• Towards the end of World War II, the harmony between the USSR, the USA, and the British Empire began to break down, leading to the first phase of the Cold War.
• Despite no direct fighting, mutual hostility was expressed through propaganda, economic measures, and non-cooperation.
• Both superpowers, the USA and the USSR, gathered allies:
  • Between 1945 and 1948, the USSR drew most eastern European states into its orbit, establishing communist governments in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany (1949).
  • In 1948, a communist government was established in North Korea.
  • Mao Zedong’s victory in China in 1949 further strengthened the Communist bloc.
  • The USA promoted Japan’s recovery and made it an ally, providing economic aid to Japan, Britain, 14 other European countries, and Turkey to build an anti-communist bloc.
• Each side viewed the other’s actions as having ulterior and aggressive motives.
• A significant dispute occurred over the Polish-German frontier and the future of Germany and Austria.
• After Stalin’s death (1953), the new Russian leaders talked about peaceful coexistence to alleviate economic and military burdens, resulting in a thaw in relations.
• In 1955, it was agreed to remove all occupying troops from Austria, but tensions persisted over Germany.
• Tensions increased over Vietnam and the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962).
• In the 1960s, both sides took initiatives to reduce tensions, known as detente, leading to a marked improvement in international relations.
• Detente resulted in the signing of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty in 1972.
• The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 renewed Cold War tensions.
• The Cold War ended in 1989-91 with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

• The basic cause of conflict between the communist and capitalist states lay in their fundamental differences of principle.
• The communist system was based on the ideas of Karl Marx, who believed that a country’s wealth should be collectively owned and shared, with a centrally planned economy and state policies safeguarding the working class.
• The capitalist system operates on private ownership of wealth, driven by private enterprise and the pursuit of profits, with the preservation of power by the wealthy classes.
• Since the establishment of the first communist government in Russia (USSR) in 1917, most capitalist states viewed it with mistrust and feared the spread of communism.
• The spread of communism would threaten private ownership and the political power of the wealthy.
• In 1918, when a civil war broke out in Russia, several capitalist states (USA, Britain, France, Japan) sent troops to support the anti-communist forces.
• The communists won the war, but Joseph Stalin, who became Russian leader in 1929, was convinced that the capitalist powers would attempt to destroy communism again.
• The German invasion of Russia in 1941 confirmed Stalin’s fears.
• The need for self-preservation against Germany and Japan led the USSR, USA, and Britain to cooperate temporarily.
• Once the defeat of Germany seemed imminent, both sides, particularly Stalin, began planning for the post-war period.

• Stalin’s aim was to take advantage of the military situation to strengthen Russian influence in Europe.
• As the Nazi armies collapsed, Stalin tried to occupy German territory and acquire as much land as possible from countries such as Finland, Poland, and Romania.
• Stalin was highly successful in this effort.
• The West was alarmed, perceiving this as Soviet aggression.
• The West believed Stalin was committed to spreading communism over as much of the globe as possible.

• During the war, the USA under President Roosevelt sent war materials to Russia through a system called ‘Lend-Lease’and trusted Stalin.
• After Roosevelt’s death in April 1945, his successor Harry S. Truman was more suspicious and toughened his stance towards the communists.
• Some historians argue that Truman’s decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan was not only to defeat Japan, but also to show Stalin the potential consequences of Soviet aggression.
• Stalin suspected that the USA and Britain still sought to destroy communism; he believed their delay in launching the Second Front was a tactic to exhaust the Russians.
• The USA and Britain did not inform Stalin about the atomic bomb until shortly before its use, and rejected his request to share in the occupation of Japan.
• The West had the atomic bomb, and the USSR did not.
• Historians in the 1950s, like George Kennan, blamed Stalin for the Cold War, seeing his motives as sinister to spread communism and destroy capitalism.
• Kennan advocated a policy of ‘containment’ of the USSR by political, economic, and diplomatic means, leading to the formation of NATO and American involvement in the Korean War.
• In the 1960s and early 1970s, Soviet historians and some American historians argued that the Cold War was not Stalin’s fault.
• They believed that Stalin’s actions were defensive, motivated by Russia’s enormous losses during the war and the need for friendly neighboring states.
• Some Americans argued that the USA should have been more understanding and not challenged the Soviet ‘sphere of influence’ in eastern Europe.
• The revisionist view of the Cold War, advocated by William Appleman Williams, suggested that the USA’s obsession with hostility towards communism and its desire for world hegemony caused the Cold War.
• This view emerged during the late 1960s as many in the USA became critical of American foreign policy, especially regarding the Vietnam War.
• In the 1980s, the post-revisionist interpretation gained popularity, suggesting that both sides were responsible for the Cold War.
• New evidence from archives led to the view that the situation at the end of the war was more complicated than previously understood.
• The post-revisionists argued that American economic policies, such as Marshall Aid, were designed to increase US political influence in Europe.
• While Stalin had no long-term plans to spread communism, he was an opportunist, taking advantage of Western weaknesses to expand Soviet influence.
• The Soviet methods of imposing communist governments in eastern Europe gave the appearance of expansionistaims.
• The entrenched positions and deep suspicions of both sides created an environment where every act could be interpreted as self-defence or aggression.
• Open war was avoided because the USA was reluctant to use the atomic bomb again unless directly attacked, and the USSR dared not risk such an attack.

HOW DID THE COLD WAR DEVELOP BETWEEN 1945 AND 1953?

• A new organization, the United Nations, was to replace the failed League of Nations.
• Germany was to be divided into zones: Russian, American, and British (with a French zone added later).
• Berlin, located in the middle of the Russian zone, would also be split into corresponding zones.
• Similar arrangements were to be made for Austria.
• Free elections were to be allowed in the states of eastern Europe.
• Stalin promised to join the war against Japan on the condition that Russia received Sakhalin Island and some territory in Manchuria.
• Trouble arose over Poland: as the Russian armies pushed through Poland and set up a communist government in Lublin, there was already a Polish government-in-exile in London.
• At Yalta, it was agreed that some members of the London-based government (non-communist) should join the Lublin government.
• In return, Russia would be allowed to keep a strip of eastern Poland annexed in 1939.
• Roosevelt and Churchill were not happy with Stalin’s demands for Poland to be given all German territory east of the Oder and Neisse rivers.
• No agreement was reached on this point.