The Era of the Cold War (1945 - 1990s)

I.

The Origins and Eruption of the Cold War Rivalry; Rise of the Containment Policy

A.

Origins of the Cold War tension

1.
Yalta Conference (February 1945)
a. Yalta Conference was last meeting of the "Big Three": FDR, Churchill, and Stalin
i. Location insisted upon by Stalin: Black Sea "resort" off Crimea; chosen to be close
to front at Stalin claimed to personally command Soviet forces
ii. Potentially devastating to health of FDR; Stalin later noted that had he known
Roosevelt's condition, he would have been more flexible on the location
iii. Those who found fault with FDR at Yalta have speculated that his health was a
major issue
b. Weakness of American bargaining position: Soviets had everything U. S. wanted
i. Soviet Red Army occupied Eastern Europe; Stalin clearly wanted Eastern Europe
(i. e. Poland) to be both strong and friendly to the Soviet Union to serve as a more
effective buffer to invasion of Russia than it had been in the past
ii. U. S. wanted Soviets to join war against Japan
iii. FDR desperately wanted Soviet support for the United Nations
c. Major issues agreed upon
i. Allies issued a "Declaration of Liberated Europe" and proclaimed that all states were
to be free to choose own governments; Stalin promised that Soviet troops would
withdraw and allow free elections after a one-year occupation
ii. In the meantime, however, Poland would be ruled by a Soviet-installed dictator
("Warsaw Poles"), not its former government in exile ("London Poles")
iii. Stalin agreed that Soviet Union would join United Nations, but only if structure
allowed for separate General Assembly (every nation equally represented to decide
socioeconomic issues) and Security Council where victors of the war would have
permanent seats and a veto power (to decide security/peacekeeping issues)
d. Many have criticized FDR
i. For many, loss of 400,000 American lives must yield a free Europe; people of
Eastern Europe should not be liberated from Nazi tyranny only to inherit Soviet
tyranny
ii. FDR attacked for what in retrospect seems a naive concession to Stalin, especially
on Eastern Europe; but alternative was . . . war with the Soviet Union -- doubtful
that public would support war against an ally -- and U. S. soldiers were actually
rioting ("Wanna Go Home Riots") because Army was not demobilizing them fast
enough
2.
Stalin's violations of the Yalta agreements; how Americans interpreted these
a. Soviet forces occupying Eastern Europe did not show signs of leaving as 1946 passed
i. No free election was held in Poland, just a "show" election confirming the
dictatorship of the leadership installed after the Soviets occupied Poland
ii. Soviets began to construct barbed-wire barriers and guard towers along borders that
separated Soviet-occupied Eastern European states from "Free World" states of
Western Europe; restricted entry and exit
iii. Clear by end of 1946 that Stalin did not intend to see Eastern Europe "liberated,"
but rather intended to consolidate his power over Eastern Europe
b. Response of the Western Allies
i. Wondered whether it was his intent to ultimately conquer all of Europe
ii. He was deliberately secretive and in the absence of clear statement of his intentions,
Westerners minds free to imagine worst possible events; whether he wanted to

3.

B.

dominate the world is unknown, but he did nothing to assure Westerners otherwise
Churchill and the "Iron Curtain" speech
a. Winston Churchill's Conservative Party defeated in 1945 elections; no longer Prime
Minister so he was on speaking tour
b. At Westminster College in Fulton, MO said, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in
the Adriatic, a great iron curtain has descended across the continent."
i. Became the metaphor for the Cold War divide between the Free World and what was
now being referred to as the Communist (or Soviet) Bloc
ii. An iron curtain: ominous, impenetrable, concealing all that goes on on the other side

George Kennan, the Truman Doctrine, and the European Recovery Program ("Marshall Plan")
1.
Kennan's "containment" doctrine
a. Unveiled in anonymous ("Mr. X") article published in Foreign Affairs in February 1947
i. Expressed concern about Soviet-supported or Soviet-inspired communist activity in
states not yet occupied by the Soviet Union
ii. "The main element of our foreign policy must be a long term, patient, vigilant
containment of the USSR and its expansive tendencies."; noted that Russia has
always been expansive
b. Containment Policy: U. S. will not challenge communism where it already exists, but
work actively prevent it from spreading beyond those places
2.
Greece and Turkey
a. First major test of Containment Policy
i. British had been dominant presence in Eastern Mediterranean, but bankrupt despite
$3.7 B in U. S. aid since the end of the war; in February 1947 informed U. S. that
they could no longer effectively protect or police this region
ii. In Greece, General Markos had 20,000 communist fighters in Greek mountains;
Greek government seemed on brink of collapse
iii. At same time, rumors of such an insurgency in Turkey began to spread
b. Truman Doctrine
i. Truman persuaded by Kennan's article that U. S. must now allow communism to
spread; consulted with Congressional leaders who explained that Congress would
be open to supporting Greece and Turkey but said Truman himself must speak
before Congress
ii. He said, "I believe it must be the policy of the United States to support free
peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside
pressures."
iii. Congress approved $400 million to support Greek and Turkish governments; Greek
rebellion crushed by 1949 and Turkish one never surfaced
iv. A new idea: tyranny can be combated with American wealth, not just American
soldiers (a "Lend-Lease" for the Cold War?)
3.
Marshall Plan
a. Europe devastated following World War Two
i. Englands agricultural production reduced to 19th Century levels with stricter
rationing than during the war; 6 million were unemployed
ii. The UN Recovery and Relief Administration provided $11B of loans and credits
(mostly through generosity of American banks) but it was not enough
iii. Herbert Hoover sent by Truman to tour Europe: he reported that without U. S. help,
collapse was imminent
b. George Marshall was now Secretary of State; proposed European Recovery Program at
Harvard Commencement in June 1947

i. He had studied causes of WWII and concluded that dictators had risen to power
mostly because of the economic hardships of their people; in desperation, people
had resorted to radical, desperate measures advocated by radical extremists
ii. He feared that in new circumstances, if again faced with desperate conditions, would
turn to communism; strong communist parties already emerging in France, Italy,
and Austria
iii. ERP would provide up to $17B for reconstruction of Europe
iv. Expected to fight communism by cementing loyalty of Europe to U. S. and by
preventing them from tumbling into that desperate situation and resorting to radical
measures proposed by extremists
v. Humanitarian element as well, and even an economic benefit for the U. S.: without
it, Europe could not recover as a market for American manufactured goods; much
of the money invested would find its way back to American manufacturers and
their employees to allow the U. S. economy to hum along at wartime pace without
actually fighting a war
vi. Most in Europe simply referred to it as the "Marshall Plan" and he and Truman
became highly respected in Europe; Marshall won the 1953 Nobel Peace Prize
c. Soviet response
i. Soviets outraged by Marshall Plan refused to allow Eastern Europe to accept;
proposed Molotov Plan (also known as COMECON -- the committee for economic
cooperation), but no money backed it
ii. Soviets occupied Czechoslovakia and established a communist dictatorship there
II.

Ground-Zero for the Cold War: Berlin

A.

Postwar Partition and Reconstruction

1.
Potsdam (May 1945)
a. By Potsdam, FDR had died and was replaced by Harry Truman; Churchills
Conservatives defeated, replaced by Clement Atlee of Labour Party
b. Potsdam Conference
i. Instantly Truman grasped that Stalin was not to be trusted; immediately convinced
that Stalin's intention was to dominate Europe, maybe the world
ii. In addition to threatening Japan with total destruction, Truman, Stalin and Britain's
Clement Atlee arranged for occupation of Germany
iii. Germany divided into four temporary zones of occupation, with Soviet zone in the
East subject to being stripped by Soviets as reparations, and western Allies agreed
to extract 10% of value of own zones for Soviet (and Polish) reparations
iv. Berlin also divided into four zones of occupation (all within the Soviet zone of
Germany) and Stalin agreed to provide the Allies road, rail, and air access into
their zones of Berlin
2.
Stalin's gambit
a. Humiliation of the Soviet Union
i. As Marshall Plan money flowed into Western Europe, rebuilding began, while in
Soviet Eastern Europe, the rubble from the war had not even been carted away
ii. Nowhere was the contrast more stark than in West Berlin, where a side-by-side
comparison could be made simply by walking down the street
iii. In Spring 1948, the Western Allies terminated their zones of occupation, thus
uniting Western Germany Western Berlin into a single unit, with an economy
backed by the U. S. dollar
b. Stalin's solution
i. Stalin could not allow Soviet Union to endure this humiliating condition, so in

June 1948 blocked off road and rail access to West Berlin with guarded concrete
barriers
ii. His goal was to try to force the western Allies to abandon the city
B.

Berlin Airlift and the Permanent Division of Germany / Europe

1.
Truman's decision
a. Options
i. Doing nothing would serve as an immediate repudiation and failure of Containment
Policy; not allow more of Europe to fall under Soviet tyranny
ii. Ram barriers with an armored supply train, but this would likely incite war; Soviets
had 4 times the infantry and 30 times the armor of the U. S. since postwar
demobilization -- and was the U. S. ready to use atomic weapons over Berlin?
b. The alternative
i. Supply this city of 2.5 million people by flying in food, fuel, and medical supplies in
unarmed aircraft
ii. Soviets will have to let them land or shoot them down, giving U. S. moral authority
to wage war (using atomic weapons, if necessary)
iii. Will require lots of aircraft and extremely skilled pilots to fly within small Berlin
Air Corridor: 5,000-7,000 feet and about 1/2-mile wide slot of airspace allowed by
the Soviets at Potsdam
2.
The Berlin Airlift
a. Objectives
i. It was believed that 4,000 tons of supplies per day must be delivered by November
for the civilians to survive winter
ii. 224 C-47 cargo planes and crews were committed to the airlift, with 20,000
volunteers on the ground helping to load/unload planes and build new airstrips
iii. At start in August, only 2,000 tons per day were being delivered, but as efficiency
improved and more planes & airstrips came on line, by November the goal of
4,000 tons per day had been reached, with an airplane landing in West Berlin
every 3 minutes 36 seconds
b. Accomplishments
i. By midwinter, 8,000 tons per day with a plane landing every 1 minute 48 seconds
ii. There were crashes, mostly caused by shifting cargo, especially coal, and 70
crewmen were killed over the course of the airlift; staggeringly safe given
overall demands
iii. Entire airlift -- from the serious delivery of food, fuel, and medicine to the drops of
"Little Vittles" -- was a huge public relations victory for the U. S. and a huge
disaster for the Soviets; the U. S. looked generous and overwhelmingly capable,
while to Soviets looked reckless and cold-blooded (risking the lives of 2.5 million
innocents for control of one city)
iv. Soviets gave up blockade in May 1949; in just under a year, Americans and British
had logged 550,000 flights into West Berlin, bringing 500,000 tons of food and 1.5
million tons of coal and medical supplies
c. Aftermath
i. Clear that Soviet Union and western democracies had different visions for future of
Germany; Soviets created German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and U. S.,
Britain and France created Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)
ii. Flow of Eastern Europeans out through Berlin accelerated (5000 / day by 1961)
which forced Soviets to take more drastic measures in future -- Berlin Wall
3.
The Cold War Alliance system
a. Following Berlin Blockade, U. S. and allies signed North Atlantic Treaty, created

NATO
i. Saw confrontation with Soviet Union as a permanent feature of geopolitical
landscape; must accommodate to it in spite of American isolationist tradition
ii. Formed in Brussels in April 1949 among U. S., Canada, democracies of Western
Europe, Greece and Turkey
iii. Collective security: Article V -- "an armed attack against one or more [allies] shall
be considered an attack against them all."
b. Soviets formed Warsaw Pact with Eastern European allies in response; no longer exist
III.

The Cold War through the 1980s

A.

The Soviet Union Post-Stalin

1.
Nikita Khrushchev
a. Joseph Stalins death and aftermath
i. Stalin had suffered multiple minor strokes, but died in 1953 as the result of a massive
cerebral hemorrhage
ii. There has been speculation that he could have been saved had his subordinates acted
quickly, but they chose to let him die out of fear that he was about to name them in
an upcoming purge
iii. The following bulletin announced his death: The heart of the comrade-in-arms and
continuer of genius of Lenin's cause, of the wise leader and teacher of the
Communist Party and the Soviet Union, has ceased to beat.
iv. His body was embalmed and interred next to Lenins preserved body
b. Nikita Khrushchev
i. Over the next three years, the Soviet Union was governed by a committee from
which Nikita Khrushchev emerged as the sole leader
ii. Khrushchev was a true peasant and had been a miner prior to the Revolution; he
served in the Red Army during the Civil War, was appointed director of works for
Moscow and built its subway; served as a political commissar during WWII
iii. Khrushchev was a great embarrassment to many Soviet leaders who saw him as a
clown; he spoke indiscreetly and with gratuitous drama, banged his shoe on his
desk to interrupt other delegates speeches in the UN, engaged in a public Kitchen
Debate with Vice President Richard Nixon, and traveled to the U. S. declaring his
wish to visit Disneyland
iv. De-Stalinization in 1956, Khrushchev stunned the Soviet leadership at the 20th
Party Congress with a six-hour long Secret Speech in which he denounced Stalin:
We have to consider seriously and analyze correctly [the crimes of the Stalin era]
in order that we may preclude any possibility of a repetition in any form whatever
of what took place during the life of Stalin, who absolutely did not tolerate
collegiality in leadership and in work, and who practiced brutal violence, not only
toward everything which opposed him, but also toward that which seemed to his
capricious and despotic character, contrary to his concepts.
Stalin acted not through persuasion, explanation, and patient cooperation with
people, but by imposing his concepts and demanding absolute submission to his
opinion. Whoever opposed this concept or tried to prove his viewpoint, and the
correctness of his position, was doomed to removal from the leading collective and
to subsequent moral and physical annihilation. This was especially true during the
period following the XVIIth Party Congress [1934], when many prominent Party

leaders and rank-and-file Party workers, honest and dedicated to the cause of
Communism, fell victim to Stalins despotism. . . .
Stalin originated the concept enemy of the people. This term automatically
rendered it unnecessary that the ideological errors of a man or men engaged in a
controversy be proven; this term made possible the usage of the most cruel
repression, violating all norms of revolutionary legality, against anyone who in any
way disagreed with Stalin, against those who were only suspected of hostile intent,
against those who had bad reputations. This concept, enemy of the people, actually
eliminated the possibility of any kind of ideological fight or the making of ones
views known on this or that issue, even those of a practical character. In the main,
and in actuality, the only proof of guilt used, against all norms of current legal
science, was the confession of the accused himself; and, as subsequent probing
proved, confessions were acquired through physical pressures against the accused.
It is clear that here Stalin showed in a whole series of cases his intolerance, his
brutality and his abuse of power. Instead of proving his political correctness and
mobilizing the masses, he often chose the path of repression and physical
annihilation, not only against actual enemies, but also against individuals who had
not committed any crimes against the Party and the Soviet government.
v. He followed up by having Stalins body removed from Lenins mausoleum; some
relaxation of censorship allowing for dissident texts to be published
c. Khrushchevs successes
i. Suppression of Hungarian Revolt when citizens of Budapest ousted their
communist leader and replaced him with reformed Imre Nagy in 1956, Khrushchev
ordered Soviet troops to suppress them; resulting urban battle left thousands killed,
but communist control was restored
ii. Sputnik Soviet missile program scored the worlds first artificial satellite with
launching of Sputnik; allowed Khrushchev to declare success in his plan to replace
resource-consuming conventional armies with missiles, and declare victory over
the U. S. in the Space Race
iii. Relations with Castro when Cuba experienced a revolution led by Fidel Castro,
Khrushchev arranged to meet with Castro in New York City; two weeks later,
Castro declared himself a communist a massive failure of American
containment 90 miles from U. S. shores
iv. U-2 Affair Soviet antiaircraft missiles shot down a U. S. spy plane over the USSR
and captured its pilot; waited until the U. S. lied about the mission (weather
research) and then produced the pilot who admitted to espionage
v. Vienna Summit as the numbers of East Germans escaping through West Berlin
accelerated to 5,000/day, Khrushchev increased demands for the West to abandon
West Berlin; at Vienna Summit, Khrushchev threatened President Kennedy with
war, and Kennedy did not back down however . . .
vi. Berlin Wall Soviets and East Germans built Berlin Wall around West Berlin to
prevent future escapes through West Berlin; task was completed essentially overnight and remained for almost 40 years to divide the city with no forceful U. S.
response
d. Khrushchevs fall
i. It is possible that all of the successes led Khrushchev to become overconfident
ii. In 1962, agreed to Castros request to place offensive missiles in Cuba; these would
be able to strike U. S. East Coast targets in 30 minutes of being launched

2.

iii. Cuban Missile Crisis U. S. spy plane photos revealed the missile launch sites
under construction and President Kennedy ordered an air and naval blockade of
Cuba, requiring that Khrushchev remove the missiles as condition for lifting
blockade
iv. Khrushchev ultimately had to back down; saved some face by extracting promise
that U. S. would not invade Cuba, but it was not enough
v. Soviet Communist Party conservatives had already grown weary of Khrushchevs
hare-brained schemes such as planting the steppes of Siberia with corn
following his visit to Iowa; failure in Cuba was the last straw
vi. He was removed from power in 1964 and lived seven more years in forced
retirement
Leonid Brezhnev
a. Had been Khrushchevs right-hand man, but led coalition to remove him; emerged
following brief period of rule-by-committee
b. Prague Spring and the Brezhnev Doctrine
i. In Spring of 1968, Czech Communist Party officials, led by Alexander Dubek,
proclaimed reforms allowing for broader civil liberties and economic freedoms
ii. Following a conference of Warsaw Pact heads of state, a massive invasion of
Czechoslovakia took place 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops backed by 2,000 tanks
iii. Less violent resistance than in Budapests 1956 uprising, but as before conservative
communist leadership as restored; Dubek arrested and reassigned to the forestry
service
iv. Brezhnev issued a declaration justifying Warsaw Pact intervention: When forces
that are hostile to socialism try to turn the development of some socialist country
towards capitalism, it becomes not only a problem of the country concerned, but a
common problem and concern of all socialist countries.
v. Known as the Brezhnev Doctrine, it represented a Soviet counterpart to the Wests
containment policy
c. Nuclear arms race and dtente
i. Containment, however, was growing increasingly irrelevant / obsolete because of
the rapid growth in both sides arsenals of nuclear weapons
ii. Advent of ICBM following Sputnik and the MIRV in late 1960s led both sides to
commence arms race
iii. Both sides adopted nuclear deterrence as an addition to containment; each would
maintain a large enough nuclear arsenal to ensure its opponent that if the opponent
initiated a nuclear war, they would be destroyed too Mutual Assured Destruction
iv. Frightening way to keep the peace yet it worked; but both sides sought to maintain
larger nuclear arsenal than the other and by 1974 both sides combined to possess
the equivalent of 8,000 megatons (8 billion tons) of TNT Hiroshima bomb was 18
kilotons
v. U. S. President Richard Nixon sought a relaxation of tensions (dtente) and became
the first U. S. President to visit the Soviet Union; with Brezhnev negotiated the
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty limiting expansion of nuclear arsenals
d. Invasion of Afghanistan
i. When pro-communist government of Afghanistan was threatened by civil war in
1979, Brezhnev invoked the Brezhnev Doctrine and launched a full-scale invasion;
120,0000 Soviet troops to fight Mujahidin rebels
ii. U. S. supported the Mujahidin with funding and weapons such as shoulder-fired
Stinger antiaircraft missile to combat Soviet helicopter gunships; Soviets suffered
70,000 casualties in a seven-year conflict known as the Soviet Unions Vietnam
e. Brezhnev died of a massive stroke in 1982, having led the Soviet Union for 18 years,

longer than anyone except Stalin; credited as a leader who managed the Soviet Union
well, and critiqued as a leader who needed to more than just manage
B.

Internal Problems of the Soviet Union

1.
The Era of Stagnation
a. Military overextension: noted in nuclear arms race, occupation of Eastern Europe, and
ongoing war in Afghanistan
b. Economic problems
i. Whereas Khrushchev had begun to direct Soviet industry toward the production of
consumer goods, Brezhnev returned the focus to military and aerospace industries
ii. By 1970, Soviet Union was spending half of its national wealth on its overextended
military
iii. This left no funds to construct or maintain key infrastructure, like roads, schools,
and hospitals; even basic living standards declined as old apartment blocks
crumbled and could not be replaced
iv. The centrally-planned economy was extremely inefficient, as bureaus dictated
every element of the Soviet economy, but often did not communicate or adjust to
changing circumstances; a train commanded to transport steel from a mill to a car
factory ran empty for years after the mill was closed, to fulfill the bureaus mandate
v. Bureaus also controlled production and only required that quotas be met; there was
no incentive to produce quality products, so Soviet-made products were horrible
unsalable even in the Soviet Union (warehouses full of opaque sunglasses were
opened after the fall of the USSR)
vi. The value of the Soviet ruble thus collapsed because it could only be used to
purchase goods no one wanted; in Moscow a 10 kopek coin could purchase a phone
call one of the few things that worked so Muscovites would pay up to 20
kopeks in change to acquire a 10-kopek coin
vii. Soviet civilians wanted nothing to do with domestic products and would spend vast
amounts of rubles to buy illegally-imported western products; the black market
economy was more active than the legal official economy
c. Social ferment
i. Whereas Nikita Khrushchev had liberalized Soviet society (some), under Brezhnev
dissident literature was actively suppressed and dissidents arrested; state-run
newspaper Pravda (Truth) and radio/television were only legal media
ii. Soviet people were becoming increasingly dissatisfied with economic conditions,
quality of life, and most notably with the war in Afghanistan; with no legal outlet
for these sentiments, frustration boiled under the surface
2.
Mikhail Gorbachev
a. Following Brezhnevs death, Yuri Andropov and Vitaly Cherneko lasted only briefly;
Soviet Communist Party leadership looking to a dynamic leader
b. Gorbachev was only 54 years old, had no link to Stalin, and so did not feel bound to
continue the kind of communism that Stalin and Brezhnev had practiced
c. Believed instead that for Soviet communism to survive, it must change; he offered
reforms
i. Perestroika (Restructuring) meant allowing managers of government-owned
factories to respond to the demands of the market rather than the dictates of the
central-planning bureaus; thus introduced elements of a market economy
ii. Glasnost (Openness) meant allowing greater freedom of speech and of the press
so that problems could be openly discussed in an effort to find solutions; first major
public demonstrations saw popular demand for an end to the war in Afghanistan
iii. Demokratizatsika (Democratization) meant allowing opposition parties and

competitive elections, including positions as high as president of each republic;

Boris Yeltsin, a market reformer more radical than Gorbachev, was the first freelyElected president of Russia
iv. Gorbachev also engaged in arms control agreements with U. S. President Ronald
Reagan (INF and START), ended the war in Afghanistan, and pulled Soviet troops
out of Eastern Europe
IV.

The End of the Cold War

A.

End of Soviet Control in Eastern Europe

1.
Soviet military force had been the only factor that maintained most of the communist
dictatorships in power across Eastern Europe; in its absence, they collapsed
a. Poland
i. During 1980s, striking dockyard workers in Gdansk had formed the Solidarity
labor union; became the basis for resistance to communist rule
ii. Pressure from Pope John Paul II, British PM Margarget Thatcher, and U. S.
President Ronald Reagan kept Soviets from more actively suppressing Solidarity
after arresting its leader, Lech Walesa
iii. In 1989 Walesa was released and free, multiparty elections were held; Walesa
became president
b. Velvet Revolution
i. In Hungary and Czechoslovakia, communist governments fell peacefully; replaced
by freely-elected parliamentary systems
ii. Czech Republic and Slovakia separated peacefully in 1993
c. Violence in Romania
i. Nicolae Ceaucescu ordered his army to resist crowds demanding his removal; 1000
or so killed
ii. Ceaucescu and his wife attempted to flee, but were detained, put on trial and
executed by Romanian paratroops
2.
Reunification of Germany
a. East Germany gradually relaxed restrictions on movement across the Berlin Wall;
in summer 1989 ordered border guards to stand down as civilians tore it down
b. Negotiations produced a reunified Germany in 1990; West Germany paid to improve
East German infrastructure
3.
Yugoslav Civil War
a. Sources of rivalries
i. Yugoslavia was created following WWI as Land of the South Slavs; combined
Croats, Slovenes, Serbs, Bosnians, Albanians, Kosovars, Hercegovenans,
Montenegrans, Macedonians; blend of Roman Catholics, Orthodox, and Muslims
ii. In era of Ottoman Rule, Habsburgs had employed and exacerbated existing
differences to help keep people disunited
iii. Croats had collaborated with Nazis to suppress resistance led primarily by Serbs
iv. Large sections of Yugoslavia have no single ethnic majority; other sections have
large ethnic minority populations
v. Had been held together through most of the Cold War by strong-willed communist
dictator Marshal Iosip Tito; but as a Serb, he employed his power to shift wealth of
more-advanced Croats and Slovenes to develop Serbia
b. Post Cold-War
i. Croatia and Slovenia declared themselves independent in 1991; sought to prevent
ongoing transfer of wealth to other regions of Yugoslavia
ii. Yugoslav forces tried to prevent Croatian independence; significant ethnic cleansing

as Serbs and Croats shared territory

iii. Four-year conflict killed 20,000+ and displaced 500,000+
iv. Bosnia-Hercegovina declared its independence in 1992; led to uprising of its large
Croat and Serb populations, who were supported by the Croatian and Yugoslav
governments and their militaries
v. Widespread ethnic cleansing and fighting killed 100,000+ and displaced millions
prior to Dayton Peace Accords that established Bosnia as sovereign state
vi. United Nations IFOR established to preserve peace in region
vii. Later Kosovars attempted to split from Yugoslavia to join Albania; Serbia
suppressed with armed force prior to NATO intervention
B.

Disintegration of the Soviet Union

1.
Mikhail Gorbachev was very popular in the Soviet Union and the United States, but not
among old school Stalinist hardliners who saw his reforms as a betrayal of communism
and his withdrawal from Eastern Europe as the dismantling of the Soviet Empire
2.
The August 1991 Coup and the Disintegration of the Soviet Union
a. Origins
i. Last straw for hardliners was when Gorbachev allowed the Baltic States (Latvia,
Lithuania, Estonia) to declare independence
ii. In August 1991, while Gorbachev was vacationing, eight of them, led by vice
president Gennady Yanayev staged a coup dtat, placing Gorbachev under house
arrest and announcing he was ill
iii. They declared a state of emergency and ruled as a committee with Yanayev acting
as president of the USSR and banning all non-communist media
b. Resistance
i. Boris Yeltsin emerged to lead public resistance to the coup, making the Russian
parliament building his headquarters
ii. The committee ordered the Soviet army to bombard the parliament, but Muscovites
blocked the streets; three were killed when they tried to block the advance of tanks
iii. The mass of Soviet troops refused to suppress the protests and declared their
allegiance to Russia, as Yeltsin climbed on a tank to call for further resistance
iv. The coup fell apart as one leader committed suicide and the others were arrested;
Gorbachev returned to power
c. Consequences
i. Gorbachev tried to reassert control, but Yeltsin was now the most popular leader in
Russia; Gorbachevs reforms had gotten out of his control, and the leaders of
the various republics now declared themselves independent and formed a
Commonwealth of Independent States
ii. Gorbachev resigned and declared the Soviet Union dissolved on December 25, 1991
3. Russia since the Cold War
a. Internal conditions
i. Yeltsin promoted a shock therapy approach to the transition to a free market; it did
not go well as massive gap between wealthy elites and unemployed poor emerged
ii. Former Communist Party elites used leverage gained during Soviet years to gain
control of key assets; ironically now became business moguls in the new Russia
iii. Elites and moguls used influence within government to consolidate their power and
wealth
iv. Rise of Vladimir Putin to power saw continuation and expansion of elites wealth
as Putin promoted trade policies and exploitation of Russian natural resources to
bring order and growth to Russian economy
v. But Putin clamped down on elites political power and centralized it around himself;

new restrictions on civil liberties, power of courts, etc.

b. Foreign relations
i. Chechnyan nationalists sought independence from Russia; Yeltsins response was
feckless as Russian troops were frustrated in urban warfare in Grozny; situation
unresolved
ii. Putin renewed offensive against Chechens; waged total war, levelling the city of
Grozny and permanently (?) ending Chechen prospects for independence
iii. Chechens (as well as other ethnic minorities, particularly Muslims) increasingly
turned to terrorism as a strategy for advancing their goals; area of the South
Caucasus became center of terrorist activity
iv. Chechen terrorists attacked Moscow theater and held 700 hostages 129 killed
when Russian troops attacked; Chechen terrorists seized a school, and over
300 hostages, mostly children, were killed in Russian attack
v. Putin also ordered Russian invasion of Georgia in support of ethnic Russians in
region of South Ossetia; also supported ethnic Russians in Ukraine by annexing
Crimea and conducting incursions into eastern Ukraine
V.

The Era of the Cold War: Decolonization

A.

Reasons for Decolonization

1.
Elites of most conquered nations had developed sense of nationalism and democracy;
began to demand independence
2.
Western European states had fought for freedom from tyranny during WWII and continued
to do so during the Cold War; hard to reconcile with colonialism
3.
Both U. S. and UN promoted values of self-determination
4.
Most Western European states no longer had the will or the resources to hold onto colonial
empires at any rate

B.

Events
1.
British Empire
a. The Commonwealth of Nations and the Colonial Office
i. Parliament granted full independence for its white dominions (Canada, Australia,
New Zealand, South Africa) with Statute of Westminster 1931
ii. Commonwealth was a voluntary association of former colonies
iii. British had practiced indirect rule since the 19th Century; by 1945 the British
Colonial Office numbered 250,000 employees and only 66,000 were British
b. Indian Subcontinent
i. Establishment of Indian National Congress in 19th Century and Mohandas Gandhis
leadership of the Congress led to pressures for independence
ii. Emergence of Muhammad Ali Jinnahs Muslim League was source of concern;
Britain partitioned the Subcontinent in 1947 into India, Pakistan
c. Elsewhere
i. Also granted independence for Burma (Myanmar) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
ii. Restored Palestine to UN in 1948; partitioned by UN into Israel and lands intended
as Arab state never emerged as Arab neighbors invaded on behalf of
Palestinians and absorbed lands after defeat in Israeli War of Independence
iii. Egypt gave way to Arab Nationalism under Gamel Abdel Nasser; Nasser seized
Suez Canal in 1956, prompting British/French response suppressed by U. S.
iv. Independence for African colonies starting with Ghana in 1956; Nigeria 1960
2.
French
a. Indochina

3.

i. Attempted to reassert authority over Indochina in 1946; Ho Chi Minh attempted to

negotiate for independence but was rebuffed when French navy bombarded
Haiphong
ii. Ho Chi Minh led nationalist Vietminh in eight-year war that culminated in French
defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954; 90,000 French and 300,000 Vietnamese killed
b. North Africa and the Middle East
i. Lebanon and Syria, Tunisia and Morocco independent by 1951
ii. Algerian War erupted on heels of French defeat at Dien Bien Phu; National
Liberation Front declared luggage or a coffin for the French
iii. De Gaulle prosecuted this war for eight years, leading to 25,000 more French killed
and massive social upheaval in France during which his government collapsed
iv. By 1962 when the war ended, 200,000 Algerians lived in Paris
Others
a. Dutch never returned to the East Indies after WWII; Indonesia emerged as independent
state
b. Belgians forced to give up control of the Congo following widespread rioting and
demands for independence in 1960

C.

Consequences
1. A wash as cheap raw materials no longer available, but cost of protecting and maintaining
colonies was no longer being extracted
2. Cheap labor still available as immigrants poured in from former colonies; sometimes created
unstable situations as immigrants did not assimilate or were rejected by European populations

VI.

The Era of the Cold War: The European Union

A.

The Idea and Origins of the EU

1.
Pioneers and Roadblocks
a. Winston Churchill
i. Proposed as early as 1946, If we are to form a United States of Europe, we must
begin now.; he imagined a fraternal association of three unions -- the
Commonwealth, the U. S., and a European Union with Britain as the link
ii. He acknowledged that this would require that European states surrender some of
their sovereignty and that Europeans imagine themselves as dual citizens of a sort
iii. The Times of London called Churchills suggestion an outrageous proposition.
and the Labour Party announced that no iota of British sovereignty was
negotiable
b. Robert Schuman
i. In absence of British leadership, French would take the lead: Robert Schuman
developed a plan for economic integration, political institutions, and military
cooperation
ii. Schuman recruited West Germany and Italy to the cause
iii. Recognized however that NATO performed military function and creation of
supranational political institutions would be very controversial -- so start with
economic integration
2.
Early Organization and Successes
a. European Coal and Steel Community (1951)
i. France, West Germany, Italy with Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg
ii. Free trade in coal and steel, common regulations to govern manufacture and trade
b. Treaty of Rome (1958) formed European Economic Community
i. Also known as the European Common Market

3.

B.

ii. Pledged to remove tariffs and other trade barriers among members, promote
mobility of capital and labor, to establish common policy for trading with
nonmembers
iii. Created Value Added Tax to promote economic development in backward
regions
c. Results
i. By 1967, W. German and French production had increased 55% over 1958, and
Italian productivity had more than doubled; by comparison, British productivity
had grown 33%
ii. Professor Walter Hallstein, first President of the European Commission which
coordinated the EEC: Anyone who does not believe in miracles in European
affairs is not a realist
Role of the British splendid isolation?
a. British values
i. British throughout the process sought to gain as many benefits of association with
Europe as possible with least surrender of sovereignty and freedom of action
ii. Britain also gave priority to its special relationship partnership with the U. S.
b. Consequences: as EEC began to coalesce, de Gaulle blocked British membership
through the 1960s; U. K. finally admitted in 1973

Expansion and Emergence as European Union; Future?

1.
Expansion
a. Along with U. K., Denmark and Ireland joined in 1973
b. Greece, Spain, and Portugal joined in early-mid 1980s
c. Adopted European flag (twelve gold stars on a deep blue field) in 1987
2.
Reconstituted as the European Union; further expansion
a. Maastricht Treaty (proposed 1991; ratified by votes of the EU states 1993)
i. Citizenship in one member state will be honored by all; unified passports
ii. Standardized monetary unit and integrated banking system by 1999; Euro was
introduced as universal, exclusive currency in 2002 (except in U. K. where the Pound
Sterling remains in use)
iii. Pledge to coordinate security policy and establish standardized policies on education,
health, energy, justice, and immigration
b. Austria, Sweden, and Finland joined in 1995
c. Responses to end of the Cold War and disintegration of the Soviet Union
i. European Bank of Development and Reconstruction opened to finance rehabilitation of
Eastern Europe
ii. Baltic States, Slovenia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary joined in 2004
(along with Malta and Cyprus)
iii. Romania and Bulgaria joined in 2007; Iceland applied for membership in 2009
3.
Unsure about the future
a. Proposed European Constitution
i. Would have codified most of the policies established over the course of the EUs
development into a single constitution
ii. By 2005, as ratification votes neared, socialists complained that it was created to
serve capitalist interests, while nationalists saw the new constitution as a move in the
direction of lost sovereignty
b. Defeated in ratification votes
i. Rejected by voters in the Netherlands and France
ii. Revised version offered in ratification vote in Ireland; also rejected