The Birth of the Cold War

1. The Birth of the Cold War

2. Cold War • Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam, and the atomic bomb, created a global order dominated by confrontation between USA and USSR. • Most European countries aligned with either NATO or Warsaw Pact. • This confrontation characterized virtually every international event between 1945 and 1990.

3. Post-Potsdam Euro Order • Post Potsdam global order recognized • Spheres of influence • Struggle to maintain sphere of influence • Struggle to contain opponent's influence • Allegiance to one bloc or the other; few countries remained neutral, even if they stayed out of NATO or Warsaw Pact

4. Immediate Results of Conferences • Division of Germany/Berlin to subdue Germany, • Tacit allowance of Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe • Understanding that appeasement had failed to serve Western objectives: • Appeasement of Hitler had not prevented WW2 • Appeasement of Stalin had divided Europe • Future conflicts would strive for containment rather than appeasement

5. First Cold War Crisis: Greece • 1942-1949, clash between “communists” and nationalists • ’42-’44: ideological conflict within anti-Nazi resistance • ’44: Communists emerged in control of most of Greece; conservatives gov’t in exile returned from Cairo • ’46-’49 USSR-supported Communists defeated by US-supported nationalists • Greece remains polarized between leftist and conservative politics

6. Containment and Aid: Marshall Plan • Aid and cooperation: recognized interconnections between modern economies • 1947: Marshall Plan began; lasted 4 years; passed Congress after USSR seized power in Czechoslovakia • $13 Billion in aid; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) created • Offered to USSR and eastern bloc, but refused • USSR created COMECON to encourage two-way trade between Eastern Bloc countries • After plan, all Western participating economies produced above pre-war levels • Laid basis for EU, as it erased many tariff barriers

7. Containment: Berlin Airlift • 1948: US, UK, France agreed to create unified West Germany • Stalin responded by closing ground access to West Berlin • US/UK transport planes supplied Berlin: 270,000 flights • B29 planes stationed in UK: atomic threat? • USSR relented, but formally created the DDR (East Germany)

8. Containment: NATO • Western European nations, USA, Canada agree to defensive pact • 4 April 1949: Brussels headquarters • ANZUS linked Australia, NZ to US • 1952: Greece, Turkey joined • 1954: USSR suggested it should join; rejected • 1955: West Germany joined; east responded with formation of Warsaw Pact

9. Increase in Eastern Power • 22 September 1949: USSR detonated atomic bomb • atomic race for superiority began • American monopoly on atomic power broken • Western security in superior strength was broken • 1949: Mao Tse-tung victorious in China • USSR-People's Republic of China bloc feared • Geographical proximity of revolutionary communism to "hot spots" of de-colonizing Asia

10. Conclusions • With mutual fear, containment in third countries became the objective. • With atomic capabilities, each international crisis became a potential for mass destruction. • Isolationism no longer an option for US or USSR. • Military expenditures became priority during "peace“ time. • Vulnerability of man to total war extended into "peace“ time. • Colonialism replaced by competition -- military,economic, and propagandistic -- between USSR and USA.