History Notes: Gaddis

What were the major issues following the war?

Both the United States and the Soviet Union embraced ideologies with global aspiration. They assumed what worked at home would do so across the rest of the world. The American Revolution reflected a deep distrust of concentrated authority and sought to constrain power in order to achieve liberty and justice for its people. By the end of WW2 Russia had embraced concentrated authority and a once largely agrarian nation with few traditions of liberty was forced to become a heavily industrialized nation with no liberty at all. America had fought separate wars simultaneously and was geographically distant from where the fighting was taking place so did not experience significant attacks. (Few casualties) The Soviet Union fought only one war but it was arguably the most terrible one in their history. By the end of the war it was economically, militarily, industrially and socially crippled/exhausted. ( 27 million casualties) When it came to shaping the post war settlement both countries were more evenly matched than these asymmetries might suggest. The United States had no commitment to reverse its longstanding tradition of remaining aloof from European affairs. Communism had gained respect from widespread Europe as it was believed that that the Communist Russians had led the resistance against the Germans. The U.S.S.R had a moral claim to substantial influence in shaping the post war settlement. The new British and American leaders, Atte and Truman respectively were considered unchallenged and untested in leadership to be certain of what they sought out of the settlement. Stalin on the other hand had clear aims.

What did Stalin want from a post war world?

Stalin was physically exhausted at the end of WW2, surrounded by sycophants, personally lonely but still led the Soviet Union with terrifying control. Stalins post war goals were security for himself, his regime, his country and his ideology in that order. A series of purges during the 1930s had helped him remove internal challenges endangering his personal rule and he sought to make sure that no external threats would ever place his country at risk. The interests of communists elsewhere in the world, were never outweigh the priorities of the Soviet Union and the international communist movement.

Stalin believed the Soviet Union should be the largest beneficiary after the war. He wanted to regain lost territories it had lost to Germany or been falsely promised by Hitler in the non-aggression pact in 1939. He wanted portions of Finland, Poland, Romania and all of the Baltic States. He wanted territorial concessions at the expense of Iran and Turkey and a naval base in the Mediterranean. Stalin wanted to Punish Germany through military occupation, property expropriations, reparations payments and ideological transformation. Disproportionate post war losses during the war may well have entitled the Soviet Union to disproportionate post war gains, but they had also robbed that country of the power required to secure those benefits unilaterally. The USSR needed peace, economic assistance and the diplomatic acquiescence of its former allies if it were to obtain his post war objectives at a reasonable cost. Stalin believed that capitalists would never be able to cooperate with one another for very long and soon an economic crisis would return and capitalists would need the Soviet Union, rather than the other way around. He expected America to loan the U.S.S.R several billion dollars. Stalin planned to simply wait for the capitalists to begin quarrelling with one another, and for the disgusted Europeans to embrace communism as an alternative. He sought to dominate Europe with his ideology as far as Hitler had wanted to do. Stalins vision was flawed as he failed to take into account the evolving post war objectives of the USA.

What did the US want following WW2?

America wanted security after the war but were unsure of how to obtain it. Due to isolation, it could no longer present itself as a model to the rest of the world. America sought global influence in the realm of ideas. Despite international ideology American practices were isolationist and the nation had not yet concluded that its security required transplanting its principals. safe for democracy League of Nations. Victory in WW1 highlighted over commitment and plans for a post war collective security organization to be too demanding. With the perceived inequalities of the Versailles peace treaty, the onset of a global depression, and the rise of aggressor states in Europe and East Asia, Americans saw themselves better off in isolation. Roosevelt had four wartime priorities: Sustain allies with Great Britain, the Soviet Union and China. Secure allied cooperation in shaping the post war settlement. Secure a long lasting peace was in the interest of the allies. Ensure that the settlement was sellable to the American People.

Americans feared that the Soviet Union would cut a deal with the Nazi Germans again and leave portions of Europe in authoritarian hands. They had to keep U.S.S.R in the war by providing as much assistance as possible in food, clothing and armaments. The allies objectives were to reconcile Wilsons ideals of self determination with Stalins territorial demands, as well as his insistence on a sphere of influence that would ensure the presence of friendly nations along the Soviet Unions post war borders.

What were key the events that arose?

Stalin got the territorial acquisitions and the sphere of influence he wanted however the Americans and British had hoped for a different outcome. British wanted Poland to set up its own government and for the Baltic states to have a free election. However Stalin had already eliminated any possibility that a Polish government subservient to the Soviet Union could sustain popular support. Stalin was persistent in attaining a third of Poland and his ruthlessness in doing so was detrimental to the trust which the allies had for him. He had broken everyone of his promises he made at Yalta. Although the Soviet zone of occupation surrounded the jointly occupied capital, Berlin, it contained only about a third of Germanys population and an even smaller percentage of its industrial facilities. Stalin accepted this as he believed that the Marxist-Leninist government he planned to install in the east would act as a magnet to western Germany. He believed there would be a proletariat uprising.

His strategy however was flawed due to the brutal manner in which the Red Army had occupied eastern Germany. (Expropriation of property, extraction of reparations on an indiscriminate scale and mass rape) The allies wanted to preserve as much German land as possible under western control so as to ensure it wouldnt come under Soviet rule. Hence the introduction of France into the division of German land. USA initially planned to exclude U.S.S.R from the occupation of Japan due to the events in Germany and Eastern Europe. However they realised that the Red Armys assistance would be vital in hastening victory. But that was before the USA successfully tested the first atomic bomb. Stalin was not told by the Americans about the atomic bomb however he had sent spies during the war to find out about the secret project. When the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima Stalin was strongly against it. Stalin was threatened by the Americans as he saw the USA to have the military capability that did not depend upon the deployment of armies on a battlefield and thus limiting their significance in the fight against Japan.

To deny the intimidation from the possession of the bomb the Americans had Stalin devised a strategy and took an even harden line than before in pushing Soviet objectives. Their hopes were parallel but their visions were not There was a growing sense of insecurity due to the efforts of the wartime allies to make sure their own post war security.