Cold War - Document analysis and commentary

Cold War - Document analysis and commentary

When we talk, study, or discuss war history, it seems like a chain of events; some related, and some not; which are all dim and distant. Events that seem to have no direct impact or influence on our generation since they happened so long ago. In most cases this comes to be partially true, seen that the last world wide conflict ended more than 70 years ago. But then there is that one conflict, a conflict that took place between the two most powerful nations in the world and only lead to the possible annihilation of the human race. Yes, that one conflict is the Cold War, and in case your Cold War facts aren't that fresh it ended in 1991, that is only 26 years ago.

After Germany’s capitulation from World War 2 the 8th May 1945, Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Harry Truman; also known as the Big Three; met from July 17th to August the 2nd of that same year to define the occupation and reconstruction of Germany, to insure that the mistakes that had been made after World War One would not happen again. These meetings resulted in the Potsdam agreement which essentially determined that Germany was to be demilitarized, divided into four parts, and ruled by four of the WW2 Allies (the USA, France, Britain, and the USSR) during the interregnum until the reconstitution of a new National German Government. The different ideologies and the division of territory; specially that of Berlin located within Soviet territory in the East; lead to growing tensions that became the Cold War. Western Berlin which was occupied by the USA, Britain, and France, was booming economically thanks to its Capitalist ideology; this lead to the USSR's first attempt to drive the three Powers out of Berlin in 1948 with the Berlin Blockade. However this didn't last long seen that the USA and Britain managed to supply West Berlin by airlifts. Western Berlin continued then to grow economically which started to worry the Soviet Union as they saw their population emigrate out of the east since the soviet economy was suffering. Convinced that the USA, Britain, and France where exploiting their occupation of West Berlin to fulfill their own purposes and detriment Socialist countries; on November 27th 1958, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev issued a document now known as the Berlin Ultimatum, which gave the USA, Britain, and France 6 months to reach an agreement concerning their departure from West Berlin. Prior to the analysis and commentary of the subject at hand, we must put forward the fact that this note is issued from the Soviet Foreign ministry, meaning that although the cited events are precise they are told from a subjective point of view.

As previously stated, in the Potsdam agreement the four powers agreed that Germany would remain demilitarized, and that they would not impose their ideologies on the German people. However according to the Soviets, and as it is clearly stated numerous times in the document, they believed that France, Britain, and the USA were in violation of these agreements, and therefore had lost their right of occupation in Berlin. Seen that West Berlin was surrounded by Soviet territory, the three Powers installed military troops in all accesses into West Berlin in order to ensure their security, as a result, the USSR felt threatened by this act, and then brought troops as well to patrol the border and assure that there would be no offensive attempts from France, Britain, or the USA. 

Nikita Khrouchtchev refers several times in the "Berlin Ultimatum" to the NATO and the Warsaw treaty. To ensure a full understanding of why, we must first mention what these terms are. The Warsaw treaty was created on May 14th 1955 by communist states such as the Soviet Union and other eastern countries in order to counter the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) which was created 6 years earlier by anti-communist states such as France, Britain, and the USA. 

In the Ultimatum, it is stated that the Soviet Union's sole purpose in the matter was to achieve the unification of the German people, and to attain a sustainable peace in Europe. Objective which according to the Soviets was being interfered with by their actions and occupation of West Berlin by the Three Powers. Regarding the Soviet's opinion, the only interest the USA, Britain, and France had in West Berlin was to maintain a vantage point in Soviet territory in order to carry out belligerent activities against socialist countries. So they stated that by ending the illegal occupation of West Berlin there would be no outcome other than a substantially improved atmosphere between European states. 

In the document, the USSR gives the Three powers occupying the west the chance to negotiate and reach terms favorable for everyone. However the Soviet Union only gave a 6 month window to reach an agreement concerning the removal of French, American, and British presence. 

Although not specified in the document that this was an Ultimatum, the USSR warned and even threatened, that if they didn't leave, the Soviet Union would also carry out the agreement with the GDR (German Democratic Republic) giving it full power to deal with matters concerning its land and quote << exercise its sovereignty on land, on water, and in the air.>> l.677.

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