History

Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/

The Early Cold War Pt. 1

Introduction

Is This Tomorrow? warned Americans about the potential horrors of living under a Communist dictatorship.

Postwar propaganda such as this comic book, the cover of which showed invading Russians attacking

Americans and the U.S. flag in flames, served to drum up fear during the Cold War.

The Cold War

As World War II drew to a close, the alliance that had made the United States and the

Soviet Union partners in their defeat of the Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—

began to fall apart. Both sides realized that their visions for the future of Europe and the

world were incompatible. Joseph Stalin, the premier of the Soviet Union, wished to retain

hold of Eastern Europe and establish Communist, pro-Soviet governments there, in an

Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/

effort to both expand Soviet influence and protect the Soviet Union from future

invasions. He also sought to bring Communist revolution to Asia and to developing

nations elsewhere in the world. The United States wanted to expand its influence as well

by protecting or installing democratic governments throughout the world. (Dave

Norberg here: The U.S. very much wanted to expand its influence but the point

about promoting democracies in the world is overly simplistic and a bit misleading.

While there is some truth to it, the U.S. also overthrew democratic governments that

seemed to oppose U.S. interests and actively supported oppressive, but pro-U.S.,

dictatorships. ) It sought to combat the influence of the Soviet Union by forming

alliances with Asian, African, and Latin American nations, and by helping these countries

to establish or expand prosperous, free-market economies. (D.N.: This sentence is also

quite debatable.) The end of the war left the industrialized nations of Europe and Asia

physically devastated and economically exhausted by years of invasion, battle, and

bombardment. With Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and China reduced to

shadows of their former selves, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the

last two superpowers and quickly found themselves locked in a contest for military,

economic, social, technological, and ideological supremacy.

FROM ISOLATIONISM TO ENGAGEMENT

The United States had a long history of avoiding foreign alliances that might require the

commitment of its troops abroad. However, in accepting the realities of the post-World

War II world, in which traditional powers like Great Britain or France were no longer

strong enough to police the globe, the United States realized that it would have to make a

permanent change in its foreign policy, shifting from relative isolation to active

engagement.

On assuming the office of president upon the death of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman

was already troubled by Soviet actions in Europe. He disliked the concessions made by

Roosevelt at Yalta, which had allowed the Soviet Union to install a Communist

Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/

government in Poland. At the Potsdam conference, held from July 17 to August 2, 1945,

Truman also opposed Stalin’s plans to demand large reparations from Germany. He

feared the burden that this would impose on Germany might lead to another cycle of

German rearmament and aggression—a fear based on that nation’s development after

World War I.

At the postwar conference in Potsdam, Germany, Harry Truman stands between Joseph Stalin (right) and

Clement Atlee (left). Atlee became prime minister of Great Britain, replacing Winston Churchill, while the

conference was taking place.

Although the United States and the Soviet Union did finally reach an agreement at

Potsdam, this was the final occasion on which they cooperated for quite some time. Each

remained convinced that its own economic and political systems were superior to the

other’s, and the two superpowers quickly found themselves drawn into conflict. The

decades-long struggle between them for technological and ideological supremacy became

known as the Cold War. So called because it did not include direct military confrontation

between Soviet and U.S. troops, the Cold War was fought with a variety of other

weapons: espionage and surveillance, political assassinations, propaganda, and the

formation of alliances with other nations. It also became an arms race, as both countries

Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/

competed to build the greatest stockpile of nuclear weapons, and proxy wars were fought

on their behalf, primarily by the citizens of poorer nations, such as Korea and Vietnam.