin i. H-Bomb (August, 1953)10. OEEC j. Warsaw Pact

Initial Act Response Culprit

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

The Cold War – a bit like a tennis

match?

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

The Historiography on the Origins of the Cold War

Gabriel Kolko - naïve?

The good news is that there is a lot of historiography on the Cold War; the bad news is that there is a lot of historiography on the Cold War!

The traditional approach is to blame the Soviets if you are an American - and the Americans if you are Russian! Michael H. Hart claims it was all Stalin and his successors’ fault and that the US was merely acting defensively (Wolhforth, Feis, Schlesinger and Nyquist are amongst the other Americans who argue this). In contrast, Vladisav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov, in 1997, argued Stalin was sincere in his desire to avoid confrontation with the USA.

The revisionist (or New Left) historian Ger Alperovitz in his 1965 book ‘Atomic Diplomacy: Hiroshima and Potsdam’, argued that the Americans caused the Cold War by using the atomic bomb to intimidate the USSR, which he contends was the main reason why it was dropped on Japan. Certainly, Churchill at Potsdam recorded that Truman had a certain arrogant swagger after the explosions. Equally, the extremist revisionist Gabriel Kolko is adamant about blaming the US for the Cold War, even arguing, in his 1972 book, that Truman should have shared the secrets of the A-bomb with Stalin, in 1945. He also claims the USSR treated Poland well in 1945 and blamed South Korea for the Korean War! While another revisionist approach is that of William Appleman Williams who argued, in 1959, that the US was determined to maintain an ‘open door’ policy for US trade and so ensure nations stayed capitalist.

Other historians have tended to share the blame between the two superpowers or absolved them both. These are often known as post-revisionists. John Lewis Gaddis, in 1972, claimed the conflict was the result of mutual misunderstanding on both sides, with the USA failing, for example, to understand Stalin’s fears and need for security. Views that would also be supported by Martyn Walker. Ambrose and Brinkley also seem to emphasise mutual miscomprehension. Marc Trachtenberg (1999) claims it was all about settling the German question in the post-WWII world. In contrast, Martin P. Leffler (1992) has maintained that both sides were to blame, as they were both seeking world domination. Timothy White, also effectively blames both by stressing the ideological aspect of the conflict. It is interesting to note though that with the opening of the Soviet archives, some like Gaddis have

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

taken a more critical view of the Soviets. They have found evidence implicating the Soviets in all sorts of malfeasance. It is sometimes called post-post revisionism.Discussion of Historiography

1. Why is it important to know the nationality of the historian behind the theories?

2. How does the date of the argument matter?3. How do you think the historiographical debate changed after 1991, with

the collapse of the USSR and the opening of the Soviet archives?

You will need examples of Cold War events, actions and personalities to back up each of the three historiographical viewpoints.

Fill in the table. I have included one example in each to get you going.

Traditionalists/Orthodox Revisionists Post-Revisionists

Stalin was bent on European or even world domination and the spread of Communism; he was an evil dictator who was rightfully opposed by the free

world.

The US was at fault for refusing to share its A-bomb secrets, causing an arms race and making the USSR

understandably nervous.

Point out that Poland can be seen as the USSR seeking

genuine security, and the US misunderstanding this

defensiveness as aggressive expansionism.

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010 23

A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

Useful Websites

Look at the following links to supplement your notes and understanding of the causes of the Cold War. Also use the school library!

My notes are helpful, but you also need to produce your own. This is essential to deepen your knowledge and understanding. The more you read and write the better your English will become.

While, of course, examiners award evidence of original thought, ideas and historiography.

www.sparknotes

www.schoolhistory.co.uk

www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk

www.history-wiz.com

www.learningcurve.gov.uk/coldwar

www.trumanlibrary.org

www.winstonchurchill.org

www.history-timelines.org.uk

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

Essay Writing Techniques

Knowledge is one thing, the ability to apply it another. You must learn how to use what you know in the best way to produce a coherent argument.

Introductions

Designed to perform a number of functions: To state your theme and ideas - to say what you are going to say How you are going to state it To challenge the question (if possible) To grab the examiner’s attention (if possible)

Conclusions

They also meet certain common criteria To summarise your main ideas To perhaps look chronologically ahead Utilising some historiography, which you perhaps think surmises your

whole argument

Main Points

Your essay must be tightly and coherently argued and structured. There are various ways to do this. Using the conceptual approach: political, social, economic, military,

cultural, religious, environmental, etc. Using a chronological approach: dates, short term/long term, etc. Using a thematic approach e.g. character, background, etc. Using a pros and cons approach–successes and failures, positives and

negatives, etc. Using the question itself to structure an answer

Your essay must also contain: Facts to back up your analysis e.g. dates, names, places, etc. Historiography to show understanding of various ideas and approaches

You should also briefly plan an answer before composing it. This can take the form of a table, list or spider diagram(s).

Remember also to look at the key words in the question e.g. ‘evaluate’, ‘discuss’, ‘assess’, ‘How far’, etc.

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

Essay Practice

We shall practice with a number of actual Cold War questions below.

1. ‘The Marshall Plan caused the division of Europe and thus the Cold War.’ Discuss this assertion. [N. 2003]

2. How far do you agree that the Cold War broke out in Europe because the USA and the USSR disagreed fundamentally about how they should treat the shattered European economy? [M. 2003]

The Markscheme Q. 1

The Marshall Plan forced the USSR to choose between maintaining allied co-operation or bringing it to an end. The formation of the OEEC by the states of Western Europe in April 1948 to implement the Marshall Plan was followed within a year by the formation of Comecon. Thus Europe became formally divided, thereby institutionalising the Cold War. Until this time, there was always a chance that frosty relations between East and West might prove short lived. (The parallel military alliances took longer to be established, the Warsaw Pact not being set up until 1955, six years after NATO.) However it could be argued that the Marshall Plan was a symptom of the Cold War rather than its immediate cause. The Plan symbolized the wide differences of interest which were the main reasons for the outbreak of the Cold War. The two superpowers had different plans for Europe. The USA wanted a Europe of capitalist liberal democracies where the USSR’s preferred model was of one-party socialist states. Both saw the other as expansionist – at least according to the post-revisionist model. And no doubt candidates will find the opportunity to describe the traditional and revisionist models as well. Ideally, they should also evaluate them.

How Marshall Plan Caused Cold War

How Marshall Plan Did Not

Cause Cold War

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

Q2. Markscheme

The disagreement was twofold: firstly, whether the allies should take action at all; secondly, if so, whether the German economy should be brought back to life to stimulate the surrounding economies. In each case, the West said yes, the USSR said no. Both required the injection of large amounts of American money, in the form of the Marshall Plan. The revival of the German economy also required the restoration of a single German currency. On this the Allies could not agree; the Soviets particularly wanted to help themselves to German industrial equipment. Thus the Berlin Blockade occurred. This direct confrontation widened East-West divisions and led to the formation of NATO. By 1948-9 the Cold War had clearly begun. The reasons for disagreement over economic policy could be the basis for a discussion about the different explanations for the outbreak of the Cold War. Did the USSR oppose economic reconstruction because it wanted to strengthen its hold on central Europe – perhaps with an eye to expanding further westwards – as the traditionalists would argue? Or did the USA force the pace in 1947-8 in order to further its economic interests and political ambitions, which is what revisionist historians believe? Finally, was the disagreement and division more the result of misunderstanding and mistrust, the line which is taken by post-revisionists? This discussion could bring in other factors, such as Kennan's Long Telegram and the Greek Civil War.

Disagreements Over European Economy

What Other Factors Created Tensions

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

Glossary of Essential Terms

Use your general knowledge of current affairs and historical knowledge to match up the correct term with the correct definition. Extra spaces allow you to add extra words to create your own glossary.

Term ExplanationSuperpowers a. The economic system of the West; individual market forces and

consumer demand influenced what was producedMarxism b. Anti-Orthodox assessment of an historical event or epoch, often

resulting in radical new ideas and approachesIdeology c. The two strongest and most influential nations in the world between

1945-91 were the USA and USSRCapitalism d. A synonym for Communism. The belief that individual ownership is

wrong; that the working class should govern the state; that history is one long story of class struggle (dialectical materialism)

Democracy e. A set of beliefs and ideas; some historians believed it played a vital role in the Cold War

Revisionism f. The definition of this word was quite different in the West to what it meant in the East (USSR and China)

Term ExplanationSuperpowers

Marxism

Ideology

Capitalism

Democracy

Revisionism

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

1. Nations, like GB, were desperate to re-build their economies & infrastructure

2. There was a genuine desire to help the people of Europe recover from

WWII3. They regarded Marshall

Aid as a means of “dollar imperialism”

4. Having just recovered from a Depression & owed

billions of dollars, they

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A Level Paper 3 The Cold War M. Nichols SCIE 2010

were determined to keep Europe capitalist - and so

ensure customers5. Worried about their growing Communist

parties, and desire not to repeat mistakes of WWI

6. Saw the Aid as part of a US plot to isolate them

7. Part of the doctrine of ‘containment’

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