Cold War Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Beginning of the Cold War, containment and the Truman Doctrine (1947β1953)== {{Main|Cold War (1947β1948)|Cold War (1948β1953)|Soviet empire|Containment|Truman Doctrine}} ===Iron Curtain, Iran, Turkey, Greece, and Poland=== {{Further|X Article|Iron Curtain|Iran crisis of 1946|Restatement of Policy on Germany}} [[File:ΔΓΕΎov (Zaisa) - preserved part of Iron curtain.JPG|thumb|left|Remains of the "Iron Curtain" in the [[Czech Republic]], 2014]] In late February 1946, [[George F. Kennan]]'s "[[X Article|Long Telegram]]" from Moscow to Washington helped to articulate the US government's increasingly hard line against the Soviets, which would become the basis for US strategy toward the Soviet Union for the duration of the Cold War. The telegram galvanized a policy debate that would eventually shape the [[Presidency of Harry S. Truman|Truman administration]]'s Soviet policy.<ref>{{Cite web|date=22 February 2021|title=This Day in History: George Kennan Sends "Long Telegram"|url=https://www.trumanlibraryinstitute.org/this-day-in-history-2/|access-date=27 October 2021|website=Truman Library Institute}}</ref> Washington's opposition to the Soviets accumulated after broken promises by Stalin and [[Vyacheslav Molotov|Molotov]] concerning Europe and Iran.{{sfn|Hasanli|2014|pp=221β222}} Following the World War II [[Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran]], the country was occupied by the Red Army in the far north and the British in the south.{{sfn|Sebestyen|2014}} Iran was used by the United States and British to supply the Soviet Union, and the Allies agreed to withdraw from Iran within six months after the cessation of hostilities.{{sfn|Sebestyen|2014}} However, when this deadline came, the Soviets remained in Iran under the guise of the [[Azerbaijan People's Government]] and [[Kurdish separatism in Iran|Kurdish]] [[Republic of Mahabad]].{{sfn|Kinzer|2003|pp=65β66}} Shortly thereafter, on 5 March, former British prime minister Winston Churchill delivered his famous "[[Iron Curtain]]" speech in [[Fulton, Missouri]].{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=94}} The speech called for an Anglo-American alliance against the Soviets, whom he accused of establishing an "iron curtain" dividing Europe from "[[Szczecin|Stettin]] in the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] to [[Trieste]] in the [[Adriatic Sea|Adriatic]]".{{sfn|Schmitz|1999}}{{sfn|Harriman|1987β1988}} A week later, on 13 March, Stalin responded vigorously to the speech, saying that Churchill could be compared to [[Adolf Hitler]] insofar as he advocated the racial superiority of [[List of countries and territories where English is an official language|English-speaking nations]] so that they could satisfy their hunger for world domination, and that such a declaration was "a call for war on the USSR." The Soviet leader also dismissed the accusation that the USSR was exerting increasing control over the countries lying in its sphere. He argued that there was nothing surprising in "the fact that the Soviet Union, anxious for its future safety, [was] trying to see to it that governments loyal in their attitude to the Soviet Union should exist in these countries."{{sfn|Marxists Internet Archive}}{{sfn|McCauley|2008|p=143}} {{multiple image | border = infobox | image_gap = 20 | caption_align = center |align=right |direction=horizontal |image1=Cold war europe military alliances map en.png |width1=200 |caption1=European military alliances |image2=Cold war europe economic alliances map en.png |width2=200 |caption2=European economic blocs }} Soviet territorial demands to Turkey regarding the Dardanelles in the [[Turkish Straits crisis]] and Black Sea [[Soviet territorial claims against Turkey|border disputes]] were also a major factor in increasing tensions.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Roberts|first=Geoffrey|date=2011|title=Moscow's Cold War on the Periphery: Soviet Policy in Greece, Iran, and Turkey, 1943β8|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25764609|journal=Journal of Contemporary History|volume=46|issue=1|pages=58β81|doi=10.1177/0022009410383292|jstor=25764609|hdl=20.500.12323/1406|s2cid=161542583|issn=0022-0094|hdl-access=free}}</ref>{{sfn|Hasanli|2014|pp=221-222}} In September, the Soviet side produced the [[Nikolai Vasilevich Novikov|Novikov]] telegram, sent by the Soviet ambassador to the US but commissioned and "co-authored" by [[Vyacheslav Molotov]]; it portrayed the US as being in the grip of monopoly capitalists who were building up military capability "to prepare the conditions for winning world supremacy in a new war".{{sfn|Kydd|2018|p=107}} On 6 September 1946, [[James F. Byrnes]] delivered a [[Restatement of Policy on Germany|speech]] in Germany repudiating the [[Morgenthau Plan]] (a proposal to partition and de-industrialize post-war Germany) and warning the Soviets that the US intended to maintain a military presence in Europe indefinitely.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=30}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Secretary of State James Byrnes. Restatement of Policy on Germany. September 6, 1946 |url=https://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/ga4-460906.htm |website=usa.usembassy.de |access-date=5 November 2022}}</ref> As Byrnes stated a month later, "The nub of our program was to win the German people ... it was a battle between us and Russia over minds ..." In December, the Soviets agreed to withdraw from Iran after persistent US pressure, an early success of containment policy. By 1947, US president [[Harry S. Truman]] was outraged by the perceived resistance of the Soviet Union to American demands in Iran, Turkey, and Greece, as well as Soviet rejection of the [[Baruch Plan]] on nuclear weapons.{{sfn|Milestones: 1945β1952}} In February 1947, the British government announced that it could no longer afford to finance the [[Kingdom of Greece]] in [[Greek Civil War|its civil war]] against Communist-led insurgents.{{sfn|Iatrides|1996|pp=373β376}} In the same month, Stalin conducted the rigged [[1947 Polish legislative election]] which constituted an open breach of the [[Yalta Agreement]]. The [[Federal government of the United States|US government]] responded to this announcement by adopting a policy of [[containment]],{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=28β29}} with the goal of stopping the spread of [[communism]]. Truman delivered a speech calling for the allocation of $400 million to intervene in the war and unveiled the [[Truman Doctrine]], which framed the conflict as a contest between free peoples and [[totalitarian]] regimes.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=28β29}} American policymakers accused the Soviet Union of conspiring against the Greek royalists in an effort to [[Domino theory|expand Soviet influence]] even though Stalin had told the Communist Party to cooperate with the British-backed government.{{sfn|Gerolymatos|2017|pp=195β204}} (The insurgents were helped by [[Josip Broz Tito]]'s [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]] against Stalin's wishes.){{sfn|LaFeber|1993|pp=194β197}}{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=38}} Enunciation of the Truman Doctrine marked the beginning of a US bipartisan defense and foreign policy consensus between [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]] and [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]] focused on containment and [[Deterrence theory|deterrence]] that weakened during and after the [[Vietnam War]], but ultimately persisted thereafter.{{sfn|Paterson|1989|pp=35, 142, 212}} Moderate and conservative parties in Europe, as well as social democrats, gave virtually unconditional support to the Western alliance,{{sfn|Moschonas|2002|p=21}} while [[Eurocommunism|European]] and [[Communist Party USA|American Communists]], financed by the [[KGB]] and involved in its intelligence operations,{{sfn|Andrew|Mitrokhin|2000|p=276}} adhered to Moscow's line, although dissent began to appear after 1956. Other critiques of the consensus policy came from [[Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War|anti-Vietnam War activists]], the [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]], and the [[anti-nuclear movement]].{{sfn|Crocker|Hampson|Aall|2007|p=55}} ===Marshall Plan, Czechoslovak coup d'Γ©tat, and formation of two German states=== {{Main|Marshall Plan|Western Bloc|1948 Czechoslovak coup d'Γ©tat}} {{multiple image | border = infobox | image_gap = 20 | caption_align = center |align=right |direction=vertical |width=200 |image1=US-MarshallPlanAid-Logo.svg |caption1=The labeling used on the [[Marshall Plan]] economic [[aid]] to Western Europe |image2=Marshall Plan.png |caption2=Map of Cold War-era Europe and the [[Near East]] showing countries that received Marshall Plan aid. The red columns show the relative amount of total aid received per nation. |image3=Marshallplanhilfe.gif |caption3=Construction in [[West Berlin]] under Marshall Plan aid }} In early 1947, France, Britain and the United States unsuccessfully attempted to reach an agreement with the Soviet Union for a plan envisioning an economically self-sufficient Germany, including a detailed accounting of the industrial plants, goods and infrastructure already taken by the Soviets.{{sfn|Miller|2000|p=16}} In June 1947, in accordance with the [[Truman Doctrine]], the United States enacted the [[Marshall Plan]], a pledge of economic assistance for all European countries willing to participate, including the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Miller|2000|p=16}} Under the plan, which President Harry S. Truman signed on 3 April 1948, the US government gave to Western European countries over $13 billion (equivalent to $189.39 billion in 2016) to rebuild the [[economy of Europe]]. Later, the program led to the creation of the [[OECD]]. The plan's aim was to rebuild the democratic and economic systems of Europe and to counter perceived threats to the [[European balance of power]], such as communist parties seizing control through revolutions or elections.{{sfn|Gaddis|1990|p=186}} The plan also stated that European prosperity was contingent upon German economic recovery.{{sfn|Dinan|2017|p=40}} One month later, Truman signed the [[National Security Act of 1947]], creating a unified [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]], the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA), and the [[United States National Security Council|National Security Council]] (NSC). These would become the main bureaucracies for US defense policy in the Cold War.{{sfn|Karabell|1999|p=916}} Stalin believed that economic integration with the West would allow [[Eastern Bloc]] countries to escape Soviet control, and that the US was trying to buy a pro-US re-alignment of Europe.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=32}} Stalin therefore prevented Eastern Bloc nations from receiving Marshall Plan aid.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|p=32}} The Soviet Union's alternative to the Marshall Plan, which was purported to involve Soviet subsidies and trade with central and eastern Europe, became known as the [[Molotov Plan]] (later institutionalized in January 1949 as the [[Comecon|Council for Mutual Economic Assistance]]).{{sfn|LaFeber|1993|pp=194β197}} Stalin was also fearful of a reconstituted Germany; his vision of a post-war Germany did not include the ability to rearm or pose any kind of threat to the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=105β106}} In early 1948, following reports of strengthening "reactionary elements", Czech Communists executed a [[1948 Czechoslovak coup d'Γ©tat|coup d'Γ©tat]] in [[Czechoslovakia]] (resulting in the formation of the [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]] (9 May 1948)), the only Eastern Bloc state that the Soviets had permitted to retain democratic structures.{{sfn|Wettig|2008|p=86}} The public brutality of the coup shocked Western powers more than any event up to that point, set in motion a brief scare that war would occur, and swept away the last vestiges of opposition to the Marshall Plan in the United States Congress.{{sfn|Miller|2000|p=19}}{{sfn|Grenville|2005|pp=370β371}} In an immediate aftermath of the crisis, the [[London Six-Power Conference]] was held, resulting in the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] boycott of the Allied Control Council and its incapacitation, an event marking the beginning of the full-blown Cold War and the end of its prelude, as well as ending any hopes at the time for a single German government and leading to formation in 1949 of the [[West Germany|Federal Republic of Germany]] and [[East Germany|German Democratic Republic]].{{sfn|Wettig|2008|pp=96β100}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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