APPLICATION: Factors Leading to the Cold War

Factors Leading to the Cold War
• To prepare for this assignment:
• Review Chapter 20 (pp. 304–3 24) in your course text.
• Review Churchill’s “The Sinews of Peace” speech and Stalin’s speech in this week’s Learning Resources.
• Examine the “Truman Doctrine” speech in this week’s Learning Resources.
• Compare and contrast Churchill’s and Stalin’s speeches.
• Reflect upon the differences and similarities between Churchill and Stalin’s leadership styles.
• Evaluate the rivalry between Churchill and Stalin.
• Think about what underlying factors could have led to the Cold War.
• Consider the following questions:

o What was the role of the United Nations in the context of maintaining international peace?
o Was Stalin correct in his assertion that Great Britain (and the United States) was motivated by their belief in the superiority of the English-speaking nations?

o Do you support Stalin’s argument in favor of a buffer zone between the Soviet Union and Central Europe as legitimate?
o Do you agree with Churchill’s argument that the Soviet Union desires the “indefinite expansion of their power and doctrines” cannot be substantiated by Soviet actions before March 1946?
o How do Churchill and Stalin invoke the memory of Hitler’s unchecked expansion in the 1930s, and how do both make incorrect comparisons?
o What was Truman’s assessment of the world situation as expressed in his “Truman Doctrine” speech?

The assignment:
• Compose a 2- to 3-page essay in which you do the following:

•
o Analyze the underlying factors that led to the Cold War.

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o
? Identify the origin of the rivalry between the two blocs and explain the potential strengths and weaknesses of the English-speaking world versus the Soviet world in 1946.

o Support your assertions by making at least 2 references, in proper APA format, to your course readings
• Learning Resources

Reading
• Course Text: The Twentieth Century and Beyond: A Global History
•
o Chapter 20, “Postwar Settlements, Europe, and the Early Cold War” (pp. 304–324)
This chapter reviews the settlements that reigning powers hastily drafted post–World War II. It also provides a glance at the power struggle between two of those countries, the United States and Soviet Union. It concludes with details about how these two worked to moderate their disagreements well into the Cold War.

Documents
• Churchill, W. (Speaker). (1946). The sinews of peace. Retrieved from http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=429
This document is a transcribed version of the audio version of Sinews of Peace. In this speech, Winston Churchill changed the manner in which the democratic West viewed the Communist East.

Articles

Note: Some of the articles below include links to audio files. If there is an audio file, it is indicated at the end of the Web Article title listed below.

• United Nations. (1945). Charter of the United Nations. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/pdf/uncharter.pdf
This document contains all sections of the United Nations’ Charter.
• Truman, H. (1947). Truman doctrine. Retrieved from http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/trudoc.asp

This document contains both the audio (mp3 version) and text version of the Truman Doctrine. The text version was transcribed directly from the audio version.
• Marxists Internet Archive. (2008). Interview to “Pravda” correspondent concerning Mr. Winston Churchill’s speech at Fulton, March 1946. Retrieved from http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1946/03/x01.htm
This document contains the interview between Josef Stalin and a Pravda correspondent regarding Mr. Churchill’s speech.