Chapter 35 Chapter 26 From the Grand Alliance to the Cold War

World War I led to revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe and to the threat of revolutions in Western Europe.World War II did not provoke similar upheavals.The revolution did not shake the Continent, although World War II brought greater material damage and political chaos than World War I.One reason is the extreme fatigue of the civilian population.In the past six years, they have often been bombed from the air, experienced large-scale wars, and many people have had to leave their homes because of fleeing, working as coolies or being imprisoned.Among civilians, 10 million were killed, of which 6 million were Jews, and among soldiers, more than 15 million were killed.This number of casualties is roughly twice that of World War I, and the material damage suffered is 13 times that of World War I.

Those who survived have experienced poverty and chaos like never before.In the first three and a half years of the war alone, 30 million Europeans fled or were driven out of their original homes. After the war ended, the Allied forces and international aid agencies repatriated more than 12 million "refugees". There was a strong core of more than a million people who did not want to go home, mostly anti-communists from Eastern Europe.This massive reorganization of peoples, along with the cold, hunger, and disease that accompanied it, left most Europeans too tired and discouraged to want revolution.

The occupation of all of Europe by the victorious Allied forces was equally decisive.Like the British and Americans, the Red Army suppressed resistance and cleared up chaos.A revolution in social structure did occur in Eastern Europe, but it was a Moscow-directed, imposed revolution.The Communist parties of Europe were tame instruments of Soviet foreign policy, not agitators of their own revolutions.Thus, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the United States effectively controlled the development of Europe after the fall of Hitler.It was these three powers that were responsible for the policies and events that gradually undermined the grand wartime alliance and gave rise to the Cold War.

During the war years, Western powers and the Soviet Union had to form a united front against the threat of a sworn enemy.On the very day Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, Churchill declared; "The danger of the Soviet Union is ... our danger and America's danger, just as the cause of the Soviets fighting for their home is the cause of free men and free peoples all over the world. " Two months later, on August 14, 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt published the Atlantic Charter, in which they declared their common goals and shared principles in idealistic terms. In May 1942, Britain and the Soviet Union signed a 20-year Mutual Assistance Treaty, and the following month, the United States and the Soviet Union signed the "US-Soviet Lend-Lease Agreement"; these two agreements are concrete manifestations of the cooperation of the Allies.Another manifestation of cooperation is that in June 1943, the Soviets decided to dissolve the Comintern, which they established in 1919 to overthrow world capitalism. In view of their friendly relations with Western powers, the Soviets concluded that the Comintern was useless at this time, but It should be noted that this decision meant nothing in practice, since by 1939 the leading officials of the Comintern had been transferred to the Party Central Secretariat, where they continued to function.Another result of Allied wartime cooperation was the establishment of the United Nations Relief and Relief Administration (UNRRA) in November 1943.This international agency followed closely behind the army, providing relief of all kinds to liberated countries until a new national government could take responsibility.It began work in the spring of 1944, and by the time it was disbanded in September 1948, it had distributed 22 million tons of supplies, including food, clothing, and medicine, mainly of US origin.Its main activities are in Greece, Yugoslavia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Italy.Without its contribution, the poverty and misery in postwar Europe would actually have been worse.

Towards the end of the war, this cooperation, fostered by a common danger, began to falter.The collaborators were willing to sacrifice unity for what they saw as the postwar national interest.So, with the peace came the grand coalition was torn apart by internal discord, and within two or three years was replaced by a cold war that often seemed to turn into a hot war. The failure of Confederate politicians during the war years to seriously plan for postwar reconciliation hastened the fragmentation of the Grand Coalition.Early in the war, they did create the Atlantic Charter, signed by Churchill and Roosevelt on August 14, 1941, on the deck of the US cruiser USS Augusta.It stipulated that the post-war world should be free from poverty and fear, in which the status quo of territories could not be changed without the consent of the peoples concerned, in which each people determined the form of government for itself, in which all countries had equal economic opportunities, and in which aggressor countries were disarmed.Unfortunately, little effort has been made to apply these idealistic principles clearly and realistically to the problems awaiting a peaceful conclusion. Conferences in Casablanca, Quebec, and Tehran in 1943 were devoted primarily to military strategy, with postwar issues only occasionally and generally mentioned.

By the autumn of 1944, political disputes were no longer inevitable.The advance of the Red Army up the Danube was forcing the Germans out of the Balkans, and fighters from the Communist-led Resistance were filling the vacuum.The prospect of a Communist-controlled Balkan peninsula drove Zhuangier to meet Stalin in Moscow in October 1944.The two leaders quickly agreed on spheres of influence on the disputed peninsula.Bulgaria and Romania belonged to the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union, Greece belonged to the sphere of influence of the United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia was a buffer zone within the common sphere of influence of the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union.In this way, in order to meet the urgent need of unfavorable strategic situation, Churchill had to recognize the Soviet Union's superiority in the northern Balkans in order to maintain the traditional primacy of Britain in Greece.

At the same time that Churchill was negotiating with Stalin in Moscow, British troops were beginning to land in Greece.They pushed north on the heels of the retreating Germans, but found that the Greek resistance had captured all the towns ahead of them.These resistance forces, led by disciplined communists, did not resist because the communists faithfully followed the Kremlin's policy at the time.Would these communists have been so convenient if they had known that Stalin treated their country with indifference?It is interesting to ponder this question.In short, they welcomed the small British force, although they could easily hold back the advance of the British army if they wanted to, as the nationalist Tito did in Yugoslavia.

Despite the obedience of the Greek resistance, the fact remained that they were the dominant military force in the country when the Germans withdrew.For Churchill, this was an intolerable situation. On 7 November, Churchill told his foreign secretary, Eden: "In my opinion, having paid our price to the Soviet Union for freedom of action in Greece, we should not hesitate to use British troops to support the Royal Greek Government under M. Papandreou." Specifically, Churchill's problem was how to safely disarm the resistance so that state power would pass to a legitimate royal government.Various disarmament schemes were put forward, but none satisfied both parties.This dispute led to an armed conflict that culminated in the bitter, brutal Battle of Athens.Allied British and Indian forces moved swiftly from Italy into Athens, and after a month of fighting, the resistance withdrew from the area.

On February 12, the two sides signed a peace agreement ("Valkitz Armistice Agreement"). The agreement stipulated that the resistance forces surrendered their armed forces. In return, Britain promised Greece to hold elections and hold a referendum on the return of the king.In this way, Churchill retained the sphere of influence assigned to him in Moscow: Greece remained on the side of the West in the postwar years.Equally important, Stalin remained evocatively silent as Churchill dispersed the resistance fighters on the left.The Anglo-Soviet secret agreement on the Balkans was valid and effective at that time.

In February 1945, no sooner had the fighting in Athens ended than Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met in Yalta for their last wartime meeting.With the concentration of Allied forces in Germany from all directions, questions of post-war settlement had to be given special, practical consideration.They had little difficulty in reaching an agreement on the Far East.Stalin agreed to declare war on Japan within 60 days of the end of the war in Europe.In return, the Soviet Union will regain the Kuril Islands and the territories and concessions lost to Japan in 1905, including the lease of the southern part of Sakhalin Island, the Port Arthur Naval Base, and the right to jointly manage the Middle East Railway and the South Manchuria Railway with China.

With regard to Germany, the meeting delayed decisions on most issues, including reparations and border issues.However, the meeting agreed that Germany should be divided into four occupation zones (one of which belonged to France) under the jurisdiction of the Allied Control Committee for Germany.Berlin, located in the Soviet-occupied zone, should be jointly occupied and managed by the four countries.One cause of the major post-war conflict was the failure to reach a definitive agreement on guaranteeing Western access to the capital, Berlin. Most of the negotiations at Yalta concerned the newly liberated states of Eastern Europe.Stalin was in a strong position in this area because his army had liberated and physically occupied it.In addition, the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had earlier agreed that until the end of the war, each major power should monitor political developments in those areas through which its troops fought.As a U.S. representative, James F. Bernas, later put it: "The question is not what we will make the Soviets do, but what we can persuade the Soviets to do." Assuming this is the case, then, from a Western point of view, the agreements reached on Eastern Europe are quite satisfactory on paper.Regarding the borders, the USSR would receive Polish territories east of the revised Curzon Line; the Curzon Line was drawn after World War I but then ignored.As compensation, Poland would receive East German territory; on this point, the Yalta Conference agreed in principle, but delayed a final, definitive decision.With regard to the Polish and Yugoslav governments, Stalin agreed that the communist regimes already established with Soviet support should be expanded by accepting representatives of the west-facing governments-in-exile.Representatives of the government-in-exile were understandably apprehensive about this arrangement, which gave the Red Army and the Communist government de facto legal control of the country.An explicit policy statement, the Yalta Declaration on a Liberated Europe, theoretically refutes the misgivings of representatives of the government-in-exile.This declaration committed the three great powers to help the liberated European peoples "to establish provisional institutions of government broadly representative of all democrats, capable of securing, by free elections, a government which is concerned with the will of the people as soon as possible.  …" On the surface, this "Manifesto" means that Stalin has made a huge concession.Although Stalin controlled Eastern Europe, he had agreed to free elections that would bring an anti-Soviet government to power.However, this concession is essentially unimportant.The Declaration proved to be meaningless and a constant source of friction, as it was interpreted very differently by the signatories.The United States interpreted this declaration literally - that free elections could be held and there was no sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.The United States was free to accept this claim, since it was not bound by the agreement reached by Churchill and Stalin in Moscow the previous October.However, Britain was ambivalent about the Declaration because the Moscow Agreement enabled it to secure its position in Greece.Still, the Manifesto is tempting because, if implemented at its letter, it would give Britain the chance to regain the positions it had given up in Romania and Bulgaria. On the contrary, Stalin insisted on the Moscow agreement, thinking that the Manifesto was just for window dressing.He remained completely silent while the British crushed the Greek resistance.During the Yalta negotiations he explicitly assured Churchill that he could have "full confidence" in his Greek policy.In return, Stalin hoped that the Western powers would respect his primacy in the northern Balkans.He was surprised and outraged when the British gradually joined the Americans in demanding strict implementation of the Manifesto, a point Stalin would not budge on, seeing "friendly" governments in Eastern Europe as a prerequisite for Soviet security. This vital dispute became clear at the next Tri-Power Conference in Potsdam in July-August 1915.Then U.S. Secretary of State James Bernas told Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov: "The United States sincerely hopes that the Soviet Union will have friendly neighbors, but we believe that they should seek the friendship of peoples, not a government. We therefore want these governments to represent the people." If Bernas did not perceive that his proposals were fundamentally contradictory, Stalin was ready to rebuke him with brutal candor: "Any of these Freely elected governments will be anti-Soviet, and we will not tolerate them." The contradiction between the "friendly" and "freely elected" governments was a major reason for the division of the Grand Alliance in the months that followed. However, that is for the future.Although the dialogue at Yalta was frank and the negotiations were difficult, the meeting was generally conducted in a friendly atmosphere, and the resolutions reached were welcomed at the time as reasonable and of great value.At the time, Stalin was not considered to have received a "gift" as some later claimed.On the contrary, Yalta was generally welcomed as the pinnacle of the Grand Alliance. The cooperation of the Allies in wartime was again manifested with the creation of the United Nations. In the autumn of 1944, at Dumbarton Oaks on the outskirts of Washington, the four "sponsors"—the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and China—drawn up the initial draft of the United Nations Charter.At the conclusion of the April-June 1945 conference in San Francisco, representatives of 50 countries signed the final charter, followed by Poland about four months later.By the end of 1964, UN membership had grown to 115 (it was reduced to 114 in March 1965, when Indonesia withdrew from the UN).Some of the new members were wartime enemies or neutrals, but most were newly independent states in Asia and Africa, with a total of 59 Asian and African members in 1964, compared with 51 founding members in 1945. There are only 13 non-member states. Like the former League of Nations, the United Nations was established to accomplish two major tasks: maintaining peace and security, and properly handling international economic, social and cultural issues.Like the League of Nations, the United Nations was established as a union of sovereign states, and its charter clearly stipulates that this organization must not "intervene in matters that are basically within the domestic jurisdiction of any state." The task of maintaining peace is primarily entrusted to the Security Council.The Security Council consists of 11 members.Five of them are permanent members: the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France and China.The other 6 are non-permanent members, recommended by the Council and elected by the General Assembly for a term of two years.Resolutions on all substantive issues must be passed with the concurring votes of the 5 permanent members (and the 2 non-permanent members), as it has been recognized that peace can only be maintained when the great powers agree.The Security Council has broad powers to resolve international disputes.It can use peaceful means such as mediation or arbitration, or it can impose economic or political sanctions.If these measures do not solve the problem, the Security Council also has the power to "take actions necessary to maintain or restore international peace through naval, land and air forces."To this end, the Charter provides for the establishment of an "International Security Service", staffed and equipped by Member States. When the destructive effects of the Cold War prevented the creation of this force, the United Nations relied on it during the Korean, Suez and Congo crises Based on the establishment of military forces to carry out intervention activities. The Cold War greatly reduced the Council's role, as the Soviet Union exercised a veto on all major issues that brought it into conflict with the Western powers.Due to the inability of the Security Council to function, the General Assembly of the United Nations can play a more important role than originally intended, because in 1950, the General Assembly was given the power to maintain international peace and security when the Security Council was unable to maintain international peace and security due to disagreements among the permanent members. Consider the business of the Security Council.It should also be noted that the participation of Asian and African countries changed the balance of power in the Congress.All UN member states are represented at the General Assembly, but each has only one vote.Resolutions on important issues require a two-thirds majority; on other issues, a simple majority is sufficient.Since the Asian and African countries have begun to constitute an absolute majority of the membership, their views obviously must be given full weight. The second mission of the United Nations—to fight hunger, disease and ignorance—is given to the Economic and Social Council, which formulates programs aimed at fighting hunger for half the world's population provide more food for the world's population, cure one-eighth of the world's population from malaria, save 40 percent of the children who die before their first birthday, and educate half of the world's adults The illiterate to read and write.To these ends, the Economic and Social Council established a number of specialized agencies, including the International Labor Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, UNESCO, the World Health Organization and the International Monetary Fund. Like the League of Nations, the United Nations has been very successful in a variety of non-political activities.But like the League of Nations, it has had mixed successes in its main task of keeping the peace.It helped prevent all-out war between great powers by providing a medium for maintaining friendly relations.It has put an end to wars in areas like Indonesia, Israel and Kashmir that do not involve major power interests.However, it failed to prevent a series of local wars or "bush fire" wars in North Korea, Algeria, Egypt and Vietnam.During the deadly Cuban crisis of 1962, the United Nations did not hold any consultative meetings.In continental Europe especially, the United Nations proved almost impotent.There, the Cold War widened the gulf between the Communist and non-Communist blocs, which eventually became unbridgeable.Therefore, the major powers acted on their own, organized a confrontational security defense system, and responded to each crisis independently.Like the League of Nations, the main difficulty of the United Nations is that, in a world of sovereign states, it can provide a machine for settling disputes, but it cannot order its use. Two months after the founding of the United Nations, Japan surrendered, and the war in the Far East came to an end.At this point, the victorious Allies can concentrate on making peace.Their foreign ministers engaged in protracted negotiations in London, Paris and New York.Finally, in Paris on February 1947, peace treaties were signed with Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Finland.All of these treaties forced the defeated nations to pay reparations, limit their armies, and redefine their borders.Italy ceded the Dodecanese Islands to Greece, the island of Sazani to Albania, several small enclaves to France, Venice Giulia to Yugoslavia, Italy also lost the region of Trieste-this An area is established as a "free zone".When this last-mentioned arrangement could not be implemented until 1954, Italy annexed the predominantly Italian city of Trieste, while Yugoslavia occupied the rural areas around the "free zone".The Italian African colonies were placed under temporary British trusteeship, their final status to be determined later. In the Balkans, Bulgaria returned the territories it occupied in Greece and Yugoslavia to those two countries, but it gained the southern region of Dobruja which it had lost to Romania in 1919.Romania ceded Bessarabia (occupied by Russia from 1812 to 1918) and northern Bukovina (mainly inhabited by Ukrainians) to the Soviet Union, but it regained territories occupied by Hungary during the war. Northern Transylvania.In Eastern Europe, there are also some territorial changes that are not included in the satellite state treaty, such as: the Soviet Union acquired the Ukrainian-majority Carpathian-Lathenia region from Czechoslovakia, and got three Baltic states—— Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.Although the Soviet Union justified its claims to the Baltic states on the grounds that they were formerly part of the Tsar's Empire, Western powers remained reluctant to formally recognize the Soviet Union's annexation of them. Equally important as the terms of these satellite treaties were the long-running diplomatic squabbles in their negotiations that hastened the fragmentation of the Grand Alliance and the onset of the Cold War.The atmosphere of the negotiations was quite different from that at Yalta, with the Soviets seeking to obtain favorable terms for the Axis satellites now within their sphere of influence, while the Western powers defended Italian interests for similar reasons.By the time the treaty was signed, Italy had been accepted as a military ally of the West, while Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania had become loyal satellite states of the Soviet Union.These treaties will perhaps be remembered for the recognition of the new communist regimes in Eastern Europe.During the war, Churchill often declared that he would never allow the Soviet sphere of influence to extend westward along a line from Stettin in the north to Trieste in the south.However, it was the Western powers that agreed to the Soviet Union extending its sphere of influence along this line when the peace treaty was signed in Paris.In doing so, they conceded a new balance of power in Europe—one in which Bucharest, Sofia, and Budapest, along with Prague and Warsaw, turned toward Moscow rather than toward Paris and Berlin. After signing the Satellite Treaty, the Allies failed to conclude corresponding treaties with other enemy nations immediately.It was several years before peace agreements were concluded with Japan and Austria, but not yet with Germany.The suspension of mediation reflects growing discord between East and West.Much of this discord can also be explained by the great power vacuum that emerged in Europe and Asia after the collapse of the German and Japanese empires.These vacuums are as unnatural and temporary in the political sphere as they are in the physical world.It was obvious that they were destined to be filled as soon as the war was over.The question is only who fills it and how. This major issue involves a fundamental readjustment of power relations.Even under the best of circumstances, such a readjustment is difficult and fraught with danger, as the crisis after the Napoleonic Wars and the crisis after World War I showed.After World War II, the readjustment of power relations became more complicated and dangerous as ideological disputes were added to the traditional power struggle. In the Far East, the situation was simplified by the fact that the United States played a major role in the war against Japan and did not hesitate to play a corresponding role in the peaceful settlement and post-war affairs.In Europe the problem is much more complicated.The United States is ambivalent about its place in Europe because Americans traditionally resent being involved in the affairs of the Old World in peacetime.This disgust was expressed in the immediate "bring the children home" cry of the American people - a task that was accomplished so quickly that within two years of the war the US military had been reduced from 12 million to 1.5 million . American policymakers thought that having the larger issues of political, social, and economic recovery dealt with by the UN would offset their sudden withdrawal from Europe.They also thought that the provisional regimes established in the liberated European countries at the end of the war would soon be replaced by freely elected governments.Thus, they expected, with the Soviet Union dominating Eastern Europe, Britain dominating the Mediterranean and the Middle East, France dominating Western Europe, and with all the wartime allies cooperating to secure a firm grip on Germany, the Old World would find its way out. fair solution. One by one, these assumptions have been proven unjustified.The UN Security Council was paralyzed by the Soviet veto.In Eastern Europe, instead of democratically elected governments, there were Soviet-controlled, slightly disguised instruments of "people's democracies."The expected balance of power in Europe was also broken, because although Britain and France still had the title of "big power" in name, they were no longer the opponents of the Soviet Union in fact. While the United States was withdrawing from Europe, the Soviet Union was establishing itself in its Eastern European reserve.The goals of the Soviet Union were: territorial expansion, restoring the territory of the tsars before World War I; huge reparations to help compensate for the devastating war damage; and the establishment of "friendly" governments in Eastern Europe that could prevent further Western invasion.As the Soviet Union strove to pursue these goals, it came into direct and increasingly acute conflict with the Western powers.The Western powers desperately opposed the "people's democracies", arguing that they represented the Soviet governors and not the people of the countries concerned.In reply, the Soviets repeatedly drew attention to reports of right-wing terrorism in Greece; in Greece, successive governments after the Battle of Athens had British support.As James Bernas said; "Whenever the Soviets had a problem that annoyed them or put them on the defensive, it was their standard job to collect British and American news reports from Greece and launch a counter-offensive program". The conflict between East and West in Germany was even more serious because the stakes were higher there.The end of the war left Germany without a central government.There were only local officials, not even local officials in the east, because they fled before the advancing Soviet Red Army arrived.In order to occupy Germany, the Allies divided it into four occupied areas: the East (Soviet-occupied), the Northwest (British-occupied), the South (American-occupied), and the smaller Southwest (French-occupied) bordering France. Area).Berlin was also divided into four districts, and to ensure policy consistency, the Allied Control Committee on Germany was located in the city. When the occupying powers faced the specific problem of running Germany, they found that their goals and policies were fundamentally different.The Soviets demanded huge reparations and wanted a social revolution that would turn their occupied territories into another "people's democracy" - and if possible, a revolution that would turn all of Germany into another "people's democracy" nation".To this end, they favored a centralized Germany that would facilitate their eventual communism.Like the Soviets, the French were determined to demand large reparations, but they were willing to create a loose federation, which they believed was less of a threat to French security.The British and Americans were as in favor of a federal state as the French, but they opposed the French and the Soviets on economic issues. In September 1944, Roosevelt and Churchill accepted the harsh "Morgenthau Plan", which was proposed by US Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr., and its purpose was to transform Germany into a pastoral with a greatly reduced industrial structure country.Tempting as it was at the time, this goal was ultimately abandoned as it could not be achieved without starving most of the German population.The economic realities became more apparent when the United States and Great Britain found themselves having to move large quantities of food into their populated occupied territories.Large numbers of German refugees have been pouring into these occupied areas from East Germany and regions of Central and Eastern Europe where ethnic minorities have lived for centuries.In order to feed their burgeoning population, London and Washington realized that German industrial production must be expanded, not compressed.Naturally, the Soviets reacted with suspicion and dissatisfaction. The debate over compensation has reached fever pitch.Previously, at the Potsdam Conference held in July 1945, the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union agreed that the Soviet Union should receive 10 billion U.S. dollars in compensation from Germany. The main method was to extract Germany’s foreign assets and dismantle industrial equipment in the Soviet-occupied areas. and industrial equipment in the Western-occupied areas that are not needed for the local economy.The Soviets immediately set about dismantling the factories in East Germany, transporting the factory equipment back to their home countries, and taking away the products produced by the German factories at the same time; s reason.In retaliation, the Americans and British stopped sending reparations to the Soviet Union in May 1946 in their occupied territories and repeatedly raised the level of allowed German industry. In December 1946, the British and Americans took the next step, merging their occupied territories into an economic "dual occupation zone". By early 1947, the four-power administration of Germany had failed.To resolve the conflict, a meeting of the Big Four was held in Moscow in March 1947.The Americans and the British strongly advocated economic unification of Germany, while the French and the Soviets opposed it.After six weeks of futile debate, the meeting was adjourned.The failure of the conference, together with the announcement of the "Truman Doctrine" at this time, is considered by some to be the beginning of the Cold War. The most dramatic manifestation of the ensuing Cold War was President Truman's intervention in the Greek Civil War in March 1947.Communist-led guerrillas had appeared in the mountains of northern Greece the previous autumn.One reason for the renewed civil war was that economic conditions were so bad that many impoverished peasants joined the ranks of the rebels.Another reason was the deteriorating international situation, which allowed the Soviet bloc to mobilize and aid partisans against the British-backed Athens government.The last reason is that although the Valkitz armistice that ended the battle for Athens provided for amnesty and normal political procedures, rightists disregarded this provision and persecuted their political opponents.The rightist repression was so brutal that Prime Minister Clement Attlee called Athens on 5 August 1945 to say he was concerned about reports of "rightist atrocities in violation of the Valkitz Armistice". These circumstances prompted strong popular support for the uprising, which spread from the northern mountains to the Peloponnese and some of the larger islands.The signs of possible success in suppressing the uprising seemed elusive, so Greece faced the prospect of a protracted civil war, with the possibility of an eventual Communist victory. The situation became critical on February 24, 1947, when the British government announced that it was unable to provide the large-scale assistance necessary to secure victory over the insurgents.It is likely that the Athenian regime would not have survived to the end of the year without further assistance from London.In response to this emergency, President Truman announced the principle that bears his name.The main content of this principle is: "The foreign policy of the United States must support those free peoples who are resisting the conquest attempts of armed minorities or foreign pressure." Truman said when explaining this principle, "The survival of Greece is now are being threatened," he asked Congress for $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey.In this way, Britain surrendered the primacy it had maintained for a century in Greece, and the United States took on the responsibility of preventing the Communist Party from expanding its influence in the eastern Mediterranean. The task proved to be more difficult than anticipated.The United States sent an economic and military mission to Athens; between March 1947 and June 1919, the United States spent about $400 million on military purposes and $300 million on economic aid.Despite such generous aid, the Greek government forces were unable to subdue the enemy.Whenever the guerrillas were in trouble, they dispersed and started working again in new places. Both the 1947 and 1948 campaigns proved inconclusive. In 1949 the balance of power took a decisive turn in favor of the Greek government.As Marshal Tito and Stalin fell out, Tito blocked the borders of Yugoslavia to prevent the Soviet Union from providing any aid to the partisans who sided with Stalin.At the same time, the Athenian army was retraining American officers for a flexible offensive rather than guarding major cities and arteries.Thus, in the autumn of 1949, the national army was able to drive the partisans out of their mountain strongholds and was able to reach and blockade the northern border. In economics, the equivalent of the Truman Doctrine is the Marshall Plan. In a speech at Harvard University on June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George Marshall pointed out that Europe's needs, at least for the next few years, greatly exceeded its ability to pay.He added: "The United States should do its best to help restore normal economic prosperity to the world. If it does not do so, there will be no political stability and assured peace—this is logical."后的第二年春天，欧洲复兴计划即通常所称的马歇尔计划业匕已定。到1951年12月31日这一计划终止时，美国为支持马歇尔计划的实施总共支付了125亿美元。这一巨大投资和欧洲的人力物力一起，使欧洲能迅速复原，使欧洲的生产水平和生活水平超过了战前的水平。但是，从东、西方间的关系这一角度看，马歇尔计划是走向冷战的最后一步。援助是不分意识形态，向所有国家提供的。然而，莫斯科却把这种提供说成是反共产党的策略，命令曾有意接受援助的捷克人和波兰人予以拒绝。 1949年1月，莫斯科设立了经济互助委员会（莫洛托夫计划），将它作为东欧的、与马歇尔计划相当的东西。 这样，共产党世界和西方世界给区分开来了。这时，冷战已全面展开，在以后的5年中，一个又一个危机不幸地接踵而来。 为了有效地进行冷战，东欧各共产党联合法国和意大利的共产党，于1947年9月成立了共产党和工人党情报局。这一名称使人想到成立这一新机构只是为了收集情报，但实际上，它重新开始了1943年5月解散的共产国际的工作。它使各成员党在反对“英美帝国主义”的斗争中互相配合，例如，支持1947年年底由共产党控制的法国工会发起的起义性总罢工。 1948年2月，共产党人在捷克斯洛伐克夺取了全部控制权，从而消除了西方势力在苏联势力范围内的最后一个桥头堡。这个小共和国早些时候已试图在东、西方之间走一条中间道路。在外交方面，捷克人接受了苏联的领导，但在内政方面，他们力图维护某些个人自由，这些自由曾使他们的国家在两次世界大战之间的几年中成为中东欧唯一实行民主政体的国家。当共产党人利用他们控制的警察和富于战斗性的“行动委员会”来接管政府时，这种维持民主政体的尝试结束了。据说，因精通西方学问而闻名的外交部长扬·马萨里克已在1948年3月自杀身亡。5月举行的选举使共产党获得了所期望的多数选票。第二个月，大战前也领导过这个国家的年高德助的爱德华·贝奈斯总统被迫辞职。共产党领袖哥特瓦尔德接替了他的职务，这样，除芬兰外，整个东欧这时全在共产党的控制之下。 比共产党接管布拉格更引人注目的是始于1948年6月的拖得很久的柏林空运危机。由于苏联人未能劝阻英国人和美国人不建立单独的西德政府，便采取报复行动，切断了通往柏林西方国家三个占领区的铁路和公路。他们这样做的理由是：随着柏林四国政府的结束，西方列强没有必要再留在这座城市里。美国人进行了回击，他们通过前所未有的空运向西方国家占领区的200万居民提供粮食、煤和其他必需品。到1949年春时，空运已取得明显的成功，5月，苏联人宣布停止封锁。是月，西德议会正式通过了即将成立的“德意志联邦共和国”的《基本法》，而东德人民代表大会则完成了“德意志民主共和国”的宪法。9月，联邦共和国在西德正式成立，第二个月，民主共和国也在东德成立。冷战就这样将德国切成两半。 共产党各种好斗的表现——捷克斯洛伐克的政变、柏林的封锁和希腊的连续不断的内战——使西方列强相信，有必要建立一些防御联盟体系。1947年3月，英国和法国缔结了一个军事盟约（《敦刻尔克条约》），1948年3月，这一盟约扩大到包括比利时、荷兰和卢森堡三国（《布鲁塞尔条约》）。不过，很明显，西欧如果没有美国的援助便不可能得到保护，因而，新大陆也参与了1949年4月4日华盛顿《北大西洋公约》的签署。这一公约包括美国、加拿大、《布鲁塞尔条约》的5个参加国：意大利、葡萄牙、丹麦、冰岛和挪威。后来，希腊和土耳其（1951年）以及西德（1955年）也加入了这最初的12个缔约国。这一公约规定，“武装进攻一个或更多的”缔约国，无论是在欧洲、北非还是在北美，“都将被认为是对所有缔约国的进攻”。最初，公约仅要求建立北大西洋理事会，但是，朝鲜战争的爆发促使北约组织成立了一支由一个司令部指挥的联合防御部队。这支部队主要由美国提供资金。它的最高统帅也是美国人，不过各缔约国按规定提供了若干师。这支部队从未强大到足以阻止苏联的大规模侵略，但它能打一场代价高昂的阻滞战，能促使苏联人在向西推进前三思。 其时，苏联已在东欧作出相应的政治和军事安排。甚至在大战结束前，斯大林就已与捷克斯洛伐克、南斯拉夫和波兰分别缔结了互助条约，到1948年时，又与前轴心国的卫星国——保加利亚、罗马尼亚和匈牙利签订了类似的条约。1955年5月，苏联与东欧各国缔结了一个更正式的、更广泛的军事盟约。这就是《华沙条约》，它是东方集团对《北大西洋公约》所作的反应。于是，除德国外，欧洲也被冷战切成两半——在美国保护下武装和组织起来的西欧和在苏联保护下武装和组织起来的东欧。 1950年，冷战的焦点入欧洲转移到远东。这时，东方与西方在欧洲已成均势。但是，远东的均势却为一个重大发展——共产党在中国的胜利——一所打破。正如布尔什维克革命是第一次世界大战的主要副产品一样，中国共产党的革命是第二次世界大战的主要副产品。 蒋介石在1928年就已成为中国的主人，但从一开始起，他的国民党政权就受到了两大不共戴天之敌—一国内的共产党人和国外的日本人——的威胁。第二次世界大战期间，他的处境变得特别困难。这个国家被分割成三部分：由日本人控制、由南京傀儡政府进行管理的东部，由以延安为首都的共产党人控制的西北部，由以重庆为首都的蒋介石的民族主义政府统治的西部和西南部。 蒋介石的政权正是在战争的几年中遭到了无可弥补的破坏。以往，蒋介石一向依靠保守的地主阶级和较开明的大商人的支持。日本人侵占东部沿海地区时，大商人多半被消灭，蒋介石只剩下内地自私自利的、目光短浅的地主的支持。他的政府变得越来越腐败，不能对遭连年战争蹂躏并因此而觉悟起来的农民的需求作出反应。共产党人则与日益腐败的国民党截然不同，在他们控制的地区实行土地改革，从而赢得了农民群众的支持。他们还有一个纪律严明、十分有效的组织，这一组织使他们控制的地区摆脱政治和经济混乱、恢复秩序。此外，他们还比民族主义者更成功地将自己描绘成是为赶走外国侵略者、恢复中国的统一、自尊和伟大而献身的爱国主义者。 1945年8月日本投降时的形势就是如此。日本的投降使民族主义者和共产党人为接管日本人在中国的占领区而展开激烈的争夺。共产党人命令他们的军队接管日本人占领的地区，蒋介石立刻取消了这些命令，坚持认为，没有他的命令共产党人不得采取任何行动。但共产党人并不理睬他，于是，共产党军队和国民党军队之间发生了冲突。随着内战的迫近，美国派来了一个以乔治·马歇尔将军为首的代表团，企图使双方通过谈判达成解决办法。但无论哪一方都不能克服自己对另一方的恐惧和怀疑，马歇尔的调解失败了。到1947年时，最后的较量已即将到来。 共产党人占领了大城市周围的农村，他们得到了苏联人的支持，苏联人将日本人在满洲交出的武器转交给了他们。民族主义者由于得到美国海、空军在运输方面提供的帮助，占领了包括南京在内的各大城市，还速调军队北上进入满洲。后一行动在战略上是一大失策。国民党军队发现自己在满洲处于无法防守的境地，不得不于1948年秋向中国红军投降。一连串类似的军事失败很快接踵而来。共产党军队从满洲突然发起猛攻，攻克了华北各大城市。到1949年4月时，他们已在横渡长江，向华南地区成扇形展开。当时，美国驻南京大使向华盛顿报告说：“共产党之所以能极为轻易地渡过长江，是因为［国民党］丢失了一些极重要的据点、最高指挥部意见不一、空军未能给予有效的支持。” 共产党的强大军队在南方甚至比在北方推进得更迅速。到1949年年底时，它已占领整个中国大陆。蒋介石逃往台湾岛，而共产党领导人毛泽东则于1949年10月1日在北京宣布中华人民共和国成立，这是中国历史上的一个转折点，实际上，也是世界历史上的一个转折点。 1949年以后的几年中，共产党人以前所未有的速度改变了中国。他们强行推行一种统一的、全能的结构，并将它扩大到每个城市、每个村庄和每个家庭，以取代过去那种权力分散的松弛的政治状态。在这一结构顶端的共产党人能深入到每个公民中去，安排他们从事新的工作，迫使他们以新的方式生活和思维。他们削弱陈旧的家庭体制、结束妇女的低下地位、无视古老的经典而支持有助于建设新社会的新的文学艺术，从而根除了传统的儒家文化。由于共产党人的管辖达到如此严密的程度、他们的工作效率又如此之高，他们能在短短几年内实现农业集体化并大大地加速工业化。而这，又使中国成为世界上的一大强国，被人不安地看作是一个令人畏惧的好斗的国家，而不是一个被授以贪婪的目光、即将被瓜分的弱国。 这一巨大变化影响到整个世界。华盛顿和其他首都都在密切注视着新中国，尤其是在它介入朝鲜、西藏和印度北部的战争之后。莫斯科同样地关注着中国，特别是在赫鲁晓夫和毛泽东之间出现历史性的分裂以后。那些不发达的独立国家也很有兴趣地注意着中国——注意着中国共产党为了自力更生地改善中国的境况而正采取的种种办法。中国的人口极其众多——据北京国家统计局统计，1953年时的人口为582603417人——因此，即使中国仍是一个不发达国家，它也会是世界上一股不可低估的力量。当世界四分之一的人口进入一个极为生气勃勃的阶段时——中国1949年时的情况就是如此——人们完全有理由断言，世界历史上已出现一个转折点。 共产主义在中国的胜利对美国来说是一大失败。不过在日本，战后的占领由美国作主。日本与德国大不相同，由同盟国的一个最高指挥部管辖；该指挥部包括了各同盟国的代表。最高指挥官麦克阿瑟将军和绝大部分占领军都是美国人。 麦克阿瑟下达的命令是：解除这个国家的武装、使它非军事化，发展民主制度，建立一种能独立存在和发展的经济。因此，他遣散了帝国的陆军和海军，取缔了爱国主义组织，剥夺了加在天皇裕仁身上的神性，除去了教育中的军国主义成分。1947年，他颁布了一部将天皇的统治权转交给人民、保障个人权利、允许妇女与男人享有同等地位的民主主义宪法。在经济领域中，最重要的措施是大规模地重新分配土地。到1952年时，90%的可耕地已归从前的佃户所有。但是，搞垮曾控制了战前的工业、财政和对外贸易的财阔的尝试却不太成功。最初的反财阀措施被废除，因为人们认为这些措施阻碍了经济的恢复。 尽管对日本的占领远不象共产党在中国造成的大变动那样具有革命性，但还是对这个国家产生了深远的影响。日本人以往一向愿意接受外国的方式，但从未达到过他们自第二次世界大战以来所有的程度。在这场斗争中遭受的巨大失败使人们对旧秩序产生了怀疑。年轻的一代在寻找新的模式、新的领袖，而且他们这样做受到了很大的鼓励。 到1951年即这一占领已达到其大部分目的时，美国和大多数同盟国与日本缔结了和约，值得注意的是，中国和苏联不在缔约国之内，它们认为和约的条款过于宽厚。和约恢复了日本的主权，但这一主权仅限于日本的四个大岛。和约除了允许美国在日本保留军事基地外，对日本没有任何军事或经济限制。美国还获得了对琉球群岛、小笠原群岛和日本原太平洋托管他的托管权。日本除了放弃台湾外，还让出了千岛群岛和萨哈林岛南部（千岛群岛和萨哈林岛南部已划给苏联），但是，以后如何处置这些岛屿的问题尚未得到解决。实际上，这一和约使日本成为美国在远东阵地的主要堡垒。为了支持这一堡垒，美国在战后的头6年中花费了约20亿美元。由于美国在朝鲜战争和越南战争期间需要各种商品，日本取得了十分惊人的经济进步，到1970年时，它已成为仅次于美国和苏联的世界第三大工业强国。 当时，在远东同在欧洲一样，第二次世界大战之后出现了冷战。苏联支持毛泽东，尽管这种支持来迟了些，美国则妄想让蒋介石继续充当中国的统治者。相反，在日本，美国对占领起了决定性影响，并利用这种占领进一步为自己谋利，苏联代表则进行抗议，尽管这种抗议不起作用。一旦在中国和日本使上述结局明显地稳定下来，便出现了国务卿迪安·艾奇逊所说的象在欧洲一样“结束混乱”、形成均势这种希望。1950年，当朝鲜爆发战争、冷战变为热战时，这种希望破灭了。 朝鲜的悲剧在于：它的地理位置使它成为中国和日本之间的一座天然桥梁。中国和日本曾多次为争夺朝鲜而交战，俄国偶尔也为争夺朝鲜而参战。从1895年起——正式地说从1910年起——朝鲜已在日本人的统治之下。此后，它实际上是一个殖民地，不过，独特的是它由亚洲人而不是由欧洲人统治。第二次世界大战期间，在1943年的开罗会议上，美国、英国和中国宣布，朝鲜应“在适当的时候”再次获得自由和独立。但是，日本30余年的统治使朝鲜缺乏自治所必需的经验。因此，获胜的同盟国决定，在不超过5年的时间内，朝鲜虽然独立，但仍由美国、苏联、英国和中国托管。 随着日本的投降，美国和苏联军队源源不断地开入朝鲜。为了军事上的方便起见，他们将北纬38度线定为其军事行动的分界线。同在德国一样，冷战的到来使分割朝鲜的这一临时分界线牢牢地固定下来。苏联人在他们的占领区建立了一个由共产主义新人民党控制的政权，美国人则在南方依赖说英语的朝鲜人，这些人通常都是保守的上层阶级的成员。1948年8月，“大韩民国”在南方宣告成立，由李承晚博士任总统。一个月后，北朝鲜人也成立了“朝鲜民主主义人民共和国”，金日成任首相。 这两位领导人本身就是两大占领区之间根本差别的象征。金日成当时只有30多岁，是莫斯科培养的朝鲜共产党的书记，从1931年起，一直是反日的地下抵抗组织的战士。李承晚是一位70多岁的老资格的政治家，从20世纪初起，就在同日本人作战。他是哈佛大学和普林斯顿大学的毕业生，是伍德罗·威尔逊的学生和信徒，是卫理公会派的传教土，曾作为朝鲜流亡政府的首脑在中国和美国生活了几十年。联合国的一个委员会曾企图在分别以金日成和李承晚为首的两个政权之间进行调解，但没有成功。这两位领导人互相极力反感，因此，1949年9月，这个委员会警告说，朝鲜有爆发内战的危险。 1950年6月24日，内战真的爆发了，当时，北朝鲜军队为了“解放”南朝鲜，突然越过了三八线。几小时之内，联合国的那个委员会报告说。南朝鲜已成为侵略的牺牲品。第二天，联合国安理会通过了美国提出的要求立即停火、要求北朝鲜军队撤回到三八线以北的提案。同天下午和第二天，杜鲁门总统与他的顾问们协商，决定给南朝鲜以全面的军事援助。6月27日，安理会要求联合国会员国“向大韩民国提供击退武装进攻、恢复该地区的国际和平与安全所必需的援助。”于是，联合国在其短暂的历史上第一次决定使用武力。安理会的决定之所以能获得通过，仅仅是因为苏联为了抗议安理会不准共产党中国取代民族主义中国加入联合国而暂时拒绝参加安理会会议。 联合国有40个会员国响应安理会的呼吁，提供了粮食、运输工具和医疗队，有些会员国还提供了作战部队。但是，作出主要贡献的，除南朝鲜之外，便是美国了，麦克阿瑟将军担任了总司令。朝鲜战争可分为两个阶段——中国介入前为第一阶段，中国介入后为第二阶段。第一阶段开始时，北朝鲜军队迅猛地长驱直入到离半岛南端的釜山港不到50哩的地方。此后，1950年9月14日，一支美国军队在仁川登陆，远远地向三八线附近的海岸推进，并在12天内夺回了南朝鲜首都汉城。北朝鲜军队因其交通线被切断，仓卒地向后撤退，正如他们先前轻率地向前推进一样。到9月底时，联合国军队已到达三八线。 这时的问题是要不要越过三八线。由于拥有否决权的苏联已回到安理会，这一问题被转交给联合国大会。1950年10月7日，大会决定“……为在朝鲜这一主权国家建立一个统一的、独立的民主政府而采取一切有组织的行动”。第二天，美军越过三八线，迅速地占领了北朝鲜首都平壤。到11月22日时，他们已到达朝鲜和中国满洲之间的分界线鸭绿江。 此时，随着中国“志愿军”在苏联制造的喷气式飞机的支持下发起大规模进攻，朝鲜战争开始进入第二阶段。中国军队迅速地向南推进，看上去就象在重复战争的第一阶段。1951年1月初，他们重新占领了汉城，但联合国军队这时恢复并坚守阵地。3月，汉城再次易主，到6月时，战线大体上固定在三八线一带。战争第二阶段最重要的特点是：尽管中国和美国都卷入了战争，但战争还是被严格地限制在局部地区。这种情况之所以会发生，是因为美国和中国都不认为朝鲜的未来是真正关系到重大的民族利益的问题。因此，美国没有使用原子弹，苏联也没有出兵。战争保持在一个“小事件”的水平上，尽管战争的规模很大。 到1951年年中时，很明显，整个战线已处于僵持状态。大规模的战斗逐渐停止了，停战谈判开始进行。经过两年激烈的、时常中断的谈判之后，1953年7月27日，交战双方缔结了一个停战协定。协定的条款反映了军事上的僵持状态。南、北朝鲜之间的分界线大体上仍与战前相同。西方列强成功地遏制了朝鲜的共产主义，维护了联合国的权威。中国人保卫了北朝鲜，使它成为满洲和西方势力范围之间的一个由共产党统治的缓冲国。当时，朝鲜的大部分农村已遭破坏，大约10%的朝鲜人已被打死。