Topic 5 - Cold War Vocabulary

~ Cold War Vocabulary ~

Traditionalist/Orthodox view: George Kennan, Arthur Schlesinger, W.H. McNeil and H. Feis.  Idea that Soviets were expansionists due to their suspicions of the West and in accordance with their Marxist theory, which advocates the spread of communism to the rest of the world.  US had to act defensively from the Truman Doctrine to NATO.

Revisionist view: W.A. Williams, Thomas Patterson, P.M.S. Blanckett.  Popular after Vietnam War when US foreign policy was unpopular.  Held US responsible due to ‘dollar diplomacy’ whereby American policy was determined by the nature of Capitalism and fears of recession.  Foreign policy was not relevant to Soviet action and if Americans would have been more willing to understand the Soviets’ need for security and offer some compromises, Stalin would have made concessions. 

Post-revisionist view: Martin McCauley, Walter LaFaber, and John Lewis Gaddis.  Stress USA and USSR can’t be solely responsible and that origins resulted from a 'complicated interaction of external and internal developments inside US and USSR.’  Misinterpretations played an important part. 

Riga Axioms: A key center for research on Soviets was Riga, capital of Latvia, which was a haven for middle- upper-class Russian exiles.  The views and attitudes developed in Riga had a profound influence on policy formations drawn up by the Division of Russian Affairs in Washington, which Yergin dubbed the ‘Riga axioms.’

Appeasement: avoiding war by making concessions

Nazi-Soviet Pact: 1939 Russia and Germany signed a non-aggression pact

Second Front: during the war Stalin demanded the Allies open a second front to relieve Russian soldiers

Lend-lease cancelled: the US aided the Allies with war materials, however ??

Yalta (February 1945): conference held in Russia involving Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill to plan Europe’s future after the War.  It was agreed that UN replace League of Nations, Germany would be divided into zones, free elections would be held in the states of Eastern Europe, USSR would go the war on the condition she received territory.

United Nations: replacement of failed League of Nations whose aim was to facilitate cooperation of international law, world peace, etc.

Zones in Germany and Austria: it was agreed at Yalta and Potsdam that Germany and Austria should be divided temporarily into allied-occupied (Britain, France, American, and Soviet) zones administered by the Allied Control Council (ACC) with Berlin’s and Vienna’s government being the responsibility of the Allies Kommandantura.  It was intended that Germany be treated as one economic unit and eventually emerge as a united independent state.

Curzon line: line between Second Polish Republic and Bolshevik Russia

Lublin and London Poles: when Russian army liberated Poland they set up a communist government in Lublin, even though there was a Polish government in exile in London.  Agreed at Yalta that some members (non-communists) of the London based government should be allowed to joint he Lublin government, but did not follow through.

‘Salami tactics’: USSR had gained control by ‘salami tactics’, term by Hungarian Communist leader, Rakosi.  The Soviets would supervise the organization of governments then each of the parties was ‘slice off’ until communism was left, and local communists were replaced (if needed) by Moscow-trained people.

Potsdam (July 1945): Stalin, Truman (replaced Roosevelt, who had died in April) and Clement Attlee (new British Labor Prime Minister)

o      Whether or when the four zones would be allowed to join together and form a united country

o      Germany was to be disarmed, the Nazi party were to be disbanded and it's leaders tried as war criminals

o      Agreed that Germans should pay something towards the damage they cause during the war

Marshal Tito: communist leader of Yugoslavia

The Long Telegram: February 1946, the State Department cabled the US Moscow Embassy asking for an explanation for increasing anti-West tendencies.  Keenan replied warning US that Soviets were aggressive and threatening, but would appeal to the logic of force. 

Mr X Article: written by Keenan for Foreign Affairs in 1947 that stated US should ‘continue to regard the Soviet Union as a rival, not a partner’.  Keenan was a strong influence on Truman

Iran (1946): Tried to increase political control in Iran because Stalin wanted rights to Black Sea Straits and to Iranian oil as did his former allies.  Stalin left 30,000 in north, claiming they were needed there to help put down rebellion, when in fact, Soviet troops encouraged a Communist uprising.  UN had first crisis and troops retreated

Iron Certain speech: former British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill made a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri to warn America of Soviet aggression. 

Truman Doctrine: in response to the uprisings in Greece and Turkey, Truman put forward a document that the US had obligation to ‘support free peoples who are resisting subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.’  US didn’t want communist take over so US aid and military advisers were sent over to Greece in name of preserving democracy over communism

Containment: term first used by Kennan in The Long Telegram to describe US foreign policy, which aimed to limit the spread of communism.

Czech coup: in February 1948, Stalin organized pressure of Czechoslovakian coalition government.  The Czech communist party leader demanded formation of a communist-led government.  The Marshall Plan was a direct result.

Marshall Plan: economic extension of the ideas in the Truman Doctrine, designed to give immediate economic aid thereby making countries more secure and less likely to become communist. 

Molotov Plan: Soviet version of the Marshall Plan that gave aid to rebuild Eastern countries that were politically aligned with USSR.

Dollar Imperialism: term used by foreign minister, Molotov, who believed the Marshall Plan that was being used by the US to gain power in Western Europe

COMECON: council for mutual economic assistance by Soviet Union for countries of Eastern Europe.

Bizonia: combination of American and British zones in 1947 that came to be the Federal Republic of Germany

Currency controversy: 40, three Western Allies initiated a new currency, the Deutsche Mark to improve the economy.  Soviet Union declared it as a step toward the creation of a separate German state and shut off Berlin to prevent the new currency infiltrating into its sector.

ACC (Allied Control Council): military governing body of the Allied Occupation Zones

Berlin Crisis: all roads, rail and canal links between west Berlin and west Germany were closed. Their aim was to force the West to withdraw from West Berlin by reducing it to starvation point

Cominform: founded in 1947, coordinated Communist states under Soviet Union

NATO: formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization occured April 1949 agreeing to reguard any attack on one of them as an attack on all of them

2 Germanys (German Democratic Republic and German Federal Republic): Germany was divided into East and West Germany as neither side wanted a re-united Germany to side with the opposing camp

USSR explodes A bomb: in Kazakhstan, USSR detonated their first atomic bomb 

Korea 1949-53: war between the Republic of Korea (supported by US and UN) and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (supported by China).  After Korea was divided by the Allies post-WWII, North Korea invaded the South in order to unite the country under communism. 

Rollback: US and UN endorced the policy – the destruction of North Korean government

People’s Republic of China: after a civil war the Communist Party took control in 1949 and proclaimed a new government under the leadership of Mao Zedong 

Kim il-Sung: the ‘eternal leader’ of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Syngman Rhee: first president of South Korea.  Extremely anti-communist.

Inchon: military naval invasion under MacArthur by US and UN troops, which captured South Korean and Seoul two weeks later

Pyongyang/ Seoul: capital of North Korea / capital of South Korea

38^th parallel: after WWII divided the peninsula in the middle to be controlled by allied forces temporarily, but ended up splitting the country into North and South Korea

UN Boycott (USSR): government boycotted UN in protest over the occupation of Chinese seat by the Republic of China, as they recognized People’s Republic of China

Dean Acheson’s Perimeter Speech (Korea): speech that described US “defense perimeter” in the Pacific, including Japan and the Philippines, but omitting Korea.

George Macarthur: general in the Pacific during WWII and commander of US and UN troops in the Koran war

SEATO: South Asia Treaty Organization – international organization for collective defense and to bloc further communist gains in South East Asia

Taiwan: island where the leaders of the leader of the Republic of China were located, with the ambition to ‘recover the mainland’

7^th Fleet: US naval base near Japan and South Korea