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DOCUMENT #24: CIA Report on Czechoslovakia (February 27, 1948)
DOCUMENT #24: CIA Report on Czechoslovakia (February 27, 1948)
Since the end of the war, Czechoslovakia had worked to achieve a non-aligned policy that best served its national interests by aligning its foreign policy with the Soviet Union but sustaining a western-style democracy. To hasten their economic recovery, the Czech government favored obtaining aid from the Marshall Plan. However, under pressures from Stalin, the Soviet army, and Czech communists, the Czech government refused Marshall Plan aid. The Communists later seized control of the government. The document is a secret report from the American Central Intelligence Agency, summarizing the events in Czechoslovakia.
Since the end of the war, Czechoslovakia had worked to achieve a non-aligned policy that best served its national interests by aligning its foreign policy with the Soviet Union but sustaining a western-style democracy. To hasten their economic recovery, the Czech government favored obtaining aid from the Marshall Plan. However, under pressures from Stalin, the Soviet army, and Czech communists, the Czech government refused Marshall Plan aid. The Communists later seized control of the government. The document is a secret report from the American Central Intelligence Agency, summarizing the events in Czechoslovakia.
The establishment of a Communist police state in Czechoslovakia has further diminished the possibility of a compromise in Europe between the ideologies of the Kremlin[1] and the principles of western democracy and individual freedom. Such a compromise had apparently been achieved in Czechoslovakia where Communists and non-Communists had nearly equal power in the coalition Government…the compromise was shattered, however, by the refusal of the non-Communists to permit continued Communist control of the police and by the Communist realization that an electoral victory was impossible without this control. …
Having won they key cabinet posts in the May 1945 elections…the Communists have since steadily extended their control of the positions necessary for seizure of the government. … The Communist Party can now stifle any remaining opposition in the country [and] … will liquidate all effective opposition through a series of “treason” trials and will rapidly complete the communization of the nation’s economy.
The Communist coup…may…have political repercussions in western Europe. In France, Italy, and Germany, the existing political divisions probably will intensified because non-Communists will be more determined to prevent Communist participation in the government of these countries…
In February 1948, crowds demonstrate in the streets of Prague against the ‘Prague Coup’, during which the Communists, led by Klement Gottwald, sidelined the other political parties in the democratically-elected Parliament and became the dominant power.
Helpful Definitions
[1] Kremlin – the fortified building in Moscow that represents the leadership of the Soviet Union
Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/assessing-the-soviet-threat-the-early-cold-war-years/5563bod2.pdf
DOCUMENT #24B: Report of the Special Action of the Polish Socialist Party in Czechoslovakia (February 21-25, 1948)
DOCUMENT #24B: Report of the Special Action of the Polish Socialist Party in Czechoslovakia (February 21-25, 1948)
The right-wing [pro-capitalist] parties clearly sabotaged the further social reforms envisioned in the NF [National Front] program, which involved expanding the nationalization of all industrial enterprises..., the nationalization of wholesale trade, the introduction of a monopoly on foreign trade, and additional land reform. The right wing was afraid that these reforms might undermine the existing social balance to the advantage of the working classes and cut at the economic base of the propertied classes. Politically, the following elements came into play: the question of reforming the constitution, the fear of the potential electoral success of the Communists (whose rallying cry was to win 51% of seats in the next parliament), and the international situation.
There is no doubt that in the region of Central and Eastern Europe, that is, in the zone of the people’s democracies, Czechoslovakia was the last hope of American capitalism. ...
The KS [Communist Party of Czechoslovakia], from the beginning, took the position of supporting a revolutionary resolution of the crisis. The KS considered the crisis to have been caused by the right wing, which tried to undermine the people’s democracy in Czechoslovakia by taking advantage of the parliamentary system to sabotage social reforms and realize reactionary political and social postulates. At the same time the KS appreciated the right wing’s links to a pro-American orientation, and so decided to take up the fight and play it out so that it could once and for all make it impossible for the right wing to take any political initiative and move the balance of political forces decidedly to the left.
DOCUMENT #25: Telegram from Bingham to Truman (June 25, 1948)
DOCUMENT #25: Telegram from Bingham to Truman (June 25, 1948)
Alfred M. Bingham, the chairman of the citizen group “American Association for a Democratic Germany”, sent a telegram which urges President Truman to take action against the Soviet blockade of West Berlin.
Alfred M. Bingham, the chairman of the citizen group “American Association for a Democratic Germany”, sent a telegram which urges President Truman to take action against the Soviet blockade of West Berlin.
RUSSIAN EFFORTS TO DRIVE WESTERN POWERS FROM BERLIN ARE A CRUCIAL CHALLENGE TO AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY. SURRENDER WOULD DELIVER TO RUSSIAN VENGEANCE TWO MILLION GERMANS WHO HAVE DEFIED COMMUNIST TOTALITARIANISM. THERE ARE DISTURBING RUMORS OF PLANS TO EVACUATE BERLIN BECAUSE OF RUSSIAN BLOCKADE AGAINST GERMAN CIVILIAN SUPPLIES. ESSENTIAL SUPPLIES FOR THE GERMAN POPULATION CAN BE DELIVERED BY AIR AND IF NECESSARY MUST BE AT WHATEVER COST. WE URGE YOU TO MAKE THIS COUNTRY’S POSITION UNMISTAKABLE BY DECLARING THAT UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES SHORT OF WAR WE WILL REMAIN IN BERLIN AND MAINTAIN SUPPLIES FOR THE CIVILIAN POPULATION. NOTHING LESS CAN ADEQUATELY REASSURE DEMOCRATIC FORCES IN GERMANY AND ELSEWHERE THAT THIS COUNTRY WILL NOT DESERT THEM.
Source: Source: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/berlin_airlift/large/index.php?action=docs
DOCUMENT #26: Memo from Panyushkin to Marshall” (July 14, 1948)
DOCUMENT #26: Memo from Panyushkin to Marshall” (July 14, 1948)
Alexander Panyushkin was the Soviet foreign ambassador to the United States during the Berlin Blockade. In this memo to the U.S. Secretary of State, George C. Marshall, Panyushkin explains why the Soviet Union is blockading West Berlin.
Alexander Panyushkin was the Soviet foreign ambassador to the United States during the Berlin Blockade. In this memo to the U.S. Secretary of State, George C. Marshall, Panyushkin explains why the Soviet Union is blockading West Berlin.
The Soviet Government…considers that the situation which has been created in Berlin has arisen as a result of violation by the Governments of the United States of America, Great Britain, and France of agreed decisions taken by the four powers in regard to Germany and Berlin…[by] the introduction of separate currencies for the western sectors of Berlin and in the policy of dismemberment[1] of Germany. …
The Government of the United States declares that the temporary measures put into effect by the Soviet Command for the restriction of transport communications between Berlin and the western zones have created difficulties in supplying the Berlin population of the western sectors. It is impossible however to deny the fact that these difficulties were occasioned by the actions of the Governments of the U.S.A., Great Britain and France...
Berlin lies in the center of the Soviet zone and is a part of that zone. The interests of the Berlin population do not permit a situation in which in Berlin or only in the western sectors of Berlin there shall be introduced special currency, which has no validity in the Soviet zone...
Alexander Panyushkin (left) with aides in 1951.
Helpful Definitions
[1] Dismemberment – To split or divide into pieces
Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/assessing-the-soviet-threat-the-early-cold-war-years/5563bod2.pdf
DOCUMENT #27: Excerpt and Commentary of the North Atlantic Treaty (April 4, 1949)
DOCUMENT #27: Excerpt and Commentary of the North Atlantic Treaty (April 4, 1949)
The parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or in North America shall be considered as an attack against them all. They agree that if such an armed attack occurs, each of them will assist the party or parties so attacked. Each will immediately take whatever action it considers necessary to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area. It will, if necessary, use armed force…
Source: http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_17120.htm
DOCUMENT #28: Letter from Stalin to Kim Il Sung (October 8, 1950)
DOCUMENT #28: Letter from Stalin to Kim Il Sung (October 8, 1950)
Comrade Kim Il Sung!
My reply has been delayed because of my consultations with the Chinese comrades, which took several days…
…In my opinion, we [the Soviet Communist bloc] will be stronger than the USA and England…if a war is inevitable, then let it be waged now and not in a few years when Japanese militarism will be restored as an ally of the USA and when [they] will have a ready-made bridgehead[1] on the continent…of the entire Korea…
It is obvious…that You must stand firm and fight for every tiny piece of your land…You have to strengthen resistance to the American occupiers of Korea and prepare reserves[2], using for this purpose the military cadres[3] of the Korean People’s Army. … Also, this shows that You are absolutely right in your proposal that we transfer all Korean comrades studying in the USSR into the pilot training program…
Helpful Definitions
[1] Bridgehead – A forward position captured in preparation for a larger attack
[2] Reserves – Large group of military-trained men, not on active service but can be called up to service
[3] Cadres – Fellow members of the Communist Party
http://legacy.wilsoncenter.org/coldwarfiles/files/Documents/7Oct1950.pdf
DOCUMENT #29: Excerpt from the Warsaw Pact (May 1, 1955)
DOCUMENT #29: Excerpt from the Warsaw Pact (May 1, 1955)
Reaffirming their desire for the organisation of a system of collective security in Europe, with the participation of all the European states, irrespective of their social and state systems, which would make it possible to combine their efforts in the interests of securing peace in Europe,
Taking into consideration at the same time the situation obtaining in Europe as the result of ratification of the Paris agreements, which provide for the formation of a new military grouping in the shape of the "Western European Union" together with a remilitarised Western Germany, and for the integration of Western Germany in the North Atlantic bloc, which increases the threat of another war and creates a menace to the national security of the peaceloving states,
Convinced that, under these circumstances, the peaceloving states of Europe should take the necessary measures for safeguarding their security, and in the interests of maintaining peace in Europe…
On 14 May 1955, the Soviet delegation, led by Vyacheslav Molotov, signs the Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance in the presence of the representatives of Albania, Bulgaria, Poland and Romania, as well as a delegate from the People’s Republic of China.
Source: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/warsaw.asp
DOCUMENT #30: Map of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, 1960
DOCUMENT #30: Map of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, 1960
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