Edexcel IAL A World Divided: Superpower Relations 1944-90 History
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Edexcel GCE History A2 Unit 3 E2 A World Divided
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Full Textbook Summary: A World Divided Superpower Relations 1944-90
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1. Historical interpretations: what explains the outbreak and development of the
Cold War in the years 1943-53?
The significance of the clash and role of personalities including, Stalin, Molotov,
Roosevelt, Truman, Churchill, Bevin and Mao
Stalin 1924-1953
Many years after the cold war, Stalin's personality was studied well and analyzed over and over
again and historians came to the conclusion that Stalin was revealed to have been cautious and
more concerned with defense (highly suspicious of the west and viewed the capitalist powers as
anti-bolsheviks. Determined to safeguard the country against foreign attacks). There are many
reasons for this, a major one was the nazi invasion of the USSR when Hitler promised he would
not invade. Although Stalin received intelligence that hitler was going to invade the USSR with
certainty, he refused to believe and so it was reported after the invasion that Stalin suffered from
a breakdown, and he was to remain highly suspicious of the promises of others thereafter.
Stalin's wariness and constant state of defense was illustrated when he ordered for the
American airplanes to not be shot down during the Berlin airlift.
Stalin believed the Allies would turn against him, once Hitler had been defeated. His aim was to
expand Soviet territory into eastern Europe, to create a buffer to protect Russia from the
Western powers. Stalin’s foreign policy became particularly belligerent in 1947-48. He refused
the offer of American Marshall Plan aid and ordered that other Soviet bloc governments refuse it
too. Stalin’s willingness to confront the West culminated in the Soviet blockade of western Berlin
(June 1948-May 1949), a move considered the first major clash of the Cold War. While Stalin
maintained his anti-Western rhetoric and propaganda, he turned his attention to Asia, lending
support to emerging socialist regimes in China and North Korea. Kim Il-sung’s invasion of South
Korea (June 1950) was conducted with Stalin’s authorisation. In the West, Stalin became a
figure of derision, a power-crazed dictator bent on expanding his empire while oppressing his
own people. Paranoid about a Western attack on his country, Stalin sought to expand its
territory at the end of World War II. This mistrust and expansionism, along with Stalin’s
dishonest negotiation and belligerent rhetoric, laid the foundations for the Cold War. Such was
Stalin's design for a foreign policy that might be described as imperial communism. Stalin
followed more of Lenin's policy which was the inevitability of war. The belief that one day the
western powers would team up and take down the bolshevik regime. By 1937, after less than a
decade’s rule as totalitarian dictator, he had increased the Soviet Union’s total industrial output
to the point where it was surpassed only by that of the United States
Vyacheslav Molotov 1939-1949 1953-1956
Molotov was appointed by Stlain as the USSR foreign affair minister until 1949. In molotov own
account the USA was accused of attempting to enslave europe economically
In his wartime dealings with the Allies and afterward, he earned a reputation for
uncompromising hostility to the West. After the war, Molotov was a key player in bringing
Eastern European governments under Soviet influence. He led rejection of the Marshall Plan
(1947), proposing the Molotov Plan -- the Soviet-sponsored economic plan later expanded into
COMECON. The Molotov plan was symbolic of the Soviet Union’s refusal to accept aid from the
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,Marshall Plan or allow any of their satellite states to do so because of their belief that the Plan
was an attempt to weaken Soviet interest in their satellite states through the conditions imposed
and by making beneficiary countries economically dependent on the United States.
Roosevelt March 1933 - April 1945
President Franklin D. Roosevelt envisioned a system of collective security among nations to
create a lasting world peace. After Roosevelt died, President Harry Truman assumed
responsibility for making Roosevelt's idea a reality with the creation of a charter for the United
Nations (U.N. Roosevelt wished to concentrate on winning the war rather than argue about what
would happen afterwards, an issue where disagreements would be much more obvious. Foreign
policy: brought the US into the second world war after the japanese attack on pearl harbor. He
was prepared to negotiate directly with Stalin during the second world war and he was optimistic
that this arrangement could continue after the war. Roosevelt was observed with following
wilsonian liberalism;
a. Self-determination: the right of all national groups to decide their own form of
government according to the democratic wishes of its people
b. Open markets: markets that require the dismantling of trade barriers and spheres of
influence that limited the freedom of capitalism throughout the world
c. Collective security: a grand vision of world peace keeping organization that would
guarantee the safety of any country under attack
In short, Roosevelt was willing to use US influence to ensure peace based on the principles of
Wilsonian Liberalism. He desired to promote international cooperation and spread democracy
as the basis of world peace. To bring Wilsonian liberalism to manifestation, he imagined the
United Nations, an organization of free, independent democratic nations. Roosevelt saw
negotiation and compromise as the most effective methods of safeguarding western interests
while avoiding confrontation with the USSR. However it must be noted that Roosevelt was
constantly criticized for being too soft on Stalin and that his approach had failed to prevent
Stalin from manipulating events and agreements.
Truman April 1945 - January 1953
Truman adopted a more hard line attitude to the soviet union.Truman put the world on notice
through his Truman Doctrine (the US would provide political and economical aid to any
country resisting the forces of communism) that the United States would oppose communist
aggression everywhere; specifically, he called for economic aid to Greece and Turkey to help
those countries resist communist takeover. In the process, Truman shifted U.S. foreign policy
from cooperation with the Soviet Union to “containment” of Soviet power. Both the Truman
Doctrine and the Marshall Plan achieved their objectives, but they also contributed to the global
polarization that characterized five decades of Cold War hostility between East and West. led
the United States into a collective security agreement with noncommunist European
nations—the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)—to resist Soviet expansionism. In 1950
he authorized development of the hydrogen bomb in order to maintain an arms lead over the
Soviets. Truman took firm action during the soviet blockade of berlin and entered the korean war
in 1950 to prevent the spread of communist in the Far East. Some critics have said that
Truman's more ‘iron first’ approach played a large part in responsibility for the development of
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,the cold war. On the other hand, some believe that truman's approach could also be said to
have strengthened the wests defense against soviet encroachment in Europe, but it resulted in
hardening the existing divisions in superpower rivalry and therefore an important factor in the
development of the cold war
Churchill 1940-1945 1951-1955
Churchill was part of the Grand Alliance and he recognised that the war could not be won
without an agreement with the Soviet Union. His foreign policy was strongly anti-communist, but
nonetheless was prepared to work with the USSR against Nazi germany. He met Stalin several
times and established a sound working relationship with Stalin. During World War 2 Churchill
followed the policy of appeasement in which he would compromise with the aggressor to avoid
conflict, however after the end of the War the power vacuum that Nazi germany left was a big
concern for him since the Soviets were slowly enveloping europe with communism and that why
he took a more harsh stance with Stalin than with Hitler to prevent communist influence in
Europe. In the post war world Churchill was deeply suspicious of Stalin's motives and in 1946
his ‘Iron Curtain’ speech called for an alliance between Britain and the USA to prevent Soviet
expansion. The fate of post war Europe was discussed during the war when the USSR, USA
and UK teamed up against Hitler. Churchill drafted what he called the ‘naughty document’ which
was a secret informal agreement between Chruchill and Stalin which gave the percentage
division of control over eastern europe, dividing them into spheres of influence after the war. It
was Britain's attempt to somewhat control Soviet influence in eastern Europe and uphold that of
Great Britain without any reference to the people of the countries. Another reason why Churchill
might have drafted the document was because he was afraid that the US would return to the
policy of isolationism after the war just like they did after world war 1 and he would be lft alone
to deal with Stalin and the USSR. In July of 1945 he was ousted as prime minister but soon
came back from 1951-1955.
Bevin 1945-1951 (his death)
Ernest Bevin was foreign secretary under Clement Attlee's government. Ernest Bevin wass
strongly anti-communist and made continuous attempts to involve the USA in Europe by
pointing to the danger of the Soviet threat to Iran as well as Eastern Europe.
Mao 1949-1976 (his death)
In October 1949 Mao Zedong proclaimed that the People Republic of China was now
established and would be an ally to the USSR.He succeeded in persuading Stalin to sign a
treaty of mutual assistance accompanied by limited economic aid - the sino soviet treaty. They
had no firsthand knowledge of running a state or of large-scale economic development. In such
circumstances the Soviet Union provided the only available model. A five-year plan(Mao
embraced the Soviet Five Year plan model for economic development. His plan was to
focus on the transformation of China as a modern industrial power) was therefore drawn
up under Soviet guidance; it was put into effect in 1953 and included Soviet technical assistance
and a number of complete industrial plants. Yet, within two years, Mao had taken steps that
were to lead to the breakdown of the political and ideological alliance with Moscow.In a report of
July 1955, he reversed that position, arguing that in China the social transformation could run
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, ahead of the technical transformation. Deeply impressed by the achievements of certain
cooperatives that claimed to have radically improved their material conditions without any
outside assistance, he came to believe in the limitless capacity of the Chinese people,
especially of the rural masses, to transform at will both nature and their own social relations
when mobilized for revolutionary goals. The ability of China to rebuild itself and exceed Soviet
assistance made Mao believe he could be not a soviet state but a communist superpower
alongside the USSR.
The significance of rival ideologies throughout the world; policy and propaganda - the
battle for hearts and minds
USA-capitalism
The USA is a representative democracy with a capitalist free market. A capitalist state upheld
liberal democracy which valued;
a. Freedom of press
b. Freedom of speech
c. Freedom of religion
d. Freedom to vote
A liberal democracy gave the people a choice of government and the chance to vote an
unpopular government out of office. The American president continuously followed Wilson
Liberalism which is the basis of the united states of america.
a. Self determination: the right of all national group to decide their own form of government
according to the democratic wishes of its people
b. Open markets: meerkats that require the dismantling of trade barriers and spheres of
influence that limited the freedom of capitalism throughout the world
c. Collective security: a grand vision of a world peacekeeping organization that would
guarantee the safety of any country under attack
Wilson believed that the US had a moral duty to spread its values to the rest of the world. In
capitalism, every individual has the right to own a business, factory and land and gain the
majority of the profit. Simply put, nationalization to the capitalist state was a threat to their
power, status and money.
USSR-communism
When the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 was successful, it became the world's first socialist
state. Communism aimed at improving the lot of the industrial working class by ending their
exploitation by the middle classes and the government that acted in their interests. Marx viewed
capitalism as the exploitation of the working class for the benefit of the middle class. Marx
believed that a capitalist state is inherently unstable as it goes through booms and recessions.
Communism believed that all businesses, land and factories should be taken over by the
government on behalf of the people and through the process of nationalization, it enabled goods
to be fairly distributed according to needs. A communist state saw that different political parties
were the result of different and conflicting classes and so a one party system where the
communist party would rule on behalf of the people was the most suitable action. Marxist said
little about how to go on about international affairs as a communist state. Lenin believed that in
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