Can't help it. After 2 lengthy entries a joke ain't too bad. Kinda tells us a bit of the Russians' views on communism and capitalism then. okiedokie enough babbling:

  

Communism: a Russian joke

In a Soviet classroom, a little boy is asked to define capitalism.

'The oppression of man by man', he says.

'Good', says the teacher, 'and what is communism?'

The little boy replies: 'The opposite'.

huh?

Now this one's not a joke:

One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression.   

   

The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio; fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.  

A speech by President Truman of the US (1947)

Listen also to President Truman's Inaugural Address in 1949 when he talked about the difference between democracy and Communism

HUH??? So who was oppressing who? You decide (BWAHAHAHA*gigglesnortchoke*)

Who said this entry's supposed to be funny?   

*melody*

 

Something significant happened during the potsdem conference, an exchange between Truman and Stalin.

 On July 24 I casually mentioned to Stalin that we had a new weapon of unusual destructive force. The Russian Premier showed no special interest. All he said was he was glad to hear it and hoped we would make "good use of it against the Japanese."

 Harry S. Truman, Year of Decisions (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1955) p. 416.

Why would Truman mention the atomic bomb? And without mentioning that it was the atomic bomb?

I was perhaps five yards away, and I watched with the closest attention the momentous talk. I knew what the President was going to do. What was vital to measure was its effect on Stalin. I can see it all as if it were yesterday. He seemed to be delighted. A new bomb! Of extraordinary power! Probably decisive on the whole Japanese war! What a bit of luck! This was my impression at the moment, and I was sure that he had no idea of the significance of what he was being told. Evidently in his immense toils and stresses the atomic bomb had played no part. If he had the slightest idea of the revolution in world affairs which was in progress his reactions would have been obvious. Nothing would have been easier than for him to say, "Thank you so much for telling me about your new bomb. I of course have no technical knowledge. May I send my expert in these nuclear sciences to see your expert tomorrow morning?" But his face remained gay and genial and the talk between these two potentates soon came to an end. As we were waiting for our cars I found myself near Truman. "How did it go?" I asked. "He never asked a question," he replied. I was certain therefore that at that date Stalin had no special knowledge of the vast process of research upon which the United States and Britain had been engaged for so long...

Winston Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1953) pp 669-70.

It's interesting to note that Churchill was observing them from afar and that he was aware of what Truman was telling Stalin. Obviously, as he mentioned himself, truman and Churchill are in some sort of an "alliance", perhaps against Stalin. He also admits that the US and Britain have been working on the atomic bomb for a period of time already, and without mentioning it to Stalin, who was supposed to be their war time ally.

I was surprised at Stalin's lack of interest. I concluded that he had not grasped the importance of the discovery. I thought that the following day he would ask for more information. He did not. Later I concluded that, because the Russians kept secret their developments in military weapons, they thought it improper to ask us about ours.

James F. Byrnes (Secretary of State), Speaking Frankly (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1947) p. 263.

Apparently, the US and Britain were not aware of the USSR's military developments. Unfortunately, the USSR was underestimated. Byrnes believed that "Stalin did not appreciate the significance of President Truman's statement." However, he was also "pretty certain that they knew we were working on the bomb, but we had kept secret how far that development had gone."

This is a Russian view on the same event:

I do not recall the exact date, but after the close of one of the formal meetings Truman informed Stalin that the United States now possessed a bomb of exceptional power, without, however, naming it the atomic bomb.

As was later written abroad, at that moment Churchill fixed his gaze on Stalin's face, closely observing his reaction. However, Stalin did not betray his feelings and pretended that he saw nothing special in what Truman had imparted to him. Both Churchill and many other Anglo-American authors subsequently assumed that Stalin had really failed to fathom the significance of what he had heard.

In actual fact, on returning to his quarters after this meeting Stalin, in my presence, told Molotov about his conversation with Truman. The latter reacted amost immediately. "Let them. We'll have to talk it over with Kurchatov and get him to speed things up."

I realized that they were talking about research on the atomic bomb.

It was clear already then that the US Government intended to use the atomic weapon for the purpose of achieving its Imperialist goals from a position of strength in "the cold war." This was amply corroborated on August 6 and 8. Without any military need whatsoever, the Americans dropped two atomic bombs on the peaceful and densely-populated Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Georgii Konstantinovich Zhukov (Soviet Marshal), The Memoirs of Marshal Zhukov (New York: Delacorte Press, 1971) pp. 674-675.

It seems that Truman and Churchill were mislead by Stalin's reaction, thinking that atomic bomb was of no big concern to him, when in fact Stalin took note of Truman's remark. They also seemed to be unaware that the USSR was developing their own atomic bomb and that because of Truman's remark, Stalin wanted the development of the Russian atomic bomb to speed up. It also seems that the Russians viewed the dropping of the American bomb to be pointless as a way to intimidate the Russians of the bomb's might, since they have their own. Zhukov didn't mention the fact that the bomb was dropped to force Japan to surrender, as though that was not the USA's main concern. 

Although the leaders who played a great role during the Cold War attended the Potsdam Conference together, the Cold War itself was already taking place. The US and USSR were keeping military secrets from each other, and even though Truman mentioned the bomb to Stalin, he never gave specific details. Keeping important secrets about the deadliest bomb of that time can signify the magnitude of distrust between the two nations. And it is this mistrust that carried the war for half a century.

*melody*  

oh yes, sources courtesy of: http://www.dannen.com/decision/potsdam.html

 

This isn't necessary but it might be useful to make the events of the cold war clearer.

Timeline of the Cold War

1940s

·         1945: February 4-11-- Yalta Conference Cold War Begins

·         1945: August 6 -- United States first used atomic bomb in war

·         1945: August 8 -- Russia enters war against Japan

·         1945: August 14 -- Japanese surrender End of World War II

·         1946: March -- Winston Churchill delivers "Iron Curtain" Speech

·         1947: March -- Truman declares active role in Greek Civil War

·         1947: June -- Marshall Plan is announced

·         1948: February -- Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia

·         1948: June 24 -- Berlin Blockade begins

·         1949: July -- NATO ratified

·         1949: May 12 -- Berlin Blockade ends

·         1949: September -- Mao Zedong, a Communist, takes control of China

·         1949: September -- Soviets explode first atomic bomb

1950s

·         1950: February -- Joe McCarthy begins Communist witch hunt

·         1950: June -- Korean War begins

·         1951: January 12 -- Federal Civil Defense Administration established

·         1953: June 19 -- Rosenberg executions

·         1953: July -- Korean War ends

·         1954: March -- KGB established

·         1954 -- CIA helps overthrow unfriendly regimes in Iran and Guatemala

·         1954: July -- Vietnam split at 17th parallel

·         1955: May -- Warsaw Pact formed

·         1956: October - November -- Rebellion put down in Communist Hungary. Egypt took control of Suez Canal; U.S. refused to help take it back

·         1957: October 4 -- Sputnik launched into orbit

·         1958: November -- Khrushchev demands withdrawal of troops from Berlin

·         1959: January -- Cuba taken over by Fidel Castro

·         1959: September -- Khrushchev visits United States; denied access to Disneyland

1960s

·         1960: May -- Soviet Union reveals that U.S. spy plane was shot down over Soviet territory

·         1960: November -- John F. Kennedy elected President

·         1961: April -- Bay of Pigs invasion

·         1961: July -- Kennedy requests 25% spending increase for military

·         1961: August 13 -- Berlin border closed

·         1961: August 17 -- Construction of Berlin Wall begins

·         1962: -- U.S. involvement in Vietnam increased

·         1962: October -- Cuban Missile Crisis

·         1963: July -- Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified

·         1963: November -- President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas

·         1964: August -- Gulf of Tonkin incident

·         1965: April -- U.S. Marines sent to Dominican Republic to fight Communism

·         1965: July -- Announcement of dispatching of 150,000 U.S. troops to Vietnam

·         1968: January -- North Korea captured U.S.S. Pueblo

·         1968: August -- Soviet troops crush Czechoslovakian revolt

·         1969: July 20 -- Apollo 11 lands on the moon

1970s

·         1970: April -- President Nixon extends Vietnam War to Cambodia

·         1972: July -- SALT I signed

·         1973: January -- Cease fire in Vietnam between North Vietnam and United States

·         1973: September -- United States helps overthrow Chile government

·         1973: October -- Egypt and Syria attack Israel; Egypt requests Soviet aid

·         1974: August -- President Nixon resigns

·         1975: April 17 -- North Vietnam defeats South Vietnam

·         1979: July -- SALT II signed

·         1979: November -- Shah of Iran overthrown; Iranian Hostage Crisis

1980s

·         1983: -- President Reagan proposes Strategic Defense Initiative

·         1983: October -- U.S. troops overthrow regime in Grenada

·         1985: -- Iran-Contra Affair (arms sold to Iran, profits used to support contras in Nicaragua)

·         1985: -- Mikhail Gorbachev ascends to power in Soviet Union

·         1986: -- Gorbachev ends economic aid to Soviet satellites

·         1986: October -- Reagan and Gorbachev resolve to remove all intermediate nuclear missiles from Europe

·         1986: November -- Iran-Contra Affair revealed to public

·         1987: October -- Reagan and Gorbachev agree to remove all medium and short-range nuclear missiles by signing treaty

·         1989: January -- Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan

·         1989: June -- China puts down protests for democracy; Poland becomes independent

·         1989: September -- Hungary becomes independent

·         1989: November -- Berlin Wall falls

·         1989: December -- Communist governments fall in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Rumania; Soviet empire ends

1990s

·         1990: March -- Lithuania becomes independent

·         1990: May 29 -- Boris Yeltsin elected to presidency of Russia

·         1990: October 3 -- Germany reunited

·         1991: April -- Warsaw Pact ends

·         1991: August -- End of Soviet Union Cold War Ends

 http://library.thinkquest.org

 

Phew that was long. Note that Truman didn't not follow the USA's policy of isolation, which it did under Roosevelt. Truman himself declared his active role in the Greek Civil War.

 

The Yalta conference was commonly regarded as the start of the cold war. I find it kinda ironic considering that Roosevelt who "appeared weak and tired in photos of the Yalta conference, and he would present his Yalta report to Congress March 1 sitting down" (http://history.acusd.edu/gen/20th/coldwar1.html) attended the conference hoping  "to ensure the Soviet Union's participation in the United Nations, which he achieved at the price of granting veto power to each permanent member of the Security Council, a condition that significantly weakened the UN." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalta_Conference) but having the cold war start soon after, the same year he passed away. Roosevelt "was hoping the future United Nations organization would be the place to deal with Stalin, not at Yalta. He told Adolf Berle 'I didn't say the result was good. I said it was the best I could do.' Both Roosevelt and Churchill recognized the reality of Soviet power in 1945." (http://history.acusd.edu/gen/20th/coldwar1.html)

 

Roosevelt suffered from high blood pressure according to his physician Dr. Howard Bruenn, in case anyone wants to know.(http://history.acusd.edu/gen/20th/coldwar1.html).

 

*melody* (the historical biographer. sure.)