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Home > Modern History > International Studies in Peace and Conflict > The Cold War 1945-1991 > The origins and development of the Cold War

The Cold War 1945–1991

The Origins and development of the Cold War

Paul Brown
Camden High School

Principal focus: Students investigate key features and issues of ONE International Study in Peace and Conflict.

Outcomes

Students:

H1.1 describe the role of key features, issues, individuals, groups and events of select twentieth-century studies
H1.2 analyse and evaluate the role of key features, issues, individuals, groups and events of selected twentieth-century studies
Extract from Modern History Stage 6 Syllabus Board of Studies NSW 2004.

Key features and issues:

• Origins and development of the Cold War

From this tutorial you will learn about the origins of the Cold War.

The United States

• Historically, America sought a dominant position for itself in the Western Hemisphere and a balance of power in Europe and Asia. This meant that it opposed any one power being dominant in those areas.
• Economically, the US set out to establish and maintain an international situation where she had maximum opportunities to further her trade and investments. This has come through her involvement in WWII and later in Europe after the war.
• The US has also had a set of beliefs or ideologies that governed her behaviour. They included a belief that they were morally superior to Europe; that they were a ‘New World’ as distinct from the corruption of the ‘Old World’.
• The US also had as a core belief that a better society could be built in America. In foreign policy this has made them believe that they are a moral example to the rest of the world and that they only act from the highest motives.
• The US belief that it had a ‘Manifest Destiny’, originally meant expansion within the United States in the nineteenth century, but by the twentieth century came to signify that it may have had a more imperial role in the rest of the world. Senator Beveridge in 1900 said, “He (God) has marked the American people as His chosen nation to finally lead in the regeneration of the world.”
• Another strong theme, but a contradictory one, running through American foreign policy is that of ‘isolationism’ or staying out of Europe’s squabbles. This view sought maximum economic involvement and minimal political involvement. It was the dominant view between the wars.
• After WWII the US saw itself as having a global role with an extension of its traditional areas of interest e.g. the Middle East.
• The US belief that it was making ‘the world safe for democracy’ turned into a moral crusade against Communism in the Cold War.

The Soviet Union

• Soviet foreign policy has traditionally been seen in terms of security, hence its strong interest in Eastern Europe after WWII. This area provided potential invasion routes into the Soviet Union.
• The other key feature of Soviet foreign policy was its ideology – Marxist-Leninism (the theories of Marx as developed by Lenin). A core belief of which was a commitment to encourage and foster communist revolutions wherever possible. This ideology was sometimes seen as contradictory to the security of the Soviet Union because by spreading revolution it earned the direct antagonism of other powerful states e.g. the US and this lessened its security.
• Soviet policy changed according to its leadership:
  
• Under Lenin the Soviets realised that revolution was not going to break out across Europe after WWI so accommodation was sought with capitalist countries e.g. Germany in 1922.
• Stalin came to support ‘socialism in one country’ and this was a reaction to the need for security. To this end he attempted to build up common cause with countries who opposed fascism but when that failed he signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939. Later, when attacked by Germany, the Soviet Union became allied with the Western powers to defeat the Nazis. At the end of WWII the Soviet Union controlled Eastern Europe and had its buffer zone against future aggression. In the context of Soviet losses of over 20 million dead, of devastation to more than 66% of its heavy industry, 41% of its railways and 38% of its grain production - security was a key issue.

Questions to consider:

a) Explain the reasons for the rise of superpowers at the end of WWII.

b) Make a list of the basic differences between the policies and beliefs of Soviet Russia and United States.

c) Why did the USA and USSR become rivals in the period 1945 to 1949?

d) The economic, territorial and ideological differences that separated the US and the USSR were incidental and need not have caused conflict. The real cause of the Cold War was the inherent clashes that arise between competing powers. Discuss this statement.

After World War II

Key issues between the Soviet Union and the United States were:

• The fate of the governments of Eastern Europe that the Soviet troops had already occupied.
• The future of Germany after an initial division into four zones with Berlin occupied jointly. Key issues were reparations payments, the future role of the German economy, demilitarisation, territorial losses and partition. Each of the major powers had separate and differing opinions on each of these issues. There were also differences within the allied administrations on what should happen to Germany after the end of the war.
• The border of Poland was another contentious issue. Stalin had proposed taking some of east Poland for the Soviet Union and moving its borders westward at the expense of Germany. Whether Stalin would permit democratic elections in Poland and if so when these would be held was another issue.
• The US wanted Eastern Europe to be democratic and decide its own fate.
• Stalin wanted the Eastern European states to be a buffer against any possible future German aggression. Her forces were dominant in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, and Bulgaria. There were ‘independent’ communist governments in Yugoslavia and Albania.
• The Soviet Union wanted ‘spheres of influence’ whereas the United States supported the idea of ‘universalism’ i.e. no power dominating a region.
• With the US use of the atomic bomb against Japan, the Soviet Union now had a new major issue to consider. The Soviets expected the US to share the technology and when they didn’t this became a major stumbling block to their post-war relationship. This technology had seriously disturbed the balance of power in favour of the United States.

All of the above issues continued to long dominate US-Soviet relations during the period of the Cold War.

Questions to consider:

e) Assess the significance of the Truman Doctrine for the origins and development of the Cold War.
Read Truman’s response at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1947truman.html Modern History Sourcebook:The Truman Doctrine, 1947

f) Research the impact that each of the following crises had on the development of the Cold war: the Berlin blockade and airlift China becoming communist in 1948 the Korean War

g) Analyse the contribution of leaders in creating tension between 1945 and 1953

Bibliography

McDougall, Derek, Soviet-American Relations Since the 1940s, Hodder & Stockton, Melbourne, 1989.
Spenceley, Geoff, A World In Shadow, US-Soviet Relations in the Nuclear Age, Oxford University Press, New York, 1989.