Emergence Of The Cold War

Question 1

Yalta Conference, 1945

Answer 1

• between the three leaders it was agreed that interim governments would be set up in the liberated territories
• USSR should have a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe
• Stalin would run communist gov in Poland
• USSR would help US defeat Japan
• UN was established to ensure world peace
• these agreements were significant as it should that there was unity between the 3 leaders

Question 2

Potsdam Conference, 1945

Answer 2

• the USSR established governments in Eastern Europe but the western allies refused to recognise them as they were not freely elected
• the west were also concerned as the SU were taking reparations out of these countries
• factories were dismantled and reassembled in SU- this left those countries economically dependant on the USSR
• it was significant as it shows they were still keen to work together but tensions were rising

Question 3

Superpower Relations By Late 1945

Answer 3

Tensions were growing for 2 reasons:

1) Britain feared losing world influence to the USSR and created a Anglo-US pact- pulled together all capitalist powers
2) Truman was under great pressure to stand up to Stalin

Question 4

The Iron Curtain, 1946

Answer 4

• Churchill argued that Europe had been divided by a iron curtain and Soviet influence was increasing in the East
• Churchill feared that Stalin planned to stir up a revolutions across Europe

Question 5

The Truman Doctrine, 1947

Answer 5

• the US would fight for freedom wherever threatened
• the US would commit economic and military resources to help governments that were threatened by communism
• communism should be maintained

Question 6

Marshall Plan, 1947

Answer 6

• this was intended to revive capitalism in Western Europe and preventing communism coming in
• $13 billion was used
• the SU couldn’t offer the same package so it undermined their economy

Question 7

The significance of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan

Answer 7

• it showed that US priority was to rebuild Western Europe and not to cooperate
• the SU believed the Marshall plan was an attempt to divide them both
• USSR pressured countries to reject the Marshall plan and support the Molotov plan
• SU responded with Comecon and cominform

Question 8

Germany and Berlin

Answer 8

• In 1945 they were both divided into 4 zones for the allies
• Trizonia was a cooperative unit by 1947

Question 9

The Berlin Blockade 1948-49

Answer 9

• Stalin responded to the increased coordination of West G by blockading Berlin- he cut off all routes to Berlin
• Stalin wanted to force the west to negotiate over the future of Germany

Question 10

The Berlin Airlift

Answer 10

• Truman kept Berlin supplied by air
• during 324 days the US and British planes ferried 13,000 tonnes of supplies
• it demonstrated the commitment of the US towards communism
• it humiliated Stalin- forcing him to end the blockade
• Stalin was unwilling to engage the US in military conflict
• As a result Germany was divided into West Germany and East Germany

Question 11

Causes of the Korean War

Answer 11

Long-term causes

• between 1910 and 1945 Korea was controlled by Japan
• following the defeat of Japan in ww2, Korea was divided into Soviet and US zones

Medium-term causes

• the South Korea government was unpopular and was vulnerable
• it relied on US support
• 1949 both US and USSR withdrew troops
• new leader of the North thought they could overthrow the south with ease

Short-term causes

• 1950 the US refused to give aid to South Korea
• this convinced Sung that the US wouldn’t stop the communist takeover
• the invasion got Stalins backing

Question 12

The US reaction to the outbreak of the Korean War

Answer 12

• it was evidence of the communist desire for world domination
• Truman responded by appealing to the UN- an international force was dispatched lead by MacArthur

Question 13

The impact of the Korean War on superpower relations

Answer 13

• it shifted the focus of the Cold War from Europe to Asia
• the armistice was signed following Stalins death- it pursued new soviet leaders will have less confrontational approach
• the US had contained communism
• the US had used the communist aggression in Korea to increase their military spending

Question 14

Ideological Confrontation

Answer 14

• the ideological differences went back all the way to the Bolshevik Revolution which Russia became the first Marxist state

Question 15

Orthodox interpretation of the development in the Cold War

Answer 15

• they argued the SU loyalty to communism was the vital factor
• the SU were responsible because it was motivated by communism, an expansionist ideology that advocated global revolution
• it became aggressively expansionist in order to extend communist power
• this lead to the US adopting the containment polices such as
  1) Truman doctrine
  2) marshal plan
  3) NATO

Question 16

The impact of communist ideology on the development of the Cold War 1945-53

Answer 16

1) USSR actions in Europe can be seen to be as a desire to spread communism
- Stalinisation
- Berlin Blockade

2) SU control of wider communist movement
- Cominform
- Comecon

3) Communist expansion in Asia
- the SU approved for the attach on South Korea
- they provided military advisors and weapons to the North

Question 17

Revisionist interpretation of the development in the Cold War

Answer 17

• the USA policy of capitalist expansion was the key factor
• US wanted the pursuit of global markets to maintain economic growth and avoid recession
• they wanted to extend their capitalist power through Marshall plan
• Economic imperialism compelled the SU to consolidate the eastern bloc- preventing capitalism infiltration
• the SU were totally drained and they were in no position to show expansionism- lack of security and economic power

Question 18

The impact of the capitalist ideology on the development to the Cold War 1945-53

Answer 18

1) The US drive for markets after 1945
- the expanding US capitalist community needed ever increasing trade and investment opportunities
- open door policy- free trade and equal opportunity in all foreign markets
- military industrial complex

2) Early US attempts to force the USSR to accept the open door policy in Eastern Europe
- the US refused to agree on German reparations

3) US had the post war confidence to change the world

Question 19

Traditional Great Power Rivalry

Answer 19

1) geopolitical inevitability of US-Soviet conflict
2) Traditional Russian Expansionism
3) US interventionism
4) The international situation in 1945

Question 20

Traditional great power rivalry interpretation of the development of the Cold War

Answer 20

• Soviet foreign policy was driven by a deeply ingrained traditional Russian sense of fear and insecurity which encouraged defensive expansion
• the power vacuums created by the impact of the war drew US and USSR into these areas in an attempt to extend influence

Question 21

Traditional Russian Expansion

Answer 21

• Stalin foreign policy is the main cause and was essentially a continuation of the traditional expansionist objectives of the Tsarist empire rather than an attempt to spread communism
• Stalin wanted to extend borders and influence

Question 22

Truman to be blamed for the development in the Cold War

Answer 22

• Truman could not match Roosevelt’s charisma and public speaking skills
• he lacked social confidence
• Trumans anti communist stance increased soviet fears and made Stalin less likely to cooperate
• he developed a get tough policy to stem the communist growth
• he was convinced that the USSR was an expansionist power which the US had to maintain

Question 23

Churchill

Answer 23

• a deep anti communist he had called for foreign intervention against the Bolsheviks in 1918- so Stalin never really trusted him
• the Iron Curtain speech sharpened the east west divisions- Stalin saw him as a war monger- the British Hitler

Question 24

Stalin

Answer 24

• cunning
• authoritarian
• suspicious and secretive
• very good speaker
• he introduced 5 year plans to strengthen the soviet economy for when the capitalist powers fight against communism

Question 25

USA misjudgements

Answer 25

1) the US believed that poor countries were more likely to turn to communism so the Marshall plan was designed- a fund to help countries that suffered after the war was set up- all the countries that agreed to the rules of free trade could apply- this threatened the USSR as they could not offer the same
2) US policy assumed that communist ideology and not national security was the driving force behind the USSRs foreign policy
3) the Truman doctrine exaggerated the global communist threat
4) the US government mistakenly assumed that Stalin deliberately engineered the Korean War

Question 26

USSR misjudgements

Answer 26

1) Stalin speech to the Supreme soviet of a possible future war against capitalism in order to justify the 5 year plans- the US saw this as a threat of war
2) the Marshall plan was seen by the Kremlin as a calculated attempt to weaken soviet security interests- this lead to Comecon that the US saw as another attempt to spread communism
3) American military superiority convinced Stalin that the US would attack