Defence to one side, threat to the other

G2 Full History - syllabus K227, 2027

What this lesson teaches

  • I can explain how rivalry between the USA and the USSR after 1945 divided Europe and shaped the Cold War.

    Syllabus K227, The Cold War, Learning Outcomes. Explain the impact of rivalry between the USA and USSR in the aftermath of World War II.

Make a guess

After 1945 the USSR wanted friendly governments on its western border. How do you think the USA saw this?

  1. As a minor issue, because the USA cared more about Japan and China.
  2. As fair, since the USSR had been invaded from the west twice.
  3. As a threat that stopped people choosing their own governments.
Show the answer

As a threat that stopped people choosing their own governments.

A step one side took for safety looked like expansion to the other. This is the security dilemma.

Each side feared the other's system, so steps one side took for safety looked like threats to the other.

An ideology is a set of ideas about how society should work. The USA backed capitalism, where people and firms own businesses and trade for profit. It also backed free elections with rival parties. In Soviet communism, the state owned most of the economy and one party held power.

Security fears made this worse. The USSR had been invaded from the west, so it wanted friendly governments on its borders. The West feared Soviet control would stop people choosing their own governments. Soviet leaders saw US aid and bases as a plan to surround them.

This is a security dilemma. One side takes a step to feel safer. The other side feels threatened and responds. Understanding a fear does not make the action right.

Capitalism
Private ownership, trade for profit, rival parties.
Communism
State ownership and one-party rule.
Security dilemma
One side's safety step frightens the other side.

Real examples to use

Kennan's Long Telegram, 22 February 1946

An American diplomat in Moscow sent an 8,000-word cable arguing that Soviet power would push outwards unless it was firmly resisted.

Iron Curtain, 5 March 1946

Churchill, speaking at Fulton, Missouri, said an iron curtain had come down across Europe, showing how Western leaders now saw Soviet control.

Worked example: Why control of Poland caused alarm

Follow one action from Soviet aims to Western fears.

  1. The USSR wants a friendly Poland, since invaders came that way.
  2. It backs communist control and limits opponents, so Poles cannot choose freely.
  3. The West sees expansion and resists, which makes the USSR more suspicious.

Watch out for this

If Soviet leaders feared invasion, their control of neighbours was simply defensive.

The fear was real, but controlling neighbours also took away those people's freedom to choose.

Check your understanding

What is a security dilemma?

  1. When two rivals agree to cut their weapons together so both feel safer.
  2. When one side's move to feel safer makes the other feel threatened.
  3. When a country's army is too small to defend its borders against a neighbour.
Show the answer

When one side's move to feel safer makes the other feel threatened.

Yes. Each response can increase mistrust.

Sources and context

Background reading for this chapter.

  • National Archives: Truman Doctrine

    Paraphrase of President Harry S. Truman's address to Congress, 12 March 1947; US National Archives transcript.

  • George C. Marshall Foundation: Harvard speech

    Paraphrase of Secretary of State George C. Marshall's Harvard speech, 5 June 1947; transcript held by the George C. Marshall Foundation.

  • Novikov telegram, University of Oregon primary-text transcription

    Paraphrase of Nikolai Novikov's telegram from Washington to the Soviet leadership, 27 September 1946, opening sections; English text hosted by the University of Oregon.

  • George C. Marshall Foundation: Harvard speech

    An original cartoon drawn for these notes in the style of a Soviet magazine cartoon of late 1947, after the USSR refused Marshall aid and made its Eastern European allies refuse it too. It is not a copy of a real cartoon.

  • Truman addresses Congress, March 1947

    Extract from President Harry Truman's address to a joint session of Congress, 12 March 1947, asking for aid for Greece and Turkey (the Truman Doctrine). A US government document in the public domain; text from the Avalon Project.

  • the British Foreign Secretary reports Molotov's warning, July 1947

    Extract from British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin's report of the final meeting of the British, French and Soviet foreign ministers in Paris on the Marshall Plan, 2 July 1947, sent to the US Secretary of State through the US Ambassador in London, 3 July 1947. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, volume III, document 180. A US government publication in the public domain.

  • the Cominform declaration, October 1947

    Extract from a telegram from the US Charge d'Affaires in Moscow, Elbridge Durbrow, to the Secretary of State, 6 October 1947, quoting the declaration issued when the Soviet Union and other communist parties set up the Cominform. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, volume IV, document 412. A US government document in the public domain.

  • the North Atlantic Treaty, April 1949

    Extract from Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Washington on 4 April 1949 by the USA, Canada and ten Western European states, during the Berlin Blockade. Text from the Avalon Project.

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