Elliott Zornitsky

IB History Notes
1/5/16

The Emergence of superpower rivalry in Europe (1945-1949)

New Tendencies:
o Britain and France initially focused on the restoration of colonial power in South-East Asia
but ultimately find this to be impossible. (Financially broke, populations exhausted)
o Only two powers capable of asserting global dominance: USA and USSR
o USA begins to reassert non-interventionism policies, focusing more on the reconstruction of
Japan and recommitting to the Good Neighbor policy of the 1930s. Truman comes down
firmly on the side of anti-colonialism.
o Churchill wants to persuade Truman to maintain a presence in Europe.
George Kennan: Long Telegram explaining Soviet Foreign Policy in 5 steps.
Soviet foreign policy grounded in Marxism-Leninism and historical tsarist
foreign policy goals.
Constant rivalry between capitalism and communism
Use other Marxists as a ballast against western, capitalist, expansion.
Non-communist leftists more dangerous than capitalists.
Grounded in Russian expansionism, fear of invasion and desires for a
security belt around the Russian Empire.
USA encouraged to engage in a policy of positive propaganda that would
make capitalism and democracy attractive to vulnerable countries and
weaken Soviet dominance in Europe.

o Churchills Iron Curtain Speech: Attacks USSR for exerting its will over the countries of
eastern Europe and states that Europe was now divided into totalitarian Europe and free
Europe. Duty of free countries to prevent the spread of communism in western Europe.
o Stalin responds by likening Britains positon of dominance in the English-speaking world to
Nazism.
o Clifford-Elsey Report: Proved the basis of the policy of containment.
o Truman Doctrine (1947) : USA would provide economic and military assistance to Greece
and Turkey to prevent the spread of communism. Avoid direct military conflict with the
USSR. National Security Act (1947): Establishes the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

o Marshall Plan (1948): US Secretary of State George Marshall proposed providing economic
assistance to European countries to help them rebuild after the devastation of the Second
World War. Followed by the European Recovery Program (ERP) which would offer grants and
loans to European countries from the US to help them rebuild. ***In order to do this, US must
maintain a continued presence in Europe. Opposition in Congress to financial aid crumbled
after the Czech coup and in the same month Congress granted the President $17 billion which
was to be distributed to the participating countries over a period of four years through the
Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA).
o Europe has the fastest period of growth in modern history during the time of the ERP.
o Soviets respond with their own economic program called the Council for Economic assistance,
or COMECON, in 1949. Incorporates communist/socialist countries in Europe, as well as Asia
 (China and Vietnam), and in the western hemisphere (Cuba). Intention was to coordinate
economies of varying countries in a mutually beneficial manner. Moltov plan (1947): attempt
to bind the countries of eastern Europe and the Soviet Union into a single economic area.
(Economically Europe was forming itself into two blocs.)

Containment: Assumption underlying containment: Soviet Union would constantly attempt to

extend its power by applying pressure on weak points beyond its own sphere of influence.
o Key initiatives: huge subsidies to western Europe in the form of the Marshall Plan, the
building of a new West German state, the formation of a North Atlantic security pact and a
massive transfer of dollars to Japan.

Creation of a West German State:

o Rise of Soviet power in the east persuaded United States to revive Germany more quickly
than had been planned.
o America's principal concern was: The Germans in the west would want to join those in the
Soviet zone in a unified Germany under Soviet control.
o American counter-pressure partly took the form of Marshall aid dollars. West Germany was
one of the chief beneficiaries of the Marshall Plan, as the ECA channeled millions of dollars
into the western zones.
o One important measure prior to setting up a new west German state was the introduction
of a new currency in the three western zones in June 1948.
o Stalin rightly interpreted currency reform as the harbinger of a new west German state.
o Response: Soviets cut off all road, rail and inland waterway routes to Berlin. The purpose of
the blockade was to force the United States, Britain and France to cancel their plans for a
west German state.
o Result: Berlin Airlift, American and British planes flew more than 200,000 flights to Berlin in
320 days and delivered vital supplies of food and coal to 2.2 million west Berliners.
o The new Federal Republic of Germany formally began its life in September 1949.
o In October 1949 the Soviet occupation zone became the German Democratic Republic.
o The partition of Germany was a microcosm of the division of Europe. The Cold War meant
that neither superpower could allow the whole of Germany to fall within the other's sphere
of influence.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1949)

o April 1949: evolving American sphere of influence in western Europe further consolidated
when United States signed the treaty which established the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO).
o NATO: military alliance of 12 states (United States, Canada, Britain, France, Belgium,
Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Norway and Iceland), which adopted
the principle of collective security (attack on one or more member states would be
considered an attack on them all (Article 5).
o NATO: was created to keep the Russians out, the Germans down and the Americans in.
o Soviet Response: Warsaw Pact-- Soviets formed this military organization with the nations
of Eastern Europe.
o United States joined NATO firstly for political and secondly for military reasons. Clear to
Washington that American membership of a security pact was a precondition of French and,
to a lesser extent, British consent to west German statehood.
US POLICY TOWARD ASIA
Principal means of containment: conversion of Japan into a satellite of the United States;
financial assistance to anti-communist forces in China and Vietnam; support for an
independent non-communist South Korea; and war plans to defend a crescent of offshore
Pacific islands against an aggressor (most probably the Soviet Union)the defensive
perimeter strategy.
Policy-makers never committed the same resources or attached the same importance to
restricting communism in Asia, as they did in Europe.
THESIS: The relative failure to contain communism in many regions of Asia was the
consequence more of the inherent popularity of communism based on circumstances the
United States could not control than of a lack of American resources and willpower.

Japan:

US troops under the command of General Douglas MacArthur comprised 90 per cent of the
occupation forces.

Between 1945 and 1947 the main objectives of occupation policy were demilitarization and
democratization. The Japanese armed forces were demobilized, stockpiles of weapons were
destroyed and a no war clause (Article Nine) was written into a new Japanese constitution in
May 1947.

Right to strike was recognized and trade unions were legalized, as were a range of political
parties, including the Japanese Communist Party (JCP).

On account of its concentration of skilled labor and industrial plant, Japan represented one
of the five military-industrial world power centers which must remain within the American orbit.
Anchoring Japan to the United States was the cornerstone of the strategy of containment in Asia.

US occupation authorities started arresting communist sympathizers in the Japanese trade

union movement. 1949 Congress authorized $500 million in aid to Japan to allow the purchase of
foodstuffs and raw materials essential to Japanese economic growth.
To create pro-American sentiment: Prosecution of war criminals scaled down, responsibility
for day-to-day government was handed over to the Japanese, Japanese police forces
strengthened and plans laid for an eventual end to occupation and a non-punitive peace treaty.
Japan's emergence as one of America's closest allies in the postwar world had begun.

China:
End of 1946 relations between Marshall and Jiang close to breaking point and Marshall
recommended terminating aid to America's long-standing ally altogether. He likened
helping Jiang to pouring sand down a rat-hole. Contributions to the KMT sharply reduced.
Washington's new view of the world and Soviet intentions in 1947 quickly resulted in the
resumption of substantial aid even to an ally as unreliable as Jiang.
 What was in effect a Japanese empire in the Far East had been euphemistically called the
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. For United States the Cold War was as much a
conflict over the control of key resources as a battle of ideas.
American objective no longer to achieve Nationalist control of the entire Chinese mainland,
but to pen the CCP into northern China and stop communist control of interior and the
south. Recovery of Japan depended on access to resources and markets of Chinese
hinterland.
The Nationalists had received $3 billion since 1945, yet had lost the civil war. Not very
successful, Mao and communists come to power.

Korea
The state of the Cold War in 1947 convinced policy-makers that America must hold on to
South Korea at least.
Potsdam Declaration: Freedom and independence promised to Korea
Soviet domination of the entire Korean peninsula would deprive recovering Japan of an
important trading partner.
US military opposed to intervention, as it did not see Korea as being within its sphere of
influence, and it recognized the historical interest of USSR in the area, and wanted to
prevent conflict.
In the absence of Soviet-American agreement on unification two separate Korean states
emerged in 1948: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North) the Republic of Korea
(South).
Both Syngman Rhee and Kim II Sung were intent on reunifying the Korean peninsula by
force and 100,000 Koreans had died in skirmishes and intermittent hostilities between north
and south since 1945.
Rheebrutal leader that refused to work with the National Assembly. Makes Truman
uncomfortable, but uses as a ballast against communist expansion. **Support of
dictatorships on the basis of their anti-communism.
Stalin rejects elections (more South Koreans, communists sure to loose), Truman rejects
withdrawal of forces.
USA supports UN decision to have election in SK, Rhee elected as president.
North does the same---Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. Stalin and Truman withdraw
forces. Civil war now even more probable. But, both Sung and Rhee require military
assistance from USSR and USA respectively.
NSC 68: Produced by the American National Security Council, stating that the US had to
maintain substantial armed forces.
Dean Acheson: Pacific Perimeter Speech. No mention of Korea in Asia defensive sphere.
Green light for North Korea to attack. Stalin authorizes Kims plans to invade the South.
(1950)
UN interferes with troops, pushes North Korean troops beyond the 38th parallel, Macarthur
wants to continue with a preemptive attack on China. Many fear that crossing the parallel
was contrary to containment policy.
Mao assists North Kore and pushes UN forces back beyond 38 th parallel
Stalin dies, and USA has a new president (Eisenhower). Neither of them interested in Korea.
Vietnam
Leader of the Vietnamese nationalists was a communist called Ho Chi Minh and the
movement he led was the Vietminh.
1945 the United States applied pressure on France to grant independence to its former
colonies in Indochina. Roosevelt's aims for the post-war era had been decolonization
approached Washington unsuccessfully for aid, issuing the Vietnamese Declaration of
Independence.
The outbreak of hostilities between the French and the communist Vietminh in 1946 led the
Americans to side firmly with France against Ho. Same time United States urged France to
make concessions to non-communist nationalists within Vietnam and prepare the country for
self-government
Native government appointed under Bao Dai while France retained control of defense and
foreign policy. Token independence not enough for Vietminh and they continued their war
against the French.

Defensive Perimeter
Key objective of US policy was to unite the Asian periphery and the Japanese core into a
single self-supporting economic area.
Communism on Asian periphery would be countered not by direct military intervention but
by economic aid to existing anti-communist forces.
First line of military defense against communism in Asia would be a belt of offshore islands
including Japan, the Ryukyu Islands, Guam and the Philippines, which together formed
roughly an inverted U-shape.
US air bases and garrisons existed on all these islands and formed a defense perimeter
against an Asian aggressor. Potential enemy now was the Soviet Union.
Eisenhower:
Warns of a Military-industrial complex
New Look
Less spending on military
Atoms for Peace Plan. He proposed that the major powers should deposit a portion of
their nuclear stockpiles in a bank of nuclear materials supervised by the UN. The material
would then be used for the peaceful generation of nuclear energy.
Response to Sputnik: He set up the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) in 1958
to oversee missile development and space exploration. The National Defense Education Act
was also passed in 1958. It released $1 billion of funds over seven years to finance loans,
grant and fellowships for students majoring in science, engineering and mathematics.
Development of U-2 Spy plane.
US strength determined by economic success
John Foster Dulles: massive retaliation to halt aggression. Rely on nuclear weapons. New
York Times calls this Brinkmanship.
Eisenhower on Nuclear weapons: No reason why they should not be used exactly as you
would use a bullet.
Ends Korean War.
Continued Truman policy of containment in Europe. Refused to aide anti-communists in
Hungary.
Nationalist revolution in Cuba, and movements to end European colonial power in Asia.
Support native oligarchies in Latin America. Value stability in trading partners + fear of
communist takeover because of a lack of stability due to revolution in countries.
Example: CIA uses covert operations against revolutionary regimes in Iran and Guatemala.
Bout off Bolivian revolutionaries, sent military advisors to assist friendly regimes, as in
Vietnam.
Strongmen best for Latin America. Eisenhower administration does not even think about
giving Latin American countries aid.
Guatemala. Popular Figure-Juan rbenz comes to power. Fights back against US
conglomerate, United Fruit. Accused of being a communist by United Fruit. US moves to
overthrow him, and isolate Guatemala diplomatically. rbenz receives military support from
the USSR, upon hearing that the US is training Guatemalans to overthrow him. Fearing an
American invasion, rbenz tries to arm peasantry, but upsets middle class officers, and loses
control of labor unions. Flees the country, allowing Castillo Armas to establish a
dictatorship.
Response to Bolivian revolution very different, as Bolivians convince Eisenhower that they
are not communists. Also US has few investments in Bolivia. Support a military coup in
1964.
Nixon: praises dictators in Cuba (Batista) and Nicaragua (Somoza), illustrating how the fear
of communism blinded the US to the unpleasant nature of Latin American dictators.
All in all, Latin America of little interest to the Eisenhower administration. Ignore Nixons
speeches about aiding Latin American.
 Nixons 1958 visit: Reassure Latin Americans that they are appreciated and well respected.
Historian Stephen Ambrose states: the visit was all about theater. Trip to Paraguay an
excellent illustration of US ambivalence about dictators who provided stability and were
anti-communist.
Results: Damaged relations with Latin Americans, proved the US was only thinking through a
cold war mindset, missed the democratically elected inauguration of Frondizi. Most violent
demonstrations had taken place in Venezuela and Peru.
Overall Eisenhowers policy towards Latin America offered nothing new, and his response to
rbenz in Guatemala and to the OPA (Operation Pan America) was unimaginative.
La Faber: Americans too easily confused nationalism with Communism. Henry Raymont:
Emphasized that the Guatemalan intervention encouraged the tightening of ties with right-
wing dictatorships and the Latin American military that supported them.