Justin He

COLD WAR CONFLICTS AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS 1945 1985

I.

The Division of Europe

A. The Origins of the Cold War
1. Early Discussions- In the early phases of the Second World War,
the Americans and the British consistently avoided discussion of
Stalins war aims and the shape of the eventual peace settlement.
They feared that hard bargaining would encourage Stalin to
consider making a separate peace with Hitler. They focused instead
on the policy of unconditional surrender to solidify the alliance.
2. The Tehran Conference (Nov. 1945)- At the Tehran Conference,
the Big Three jovially reaffirmed their determination to crush
Germany and searched for the appropriate military strategy.
Churchill argued that American and British forces should follow
up their Italian campaign with an indirect attack on Germany
through the Balkans. Roosevelt agreed with Stalin that an
American British frontal assault through France would be better
however.
3. The Yalta Conference (Feb. 1945)- At the Yalta Conference, it was
agreed that Germany would be divided into zones of occupation
and would pay heavy reparations to the Soviet Union. At American
insistence, Stalin agreed to declare war on Japan after Germany
was defeated. As for Poland and Eastern Europe the Big Three
struggled to reach an ambiguous compromise at Yalta.
4. The Breakdown of Yalta- Even before the Yalta Conference,
Bulgaria and Poland were controlled by communists who arrived
home with the Red Army. Roosevelts successor, President Harry
Truman demanded immediate free elections throughout Eastern
Europe. Stalin refused point blank, saying that a freely elected
government in any of these East European countries would be antiSoviet, and that he cannot allow.
B. West Versus East
1. Rising Antagonisms-Churchill informed an American audience that an
iron curtain had fallen across the continent, dividing Germany and
all of Europe into two antagonistic camps. Emotional, moralistic
denunciations of Stalin and communist Russia emerged as part of
American political life.
2. The Truman Doctrine- The Truman Doctrine was aimed at
containing communism to areas already occupied by the Red Army.
Truman believed that it must be the policy of the United States to
support free people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed
minorities or by outside pressure. He asked Congress for military aid

II.

to Greece and Turkey, countries that Britain, weakened by war and

financially overextended, could no longer protect.
3. The Marshall Plan- Assisted Europe economic aid, to help it rebuild.
Stalin refused Marshall Plan assistance for all of Eastern Europe. He
purged the last remaining noncommunist elements from the coalition
governments of Eastern Europe, and established Soviet-style, oneparty communist dictatorships.
4. The Berlin Blockade-Stalin blocked all traffic through the Soviet zone
of Germany to Berlin. The allies acted firmly but not provocatively.
Hundreds of planes began flying over the Soviet roadblocks around the
clock, supplying provisions to the people of West Berlin and thwarted
Soviet efforts to swallow up the West Berliners.
5. NATO and the Warsaw Pact- In 1949, the United States formed an
anti-Soviet military alliance of Western governments: the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Stalin countered by tightening
his hold on his satellites, later united in the Warsaw Pact.
6. The Cold War in Asia- When the Russian-backed communist army of
North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, President Truman acted
swiftly. American-led United Nation forces under General Douglas
MacArthur intervened. Initially, the North Koreans almost conquered
the entire peninsula, but the South Koreans and the Americans rallied
and advanced until China suddenly entered the war.
The Western Renaissance (1945 1968)
A. The Postwar Challenge
1. The Postwar Economic Boom- After the war, economic conditions in
Western Europe were terrible. There was inflation, and black markets
testified to severe shortages and hardships. However, with the help of
the U.S and Great Britain, Western Europe was able to rebuild.
2. Christian Democratic Parties- One of the groups that were willing to
change and experiment. The Christian Democrats emerged as a leading
party in the first postwar elections in 1946, and in early 1948 they won
an absolute majority in the parliament.
3. The Labour Party- In most countries, there were many people ready to
work hard for low wages and the hope of a better future. There was a
great potential demand for luxury goods, and the economy system
moved to satisfy these demands.
B. Toward European Unity
1. Early Steps towards Unity- Republics were re-established,
Constitutional monarchs were restored, and Democratic governments
took root again and thrived. Nation self-determination was
accompanied by civil liberties and individual freedom.
2. European Coal and Steel Community (1951)- The immediate
economic goal was a single steel and coal market without national
tariffs or quotas. The more far-reaching political goal was to bind the
six member nations so closely together economically that war among
them would eventually become unthinkable and virtually impossible.

III.

3. The European Economic Community- In 1957, the six nations of the

Coal and Steel Community signed the Treaty of Rome, which created
the European Economic Community. The goal of this was to create a
single market almost as large as that of the U.S by lowering all tariffs.
Other goals included the free movement of capital and labor and
common economic policies and institutions.
C. Decolonization in East Asia
1. Japan- Imperial rulers had been driven from large parts of South Asia
by the Japanese, and in these areas Europeans now faced strong
nationalist movements that had developed under the Japanese
occupation.
2. India- Nationalist opposition to British rule coalesced after the Frist
World War under the leadership of Gandhi. In the 1920s and 1930s
Gandhi built a mass movement preaching nonviolent
noncooperation with the British.
3. China- Chinese nationalism developed and triumphed in the
framework of Marxist-Leninist ideology. In the turbulent 1920s, a
broad alliance of nationalist forces within the Soviet-supported
Kuomintang or National Peoples Party, which was dedicated to
unifying China and abolishing European concessions.
D. Decolonization in the Middle East and Africa
1. French Mandate- In 1944 the French gave up their League of Nations
mandates in Syria and Lebanon.
2. British Mandate- In British-mandated Palestine, the British
government established a Jewish homeland alongside the Arab
population, and violence and terrorism mounted on both sides. In other
British colonies, Independence was achieved with little or no
bloodshed.
Soviet Eastern Europe 1945 1968
A. Stalins Last Years, 1945 1953
1. The Return to Dictatorship- Even before the war ended, Stalin was
moving his country back toward rigid dictatorship. Stalin began to say
that war was inevitable as long as capitalism existed. His new foreign
foe in the West provided an excuse for re-establishing a harsh
dictatorship. Many returning soldiers and citizens were purge, as Stalin
revived the terrible forced-labor camps of the 1930s.
2. Stalinization in Eastern Europe- Stalin reasserted the Communist
Partys complete control of the government and his absolute mastery
of the party. Five-year plans were reintroduced to cope with the
enormous task of economic reconstruction. Heavy industry and the
military were given top priority, and consumer goods, housing, and
collectivized agriculture were neglected.
3. Establishing Command Economies- The Communist Parties of Eastern
Europe had established one-party states by 1948, thanks to the help of
the Red Army and the Russian secret police. Rigid ideological
indoctrination, attacks on religion, and a lack of civil liberties were

soon facts of life. Forced industrialization lurched forward without

regard for human costs.
4. Censorship and Opposition- Only Josip Broz Tito, the resistance leader
and Communist chief of Yugoslavia, was able to resist Soviet
domination successfully. Tito stood up to Stalin in 1948, and because
there was no Russian army in Yugoslavia, he got away with it.
B. Reform and De-Stalinization
1. The Death of Stalin (1953)- After Stalins death, the dictatorship that
he had built began to change. His heirs realized that reforms were
necessary because of the widespread fear and hatred of Stalins
political terrorism. The Power of the secret police was curbed, and
many of the forced-labor camps were gradually closed.
2. Nikita Khrushchev- A reformer who argued for major innovations. He
launched an all-out attack on Stalin and his crimes at a closed session
of the Twentieth Party Congress in 1956. He described how Stalin had
tortured and murdered thousands of loyal Communists, how he had
trusted Hitler completely and how he had supported the glorification
of his own person with all conceivable methods.
3. Destalinization- Some resources were shifted from heavy industry and
the military toward consumer goods and agriculture, and Stalinist
controls over workers were relaxed. The Soviet Unions very low
standard of living finally began to improve and continued to rise
substantially throughout the 1960s.
4. Boris Pasternak (1890 1960)- Published Doctor Zhivago, which tells
the story of a prerevolutionary intellectual who rejects the violence and
brutality of the revolution of 1916 and the Stalinist years.
5. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ( 1918 -2008)- Published One Day in the Life
of Ivan Denisovich which portrays in grim detail life in a Stalinist
concentration camp- a life to which Solzhenitsyn himself had been
unjustly condemned- and is a damning indictment of the Stalinist past.
6. Peaceful Coexistence- Khrushchev argued that Peaceful
coexistence with capitalism was possible, and great wars were not
inevitable. He even made concessions, agreeing in 1955 to real
independence for a neutral Austria after ten long years of Allied
occupation.
7. Reform in Poland- Poland took the lead in seeking much greater
liberty and national independence. Extensive rioting in Poland brought
a new government that managed to win greater autonomy.
8. The Hungarian Revolt (1956)- Hungary experienced a real and tragic
revolution. Led by students and workers- the classic urban
revolutionaries- installed a liberal communist reformer as their new
chief in October 1956. Soviet troops were forced to leave the country,
but the Russian leaders ordered an invasion and crushed the national
and democratic revolution.
C. The End of Reform

IV.

1. The Berlin Crisis- Khrushchev ordered the East Germans to build a

wall between East and West Berlin, thereby sealing off West Berlin in
clear violation of existing access agreements between the Great
Powers.
2. The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)- Khrushchev ordered missiles with
nuclear warheads installed in Fidel Castros communist Cuba in 1962.
President Kennedy countered with a naval blockade of Cuba. After a
tense diplomatic crisis, Khrushchev agreed to remove the Soviet
missiles in return for American pledges not to disturb Castros regime.
3. Leonid Brezhnev- In 1964, Brezhnev and his supporters took over.
They immediately started talking quietly of Stalins good points and
ignoring his crimes. This change informed Soviet citizens that further
liberalization would not be expected at home. Soviet leaders,
determined never to suffer Khrushchevs humiliation in the face of
American nuclear superiority, also launched a massive arms buildup.
4. Prague Spring- A period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia
after its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II. The
Czechoslovakians made no attempt to resist militarily, and the arrested
leaders surrendered to Soviet Demands.
D. The Soviet Union to 1985
1. Re-Stalinization- There was a certain re-Stalinization of the U.S.SR.,
but now dictatorship was collective rather than personal, and coercion
replaced terror. This compromise seemed to suit the leaders and a
majority of the people.
Postwar Social Transformation, 1945 1968
A. Science and Technology
1. Big Science- The spectacular results of directed research during the
World War II inspired a new model for science- Big science. By
combining theoretical work with sophisticated engineering in a large
organization, Big Science could attack extremely difficult problems,
from better products for consumers to new and improved for the
military. Big Science was extremely expensive, requiring large-scale
financing from governments and large corporations.
B. The Changing Class Structure
1. The Middle Class- The Model for the middle class in the nineteenth
and early twentieth century had been the independent, self-employed
individual who owned a business or practiced a liberal profession such
as law or medicine. But after 1945, a new breed of managers and
experts replaced traditional property owners as the leaders of the
middle class. Ability to serve the needs of a big organization largely
replaced inherited property and family connections in determining an
individuals social position in the middle and upper middle classes.
2. Class Leveling in the West- The old propertied middle class lost
control of many family-owned businesses, and many small businesses
simply passed out of existence as their former owners joined the
ranked of salaried employees. Therefore top managers and ranking

V.

civil servants represented the model for a new middle class of salaried
specialists.
3. The Lower Classes- The structure of the lower classes also became
more flexible and open. There was a mass exodus from farms and the
countryside, as one of the most traditional and least mobile groups in
European society drastically declines.
C. New Roles for Women
1. Declining Birthrates By the late 19th century, improved diet, higher
incomes, and the use of contraception within marriage were producing
the demographic transition from high birthrates and death rates to low
birthrates and death rates.
2. The Workplace- After World War II, the ever-greater complexity of the
modern economy meant that almost all women had to go outside the
home to find cash income. This was due to 3 factors. The economy
boomed from about 1950 to 1973 and created a strong demand for
labor. The economy continued its gradual shift away from the old,
male-dominated heavy industries, and young Western Women shared
fully in the postwar education revolution and could take advantage of
the growing need for office workers and well-trained professionals.
3. Challenges- Married Women entering the labor force faced
widespread, long established discrimination in pay, advancement, and
occupational choice in comparison to men. Married women also still
carried most of the child-raising and housekeeping responsibilities.
D. Youth and Counterculture
1. Youth Cultures- The Young fashioned a highly publicized subculture
that blended racial politics, unbridled personal experimentation (with
drugs and communal living), and new artistic styles. This subculture
quickly spread to major American and western European cities.
2. Consumption- More young people engaged in sexual intercourse, and
they did so at an earlier age, in part because the discovery of safe and
effective contraceptive pills could eliminate the risk of unwanted
pregnancy.
3. Higher Education- Reflecting the development of a more democratic
class structure and a growing awareness that higher education was the
key to success. European universities gave more scholarships and
opened their doors to more students from the lower middle and lower
classes. But with the rapid expansion of higher education also meant
that classes were badly overcrowded.
Conflict and Challenge in the Late Cold War 1968 1985
A. The United States and Vietnam
1. Johnson- President Johnson wanted to go down in history as a master
reformer and a healer of old wounds, but instead he opened new ones
with the Vietnam War. He greatly expanded the American role in the
Vietnam Conflict. The American strategy was to escalate the war
sufficiently to break the will of the North Vietnamese and their

southern allies without resorting to overkill, because it might risk

war with the entire Communist bloc.
2. Nixon- Sought to gradually disengage America from Vietnam and the
accompanying national crisis. Nixon suspended the draft, and cut
American forces in Vietnam from 550,000 to 24,000 in 4 years. This
made the cost of the war drop dramatically. He also journeyed to
China and reached a spectacular reconciliation with the Peoples
Republic of China. He took advantage of Chinas growing fears of the
Soviet Union and undermined North Vietnams position.
B. Detente or Cold War
1. Willy Brandt- Brandt negotiated treaties with the Soviet Union,
Poland, and Czechoslovakia that formally accepted existing state
boundaries in return for a mutual renunciation of force or the threat of
force. Brandts government also broke decisively with the past and
entered into direct relations with East Germany. He aimed for modest
practical improvements rather than reunification.
2. Helsinki Conference 1975- The thirty-five nations participating agreed
that Europes existing political frontiers could not be changed by force.
They also solemnly accepted numerous provisions guaranteeing the
human rights and political freedoms of their citizens.
3. Atlantic Alliance- The Atlantic Alliance was looked upon to thwart
communist expansion. In Maintaining the Alliance, the Western
nations gave indirect support to ongoing efforts to liberalize
authoritarian communist Eastern Europe and helped convince the
Soviet Unions Mikhail Gorbachev that endless cold war conflict was
foolish and dangerous.
C. The Womens Movement
1. The Second Sex- Published by the French writer and philosopher
Simone de Beauvoir. Beauvoir saw her pious and submissive mother
as foolishly renouncing any self-expression outside of home and
marriage and showing Beauvoir the dangers of a life she did not want.
Beauvoir argued that women-like all human beings- were in essence
free but they had almost always been trapped by particularly inflexible
and limiting conditions.
2. The Feminine Mystique- Published by Betty Friedan. According to
Friedan, the cause of nameless problem was a crisis of identity.
Women were not permitted to become mature adults and genuine
human beings. Instead, they were expected to conform to a false,
infantile pattern of femininity and live for their husbands and children.
3. NOW- The National Organization for Women pressed on for womens
rights. NOW flourished, growing from seven hundred members in
1967 to forty thousand in 1974. It also inspired other womens
organizations of varying persuasions to rise up.
D. The Troubled Economy
1. OPEC- By 1971 the Arab-led Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) had watched the price of crude oil decline

consistently compared with the rising price of manufactured goods and

had decided to reverse that trend by presenting a united front against
the oil companies. OPEC declared an embargo on oil shipments to the
United States when Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on
Israel. Within a year crude oil prices quadrupled.
2. Misery Index- Combined rates of inflation and unemployment in a
single, powerfully emotional number. Misery increased on both
sides of the Atlantic, but the increase was substantially greater in
Western Europe, where these hard times were often referred to simply
as the crisis. Japan did better than both Europe and the United States
in this period.
E. Society in ta Time of Economic Uncertainty
1. Margaret Thatcher- Determined to scale back the role of government
in Britain. In the 1980s she pushed through a series of controversial
free-market policies that transformed postwar Britain. One of the
most popular actions was when the government encouraged low- and
moderate- income renters in state-owned housing projects to buy their
apartments at rock bottom prices. This created a whole new class of
property owners.
2. Francois Mitterrand- Led his Socialist Party on a lurch to the left,
launching a vast program of nationalization and public investment
designed to spend France out of economic stagnation. When this
attempt failed, Mitterrands Socialist Government was then compelled
to impose a wide variety of austerity measures and to maintain those
policies for the rest of the decade.