IAFF 1005 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Russian Civil War, Berlin Blockade, Iron Curtain
13 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Thursday Lecture: The Cold War
I. 1917-1939
A. Bolshevik revolution
B. Western intervention in Russian civil war; minor US role
C. Mutual ideological opposition
D. Western diplomatic/economic isolation of USSR
E. US diplomatic
II. During the cold war
A. Short alliance of the US and USSR out of necessity in the common fight against Hitler and Nazi
Germany
1. Second front Normandy invasion
2. Series of summits to talk about postwar order
B. Iron curtain speech
C. Alliance of convenience turns to adversarial and confrontational with the US and USSR
1. Berlin blockade 1948
2. 1949 NATO forms
3. 1949 SU tests an atomic bomb → shocking to the US who thought it would take
them much longer to do so
D. 1949 Mao takes over in the People’s Republic of China
III. Causes of the Cold War
A. Traditionalist: blames the USSR and stalin
1. US was reducing its forces and pushing for the UN
2. USSR occupied Eastern Europe and was aggressive elsewhere
B. Revisionist: blames the US
1. USSR was too weak to pick a fight
2. US leaders becoming increasingly anti-communist
3. US economy required markeys
C. Post-revisionist: blames the bipolar system
1. The bipolar system made conflict highly likely/inevitable
2. US and USSR both faced security dilemmas
3. You would expect conflict to develop here → both aspiring to be #1
IV. Levels of analysis
A. System level factors
1. 2 large powers standing → bipolar
2. Enormous power vacuums in Europe, Asia, Middle East
3. Enormous security concerns
a) USSR weak but large army and European location
b) US strong and atomic monopoly but far from Europe despite having a lot of
European allies
4. Strong security dilemmas
a) Each side saw itself as defensive
b) Each side saw the other’s actions as aggressive
5. Structure of the system made conflict highly likely
B. State level factors
1. US/USSR had antagonist ideologies and histories
2. USSR determined to have sphere/buffer in E/C Europe due to ideology and wartime
experiences
C. Individual
1. Stalin’s personality: aggressive, paranoid, secretice
2. Death of FDR: he had committed to integration → rise of hawkish advisors
3. Truman was relatively uninformed about what was going on
V. US demobilization
A. Was rapid and massive
1. Manpower: from 12 million to 1.4 by 1947
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Document Summary
1917-1939: bolshevik revolution, western intervention in russian civil war; minor us role, mutual ideological opposition, western diplomatic/economic isolation of ussr, us diplomatic. During the cold war: short alliance of the us and ussr out of necessity in the common fight against hitler and nazi. Why this matters war: 1945-1950 was another juncture for world order, the beginning of a cascade of conflicts, beginning the nuclear arm race, lasting legacies into the 21st century. Nuclear weapons: nuclear weapons and deterrence arms competitions today, history, since 1815. What is special about nuclear weapons: in 1945, us bombing in japan killed 220,000 people in incendiary attacks, 100,000-125,000 people in nuclear attacks, effects of a 1mt bomb, blast, heat/fire, light, prompt radiation, fallout, electromagnetic pulse (emp) Strategic triad: bombers us took the lead, with gravity bombs, or short-range attack or air-launched cruise missiles, intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
