Roots of the Cold War 2

Question 1

What was the Marshall Plan?

Answer 1

1947

-America realised that without Western Europe having wealth communism would not be able to stop

Question 2

How did the Marshall Plan work?

Answer 2

1. The President sent American General George Marshall to assess the economic state of Europe in summer of 1947
2. Found that the countries of Europe owed $11.5 billion to the USA
3. He suggested that about $17 billion would be needed to rebuild Europe’s prosperity, as there was such shortage of all goods and most countries were still rationing bread
4. September 1947: 16 Western European countries met in Paris and wrote a recovery plan
5. In December 1947 Truman put his plan to congress of $17 billion
   - Congress not that keen at beginning and Americans concerned about giving so much money
   - Changed mind after Czechoslovakia in 1948
6. Over 4 years, $13,000 million of help was provided

Question 3

What were some of the problems in post-war Britain?

Answer 3

• Homeless people
• Cost of rebuilding damaged homes
• Damaged caused by war to infrastructure (roads, bridges etc.)
• Debts from the cost of the war effort
• Shortage of fuel (coal shortages in 1947 electricity turned off for a period each day in Britain)
• Shortage of food and clothing
• Refugees

Question 4

What was Marshall Aid? What was its impacts on Stalin?

Answer 4

1. Extremely generous act of Americans
2. However some self-intrest as they wanted to create new markets for American goods
3. After expressing initial interest he agreed to have nothing to do with it and he forbade any eastern European states to apply for Marshall aid (Poland and Czech wanted to take part but Stalin ordered them not to)
4. Stalin felt that USA was trying to dominate as many states as possible by making them dependent on dollars
5. Stalin’s other view was that the anti-communist aims behind the Marshall Aid would weaken his hold on EE

Question 5

Why did the Marshall Aid end?

Answer 5

By 1952 the plan ended

• Countries of Western Europe were well on their way
• USA had made wealthy trade partners who would want to buy a large amount of American goods

Question 6

How did the Soviet Union react to the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan? What was sent up?

Answer 6

1. Cominform: September 1947 was an agreement and organisation set up to strengthen the link between communist parties in different countries
   - Communists in Western Countries were ordered to wreck the Marshall Plan through strikes 1947-1948 communist workers in both France and Italy organised a series of strikes and demonstrations. Despite these strikes eventually they came to an end
2. Comecon: January 1949 USSR set up their own economic bloc of countries in EE, it was a trading organisation but not nearly as successful as Marshall Plan. There was no ejection of money into Eastern European countries and eventually the USSR just used it to encourage each country to specialise in different products

Question 7

What were some of the causes of the Berlin Blockade?

Answer 7

• Germany had been split into four zones
• In the Capital Berlin which was in the soviet zone it was split just like the rest of Germany
  1. June 1948: the Western allies introduce a new currency into their areas of control (The Deutschmark) but it was NOT used in the Soviet Zone
  2. January 1947: American and British governments fused their two zones (at the time Bizonia) This was the beginning of the establishment of West Germany
  3. Marshall Plan: for the economic rebuilding of Western Europe it was extended to the Western part of Germany but NOT the Soviet zone

Question 8

Why did those factors alarm Stalin in the BB?

Answer 8

-This alarmed Stalin as if this led to a divided Germany, the West (which is the larger and wealthier part) will be closely allied to the USA, which could lead to a successful anti-communist West of Germany and this could raise the possibility of another German attack on Russia as in 1914 and 1941 (Catalyst for BB)

Question 9

How did Stalin react to the factors before the BB?

Answer 9

• In protest of the currency reforms and to stop the formation of West Germany (a divided Germany) Stalin decided to Blockade West Berlin
• West Berlin, although controlled by American, French and British was a Western ‘Island’ deep in the Soviet sector. Stalin knew that he could control all land routes to West Berlin and cut of over 2 million people’s supplies by simply closing the roads and the railways

Question 10

Describe the Berlin Blockade

Answer 10

• In June 1948 Stalin cut off all the supply lines from West Germany to Berlin in an effort to force the West out of Germany’s capital
• If US tanks did try to ram the road-blocks or railway blocks, Stalin would see it as an act of War

Question 11

What was Truman’s response to the BB?

Answer 11

1. Truman wanted Berlin to be a symbol of democracy behind the Iron Curtain and so decided to supply the city from the air regardless of the cost
2. First plane took off: 28 June 1948
3. Total of almost 275,000 flights
4. 1.5 million tons of supplies were delivered
5. On average a plane carrying 4000 tonnes of foods, clothes, building materials and fuel land every three minutes at Berlin’s Templehof airport
6. Stalin abandoned the blockade on 12th May 1949

Question 12

What were the consequences of the Berlin Blockade?

Answer 12

1. Divided Germany: May 1949 French, US and British area became officially Western Germany: republic and October 1949 USSR area became Eastern Germany: democratic
2. Berlin became a key area of tension and stayed divided for 41 years
3. Showed the pattern of the Cold War, obstruct each other, bombard each other with propaganda and be v.suspicious of each other but not willing to go to war still
4. Arms Race
5. Nato and Warsaw Pact

Question 13

What was NATO?

Answer 13

• North Atlantic Treaty organisation formed in April 1949
• Dominated by US first time USA part of peacetime military alliance
• Promise of American help in emergency and alliance supported by large numbers of troops on the ground

Question 14

What was the Warsaw Pact Alliance?

Answer 14

• 1955 USSR and main communist states in the EE
• Due to the fact that now USSR felt threatened since West Germany had joined NATO
• Own military alliance
• Established under a treaty called the Warsaw Pact, and this said that the members would defend each other if any one member was attacked

Question 15

What was the impact of the BB on the arms race?

Answer 15

USA was now committed to the defence of Western Germany
1. USA set up missile bases in Europe
2. Stalin prioritised the Soviet Atomic Research Programme and surprised the US by successfully testing a nuclear bomb in 1949
3. The US government poured funding into new ‘H’ bomb project
4. In 1953, both countries successfully tested H bombs. The US only beat the USR by a few months
5. The US anti-communist hysteria reached new heights
NUCLEAR FEAR

Question 16

What was the most significant impact of the BB?

Answer 16

The divided Germany was the most significant impact as that led to major physical as well as political hostilities between the USSR and the Allies. This also led to NATO becoming such a prominent issue (as WG joined), which caused the Warsaw Pact’s creation. All of this created a divided Europe as well as a Germany replicating the World War 2 division These rising tensions were initiated by the divided Germany making hostilities, nuclear fear (and conflict fear) increase rapidly.

Question 17

What was the ‘long telegram’?

Answer 17

1. February 1946 George Kennan sent a famous report to Washington saying:
2. Communism has made matters worse . Marxist ideas encourage Soviet leaders to be absolutely ruthless
3. The Soviet leader are fanatics and can never be trusted
4. Soviet policy is a continuation of traditional Russian policy of hostility towards the outside world
5. Kennan said that the Soviet Government was determined to expand and must be stopped
6. He also developed the idea of containment, and the theory of containment was that the USA should use all means, including the threat if force to stop Soviet power spreading any further

Question 18

Why did the USA introduce the Marshall Plan? (6)

Answer 18

• Truman wanted to stop the spread of communism. He believed that communism succeeded when people were faced with poverty and hardship and so he sent over four years $13,000 million of help, to help rebuild Western Europe, so that Western Europe would not fall under Soviet control
• It helped the American economy in the long term. Since the US was sending this aid, they were making new markets for America goods, and so Truman was preventing another worldwide slump as the Depression in the 1930’s and so the Marshall Plan was for self-interest to avoid anther Depression

Question 19

Why was Berlin a cause of tension between the East and West after the Second World War? (6)

Answer 19

• Since Berlin had been split into four zones, three being ruled by the Western Allies and the other one by the USSR the West and the East were under conflicting control. This meant that in January 1947 American and British governments fused their two zones (at the time Bizonia) This was the beginning of the formation of Western German. If Germany became divided
• When the Marshall Plan came into action only the West received aid. For the economic rebuilding of Western Europe it was extended to the Western part of Germany but not the Soviet zone, this made Stalin fear that West Germany would become stronger and wealthier and side more to the USA. Therefore West Germany would become an anti-communist area and so tensions increased between the East and West of Germany.

Question 20

Reasons why USA was to blame for Cold war

Answer 20

• Dividing Berlin and the new currency
• NATO
• Marshall Plan
• Truman Doctrine, both direct attack on communism by stating that America will give money to a country which was pro-capitalist
• Financially supported an anti-communist forces in Russian Civil War in 1919
• Started arms race in 1945, this proved the competitive spirit between the nations (using atomic bomb and not sharing technology in Potsdam)

Question 21

Reasons why the USSR was to blame for the Cold War

Answer 21

• Berlin Blockade 1948/1949 (agressive)
• Warsaw Pact
• Aggressive take over in EE unlike US
• 1947 involvement in Greece
• Cominform and Comecon
• Free elections denied in Poland
• Invent Atomic Bomb by 1949 (But USA boast)
• Soviet troops persisted in Iran when they were meant to leave and only left when the conflict was brought up in the UN

Question 22

Reasons why no one was to blame for the Cold War

Answer 22

• The state of disorganisation and conflicting ideologies (Communist and Capitalism would not be able to exist alongside each other)
• 1947 Economic Crisis
• Divided Germany and Europe

Question 23

Describe Cominform

Answer 23

1. October 1947, Stain set up the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform) to coordinate the work of the Communist Parties of eastern Europe
2. Cominform regularly brought the leader of each Communist Party to Moscow to be briefed by Stalin and his ministers
3. This also allowed Stalin to keep a close eye on them, and if he spotted independent-minded leaders he would replace them with people who were completely loyal to him
4. The only Communist leader who escaped this close control was Tito in Yugoslavia, he resented being controlled by Cominform and was expelled for his hostility in 1948
   - Both France and Italy had strong Communist parties which belonged to Cominform

Question 24

What happened in Czechoslovakia in 1948?

Answer 24

1. The Americans attitude changed when the Communists took over the government of Czechoslovakia, as it had been ruled by a coalition government which, although it included Communists had been trying to pursue policies independent of Moscow
2. The Communists came down hard in March 1948 and purged Anti-Soviet leaders
3. After this, Congress accepted the Marshall Plan and made $17 billion available over a period of 4 years