Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The term used to define the tense relationship which developed between us
& ussr from 1945 to 1949 and which ended with the dismantlement of the
soviet union in 1991.
2)Distinction betw communism & capitalism
CAPITALISM: -freedom of speech, association, press
-disregard for human rights
-one party, controlled elections
-emphasis on community, not on individual
COMMUNISM: -censorship of individual, speech, religion
-human rights
-free elections+multiple parties
-emphasis on the individual
3)Idealism vs self interest in us & ussr
IDEALISM USA: -idealism of presidents wilson & roosevelt
-struggle for a better world based on collective security, political self
determination & economic integration
-peace, freedom, justice and plenty
*achieved by democracy/capitalism & international cooperation
SELF-INT USA: -the need to establish markets & open doors to free trade
-the desire to avoid another economic crisis of the magnitude of 1929
-president truman & most of the post war US administration's belief that
what's good for america is good for the world
13)Why did the big three agree at yalta and disagree at potsdam?
14)Which crucial events took place betw yalta & potsdam?
->President Roosevelt died in april 1945 and was replaced by truman, who
was to adopt a more hardline, or get tough, policy towards the soviets
->gr finally surrendered unconditionally on 7 may 1945
->winston churchill's conservative party lost the 1945 UK general election
and churchill was succeeded as prime minister by the labour party leader,
clement atlee
->as the war in europe ended, the soviet red army occupied territory as far
west as deep inside germany
->on the very day after the potsdam conference began, 17 july 1945, the
united states succesfully tested its first atomic bomb
15)Def & stages of the salami tactics
Def= Elimination of the opposition in which an opponent's strength are
systematically sliced away. 'slicing off salami, piece by piece'
->Stage 1: soviets supervised the organization of governments in the eastern
european states, initially establishing a broad alliance of anti-fascists
->Stage 2: each of the parties was sliced off, one after the other
->Stage 3: the communist core was left, and then ultimately the local
communists were replaced with moscow trained ppl
16)The soviet pressure in iran
-ussr tried to increase its political control in iran
-at tehran conf, it was agreed that br & soviets withdraw troops from iran
after the war
-uk did, but stalin left 30,000 troops in north, claiming they were needed to
help put down internal rebellion
-soviet troops encourafed a communist uprising, iran complained to ussr's
former allies and br & usa demanded stalin to remove the troops
-first he refused. he believed that he has as much right to black sea straits
and to iranian oil as br & usa
-4 days later, truman wrote to his secretary of state, james byrnes, sayig that
he thought the ussr was planning an invasion of turkey and the black sea
straits. he also said that unless russia is faced with an iron fist and strong
language, war is coming.
-in march, UN had its first crisis to deal with; iran. iran made a formal protest
that soviet forces were still there. under the new pressure, moscow finally
pulled its troops out
17)Instability in greece & turkey
After ww2, there were anti-imperialist, nationalist and pro communist
rebellions in greece and turkey. The british, and usa, believed that these
rebellions were being directed and supported by the soviets. churchill was
annoyed at stalin's apparent disregard for their 'percentages agreement'
18)Communists in italy & france
Communist parties in both italy and france grew stronger in post-war europe.
their membership increased due to economic deprivations and hardships at
the end of the war. USA & br were suspicious that these new comm parties
were receiving encouragement from moscow. there was concern that italy
and france could be weak links in anti communist western eu.
19)Kennan's long telegram main ideas & importance
Main ideas:
-the ussr's view of the world was a traditional one of insecurity
-the soviets wanted to advance Muscovite Stalinist ideology (not simply
marxism)
-the soviet regime was cruel and repressive and justified this by perceiving
nothing but evil in the outside world. that view of a hostile outside
environment would sustain the internal stalinist system
-the ussr was fanatically hostile to the west- but they were not suicidal
IMPORTANCE:
Kennan's logic of force argument helped to harden attitudes in the usa and
was to play a key role in the development of the us policy of containment
20)Iron curtain speech (def, basIs of the speech, soviet reaction &
importance)
->In 1946, churchill held the speech in US where he announced the existance