Cold War - Sources Question

Hi, I'm reeeally struggling in history. At the moment we are studying the cold war. I thought I had a grip on it but looking at my grades for essay work it would appear I really don't!! I was hoping that maybe I could get a little help on this one question I have to do at the moment, or even better if anyone has any notes on the cold war they could share with me so that maybe I can catch up and maybe get a bit ahead so I have more chance of understanding what the foof is going on in class!

Anyway, this questio is: "What do you consider to have been the main stages of the escalation of the cold war in europe in the years 1945 to 1951?"

It gives sources, but for the own knowledge part any help would be greatly appreciated!!
We have been told to use - Truman - Poland - ideological differences - atomic bomb - Truman doctrine - marshall plan - comicon/comiform - riots in czech - warsaw pact.

Maybe some expansion on these would be possible??

Thanks,
Morgan.

Reply 1

HearTheThunder

17

Ideological differences - Communism vs Capitalism were two very different political extremes, almost antithesises and this caused tension, but I wouldn't say escalated it, rather, gave them an excuse as something to fight over

Atomic bomb - the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the big one in my opinion, Russia took it as a threat to them and indeed you might say it was since America didn't need to use such a powerful bomb when there was such a little threat from Japan

Marshall Plan - gave countries in europe aid because Truman believed that poor countries were breeding grounds for communism and he wanted to avoid the domino effect, Russia treated this with suspicion

been a while since I've done it :p:

Reply 2

ThornsnRoses

11

Morgan_filth

Hi, I'm reeeally struggling in history. At the moment we are studying the cold war. I thought I had a grip on it but looking at my grades for essay work it would appear I really don't!! I was hoping that maybe I could get a little help on this one question I have to do at the moment, or even better if anyone has any notes on the cold war they could share with me so that maybe I can catch up and maybe get a bit ahead so I have more chance of understanding what the foof is going on in class!

Anyway, this questio is: "What do you consider to have been the main stages of the escalation of the cold war in europe in the years 1945 to 1951?"

It gives sources, but for the own knowledge part any help would be greatly appreciated!!
We have been told to use - Truman - Poland - ideological differences - atomic bomb - Truman doctrine - marshall plan - comicon/comiform - riots in czech - warsaw pact.

Maybe some expansion on these would be possible??

Thanks,
Morgan.

I think Truman assuming presidency is in itself is the first stage of escalation...thats a revisionist interpretation, as he had changed the American tone of Foreign Policy from Roosevelt. The Truman Doctrine itself was aggressive in its nature because it was dismissive of the Russians and had set the tone of containment, not diplomacy (Roosevelts tactic). Check out his 1949 inaugural speech he calls communism a 'false philosophy'.

The marshall plan had cemented the iron curtain divide in europe, because Truman had a 'with or against' approach - akin to bush after 9/11. It also made explicit its desire to spread capitalist and democratic ideals - give a quote from it. The Marshall plan, also contradicted the calls for freedom the Americans had called for, as it placed Europe in a position of dependence on US aid, and served american interests. The soviets were suspicious of this and had retaliated with their own form of aid, comicon, which had tightened their control of Eastern Europe. This crystallised the ideological divide.

The Warsaw pact, was not really a stage in escalating the war, because it was in response to NATO - check out the texts they are so similar to each other...its so funny.

Atomic diplomacy - when the Americans had dropped the bomb on Japan. some historians interpret the move to hasten Japanese surrender. Others claim it was to warn the Soviets, and to show them they had the upperhand, they had the edge in talks or in any conflict. The Soviets didnt acquire the a-bomb until 1949, which had caused a frenzy in the US, later descending into an arms race, which was outside your time period.

That’s pretty much all I know…just read up on stuff…itll take you less than a day to catch up.

Reply 3

angel_flo

10

Morgan_filth

Hi, I'm reeeally struggling in history. At the moment we are studying the cold war. I thought I had a grip on it but looking at my grades for essay work it would appear I really don't!! I was hoping that maybe I could get a little help on this one question I have to do at the moment, or even better if anyone has any notes on the cold war they could share with me so that maybe I can catch up and maybe get a bit ahead so I have more chance of understanding what the foof is going on in class!

Anyway, this questio is: "What do you consider to have been the main stages of the escalation of the cold war in europe in the years 1945 to 1951?"

It gives sources, but for the own knowledge part any help would be greatly appreciated!!
We have been told to use - Truman - Poland - ideological differences - atomic bomb - Truman doctrine - marshall plan - comicon/comiform - riots in czech - warsaw pact.

Maybe some expansion on these would be possible??

Thanks,
Morgan.

Truman - Roosevelt and Stalin had a really good relationship, then when Roosevelt died Truman had a totally different attitude: he did not trust Stalin and the Communist regime. Therefore there was a marked difference between Yalta and Potsdam. Good quote from Truman at Potsdam: "I'm tired of babying the Soviets."
Poland - Soviet's occupied it after WW2, they claimed it was for security because the Germans had invaded Russia through Poland twice in the previous 30 years. The USA used it as an example of the aggressive expansionist policies of the Soviet Union.
Ideological Differences - Basically it was impossible for co-existence between capitalism and communism. It wasn't economically viable; they didn't trust each other because they did not know enough about the other's ideologies, etc etc.
Atomic Bomb - The USA bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, supposedly to end WW2 by forcing Japan to surrender. However, many believe they were warning the USSR against aggravating them because the USA had this technology but the USSR didn't. Many hail this as the beginning of the Cold War, because it is basically the starting point of many tensions between the superpowers, especially the Arms Race.
Truman Doctrine - the declaration of the American Containment policy.
Marshall Plan - Truman promised any country who requested it financial aid. Basically, this was containment in action. They were stabilising the European economy to prevent the spread of communism.
Comecon/Cominform - Comecon was the economic organisation of communist states, basically the Eastern Bloc. The Cominform was a Soviet dominated organization of Communist parties founded in September, 1947 at a conference of Communist party leaders in Szklarska Poreba, Poland. Stalin called the conference in response to divergences among the eastern European governments on whether or not to attend the Paris conference on Marshall Aid in July 1947. The intended purpose of the Cominform was to coordinate actions between Communist parties under Soviet direction. As a result, the Cominform acted as a tool of Soviet foreign policy.
Warsaw Pact - the Russian equivalent to NATO. it was the military counterpart to Comecon.

Love the Cold War!

Reply 4

FadeToBlackout

15

HearTheThunder

Atomic bomb - the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was the big one in my opinion, Russia took it as a threat to them and indeed you might say it was since America didn't need to use such a powerful bomb when there was such a little threat from Japan

This is a bit of a grey area. There is a great debate over whether using A-Bombs was justified, and the accepted reason is that it was so that America did not have to mount a costly ground invasion of Japan, not to frighten the USSR. What did frighten them was America's declaration that it had more A-Bombs, and its commitment post-war to make delivery systems for them, e.g. new bombers such as the YB-52 program[me, to be pedantic!] and their open testing of rockets and missiles by co-opted former Nazi scientists.

Cold War - Sources Question

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