CUBAN FOREIGN POLICY

● Cuba has approximately 35,000 troops in Africa today

● Cuban military presence in Africa, with Soviet support, has become a major and
divisive concern of the Carter Administration
● leading in the spring of 1978 to a public shouting match between
Presidents Castro and Carter over the degree of Cuban involvement in
the invasion of Zaïre's Shaba province by former Katanga gendarmes based in
Angola.
● Some routinely describe Cuba as a puppet of the Soviet Union, and Cuban
soldiers as mercenaries in the pay of their Soviet master.
● Cuban government's autonomy in foreign policy is perceived as close to zero, it
becomes impossible to treat a mere province as a sovereign government

Summary: Cuba has almost no autonomy in Foreign affairs, heavily reliant on the
Soviet Union. The Cuban forces were considered Soviet union ‘puppets’.
Cuban military presence in Africa Controversy. Still 35000 Cuban troops in
Africa today. Spring 1978 public shouting match between Castro and
Carter about Cuban involvement in Africa.

● Castro's courtship of the Soviet Union began shortly after the revolution with a
visit to Havana by Soviet Vice Premier Anastas Mikoyan

NUCLEAR CRISIS

ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR

Battle of ideology-- Political, Economic, Social, Military beliefs. Overriding concerns.

Perspective & outlook-both global and regional. Historical experience. All of these
factors help shape America and Soviet ideology.
- Marshall plan

American Ideology Soviet Ideology

-valued freedom and choice -control over population

-capitalism -communism
-delivered better quality of life due to -they have a closed trade system (Soviet
distribution of wealth Union East Europe)
-closed economy -main concern is security (they’ve been
 -wants an open free trade system
- wanted to spread their spread their
sphere of influence
- wanted to see Germany (and the rest of
Europe as well as Japan) rebuilt so that
they could trade again
- valued trade
- push its political system “open door
policy”
- they wanted to spread economy and
capitalism
- ‘manifest destiny’
attacked by Germans in the past)
- everything should be owned by the
government
- independence
- censorship
- totalitarian state
- not a lot of freedom
- wanted to see Germany ruined
- buffer zone and sphere of influence
- There was more than one threat

Key concept: historiography

- the academic study of history the “expert” explanation of why events occurred and the
analysis of their impact.
- citing historians quotes/ POV
- comparing different POV conflicting interpretations by historians
- evaluate any bias

Over time three schools of Historiography emerged:

1. Traditional or orthodox school
- They blame the soviet union
- Keywords: soviets are aggressive & expansionists
2. The revisionist school
- They blame America
3. The post-revisionist School
- They blame neither
- John Lewis Gaddis
- “ ”
-

Alphahistory.com

The means of the Cold War

- How was the Cold War actually fought?

- Dollar diplomacy : the united States will use its economic power to gain
advantage
 - The US is going to use its money to bolster and support non-communist
governments
- The US would give economic assistance to reconstruct strategically important
area such as west Germany and Japan
- The construction of a military
- A system of alliance (NATO first alliances)

The economy used by the Soviet Union was a command economy which means that
the government controlled all aspects of the economy. The means of production, the
laborers, wages, prices and distribution of goods were all controlled a central
government.

YALTA CONFERENCE
- Russia would join the United Nations
- Bring Nazi war-criminals to trial
- Set up Polish provisional Government of National Unity and promised to hold free
elections asap
- The US didn’t want Poland to become part of the Soviet Union
- Form intern governmental authorities broadly representative of all democratic
elements in the population and pledged to the earliest possible

GEORGE KENNAN
- Truman is disorganized and only experience in Domestic Policy
- So he turns to the soviet union expert in the US government George Kennan
- In February 1946 George Kennan responded to a US department request for
suggestions
- “On how to deal with the USSR”
- The senior Soviet policy advisor Kennan wrote an 8 000 word telegram in which
he recommended the following:
- The soviets are determined to destroy the American way of life
- Great threat to US
- Soviets can be beaten/stopped without going to war
- The way to do this is educating the public against communism and by making
people healthy/happy/wealthy under capitalism and democracy
- Kennan suggests America adopt a brand new policy and that they change from
the “isolationist” into an “interventionist” government

SOVIET UNION SUPPORTERS

- Soviet didn’t suffer from the great depression because of their closed economy,
they had a good economy and defeated the germany
CHURCHILL’S ‘IRON CURTAIN SPEECH’
- Gave americans foreign policy advice
- He said that the ussr are trying to create a iron curtain around all of europe,
referring to the prison and isolation of these areas behind the ‘iron curtain’

TRUMAN DOCTRINE - containment

- March 12th 1947, Truman told Americans that it was American’s DUTY to
interfere
- The truman doctrine had two objectives
- Send the US aid to anti-communist forces in Greece and turkey
- To create a public consensus so Americans will be willing to fight the cold war
- Truman achieved both goals
- That same year journalist Walter Lippman popularized ‘Cold War’
- In March 1947, Truman goes before congress and gives a speech
- And puts forward a famous line; “It must be the policy of the US to support free
peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by
outside pressures

1. Truman doctrine initiated a policy of “containment” ; prevent the spread of

communist
2. March 12, 1947 Truman asked Congress for $400 million to support democracy
in Turkey and Greece since the British were no longer an ally
3. Truman quickly recognized Israel in 1948 as the new country would be a bastion
of democracy in the MIddle East

New policy towards the soviet union (patience with firmness or get tough policy)
1. US action in IRAN
2. More stringent conditions to loans and credits requested by the soviets
3. US tougher policy towards soviets in Germany
A) Halted Reparations
B) Bzone
C) Relaxation of restrictions on Germany industrial production
BERLIN BLOCKADE/ BERLIN AIRLIFT
- June 1st 1948, America and France announced that they wanted to create a new
country of West Germany and new currency
- On June 23rd 1948 the US introduce a new currency in West Germany and West
Berlin
- On June 25th 1948, stalin ordered all road, rail and sea traffic into West Berlin to
be stopped (blockaded)
- Stalin said he was defending East Germany economy against a new currency
 - The West claimed Stalin was trying to force the Western powers out of Berlin
- In response to the USSR’s actions the US promised supplies and aid to the 3
million citizens of West Berlin
- The blockade lasted 318 days (11 months)
- In winter of 1948-1949 Berliners lived on dried potatoes powdered eggs, etc..
- 275 000 flights carried 1 ½ million tons of supplies
- A plane landed every 3 minutes for 11 months
- One April 16th 1949, 1400 flights brought in 13 000 tons of supplies in one day
- Berliners needed 6 000 tons of supplies a day to survive
- The same american pilots/planes that were bombing germany 4 years ago
(1945) were now dropping supplies and aiding the germans
- Contrast to 4 years earlier when the Americans were trying to bomb berlin

THE MARSHALL PLAN (ERP european recovery plan)- 1947

- In 1947 Europe lacked infrastructure due to many bombings (houses, power,
roads, trains, fuel, food, bridges, schools, hospital)
- Europe was desperate and had many problems, they had only two possible
solutions...soviet union or america
- The Europeans want to be wealthy, happy and free
- America gave Europe $15 billion
- They needed steel, wood, concrete, etc… to rebuild their infrastructure and
America had all those supplies, so europe would need to buy it off of them
- Revisionists = America just wanted more trade partners, so they rebuilt the
countries and aided them. The US wanted to create social and economic buffers
to contain the Soviet Union.
- Traditionalists = America is helping Western Europe to rebuild
- Post-revisionists =
Conditions of the marshall plan:
- America wanted to spread democracy and capitalism
- Open and free trade
- They want to oversee how the money is spent
a) Economic- create markets for American goods
b) Containment of communism

a) Soviets saw it as an attempt to create an American economic empire in eastern

europe.

COMECOM = communist economic plan

Key event: kennan’s long telegram

Hw : the soviet takeover of eastern europe, the czechoslovakia of 1948. Salami tactics

KEY EVENTS
- Yalta/ Postdam
- Berlin blockade/ Berlin airlift
- Truman doctrine
- Iron curtain speech
- Long Telegram
- The Marshall Plan/ COMECON-successful
- Turkey Greece civil wars
- NATO-successful
- Warsaw pact-unsuccessful
- 1949- Soviets get Atomic Bomb, china goes communist
- Soviet Takeover of Eastern Europe
- Czech Coup of 1948-unsuccessful
- Korean War 1950 -proxy war

NATO
- Founded in 1949 after berlin blockade
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization
- Some say berlin blockade caused the creation of NATO
- 1952 Greece and Turkey are entered into NATO
- Soviets wanted Greece and Turkey for their warm water port
- Turkey directly touches the Soviet Union
- In 1955 Germany has joined forces with the united states and NATO, which
Soviets really didn’t like
- Canada refuses to join NATO unless they include in its framework a mention
about pushing democracy
London Poles & the Lublin Poles

Soviets
- The soviets in every government was the minister of defense and the minister of
the interior (aka minister of justice)
- Salami Tactics
- In poland out of the largest anti-communist party polish peasant party had 246
candidates disqualified, 149 were arrested and 18 murdered
President Harry Truman (D) 1945-1948, 1948-52

Secretary of State: George Marshall (1947-49) , Dean Acheson (1949 - 53)

Head of CIA: several all military men

Military policy: Truman Doctrine, “containment’, NCS-68

Key Policy / Events: “Europe First”, Marshall Plan (European Recovery Program ERP),
Berlin Blockade / Berlin Airlift, Chinese Civil War, Korean War)

KOREAN WAR-remember Asia

- When the cold war gets hot
- Korea was a Japanese controlled Korea
- A key battleground in the Asian part of the Cold War

- North was run by Kim il sung

- communist/nationalist

- South Syngman Rhee

- Capitalist system
- Supported by the US

- 1949 - Both the US and the soviet troops withdraw from Korea
- June, 25th 1950 - North Korea invades South Korea with Soviet Unions
Approach

- North Korea is the aggressor, it invades south Korea

- Would Kim il Sung have invaded north korea without the approval of the Soviet
Union?

- 1st phase north korean invasion of south korea (soviet equipment) = soviet
success
- US president Truman not wanting to repeat the mistake of appeasement used
during ww2, promises to help South Korea

- U.N. or U.S.
 - South Korea asks the newly created UN for help
- UN= the idea of collective security that all the nations will help each other
- There is a body in the UN called the security council that makes all the decision
in the UN
- Impose economic sanctions-restrict trade
- The security council has 5 permenant members- (they have the veto power--the
final decision they all have to agree to pass a recommendation) usa, ussr, etc..
- There are also 10 non-permenant members

- Truman brings the North Korean invasion to the UN

- He even calls for a UN military force to go in and help south korea
- When the vote comes before the security council the USSR abstain their vote, to
try and prove that they are more powerful/don’t care (The USSR doesn’t use their
VETO to stop it)
- The vast majority of troops will be american, the american general behind this is
Douglas MacArthur
- Command of the 15 nation UN
- During this time the US rebuilt Japan, so they also used them as launching
ground for the close proximity to korea
- Japan also supplied America with artillery, food, housing, etc…
- Japan becomes the US’s biggest military ally

Stage 2 - the inchon landings

- MacArthur orders an amphibious invasion at the port of inchon
- MacArthur very quickly liberates South Korea, but then doesn’t stop and continue
his advance into communist North Korea

Stage 3- Chinese invasion

- Then as America approaches the Yalu river of China in their advance, China
decides to invade
- Mao used human wave tactics
- UN troops are pushed back to South Korea
- “We face an entirely new war” MacArthur called for nuclear attacks on Chinese
cities
- Truman does not want a war, but Macarthur openly berates him and calls him a
wimp and goes over his word and talks to the press/congress
- So truman fires Macarthur because Macarthur is basically trying to start WW3
- WW1 was a total war
- Korea is a limited war
Stage 4- 3yrs stalemate
- 1953 stalin dies
- July 1935, armistice signed - (armistice = a time out on the war)
- Once the armistice was signed, people from North/south korea were stuck on
either side
- South Korea became a democracy instead of a capitalist gov, in 1987
- Still two separated states today

Debate over whether korean war was an example of successful containment

Ideology- Soviets are to blame

Expansionism= broke agreement of YALTA and POSTDAM in order to continue

expansionism in Europe

-forced Poland to become communist

-Yalta and Postdam agreement broken
-buffer zone
-COMECON
-refused the Marshall plan
-berlin war/berlin blockade
-stalin grad