H2: THE POST-WAR BIPOLAR WORLD

Key Questions:
1. Why did wartime cooperation break down so quickly at the end of WWII?
2. To what extent are the origins of the Cold War to be found in WWII?
3. To what extent did the US and the USSR contribute to establishing a stable postwar order up to
1950?
4. Why did the United States support the establishment of the United Nations?
5. Why did the Allies establish War Crimes Trials?
6. Why did the United States provide Marshall Plan assistance to Europe?

Learning Objectives:
 Understand the significance of the war crime trials (Nuremberg and Tokyo).
 Understand the emergence of superpower rivalry (Stalin and Truman at Potsdam).
 Analyze the importance of key doctrines and events in the early Cold War.
 Analyze the significance of the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950.
 Assess the significance of the Bretton Woods agreement and creation of the UN in
identifying US economic, diplomatic and military influence and power.

Key Terms:
Bretton Woods: created a West Germany. The parties of Central and
collective international Western Allies responded Eastern Europe, France and
currency exchange regime with a massive airlift to Italy. Created in 1947, li was
based on the U.S. dollar and come to West Berlin's aid. dissolved in 1956.
gold. Containment/Truman NATO
Yalta and Potsdam Doctrine: doctrine put to Warsaw Pact: a collective
Conferences: The major the point by President H. defense treaty established
issue at Potsdam was the Truman which consists in by the Soviet Union and
question of how to handle stopping communist seven other Soviet satellite
Germany. At Yalta, the expansion with economic states in Central and Eastern
Soviets had pressed for and military aid. Europe.
heavy postwar reparations Marshall Plan (European IBRD (International Bank
from Germany, half of Recovery Program): for Reconstruction and
which would go to the financial assistance program Development or World
Soviet Union. for the reconstruction of Bank): set up in 1944 and
Iron Curtain: the political, Europe, proposed on June based in Washington, it
military, and ideological 5, 1947 by U.S. Secretary of provides long-term credit
barrier erected by the State George Marshall. In for the reconstruction of
Soviet Union after World total, $13 billion, mainly in war-torn countries and
War II to seal off itself and the form of donations, is assists developing
its dependent eastern and paid over four years. countries.
central European allies from COMECON: an economic GDR (German Democratic
open contact with the West agreement amongst Republic): created on
and other noncommunist communist nations loyal to October 7, 1949 from the
areas. the Soviet Union in former Soviet occupation
Berlin Blockade and Airlift: response to Marshall Plan zone, with East Berlin as its
Stalin imposed the Berlin Cominform: "Information capital.
Blockade from 24 June 1948 Bureau of Communist and FRG (Federal Republic of
to 12 May 1949, cutting off Workers' Parties", bringing Germany): created on May
all land and river transit together, under Moscow's 23, 1949 from the former
between West Berlin and control, the Communist occupation zone of the
United States, France and secure financial stability, Cold War: “mutual hostility
the United Kingdom, with facilitate international expressing itself in open
West Berlin as its capital. trade, promote high fighting, the rival powers
IMF (International employment and attacked each other with
Monetary Fund): sustainable economic propaganda and economic
international organization growth, and reduce poverty measures, and with a
working to foster global around the world. general policy of non-
monetary cooperation, cooperation.

Organization:
1. Post-war order development: FDR’s policy (the Atlantic Charter 41, the Yalta Conference 45,
UN Charter 45), Truman doctrine and tension growth (the Potsdam conference 45, Iron
Curtain speech Churchill 46, National Security Council-68 50, NATO 49, the arms race),
Marshall plan 52 (shift in American foreign policy, Truman doctrine, objectives dans
responses), Soviet responses (the communist information bureau 47, takeover of
Czechoslovakia 48, Berlin blockade and airlift 48-49, Warsaw Pact 55)
Problems of International Relations After the Second World War
CAUSES: The Roots of the Conflict: The two systems
(communist&totalitarian/capitalist&democratic), Stalin’s foreign policy, US and British
hostilities toward the Soviet government. Who: Western opinions (1950s: Stalin had sinister
motives and the “Free World” was forced to defend itself), Soviet opinions (1950s: Stalin was
merely protecting the USSR), Revisionist (1960s: Western hatred of Soviet communism),
Post-Revisionist (middle of the road).
DEVELOPMENT: the Yalta Conference (1945): Focus on Germany (unconditional surrender,
divided into four zones, reparations/labor, war crimes trials), Poland, Free election, USSR to
join war against Japan. FDR’s policy: the Atlantic Charter, the Yalta conference, United
Nations Charter. The Potsdam Conference (1945): No agreement had been reached on long-
term future, Poland was the center of the talks, Eastern Europe transitioned from Nazi
totalitarianism to Soviet totalitarianism. Communism in Eastern Europe: Setting up of pro-
communist governments (Poland, Hungary, Albania, Romania), Opponents to communism
were imprisoned or killed, Hungary (Communist received < 20% of the vote). Heated
Rhetoric: Stalin’s Speech (1946)/ Churchill’s “Iron Curtain Speech” (1946). Continued
Hostilities in the East: By 1947 every eastern European state had a totalitarian communist
government beholden to Stalin (Czechoslovakia an exception, communist opposition was
expelled, arrested and executed, all other parties were dissolved, secret police and Soviet
troops), Stalin made eastern Germany Russian territory. Yugoslavia as an Exception: Tito
elected in 1945, Resented Soviet interference, Non-Alignment Movement). The Truman
Doctrine: The first inkling that the US had no intention to return to isolationism, containment
(Arms and supplies – Greece, Aid - Marshal Plan (European Recovery Program or ERP). The
Marshal Plan (1948): “…against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.”, Secretary of State
George C. Marshall. The Communist Information Bureau (Cominform, 1947): Soviet response
to the Truman Doctrine Marshall Plan, Russian-style communism (industrialization,
collectivization and centralization, trade with Cominform members, restricted contact with
non-communist countries), The Molotov Plan (1947, aid to satellites), Council of Mutual
Economic Assistance (Comecon, coordination of economic policies). The Communist
Takeover of Czechoslovakia (1948, A Bridge Between East and West Closes): Coalition
government of Communist and other parties, Free election (1946, communist - 38% of the
votes; 114 of the 300-seat parliament; third of cabinet posts, Prime Minister Klement
Gottwald – Communist, Pres. Beneš and Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk were not), 1948
election, communist coup (non-communists resigned or were murdered, Beneš and Masaryk
 “committed suicide”). Berlin Blockade (1948-1949): new currency and end to price controls
(1948), “Island of Capitalism”, All ground links between East and West were closed, The Airlift
(“The Candy Bomber”: Gail Halvorsen). The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO): 1948:
The Brussels Defense Treaty (Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg), 1949:
NATO: USA, Canada, Portugal, Denmark, Italy and Norway (The first military alliance for the
US). East and West Germany: The German Federal Republic (1949)/ The German Democratic
Republic (1949). The Arms Race: USSR exploded atomic bomb (1949), 1950: American policy
paper drafted by the Department of State and the Department of Defense, Shaped what
would come to be called “containment”, NSC-68.
2. Global governance and peace: the UN 45, Global economic governance: Bretton Woods
System 45, the Nuremberg (starts in 45) and Tokyo trials (starts in 46))
GLOBAL ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE (The Bretton Woods System): Bretton Woods Conference
(1944-1947) : participants (44 States in 1944, Observer: USSR), Institution controlled (IMF
(1947), International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, 1946), GATT (1948):
WTO (1995)), instruments used (“gold exchange standard” (to 1971) :fixed exchange rate,
Free trade). The Bretton Woods Monetary System: major Contributors to the IMF and World
Bank (US, USSR, UK), IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development:
international financial institution which offers loans to developing countries), IMF
(International Monetary Fund), “Currency Anchor” (currency exchange, Ease reconstruction
guaranteeing the value of national currency based on a sound currency).
THE UNITED NATIONS: Summary: october 1945, UN Charter (San Francisco in 1945, based on
proposals by: Russia, US, China, Britain). Aims: Preserve peace and eliminate war, Remove
the causes of conflict by encouraging economic, social, educational, scientific, and cultural
progress throughout the world, especially in under-developed countries, Safeguard the rights
of all individual human beings, and the rights of peoples and nations. Compared to the
League of Nations: UN has been more successful (More time and resources on economic and
social matters: wider scope, specialized agencies/ Committed to individual human rights/
Changes in the GA and SC: Uniting for Peace” resolution, increased power and prestige of
SG/ Wider membership (“global”): US,USSR), But Weaknesses remain : Veto power of the P5,
No permanent army. The Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials (reasons for war crime trials).
3. The Korean War: UN resolutions, consequences, actors, military confrontation
Cold War Tensions in Asia
Background to the War (Division and the Cold War): aug 1948: Republic of Korea (South
Korea), Syngman Ree, Sep 1948: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kim Il Sung, US
and Soviet troops left (1949), June 1950: N Korea invaded S Korea. Resolutions of the United
Nations (1950).

LESSON:

Introduction:
In 1945, the announcement of the German and Japanese capitulations triggered manifestations of
joy around the world. But the magnitude of suffering, human losses and material destruction makes
humanity aware that an unprecedented threshold of violence has been crossed. Thus, the victorious
powers of the Great Alliance hope to make 1945 the year zero of a new era based on world peace,
collective security and prosperity. The creation of the United Nations Organization in June 1945
testifies to this desire for international cooperation, and was to form the pillar of the new world
order to come. However, the alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union is rapidly
cracking and their ideological rivalry led to the bipolarization of the world as early as 1947.

The world in 1945: the hope of a new international order

A human disaster. The number of victims is much higher than that of the First World War because of
the nature of the conflict: an ideological war of annihilation involving a colossal mobilization of
material and human resources. It is estimated that nearly 60 million people have died, including
more than 50% civilians. The USSR and Central and Eastern Europe are particularly affected.
Considerable material destruction. Many cities, as well as transport infrastructure and factories have
suffered considerable damage due to the scale of the bombing. In the USSR, 28 million people are
homeless; in Poland, 74% of railway equipment is destroyed; in Germany, more than 50% of 45 cities
are destroyed. A terrible trauma. In the aftermath of the war, the world discovers how science and
technique, in unprecedented proportions, can be put at the service of mass killings. The Nazis
exterminated between 5 and 6 million Jews, 200,000 Gypsies and thousands of other people
(resistant, disabled, homosexuals). In China, the abuses committed by the Japanese in the context of
Operation Sankô Sakusen have resulted in the death of more than 2.7 million people. Finally, the use
of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, beyond the tens of thousands of victims, shows that
humanity now has the means to destroy itself.

2. Settle the fate of the vanquished.

Judging war criminals. Faced with the unspeakable atrocities, punishing the culprits becomes a moral
duty for the Allies. The status of an "international military court" is set by the London agreements in
August 1945 and the new notion of "crime against humanity" appears among the charges. The
Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals judged the main German and Japanese officials on the basis of
abundant documentation and testimony. Conferences to make peace. Even before the end of the
war, the Allies organized several conferences to prepare for the return to peace. AYalta 4 (as of
February 1, 1945), the "Great Three" (Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill) establish the future borders of
liberated Europe and agree to the organization of free elections in countries liberated from Nazi
domination. In Potsdam, they agree on the fate of Germany, which is denazified, occupied and
divided into four zones of occupation, and that of Japan (unconditional surrender, democratization).
A weakened alliance. However, the future peace organization re-emerges the divisions between the
West and the USSR. While the former wanted the principles of liberal democracy and collective
security to triumph, Stalin wanted to use the prestige of the Red Army to create a Soviet sphere of
influence in Eastern Europe.

3. Towards a better world?

Ensure international peace and security. Signed on June 26, 1945 in San Francisco by the
representatives of 51 States, the United Nations Charter enshrines the ideal of a united world
already advocated by Roosevelt and Churchill in the Atlantic Charter (1941). It reaffirmed
fundamental human rights and, for the first time, the rights of women. UN member states pledge to
respect the principle of equality between nations and to join forces to maintain peace and collective
security. Promote a return to economic prosperity. For the United States, lasting peace is only
possible in a context of economic growth. The Bretton Woods Agreement, signed on July 2, 1944,
established a new international monetary system in which the dollar is the reference currency. The
IMF and the IBRD, the central institutions of the new global economic order, are intended to
guarantee prosperity and monetary balance in order to avoid the economic disorders of the 1930s.
Guarantee social justice. As early as the 1930s, the economic crisis led liberal democracies to
redefine the role of the State and strengthen its prerogatives in the social field. The principles of the
welfare state and Keynesian theories really impose themselves after the war. Thus, in France, largely
inspired by the CNR program, the GPRF created Social Security in October 1945 and decided to
nationalize key sectors of the economy.

Rising tensions in Europe and the Middle East

1. Des tensions croissantes entre les deux Grands (1945-début 1947)

Soviet ambitions. Building on the prestige gained by the Red Army in the fight against Nazism, Stalin
gradually took control of Central and Eastern Europe to ensure the USSR's security against possible
Western aggression. His territorial ambitions also extended to the Middle East, notably northern
Iran, to secure oil supplies. Finally, the USSR tried in vain to obtain from Turkey at least partial
control of the Black Sea straits to guarantee access to the Mediterranean. Towards the end of the
Grand Alliance. The USSR's determination to establish Communist regimes in the countries it had
liberated ran counter to the Yalta agreements, which provided for free elections. Through rigged
elections and even coups de force (as in Czechoslovakia in February 1948), Eastern Europe came
under Soviet rule in just two years. As early as May 1, 1945, Churchill used the term "iron curtain" to
refer to Stalin's grip on Eastern Europe. Divergences in the management of occupied Germany. In
order not to repeat the mistake of the Treaty of Versailles by weakening defeated Germany, the
Western powers are restoring the liberal economy and democracy in West Germany. In their area of
occupation, the Soviets place communists in power.

2. The birth of a bipolar world (1947-1949)

Stem communist expansion. On March 12, 1947, American President Harry Truman announced the
containment policy to stop communist progress. Convinced that misery favors communist ideas, the
United States immediately offers aid to the states most threatened by communist guerrillas (Greece,
Turkey, Iran) and offers financial support for the reconstruction of European countries: the Marshall
Plan. 16 Western European countries accept this aid, which is on the other hand refused by Stalin
and in his wake by the countries of Eastern Europe. The dividing line between the two Europes is
now clearly defined. The Soviet response. To strengthen the links between the communist parties of
Europe and the CPSU, Stalin created the Kominform in September 1947. Andrei Jdanov, one of
Stalin's main collaborators, denounces the American imperialism embodied by the Marshall Plan and
notes the division of the world into two antagonistic camps. The Berlin Crisis (1948-1949). Germany
and Berlin become the first terrain of the Cold War. After the merger of their area of occupation
(June 1948), Westerners created a new currency for the West, the Deutsche Mark also valid in West
Berlin. Stalin, who for several months has claimed the whole of Berlin located in the heart of the
Soviet zone, replies by the land blockade of West Berlin. Then began an eleven-month standoff
between the Soviets and the Americans who decided to supply West Berlin and its 2.5 million
inhabitants by an airlift. On May 12, 1949, Stalin lifted the blockade. The crisis accelerates the
separation of Germany into two states: in the west, the Federal Republic of Germany, a liberal
democracy, and in the east, the GDR, a popular democracy.
 3. The origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict

Jews and Arabs in Palestine. During the First World War, the British promised both the Arabs the
creation of a united Arab state, and the Sionism, the creation of a "Jewish national home" in
Palestine. Faced with strong Jewish immigration, the Arabs of Palestine revolted in 1936 against
Great Britain, which had become the proxy power of the region. On the eve of the war, the British,
anxious to spare their Arab allies, strongly reduced Jewish immigration and accepted the principle of
the creation of a single state in Palestine, composed overwhelmingly of Arabs. The creation of the
State of Israel. After 1945, when the Sionists called for the creation of a refuge state for Jews around
the world traumatized by genocide, the United Kingdom maintains immigration quotas. Clashes
between Jews from Palestine, Arabs and British are doubling. In the impasse, the United Kingdom
relies on the UN, which establishes a plan for the division of Palestine. While the Arabs rejected the
division of what they believed to be their land, the Jews proclaimed the independence of the State
of Israel on May 14, 1948. The lende- hand, the Arab League declares war on the new Jewish state.
Faced with the lack of unity of the Arab armies, Israel, which has British equipment from the Second
World War and modern armaments supplied by Czechoslovakia, won its first victory.