Transcript The Outbreak of the Cold War

“THE UNITED
NATIONS FIGHT
FOR FREEDOM”
(USA, 1943):
FDR hoped to
continue this
alliance after the
defeat of Hitler.
The Big Three at Yalta, February 1945: Churchill, FDR, & Stalin
agreed on occupation zones but quarreled over Poland….
Red Army
conquests in
January 1945:
The Overture to
Yalta.
U.S. and Soviet troops link up on the ruins of
a bridge over the Elbe River at Torgau, April 25, 1945
Soviet troops hoist the Red Flag over the Reichstag, 2 May 1945
The Occupation
Zones Agreed
Upon at Yalta
for Germany,
Berlin, and
Austria
At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, the Big Three
founded an International Military Tribunal to “destroy” Nazism
(Stalin dealt with the inexperienced Truman & Clement Attlee)
THE DETONATION OF THE ATOMIC BOMB
OVER HIROSHIMA ON AUGUST 6, 1945:
About 70,000 died that day, and 70,000 more within 6 months
Border revisions and streams of refugees in 1945:
Soviet rule was undoubtedly most brutal….
Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, & Patton view the bodies of
camp inmates in Ohrdruf on April 12, 1945
“26 million
dead are
accusing! In
Nuremberg
there is a
reckoning!”
Opening session of the Nuremberg Trial, November 20, 1945
EXPANDING THE SCOPE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW:
THE INDICTMENT AT NUREMBERG
Defendants at Nuremberg were charged with the following
crimes:
1. Conspiracy to wage a war of aggression (which was
forbidden by the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, but no
individual had ever been tried for this).
2. Crimes of war, as defined by the Hague Convention of
1907 and Geneva Convention of 1929.
3. Crimes against humanity, including the mass murder of
unarmed civilians, slave labor, and the violent
persecution of religion (an unprecedented charge).
Twelve of the defendants were sentenced to death and
seven to prison, while three were acquitted.
Defendants’ benches at the Nuremberg Trial, September 1945
FROM VICTORY TO CONFRONTATION:
THE ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR
The following developments persuaded most U.S. officials
that Stalin posed as great a threat as Hitler and must be
“contained”:
1. The Greek Civil War, which inspired the proclamation of
the “Truman Doctrine” in March 1947.
2. Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War in 1948.
3. The Communist takeover of democratic Czechoslovakia
in February 1948.
4. The Soviet blockade of West Berlin in 1948, to which
the U.S. responded with the Berlin Airlift.
[Stalin really had nothing to do with cases 1 & 2….]
Communist strongholds in Greece, 1946/47
The Greek civil
war began
under German
occupation. …
Marhsal Josip Broz
TITO (1892-1980),
the Communist
leader of Yugoslavia
who broke openly
with Stalin in 1948.
He was the actual
patron of the Greek
Communists…
Harry S. Truman announces the “Truman Doctrine”
to the U.S. Congress on March 12, 1947
Secretary of State George C.
Marshall proposes the European
Recovery Program at Harvard in
June 1947 (below) and finalizes
the plan for implementation with
the British and French foreign
ministers in Paris in October 1948
The Marshall Plan
as the wind in
Europe’s sails
(FRG, 1950):
Over $11 billion
was provided in
grants to promote
the revival of
Western Europe’s
economy
“No Nonsense!”
(USSR, 1948)
Klement Gottwald led the Czech Communists to a
plurality in 1946 with 38% of the popular vote and
became premier of a Popular Front government.
Jan Masaryk and all other non-Communist ministers were
replaced with Communists in February 1948.
Soon
thereafter
Masaryk
was found
dead
beneath
the
window of
his Prague
apartment
The German
currency reform in
“Bizonia,”
21 June 1948:
Every West German
citizen received 40
new Deutschmarks.
The Berlin Airlift, October 1948:
Grateful West Berliners greet an American transport plane
The “People’s Liberation Army” enters Beijing, January 1949
Mao Zedong, leader of the
People’s Republic of China,
1949-1976
Dean Acheson
signs the NATO
treaty in
Washington on
April 4, 1949, as
Harry Truman
and British
Foreign
Secretary Ernest
Bevin look on
Konrad Adenauer (CDU) was sworn in as
the first Chancellor of the “Federal
Republic of Germany” in September 1949
The pro-Soviet “German
Democratic Republic” was
founded in October
An “Iron Curtain” descended across Europe by 1949
All debate in
Washington about
Soviet intentions
ended when North
Korea invaded South
Korea in June 1950.
But Dean Acheson had
declared publicly in
January 1950 that the
U.S. “defensive
perimeter” did NOT
include South Korea.
When U.S. troops reached the Yalu River in October 1950,
300,000 Chinese troops intervened; the US lost 36,515 killed.
Time Magazine devoted itself to raising awareness of
Soviet expansionism with these maps published on
March 10, 1952