4.2.2 The Cold War Begins
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4.2.2 The Cold War Begins
You just examined the reasons and actions for Hitler's rise in Germany during the interwar years and learned how Russia emerged from a brutal civil war as a communist nation. By the 1920s, the Soviet Union was experimenting with extreme collectivism both
politically and economically. Many western countries, including Canada and the United States feared communism, as it rejected all liberal principles, including capitalism and democracy. In fact, any form of collective action taken by groups in North America between the great wars led to immediate fears of a communist uprising. This paranoia was often a perception rather than a fact and is often referred to as 'the red scare' after the red flag of the Soviet Union. As a result, many liberal societies behaved illiberally in their attempt to erase any possibility of communism. This reactionary behaviour intensified throughout the Cold War.
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Read about the First Red Scare in your textbook Perspectives on Ideology on pages
Watch this review of McCarthyism, an illiberal movement in the United States during the 1950s. In the name of rooting out communism, it violated individual rights and freedoms of citizens. You will revisit this topic again in a later unit.
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"What is McCarthyism? (And How Did It Happen?)"-Ellen Schrecker, TED-Ed, You-tube
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"Armed Forces Information Film Number 5, "How to Spot a Communist"", Open Culture, You-tube
Why call it a Cold War?
During World War II, ideological differences between the West and the Soviet Union were put aside in their collective efforts to stop the spread of Nazism. Once this common enemy was defeated, fissures or cracks in this alliance
began to grow.
From the end of World War II until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, the superpowers
of the United states and the Soviet Union and their allies engaged in a "cold" war, which was unlike a "hot" war in which direct fighting on each other's soil occurs.
The Cold War included a continuous state of political conflict,
military tension, and economic competition that was characterized by military coalitions, the deployment of the conventional military, the nuclear arms race, espionage, proxy wars, propaganda, and a competition to see who could become the most
technologically sophisticated. This included the Space Race, a competition to see who could dominate outer space.
© Understandings of Ideologies, Oxford Canada
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin met at Yalta in February 1945 to discuss their joint occupation of Germany and plans for postwar Europe.
Courtesy Wikipedia, from U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Near the end of World War II, the victors of the war met to decide on a course of action. Sir Winston Churchill of Great Britain, Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the United States held a conference in
Yalta where they re-drew the map of Europe based on their victory. Another goal was to guarantee the principle of self-determination to ensure that each nation would decide on its own future through free elections.
One of the key purposes of the meeting was to ensure Germany would never regain its power. This meant dealing with the question of how to partition Germany among the allies. The Soviet Union blamed Germany for suffering their catastrophic losses in World War I and II. At the same time, Stalin's troops were liberating Nazi controlled Eastern Europe. However, ideological differences began to creep into negotiations. Stalin wanted a buffer between Russia and the western capitalist democracies. He saw the solution as forcing his recently liberated neighbors to adopt communism.
One of the key purposes of the meeting was to ensure Germany would never regain its power. This meant dealing with the question of how to partition Germany among the allies. The Soviet Union blamed Germany for suffering their catastrophic losses in World War I and II. At the same time, Stalin's troops were liberating Nazi controlled Eastern Europe. However, ideological differences began to creep into negotiations. Stalin wanted a buffer between Russia and the western capitalist democracies. He saw the solution as forcing his recently liberated neighbors to adopt communism.
Read "The Yalta Accords" on page 237 of your text Perspectives on Ideology.
Watch this 6 minute video on Origins of the Cold War.
"Zero Hour-Origins of the Cold War", It's History, You-tube
Map depicting the division of Germany and Berlin by the Allies following the end of WWII. Image created by an employee of the US Army, Public Domain.
In terms of how to deal with Germany, the allies decided to divide the country among themselves. This eventually turned Germany and the city of Berlin, the capital, into four and later two zones of occupation or ideologies.
For 45 years, Germany would be a geographic symbol of the ideological conflict between the Soviet Union and the West known as the Cold War.
For 45 years, Germany would be a geographic symbol of the ideological conflict between the Soviet Union and the West known as the Cold War.
"The Iron Curtain has Descended And Germany Gets Divided-The Cold War", It's History, You-tube
Map of the Iron Curtain, © Sémhur / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0
The phrase 'iron curtain' was used throughout the Cold War as a metaphor for the hardline dictatorships that existed in Eastern Europe, largely under Soviet control. The term was first used in a speech from Prime Minister Churchill in response
to Stalin's expansionism between 1945-1946. Read an excerpt from his speech below.
"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.
Winston Churchill - March 5, 1946
You can hear the entire speech here.
"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.
Winston Churchill - March 5, 1946
You can hear the entire speech here.
The armed station guarding East Berlin from West Berlin
© Communist Checkpoint. Courtesy DLRB, Wikimedia Commons
Berlin, a large industrial city in central Germany, was divided into four zones of occupation after the war.
Germany was divided into East and West Germany with East Germany now under communist rule. Berlin was a divided city located in one portion of a divided country. (See map, page 246 of your text.)
Stalin feared the capitalist influence of the West; in June 1948, he blocked incoming traffic of all kinds into West Berlin. Thus, the 2.1 million people in West Berlin could obtain no supplies from their country, West Germany. The US and allies replied with the Berlin airlift in which a steady stream of airplanes brought food and heating fuel into Berlin. At its height, a plane was landing in Berlin every three minutes.
After eleven months, Stalin lifted the blockade, but by then the stage was set for ongoing conflict between the superpowers.
The dividing line between east and west became an armed barrier between the two areas of Europe. Sir Winston Churchill, a powerful and influential public speaker, called this divide the iron curtain because it represented a division not just of territory but of ideologies.
The Berlin Airlift:
The "Candy Bomber":
Germany was divided into East and West Germany with East Germany now under communist rule. Berlin was a divided city located in one portion of a divided country. (See map, page 246 of your text.)
Stalin feared the capitalist influence of the West; in June 1948, he blocked incoming traffic of all kinds into West Berlin. Thus, the 2.1 million people in West Berlin could obtain no supplies from their country, West Germany. The US and allies replied with the Berlin airlift in which a steady stream of airplanes brought food and heating fuel into Berlin. At its height, a plane was landing in Berlin every three minutes.
After eleven months, Stalin lifted the blockade, but by then the stage was set for ongoing conflict between the superpowers.
The dividing line between east and west became an armed barrier between the two areas of Europe. Sir Winston Churchill, a powerful and influential public speaker, called this divide the iron curtain because it represented a division not just of territory but of ideologies.
The Berlin Airlift:
"The Berlin Airlift", Reading Through History, You-tube
The "Candy Bomber":
"The WWII Bomber Who Dropped Chocolate Over Germany", Great Big Story, You-tube
Although you and your fellow high school students were not born while the Cold War was occurring, your parents and grandparents will probably remember the tensions during that period of history. Talk to them about what it was like to live
during the Cold War! An excellent Academy Award winning documentary on the Cold War era is Fog of War. (This link is to its official website.)
Read ""After Yalta: The Cold War" on pages 238-240 in your text Perspectives on Ideology.
As you read about the Cold War, take notes on the following:
How did the conflicting ideologies of communism and liberalism lead to the Cold War?
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"The Cold War: Ideological Differences- Capitalism vs. Communism-Episode 1", I'm Stuck-GCSE and A-Level Revision, You-tube"