Explain how the United States and the Soviet Union competed for global influence and how postwar treaties changed borders and created multinational organizations

Learning goal: Explain how the United States and the Soviet Union became superpowers and competed for global influence during the Cold War, and how treaties and agreements at the end of World War II changed national boundaries and created multinational organizations.

Why two superpowers. A superpower is a state with the military, economic and political strength to act and exert influence across the whole world. By 1945 the old great powers—Britain, France, Germany, Japan—were exhausted, defeated or occupied. The United States had the world's largest economy, a large navy and air force, and until 1949 a monopoly on atomic weapons. The Soviet Union had the largest army in Europe, controlled Eastern Europe, and tested its own atomic bomb in 1949. Their systems were opposed: the United States favored capitalism and multiparty democracy; the Soviet Union was a one-party communist state with a planned economy that proclaimed world revolution. Mutual suspicion ran deep.

Treaties and agreements that changed boundaries. At Yalta (February 1945) and Potsdam (July–August 1945) the Allied leaders agreed to divide Germany and Austria into occupation zones, to demilitarize Germany, and to move Poland's borders: the Soviet Union kept eastern Poland, and at Potsdam German lands east of the Oder and Neisse rivers were placed under Polish administration until a final peace settlement (northern East Prussia, with Königsberg, went to the Soviet Union). No peace conference followed, the line became Poland's western border in practice, and a reunited Germany confirmed it by treaty in 1990. Millions of Germans were expelled from those lands and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. The 1947 Paris peace treaties with Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Finland adjusted their borders; Italy lost its colonies. In Asia, Korea was divided at the 38th parallel, and the Treaty of San Francisco, signed in 1951 and in force in 1952, ended the occupation of Japan and confirmed the loss of its empire. Germany's division hardened in 1949 into two states, West Germany and East Germany.

Multinational organizations. Agreements at the end of World War II created multinational organizations meant to prevent another war and depression. The United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco in June 1945 and the UN came into being on 24 October 1945, with a General Assembly of all members and a Security Council whose five permanent members—the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and China—each hold a veto. The veto was the price of keeping the great powers inside the organization, which the League had failed to do; during the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union used it often, so the Council was frequently deadlocked (it could act in Korea in 1950 only because the Soviet delegate was boycotting). The Bretton Woods conference of 1944 created the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Later organizations reflected the Cold War: the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, 1949), a Western military alliance whose members pledged that an attack on one was an attack on all; and the Warsaw Pact (1955), the Soviet-led alliance of Eastern Europe. The European Coal and Steel Community (1951) and the European Economic Community (Treaty of Rome, 1957) began Western European integration.

Competition for global influence. The superpowers competed for global influence without fighting an open war against each other, a "cold" war. Containment: the Truman Doctrine (1947), first applied to Greece and Turkey, pledged U.S. support to countries resisting communist pressure, and the Marshall Plan (from 1948) gave billions of dollars to rebuild Western Europe; from 1954 U.S. leaders argued that if one country fell to communism its neighbors would follow, the domino theory. Both sides built large intelligence services, the American CIA (1947) and the Soviet KGB (1954), to spy and to act in secret. Crises: the Soviet blockade of West Berlin (1948–1949) was broken by the Berlin Airlift; the Berlin Wall was built in 1961; the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 brought the two sides closest to nuclear war before the Soviet Union removed its missiles and the United States pledged not to invade Cuba (and, secretly, to remove its missiles from Turkey). Proxy wars: in Korea (1950–1953), Vietnam, Afghanistan (Soviet war 1979–1989), and in Africa in the Congo (from 1960) and Angola (from 1975), each superpower backed opposing sides. Arms and space races: both built huge nuclear arsenals; the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957 began a space race that the U.S. Moon landing of 1969 capped. Influence in the developing world: both offered aid, arms and advisers to newly independent states. Many of those states, meeting at Bandung (1955) and forming the Non-Aligned Movement (1961), tried to avoid choosing sides.

Worked model: one crisis as evidence of competition. The Berlin blockade of 1948–1949. Cause: the Western powers introduced a new currency in their zones and moved toward a West German state; the Soviet Union cut road and rail access to West Berlin. Response: the United States and Britain supplied the city by air for about eleven months of blockade, and flights continued into September 1949 to build up stocks. Effect: the Soviets lifted the blockade in May 1949, NATO was founded in April 1949, and Germany was divided into two states that year. The crisis shows competition, the role of postwar boundaries, and the birth of a multinational alliance all at once.

The misconception to avoid. "Cold" does not mean no one died: proxy wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Africa and Central America killed millions. It means the two superpowers never fought an open war against each other, although Soviet pilots secretly flew against U.S. aircraft in the Korean War.

Worked boundary change: Explain how Poland "moved west". Solution: at Yalta and Potsdam the Allies agreed the Soviet Union would keep eastern Polish lands it had taken in 1939, and at Potsdam they placed German territory east of the Oder–Neisse line under Polish administration pending a final peace settlement, except northern East Prussia, which went to the Soviet Union. The arrangement became permanent in practice, and Germany confirmed the border by treaty in 1990. Millions of people were moved: Poles from the east and Germans expelled westward. Lines agreed on a map therefore changed where millions of people lived.

Worked organization comparison: The UN and NATO. The UN (1945) is a near-universal organization for peace and cooperation, in which the five permanent Security Council members hold vetoes; NATO (1949) is a military alliance of Western states pledging collective defense. Solution: both were multinational organizations created after World War II, but the UN tried to include all powers while NATO was built against one of them, reflecting the shift from wartime alliance to Cold War.

Worked analysis of the Cuban Missile Crisis: In October 1962 U.S. reconnaissance found Soviet nuclear missile sites in Cuba. The United States imposed a naval "quarantine"; after tense negotiations the Soviet Union withdrew the missiles, the United States pledged not to invade Cuba and privately agreed to remove missiles from Turkey. Solution: the crisis shows superpower competition for influence (Cuba as a Soviet ally near the United States), the danger of nuclear arms, and the use of diplomacy to step back; afterwards a hotline was set up and the Partial Test Ban Treaty was signed in 1963.

Cold War map and chart: On a world map, mark NATO and Warsaw Pact members as they stood in 1955, the year the Warsaw Pact was formed (NATO: the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and West Germany; Warsaw Pact: the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania), and the divided states (Germany, Korea, Vietnam). Then add, each with its own dates because they fall in different years, three proxy conflicts and two non-aligned states. Beside the map, list five treaties or agreements from 1944 to 1957 with date, parties, and whether each changed boundaries, created an organization, or both.

Independent performance: Write a 400-word explanation of "How did the end of World War II shape the Cold War?" Success criteria: an explanation of why the United States and Soviet Union became superpowers; at least two treaties or agreements that changed national boundaries; at least three multinational organizations with dates and purposes; at least three examples of competition for global influence from different categories (containment, crises, proxy wars, arms and space races); and correct use of the term superpower.