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Iran
During WW2: Soviets troops had been stationed in Iran to stop a seizure of the Persian Oilfields by the Axis powers
After the war: Soviet troops remained in Iran
• Encouraged separatist movements in the northern provinces of Azerbajian & Kurdistan
• US perception: the US saw this as an attempt by Stalin to create a sphere of influence on the USSR’s southern perimeter; Truman silently remarked that it was time to find out if the Soviets were “bent on world conquest” -
The Polish Issue: Tehran Conference
• Churchill: The USSR could absorb part of Eastern Poland while the latter would gain part of eastern Germany
• Roosevelt did not object but could not publicly agree -> not to alienate Polish-American votes (7 million at the time) The two agreements made Stalin felt that the Allies were willing to cooperate and work with him (they agreed with him) -> justify Stalin’s action (expansionism and aggression) which led to Cold War -
The Polish Issue: Percentages Agreement
• Br: 90% influence in Greece
• USSR: 90% influence in Romania and 75% in Bulgaria
• Roosevelt was not present but was briefed on it he did not openly oppose to it The two agreements made Stalin felt that the Allies were willing to cooperate and work with him (they agreed with him) -> justify Stalin’s action (expansionism and aggression) which led to Cold War -
German Question: Morgenthau Plan
• Roosevelt initially endorsed; advocated the de-industrialisation and pastoralisation of Germany -
Dollar Diplomacy: The USSR asked for a $6 Billion loan
• US immediately imposed conditions of opening of Eastern European markets to US manufactured products -
The Polish Issue: Yalta Agreement
• US, Britain reject revision of Polish border
• Inclusion of London Poles inside Lublin Committee and free Polish elections to be held
• Stalin signed the declaration of Liberated Europe which pledged free elections and democratic institutions
Stalin regarded the Declaration as only for public relations purposes; saw the declaration as ‘algebra’ as compared to practical arithmetic put forward by the percentages agreement of 1944
Final implementation
• Poland’s new borders with the USSR remained -
Sovets' Aggression: Manchuria
Soviets recognition of Kuomintang (KMT) as the legitimate government yet handed Japanese weapons to CCP units & allowed them to establish foothold in Manchuria and northern China
• Stalin was hedging his bets; even though links between the Kremlin and the CCP were not strong, the CCP might prove useful allies in the event of the breakdown of the US-Soviet relations -
Dollar Diplomacy: US terminated land lease
The US terminated Land Lease -> Soviets’ need for capital made more desperate
• A further request for a $1 billion loan by the USSR was “lost” by the US state department, further increasing the Soviet conviction that US was unwilling to collaborate in post war economic reconstruction -
Yugoslavia
Marshall Tito’s forces entered the port (Ownership of Trieste had historically been disputed between Yugoslavia & Italy)
Greece
• Greek civil war: involvement of the Greek Communists (KKE) US fear Soviet involvement
• Tito’s control of Yugoslavia and the presence of Soviet occupation armies in Balkan states increased this fear
US Perception: Yugoslavia intervention under Tito = Soviet expansionism -
Atomic Diplomacy
The US practiced atomic diplomacy at Potsdam
• Truman offered Stalin information about the bomb in return for the reorganisation of Soviet-controlled governments in Bulgaria and Romania
• Gar Alperovitz in his book “Atomic diplomacy”: the American intention behind the use of the atomic bomb against Japan was not primarily to shorten the war but as a political weapon in the impending struggle against the USSR -
North Korea
: Soviet troops moved across the Russian border into North Korea to take over from the Japanese
• American response: worried about Soviet intention sent troops to occupy South Korea
• Stalin did not object and Korean was divided into two occupation zones along the 38th parallel -
The US Response
• 50,000 US marines were sent to north China to secure key communications centres, road, rail routes & help transport KMT armies to the area -
Dollar Diplomacy: The USSR refusal to join World Bank
The USSR refusal to join the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (organisations which the US hoped would help reconstruct and create a new global economy) Impact of American dollar diplomacy as well as other indications of American refusal to aid in Soviet economic reconstruction -
Dollar Diplomacy: US condition of dropping trade barriers in Eastern Europe
Early 1946: US imposed conditions of dropping trade barriers in Eastern Europe and compensation for US assets seized in Romania & Bulgaria on a request by the Soviets for a loan -
Kennan's Long Telegramme
Kenan’s analysis of Soviet foreign policy emphasized the role of communist ideology
• Saw soviet leadership as suspicious and aggressive insecurities that stemmed from their view of the outside world as virulently anti-communist
• Given this outlook, there could be no compromise with the USSR -
Iron Curtain Speech
Some of the themes discussed in the Long Telegramme and privately discussed by officials were now aired in public for the first time
• Long telegramme shaped the attitude of the political elite towards the USSR, the Iron Curtain speech hardened the attitude of the American public (towards the USSR) -
The German Question
US realized the importance of Germany as the linchpin of the European economy
• Its recovery was needed for the recovery of the European economy
• Issue of reparations General Clay (Commander-in-chief of the American zone) stopped dispatch of any reparations from the US to the Soviet zone
• Problems with occupation policy laid the basis for a divided Germany -> US realized that the goal of a united Germany was no longer feasible -
All negotiations over loans ended
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The Clifford-Elsey Report
Truman commissioned two of his advisers to review US-Soviet relations
• Report highlighted examples of Soviet aggression in Iran and Manchuria, as well as identified ideology and not security concerns as the driver of Soviet foreign policy Reflects the US perception of the USSR which has crystallised by this point in time, acted as a justification for the US perspective of the Soviets -
German Question
American change in plans - Germany: from destruction to reconstruction - made public in a speech by James Brynes
The handling of the German Question by the powers led to the division of Germany that marked a similar division in Europe. -
Truman Doctrine (Containment Policy)
• Due to — Communist involvement in the Greek civil war; Turkey Soviets have been demanding that Turkey give it access to the Straits of Dardanelles and Straits of Bosphorous
Impact/Response: No immediate response from or any change in American r/s with the USSR; no response from Stalin (even though the Truman doctrine was accompanied by an increase in the US military preparedness in the form of the National Security Act as a precautionary measure
Significant? It was the declaration of America -
Sovietisation of Romania
• Non-communist National Peasant Party suppressed and its leader Iuliu Maniu sentenced to life imprisonment, King Michael forced to abdicate
Justifies the USSR in that there is at least tacit agreement on the part of the west in what they are doing. Thus sovietisation in Romania was not really seen as threatening to the west (% agreement 1944) -
Marshall Plan
To restore economic stability and hence political stability
• Primary motive — contain communism; secondary motive — create a captive European market for American goods
Soviet’s response? Initial willingness of Soviet to cooperated is highlighted by the sending of a 100 man delegation headed by Molotov to participate in the discussion about the plan
US insistence of economic coordination which meant that the Soviets would have to give up exclusive control of their economy, unacceptable to USSR -
Sovietisation of Bulgaria
• Petkov, the leader of the opposition Agrarian Peasant Party tried and shot for working for working for ‘Anglo-American Imperialism’
The Red Army:
• Present in the Eastern European countries but they played no physical role in the seizure of power
• Served as a backing for the communist parties and a potential threat to non-communist groups
• Stalin offered local communist powers the red army but they did not use it: seems like colluding with foreign power to seize the country -
Czechoslovakia Coup
• Marshall Plan: Truman and Marshall tackled the problem of convincing Congress of the necessity for giving away large sums of American money
• Communist seized power in Czechoslovakia send shivers through all of western Europe and across the Atlantic: indirectly helped Truman & Marshall convince the Congress indirectly aided the creation of the Marshall plan which led to the economic schism in Europe and eventually the CW. Czech coup may have catalyzed the start of the CW. -
The Berlin Blockade
The US and Br (with tacit French support) sought agreement on a plan to introduce a new German currency that would circulate freely in all four zones -> met with Soviet resistance -
The Berlin Blockade
The three Western powers (namely the US, Br and France) established the Deutsche Mark
Stalin’s interpretation: Creation of a single currency as the signal for the establishment of the new Germany in the West
Russia blocked the roads and rail routes to Berlin — the Berlin Blockade had begun
The Berlin airlift — US 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 (success of containment)
