NANO-ck

Mise-à-jour le 25 March 2024, 6 minutes de lecture

From the Second World War to the Cold War

Summary :

• Origins of the Cold War
• Analyse the origins of the new economic world order

Origins of the Cold War

Interpretation 1 - The Riga Axioms

• US National Security Agency, April 1950, the aim of the USSR was nothign less than “absolute authority over the rest of the world”

The Yalta Axioms

• The view recognizes the USSR’s vast military strength and its expansionist drives, but sees the Soviet Unions as a relatively cautious power more concerned with protecting what it has, and with much to gain from stability
• Yalta axioms - the Soviet Union was not automatically pre-programmed to proceed in one course, and by extension the USA had no opportunities in its foreign policy to look de-escalate tensions rather than inflaming them
• Stalin 1928, “Socialism in one country”
• Stalin on the first Five Year Plan, “either we do it or they crush us”

Key Events

• The Yalta and Potsdam conferences
• USA’s strategic shift - from isolationism to interventionism; the “Logic of Force”
• Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan and Containment
• The Berlin Blockade and Airlift
• NATO and the Warsaw Pact

Key Economic Agreements

• Bretton Woods Agreements, July 1944
• International Monetary

The Atlantic Conference, August 1941

Roosevelt and Churchill met on a ship off the Newfoundland Coast. Like Wilson’s Fourteen Points, the Charter spoke about :

• Uphold the Four Freedoms
• Disarmament of aggressor nations
• Self-determination
• New international organisation (the United Nations)

The conference :

• Sets the tone for their future dealings
• They are said to have spoken with each other on the phone every single day of the war
• Some said that it was the origin of the Cold War
• Roosevelt always felt like he could work with Stalin

Yalta, February 1945

• We can call this an agreement
• Germany would pay some reparations, especially to the USSR
• Germany was to be divided into 4 zones (USA, UK, France, USSR)
• Agreement on the United Nations
• The USSR would enter the war against Japan 3 months after the end of

I think Stalin was sort of afraid of Roosevelt. Whenever Roosevelt spoke, he sort of watched him with a certain axe. He was afraid of Roosevelt's influence in the world. 

Harriman on Stalin and FDR

Potsdam, July 1945

The war is won ! Key Agreements :

• The complete disarmament of Germany and denazification
• Germany (and Berlin) to be split into 4 zones
• A war crime trial (held in Nuremberg in 1946)
• Reparations to be taken by each power from the German occupation zone it controlled

However…

• No agreement reached over the future government of Poland
• DIsagreement over the extent of reparations - Stalin wanted Germany crippled, the USA wanted a strong Germany to help rebuild Europe

From Wartime alliance to the Cold War

• Distrust and suspicion dominated relations
• Stalin’s suppression of democracy in eastern Europe
• Leaders began to highlight the threat of each other

Logic of Force

Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech, March 1946

“From Stettin in the Baltic, to Triste in the Adriatic, and iron curtain has descended across the continent”

• Churchill was no longer Prime Minister
• The public was not ready for this speech, and reacted negatively

The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan

• Truman, March 1947 : “The free people of the world look to us for support in maintaining their freedoms”
• Western Europe was still in ruins
  • Food and energy rationing a part of everyday life
  • Unemployment was high
  • In Churchill’s words “a rubble heap, a breeding ground of hate”
  • Clearly very fertile ground for communism to spread
• Eastern Europe was now communist

Political Cooperation : The United Nations

• Security Council to be dominated by 5 permanent powers : USA, Britain, France, Nationalist China, and the USSR
• USSR could use its veto to block any actions with

Economic Cooperation : Bretton Woods

• Bretton Woods agreement, July 1944 aimed to create international structures for the post-war world after the expected defeat of Germany and Japan
• The conference was keen to promote economic stability around the world to promote economic growth and peace
• International Monetary Fund (IMF) was set up
  • Could lend money to nations temporarily
  • Assure that every nation’s currency was freely convertible into that of its trading partners
  • The US provided half of the 10$ billion capital needed to start the fund
• World Bank was set up

Impact

• Transnational Corporations (TNCs) all over the world have expanded in size and number, in large part due to the post-1945 settlement

Berlin, 1948

• West Berlin had better living standards
• The Berlin Blockade/Airlift
  • Stalin wanted to force the Western powers out of Berlin
  • He cut off all road, rail and canal links to West Berlin
  • The Western powers responded with the Berlin Airlift
  • The airlift was a huge success
  • Stalin lifted the blockade in May 1949
  • If the west forced the blockade, this would be an act of violence
  • Consequences of the blockade
    • The division of Germany was now permanent
    • Continuation of four-power control in Berlin
    • Formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)
    • Failure of the blockade meant that the division of Germany was bound to go ahead

Conclusion : Situation in 1948

• WW2 weakened the European powers and accelerated their relative economic and political decline
• Decolonization began in the earnest
• From this time on, many conflicts, wherever they were in the world, would get drawn into the Cold War to struggle between Communism and Capitalism
• USA’s policy of containment, which had been developed to fight

Analyse the origins of the new economic world order