Cold War - Chapter 3

Stalin and the Soviets really made it obvious that they intended to set up Europe exactly as they pleased, and the Americans obviously noticed. Moreover, it appeared that Stalin was actively encouraging further war among his enemies. In a speech he made in February 1946, Stalin told the Supreme Soviet that, in order to survive, capitalist countries had to be constantly fighting with each other, or they couldn't grow and increase their strength.

America didn't like the sound of this. These weren't the words of an ally, who was interested in keeping the peace. Washington requested a report from George Kennan, who was the American ambassador in Moscow at the time. They wanted to know what Kennan thought the Russians were up to and what they were trying to achieve with their foreign policy.

Kennan minced his words. He REALLY went to town on his report and had it transmitted back to Washington as a telegram. This was known as the Long Telegram, and it was sent on 22nd February 1946 - all 8000 words of it. In it, Kennan said that the combination of Marxist-Leninist theory (which is the bit that says capitalism makes war inevitable) and Russian fears of being invaded again had made them incredibly hostile towards the capitalist world. They used this hostility to force an authoritarian regime on their citizens. He advised Truman that he had better give up turning a blind eye to the Soviets taking control of Europe, and instead take steps to limit their power and influence, or there would be an almighty smackdown between Communism and democracy. "Stand up to those bullies in the Kremlin!" he might well have written - except that he would have made that one sentence last for two pages, knowing him.

Tuman was worried. He hadn't really grasped that there was going to be such an issue. He probably thought that the atomic bomb would be enough to scare the Russians into submission, but it quickly became obvious that the Russians were not going to take that submissive role, especially when Stalin refused to remove his troops from Northern Iran. They'd been stationed there during WW2 to protect the oil supplies from Hitler, but there was no need for their continued occupation. Perhaps Stalin thought the world would just forget he was surrounding some of the world's biggest oil reserves.

Truman hadn't forgotten, though. Well, it's hard to forget that 30,000 troops are positioned such that they could overthrow the Iranian government, or attack Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Moreover, Stalin used his troops to partition Iran and create a couple of "people's democratic republics" within the country. You can read more about the Iranian Crisis here.

Truman chucked his toys right out of the pram. He had previously said that he was "tired of babying the Soviets" and would henceforth "treat them with an iron fist and strong language". This was the first time his words had really been tested. America roared, and the Russians backed down. The troops were withdrawn from Iran.

This association of iron and the Soviets was strengthened when Winston Churchill gave a lecture in Missouri, echoing what Kennan had written. It was to become one of the most famous lectures ever, because in it, he said, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent." Churchill had coined the phrase that would be used to describe the Soviet regime for the next 50 years.