The Cold War Flashcards
Dollar Gap
Europea states’ imbalance in payments deficit– they imported more than they exported; for that they were on shortage of dollars to pay for US equipment
Deutsche Frage
Allies’ solution:
- german federation, decentralized= avoid dictatorship
Stalin’s solutions:
1. unified Germany under Soviet administration
2. unified neutral state with no foreign troops
3. division into two unequal parts– soviet dominion was assured in on of the two
After Marshall Plan:
- birth of the Federal Republic of Germany= LONDON PROGRAM
- soviet response= authorization of the German Democratic Republic
Communists’ Doppiezza
= playing moderately before the institutions whilst secretely ready to take power with arms– every communist party had its revolutionary minority
Communist threat on economy after WW2
Free-market capitalism– no trust after great depression
Communist influence on economy:
- danger of expropriation and taxation= capital abroad
- factories needed fast retooling and give workers a job– avoid collapse of living standard= avoid revolution
Communists seemed to be taking advantage of the climate of political uncertainty and economic distress
Marshall plan’s official and unofficial aims– main consequence
Official:
- enhance internal financial stability
- increase in production
- expand foreign trade
- foster European economic co-operation; end of economic barriers in the most competitive global exporter; more productivity
Unofficial:
- deal with the dollar gap
- end of Western European Communism
- Germand question
- encourage change in the satellite areas
MAIN CONSEQUENCE= official end of Rooselvet’s policy toward the USSR
Original major aim of the Marshall Plan
= end of the Europe’s dependency on the US’s intervention
– failed: european countries accepted more integretation only with US as guarantor against German and Russian aggressions
UNITY= NO ALTERNATIVE TO US’S PROTECTION
Europe was in not actual Communist threat– USSR was recovering from WW2 and was in no place to help western Europe
Marshall Plan with respect to Eastern European countries
aim= pull them out of USSR’s sphere of influence
Offensive strategy:
1. reduce Moscow’s power
2. change in international relationships
3. weaken soviet domination in the East
Stalin’s reactions (soon after ww2) were driven by…
- the Allies’ attempts to deteriorate Soviets’ power in the East
- consolidation over Germany
- reduction of communist influence in Italy and France
USA and Britain’s reactions (soon after ww2) were driven by…
- Russians’ brutal behaviour in Eastern Europe and Germany
- probes toward sensitive areas beyond Soviet occupation
- intimidation of Iran and Turkey
- opposition of Marshall Plan by PCF and PCI
Schools of thinking on the Cold War (synthesis)
- ORTHODOX:
conflict= unavoidable– Soviet long-term objectives are incompatible with the West
Necessity: American leadership and harmonious world based on democracy and capitalism
Critics:
1. simplistic conception of Soviet ideology
2. self-interested and ambition of Western economic and military supremacy - REVISIONISTS
conflict= inevitable– cause= American expansionism and hunger for markets - post-war Soviet policies= defensive
- end of US’s predatory policies through redistribution of wealth
-REALISTS:
international politics= struggle for limited resources and central authority
WW and CW= conflicts for the imposition of one’s way of life (not different from religious wars)
SYNTHESIS= both parts acted provocatively and gave plenty of reasons for alarm
Enlargement of US’s entaglement
Causes= domestic enemies= republicans
China Lobby= potent force
- increased militancy of the Republican
- reaction to the Chinese civil war’s outcome (had helped the nationalists)
After the Korean War
US expanded its defense umbrella: Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Indochina (Japan and Taiwan= military US’s protectorates)
Effects of the Korean War
= consolidation of the two blocs
- FRG’s accellerated integration
- Stalin’s embrace of GDR; GDR’s leaders accelerated sovietization– will be reversed by Krushchev for social unrest
- election in the US of conservative war-hero= Einsenhower; NO DEMOCRATS FOR THEIR APPEASING COMMUNISM
Eisenhower’s brinkmanship
Formation of three task forces:
- task force A: gradually diminish Soviet power but without risking a general war
- task force B: drawing a line beyond which communist advance would imply war
- task force C: aggressive rollback to end Communism in China and USSR– covert political offensive
NSC 162/2 fourfold approach:
1. cut military spending + withdrawal of US’s troops from Europe
2. reinforced local defenses
3. negotiate on specific issues
4. covert measure to create problems to the Soviet Union= overthrowing of soviet-friendly governments (ex. Iran)
Brinkmanship
Political tactic by which the aim is to psychologically bend the enemy through the pushing forward of aggressiveness and dangerous actions without seemengly reaching out for an understanding
In the CW brinkmanship would often mean threat of nuclear war
Kruschchev’s presidency
- Chinese “ally”: rejected de-stalinization. Kruschchev angered Mao by critizing his aggressive policy toward Taiwan and India; Mao’s desire= leader of Communism
- Growing German: the FRG experienced an economic boom and started rearming= fear of revanchist Germany
- facing of two crisis:
1. Berlin Wall– Ultimatum= Berlin shall be free from occupation forces= withdrawal of Allies’ troops; else USSR will sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany= no more four-power agreements guaranteeing western occupation. Also to stop brain drain= immigration.
Berlin= no strategic value; only symbolic= obsession with prestige and credibility - Cuba Missile Crisis– Soviet reasons to place them:
1. gain credibility= failed twice to settle the Berlin question
2. strategic imbalance in favor of the US
3. deterrant for a Cuba invasion
4. pressure to accept his demands
1950-68 shift
- US replaces european powers in the most strategic countries of the Third World (ex. Indochina, Iran)
- decade shift signed the birth of 25 new non-allgined states that were but keener to the Soviet Union
- US’s internal fight: let newly independent countries fall into Communism or betray our principles (democracy-freedom)?
- US and Europe’s incapability of deploying continent-wide economic support; ON THE OTHER HAND: 1930s Russia’s incresible leap forward showed what the power of people could do= appealing short-cut
- US’s response=
1. establishment of filo-american dictatorships
2. fomenting of anti-communist organizations where impossible
Mao’s third world theory
= total disruption with USSR
- US and USSR= imperialist first world
- industrialized states= second world
- all the others= third world
Throughout the decades China and USSR startes viewing the other as number one threat
Vietnam war:
- why did US persist?
- why was the war unwinnable?
- domino effect: loosing Vietnam could bring to further defeats and embolden the enemies, international humiliation, loss of prestige
- for many reasons:
1. commitment of the NFL
2. indispensable aid from both USSR and China (competition between the two)
3. Ngo’s regime extremely low support in rural areas
4. Geographical setting: battlefield was not suited to US’s strategy and way of war; also presence of nearby routes to adjacent Laos and Cambodia
Turns of the 60s’ end and beginning of the 70s
- Germany: Brandt prepetrates Ostpolitik= implemented relations with USSR
- CHINA OFFICIAL ENEMY OF USSR– the US establish better relations with China: the asian country recieves US’s protection over Soviet attacks in exchange for US troops’ withdrawal from Taiwan
- US’s withdrawal of troops from Vietnam, starting of heavy bombardment, war financed by the US, conducted by locals
US’s strategy by 60s’s end and start of the 70s
Preservation of the existing power:
- ground floor= domestic base= cooperation between republicans and democrats– did not prove to work:
1. Republicans= support to arms control, indifferent to human rights
2. Democrats= idealists, want of limiting imperial presidency
- supporting pillars:
1. détente or new relationships with USSR and China
2. devolution= new relations with friendly states
- roof= US’s world position
REALIZATION= concentration of power
Second half of the 70s
Trio of controversies:
1. window of vulnerability= advantage of the USSR over the US with the development of new missiles that threatened US
2. USSR’s military activisim in developing regions– with the acquirement of Horn of Africe (after being excluded from Egypt) it could menace Europe’s oil supplies
3. USSR’s attempts to render Western Europe increasingly dependent on USSR’s energy supplies
Invasion against Afghanistan (USSR)
- bulwark against religious fanatism (islamic); reaction after Iran’s revolution
- Hobbesian fatalist response= to prevent the country from falling into US’s arms we invade it
