w. 38

Thursday:

 

Along with our discussion of the division of Germany, I talk about reasons why there was a gradual tension between the West (U.S., GB, France) and the the East (Soviet Union).

These are some of the key areas I presented:

-Even before and during the war, the leaders of the capitalist/lib. dem. countries were against communism. And Stalin (the leader of the Soviet Union) was against capitalism (for example, free trade) and lib. dem.

-Information about things such as the Holodomor, the Gulags, the show trials, in addition to the known limits on individual freedoms (such as the freedom of speech) altered how people viewed the Soviet Union.

-In the eastern European countries that border the Soviet Union, which the Soviet Army (a/k/a the Red Army) had liberated from Germany, the people in those countries were not allowed to select their future governments through democratic processes. That is, the Soviets – who were in control in these areas after the war – did not abide by (go along with) the vision in the Atlantic Charter that said that

“Third, they respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under

which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored to

those who have been forcibly deprived of them;”

And, in fact, the Soviets killed many anti-communists in the areas they liberated.

-The Soviets, after “getting burned” in its Non-aggression Pact with Germany (that is, Germany broke that pact when it invaded the Soviet Union in 1941), the Soviets were not particularly willing to participate in agreements/cooperation with other countries.

-The Soviet Union lost more than 26 million people in World War II. It suffered enormous amounts of destruction and death. This contributes to the Soviet leaders’ belief that they are owed compensation.

 

IRON CURTAIN SPEECH

"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in the Soviet sphere and are all subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in many cases increasing measure of control from Moscow."

Winston Churchill, speaking in Fulton, Missouri,

March 5, 1946

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Truman Doctrine

(chpt. 33, section 1)

Let’s start with why it matters:

The Truman Doctrine, which was a speech that U.S. President Harry Truman made in 1947, is interpreted as the United States’ policy regarding the Soviet Union and other communist countries. And this policy holds throughout the Cold War. And this policy is:

prevent the spread of communism outside of eastern Europe.

This policy became known by the term containment. That is, communism should be contained within the areas where it already existed and should be prevented from spreading further.

In the speech, to underscore the reasons why communism should not be allowed to spread, Truman compared two different ways of life:

“One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression.

The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio; fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.”

This helps us understand how the American officials perceived the differences between the West and the East during the Cold War.

I discussed how we got to the point that Truman gave this speech.

1 – We talked about how the Suez Canal and the Middle East were important to GB and the United States, and even other countries.

2 – After the war, Greece and Turkey are unstable, and there is the fear on behalf of GB and the U.S. that communists will succeed in taking over these countries.

3 – GB wants to help these countries, but it has no money. The war left it broke. Great Britain asks the U.S. to help instead.

4 – Truman wants to help, but he needs Congress to approve the money that he wants. So he gives a speech where he discusses the potential threat of communism.

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Soviet reaction to the Truman Doctrine (written in a Soviet newspaper)

In response to Truman’s speech, there was an article in the Soviet newspaper Izvestia that criticized Truman’s/the United States’ arguments for going in with money and aid to Greece and Turkey. It is argued that the United States is acting like a new imperialist force and their help means that the people of Greece and Turkey will not be able to make their own political choices:

“We are now witnessing a fresh intrusion of the U.S.A. into the affairs of other states. American claims to leadership in international affairs grow parallel with the growing appetite of the American quarters concerned. But the American leaders, in the new historical circumstances, fail to reckon with the fact that the old methods of the colonizers and die-hard politicians have out-lived their time and are doomed to failure. In this lies the chief weakness of Truman’s message.”

Monday:
DIVISION OF GERMANY after World War II

The Soviet Union, Great Britain, the United States, and France occupied Germany after the end of the war to rehabilitate the country.

These four countries did not see eye to eye regarding how Germany should be rehabilitated. But in the end, France, GB and the U.S. were able to compromise and agree on a plan where these three countries could cooperate. But – because of the essential political and economic differences – there was not enough common ground that made it possible for these three countries to agree with the Soviet Union.

This is how Germany is divided in 1945:

And this is what will happen to Germany by 1949, where the three Western states combine to become West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany, FRG) and the Soviet sector becomes East Germany (the German Democratic Republic, GDR (or, in German, DDR):

As we noted in class, the capital of Germany, Berlin, was also divided into four sectors. And just like Germany as a whole, here the three Western sectors combined to become West Berlin, and the Soviet sector became East Berlin. This meant that there was a part of West Germany INSIDE East Germany. Weird, I know, but so it was.

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We also discussed the state of Europe at the end of the war. I read from the opening of Keith Lowe’s book Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II. And I showed images of the state of destruction as well as images connected to the enormous loss of life and the horrors of what Europe was facing in the aftermath of the war.

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Some Cold War events:

Atlantic Charter - 1941
Post-WWII division of Germany
formation of the United Nations - 1945
Truman Doctrine - 1947
Communist coup in Czechoslovakia - 1948
Berlin Blockade/Airlift -1948
Marshall Plan - 1948–1952
Korean War - 1950-53
NATO - formed 1949
Warsaw Pact - 1955-1991
Hungarian Revolution - 1956
Berlin Wall - 1961-1989
Cuban Missile Crisis - 1962
Prague Spring - 1968
Vietnam War - post-WWII–1975