overall cold war

• Causes of tension between the allied countries after WWII

  • Ideological differences
  • Differences between leaders
  • A new world order
  • The Grand Alliance (Russia, America and Britain)
• Rational


  (in classical economic theory) economic agents are able to consider the outcome of their choices and recognise the net benefits of each one
• Rational agents

  • Consumers
  • Producers
  • Workers
  • Governments
• Consumers act rationally by

  Maximising their utility
• Producers act rationally by


  Selling goods/services in a way that maximises their profits
• Workers act rationally by

  Balancing welfare at work with consideration of both pay and benefits
• Governments act rationally by

  Placing the interests of the people they serve first in order to maximise their welfare
• Rationality in classical economic theory is a flawed assumption as people usually don't act rationally
• The Wealth of Nations was written

  1776
• Conferences after WWII

  • Tehran
  • Yalta
  • Potsdam
• Tehran Conference

  • The USA and Britain would attack Germany in Western Europe, helping the Soviets fighting in the East
  • Stalin would declare war against Japan and help the USA to defeat them once the war in Europe was over
  • Agreed that the aim of the war was to defeat Germany and keep it weak at the end of the war
  • An international organisation should be set up to settle disputes through discussion and negotiation (later became the United Nations)

  
• Yalta Conference

  • Germany to be split into four zones, each controlled by a different power: the USA, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union
  • Half of Germany's $20 billion reparations would go to the Soviet Union, the Nazi Party would be banned and war criminals prosecuted
  • The United Nations was set up
  • Stalin agreed the future governments of Eastern Europe would be decided by free elections
• Potsdam Conference

  • Germany split into four zones, but the economy would be run as a whole
  • Berlin split into four zones controlled by different countries, even though it was within the Soviet zone of Germany
  • Each administering country would take its reparations from the zone of Germany it controlled. As the Soviet Union controlled the poorest zone, it could take 10% of the industrial equipment from other zones
• The USA developed and used atom bombs to win the war against Japan. The USA dropped an atom bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6th August 1945 and over Nagasaki on 9th August 1945. 120,000 Japanese civilians were killed altogether.
• The Soviet Union became even more determined to spread its influence in order to create a buffer zone between itself and Western Europe


  After the USA developed and used atom bombs
• The Soviet Union first successfully tested an atom bomb on 29th August 1949. By 1964, Britain, France, and China also had the atom bomb.
• Both sides now had weapons capable of killing millions


  After the development of atom bombs by multiple countries
• Both sides were much less willing to go to war

  As the risks became much higher and many more would be killed
• George Kennan's Long Telegram to Washington

  Reported that attitudes in Moscow were hostile towards the USA, and that Stalin held a firm belief in the destruction of capitalism. Kennan believed that the Soviets would back down if faced with tough resistance from the West.
• Nikolai Novikov's telegram to Moscow


  Believed the the US wanted to use their strong military to dominate the world, and told Moscow that the Americans no longer wanted to cooperate with the Soviets.
• In March 1946, on a visit to the USA, Churchill made a speech criticising the Soviet Union as a threat to world peace. Stalin took this to be a reflection of American beliefs, which encouraged the USSR to strengthen its forces and increase anti-Western propaganda.
• The countries that the Soviet Union freed from Nazi occupation between 1944 and 1945 became satellite states under Soviet control after the end of the war. Stalin was reluctant to give up control of these countries as they were a useful buffer zone between the Soviet Union and Germany.
• Examples of Soviet satellite states

  • Poland
  • Hungary
  • Czechoslovakia
• The Truman Doctrine

  Truman promised to send American aid and troops to stop communism from spreading throughout the world, especially the countries of Europe which had been devastated by war and were therefore weaker and more likely to be vulnerable to communism.
• The Marshall Plan

  The USA would provide economic aid to the war-torn countries of Europe to help them recover from the damage suffered in conflict, and to keep them tied to the USA instead of falling to communist ideology.
• Stalin did not react well to the Marshall Plan


  He saw American aid to Europe as a way for the USA to spread its own influence and to undermine the United Nations
• A clear divide had been established between the Soviet Bloc and the USA. Stalin's suspicions of the USA as trying to crush the Soviet Union were reinforced, and a rivalry between the two superpowers that would last for over 50 years had begun.
• Cominform and Comecon

  • Cominform - Political organisation that gave Stalin the power to control the governments of his satellite states and ensure they followed orders from Moscow
  • Comecon - To provide economic aid as an alternative to the Marshall Plan, and later to organise industrial planning and encourage trade between members
• In June 1948, Stalin decided to shut off land routes across the Soviet-controlled zone of Germany into the Western-controlled areas of Berlin. The Western zone of Berlin was now cut off from the Western part of Germany, with no communication and food running out.
• In response America and Britain launched 'Operation Vittles', or the Berlin Airlift. They flew food, coal and other items into the Western zone of Berlin, in order to get over Stalin's land blockade.
• Three days after the blockade was lifted, the British, French, and American zones came together to form a state, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). In October 1949, Stalin responded by creating the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

  
• In April 1949, the USA, Britain, France, and nine other Western countries formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). In response to the FRG joining NATO in May 1955, Stalin created the Warsaw Pact, the equivalent of NATO for eastern communist countries.
• The arms race

  • 1945: the USA develops the atomic bomb
  • 1949: the USSR develops the atomic bomb
  • 1952: the USA develops the hydrogen bomb
  • 1953: the USSR develops the hydrogen bomb
  • 1957: the USA develops the inter-continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)
  • 1957: the USSR begins to test ICBMs
• The Soviet Union seemed to always be playing catch-up with their development of nuclear weapons between 1950 and 1958. The USA had almost a constant advantage in terms of technological ability and the power of their nuclear weapons.
• In January 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower became the new president of the USA. He and Khrushchev, who became the leader of the Soviet Union in 1953, were able to reduce tensions between the two superpowers.
• The arms race intensified between 1945-1957 as the USA and USSR developed increasingly powerful nuclear weapons and delivery systems
• The arms race

  1. 1945: USA develops atomic bomb

  2. 1949: USSR develops atomic bomb

  3. 1952: USA develops hydrogen bomb

  4. 1953: USSR develops hydrogen bomb

  5. 1957: USA develops ICBM

  6. 1957: USSR begins testing ICBMs
• The Soviet Union was playing catch-up with the USA in the development of nuclear weapons between 1950-1958, but was not far behind as it wanted to maintain equal capabilities to ensure the likelihood of war was reduced through the idea of the nuclear deterrent
• New leaders

  • Dwight D. Eisenhower became president of the USA in 1953, strongly anti-communist
  • Nikita Khrushchev emerged as Soviet leader in 1956, called for peaceful co-existence with the West
• Defence spending

  • Both sides were spending large amounts on their militaries, knew a reduction in tensions would be good for their economies