reflection

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The Cold War (1945-91) part 1

The Cold War was an ideological conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. It lasted from the end of World War II in 1945 until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The Cold War was an ideological conflict because it was a competition of ideas – a competition about whose ideas were better for human begins and society. The United States promoted Modern Liberal democratic ideas. The Soviet Union promoted revolutionary Socialist ideas. This ideological conflict was global. It occurred in many places across the world, including

• Eastern Europe

• Asia

• Middle East

• Africa

• Latin America

It is called the “Cold” War because the militaries of the United States and the Soviet Union never directly fought each other. The militaries of the U.S. and the Soviets did fight in wars, just not directly against each other. And the governments of the U.S. and the Soviet Union supported various groups who fought to contain or to spread revolutionary Socialism, such as the communists and non-communists in Korea, Vietnam, and Angola. Since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and lost the Cold War, it is easy to think that such an outcome was inevitable. But it didn’t appear that way at the time. For much of the 20th century, the Soviet Union presented its revolutionary Socialist ideas as superior to Liberal democratic ideas, as the basis for a more just society. Also, many western intellectuals thought the Soviet Union would continue to exist, and even thrive, in the 21st century. Paul Samuelson was a highly influential economist in the United States. He won a Nobel Prize in economics, was a professor at MIT, and an economic adviser to several American presidents. He wrote the following in his 1989 economics textbook: • “The Soviet economy is proof that, contrary to what many skeptics had earlier believed, a

socialist command economy can function and even thrive.” Samuelson was wrong. Within two years, the Soviet socialist economy collapsed. It could not generate enough wealth to sustain its socialist system (see the difference between official Soviet statistics in blue and the reality of the Soviet economy in green here). The reality of the Soviet’s socialist economy was evident in the quality of life of Russians living outside of Moscow. They had a standard of living similar to what Americans had generations earlier.

The Yalta Conference & the Iron Curtain: Eastern Europe Falls Because the Cold War started right after World War II (1939-45), it is important to remember that the United States and the Soviet Union were allies during the war. They fought on the same side against the Axis Powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan.

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But the United States and the Soviet Union were allies of convenience. That means they were allies only because they shared a common enemy – National Socialist Germany. The United States and the Soviet Union did not share similar political systems or ideas. The United States was evolving into a Modern Liberal democracy. In contrast, the Soviet Union was developing revolutionary Socialism. The differences between the United States and the Soviet Union go back to the early years of the 20th century. Recall our earlier discussion of Woodrow Wilson and Vladimir Lenin in 1917. Here’s a quick review:

• Woodrow Wilson was the American President in 1917. When the first Russian Revolution of 1917 happened, Wilson hoped Russia would evolve into a democracy as part of a democratic transformation of world politics.

• Vladimir Lenin rejected Wilson’s democratic ideas. Lenin was a revolutionary Socialist who led the second Russian Revolution of 1917. His Bolshevik party seized power in October 1917 and began to transform Russia into a revolutionary Socialist society.

o In the 1920s and ’30s, the Bolsheviks then built a “union” or empire of 15 socialist countries called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R) – the Soviet Union.

o Click to see maps of the Soviet Union here or here or here or here. This review highlights how the United States and the Soviet Union had fundamentally different political systems long before the start of World War II in 1939. They were allies of convenience during the war because they shared a common enemy – National Socialist Germany. The U.S. President during most of World War II was Franklin Roosevelt. The Soviet premier was Joseph Stalin. Roosevelt and Stalin, along with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, met together during the war. Their last meeting was the Yalta Conference in February 1945. Yalta is a town on the Black See, which you can see here or here. You can also see a famous picture of the three leaders at Yalta here– Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin are seated left to right. World War II was not quite over when Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill met at Yalta. The Soviet military was pushing toward Germany from eastern Europe. And the American and British militaries were pushing toward Germany from western Europe. The point of the Yalta Conference was to discuss postwar plans for Europe after the final defeat of Germany, which came in May 1945. The three leaders discussed the countries of Eastern Europe – Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. These countries had been run over twice during World War II. They were battlegrounds early in the war as the German military moved east and occupied these countries for much of the war – see map here. And they were battlegrounds again later in the war when the Soviet army pushed the Germans back towards Germany. The Soviets then occupied these countries at the end of the war.

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Roosevelt and Churchill wanted the countries of Eastern Europe to become democratic after the war – to have free and fair elections to choose their own leaders. But at the time of the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Soviet military controlled much of Eastern Europe. Stalin promised to hold democratic elections, but instead sought to spread revolutionary Socialism in Eastern Europe. Spreading revolutionary Socialism meant the Soviets took the following actions in the countries of Eastern Europe after the war. The Soviets

• arrested politicians who were not pro-Soviet

• abducted activists who were not pro-Soviet

• took over radio stations

• created phony political parties to give the appearance of what they called “people’s democracies”

• forced large groups of people – Poles, Hungarians, Germans – out of their homes so loyal Soviets could move in.

What was really happening was this: Stalin had the Soviet military help install revolutionary Socialist governments in Eastern Europe. These governments were largely controlled by the Soviet Union. The following are the dates when the Soviets helped install pro-Soviet governments in the countries of Eastern Europe:

• Bulgaria - 1946

• Poland - 1947

• Hungary - 1947

• Romania - 1947

• Czechoslovakia - 1948

• East Germany - 1949

For maps of Eastern Europe after World War II click here or here or here. This is where the Cold War began – in Eastern Europe after the war. Winston Churchill warned about Soviet control of Eastern Europe as early as 1946. He did so in a famous speech called the “Iron Curtain” speech. Churchill warned that “an iron curtain has descended across” Europe. The iron curtain meant Soviet control of Eastern European peoples. Behind the iron curtain, Churchill explained, “all are subject in one form or another not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and increasing measure of control from Moscow” – i.e., control by the Soviet government. The map here shows the “Iron Curtain” as a white line dividing Europe. The Soviet military helping install pro-Soviet governments in Eastern Europe in the late 1940s was part of the Soviet strategy of spreading revolutionary Socialism.

• Recall that from the beginning, the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 was never just about Russia. It was about using Russia as a basis to spread revolutionary Socialism across boundaries.

• That process began when the Bolsheviks constructed the Soviet Union in the 1920s and ’30s.

• That process continued after World War II when the Soviets helped install socialist governments in Eastern European countries. These countries became Soviet “satellite

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states.” Each was “a lacky of the Soviet Government,” in the words of Jan Masaryk, Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia.

The Truman Doctrine – Containment America President Franklin Roosevelt died in April 1945. His vice president Harry Truman became president. Truman was thus president when World War II ended and the Soviets began spreading revolutionary Socialism in Eastern Europe. Truman responded to Soviet expansion by announcing a new American foreign policy in 1947 called “Containment.” Containment meant containing the spread of socialism. The idea was that the Soviets were already spreading revolutionary Socialism into Eastern Europe and that the United States must use its power – money, intelligence, and military - to contain the Soviets from spreading revolutionary Socialism even further. Truman’s Containment policy shows how the Cold War was an ideological conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. Truman described this ideological conflict – this competition of ideas – as a need to “choose between alternative ways of life.”

• He described Modern Liberal democratic ideas as a “way of life” based on “free elections, guaranties of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion.”

• He described revolutionary Socialist ideas as a “second way of life” which “relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled wireless and radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of persons freedoms.”

As an example of Containment, Truman asked Congress in 1947 for $400 million of aid for the governments of Greece and Turkey. Notice in the map here how Greece and Turkey are at the southern boundary of the spread of revolutionary Socialism. The goal was to help those two governments prevent revolutionary Socialism from taking over their countries too. There was already a communist guerrilla force in Greece trying to overthrow the Greek government. In the following year, 1948, the United States developed the Marshall Plan. This was also part of Containment. The Marshall Plan included over $13 billion of aid to help rebuild Europe after the destruction of World War II. The logic of the Marshall Plan was this:

• Revolutionary Socialism has a better chance of spreading when people feel a sense of economic and social crisis.

• Providing economic and social stability by helping rebuild Europe after the war with Marshall Plan money would contain the spread of socialist revolution.

Stalin understood this logic. He prevented Eastern European countries from receiving any Marshall Plan money. He knew the money would help improve the economies in these countries which would make it harder to spread revolutionary Socialism.

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So as of the late 1940s, the ideological conflict of the Cold War was underway – the competition of ideas between the United States and the Soviet Union had begun. It began as the Soviet Union led by Joseph Stalin sought to spread revolutionary Socialism in Eastern Europe. The United States responded with Truman’s policy of Containment and the Marshall Plan. The U.S. also developed an alliance system with other countries seeking to contain Soviet Power. The alliance was called NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The original member states of NATO are in blue in the map here.

1949 – Two Big Events In 1949, two big events happened. One was the Soviet Union developed atomic weapons. Let’s backtrack for a moment to understand the context:

• After Germany was defeated in May 1945, President Truman faced a decision about Japan, which was another Axis Power still fighting the U.S. in the Pacific.

• The U.S. military presented Truman with various plans to defeat Japan. These plans projected an ongoing war with hundreds of thousands of casualties. Faced with this prospect, Truman decided to use an atomic bomb.

• The U.S. had developed the technology of atomic weapons during the war as part of its secret research project code-named the “Manhattan Project.”

• The first atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Japan did not surrender, so a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9. The Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender on August 15.

U.S. leaders did not think the Soviet Union possessed the advanced technology to develop atomic weapons for many years. Yet in 1949, the Soviets had developed an atomic weapon. This was a shock. The Soviets developed atomic weapons technology through espionage – i.e., spies who stole American technology.

• As early as the 1930s, the Soviets secretly recruited members of the American government to spy for the Soviet Union. Spies included Alger Hiss in the State Department, Harry Dexter White in the Treasury Department, and Lauchlin Currie in the White House as an economic adviser to President Roosevelt.

• In the 1940s, the Soviets recruited American spies in the U.S. research project to develop atomic weapons – the Manhattan Project. Such spies included Klaus Fuchs, Theodore Hall, David Greenglass, and William Perl among others. The Soviets were able to build an atomic bomb by 1949 by stealing American technology.

The second event of 1949 was also a shock – revolutionary Socialism spread to China.

• Back in 1921, the Russian Bolsheviks helped establish a communist party in China as part of their attempt to spread revolutionary Socialism beyond Russia.

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• In the 1930s and ’40s, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) fought a civil war against Chinese Nationalists for control of China. The Soviets supported the Communists. The Americans supported the Nationalists.

• In 1949, the Chinese Communist Party defeated the Chinese Nationalists and took control of China. The Nationalists fled to Taiwan, which to this day seeks to maintain its independence from China.

The leader of the Chinese Communist Party was Mao Zedong. Like most revolutionary socialists, Mao promised to build a “classless society.” This included what Mao called the “Great Leap Forward,” a policy he began in 1958. The “Great Leap Forward” meant was State control of the economy, particularly control of agriculture. The State took over the farms. It planned production and managed supply chains and food distribution. The goal was equality. The result was mass food shortages and mass starvation. In 3 years – 1958-61 – over 30 million Chinese people starved to death. 30 million is a conservative estimate. Some estimates are higher. Either way, think about that – more than 4 times the population of New York City starving to death in just 3 years. These two events of 1949 – the Soviets developing atomic weapons and the CCP takeover of China – were major developments in the Cold War. The Cold War – the ideological conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States – began with the Soviets spreading revolutionary Socialism into Eastern Europe. The United States responded under President Truman with the Containment policy. But with the CCP takeover of China, it was clear that revolutionary Socialism had spread beyond Europe to Asia. The next lecture will pick up with Cold War events in Asia and beyond.