UNITED STATES and THE POST WAR WORLD

ISOLATIONISM TO LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD

EARLY 20th Century Europe and USA Late entry WW1 for good

isolationist reasons. A nation of immigrants

fleeing a Europe that had failed them

Stayed out of League of Nations

Failed to take world economic leadership in the depression

Isolationism kept them out of WW2 until Pearl Harbor.

After WW2 Victory (USA) Almost 50% of world

economy. An untouched Victor

power. Greatest military power But, fearful of

becoming isolated as a desperate world turns to Soviet Russia as an economic and ideological model.

AFTER VICTORY (EUROPE) A Smashed and

bankrupt Continent Bridges, rail,

communication wrecked.

Unable to feed itself Economy compared

to 1939: Italy 25%-France 20% - Germany 5%. A ‘barter economy’.

Huge continental communist parties

BRITAIN: A VICTOR? A Bankrupt shabby nation still trying

to act as an Imperial power of the 1st Rank.

Economy geared for war not peace 2 Million in armed forces. Great Britain, as one of the 'Big

Three' along with the United States and the Soviet Union, emerged from World War Two with the psychology of a victor but with her economic circumstances more resembling those of a defeated country. Despite the victory over Hitler, Britain was literally bankrupt, and faced the prospect of unbridgeable balance-of-payments deficits for years to come.

The entire British war effort after 1941, including all her overseas military commitments, had only been made possible by American subsidies under the Lend-Lease programme. If the Americans stopped Lend-Lease, Britain would face a ‘financial Dunkirk’

WAR IN THE EAST AND UNLIKELY ALLIES (A Marriage of Convenience)

USSR took the brunt of all fighting in Europe. Lost 25 millions + of population.

Germany very nearly won Until June 1941 USSR loosely

allied with Nazi Germany. Even though Germany allied up until 1941 USSR in no mood to compromise

Completely opposed political ideologies. Stalin lumped all Capitalist countries together. He expected Capitalist wars not one against his own country.

A real marriage of convenience. One Hitler had been defeated despite Roosevelt’s feelings they were bound to revert to pre-war positions.

YALTA CONFERENCE Feb 1945

Roosevelt was lobbying for Soviet support in the Pacific War

Churchill was pressing for free elections and democratic institutions in Eastern Europe

Stalin was attempting to establish a Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe which the Soviets thought was essential to Soviet national security.

Stalin had the military advantage. The Soviet Union was physically in control of most of Eastern Europe. While the Allies had their hands full with the invasion of France Marshall Zhukov was only forty miles from Berlin.

the subject of Poland immediately arose. Stalin was quick to state his case with the following words:

"For the Russian people, the question of Poland is not only a question of honor but also a question of security. Throughout history, Poland has been the corridor through which the enemy has passed into Russia. Poland is a question of life and death for Russia."

DECISIONS AT YALTA Priority would be the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. Germany would be split into four occupied zones, with a quadripartite

occupation of BERLIN. Stalin agreed to let France have the fourth occupation zone in

Germany and Austria, carved out from the British and American zones.

Germany would undergo demilitarization and de-nazification German reparations were partly to be in the form of forced

labour. The status of Poland was discussed Citizens of the Soviet Union were to be handed over regardless

of their consent. Roosevelt obtained a commitment by Stalin to participate in the

United Nations. Stalin agreed to enter the fight against Japan within 90 days

after the defeat of Germany. A "Committee on Dismemberment of Germany" was to be set up.

The purpose was to decide whether Germany was to be divided into several nations, and if so, what borders and inter-relationships the new German states were to have.

LEGACY OF YALTA The freedom of small nations was sacrificed for the sake

of stability, which meant that the Baltic Countries would continue to be annexed by USSR.

Allegations about Yalta would play a significant role in US Policy during the COLD WAR. American conservatives alleged that decisions reached at Yalta were a betrayal of the Eastern European nations that resulted in their domination by the Soviet Union.

The alternative opinion is that there was little Roosevelt or Churchill could have done to prevent Stalin from dominating the Eastern European nations short of war with the Soviet Union, since the Red Army already controlled those Eastern European territories. With the war in the Pacific theatre far from over, and the atomic bomb still two months from completion, Roosevelt likely wanted to improve his negotiating position once the atomic bomb was introduced.

BUT: VICTORY QUICKLY SOURS (EASTERN EUROPE)

GERMANY (KEY TO A CONTINENT) PROSTRATE AND SPLIT.

UNITED STATES ONCE AGAIN LEAVES EUROPE

1) GEORGE KENNON THE LONG TELEGRAM (Feb 22 1946)

Moscow Embassy Telegram #511

Kennon: diplomat in USA Moscow embassy.

USA must choose its vital interests.

A sense of insecurity affects the Russian leaders rather than the Russian people. An historical justified fear of the outside world.

Soviet power, unlike Hitler’s Germany is not adventurist.

Recommended USA Approach 1) Recognize and study the threat 2) Government must educate the public to

counteract Soviet propaganda 3) World communism is a parasite which feeds

on malignant tissue; we must improve the problems of our own society.

4) Take leadership of damaged western world before the Russians attempt to do so.

We must not become like those with whom we are coping.

2) THE “X” ARTICLE In July 1947, the quarterly Foreign Affairs

published an anonymous article entitled "The Sources of Soviet Conduct," which offered what would soon become the basis for U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union. The policy offered was that of containment, which would remain fundamental for the duration of the Cold War.

The author, soon revealed to be George Kennan, opposed continuing appeasement of the Soviets and promoted firm opposition to further expansion of communist power.

EXTRACTS FROM THE ARTICLE The political personality of Soviet power as we know it

today is the product of ideology and circumstances: ideology inherited by the present Soviet leaders from the movement in which they had their political origin.

Of the original ideology, nothing has been officially junked. Belief is maintained in the basic badness of capitalism, in the inevitability of its destruction.

...we are going to continue for a long time to find the Russians difficult to deal with. It does not mean that they should be considered as embarked upon a do-or-die program to overthrow our society...

In these circumstances it is clear that the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment

Further extracts The infallibility of the Kremlin means that

the party in Moscow is the sole repository of truth. The leadership is always right but this results in iron discipline on its satellites.

The Kremlin following Lenin’s teachings is in no hurry. USA policy must be long term and patient.

Soviet power bears within it the seeds of its own decay.

A self confident Europe is the best bulwark against aggressive Soviet tendencies.

THE PACIFIC (Island defences)

PPS 28/2 March 05 1948. Conversation Kennon with Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Strategic boundaries of the USA at Eastern edge of the Pacific.

U Shaped area of Aleutians, Midway, Japan, Philippines, Okinawa.

Japan to be restored-no USA bases in Japan.

‘CONTAINMENT’ A coherent strategy for

dealing with the Soviet Union.

Do not interfere in the internal organization of states.

Only five regions which can support the sinews of industrial war. USA UK Rhine Valley Japan USSR

Must not let any of the free areas fall under control of the USSR

CONTAINMENT ETC Kennon did not expect USSR to resort to war. Must restore confidence and economic

activity of shattered countries. (At this time not military power)

Not a USA satellite system, but countries strong enough to not be in the Soviet orbit.

Align with nationalism to reject Soviet approaches. (Tito. Why not Ho Chi Mien?)

China Communist Party did not take

over until 1949 USA policy to verbally support

Nationalist China but not enter the fray or enter the Asian mainland.

Communists to be allowed to take Taiwan if this was to happen. NOTE Korean War saw USA forces bastion Taiwan and naval patrol the straits.

After 1956 Mao saw China as the Vanguard of Marxist-Leninism

Chinese nationalism eventually much more important than Leninist ideology.

China a huge ‘poorhouse’

Mao's death in 1976 and the rise of Deng Xiaoping

MAGIC NUMBER IS ’72’ In the November 1991 issue of the USSR's Military Historical Journal, then-chief of the Soviet

general staff Vladimir Lobov referred to Soviet military spending as one-third of the Soviet gross national product [GNP]. During the same month, in issue no. 44 of Moscow News, Soviet President Gorbachev placed Soviet military spending at the same level, stating, "If this (the Soviet military-industrial complex) is not half of society, then it's at least a third of it."

United States spent 13 percent of its GNP on defense at the height of the Korean War, 9 percent at the peak of the Vietnam War, 6 to 7 percent during the military buildup of the 1980s.

The Soviet figure is truly staggering. As Soviet Academician Oleg Bogomolov stated in Moscow News, number 20 of 1990: "For decades we lived ... in conditions of a wartime economy."

Some estimates of Soviet military spending are even higher. In the March In the March 26, 1992 issue of Izvestia, Russian presidential adviser Anatoly Rakitov stated: Over the last six decades, 80 to 90 percent of our national resources - raw material, technical, financial, and intellectual - have been used to create the military-industrial complex. Essentially, the military-industrial complex has absorbed everything that is good and dynamic that Russia has to offer, including its basic economic capacity and its best technology, materials, and specialists.

The May 21, 1992 issue of the Washington Post reported Senator Bill Bradley's comment, after a recent trip to Russia and Ukraine, that, "In St. Petersburg, 70 percent of the people have jobs directly tied to the military. ...Nationwide, it's over 50 percent of the people.“

Inaccurate Western estimates about the burden of military spending on the Soviet economy were not caused by Soviet disinformation efforts but by Soviet secrecy and the inability of most Western analysts to comprehend the emphasis the Soviets placed on military strength.

WAITING GAME ‘a deux’ The Cold War (At least until

1956)suited both sides of the argument.

USSR was waiting as it expected Capitalism to collapse in time. (According to Marxist Leninism). It had also gained territory to act as a ‘buffer zone’

USA was waiting as with the Containment strategy it anticipated the Soviet Union to collapse internally.

EUROPE SPLITS INTO CAMPS By 1947 officially a Cold

War Secure Soviet Union was

the best guarantee of long term socialist victory. Still believed that capitalist economies would collapse

Required a barrier against aggression (Stalin lived in fear of the German threat-N.K.)

Poland again sacrificed. (Note 1941 treaty with Britain)

AND IN MILITARY TERMS USSR lacked the

economic resources of the USA, so had to shore up its area of influence by force.

Turned down all Marshall Aid: set up C.O.M.E.C.O.M (Council for mutual economic assistance.(1949)

Warsaw Pact after his death but Soviet armies held the line.

Did both sides actually welcome this development?

DE-NAZIFIED GERMANY? Denazification in Germany was accomplished through a series of directives

issued by the Allied Control Council, beginning in January 1946. "Denazification directives" identified specific people and groups and outlined judicial procedures and guidelines for handling them.

UNVERIFIED: historian Timothy Naftali from the University of Virginia, discovered that the West German government under Konrad Adenauer had known the secret whereabouts of Adolf Eichmann since at least 1958 and had covered this up. The CIA had also shielded the Nazi mass murderer from prosecution.

Reinhard Gehlen, chief of the military secret service on the Eastern Front. Gehlen and his entire organisation, consisting of SS or SD (SS security service) people, were placed in the service of the American secret service, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), predecessor to the CIA.Gehlen was assigned to develop Germany’s foreign secret service, to be directed against the Soviet Union. Gehlen led the BND till his retirement in May 1968. Even in 1970, between 25 and 30 percent of BND employees were former members of the SS, the Gestapo or the Nazi security service.

Invited by Supreme Commander Lauris Norstad to fill its first big NATO post, Bonn last week nominated Lieut. General Hans Speidel, 59, to the Central European land-forces command. Thus U.S., British and French divisions in Germany will now pass under the command of a man who fought against them in two wars.

BUT EUROPE COULD COLLAPSE IN THE SHORT TERM Starvation in several parts of the continent, which

was to be exacerbated by the particularly harsh winter of 1946-1947 in northwestern Europe.

USA did not want a repeat of 1919 USA feared another home depression In July 1947 JCS 1067, which had directed the U.S.

forces of occupation in Germany to "…take no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany", was thus replaced by JCS 1779 which instead stressed that "An orderly, prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany.” JCS 1067 had then been in effect for over two years.

THE MARSHALL PLAN The Marshall Plan aid was

mostly used for the purchase of goods from the United States. (70%) The European nations had all but exhausted their foreign Exchange Reserves during the war, and the Marshall Plan aid represented almost their sole means of importing goods from abroad.

At the start of the plan these imports were mainly much-needed staples such as food and fuel, but later the purchases turned towards reconstruction needs as was originally intended.

Some a Boon-Some a waste $13 Billion over 4 years in form of loans,

credits and gifted payments. In Britain the post-war Labour Government,

advised by its resident economic pundits, freely chose not to make industrial modernisation the central theme in her use of Marshall Aid.

For Britainf, the offer of Aid dollars presented a last chance to modernise herself as an industrial power before her old trade rivals could recover from defeat and occupation. Instead, all the illusions and follies of post-war British policy now reached their climax in the wasting of Britain’s Marshall Aid.

The French and German tenders for Marshall Aid resemble today’s four-year business plans, being detailed technocratic strategies which give clear priority to investment in reconstructing industry and infrastructure.

The Labour Government had sacrificed the modernisation of Britain as an industrial country for the sake of using Marshall Aid to support a world power role - strategic and financial.

Britain’s estimated defence expenditure for 1950-1 - the final year of Marshall Aid - amounted to 7.7 per cent of GNP - at a time when Germany and Japan were not spending a pfennig or a yen on defence

Harry Truman A Very Different President (I am tired of babying the Soviets)

Not a New York-Harvard patrician like Roosevelt.

Independence Missouri, little formal education.

Served in WW1 Democratic political

machine-1934 Senate. 1944 Vice President (10)

(Nuclear) TRUMAN DOCTRINE:

Commitment by the USA to take a stand against the global threat posed by communism to free peoples. (Soviet Pressure on Turkey and Greece)

NATURE OF STALIN 1945-1953

Dominated the Soviet scene unlike any Democratic head. Very few public appearances or writings in this period.

Most of our knowledge comes from Khrushchev. Khrushchev states that Stalin appeared to have added a

mental disengagement from reality to his paranoia. The suspicion of the west and of his own people that drove Soviet policy up until 1953 appears to be Stalinism in action.

Moved quickly to disband all areas of possible threat to him. i.e. Army, POW’s, Satellite states. (800,000 Soviet citizens served in the Nazi armed forces)

But, accepting western help and technology would have meant that since 1924 he had been wrong.

So he also endorsed a divided world to ‘protect socialism’.

Did not think the ‘bomb’ was important

TRUMAN DOCTRINE By 1947, the near-bankrupt British

government could no longer maintain its massive overseas commitments. In addition to granting Indian Independence, the British government decided to withdraw from both Greece and nearby Turkey. This would have left the two nations, in particular Greece, on the brink of a communist-led revolution.

Notified that British aid to Greece and Turkey would end in less than six weeks, the U.S. government, already hostile towards and suspicious of Soviet intentions, decided that action was necessary. In a meeting with congressional leaders, the argument of "apples in a barrel infected by one rotten one" was used to convince them of the significance in supporting Greece and Turkey. It was to become the “domino theory." On the morning of March 12 1947, Truman appeared before Congress to ask for $400 million of aid to Greece and Turkey.

TRUMAN TAKES A STAND Although based on a simplistic

analysis of internal strife in Greece and Turkey, it was to be the single dominating influence over U.S. thinking.

Truman's speech had a tremendous effect. The anti-communist feelings that had just begun to hatch in the U.S. were given a great boost, and a silenced Congress voted overwhelmingly in approval of aid. The United States would not withdraw back to the Western Hemisphere as it had after World War I. From then on, the U.S. would actively engage any communist threats anywhere in the globe under the ostensible causes of "freedom", "democracy" and "human rights." The U.S. brandished its role as the leader of the "free world." Meanwhile, the Soviet Union brandished its position as the leader of the "progressive" and "anti-imperialist" camp.

BERLIN 1948-1949MORE TO COME

NATO: USA FULLY ENGAGEDNOTE THIS MAP:FRENCH

KEEP AMERICANS IN KEEP RUSSIANS OUT KEEP GERMANS DOWN Truman joined eleven other nations

in 1949 to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), America's first "entangling" European alliance in 170 years.

Stalin retaliated against these steps by integrating the economies of Eastern Europe in his version of the Marshall Plan, exploding the first Soviet atomic device in 1949, signing an alliance with China in February 1950, and forming the Warsaw Pact, in 1955.

BUT Was it reliable?

Western Germany Arises How to ‘feed’ Germany? Allies integrate the

western zones economically and politically. Currency reform. Stalin seals off Berlin.

All thoughts of making Germany a ‘pastoral’ country recede.

Germany becomes a building block of USA ‘Containment’ strategy.

ALTHOUGH THINGS WERE ALWAYS “WONDERFUL” IN THE EAST

THREE STALINIST FOREIGN POLICY BLUNDERS (IN MY VIEW) BUT: USA POLICY SUCCESS

BERLIN (June 1948-May 1949)

YUGOSLAVIA

KOREA (June 1950-July1953)

1) BERLIN“In 15 years they could be on their feet again” Stalin

The Berlin Blockade became the first major crisis of the new Cold War, when the USSR blocked railroad and street access to West Berlin. The crisis abated after the Soviet Union did not act to stop American, British and French airlifts of food and other provisions to the Western-held sectors of Berlin following the Soviet blockade.

PROGRESS TO COLD WAR Potsdam Agreement on the fate of postwar Europe, calling for

the division of a defeated Germany into four occupation zones (earlier by the Yalta Conference) and the similar division of Berlin into four zones. Because of the city's location, the French, American, and British sectors of Berlin were surrounded by the Soviet occupation zone.

The dispute over Berlin The Soviets sought to create a unified but demilitarized

Germany under their tutelage, or a united Germany that could be neutralized after Russia received industrial reparations from Germany. This strategy was a response to a 150-year history of repeated Western assaults on Russia. Stalin considered it essential to destroy Germany's capacity for another war, which conflicted with the U.S. desire to rebuild Germany as the economic center of a stable Europe. (Stalin assumed that Japan and Germany could menace the Soviet Union once again following their postwar reconstruction.)

BERLIN ISOLATED General Clay proposed sending a large

armoured column driving peacefully, as a moral right, down the Autobahn from West Germany to West Berlin, but prepared to defend itself if it were stopped or attacked. President Truman believed this entailed an unacceptable risk of war. Advice was taken to see if an air-lift could supply Berlin.

Royal Air Force revealed they were already running an airlift to the support of their own troops and that they were positive on the plan. The British Air Commodore calculated that it would be possible to not only support his own troops but the whole city. Given these numbers the three allies were instantly agreeing to start the airlift without delay.

Stalin calculated on the west backing down over a defeated enemy.

Results Humiliation for Stalin Brought USA fully back

into Europe and confirmed its plans in re-establishing Germany.

NATO in 1949 Galvanized Germany

towards the western allies

Destroyed French Communism

2) Yugoslavia Tito joined the Communist

Party of Yugoslavia in 1920 Faithful supporter of Stalin in

1930s. Tito did not initially respond

to Germany's invasion of Yugoslavia on Stalin's orders because Stalin had signed the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact After Germany attacked the Soviet Union Tito was named Military Commander and issued a call to arms and communist revolution.

IT FALLS APART Croat, Partizan, great leader, A communist BUT a nationalist. Yugoslavia not freed by Soviet Troops. The Communist Party

won the first post-war elections under fair conditions, which united a country that had been severely affected by the war and successfully suppressed the nationalist sentiments of the peoples of Yugoslavia in favor of the common Yugoslav goal.

1948 Stalin instructed Tito to interfere in Greece to put Stalin’s

men in Govt.

In 1948, Tito became the first Communist leader to defy Stalin's leadership, one of the few people to stand up to Stalin's demands for absolute loyalty. Stalin took it personally–for once, to no avail. "Stop sending people to kill me," Tito wrote. "If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow, and I won't have to send a second

RESULTS The Yugoslav Communist Party was expelled

1948. This brought Tito much international recognition, but also caused a rift with the Soviet Union.

The crisis nearly escalated into an armed conflict but Stalin backed down.

Which begs the question: after this great US Policy success why was Vietnam treated differently and why was Containment abandoned?

3) Korea With the capitulation of Japan

in the Summer of 1945, Korea, which had been under Japanese subjugation for over four decades, was presented with a new regime, as U.S. forces occupied its southern portion and Soviets moved into the north.

During the later 1940s, the inital arrangements for a temporary Allied occupation led to a division of the country into two de facto states, neither recognizing the legitimacy of the other and each seeking Korean reunification on its own terms.

COLD WAR TURNS HOT North armed by USSR: we now

know Russia was consulted by North Korea before the war

NB: China treated as a very second class state by Stalin. China had no role in starting this war

Truman realized the USA was in a competition for world domination with the USSR.   By supporting South Korea, America was able to fight Communism without directly attacking Russia. 

USA had disarmed in the Pacific; Stalin did not think they would intervene. US Military had disbanded.

But, very close to Japan      

USA DEFENDS VITAL INTERESTS On 25 June 1950, the North Koreans

attacked. Initially very successful.   They captured most of South Korea.

On 27 June USA persuaded the United Nations to pass a resolution supporting South Korea.   

 On 15 September, General MacArthur led a UN amphibious landing at Inchon (near Seoul)   

In danger of being cut off, the NKPA had to retreat.   The Americans drove them back and recaptured South Korea. 125,000 NKPA prisoners were taken.

        On 7 October 1950 MacArthur

invaded North Korea.   He advanced as far as the Chinese border.      

SOVIETS LOST FACE: AND CHINA China could not allow possible American

attacks on its territory so attacked to drive back the US forces.

The Chinese admitted to losing 390,000 men dead - UN sources put the figure at up to a million Chinese and half a million North Koreans dead.

 The Americans drove the Chinese back, but lost 54,000 American soldiers dead doing so.  

RESULTS USA could not let Japan

be threatened Destroyed Communism

in Japan Stalin miscalculated

again. Proxy war needed Chinese deaths to save Stalin’s client state.

China broke with Moscow Almost led to atomic

bomb.

NOTE: US knew Soviet pilots were flying North Korean MIG’s

PEACEFUL CO-EXISTENCE Khrushchev's Thaw developed largely as a result of

Khrushchev's theory of peaceful co-existence which believed the two superpowers (USA and USSR) and their ideologies could co-exist together, without war (peacefully). Khrushchev had created the theory of peaceful existence in an attempt to reduce hostility between the two superpowers

Khrushchev had no doubt about the power of the ‘bomb’. By 1952 both sides had the ‘H’ bomb.

Emphasis on standard of living of the Soviet people. 1955 Austrian Treaty

SINO-SOVIET SPLITArise, all people of the world, to topple Imperialist America! To topple Soviet revisionism! To topple the reactionary parties of all nations. (1969)

Mao largely ignored advice and instructions from Stalin how to conduct the revolution in China. Traditional Leninist theory, was based on the revolutionary struggle of the urban working class which barely existed in China. Mao therefore ignored the theory and sought to mobilize the peasantry.

After the war Stalin advised Mao not to attempt to seize power, but to negotiate with Chiang; Stalin signed a Treaty of Friendship and Alliance with Chiang in mid-1945. Mao politely accepted all of Stalin's advice and ignored it in practice, proclaiming the People's Republic in October 1949.

When Stalin died, Mao felt that he was now the senior leader, and he became increasingly resentful when the new Soviet leaders, did not accord him the status he desired.

SPLITS UPON SPLITS Mao did not openly dissent when Khrushchev denounced Stalin or

when he restored relations with Tito. But Khrushchev had dismantled Stalin's leadership, and also downplaying the core Marxist-Leninist thesis of inevitable armed conflict between capitalism and socialism. Mao increasingly felt that the Soviet leadership were retreating from Marxist-Leninism and from the struggle for the worldwide triumph of communism.

The Soviets reneged on their earlier commitment to help China develop nuclear weapons. They also refused to support China in its border dispute with India, a country moderately friendly to the Soviets.

Korea Mao criticised Khrushchev for backing down in the Cuban crisis. Despite the fact that the Vietnam War was at its height and China's

anti-American rhetoric at its peak, Mao decided that since the Soviets were the greater threat because of its geographical proximity to China, he should seek an accommodation with the United States to confront the USSR.

KENNON HAD BEEN PROVED CORRECT