Cold War Leaders

How did they change the course of the Cold War?

How did they influence the changes that came after him?

Truman and Stalin

 Historiography:
Video: Was the US justified in using the atomic bombs in Japan?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km3FovlDsRk
Scepticism of Communism

• Truman was Vice-President in 1944 -

became President when Roosevelt
passed away in 1945
• Had not really been a part of Roosevelt’s
“inner circle"
• Distrust of the Soviet Union (questioned
war support)
• Disapproved of the Percentages
Agreement between Churchill and Stalin
Iron Curtain Speech - 1946
Winston Churchill
• “From Stettin in the Baltic, to Trieste in the
Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across
the continent”
• Ushered in the Cold War and framed the geo-
political landscape for 50 years.
• Articulated the threat that the Soviet Union
and communism posed to peace and stability in
the post-war world.
 National Security Act, 1947
• Major restructuring of US military & intelligence
• Formalised powers for the CIA (Central
Intelligence Agency)
• More than just information gathering - carrying
out covert operations in foreign nations
• Big $
• More aggressive stance against communism
What was the Soviet perspective on the 1947 Marshall Plan?

• Economic form of containment

• Required the sharing of financial and industrial
information and collaboration with the American
capitalist economy
• “dollar imperialism”
$13.5 billion

16 countries
Truman - Berlin Blockade 1948

• As the Marshall Plan flowed in to rebuild Western Germany and especially West
Berlin, reconstruction in the Soviet Zone lagged behind.
• Critics, including Revisionist historians such as William A. Williams, argue that the
Truman administration intentionally did this to make Communism seem less
attractive by making West Berlin a showcase of a successful capitalist economy.
• As the Western Allies (Britain, France and the US) increasingly coordinated their
efforts in Western Germany, tensions with Stalin rose.
• When the Americans announced the release of a new currency, the Deutsche
Mark (DM) for the three Western zones, Stalin blocked road, rail and water access
to the American, British and French zones of Berlin, causing the first Berlin crisis,
the Berlin blockade (June 1948–May 1949)
NSC-68 - 1950
- National Security Council Paper No. 68

• Confirming containment strategy

• Fear over Soviet detonation of atom bomb in 1949
• Chinese Communist Revolution 1949
• US embark on rapid military expansion, including
hydrogen bomb
• Increased $ = 50 billion dollars
McCarthyism
1950-1954 https://www.youtube.com/watch/N35IugBYH04

• Truman spoke against McCarthyism, however

his anti-communist stance created internal
fear
• Second Red Scare - fear of communism that
spread through American politics, culture, and
society in the 1940s and 1950s
Perspectives on Truman’s impact

• When Truman left office in 1953, he was deeply unpopular as the war in Korea dragged on.
• Senator McCarthy attacked him for not doing enough to fight Communism.
• During the 1960s, Revisionist historians such as William A. Williams became more influential
in their views that the United States and Truman were as much to blame for the breakdown
of the Grand Alliance as Stalin.
• In more recent years, post-Revisionist historians such as John Lewis Gaddis argue that
Truman’s actions were justified, as Joseph Stalin refused to compromise.
 5 Minute Table Review
1.What was the 1946 Long Telegram and in what ways did it influence the Truman Doctrine?

2.What was the 1947 Marshall Plan and how did it contribute to Soviet mistrust?

3.How did the challenges of administering Germany contribute to rising Cold War tensions?

4.Stalin aggressively established the “buffer zone” in eastern Europe (as agreed by Churchill in the
Percentages Agreement). How did the reaction of the west further fuel Cold War tensions?
Fear of Communism

• Stalin eliminated leaders he saw as possible threats to his authority, most notably in the
Great Terror (or Great Purge) of 1936–38.
• Violent repression of opponents, particularly during the Great Terror, and the brutal
enforcement of collectivisation led many in the West to become increasingly distrustful
of Stalin and the Soviet Union.
• Reports of political show trials, elimination of political opponents, and class warfare
against wealthier peasants known as kulaks led to a rise in anti-Communism in the
West.
• War-time propaganda attempted to improve relations, in part by portraying Stalin in a
more positive light at home. The most famous example of this was the American and
British press images of 'Uncle Joe’.
Expanding the Soviet Union

• USSR bore the brunt of the Nazi war machine - estimated

27 million deaths.
• Issue of the second front during war time
• As the Russian Red Army advanced west, liberating Eastern and
Central European countries from Nazi occupation in 1944 and
1945, provisional governments were set up by the Soviet Union.
• Stalin had promised free and fair elections in Yalta, but suspicious
assassinations, rigged elections and dubious coalition
governments were formed in Eastern European states.
• Creation of “satellite states” - East Germany, Poland, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania) - Ex. 1948 Czech Coup
Perspectives on Stalin’s impact

• Historians continue to disagree over the extent to which the breakdown of the Grand
Alliance is Stalin’s responsibility.
• Orthodox historians tend to be much more critical of Stalin and portray him as an
aggressive, expansionist power who was trying to take over Eastern and Central Europe
and spread Communism.
• Revisionist historians, such as William A. Williams and Walter LaFeber, argued that Stalin was
more reactionary and motivated by fear of American imperialism and the expansion of
hostile capitalist regimes.
• Post-Revisionist historians tend to look at the actions of both sides in the breakdown.
However, the opening of some Soviet-era archives since the collapse of the Soviet Union has
exposed some Soviet actions in the purges of anti-communists in the satellite states.
• Today, most of the debate focuses on the extent to which the breakdown of relations was
inevitable due to ideological differences and the motivations of Stalin
Short Writing Exercise: Origins of the Cold War
• In small groups, discuss key points for the following origins of the Cold War:
• Mutual fear and suspicion
• Ideological differences
• Individually, write a few paragraphs in response to 1 of the following questions:
1. How did mutual fears and suspicion lead to the development of the Cold War between
1945 and 1950?
2. How important was ideology in causing the Cold War?
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Sample IB Questions on Cold War leaders

• Evaluate the effect that two leaders, each chosen from a different region, had on the outcome
of Cold War events from 1949 to 1962.“

• The actions of individual leaders had a significant impact on the development of the Cold War.”
Discuss with reference to two leaders, each from a different region.