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Leaders and their impact on the Cold War
Long period of intense rivalry…
Leaders and their impact on the Cold War
- Long period of intense rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States that occurred after WWII
- Political leaders changed superpower relations and shaped the conflict
- Historians still disagree over whom is to blame for the start of the Cold War
- HISTORIOGRAPHY :!:
The Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle developed the ‘Great Man’ theory of history, arguing that important leaders shape the world
USA
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TENSIONS
Potsdam Conference
- July and August 1945
- Meeting with Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union and Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee of the UK
- Disagreements emerged in organizing the division of Germany
- Truman disapproved of the Percentages Agreement made between Churchill and Stalin
- DISTRUST (Truman did not tell Stalin about America’s successful development of the first atom bomb, only vaguely mentioning a ‘powerful new weapon’)
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Marshall Plan
Congress' plan to spend lots of money to rebuild Europe to reduce the treat of communist revolutions in Western Europe :warning:
- George Marshall gave a speech in June 1947 to announce the Marshall Plan
- Under the Plan, the US provided funding to help rebuild European countries following the destruction of World War II
- Marshall Plan was a key cause of the breakdown between the USA and the USSR
- Money was offered to all countries afflicted by the war, which Truman and Marshall stated was a kind/compassionate gesture
- Viewed as economic containment, as it required the sharing of financial and industrial information as well as participation with the capitalist American economy.
- Stalin rejected the Plan as he labelled it ads "dollar imperialism," and forced satellite states to do the same.
NATO
An alliance formed in 1949 by the United States and Western European nations to fight Soviet aggression :warning:
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- Finalised the split between a capitalist Western Europe and a communist Eastern Europe (and Germany),
- Soviets later created a similar military alliance - Warsaw Pact in 1955
Truman Doctrine
President Truman's policy of giving American aid to nations threatened by communist expansion :warning:
- Relations worsened between the United States and the Soviet Union
- Fighting broke out in Greece and Turkey in 1947
- Between communists and anti-communists
- Marked the beginning of the American policy of containment
- National Security Act of 1947 - CIA - reorganized the American military to take on a more aggressive approach against the spread of Communism
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USSR
Joseph Stalin
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Majority blame Stalin for aggressively trying to expand his own power and control over Eastern and Central Europe in the aftermath of World War II
Propaganda attempted to improve relations -
- Portraying Stalin in a more positive light
Eliminated leaders he saw as possible threats to his authority, most notably in the Great Terror (1936–38)
Brutal enforcement of collectivisation led many in the West to become increasingly distrustful of Stalin and the Soviet Union
trials, elimination of political opponents, and class warfare against wealthier peasants known as kulaks led to a rise in anti-Communism in the West
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TENSIONS
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Satellite Sates
- Stalin had promised at Yalta to hold free and fair elections, between 1945 and 1948 a series of suspicious assassinations/rigged elections were formed
- Resulted in the rise to power of Soviet-aligned communist governments of what became known as the satellite states - Communists removed all other politicians from the post-war alliance
- East Germany
- Poland
- Czechoslovakia
- Hungary
- Bulgaria
- Romania
Warsaw Pact
Military alliance established in 1955 of the Soviet Union and other communist states in Europe :warning:
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COMINFORM
- October 1947, Stalin set up Communist Information Bureau to co-ordinate work of Communist Parties
- Leaders regularly met in Moscow to be briefed by Stalin
- Dissenters were replaced with those who were completely loyal
- Further increased tensions
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HISTOREOGRAPHY :!!:
Revisionist historians such as William A. Williams, argue that the Truman administration intentionally did this to make Communism seem less attractive by making West Berlin a showcase of a successful capitalist economy.
During the 1960s, Revisionist historians such as William A. Williams became more influential in their views that the United States and Truman were as much to blame for the breakdown of the Grand Alliance as Stalin. In more recent years, post-Revisionist historians such as John Lewis Gaddis argue that Truman’s actions were justified, as Joseph Stalin refused to compromise
HISTOREOGRAPHY :!!:
Traditional historians portrayed the Berlin blockade as an aggressive step to try to squeeze the Western Allies out of West Berlin, while revisionists focused more on how American actions scared Stalin into defensive actions.