?By 1950 The Prospects For Peaceful Coexistence Between The USA And The USSR Had Diminished Enormous Essay, Research Paper
The Japanese surrender in on the 14th August 1945 ended six
years of world war, which had seen the United States of America (USA) and the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) as allies. This essay will examine
whether the prospects for peaceful coexistence between these two countries
increased or diminished over the next five years up to 1950. Peaceful coexistence
is the maintaining of friendly relations between countries or, as it was known
in the Second World War, an entente cordiale. The are a number of key questions which will need to be
examined and answered in this essay. These include; were the prospects for
peaceful coexistence good at the end of the Second World War in 1945, and
whether this prospect increased or decreased over the next five years. There is a large amount of evidence which shows that the
prospects of peaceful coexistence were small at the end of the Second World War
in 1945. This evidence includes the USA?s use of the atomic bomb against the
Japanese. This caused mistrust between the USA and the USSR, as the Americans
did not inform the Soviets of their research into atomic weaponry. The
Americans did, however, inform their other ally Great Britain of their
research. This caused the Soviets to believe the Americans did not tell them
because they planned to use the atomic bombs against them. The Soviets were not told about the American research into
atomic weaponry but this did not mean they did not know. The Soviets used spies
and espionage methods to discover what the Americans were doing. This again
caused mistrust as the USA and the USSR were meant to be allies yet they had to
use espionage to discover what each other was doing. It could be claimed that the wartime alliance between the
USA and the USSR was not a true alliance but an alliance formed out of hatred
of a common enemy. The alliance between the USA and Great Britain was a true
alliance, as they communicated and shared secrets. Stalin, the leader of the
USSR supported this view. He believed that the Americans and the British had
delayed the formation of a second front against Germany for too long. He
believed that the British and Americans wanted to use the USSR to weaken
Germany so that they did not lose too many troops. The major point of conflict between the USA and the USSR was
the mistrust and misunderstanding of each other?s political systems: capitalism
and communism respectively. The USA feared a communist expansion at the end of
the war and the USSR feared the capitalist world trying to spread capitalism
into the USSR. This meant that at the end of the war the stage was set for a
confrontation between the capitalist world and the communist world, with the
world superpowers USA and USSR leading each side. At
the end of the war the tension between the USA and the USSR did not dissipate
but it escalated. The first cause of increased tension was the introduction of
the Truman doctrine, which ended the Americans pre war policy of isolationism.
This decision to end the policy of isolationism was probably due to the
increased threat the Americans felt of a communist expansion with the USSR now
having control of Eastern Europe. The Truman doctrine pledged to provide aid to any country
which felt threatened by communism. This aid was first dispensed to Greece and
Turkey which were both being threatened by communist uprisings within their
countries. This was the first direct confrontation between the two political
systems capitalism and communism. The USSR felt threatened by the Truman
doctrine as they thought it was a direct challenge to their system of
government. The Marshall plan followed the Truman doctrine. The Marshall
plan offered American money to any European country that needed it to rebuild
themselves after the war. The biggest recipient of the financial aid was
Britain who was in terrible shape after the war. This plan wasn?t as openly
anti-communist as the Truman doctrine but it was also set-up for an
anti-communist purpose. communism like all extremes in politics receives more
attention from the public in a country when there is an economic depression and
no other political party seems to be able to solve the problems. The USA
realised this and decided to stop this breeding ground for communism being
created in Europe, particularly in Italy and France where the national
communist parties were receiving a large amount of support at the end of the
war. Overall the Americans spent $13 billion through the Marshall plan helping
to rebuild Europe. At the end of the war there was a large question to be
answered: what should the allies do with Germany. The question was discussed at
two separate peace conferences in Yalta and Potsdam. In the end the decision to
divide Germany into zones and each zone would be controlled by each of the
allies Great Britain, France, USA and USSR. The capital city would also be
divided in this way. This decision proved to become key in the forthcoming cold
war between the USA and the USSR as Germany and particularly Berlin, became a
flash-point area for the upcoming tensions as the two superpowers were so close
together. One major conflict that occurred between the USA and the
USSR was the Berlin blockade. This was the blockade of the French, British, and
American sectors within Berlin between 1948 and 1949 by the Soviets. This was
done because the Americans introduced a new currency into their sector of
Berlin. This was to try and support the economy. This new currency was then
adopted in the British and French sectors, but the Soviet sector declined to
adopt the new currency as they believed it would allow Americans to tighten
their grip over Berlin. The Americans responded to this challenge by transporting
goods into their sector along the only route which could not be blockaded: the
air. This was a massive operation and was co-ordinated from Britain and used
British and American planes and pilots. At its peak a plane was landing in West
Germany every sixty seconds in all weather conditions and at all times of day.
This event confirmed the division in of Germany and further reduced the
prospects for peaceful co-existence. Also in 1949 the Soviets tested their first atomic weapon.
This was quite a shock to the Americans, as they believed it would be another
three to four years before the USSR would have a nuclear capability. This was
the killer blow to any hopes of peaceful co-existence between the Americans and
the Soviets as it started a nuclear arms race. The Americans recognised the threat the Soviets posed and
therefore set-up a group of allies to help each other to combat the group of
Communist countries of which China became one in 1949 taking with them one
fifth of the earth?s population. This group of allies was called NATO the North
Atlantic Treaty Organisation. This confirmed one side in the forthcoming cold
war and confirmed the hopes for peaceful co-existence had completely gone. In conclusion it could be argued that the prospects for
peaceful co-existence were very small by the end of the Second World War in
1945 and events after this only went further to reduce the hopes even more. The
major reason for the loss of peaceful co-existence was the large amount of
mistrust between the two countries particularly caused by their different
political systems. By 1950 the prospect for peaceful co-existence was
non-existent. The next thirty years saw the escalation of hostile relations
between the two sides during the Cold war.