World War II was coming to an end, and at the Yalta Conference in the Crimea, Stalin, Churchill, and an ailing Roosevelt, seated in the middle, met to decide on the division of the spoils of Europe. However, the ideological differences between these former allies would force them apart. A new war would begin, but it would be vastly different from all others.
Main
title: The Cold War. Part One
The Cold War is defined as the struggle between the ideologies of capitalism and democracy on the one hand, and the ideology of communism on the other. It would continue from the end of World War II, until the resignation of President Gorbachev and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, in December 1991.
It was a battle for superiority, militarily and economically, between the USA and it’s allies, and the Soviet Union and it’s bloc. The opposing influence of their ideologies resulted in many crises, and had a profound effect on international relations. There was also the underlying fear of nuclear war.
ORIGINS
OF THE COLD WAR
At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, four resolutions were reached.
The countries liberated by the Soviet Army would hold free elections. The United Nations would be formed to stop future wars. The Soviet Union under Stalin would enter the war against Japan, when Germany was defeated. And finally, Germany itself would be divided into 4 zones, with Britain, France, USA and the USSR each occupying a zone. The capital Berlin, even though it was in the middle of the Soviet-occupied sector, was also divided into the same four zones.
Three months later, Germany had surrendered unconditionally on 8th May 1945, and at the Potsdam Conference held just outside Berlin between July and August 1945, there was an uneasy atmosphere. Harry Truman, the new US President following the death of Roosevelt, was worried that the Soviets had not held any free elections in Europe, and was unsure as to Stalin’s motives. Truman had also informed Stalin that America had exploded the world’s first atomic bomb. Stalin was alarmed that the US might use that weapon in an attack against the USSR.
A
month later on the 6th and 9th of August 1945, atomic
bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, bringing
to a close the war in the Pacific. The Japanese signed an unconditional
surrender on 2nd September 1945 on the battleship USS Missouri in
Tokyo Bay.
These developments made Stalin more determined to have friendly countries bordering the USSR. He ordered the Red Army to remain in Eastern Europe, and he installed communist governments in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. They would form a buffer protecting the Soviet Union from any military aspirations by Western Europe. These governments would also be under the direct control of the Soviet Union.
In
response to these developments in Eastern Europe, Winston Churchill gave his
famous speech in Fulton, Missouri on 5th March 1946. “From
Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain had descended
across the continent…”.
The lines had been drawn between the ideologies and aspirations of the major superpowers. Two new legislations, which would be passed by the American Congress in 1947, would drive a wedge deeper between the East and the West.
THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE AND THE MARSHALL PLAN
In 1947, President Truman had Congress inaugurate what was called the Truman Doctrine, which has remained the cornerstone of American foreign policy. At the heart of the policy was the idea that the United States would help ‘free peoples’ to resist attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressure. And Congress was willing to fund the first appropriation of $400 million to support Greece and Turkey defeat communist guerrillas. They also funded French containment of Ho Chi Minh’s army of liberation in Indochina – a commitment that eventually led to America’s disastrous involvement in the Vietnam War.
The Marshall Plan, devised by Secretary of State General George Marshall, was designed to give financial aid and equipment, to help rebuild many of the war-ravaged nations of Europe. The offer was made to all countries, but an extremely suspicious Stalin ordered the communist nations of Eastern Europe not to accept. He claimed the real aim was to encourage the purchase of American goods, thereby making the US even more powerful. However, by 1952 sixteen countries received $17 billion to help them recover from the war.
The Cold War was a fact of life.
THE BERLIN AIRLIFT 1948
After the ravages of the WW II, German cities and industries had lain in ruin. The sectors controlled by USA, Britain and France had, by 1948, begun to rebuild. There was new industry; food and goods were in greater supply in shops and, in 1948, a new currency called the Deutschmark, was introduced into the Western zones and West Berlin.
Stalin was determined Germany would never be a threat to the USSR. He also wanted compensation for the damage done to it during the war. Much of the machinery from factories was dismantled and transported back to Russia. A Soviet controlled government was also set up in the Russian sector.
Life in the Russian sector and East Berlin remained hard,
and contrasted sharply with living standards in the Western sector. Stalin
wanted nothing to do with the new currency, or for the citizens in East Berlin
to achieve the same living standards as those in West Berlin. He decided to
blockade the railways and highways, which were the lifelines bringing food and
essential supplies from Western Germany to Berlin. By starving the people of
West Berlin he hoped that the Western powers would do nothing and leave the
Soviets in control of Berlin. But he was to be disappointed. The American
commander in Berlin, General Lucius Clay said: ‘If Berlin falls Western
Germany will be next. If we mean to hold Germany against communism, we must not
budge.’
Thus began the largest airlift of supplies into West Berlin. From 28th June to 11th May 1949, 275,000 flights were made into and out of West Berlin. A combination of American, British and civilian aircraft carried over 2 million tonnes of supplies, which included food, medicine, coal, clothing and building supplies. Seventy-nine men were lost in the operation. Stalin eventually realised that the Western powers were determined to retain West Berlin and lifted the blockade. Supplies were allowed to enter by the overland routes.
The Western allies realised that there would be no co-operation from the USSR over the running of Germany. On 23 May 1949, the three western zones merged to form the Federal Republic of Germany or West Germany. The Russians reacted in October of the same year, proclaiming their zone as the German Democratic Republic or East Germany. Germany would remain divided for 41 years with a democratic nation in the west, while the east was controlled from Moscow. Public opinion in the West was outraged at Stalin and the Soviets’ behaviour, and anti-communist feeling developed further in the West.
The western powers formed NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, in 1949, to help defend democratic countries from foreign aggression. The USSR would form the Warsaw Pact a similar alliance in 1955.
CHINESE CIVIL WAR
After the defeat of the Japanese, American Secretary of State General
George C. Marshall (on the left) visited China in 1946. His aim was to
reconcile the differences between the two former allies, the Communists with
Mao Zedong the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, and the Nationalists
led by Jiang Jieshi.
Both parties had worked separately to combat and defeat the Japanese,
but for over twenty years, there had been mutual distrust. Ideologically it
would be difficult for them to co-exist. General Marshall, however, got the two
sides to sign a truce, but this broke down in early 1946 and a civil war began
in earnest.
For three years the two forces battled each other, until major battles
at Hwai-Hai in North East China in late 1948 turned the tide of conflict for
the communists. Communist forces then crossed the Yangtze River and captured
the Nationalists’ capital of Nanjing. The People’s Liberation Army pushed south
to the Indo-Chinese border to totally rout Jiang’s army. Finally Mao was able
to proclaim the establishment of the People’s Republic of China from the Gate
of Heavenly Peace on 1st October 1949.
Jiang Jieshi formed the Republic of China on the island of Taiwan. He
received support from the USA, and this republic was recognized as China’s
government in exile. The People’s Republic of China was not admitted into the
United Nations. This nation of a billion people would be exempt from western
contact for over 30 years.
THE KOREAN WAR and ITS CONSEQUENCES
At the end of World War II, Korea was occupied by Soviet troops north
of the 38th parallel and US troops to the south. A communist
government under Kim ll Sung was established in the north. Dr. Syngman Rhee
established an anti-communist government in the south. In 1948 Soviet and
American troops left, and the problem of who should rule Korea was handed over
to the United Nations.
North Korean troops invaded South Korea on 25th June 1950.
The United Nations sent reinforcements to assist the South Koreans. At the time
the USSR was absent from the United Nations and would have vetoed against this
move.
The well-organized North Korean army was equipped with Soviet-made
weapons. They overran Korea until General Douglas Macarthur, commanding troops
from sixteen nations, pushed them back over the 38th parallel to the
Yalu River and the Chinese border.
China, unhappy with having a United Nations force close to its border,
sent soldiers to assist the North Koreans. On 16th October 250,000
Chinese troops helped the North Koreans drive the UN forces back to just south
of the 38th parallel. President Truman wanted an end to the war, but
Macarthur sought to extend it with air strikes on Chinese targets, and even
considered using nuclear bombs. Truman believed this was outrageous and that
the USSR, also a superpower, could be brought into the conflict, triggering
World War III. Macarthur still disagreed and Truman was forced to dismiss him.
In a farewell speech to the American Congress on 19th April 1951
Macarthur said: ‘You cannot appease or otherwise surrender to communism
in Asia without undermining our efforts to halt its advance in Europe.’ His
speech reflected the extreme feelings about communism at the time, with the
focus of the Cold War shifting to Asia.
Fighting continued for a further two years until a cease-fire was
agreed upon at Panmunjom in 1953. But the cost was high, with 600,000 Korean
troops killed. The USA lost over 50,000 men and the Chinese casualties numbered
20,000. An estimated one million civilians were killed during the course of the
war. Korea was still a divided country but, from the West’s perspective, the
spread of communism into South Korea had been halted. Although the superpowers
had not been drawn into direct confrontation, each side increasingly mistrusted
the words and actions of the other.
In 1954, America’s fear of communism spreading into
Asia was heightened by the defeat of the French army at Dien Bien Phu by Ho Chi
Minh’s North Vietnamese forces. At a Presidential press conference in April of
that year, President Eisenhower compared the vulnerable nations of Asia as a
“row of dominoes”, set up and ready to fall. To maintain security in the area The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, or SEATO, was created in September
1954. SEATO was designed to be a Southeast Asian version of NATO, in which the military
forces of each member would provide collective security. France, the United
Kingdom, and the United States represented the ‘out of area’ powers.
Australia, Thailand, the
Philippines, and New Zealand represented the ‘in area’ nations.
IMPACT OF THE COLD WAR IN THE USA
After World War II, the intelligence networks for spying became
extremely sophisticated. The United States formed the CIA; the Soviets had the
KGB, and the British MI 6. These agencies would often recruit scientists, or
military and embassy personnel to supply them with sensitive national secrets.
The fifties in America was certainly the decade of communist paranoia.
‘Reds under the bed,’ and ‘reds should be dead’ were some of the catch phrases.
Onto this stage in America in 1950 emerged a little known senator from
Wisconsin – Joseph McCarthy. The senator claimed that 205 known communists had
infiltrated the State Department. He continued this crusade in an era known as
McCarthyism, where he made outrageous attacks on many prominent Americans. When
his vitriol became too outrageous, the United States Senate censured him and
his popularity collapsed. He died an alcoholic in 1957.
However, America had a genuine spy conspiracy to deal with, in the case
against Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. After a lengthy trial, the Rosenberg’s were
convicted, in 1953, of passing atomic secrets to the Soviets, despite their
continuous claims of innocence. They were executed two years later.
THE HUNGARIAN UPRISING
Following Stalin’s death in 1953, there were a series of strikes and
uprisings. The Soviet satellite states of East Germany, Czechoslovakia and
Rumania wanted freedom from Soviet domination. The new Soviet leader Nikita
Khrushchev silenced this unrest by sending in Soviet tanks and soldiers. In
Poland, Khrushchev installed the popular Vladislav Gomulka as leader, and for
the moment the problems in Eastern Europe faded away.
But in October 1956, unrest surfaced again, this time in Budapest, the
capital of Hungary. Over 300,000 people took to the streets to protest against
the Soviets. They were angry because of food shortages, and demanded
freedom of speech. They hated being controlled by the USSR, and wanted Soviet
forces to leave their country. Statues of Stalin were pulled down and, while
police opened fire, they chanted: ‘Go home Russians.’
To please the Hungarians and restore order, Khrushchev allowed the
popular Imre Nagy to become the prime minister. Nagy proposed free elections
and for Hungary to leave the Warsaw Pact. This proved too much for Khrushchev.
If he allowed Hungary more liberty, then other satellite nations would demand
the same. Over 6,000 Soviet tanks invaded Hungary on 4th November
1956.
This eyewitness account is by Peter Fryer, a foreign correspondent for
the British Communist Party’s Daily Worker.
…the uprising was brutally crushed by the
intervention of Soviet tanks on November 4. 20,000 Hungarians and 3,500
Russians died in the fighting. Nagy was put on trial and executed, and replaced
by Janos Kadar, a non-entity who had joined Nagy’s revolutionary government,
but later reappeared behind the Soviet tanks”.
To escape the expected Soviet reprisals, as many as 200,000 Hungarians
fled the country as refugees, leaving everything behind.
The message was clear. The USSR would not tolerate any of its satellite
countries trying to break free of Soviet control.
THE ARMS RACE
The Arms Race was a key feature of superpower rivalry. Under
Eisenhower’s presidency, United States foreign policy was one of containment,
and peaceful co-existence with Khrushchev. The Americans believed the best way
to safeguard that policy was with a nuclear deterrent.
Ever since the Americans dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, the Soviet Union had felt extremely vulnerable. When the Soviet Union
finally succeeded in exploding an atomic bomb in 1949, the arms race was well
and truly on.
In 1952 the Americans detonated the first hydrogen bomb, which was one
hundred times more powerful than an atomic bomb. One year later, the Soviets
announced that they too had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. United States
president Dwight Eisenhower decided that the US needed to build a huge
stockpile of nuclear weapons. They were cheaper than conventional weapons and
as one American politician said: ‘more bang for the buck’.
The Soviets further threatened the Americans in 1957, when they
developed the first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile or ICBM. These rockets
could carry a nuclear warhead to targets thousands of kilometers from the
launch site. The USA responded in 1958, and installed missile launch sites in
NATO countries close to the USSR, aimed at Soviet cities. This one-upmanship
was a great deterrent, as well as an aggressive strategy. Which of the
superpowers wanted to unleash weapons that could destroy the world several
times over?
To spy on ICBM sites, the United States instigated high
altitude reconnaissance flights over the Soviet Union. The U-2 was the plane of
choice for these spying missions. The CIA took the lead by keeping the military
out of the picture, to avoid the possibility of open conflict. By 1960, the
U.S. had flown numerous 'successful' missions over and around the U.S.S.R.
However, a major incident occurred on 1st May 1, 1960. A U-2 spy
plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers left Peshawar, Pakistan
intending to overfly the Soviet Union and land at Bodo, Norway. The goal of the
mission was to photograph ICBM development sites in and around Sverdlovsk and
Plesetsk. But the plane was shot down by one of the fourteen surface-to-air missiles launched at it. Powers
parachuted out of the plane and was captured.
He pleaded guilty and was convicted of espionage,
and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
The Paris Summit held in May,1960 was attended by the Big Four, France,
Great Britain, The United States and The Soviet Union. There, an outraged Khruschev stormed out
when Eisenhower refused to apologise for the U2 spy mission. This
had a lasting negative impact on U.S.- Soviet relations. Powers
served twenty one months of the sentence before being exchanged for the Soviet
spy, Rudolf Abel, in 1962.
THE SPACE RACE
The Soviet Union surprised the world in 1957 by sending a satellite,
‘Sputnik’, into space carrying a dog. This fantastic technological achievement
coincided with the production of Soviet ICBM’s. It fuelled a fear within the US
that the Soviets could accurately send rockets with nuclear warheads to bomb
American cities. This prompted Eisenhower to seriously prepare the American
people for a nuclear strike. Soviet scientists could claim to be well ahead of
their counterparts in the west when, in 1961,Yuri Gagarin became the first
human to be rocketed into space, orbit the Earth and return safely. These
events proved an emphatic propaganda success for the Soviets and their
political system.
But the Americans were not far behind in the space race. In May 1961,
they countered by launching Alan Shepard 190 kilometers into space and
splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. Two years later John Glenn became the
first American to orbit the earth. In the following years there were many
successes and failures, but the underlying goal during the space race was to be
the first nation to send a man to the moon. The Americans claimed that prize
when astronauts Neil Armstrong and ‘Buzz’ Aldrin were the first to walk on the
moon in 1969.
THE BERLIN WALL
During the 1950s West Berlin received large amounts of money under the
Marshall Plan. The city was rebuilt and began to prosper. The standard of
living was good, and citizens could speak their minds without fear of arrest.
With numerous cafes, cinemas and nightclubs, West Berliners could enjoy life
again. In East Berlin, by contrast, many buildings remained derelict and there
was little to purchase in the shops. There was no freedom of speech and they
lived in fear of the secret police. But, despite the differences, people could
move freely throughout the city and over 50,000 East Berliners traveled to the
West to work.
By 1961 200,000 people a year were defecting, with East Germany losing
many of its skilled workers. Khrushchev wanted to put a stop to this mass
exodus. At a meeting in June 1961 with an inexperienced John Kennedy, he told
the American President that he wanted the Western powers out of Berlin by the end
of the year, or there would be war. Kennedy advised his army to prepare for
conflict. Two months later, Khrushchev backed down realizing that Kennedy
intended to hang onto West Berlin. But somehow Khrushchev vowed to put a stop
to the flood of defections.
Khrushchev and the East German leader Walter Albricht decided to build
a wall to seal East Berlin off from the West. Initially a barbwire fence was
erected and underground trains and trams were stopped from entering the west.
The East and West were now permanently separated. The Western powers did
nothing to stop the wall being built, Kennedy saying: ‘a wall is better
than a war.’
The wall was strengthened with solid concrete, and overlooked by
watchtowers and floodlights. But East Germans kept trying to escape and, over
the 27 years it was in place, 5,000 people escaped. Nine hundred and forty died
trying to flee. Two hundred and seventy of these were at the hands of East
German guards.