Transcript Cold War Events - Tamalpais Union High School District

Cold War Events
Action and Reaction
The blockade of Berlin was the first serious crisis of the Cold War. By 1948, the Western allies began moving
towards consolidating their occupation zones in Western Germany into a single independent German state. As part of that
process, the U.S., France and Britain took steps to reform the currency in the parts of Germany they occupied, in order to
promote economic recovery. The new currency, over which the Soviets would have no control, was also to become legal tender
in the Western sectors of Berlin.
The USSR, which had been invaded twice by Germany, was alarmed at the prospect of a strong Germany. The Soviet leadership
responded to the Western allies' currency reforms by installing their own new currency in East Berlin just 24 hours before the
West mark was to go into circulation. They also imposed a blockade on West Berlin, cutting off all land and rail routes into the
Western sectors. Lucius Clay, the military governor of the American zone of occupied Germany wrote: "When the order of the
Soviet Military Administration to close all rail traffic from the western zones went into effect at 6:00AM on the morning of June
24, 1948, the three western sectors of Berlin, with a civilian population of about 2,500,000 people, became dependent on
reserve stocks and airlift replacements. It was one of the most ruthless efforts in modern times to use mass starvation for
political coercion... "
Initially the Soviet authorities thought the plan was working. "Our control and restrictive measures have dealt a strong blow at
the prestige of the Americans and British in Germany. " The Soviet authorities reported. But the Western Allies responded
immediately by mounting a tremendous airlift. Under the leadership of General Curtis LeMay, ten-ton capacity C-54s began
supplying the city on July 1. By the fall the airlift, code-named "Operation Vittles "and often referred to as "LeMay's feed and
coal company ," was bringing in an average of 5,000 tons of supplies a day.
Not only did the blockade turn out to be totally ineffective, it ended up backfiring on the Soviets in other ways. It provoked
genuine fears of war in the West. And instead of preventing the establishment of an independent West Germany, it accelerated
the Allies plans to set up the state. It also hastened the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an American-Western
European military alliance. In May 1949, Stalin had little choice but to lift the blockade.
On June 15, 1948, the Soviet authorities announced that the Autobahn, the highway connecting western Germany to Berlin, would be closed indefinitely “for
repairs.” Then, they halted all road traffic from west to east, and barred all barge and rail traffic from entering West Berlin. Thus began the blockade of Berlin.
As far as the western Allies were concerned, withdrawal from the city was not an option. “If we withdraw,” said the American military commander, “our
position in Europe is threatened, and Communism will run rampant.” President Harry Truman echoed this sentiment: “We shall stay,” he declared, “period.”
Using military force to strike back against the Soviet blockade seemed equally unwise: The risk of turning the Cold War into an actual war—even worse, a
nuclear war—was just too great. Finding another way to re-provision the city seemed to the Allies to be the only reasonable response.
THE BERLIN AIRLIFT: “OPERATION VITTLES” BEGINS It was quickly settled: The Allies would supply their sectors of Berlin from the air. Allied cargo planes
would use open air corridors over the Soviet occupation zone to deliver food, fuel and other goods to the people who lived in the western part of the city.
This project, code-named “Operation VITTLES” by the American military, was known as the “Berlin airlift.” The Berlin airlift was supposed to be a short-term
measure, but it settled in for the long haul as the Soviets refused to lift the blockade. For more than a year, hundreds of American, British and French cargo
planes ferried provisions from Western Europe to the Tempelhof (in the American sector), Gatow (in the British sector) and Tegel (in the French sector)
airfields in West Berlin. At the beginning of the operation, the planes delivered about 5,000 tons of supplies to West Berlin every day; by the end, those loads
had increased to about 8,000 tons of supplies per day. The Allies carried about 2.3 million tons of cargo in all over the course of the airlift. Life in West Berlin
during the blockade was not easy. Fuel and electricity were rationed, and the black market was the only place to obtain many goods. Still, most West Berliners
supported the airlift and their western allies. “It’s cold in Berlin,” one airlift-era saying went, “but colder in Siberia.”
THE BERLIN AIRLIFT: THE END OF THE BLOCKADE
By spring 1949, it was clear that the Soviet blockade of West Berlin had failed. It had not persuaded West Berliners to reject their allies in the West, nor had it
prevented the creation of a unified West German state. (The Federal Republic of Germany was established in May 1949.) On May 12, 1949, the Soviets lifted
the blockade and reopened the roads, canals and railway routes into the western half of the city. The Allies continued the airlift until September, however,
because they wanted to stockpile supplies in Berlin just in case the blockade was reinstated.Most historians agree that the blockade was a failure in other
ways, too. It amped up Cold War tensions and made the USSR look to the rest of the world like a cruel and capricious enemy. It hastened the creation of West
Germany, and, by demonstrating that the U.S. and Western European nations had common interests (and a common foe), it motivated the creation of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an alliance that still exists today.
The Truman Doctrine, 1947
With the Truman Doctrine, President Harry S. Truman established that the United States would provide political, military and economic
assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. The Truman Doctrine effectively reoriented
U.S. foreign policy, away from its usual stance of withdrawal from regional conflicts not directly involving the United States, to one of possible
intervention in far away conflicts.
The Truman Doctrine arose from a speech delivered by President Truman before a joint session of Congress on March 12, 1947. The
immediate cause for the speech was a recent announcement by the British Government that, as of March 31, it would no longer provide
military and economic assistance to the Greek Government in its civil war against the Greek Communist Party. Truman asked Congress to
support the Greek Government against the Communists. He also asked Congress to provide assistance for Turkey, since that nation, too, had
previously been dependent on British aid.
At the time, the U.S. Government believed that the Soviet Union supported the Greek Communist war effort and worried that if the
Communists prevailed in the Greek civil war, the Soviets would ultimately influence Greek policy. In fact, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had
deliberately refrained from providing any support to the Greek Communists and had forced Yugoslav Prime Minister Josip Tito to follow suit,
much to the detriment of Soviet-Yugoslav relations. However, a number of other foreign policy problems also influenced President Truman’s
decision to actively aid Greece and Turkey. In 1946, four setbacks, in particular, had served to effectively torpedo any chance of achieving a
durable post-war rapprochement with the Soviet Union: the Soviets’ failure to withdraw their troops from northern Iran in early 1946 (as per
the terms of the Tehran Declaration of 1943); Soviet attempts to pressure the Iranian Government into granting them oil concessions while
supposedly fomenting irredentism by Azerbaijani separatists in northern Iran; Soviet efforts to force the Turkish Government into granting
them base and transit rights through the Turkish Straits; and, the Soviet Government’s rejection of the Baruch plan for international control
over nuclear energy and weapons in June 1946.
During the Cold War, Brezhnev’s main point of foreign policy was held in the Brezhnev Doctrine, which stated that
the Soviet Union would have the sole right to intervene in its satellite countries whenever there was a threat to
socialism in one of them. It relied heavily on military force. This lead the Soviet Union to take hostile action
towards the satellite nations, such as banning forms of self-determination and invading Czechoslovakia in 1968
(Galegroup.com). The Soviet Union also intervened during a civil war in Afghanistan in 1979 (Galegroup.com).
Brezhnev made it clear, that, in regards to the satellite countries, “none of their decisions should damage either
socialism in their country or the fundamental interests of other socialist countries, and the whole working class
movement, which is working for socialism.” (Pravda).
A DIVIDED EUROPEConflict between the Western nations (including the United States,
Great Britain, France and other countries) and the Communist Eastern bloc (led by the Union of
Soviet Socialists Republics or USSR) began almost as soon as the guns fell silent at the end of
World War II (1939-45). The USSR oversaw the installation of pro-Soviet governments in many of
the areas it had taken from the Nazis during the war. In response, the U.S. and its Western allies
sought ways to prevent further expansion of Communist influence on the European continent. In
1947, U.S. leaders introduced the Marshall Plan, a diplomatic initiative that provided aid to
friendly nations to help them rebuild their war-damaged infrastructures and economies.
The discussions between the Western nations concluded on April 4, 1949, when the foreign
ministers of 12 countries in North America and Western Europe gathered in Washington, D.C., to
sign the North Atlantic Treaty. It was primarily a security pact, with Article 5 stating that a military
attack against any of the signatories would be considered an attack against them all. When U.S.
Secretary of State Dean Acheson (1893-1971) put his signature on the document, it reflected an
important change in American foreign policy. For the first time since the 1700s, the U.S. had
formally tied its security to that of nations in Europe–the continent that had served as the flash
point for both world wars.
The original membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) consisted of Belgium,
Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal
and the United States. NATO formed the backbone of the West’s military bulwark against the
USSR and its allies for the next 40 years, with its membership growing larger over the course of
the Cold War era. Greece and Turkey were admitted in 1952, the Federal Republic of Germany
(West Germany) in 1955 and Spain in 1982. Unhappy with its role in the organization, France
opted to withdraw from military participation in NATO in 1966 and did not return until 1995.
WARSAW PACT: THE COMMUNIST ALLIANCE
The formation of the Warsaw Pact was in some ways a response to
the creation of NATO, although it did not occur until six years after
the Western alliance came into being. It was more directly inspired
by the rearming of West Germany and its admission into NATO in
1955. In the aftermath of World War I and World War II, Soviet
leaders felt very apprehensive about Germany once again becoming
a military power–a concern that was shared by many European
nations on both sides of the Cold War divide.
In the mid-1950s, however, the U.S. and a number of other NATO
members began to advocate making West Germany part of the
alliance and allowing it to form an army under tight restrictions. The
Soviets warned that such a provocative action would force them to
make new security arrangements in their own sphere of influence,
and they were true to their word. West Germany formally joined
NATO on May 5, 1955, and the Warsaw Pact was signed less than
two weeks later, on May 14. Joining the USSR in the alliance were
Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic
(East Germany), Hungary, Poland and Romania. This lineup
remained constant until the Cold War ended with the dismantling of
all the Communist governments in Eastern Europe in 1989 and
The Marshall Plan
The Need
Europe was devastated by years of conflict during World War II. Millions of people had been killed or wounded. Industrial and
residential centers in England, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Belgium and elsewhere lay in ruins. Much of Europe was on the brink of
famine as agricultural production had been disrupted by war. Transportation infrastructure was in shambles. The only major power in
the world that was not significantly damaged was the United States.
Aid to Europe
From 1945 through 1947, the United States was already assisting European economic recovery with direct financial aid. Military
assistance to Greece and Turkey was being given. The newly formed United Nations was providing humanitarian assistance. In January
1947, U. S. President Harry Truman appointed George Marshall, the architect of victory during WWII, to be Secretary of State. Writing
in his diary on January 8, 1947, Truman said, “Marshall is the greatest man of World War II. He managed to get along with Roosevelt,
the Congress, Churchill, the Navy and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and he made a grand record in China. When I asked him to [be] my
special envoy to China, he merely said, ‘Yes, Mr. President I’ll go.’ No argument only patriotic action. And if any man was entitled to
balk and ask for a rest, he was. We’ll have a real State Department now.”
In just a few months, State Department leadership under Marshall with expertise provided by George Kennan, William Clayton and
others crafted the Marshall Plan concept, which George Marshall shared with the world in a speech on June 5, 1947 at Harvard.
Officially known as the European Recovery Program (ERP), the Marshall Plan was intended to rebuild the economies and spirits of
western Europe, primarily. Marshall was convinced the key to restoration of political stability lay in the revitalization of national
economies. Further he saw political stability in Western Europe as a key to blunting the advances of communism in that region.
The European Recovery Program
Sixteen nations, including Germany, became part of the program and
shaped the assistance they required, state by state, with administrative and
technical assistance provided through the Economic Cooperation
Administration (ECA) of the United States. European nations received
nearly $13 billion in aid, which initially resulted in shipments of food, staples,
fuel and machinery from the United States and later resulted in investment
in industrial capacity in Europe. Marshall Plan funding ended in 1951.
Results
Marshall Plan nations were assisted greatly in their economic recovery.
From 1948 through 1952 European economies grew at an unprecedented
rate. Trade relations led to the formation of the North Atlantic alliance.
Economic prosperity led by coal and steel industries helped to shape what
we know now as the European Union.
The Molotov Plan was the system created by the Soviet Union in 1947 in order to provide aid to rebuild the
countries in Eastern Europe that were politically and economically aligned to the Soviet Union. It can be seen to be
the USSR's version of the Marshall Plan, which for political reasons the Eastern European countries would not be
able to join without leaving the Soviet sphere of influence. Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov rejected the
Marshall Plan (1947), proposing the Molotov Plan — the Soviet-sponsored economic grouping which was eventually
expanded to become the COMECON.[1] The Molotov plan was symbolic of the Soviet Union's refusal to accept aid
from the Marshall Plan, or allow any of their satellite states to do so, because of their belief that the Plan was an
attempt to weaken Soviet interest in their satellite states, through the conditions imposed, and by making
beneficiary countries economically dependent on the United States.
The plan was a system of bilateral trade agreements which also established COMECON to create an economic
alliance of socialist countries.[2] This aid allowed countries in Europe to stop relying on American aid, and therefore
allowed Molotov Plan states to reorganize their trade to the USSR instead. [3] The plan was in some ways
contradictory however, because at the same time the Soviets were giving aid to Eastern bloc countries, they were
demanding that countries who were members of the Axis powers pay reparations to the USSR.
The economic integration envisaged by Comecon in the early 1960s met with opposition and problems. A major
difficulty was posed by the incompatibility of the price systems used in the various member countries. The prices of
most goods and commodities were set by individual governments and had little to do with the goods’ actual market
values, thus making it difficult for the member states to conduct trade with each other on the basis of relative
prices. Instead, trade was conducted mainly on a barter basis through bilateral agreements between governments.
Comecon’s successes did include the organization of eastern Europe’s railroad grid and of its electric-power grid; the
creation of the International Bank for Economic Cooperation(1963) to finance investment projects jointly
undertaken by two or more members; and the construction of the “Friendship” oil pipeline, which made oil from the
Soviet Union’s Volga region available to the countries of eastern Europe.
COMECON
Polish Uprisings 1956 Also called the Poznan 1956 protests or Poznan 1956 uprising,
the Poznan June was the first protest against the Soviet-imposed communist
government that was established after the end of World War II, thanks to Poland's
(and most of Central and Eastern Europe's) bad draw at Yalta.On June 28, 1956,
workers began demonstrations at Poznan's Cegielski Factories, demanding better
conditions and pay and protesting a recent rise in taxes and higher work quotas. The
workers took to the streets, and were soon joined by workers from other factories,
students, and intellectuals, resulting in over 100,000 people gathering at the Imperial
Castle in Poznan, where city officials and the UB police had their headquarters.
Among the demands were lower food prices, wage increases, and revocation of
recent laws that had worsened conditions for workers.
However, a peaceful protest soon turned violent, as the crowd took over the prison,
freeing political prisoners and seizing firearms for the demonstration, as well as
ransacking the Communist Party Headquarters and the secret police building, which
resulted in the first shots being fired into the crowd. But it wasn't until the Soviet
forces arrived that a real crack-down began. Tanks, armoured cars, field guns and
lorries full of troops surrounded the city and began to take detainees for often brutal
interrogations, which would leave 746 people detained until August. In the city,
fighting began on the streets between the armed protesters and the Soviet forces.
In the end, the rebellion was brutally crushed, with estimated casualties being
between 57 and 100 dead and 500 to 600 wounded. However, the protest led the
way towards real changes the following October, including wage raises and other
reforms that signified an era of post-Stalinist thaw. The Poznan 1956 protests are
considered to be one of the first events that precipitated the fall of communism in
Poland.
“We demand bread”
The Hungarian Revolution, popular uprising in Hungary in
1956, following a speech by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in
which he attacked the period of Joseph Stalin’s rule. Encouraged
by the new freedom of debate and criticism, a rising tide of
unrest and discontent in Hungary broke out into active fighting in
October 1956. Rebels won the first phase of the revolution, and
Imre Nagy became premier, agreeing to establish a multiparty
system. On Nov. 1, 1956, he declared Hungarian neutrality and
appealed to the United Nations for support, but Western powers
were reluctant to risk a global confrontation. On Nov. 4, 1956,
the Soviet Union invaded Hungary to stop the revolution, and
Nagy was executed for treason in 1958. Nevertheless, Stalinisttype domination and exploitation did not return, and Hungary
thereafter experienced a slow evolution toward some internal
autonomy.
Hungary 1956
SPUTNIK
History changed on October 4, 1957, when the former Soviet Union successfully launched
Sputnik I. The world’s first artificial satellite was about the size of a basketball, weighed only
183 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path. That launch
ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. While the
Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the space age and the U.S.-U.S.S.R
space race.The Sputnik launch changed everything. As a technical achievement, Sputnik caught
the world’s attention and the American public off-guard. Its size was more impressive than
Vanguard’s intended 3.5-pound payload. In addition, the public feared that the Soviets’ ability
to launch satellites also translated into the capability to launch ballistic missiles that could
carry nuclear weapons from Europe to the U.S. Then the Soviets struck again; on November 3,
Sputnik II was launched, carrying a much heavier payload, including a dog named Laika.
Immediately after the Sputnik I launch in October, the U.S. Defense Department responded to
the political furor by approving funding for another U.S. satellite project. As a simultaneous
alternative to Vanguard, Wernher von Braun and his Army Redstone Arsenal team began work
on the Explorer project.
On January 31, 1958, the tide changed, when the United States successfully launched Explorer
I. This satellite carried a small scientific payload that eventually discovered the magnetic
radiation belts around the Earth, named after principal investigator James Van Allen. The
Sputnik launch also led directly to the creation of National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA). In July 1958, Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act
(commonly called the “Space Act”), which created NASA as of October 1, 1958 from the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and other government agencies.
THE BERLIN WALL
Two days after sealing off free passage between East and West Berlin with barbed wire, East German authorities
begin building a wall–the Berlin Wall–to permanently close off access to the West. For the next 28 years, the heavily
fortified Berlin Wall stood as the most tangible symbol of the Cold War–a literal “iron curtain” dividing Europe.
The end of World War II in 1945 saw Germany divided into four Allied occupation zones. Berlin, the German capital,
was likewise divided into occupation sectors, even though it was located deep within the Soviet zone. The future of
Germany and Berlin was a major sticking point in postwar treaty talks, and tensions grew when the United States,
Britain, and France moved in 1948 to unite their occupation zones into a single autonomous entity–the Federal
Republic of Germany (West Germany). In response, the USSR launched a land blockade of West Berlin in an effort to
force the West to abandon the city. However, a massive airlift by Britain and the United States kept West Berlin
supplied with food and fuel, and in May 1949 the Soviets ended the defeated blockade.
By 1961, Cold War tensions over Berlin were running high again. For East Germans dissatisfied with life under the
communist system, West Berlin was a gateway to the democratic West. Between 1949 and 1961, some 2.5 million
East Germans fled from East to West Germany, most via West Berlin. By August 1961, an average of 2,000 East
Germans were crossing into the West every day. Many of the refugees were skilled laborers, professionals, and
intellectuals, and their loss was having a devastating effect on the East German economy. To halt the exodus to the
West, Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev recommended to East Germany that it close off access between East and West
Berlin.
On the night of August 12-13, 1961, East German soldiers laid down more than 30 miles of barbed wire barrier through the heart of
Berlin. East Berlin citizens were forbidden to pass into West Berlin, and the number of checkpoints in which Westerners could cross the
border was drastically reduced. The West, taken by surprise, threatened a trade embargo against East Germany as a retaliatory measure.
The Soviets responded that such an embargo be answered with a new land blockade of West Berlin. When it became evident that the
West was not going to take any major action to protest the closing, East German authorities became emboldened, closing off more and
more checkpoints between East and West Berlin. On August 15, they began replacing barbed wire with concrete. The wall, East German
authorities declared, would protect their citizens from the pernicious influence of decadent capitalist culture.
The first concrete pilings went up on the Bernauer Strasse and at the Potsdamer Platz. Sullen East German workers, a few in tears,
constructed the first segments of the Berlin Wall as East German troops stood guarding them with machine guns. With the border closing
permanently, escape attempts by East Germans intensified on August 15. Conrad Schumann, a 19-year-old East German soldier, provided
the subject for a famous image when he was photographed leaping over the barbed-wire barrier to freedom.
During the rest of 1961, the grim and unsightly Berlin Wall continued to grow in size and scope, eventually consisting of a series of
concrete walls up to 15 feet high. These walls were topped with barbed wire and guarded with watchtowers, machine gun
emplacements, and mines. By the 1980s, this system of walls and electrified fences extended 28 miles through Berlin and 75 miles
around West Berlin, separating it from the rest of East Germany. The East Germans also erected an extensive barrier along most of the
850-mile border between East and West Germany.
In the West, the Berlin Wall was regarded as a major symbol of communist oppression. About 5,000 East Germans managed to escape
across the Berlin Wall to the West, but the frequency of successful escapes dwindled as the wall was increasingly fortified. Thousands of
East Germans were captured during attempted crossings and 191 were killed.