Across the south of Asia, two more American alliance systems, CENTO (Central Treaty Organization) and SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization), established to restrict potential Soviet increase southward. By 1959, most of the non-Communist World had promised to be anti-Communist as well. There were still holes in the pro-American defence perimeter, many of the recently released Asian nations decided to explore an independent foreign policy instead. Of course, many of the neutral nations had their own squabbles to follow, and they found that the superior countries were happy to support them to gain more assistance. Therefore, with the Americans supporting Israel, the Soviets found that they could gain influence in the region by assisting Israel's Arab neighbours with there causes.
Fewer noticeable internal battles within the different nations of political issues were in pursuit of some stability. With most of the world's governments declaring they are pro-Western in this philosophical political conflict, the Communists enthusiastically supported any rebellious movement against those governments. Whether some of these radical movements were truly Communist is subject to dispute, but in the eyes of the world at the time, the phrase "communist insurgent" was unnecessary because each word always implicated another. The Soviets lost major ground in 1960, when China broke away after bickering over interpretations of Marxist doctrine, taking Albania and North Korea with them leaving the Soviets less influences. About the same time, France decided that it did not like its foreign policy dictated by the USA, so it tested its first atomic weapon in 1960, and withdrew from NATO in 1965. Although it was almost certain that the French would be on the American side in the event of a general European war, until then the French would pursue a foreign policy, which was neither pro-Soviet nor pro-American but merely French.
Initially, cunningly and then more plainly the British and American leaders began to dispute the legitimacy of Soviet conduct in Eastern Europe. The Yalta and Potsdam conferences (February and June 1945), a significant alteration occurred in the opportunities between Russia and the West. For the duration of the discussion on the means of reforming Europe, this was to ensure peace in the world by the countries allying. At the conference the allied leaders discussed the future of Germany and in these plans Germany was to be divided into patches, although reunification resulted instead. France had joined the Potsdam powers, known as the Four Power Allied Control Council; they planned on establishing a de-nazified Germany. In the wake of unilateral measures in Eastern Europe, the alliances fell apart due to political disputes. The conference was affected by the developing mistrust between Western allies and the Soviet Union. Stalin demanded territories of Germany, Russia, Romania and Czechoslovakia; strategically he also wanted parts of Turkey. The ideological abyss, which until then been concealed and disregarded or minimized by the Western nations, was too deep and had to explode.
When the Soviet Union became suspicious of Eastern Europe intentions Truman eliminated them from the list of eligible nations for U.S loans. The United States was content during the closing months of the war and the first months of the post-war period they managed to preserve some advantages when they emerged from the war. Before his death, Roosevelt had overturned himself on Germany, instead of going forward with either the ''Morgenthau Plan'' or other plans for the dismemberment of Germany, he and Churchill refused to commit themselves ''to Russian proposals for Germany” that would unavoidably magnify Soviet power in Europe. In May, acknowledging Germany's surrender to the USSR, Stalin himself proclaimed that the Soviet Union did not intend ''either to dismember or to destroy Germany."
Diplomatic disputes in East and West intensified as each side openly manoeuvred to be in a position of maximum advantage at the end. Both sides were content to preserve the fiction of cooperation but neither really believed that it could afford to trust the other. However, the United States still did not have the inclination or the incentive to challenge Soviet activities in Eastern Europe because it was obviously dependent on Soviet assistance in the Far East and was still hoping that nothing would interfere with a return to normalcy. Almost from the beginning, Truman regarded Soviet breaches of agreement as just that, breaches of agreement. He did not need to ask whether the ideological terms and the political aims they proclaimed, such as ''peace,'' "freedom,'' and ''democracy,'' meant the same in the East as in the West. Truman could foresee the consequences that Soviet actions posed for the United States, and he was personally convinced that further concessions would only worsen the situation rather than improve Western position. Consequently, without adopting any consistent or purposeful course of action, Truman nevertheless refused to make any more concessions for t the sake of preserving amicable relations or to compromise anything that was not already within the Soviet power. As cooperation between Soviet and Western powers weakened, the relationship inevitably turned into competition and rivalry.
In the first months of the post-war period, each of the great victors acted reliably with the behaviour they displayed during wartime. The Soviet Union sought after to dominate those societies that it held within its military grip. The British and French attempted to regain control over the lost parts of their territories and to recover economically through this. The United States began to retreat into its traditional political and military non-involvement with European matters.
With each state after old or new territory, the tension between countries kept rising through suspicions. No principal conqueror could act within their own field without those actions appearing hostile to the others. By its very nature, state action usually seeks to enhance the stability and security of the state in order to increase the states power. The accumulation of such power by one of these member states appears as threatening and therefore become a hostile threat to the other states in the system. The Soviets effort to strengthen its power in Eastern Europe emerged as threatening to Western Europe. Backed by the Soviet Union, communist government were in power of Eastern Europe states during the post-war period.
Since their Marxist-Leninist vision of the world, Soviet leaders were especially prepared to perceive Anglo-American parameters as fundamentally hostile toward the Russian system. Their concept for systematic security required communist governments in Eastern Europe. The United States were a challenge the legitimacy of those governments and have the equivalent to challenge Russia's security. In early August 1945, President Mikhail Kalinin amplified that the roots of capitalism had not fully disappeared in Germany. Later that year Molotov in a speech on November 1945, when he held a meeting of the Moscow Soviets said "roots of fascism and imperialist aggression had not been...finally extirpated."
American leaders viewed Soviet conduct as fundamentally hostile to Western nations of interest. The Soviet obstacle and resistance to American demands concerning Eastern Europe encouraged an unashamedly hostile response from the U.S. President Truman indicated the mood of a growing number of Americans in search of action. With the Soviets failing to consult with Truman adequately, he bluntly ordered Byrnes to adopt a ''tough line" with the Soviets. Toward the December Foreign Ministers Meeting in Moscow, it was apparent Truman had formed a hostile attitude in the deliberations towards Russia.
The political situation in post-war nations during 1945-1961, was that of suspicion and mistrust in high-powered governments. After the Second World War allied, states attempted to reunite Europe politically and economically as solidarity nation. The ideology behind this unification was lost when the Soviet powers and the American powers sought after their own advantages. Although they were able to work together on a more threatening foundation such as Hitler, they prove unable to untie in rebuilt Europe. The Americans were great assistances in Europe’s recovery but with the invention of atomic weapons, they proved to be more in need of power than social stability.
The United Nations helped European state systems to re-emerge after the war destroyed enormous economical and social standards. The United Nations not offered these European states funding but also provided medication were required. In certain instance, the UN provided peacemaking forces to various situations of different nations, although accomplishments varied. Other political accomplishments during 1945-1961, the women’s right to vote in France as the vast majority of French women and men voted against the return of the Third Republic as their political institution on October 1945.
Italy became a republic state in June 1946, half of the votes despite the pope’s influence elected for a governmental system rather than domination by the monarchy. With a considerable amount of U.S finical assistance the Italian government managed to economical grow rapidly through policies of non-intervention. In the 1960s, the Italian government implemented social reforms with the help of the church that revived its long-dormant social doctrine.
After the death of Stalin, the democratic system in the USSR continued under the governing of communist parties. Ethnic Russians dominated the communist parties and authority over the republics remained in their hand. They was censorship over published criticisms on Soviet governmental management and this restriction ended when the new party came into control. Filmmakers, artists and writers became daringly imaginative within the boundaries of official toleration. Political struggle played a major role during the post-war era as each state faced difficult conflicts with revolts and potential governmental threats. In Europe, the cold war brought about a new threat of mass distraction weapons as the race was on for the first invented weapon. Politically individual states gradually emerged with a more democratic political system towards the 1960s.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Published Research
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2001, Stalin and Khrushchev: the USSR 1924-1964, Hodder Arnold H&S
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2001, Europe and the Cold War 1945-91, Hodder Arnold H&S
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1994, The Cold War and the Making of the Modern World, Vintage publishing
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John Merriman 1996, A History of Modern Europe From the Renaissance to the Present, W.W. Norton & Company Ltd
Internet Research
John Merriman, A History of Modern Europe
www.historyguide.org/europe/lecture14.html
www.historyguide.org/europe/lecture14.html