cold war 1940-50

• Cold War


  Complex period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, often studied through specific incidents and examples
• Approach to studying the Cold War

  • Having a good overview of what the Cold War was and the main eras
  • Focusing on the context of the 1940s and 1950s, the early Cold War period
• Uneasy alliance


  Between the United States, Soviet Union, and Great Britain at the end of World War II
• Britain under Churchill was an empire in decline, while the United States under Roosevelt was the rising power
• Stalin


  The non-democratic, totalitarian Soviet leader, not an ideal communist
• Conferences at the end of WWII

  1. Yalta and Potsdam conferences

  2. Discussing the shape of the post-war world
• Development of atomic bombs by the United States in 1945
• As WWII ended


  Tensions and spying operations existed between the communist and non-communist world
• In 1945, Europe and Asia were being divided
• Winston Churchill: 'Iron Curtain Speech in 1946, pointing to a rigid barrier between communist and non-communist states'
• Truman Doctrine


  Principle of containment - keeping Soviet influence and communism contained within its present boundaries
• Truman Doctrine


  Coupled with the Marshall Plan to strengthen non-communist states
• By the late 1940s, fear of communist infiltration and undermining of Western ways of life spread in the United States, leading to McCarthyism
• By 1947, the Soviet Union was trying to propagate its ideas outside its traditional zones through organizations like Cominform
• By 1948, the Soviet Union was flexing its military muscle over areas not within its control, as seen in the Berlin Blockade
• American and Western response to the Berlin Blockade

  Airlift to keep supplies open, refusing to allow the Soviet Union to move beyond its existing borders
• NATO


  North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a chain of alliances designed to keep the Soviet Union and communism within its present boundaries
• Cominform


  Soviet economic support and assistance to countries, an attempt to use economic power to build hegemony
• In 1949, the People's Republic of China was declared, and the Soviet Union emerged as the world's second nuclear power
• Containment


  The US foreign policy principle of containing communist expansion, perhaps driven by fears or a desire for hegemony
• Key figures in the early Cold War period include Harry S. Truman, George Marshall, George Kennan, and Dwight Eisenhower
• Soviet motives were connected to ideology, a desire to match Western technology and military power, and the creation of puppet or buffer states
• Key Soviet figures include Joseph Stalin and Molotov
• In 1951, the Rosenbergs were executed for selling atomic secrets to the Soviet Union
• The Korean War, the rise of North Vietnam, and the formation of the Warsaw Pact occurred in the early Cold War period
• In Australia, attempts were made to ban the Communist Party in 1951, which were defeated
• SEATO, the Southeast Asian equivalent of NATO, was formed in 1954 to contain communism in the region
• The Petrov Affair, a spy saga, occurred in Australia in 1954
• In 1956, there were attempts by Hungary to break free of Soviet domination, which were brutally crushed
• In 1956-57, Egypt attempted to take control of the Suez Canal, supported by the Soviet Union, but was defeated by France and Britain
• The Space Race began in 1957 with the Soviet launch of Sputnik
• In 1959, there was a successful communist revolution in Cuba
• The Cold War era was highly complex, with numerous issues and events taking place simultaneously against the backdrop of tension between the US and Soviet Union
• isolationism meant that america wanted to stay out of european conflicts as they were seen as too dangerous and unpredictable.
• the US produced more than half of all manufactured goods worldwide
• in 1948, the USSR had an output of only $60 billion
• truman's doctrine stated that any country threatened by communism would be given military aid from the USA.
• Berlin Blockade (1948) - The Soviet Union blocked off access to West Berlin, leading to the famous 'Airlift'.