This document contains notes for IB SL/HL History Paper 2 Cold War on the 2 Leaders Stalin & Truman. These notes are perfect for any essay question asking for a comparison of 2 Cold War leaders. These are concise notes which I used for my IB Examinations where I got a 7 in HL History.
Stalin & Truman
Ideology
• Truman:
• Catholic- 'punishment follows transgression’- North Korea and PRC- 1949
• White Paper: detailed US aid to GMD- US had not 'lost' China.
• Blamed Int’l conflict on ‘totalitarians’- likened Stalin to Hitler and Al Capone
• Nationalist- appeasement stops America's aim to gain peace on own terms
• Stalin:
• Totalitarian rule and a reign of terror, Gaddis- deceptive
• Suspicion: Tehran- bugged all of the rooms
• Potsdam unproductive- E.Europe to rebuild Soviet Union: Dismember German
Industry, Access to Ruhr (DENIED), Foothold in Japan (DENIED
• Herbert Feis- Betrayal BUT William A Williams: Stalin reaction to US
Opportunism
• Truman:
• German Power vacuum: 1947 TD & MP, 1948- Western bloc united capitalist n
• Stalin:
• E.Europe Power vacuum: puppet governments- Lublin Poles, Red Army,
National Front- communism in enemies of USSR e.g. Bulgaria, Romania
• Political instability: Protests in Italy, France, civil war in Greece, Dardanelles.
Aggressive Policy
• Truman:
• Military presence: Turkey troops, NSC-68 military spending, Denied Dardanelle
• Schlessinger- ‘playing at God’s messenger’ with the MP and TD- self-righteous
• Gillingham- alternative to US involvement in Europe was chaos.
• Stalin:
• Military presence: 5 million Red Army, Salami Tactics, Berlin Blockade
• Japan- 56 islands in Kuril Chain in USSR (1946)- Japan a bastion for capitalism
• Thomas Bailey- Soviet expansion
Duplicity
• Truman:
• Atomic Diplomacy School: warn USSR of US’s military superiority
• New Currency Berlin- Attempt to expel USSR from city through isolation.
• Acheson PDT- BUT sent troops (MacArthur), new Cold war tensions- Increase
in covert operations in S.E Asia- 47 CIA Bases abroad after Korean War
• Stalin:
• Blockade- Attempt to expel West
• ‘Underlying all questions that separated the great Powers for the first 16 years
of the Cold war was Germany’- Colin Brown & Peter Mooney
Fear
• Truman:
• 1949 NATO- unite West- fear of Soviet capabilities with nuclear bombs
• 'Russian Report' - worst-case scenarios: Soviet global conquest by force
• Communism- World Revolution- persistent mentality of USSR as aggressive
• Stalin:
• Warsaw Pact- Response to NATO- mutual fear- militarised Cold War
• US SoI: threat- Aid to DPRK so to not have border with a capitalist state.
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