The cold war in Europe, 1945-1949 Flashcards
Three main theories about the Cold War
1 - Traditionalist (until the mid-1960s)
2 - Revisionist (1960-1970s)
3 - Post-revisionist (starting from the 1970s)
3 main questions:
- Who was responsible for the cold war?
Traditionalist: primarily Soviet Union
Revisionist: USA
Post-revisionist: mutual accountability is stressed more than in the other 2 schools - Who was most active in the years immediately following WWII?
Traditionalist: US policy is based on passivity (until 1947 -focus on international cooperation, attempts to negotiate between the UK and USSR as main antagonists. After 1947 - Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan were the response to the Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe)
Revisionist: the US tried to limit the influence of the Soviet Union even before the end of the war. USSR is defensive. Soviet policies in Eastern Europe are a response to American ambitions in the region.
Post-revisionist: maintain that the revisionists are too eager to perceive the US as motivated by anti-soviet considerations and they also reject that soviet policy in Eastern Europe is a result of American ambitions. - What are the primary motivating forces, particularly for the US foreign policy?
Traditionalist: the US needs to defend its own and Western Europe’s security interests due to the Soviet expansion (defense of democratic rights)
Revisionist: US policy is based on the needs of capitalism and fundamental anti-communism
Post-revisionist: all these motivations played a part, however, economic conditions are less significant
Structural explanations of the Cold War
The outbreak of the Cold War can be analyzed on different levels:
- international system
- ideologies, nations, and individuals
Structural condition 1
According to the political realism theory conflicts are inevitable and in this perspective, the antagonism between East and West is a new variation of a familiar theme.
Structural condition 2
The vacuum was created by the defeat of Germany and Japan. Both the USA and USSR were able to fill it, but there was no mutually accepted way which led to the conflict.
Conditions in Europe and Asia were stabilized before colonial empires fell apart. New nations in Asia and Africa suffered from a lack of domestic instability and former colonial powers were not able to fill this vacuum, so the stage was once again taken by conflicts between the two superpowers (note: the most important conflicts between East and the West happened in Asia and Africa)
Structural condition 3
Differing political and economic systems in the US and Soviet Union. They are not only different, but they are also mutually denounced each other’s system.
Structural condition 4 (less developed than others)
Different types of people confronting each other:
Russians - insecure, fearful of the outside world, with an inferiority complex towards the West
Americans - optimistic, superior, expansive
Who acted where?
The USA: all over the world, although its influence wasn’t equally persuasive in all parts of the globe.
Soviet Union: their policy was less ambitious geographically, but in the important areas (e.g. Europe) the desire to dominate was much stronger than the american.
US policy
- America was going to protect the world against the POWER POLITICS of the old major powers
- the main phrases: international cooperation, self-government by the people, anti-colonialism, free trade between nations
- No issue is foreign to the USA anymore
- UN is the central body in the political sphere
- The Bretton-Woods institutions (the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) are central actors in the economic sphere
- NATO —> for the first time in peacetime the US entered a military alliance with countries outside the Western hemisphere
Under the ideal surface, these policies were adapted to the US interests (UN is dominated by the USA, free trade favors the USA, no spheres of interests6 but there was US control over Latin America, no colonies except the areas the USA has command over, Rhine and Danube are international, but not the Panama Canal etc.)
Despite the available means, the goals were too ambitious to be achieved.
Available means:
- a monopoly on nuclear weapons
- a wide-reaching network of bases
- economic measures to influence the countries (including the Soviet Union) (the distribution of economic support gives us ideal about the US priorities
Limitations:
- there could not be a chance of using the atomic bomb to influence the Soviet Union directly
- demobilization (supported by the general public)
- US limited itself in Eastern Europe in favor of the USSR and didn’t oppose to Chinese revolution
A change of political course by the USA
Pr Roosevelt was hoping to achieve cooperation with the Soviet Union. The general public also wanted good relations with Moscow, but they were not ready to sacrifice American ideas in Western Europe for that.
During the course of 1945, the signs of Soviet tough policies in eastern Europe became clear and skepticism among the American public rose.
The new Pr Harry Truman in the first months was unsure of what policy to pursue. However, from the time of the meeting of foreign ministers in London in Sep-Oct 1945 the split between the US and USSR became evident and Stalin became seen almost as a new Hitler.
In February-March 1948 the coup of Czechoslovakia, the Finish-Soviet cooperation pact and the fear of communist victory over Italy (and the rumors that the USSR might suggest the same pact with Norway) resulted in a change of course in the USA and the establishment of an Atlantic Defense system.
Soviet Policy
- Far from the US in terms of strength
- America, Africa, and most of Asia were little significance but had a strong influence in North Korea and Outer Mongolia. In China, they wanted the rights they lost after the defeat by Japan in 1904-5
- interested in getting Kars and Ardahan provinces in Turkey and as much control as possible over Dardanelles
- at first, the Soviet Union seemed to support cooperation in Western Europe
For some “concessions” for the West Stalin wanted:
- Baltic countries as a part of the USSR
- Polish border on the Curzon line
- bases in Romania and Finland
- free hand in Romania, Bulgaria, and a bit less in Hungary
Poland was the most important country (as the buffer zone between USSR and Germany) BUT THE SAME IMPORTANCE FOR THE WEST so it was difficult to accept a complete Soviet dominance there
(Poland and Romania were traditionally anti-soviet)
West gained control in Italy and Japan —> the price was the soviet control in eastern europe (
The problem of Germany
- Germany remains demilitarized (was taken for granted)
- Limitations on the German economy (no higher standard of leaving than average in Europe)
France
- Wanted to keep Germany weak
- Saar province annexed to France (until 1957)
- Ruhr and Rhineland regions are under international control with a French central role
Soviet Union
- strong german central government (an instrument for larger reparations and stronger influence in other zones)
- advocated German unity
- however, some policies were taken to undermine the desire to unite and have a strong government.
- organization of the zone according to the Eastern Europe pattern
The UK
- Didn’t agree to 10 billion in reparations for the Soviets
- German industrial production should be at the highest possible (the US advocated for a slightly lower level)
(the UK and the US gradually accepted the Saar region to be linked to France but they still opposed partitioning Ruhr and Rhineland regions from the rest of Germany. In time French policies regarding these regions were abandoned)
July 1946 - merging the UK and US zones into one (Bi-zone) initiated by the USA which indicated the US leadership in the West and the process of German entire disintegration.
1948 French zone joined as well.
As there was no peace treaty which supposed to set the final German-polish border, the powers started to accept that the temporary border might become the final one.
! Europe cannot be rebuilt economically without Germany, so the western zones played an important role in the establishment of the Marshall Plan in 1947.
The Soviet Union was excluded from Ruhr and from most of Germany and West Germany was to be incorporated into European cooperation. The Berlin blockade (started in April 1948 and was completed by July except for air connections) was Moscow’s response.
Possible objections:
1 - prevent the creation of West Germany and achieve control over Germany by the 4 powers (maximum)
2 - isolate West Berlin to gain control over the city (minimum)
Western powers created an airlift that exceeded all expectations and showed Western superiority.
The blockade also speeded up the creation of NATO and weakened Soviet positions in Western Europe.
In May 1949 the blockade was over and a day after Western powers approved the new West German Constitution. 10 days later the new state was formally established.
Motivating forces behind the US policy
- The question of national security (layer-by-layer theory)
1945-46 - the conflict regarding Eastern Europe and to some extent Germany
1947-48 - The US began to fear Soviet expansion into Western Europe (not a direct attack, but political pressure, economic chaos, active local Communist parties etc) - Western Europe countries could not resolve their issue by themselves (reasons for Marshall Plan and NATO)
Domestic conditions which influenced the US FP
- a strong ideological desire to spread the American gospel
- anticommunism
- economic considerations
- !! the tremendous power of the US during that period to share the international environment on its own image
Motivating forces behind the Soviet policy
- national security
- the attack on capitalism (ideology)
- Economic considerations (local economies were sometimes brutally exploited)
- Power (advances of the red army)
