Origins of the Cold War Flashcards
Intro
Cold War state of political and military tension after WW2 between West and East as unnatural alliance only linked through common enemy Hitler. Ideology most important but spheres of influence post WW2 - trigger to tension.
Ideologies
Oppose - unable to mix as communism - perfect equal society and dictatorship - capitalism - profit based and democracy. Wilson wanted free democratic world with trade - opposed Lenin. Bolshevik Revolution 1917 - West supported whites - sent 100 million pounds of supplies - distrust. Riga Axioms - anti spread of USSR.
Personalities
Stalin - paranoid/doubtful - no second front - distrust. Worried about security - Russia weak after WW2 (27 million died) - 1941 took baltics and Finland and E.Europe - seen as expansionism. Truman - hostile - agreements hard - Potsdam Protocol - no agreement on Polish borders and threatened A bomb. Churchill suspicious % agreement and Iron curtain speech.
Post war practicalities
Yalta and Postdam - conflict over Polish borders. Agreed free elections but vague so Stalin influenced elections to get pro-sov states in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria appeared to US as Sov expansionism - US feared trade reducing. Warsaw uprising (200k dead) and atom bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to distrust - USSR began to develop own bomb. Germany - West wanted for world recovery and USSR for reparations.
