Tensions between Russia and U.S Cole Campbell April 20 th, 2016 Gold vs. Iron; Origins of the Cold War Together, Pakistan and India possess upwards of 200 nuclear warheads, and have been locked in conflict that has escalated to armed confrontation multiple times since their joint independence in 1947. Both countries have had frigid relations for years due to multiple historical and political events, and their conflict has been considered a post-colonial cold war of sorts which parallels The Cold War that characterized American and Soviet foreign policy in the mid to late 1900 s. Many factors contributed to the mounting tensions between the United States and Soviet Union after World War II which led to the dawn of the Cold War, including their emergence as the two dominant superpowers in a now bipolar global-political landscape, and that both superpowers had profound, fundamental political and economic differences which competed for influence around the world from ~1941 to ~1991. The Cold War is considered cold because the United States and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics never actually engaged in large-scale fighting but instead fought proxy wars through other aligned countries; such as Vietnam or Angola, which suffered greatly. During the Cold War, both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. sought to develop more advanced nuclear and space technologies, as well as compete for influence in other countries through propaganda campaigns, espionage, and proxy-wars. This paper will explore the factors that came together at the end of World War II that led to the polarization of global political culture so thoroughly. Perhaps one of the most important contributing factors that led to the Cold War was the Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference or the Argonaut Conference, which was held in September 1945 in Livadia Palace near Yalta in Crimea. The Yalta Conference was intended to make headway in deciding how to rebuild war-torn Europe and to deal with global post- World War II reorganization. Towards the end of World War II, it was clear that the Allied Powers; (later the foundation for the United Nations[1]) comprised of Britain, the United States, The Soviet Union, France, and China, would be victorious over the Axis Powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy although some nations like the USSR and Italy switched sides/changed the degree of their military involvement over the course of World War II.[2],[3] Each world leader and their delegations had their own motivations at the Yalta Conference, and while still controversial and debatable today, many historians argue that Stalin s primary concerns at Yalta were post-war economic assistance and Western recognition of Soviet influence and control in Eastern Europe.[4] Stalin 1 / 7
agreed to enter the war against Japan and promised to give free elections to Eastern Europe, (particularly Poland which was liberated from Nazi occupation and was now occupied by Soviet forces) a promise that ultimately never materialized. The text from the Yalta Conference reads we came to the Crimea Conference resolved to settle our differences about Poland. We discussed fully all aspects of the question. We reaffirmed our common desire to see established a strong, free, independent and democratic Poland. [5] Stalin feared that free elections in Poland would increase public dissent against the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, which the U.S.S.R. was assuredly not inclined to. Keeping in mind the Katyn massacre (series of mass executions of Polish nationals by the Soviet Secret police)[6] and a historical use of Poland to stage invasion into Soviet territory (as seen in the 1919-1921 Polish-Soviet War), as well as seeing as how Soviet troops already occupied Poland during the conference, transitory elections in Poland didn t come until 1989. Stalin was seemingly mostly concerned with maintaining the powerful and robust Soviet Union he had been trying to create than with maintaining positive diplomatic relations with the United States. Stalin spoke frequently of war against Capitalism throughout World War II, and the U.S.S.R. initially sided with Nazi Germany through a non-aggression pact that was later broken by German invasion. Stalin famously wrote that the USA has made other capitalist countries sufficiently subservient to itself to prevent them from going to war with one another and weakening one another, that forward- looking people of capitalism have learned enough from two world wars which inflicted serious damage on the whole capitalist world not to permit themselves, again to draw the capitalist countries into war among themselves, that, in view of all this, wars among capitalist countries have ceased to be inevitable. [7] Stalin is essentially saying that a war against Capitalism is going to be inevitable, and the United States responded. In May 1945, United States President Truman cut off all aid to the Soviet Union with the removal of the Lend-Lease program that ultimately gave the Soviet Union $11.3 billion throughout the course of World War II, and asserted it was clear the Soviet Union did not really want peace. The U.S. Senate called for an end to appeasement of the Soviet Union and a more hardline approach at curbing Soviet influence in Eastern Europe. Thus, Truman Doctrine came to be. Truman Doctrine refers to the American foreign policy standpoint primarily concerned with countering Soviet or Communist geopolitical influence abroad by appropriating financial aid to support the economies of nations that were being subjected to Soviet influence and where decidedly anti-communist. This doctrine lasted through the entirety of the Cold War. When speaking before Congress, Truman stated that "it must be the policy of the United States to support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures, in referring to the Soviet Union.[8] On March 5 th 1946, British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill spoke before Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri to deliver the famous Iron Curtain Speech, widely considered a key starting point of the Cold War. Churchill orated that 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, 2 / 7
Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow. [9] This clear position from the British Prime Minister, supported by the United States, ultimately characterized the Soviet Union in the eyes of the Western world. The Iron Curtain speech is remembered today as a historic event in which the position of the West towards the Soviets formalized into what would be the foreign policy of the U.S. throughout the duration of the Cold War, seeking to curb and stomp out Soviet and Communist influence wherever they could. The Cold War was a conflict between two nations, so in order to explore its origins, one must be critical of the United States in its actions towards the Soviet Union and as a global superpower as well. The American people were largely out of touch with Soviet influence before the beginnings of the Cold War, and once the American anti-communist propaganda dubbed The Red Scare was in full effect in the late 1940 s and early 1950 s, public opinion in the U.S. and most of Europe s powers was decidedly in U.S. favor. At the end of World War II, the American people were led to believe that the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki helped end the war and save lives. This was not the case. After then-u.s. Secretary of War Henry Stimson informed Dwight D. Eisenhower that the bomb would drop on Japan, the future President wrote that I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives. It was my belief that Japan was, at that very moment, seeking some way to surrender with a minimum loss of face. [10] This statement from President Eisenhower can be corroborated by many quotes from U.S. military officials at the time. The clear indication is that the dropping of the Atomic Bombs was a desire to shock world opinion, and intimidate the Soviet Union, who were also working on creating their own atomic weapons. Relentless U.S. market expansion and increasing economic influence after a war-torn world had ended the most costly and devastating conflict in the history of humanity caused the United States to continue solidifying its superpower status and eventual claim to a unipolar world dominated by the United States of America. Exploring the origins of the Cold War can provide valuable insight into dealing with contemporary conflicts and the most pressing issues of our time. It is clear that the Soviet Union and the United States are both responsible for the escalation that led to the Cold War and the implications that it had on much of the world. Attributing sole or heightened responsibility is unnecessary and redundant, both nations pursued courses of action which increased tensions for the purposes of increasing their own power and influence, and pursuing their economic and political goals. Learning from this conflict, we can apply our knowledge to address the Neo-Cold War between Pakistan and India, and avoid such conflicts in the future that could lead to devastating war on a scale never seen before. Illustrations 3 / 7
Fig. 1: Yalta Conference, February 1945. Date/Author unknown. (Public Domain). Fig. 2: Polish propaganda poster. Date/Author unknown. (Public Domain). Fig 3: U.S. President Harry S. Truman, photographic portrait. Date/Author unknown. (Public Domain). Fig 4: British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill at Westminster College delivering the "Iron Curtain Speech. Date/Author unknown. (Public Domain). 4 / 7
References Kolko, Gabriel. The Politics of War: The World and United States Foreign Policy, 1943-1945. Vol. 631. NY: Random House, 1968. https://books.google.com/books/about/the_politics_of_war.html?id=4ilbaaaaiaaj Hoopes, Townsend, and Douglas Brinkley. FDR and the Creation of the UN. Yale University Press, 2000. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40101377 Tripartite Pact. 1940. (PRIMARY SOURCE) http://avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/triparti.asp Crimea (Yalta) Conference Report. 1945. (PRIMARY SOURCE) https://www.loc.gov/law/help/us-treaties/bevans/m-ust000003-1005.pdf Ku?niar-Plota, Ma?gorzata (30 November 2004)."Decision to commence investigation into Katyn Massacre". Departmental Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation. http://ipn.gov.pl/en/news/2006/decision-to-commence-investigation-into-katyn-massacre 5 / 7
Bol shevik, No. 18 (September 1952), pp. 1-50. Reprinted in Pravda, 3 October 1952, pp. 2-5, and 4 October 1952, pp. 2-4. (PRIMARY SOURCE) Michael Beschloss (2006). Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents from The National Archives. Oxford University Press. pp. 194 99. Harbutt, Fraser J. The Iron Curtain. Oxford University Press, 1988. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=-6kr_y2r5rac&oi=fnd&pg=pr11&dq=harbutt,+fr aser+j.+the+iron+curtain&ots=remyv3jnfy&sig=nohvjzspfkbxpibql0exdlu_hmk#v=onepag e&q=harbutt%2c%20fraser%20j.%20the%20iron%20curtain&f=false Eisenhower, David, and Julie Nixon Eisenhower. Going home to glory: a memoir of life with Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961-1969. Simon and Schuster, 2011. http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1947-2/cold-war/cold-war-texts/stalin-on-the-inevitability-of-war-withcapitalism/ http://www.worldcat.org/title/going-home-to-glory-a-memoir-of-life-with-dwight-deisenhower-1961-1969/oclc/535493027 [1] Hoopes et al. 2000. [2] Declaration by the United Nations, Arcadia Conference, 1942. [3] Tripartite Pact, 1940. [4] Kolko, The Politics of War. 1968. 6 / 7
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) Spring 2016 [5] Yalta Conference [6] Ku?niar-Plota, DCPCPN. 2004. [7] Bol shevik, No. 18. 1952. [8] Beschloss, 2006. [9] Harbutt, 1988. [10] Eisenhower, 2011. 7 / 7