By Sumire Kan, Naoto Hayashi, Rintato Ito, Shintaro Ono
Construction of the Berlin Wall and towards the Fall of it
Introduction
Our topic is the construction of the Berlin Wall and how it went toward the fall of it.
The first two sources are the letters exchanged by the leaders of East Germany and the Soviet Union.
Then we introduce sources that show the influence of the United States to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Primary Sources
Letter from Ulbricht to Khrushchev on Closing the Border Around West Berlin (Arata Ono)
This letter is written by the leader of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) Ulbricht directed to the Soviet Leader Khrushchev. It tells Khrushchev that the border around West Berlin was closed. It emphasizes that it was a measure to protect the GDR from West Berlin. This letter repeatedly emphasizes the negative influence of West Berlin to the GDR including subversive measures. It also mentions the people coming from West Berlin to East Berlin to buy goods and services, and after closing the border with a wall, there was plenty of those left for East Berlin citizens. It finally appeals to the Soviet Union to strengthen the tie between the two countries, the GDR and the Soviet Union.
Reference
“Letter from Ulbricht to Khrushchev on Closing the Border Around West Berlin,” September 15, 1961, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Published in CWIHP Working Paper No. 5, “Ulbricht and the Concrete ‘Rose.'” Translated for CWIHP by Hope Harrison. SED Archives, IfGA, ZPA, Central Committee files, Walter Ulbricht’s office, Internal Party Archive, J IV 2/202/130. https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/116212
Letter from Khrushchev to Ulbricht Regarding the Situation in Berlin (Arata Ono)
This is the letter that replies to the previous letter sent by Ulbricht to Khrushchev. In this letter, Khrushchev expresses the strong supportive attitude toward the actions taken by the GDR. He agrees with the idea that the border control would strengthen the GDR’s economic and political environment. The letter ends with the acceptance of sending the Soviet delegation to the GDR and expression of Khrushchev’s very positive attitude toward Ulbricht and the GDR.
Reference
“Letter from Khrushchev to Ulbricht Regarding the Situation in Berlin,” September 28, 1961, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, SED Archives, IfGA, ZPA, J IV 2/202/130. CWIHP Working Paper No. 5, “Ulbricht and the Concrete ‘Rose.'” Translated for CWIHP by Hope Harrison. https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/116213
Analysis
These letters discuss the completion of closing the border between West Berlin and East Germany. They blame Western powers and West Berlin for the decline of East Berlin. They justify the construction of the Berlin wall by stating it was a measure to protect East Germany from the West. These letters suggest that the tie between The GDR and the Soviet Union would become strengthened in the future.
Primary Sources
Ronald Reagan’s speech at the Brandenburg gate, West Berlin, Remarks on East-West Relation.(Chen) (June 12, 1987)
This is the speech which President of United States Ronal Reagan himself delivered his message at West Berlin
“Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sector of this city,part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe.”
“Yet it is here in Berlin where the wall emerges most clearly; here, cutting across your city, where the news photo and the television screen have imprinted this brutal division of a continent upon mind of the world.“
“…Yet I do not come here for lament. For I find in Berlin a message of hope, even in shadow of this wall, a message of triumph.“
“In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted : “We will bury you.”But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of ….Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatred among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor.”
“General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
“And I invite Mr. Gorbachev: Let us work to bring the Eastern and Western parts of the city closer together, so that all the inhabitants of all Berlin can enjoy the benefits that come with life in one of the great cities of the world.”
Analysis United States’s influence, Cold War
(Two years later)
Conversation on GDR-FRG Economic Cooperation between Alexander Schalck and Egon Krenz (Chen) (November 6, 1989)
Establishing common understanding, preparation of opening and further discussion. In details of law, rules, freedom of expression. Discussion on generous travel regulation as to secure tourist and visitor traffic. Loan plans on creating business chances.
(3 days before Fall of Berlin Wall)
Conclusion: During the period of two years
References:
“Speech by President Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate, West Berlin, ‘Remarks on East-West Relations’,” June 12, 1987, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Ronald Reagan Library, Speeches https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/134316
“Conversation on GDR-FRG Economic Cooperation between Alexander Schalck and Egon Krenz,” November 06, 1989, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Published in Hans-Hermann Hertle, Der Fall der Mauer. Die unbeabsichtigte Selbstauflösung des SED-Staates, 2 nd edition, (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1999), pp. 483-486. Translated for CWIHP by Howard Sargeant. https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113037
Cold War
Harmel Report
NATO. Report on the future tasks of the Alliance-Harmel Report 1968, NATO Archives Online
Description:
Pierre Harmel, Belgium foreign minister, submitted the report to the NATO council. Although the official title of the report is “the Future Tasks of the Alliance”, it is often referred to as “Harmel Report”. The report argued for both deterrent and detent. It proposed that NATO should have two functions. First, NATO should maintain military strength to deter possible aggression from the Soviets. Second, it should pursue a more stable relationship with the USSR and Eastern European states and achieve “a greater relaxation of tensions”. Harmel and his work team accentuated the importance of collective defense as a stabilizing factor in international relations. They also advocated for detente policies, saying that the improvement of the relationship between the US and the USSR would be the solution to the political issues in Europe. The report also put considerable emphasis on the problem of German reunification. There would be no stable settlement without solving the question of divided Germany.
Analysis:
The significance of the Harmel Report lies in its inclination to detente policy. The report alleged that the dual functions of NATO, deterrent and detente, were “not contradictory but complementary”. It suggested the necessity for both military security and negotiation. The report also called for arms control in order to promote detente. It seems this report in part determined the subsequent diplomatic direction of NATO member states and encouraged the negotiation toward nuclear disarmament talks. The Treaty of the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons (NPT) reached an agreement between the US, UK, and Soviet in 1968. The strategic arms limitation talks (SALT) began in 1969 between the US and Soviet. New Eastern policy that was meant to normalize the diplomatic relations between West Germany and Eastern European bloc was also promoted at about this point. To sum, the Harmel Report marked the era of detente and proposed what the diplomatic strategy of NATO partner states should be.
“But some are more equal than others”
Block, Herbert. But some are more equal than others, 1969, Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/2012637843/
Description:
This editorial cartoon by Herbert Block was published in the Washington Post, February 16, 1969. In the cartoon, a pig wearing a military cap of the USSR holds a gun and whip. The pig stands in front of other animals which represent Soviet satellites such as Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland, Hungary, and West European communist parties. Behind the pig, there is a barn with Soviet symbol of hammer and sickle and the banner “Animal Farm”.
Analysis:
The political cartoonist Herbert Block borrowed an idea from George Orwell’s satirical novel Animal Farm written in 1945. Herblock showed the similarity between Joseph Stalin whom Owell had criticized in his novel and Leonid Brezhnev, the General Secretary of the communist party of the Soviet Union of the time. Herblock described Brezhnev as a ruthless dictator as Stalin. In the novel Animal Farm, animals govern themselves, independent of human farmers. They uphold the ideology of “Animalism” which is the allegory of communism. Animalism says that “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. Animalism justifies dictatorship by a privileged class and inflicts burden and distress on the rest of entire animals in the farm. By using the idea of Animal Farm, Herblock criticized the Soviet aggression. Herblock condemned Brezhnev for suppressing the democratization movement in Czechoslovakia by dispatching Warsaw Pact troops in 1968. What was criticized in this cartoon was the doctrine of limited sovereignty, so-called Brezhnev Doctrine. Brezhnev tried to justify military intervention in Czechoslovakia by alleging that the interest of the entire Socialist bloc transcends the sovereignty of a state.
Edward C. United States Embassy, Iran Cable from Edward C. Wells to the Department of State. “Motion Pictures–The Film Two Cities,” May 16, 1950.
Edward C. United States Embassy, Iran Cable from Edward C. Wells to the Department of State. “Motion Pictures–The Film Two Cities,” May 16, 1950. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB78/propaganda%20004.pdf
Description: This is a propaganda in 1950 having priority Aims and Objectives of USIE Program in Iran that enhancing U.S. Prestige and Demonstrating Communist Fallacies. In addition, it suggests Walt Disney might support this propaganda.
Analysis: In particular, America more utilizes the various media for propaganda than Soviet. Actually, it is said that Walt Disney’s Americanization is most remarkable at that time because Hollywood’s output of the 1950s and early 1960s was its promotion of “American” ideals. In particular, Film executives recognize that their main role is to sell “people’s capitalism” all over the world. So, they can shift the idea not deny the communism but spread American ideology like capitalism. In addition, this document is focusing on the Iran cable and therefore United States realize not only the importance of Walt Disney but also the significance of the strategy in the middle east.
Anti-Americanism in the Arab World
Dean, A. Department of State Airgram from Dean Acheson. [Anti-Americanism in the Arab World], May 1, 1950. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB78/propaganda%20003.pdf
Description: This propaganda was published in May 1,1950 in the Department of State Airgram from Dean Acheson who is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 51st Secretary of State in the Truman administration and shaped American foreign policy in the early years of the Cold War., titled Anti-Americanism in the Arab World. The purpose of this propaganda is to resist Anti-Americanism rising in the middle East at that time.
Analysis: Dean’s policy is relatively generous although the Arab has the ideology of Anti-American. For example, in this article, he mentions that United States should have an attempt to tackle Palestine issues, and what is more he claims that “United States has a sincere interest in maintaining strong relationship with the Arab world”. In short, despite the fact that Arab (or maybe other middle east countries) has a negative attitude toward U.S., Dean tried to find some amicable solution for breakthrough. However, actually, it is said that Atchison’s policy of passive containment against the communist was attacked by Joseph McCarthy and other radical members of the Republican Party. On December 15, 1950, the Republicans in the House of Representatives voted unanimously to remove Atchison from the parliament. In other words, his policy is not accepted in the United States during the Cold War period.
Mutual defense treaty between the United States and the Republic of Korea
Description
The United States and the Republic of Korea confirming their mutual protection from the threats of counter-bloc
Analysis
the separation of North Korea and South Korea led to the US responsibility to maintain democracy in the republic of South Korea to promote deterrent of communist idealism led by the Soviet Union and China, centering its foreign policy on the containment of communism.
The Korean war reached international proportions in 1950 when North Korea, supported by the Soviet Union, invaded the South, and the United Nations, with the United States as the principal participant, joined the war on the side of the South Koreans
The Korean War became the first major battle waged in the name of containment.
The United States and South Korea therefore publicly and formally declared determination to strengthen the peace in the Pacific area got the two nations to contract this treaty.
Department of State Report. “Conference of Middle East Chiefs of Mission (Istanbul, February 14-21, 1951): Agreed Conclusions and Recommendations,” c. February 21, 1951.
Description
U.S. objectives for the Middle East in the cold war
In this report marked the United States’ genuine view on the middle east during the cold war and how they will carry out their strategy so that the middle eastern nations will be cooperative with the West
Analysis
there were anti-americanism prevalent in most Arab-nations. In order for those nations to take on the site of the United States, the United States seek cooperation with those nations by stabilizing the political and social progress. Another objective which is to gain prestige in the middle east comes the first prioritization.
the conference concluded that the United States’ military-political objectives in the middle east during the cold war was to first mobilize strength for the containment of communism, and second, to restore and strengthen confidence in the West, and third build sufficient military strength in each country in order to maintain internal security, and forth to construct and insure the availability of allied air, army bases, the fifth to organize joint staff planning for the defense of the area. Most of these objectives boil down to the United States strategy for the back up by insuring the middle east maximum support of the allied war.
The report also exhibit that the US’s active support to Turkey is based on how Turkey is recognized and important to Middle East defense. By building up Turkey’s economy and dealing with Turkey’s exposed situation, the US aim to to gain regional military cooperation from adjacent receptive regions.
Repetitions of Tensions and Detente During the Cold War
During the Cold War, the United States (capitalist) and the Soviet Union (communist), which insisted on opposing ideologies, confronted and competed on a global scale against the backdrop of nuclear forces. The Cold War was fought from the political, economic, and propagandic perspectives, and there were only a limited number of situations in which weapons were employed. The Cold War lasted for about half a century, but it does not mean that the extremely tense situation lasted throughout the period. There was an intermittent detente in search of negotiations and dialogue for improving relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, but due to various factors, the tension was revived many times. Thus, it can be said that the Cold War was a repetition of tensions and detente. On this page, we will introduce what happened between these repeated tense situations and detente, and how the United States and the Soviet Union dealt with the incidents.
About this page
We have chosen primary sources that symbolizes the conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the Cold War. The posters that seem to criticize each other well represent the ideological conflict. We look at the Sputnik shock from both the U.S. and Soviet perspectives. In addition, we will use telegrams and letters to show the tense situation of the Cuban crisis, the most tense time during the Cold War.
Ideological Conflict
Anti-Communist Poster Made in the U.S. (1)
Notice of rally at the Hippodrome to fight communism, location unknown. From: Photos used in the 1984 Truman Centennial Exhibit
[Analysis]
This anti-communist poster not only tries to frighten citizens in the United States about communism, but also tried to boost their hostility toward communism, in other words the Soviet Union, by the use of the word ‘fight.’ This poster was displayed in the Truman Centennial Exhibit, and 4 years before that, the Moscow Olympics were held that many Western Bloc boycotted.
Anti-Communist Poster Made in the U.S. (2)
Look behind the mask! Communism is death. Anti-communist poster depicting Stalin. From: Photos used in the 1984 Truman Centennial Exhibit. Library of Congress Photo Number: LC-USZ62-80757.
[Analysis]
Anti-communism was widely spread with an effort made by the government in American society during the Cold War. This anti-communist propaganda poster symbolizes how the US government wanted to depict Stalin as evil, with a skull behind his face. It can be said that the government of the United States tried to fear Communism with the use of the word ‘death’ and implant anti-comminist idea in the minds of American citizens.
New Strain on Capitalism’s General Crisis
Translation: The pie chart at the top shows the transition of capitalist states’ industrial production from 1948 to 1960. The pie chart in the middle shows the transition of capitalist states’ export volume from 1948 to 1960. The pie chart at the bottom shows the transition of gold quantity from 1948 to 1960. The bar graph at the top shows the average economic growth rates of some countries from 1953 to 1960. Starting from the left, each bar indicates the following countries: the U.S., Bergy, England, Canada, Netherlands, France, East Germany, Italy, Japan. The arrows show the next ten years’ economic growth of capitalist states and communist states. The top arrow indicates capitalist states, and the bottom one indicates communist states.
[Analysis]
This poster implicitly tells that communism is superior to capitalism in terms of economy. The pie charts indicate that capitalist states lost their national power in the field of industrial production, export volume, and gold quantity by 1960. Moreover, from 1953 to 1960, capitalist countries developed their economy better than communist countries, but next ten years after 1960, it is predicted that communist countries develop their economy better than capitalist countries. The Soviet Union claims that a communist country, the Soviet Union, is greater than a capitalist country, the United States, using these data and predictions.
1. Space Race
A memorandum from Lyndon B. Johnson(US vice president) to President Kennedy.
[Evaluation of Space Program]
…The following general conclusions can be reported:
a) Largely due to their concentrated efforts and their earlier emphasis upon the development of large rocket engines, the Soviets are ahead of the United States in world prestige attained through impressive technological accomplishment in space.
b) The U.S. has greater resources than the USSR for attaining space leadership but has failed to make the necessary hard decisions and to marshal those resources to achieve such leadership.
c) This country should be realistic and recognize that other nations, regardless of their appreciation of our idealistic values, will tend to align themselves with the country which they believe will be the world leader–the winner in the long run. Dramatic accomplishments in space are being increasingly identified as a major indicator of world leadership…
…
i) More resources and more effort need to be put into our space program as soon as possible. We should move forward with a bold program, while at the same time taking every practical precaution for the safety of the persons actively participating in space flights.
[Analysis]
Prior to the Soviet Union’s Sputnik program, the United States and its people had believed them to be “a leader in space exploration.” However, the news of the successful launch of the first artificial satellite “Sputnik 1” by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957 caused shock and a sense of crisis to the governments and societies of Western countries including the United States. This memorandum sent to President John F. Kennedy at the time shows that the United States admitted that the Soviet Union was one step ahead in terms of space exploration, in response to the fact that the Soviet Union succeeded in launching the first artificial satellite of mankind. It can also be said that there was a sense of urgency that great efforts must be spent on the US’s space development programs in order for them to overtake the Soviet Union and become a world leader in space development.
Pravda Newspaper Article, ‘Announcement of the First Satellite’
For several years scientific research and experimental design work have been conducted in the Soviet Union on the creation of artificial satellites of the earth. As already reported in the press, the first launching of the satellites in the USSR were planned for realization in accordance with the scientific research program of the International Geophysical Year. As a result of very intensive work by scientific research institutes and design bureaus the first artificial satellite in the world has been created. On October 4, 1957, this first satellite was successfully launched in the USSR. …The successful launching of the first man-made earth satellite makes a most important contribution to the treasure-house of world science and culture. The scientific experiment accomplished at such a great height is of tremendous importance for learning the properties of cosmic space and for studying the earth as a planet of our solar system. During the International Geophysical Year the Soviet Union proposes launching several more artificial earth satellites. These subsequent satellites will be larger and heavier and they will be used to carry out programs of scientific research. Artificial earth satellites will pave the way to interplanetary travel and, apparently our contemporaries will witness how the freed and conscientious labor of the people of the new socialist society makes the most daring dreams of mankind a reality.
[Analysis]
During the International Geophysical Year, the Soviet Union succeeded in creating the artificial satellite earlier than any other country. It says its contribution will be useful for subsequent scientific research held in the world. It seems that the Soviet Union tells how great the country is and how important it is in the world. It is because it is a communist country that the Soviet Union made a great achievement. Implicitly, the Soviet Union states that communism is superior to capitalism like the United States.
2. CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
Background Information
On October 14, 1962, a photo taken by a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane over Cuba revealed that a missile base by the Soviet Union was under construction. Since this would make it possible to attack the U.S. mainland with nuclear weapons, President Kennedy made a televised speech on the evening of the 22nd, declaring a sea and air blockade around Cuba to prevent offensive weapons from being brought in. Since the Soviet Union had already sent ships loaded with equipment and weapons to Cuba, any attempt to break through the U.S. sea blockade would have resulted in a direct conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and a nuclear war was imminent.
Telegram from Soviet Ambassador to the USA Dobrynin to the USSR MFA, 18 October 1962
Background Information
Dobrynin sent statements issued by Kennedy, Rusk, Taylor and Martin in a closed briefing for American media where they discussed the gravity of the Cuban issue.
TOP SECRET
Making Copies Prohibited
Copy No. 1
CIPHERED TELEGRAM
On October 15-16 a closed briefing (i.e. “instructional meeting”) for editors and leading observers of American newspapers, radio, and television was held at the State Department. According to information which we received, the USA policy toward Cuba occupied a major place in the work of the meeting. The essence of the statements of Kennedy, Rusk, Taylor, and Martin (aide to the Secretary of State) on this topic is summarized as follows:
I. “Don’t joke about the idea of American intervention in Cuba,” because such intervention would unavoidably prompt serious counter-measures from the USSR, if not directly aimed at the USA, then in other regions of the world, particularly in West Berlin; for many years [intervention] would complicate the mutual relations of the USA with the countries of Latin America, Asia, and Africa, and overall would create more problems than it solved.
2. At present Cuba is a political problem, and not a problem of security of the USA; thus, political, economic and other means are needed to solve it, rather than military.
Proceeding from this, the USA intends to achieve the greatest possible political, economic, and moral isolation of Cuba from other Latin American countries and other countries of the “free world,” and also hinder the provision of assistance to Cuba from Socialist countries in all possible ways (short of, however, a sea blockade).
All this, in the calculations of the USA government, should cause serious economic and political complications for Cuba and ultimately (not in the coming weeks and months but in the next year or two) lead to the outbreak there of mass dissatisfaction and to huge anti-government demonstrations. The USA’s concrete course in this case will depend on the situation.
3. At the present time the USA has no plans to create “a provisional Cuban government in exile,” since in view of the mixed nature of the Cuban emigration it would be hardly possible to form a sufficiently authoritative government and in any case such a government, created on foreign territory, could not count on broad popularity among the population of Cuba itself; in the same way the recognition of an exile government by the United States “would confuse” the issue of the American base at Guantanamo, depriving the USA of the formal right to demand of Castro’s government recognition of Cuba’s obligations re: the agreement about that base.
4. In spite of all the importance of the Cuba issue, it is not the main issue for the USA. The West Berlin issue at present remains sharpest and most fraught with dangers.
18/X-62 A.DOBRYNIN
[Analysis]
This telegram shows the tension of a possible armed conflict in the near future. The part, “the USA intends to achieve the greatest possible political, economic, and moral isolation of Cuba from other Latin American countries and other countries of the “free world,” and also hinder the provision of assistance to Cuba from Socialist countries in all possible ways.” is a good example of the distinction the US makes between socialist and free countries.
“Telegram from Soviet Ambassador to the USA Dobrynin to the USSR MFA,” October 23, 1962
Background Information
Dobrynin sends a report on the general mood of Washington DC, by way of media and observation, regarding Kennedy’s establishment of a quarantine around Cuba.
Following Kennedy’s speech on the Cuban issue yesterday, a broad campaign was deployed here, called forth in order to impart to the developing situation even more extraordinariness and seriousness than was done in Kennedy’s speech itself.
In a briefing conducted by the USA Ministry of Defense yesterday evening, [Secretary of Defense Robert S.] McNamara categorically declared that the USA will not stop short of sinking Soviet ships which are bringing “offensive types” of weapons to Cuba, if those ships will refuse to obey the demands of American warships.
It is reported that the President’s official proclamation about the introduction into force of measures to assert a quarantine on the delivery to Cuba of offensive types of weapons will be published before the end of the day today or tomorrow morning after the formal agreement with other members of the Organization of American States. For the practical implementation of the quarantine in the area of Cuba, there has been assembled, according to the reports of military observers, around 450 military ships, more than 1,200 airplanes and around 200 thousand soldiers.
Almost without interruption, the commentaries which are broadcast on radio and television–and also the commentaries which appeared in today’s morning newspapers–are directed towards supercharging the atmosphere and predictions of an early “test of force,” as soon as the first Soviet ship approaches Cuba (we broadcast similar commentaries via TASS).
[Analysis]
The sentences such as ”the developing situation even more extraordinariness and seriousness than was done in Kennedy’s speech itself,” “the USA will not stop short of sinking Soviet ships,” “ around 450 military ships, more than 1,200 airplanes and around 200 thousand soldiers” shows the tensions between the US and Soviet.
“Letter from Khrushchev to John F. Kennedy,” October 24, 1962
Imagine, Mr. President, what if we were to present to you such an ultimatum as you have presented to us by your actions. How would you react to it? I think you would be outraged at such a move on our part. And this we would understand.
Having presented these conditions to us, Mr. President, you have thrown down the gauntlet. Who asked you to do this? By what right have you done this? Our ties with the Republic of Cuba, as well as our relations with other nations, regardless of their political system, concern only the two countries between which these relations exist. And, if it were a matter of quarantine as mentioned in your letter, then, as is customary in international practice, it can be established only by states agreeing between themselves, and not by some third party. Quarantines exist, for example, on agricultural goods and products. However, in this case we are not talking about quarantines, but rather about much more serious matters, and you yourself understand this.
You, Mr. President, are not declaring a quarantine, but rather issuing an ultimatum, and you are threatening that if we do not obey your orders, you will then use force. Think about what you are saying! And you want to persuade me to agree to this! What does it mean to agree to these demands? It would mean for us to conduct our relations with other countries not by reason, but by yielding to tyranny. You are not appealing to reason; you want to intimidate us.
No, Mr. President, I cannot agree to this, and I think that deep inside, you will admit that I am right. I am convinced that if you were in my place you would do the same.
…. This Organization [of American States] has no authority or grounds whatsoever to pass resolutions like those of which you speak in your letter. Therefore, we do not accept these resolutions. International law exists, generally accepted standards of conduct exist. We firmly adhere to the principles of international law and strictly observe the standards regulating navigation on the open sea, in international waters. We observe these standards and enjoy the rights recognized by all nations.
You want to force us to renounce the rights enjoyed by every sovereign state; you are attempting to legislate questions of international law; you are violating the generally accepted standards of this law. All this is due not only to hatred for the Cuban people and their government, but also for reasons having to do with the election campaign in the USA. What morals, what laws can justify such an approach by the American government to international affairs? Such morals and laws are not to be found, because the actions of the USA in relation to Cuba are outright piracy. This, if you will, is the madness of a degenerating imperialism. Unfortunately, people of all nations, and not least the American people themselves, could suffer heavily from madness such as this, since with the appearance of modern types of weapons, the USA has completely lost its former inaccessibility.
Therefore, Mr. President, if you weigh the present situation with a cool head without giving way to passion, you will understand that the Soviet Union cannot afford not to decline the despotic demands of the USA. When you lay conditions such as these before us, try to put yourself in our situation and consider how the USA would react to such conditions. I have no doubt that if anyone attempted to dictate similar conditions to you — the USA, you would reject such an attempt. And we likewise say — no.
The Soviet government considers the violation of the freedom of navigation in international waters and air space to constitute an act of aggression propelling humankind into the abyss of a world nuclear-missile war. Therefore, the Soviet government cannot instruct captains of Soviet ships bound for Cuba to observe orders of American naval forces blockading this island. Our instructions to Soviet sailors are to observe strictly the generally accepted standards of navigation in international waters and not retreat one step from them. And, if the American side violates these rights, it must be aware of the responsibility it will bear for this act. To be sure, we will not remain mere observers of pirate actions by American ships in the open sea. We will then be forced on our part to take those measures we deem necessary and sufficient to defend our rights. To this end we have all that is necessary.
[Analysis]
Khrushchev appeals to Kennedy’s heart through his letter. He first asks him to imagine what it would be like if the U.S. and the Soviets were on opposite sides. He goes on to say, “you are threatening that if we do not obey your orders, you will then use force.
He even uses the word “tyranny” in his condemnation. But from the part, “No, Mr. President, I cannot agree to this, and I think that deep inside, you will admit that I am right. I am convinced that if you were in my place, you would do the same,” we can see Khrushchev tried to show he believed in Kennedy, and concludes, “To this end we have all that is necessary.” The use of the word “we” emphasizes that the Soviets and the Americans share the same goal. The structure of this letter is both logical and emotional, and each word is well chosen.
3.The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and the US’s Protests
Excerpt from the minutes of the CC CPSU Politburo meeting, ‘reply to an appeal of president carter about the issue of Afghanistan through the direct communications channel’
Top Secret
Dear Mister President,
In reply to your message of 29 December I consider it necessary to say the following. It is impossible to agree in any way with your assessment of what is going on right now in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. We have already given explanations about what is actually going on there based on the facts and also the reasons which caused us to favorably respond to the request of the government of Afghanistan to introduce a limited number of Soviet troops [very end of the paragraph faded] to the American side confidentially through the American ambassador in Moscow and to you personally. The attempt made in your letter to cast doubt on the very fact of the request of the government of Afghanistan to send our troops to this country seems strange….In connection with the content and the tone of your letter I consider it necessary to again explain that the request of the government of Afghanistan and the granting of this request by the Soviet Union are exclusively the business of the USSR and Afghanistan, who control their relations themselves by their own agreement and, of course, cannot permit any outside interference in these relations. They, like any UN member, have the right not only of individual but also of the collective self defense stipulated in Article 51 of the UN Charter which the USSR and US themselves formulated. And this has been approved by all UN members….In light of all this, the immoderate tone of some of the wording of your message is striking. And to what purpose? Wouldn’t it be better to assess the situation more quietly, keeping in mind the higher interests of peace and not putting the relations between our two countries in last priority? …And here is our advice to you: the American side could make its own contribution to a halt in the armed invasion of the territory of Afghanistan from without. I don’t think that the work to create more stable and productive relations between the USSR and US could become useless if, of course, the American side does not want this. We don’t want this. I think that this would also not be to the advantage of the United States of America itself. It is our conviction that it is a mutual matter how relations between the USSR and US develop. We think that they ought not to be subject to fluctuations under the influence of any outside factors or events.
[Analysis]
In response to the U.S. criticism of the advance to Afghanistan by the Soviet Union, the USSR claimed that it just accepted Afghanistan’s request, and the U.S. has nothing to do with the matter between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan. This letter contains the U.S. and would be the cause that widened the gulf between the Soviet Union and the U.S.
Letter by President Jimmy Carter to the President of the United States Olympic Committee Robert Kane (January 20, 1980)
…I regard the Soviet invasion and the attempted suppression of Afghanistan as a serious violation of international law and an extremely serious threat to world peace….I therefore urge the USOC, in cooperation with other National Olympic Committees, to advise the International Olympic Committee that if Soviet troops do not fully withdraw from Afghanistan within the next month, Moscow will become an unsuitable site for a festival meant to celebrate peace and good will. Should the Soviet Union fail to withdraw its troops within the time prescribed above, I urge the USOC to propose that the Games either be transferred to another site such as Montreal or to multiple sites, or be cancelled for this year. If the International Olympic Committee rejects such a USOC proposal, I urge the USOC and the Olympic Committees of other like-minded nations not to participate in the Moscow Games. …The most important task of world leaders, public and private, is to deter aggression and prevent war. Aggression destroys the international amity and good will that the Olympic Movement attempts to foster….I call for your support and your help in rallying the support of the other Olympic Committees throughout the world.
Jimmy Carter.
[Analysis]
The Moscow Olympics, held on July 19, 1980, was the modern Olympic Games to be held for the first time in a communist (and socialist) country (Encyclopedia Britannica 2018). However, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the previous year, President Carter of the United States (1977-1981) protested and called for a boycott. As a result, many countries in Western Bloc such as Britain, France, West Germany, Italy, and Japan did not participate. This Moscow Olympic Games were considered the worst of all, as international political conflicts were brought into sports.If the Soviet Union became the host country of the Olympic Games, it means that it would appeal its national power and the idea of communism to the whole world, which seemingly is what the United States wanted to prevent. In this letter, President Carter states that the Soviet Union’s hosting of the Olympics will destroy international friendship and goodwill. From this, it can be seen that the United States is in direct opposition to the Soviet Union and its communist ideology.
References
Anti-Communist Poster Depicting Stalin | Harry S. Truman. n.d. http://Www.trumanlibrary.gov. Accessed July 7, 2021. https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/photograph-records/2013-3702.
Encyclopedia Britannica. 2018. “Moscow 1980 Olympic Games.” In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Moscow-1980-Olympic-Games.
Evaluation of Space Program: Memorandum from Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to President Kennedy, April 28, 1961p5 | JFK Library. n.d. http://www.jfklibrary.org. Accessed July 7, 2021. https://www.jfklibrary.org/media/2321.
“Excerpt from the Minutes of the CC CPSU Politburo Meeting, ‘Reply to an appeal of President Carter about the issue of Afghanistan through the direct communications channel’,” December 29, 1979, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Bukovsky archive, http://bukovsky-archives.net/. RGANI (formerly TsKhSD), f. 89, op. 14, d. 34, ll. 1-5. https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113080
Letter by President Jimmy Carter to the President of the United States Olympic Committee Robert Kane, January 20, 1980, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, FRUS, 1977-1980, Vol. 6 Soviet Union https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/134719
“Letter from Khrushchev to John F. Kennedy,” October 24, 1962, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Library of Congress https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/111552
Lyndon B. Johnson, Vice President, Memorandum for the President, ”Evaluation of Space Program,” 28 April 1961, NASA Historical Reference COllection, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Accessed July 7, 2021. https://history.nasa.gov/Apollomon/apollo2.pdf
“Pravda Newspaper Article, ‘Announcement of the First Satellite’,” October 05, 1957, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, Published in Behind the Sputniks (1958), pp. 311-12. Selected, edited, and annotated by Asif Siddiqi. https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/165454
“Telegram from Soviet Ambassador to the USA Dobrynin to the USSR MFA,” October 18, 1962, History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, AVP RF, copy courtesy of NSA; translation by Mark H. Doctoroff https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/111776
“(4) Новое Обострение Общего Кризиса Капитализма / Russian Posters Collection, 1919-1989 and Undated / Duke Digital Repository.” Duke Digital Collections, n.d. https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4nz82m30.
20th century popular culture : America and transatlantic interactions
The interwar period is years after WWI and before WWII when the international system has been reorganized. Countries participating in the Great Wars are devastating with all the losses from World WarI. Germany was especially economically destroyed for taking the burden of the Great War.
This article examines how the transatlantic regions looked like in the 20th century, including but not limited to the interwar period and after the Great Wars by focusing on how people survived that era.
- Film
The film has been taking an important role in mass culture. The development of American film can be highlighted with the presence of Hollywood. The film has become a popular mass culture in America, shared and enjoyed by many Americans and people in the world. One of the prominent products during the interwar period was Charlie Chaplin, the Modern Times (1936).
[Analysis]
The Modern Times is unique for its critics of society. Charlie Chaplin humorously criticizes the systematized labor condition under American capitalism, which only aims for its production efficiency. By filming simple works such as fastening the screw, the film presents how a man becomes integrated into a part of the machine with an absence of human value. The American way of production has been criticized for its lack of consideration towards human rights and ethics. Therefore, the film of the Modern Times successfully represented critics of the modernized American society with continuous and systematized works only aiming for an increase of productivity.
[Analysis]
The American film industry has not been evolved solely by Americans. Non-American have also contributed to the development of the film industry. During the interwar period, when Germany has been experiencing economic difficulty from the loss in WWI, many have migrated to America. Accordingly, many of the German migrants have also impacted the film industry. Adam Kessel is one of the notorious pioneered producers of motion video, with roots in german immigrants. This news paper addressing about Adam Kessel proves how the American film industry has been built upon not solely by Americans but also by non-Americans.
2. fashion
After WWI, women started to enter the workplace more and more and began to increase their existence in society by claiming gender equality. Flapper culture was one of the expressions to obtain more independence and political and social rights. This culture flourished in the 1920s, and it lasted until the Great Depression happened. Flappers were connected with various cultural aspects, lifestyles, and attitudes, such as jazz music, alcohol, and dance hall. Among these factors, fashion was also the significant element that shaped what the flappers were. There is no specific origin of flappers and their culture determined by past studies, but the flappers appeared in the media in the transatlantic nations, including the United States and European countries. Therefore, this paragraph comprehensively analyzed the penetration of flapper fashion in the United States, Germany, and France, mainly with the magazines and newspaper articles issued around the 1920s.
2. a. United States
The Tomahawk, a newspaper issued in the United States, January 2nd, 1919, defined flappers as “younger, glowing girls” or “the girls of awkward ages.”The generation of flapper was stated as “eight or ten to sixteen” or “early teens” according to the article with photos of teenagers (The Tomahawk 1919).
On the other hand, The Ogden standard-examiner issued in 1922, flapper suits, business attire for flappers, were introduced by Lady Duff-Gordon, “Lucile” of London, a fashion designer. From this article, the age of flappers was expanded into office workers as well in the United States (The Ogden standard-examiner 1922).
In the same year, the magazine, The Flapper, published in November in Chicago, United States, informed the new moral norms of young women. According to the article, it emphasized flappers as “an act of rebellion” to insist on their freedom as women. They focused on not only attire but also political voting rights for married women (The Flapper 1922).
The Weekly journal-minor, a weekly newspaper published in Arizona in October 1922, defined thirteen qualifications of typical flappers in its article. Among the lists, bobbed hair and knee-length skirts are the critical characteristics illustrated in every article. There was no critical comment regarding the modern concept at that time, and the article just explained their features. The article showed the photos of women, not looking like a teenager, as a representative of flappers. From this picture, the definition of flappers shifted to older women in the United States (The weekly journal-miner 1922).
- b. Germany
Germany’s weekly newspaper, the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, had critical views toward flappers or New Women in 1925. The article condemned the change from flappers to masculinization of women. For instance, bobbed hairs were replaced by male hairstyles, and they wore husband’s coats. It mentioned the men’s aversion to the asexual appearance of women in Germany (Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung 1925).
Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung: “Enough is Enough! Against the Masculinization of Women” (1925)
What started as a playful game in women’s fashion is gradually becoming a distressing aberration. At first it was like a charming novelty: that gentle, delicate women cut their long tresses and bobbed their hair; that the dresses they wore hung down in an almost perfectly straight line, denying the contours of the female body, the curve of the hips; that they shortened their skirts, exposing their slender legs up to calf level.[…]
And we observe more often now that the bobbed haircut with its curls is disappearing, to be replaced by the modern, masculine hairstyle: sleek and brushed straight back. The new fashion in women’s coats is also decidedly masculine: it would scarcely be noticed this spring if a woman absentmindedly put on her husband’s coat. Fashion is like a pendulum swinging back and forth. With the hoop skirt the dictates of fashion brought the accentuation of the female form to an extreme, and now things are moving in the completely opposite direction.[…]
In the theater we might enjoy, one time, seeing an actress playing a man’s part if she is suitable for the role; but not every woman should venture to display herself in pants or shorts, be it on stage or at sporting events. And the masculinization of the female face replaces its natural allure with, at best, an unnatural one: the look of a sickeningly sweet boy is detested by every real boy or man. […]
2. c. France
In 1924, the song “Elle s’était fait couper les cheveux” sung by Alexandre Dréan was published and its lyrics represent the situation of flappers in France. The lyrics repeat, “she cut her hair” or “elle s’était fait couper les cheveux” in French in the chorus, and she aimed to keep in step with the latest fashion. From these lyrics, bobbed hair was also famous in France, and it was the trend among young women in the early 1920s.
[Analysis]
Flapper fashions, such as bobbed hair and shortened skirts, made waves across the United States and European countries. The flappers desired to liberate themselves from traditional norms and to improve women’s political and social status and attitudes as equal as men. Young women were attracted to the trend, and newspapers and magazines reported the situation. Besides, music also dealt with flappers in the lyrics. However, men regarded flappers as a threat to their status and accused them because it was apart from their ideal status of women. Flapper’s fashion in the United States and Europe worked together with the women’s emancipation movements in the 1920s.
3. Ideologies and rock music : counterculture
The 1960s was the turning point that sparked revolutionary phenomenon; counterculture. In 1965, a student-led organization SDS (Society for a Democratic Society) held ‘The March on Washington to End the War in Vietnam’ to protest against US military presence in Vietnam and liberate both Vietnamese and American people. Such anti-war sentiment spread across the US, and gave rise to movements of not only anti-war but also resistance to the government and traditional values. This brought about counterculture, and It revolves around hippie culture, rock’n’roll music, hallucinogenic drugs, free love, and so on. Eventually, counterculture spread outside of the US to Europe, and evolved into a transatlantic phenomenon.
3. a. Underground Press
Underground press emerged from the counterculture movement that was active during the 1960s. Underground press inherits the principles of the counterculture, by challenging hierarchical structures of social and governmental orthodoxies which appear to them as hypocritical, materialist and authoritarian. As opposed to the establishment press which was hidden and restricted information to publish, the underground press was more open to anyone, and any generation took direct control of the print communication media. The counterculture of the underground press advocated newly established liberal values such as anti-war, sexual freedom, Black Power and so on, in a unique form of its manifestation.
[ Primary Source 1 ]
Image 2. Shrew magazine, July 1971.
Image 1. SHOTS. p. 58.
Image 1 comes from the book ‘SHOTS’ which collected photographs from underground press. It shows a photo of a dying NLF soldier and American News correspondents interviewing the man. The quote critiques how the establishment press frames Vietnam war in favor of the US military aggression, by distributing information or contents that justify American oppression and fuel hatred towards Vietnamese “enemy” among American people.
Image 2 from Shrew magazine depicts the struggles of women as being secondary to men in the hierarchy of gender. It illustrates that while men can pursue their career as scientists or engineers, women have no choice but to become secretaries or housewives and their final “goal” is to get married to a man. Women also have to put efforts in beauty or physical appearance. In the image a woman questions why she has to compete even with her sisters, and asks ‘who am I?’ which illustrates how women’s identity and rights are being oppressed and molded into socially idealized ‘submissive domestic wives’.
Both images characterize underground press as resistance against establishment press, and social orthodoxies or hierarchies, which disseminated underrepresented voices in the movement of counterculture.
Rock Music
Counterculture diversified rock music and brought great enthusiasm among mass audiences. Psychedelic rock music emerged, and was widely adopted by popular musicians like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Later around the 1970s, punk music flocked in and became a central part of mainstream music. Punk music was not merely cultural but also a political movement, which was critical of establishment culture and encouraged the formation of a more liberal and better informed society. Through listening to punk, a significant part of a generation learned about gender inequalities, racism, civil rights, sex, and punk music taught that these are unacceptable ‘crime’ in society.
[ Primary Source 2 ]
Image 3. Sticker of God Saves the Queen
Image 4. Original lyrics of God Saves the Queen
One of the greatest punk rock bands is Sex Pistles. Image 3 is a sticker to promote one of their singles God Save the Queen, and image 4 is the original handwritten lyrics of the song. Image 3 depicts Queen Elizabeth Ⅱand paints her eyes and mouth black with the song title and their name. It looks as if Sex Pistles and the song made her blind and silenced, putting into a powerless being. By covering her facial features but the crown on her head, it ceases her existence and only shows the privileged ‘title’ as being a Queen. Such representation visually critiques the Queen.
Image 4 shows that the song God Save the Queen used to be titled ‘No Future’. While God save the Queen is the same title as the British national anthem, the lyrics assault the Queen and the monarchy. The 1st verse goes “God save the queen and the fascist regime … She’s not a human being … There is no future in England’s dream.” It depicts the queen as facist and inhumane being, and that England’s future under her regime is gloomy. The 2nd verse goes “God save history, save the mad parade … Lord have mercy, all crimes are paid.” It implicitly depicts the dark history of the UK such as the period of imperialism and equates it as crimes that cannot be atoned for. Furthermore, the lyrics are composed in a way that the same line has two parts which contrast each other in their meanings. Such composition style and use of expression enhances the strong irony towards British monarchy. This song is the representative of Sex Pistles Anarchism attitudes through their punk rock music.
[ Primary Source 3 ]
On Certain Issues in Youth Work and the Emergence of Rowdy Groups
Resolution of the Office of the SED District Leadership
October 13, 1965
With the implementation of both the Youth Communiqué of the Politburo of the Central Committee and the Youth Act, progress has been made in many areas of society in our work with youth. The attitude of a large segment of young people shows that they have a proper and honest stance toward our Workers’ and Peasants’ State, toward socialist work, and toward learning.
We cannot, however, overlook the fact that there is a segment of young people who exhibit the tendencies of American non-culture [Unkultur], of Texas-style ideology, and of cowboyism, and that these tendencies have intensified in recent weeks and months. They are a manifestation of the constant confrontation with bourgeois ideology that is taking place while the West German reactionary social order is working to smuggle its non-culture into the GDR. These phenomena profoundly contradict the civilized moral and ethical sensibilities shared by all decent people.
The enemy aims to bring about the weakening of our ideology, especially among youth, to foster intemperance and anarchy, in order to pit segments of our youth against their own Workers’ and Peasants’ State and to incite them to disturb the public peace. They are spreading this agitation through their radio and television stations, especially over Deutschlandfunk, by smuggling indecent and inflammatory literature [into the GDR], but also, quite cunningly, by utilizing the non-culture of Western music and dancing, Beatles-ideology and collecting fads, and by encouraging slacking off at work. In West Germany, they depend on these ways of life to poison young people psychologically and to prepare them ideologically for their criminal war plans with all possible means of brutalization and of stimulation of the basest instincts.
It is our society’s duty to combat all influences and manifestations of Western non-culture. Excesses, such as the ever larger recent proliferation of Beatles-groups with American names 2 and almost exclusively Western and indefinable musical repertoires (disguised as original compositions), have nothing in common with progressive life ideals. We support modern and civilized dance music, and we are also not opposed to infectious rhythms, but we decidedly disapprove of those groups that violate all codes of morality and ethics, that perform barefoot and half naked, that contort their bodies and intoxicate our youth with agitating rhythms in order to lead them to excesses.
Another expression of such excesses is the rowdy behavior of one segment of youth; this behavior is becoming increasingly visible at public events (athletic events, amusement parks, small trade shows, movie theaters, dances, youth clubs, etc.). Incidences of slander and agitation against leading party and state personalities are occurring at these events. Citizens are being harassed, accosted, and in some cases members of the security organs and party, state, and FDJ officers have been attacked. The nature and frequency of these incidents in recent months prove that they are being purposefully organized and directed, but the masterminds and managers thereof are remaining behind the scenes. [ . . . ]
This source illustrates the divided Germany due to the Cold War, and how the young people in West Germany or German Democratic Republic (GDR) are influenced by American counterculture in their attitudes. Socialist officers in East Germany aim to maintain and reinforce socialist working style and its disciplines among people in the area, but the officers recognize American culture tendencies that are exhibited by the working young people, and regard it as a threat. By calling American/Western culture as ‘non-culture’ along with other expressions that show strong hostility and contempt, East Germany is depicted as more civilized, superior and decent people. They also state that Western culture is an immense threat that would agitate people to slack off their work and psychologically “damage” the people, misled or “poisoned” by the Western ideology.
Moreover, the officers repeatedly mention The Beatles or Beatles-ideology, and Western music. The very relevant part goes “we decidedly disapprove of those groups[The Beatles] that violate all codes of morality and ethics, that perform barefoot and half naked, that contort their bodies and intoxicate our youth with agitating rhythms in order to lead them to excesses.” This line implies the characteristics of counterculture, especially hippy culture where people commonly go naked, or rock music including psychedelic rock which can “intoxicate our youth with agitating rhythms” as they describe, since the rhythms are produced through the experience of drugs, LSD. As a consequence, the last paragraph describes the “agitated” youth behavior and their resistance or attacks against security or state officials.
Therefore, counterculture was disseminated even in East Germany where opposing ideology bound the people, and it became influential enough to change the youth behavior and challenge the social orthodoxies or state authorities. This is exactly what counterculture aimed for, and this case of East Germany exhibits transatlantic influence and interaction through counterculture.
References
Alexandre Dréan, “Alexandre Dréan – Elle s’était fait couper les cheveux (1924),” Youtube video, 2:34. April 3, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBlF5Gi3jaM
Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung. 1925. “Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung: Enough is Enough! Against the Masculinization of Women (1925).” German History in Documents and Images. July 18, 2021. https://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=3881
Charlie Chaplin, “Charlie Chaplin – Factory Scene – Modern Times(1936),” Youtube video, 1:4. February 4, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n9ESFJTnHs
Ericka, Huggins, and Bobby, Seale. SHOTS Photographs from underground press. Edited by David Fenton and Liberation News Service. New York: The World Publishing Company. Accessed July 15, 2021. https://archive.org/details/ShotsPhotographsFromUndergroundPressD.D.TeoliJr.A.C.1/Shots%20Photographs%20from%20Underground%20Press%20D.D.%20Teoli%20Jr.%20A.C.%20%2839%29.jpg
John Lydon. No future. Directed by M.Mclaren, and S.Fisher. Retrieved from Recordmecca, Virtual museum: Sex pistles original god save the queen lyrics. 2007.
Marsha, Rowe. Spare Rib and the underground press. British Library. Accessed July 15, 2021.
https://www.bl.uk/spare-rib/articles/spare-rib-and-the-underground-press
Shelagh, McCarthy. Punk: Oh bondage up yours! A personal point of view. British Library, 2016.
https://www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/punk-oh-bondage-up-yours-a-personal-point-of-view
The Flapper Magazine. 1922a. “The Flappers vs Paul Poiret.” Old Magazine Articles. July 18, 2021. http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/article-summary/1920s-flapper-fashion-article#.YPPZrz1xfIW
The Flapper Magazine. 1922b. “Cool, Sensible, and Sanitary…” Old Magazine Articles. July 18, 2021. http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/article-summary/flapper_article_in_praise-of-flappers#.YPQIH-gzbIV
The Ogden Standard-Examiner. 1922. “The Ogden standard-examiner. [volume], March 26, 1922, MAGAZINE SECTION, Image 31.” Library of Congress. July 18, 2021. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85058393/1922-03-26/ed-1/seq-31/#words=british%20flapper+modern%20girl+flapper%20style+jazz+bob%20haircut
The Tomahauk. 1919. “The Tomahawk. [volume], January 02, 1919, Image 3.” Library of Congress. July 18, 2021. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89064695/1919-01-02/ed-1/seq-3/#words=british%20flapper+modern%20girl+flapper%20style+jazz+bob%20haircut
Uwe Spiekermann. « Conference Report: Los Angeles as a Site of German-American Crossings ,» Immigrant Entreneurship, German Historical Institute, February 17, 2014, https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entries/conference-report-los-angeles-as-a-site-of-german-american-crossings/.
Weekly Journal-Miner. 1922. “Weekly journal-miner. [volume], August 02, 1922, Image 1.” Library of Congress. July 18, 2021. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85032923/1922-08-02/ed-1/seq-1/#words=british%20flapper+modern%20girl+flapper%20style+jazz+bob%20haircut
“Zu einigen Fragen der Jugendarbeit und dem Auftreten der Rowdygruppen” [“On Certain Issues in Youth Work and the Emergence of Rowdy Groups”], Resolution of the Office of the SED District Leadership, October 13, 1965, PDS-Archiv, District Leadership Leipzig IV A2/16/464; reprinted in Christoph Kleßmann and Georg Wagner, eds., Das gespaltene Land. Leben in Deutschland 1945-1990 [The Divided Country. Life in Germany 1945-1990]. Munich, 1993, pp. 471-72. Translation: Allison Brow. https://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=837
sample by group 2
test test test
Germany during the Interwar Period – Lives in Germany and Americanization of its culture-
1. Lives in Germany during the interwar period
Starting from the default on its payment or reparation in 1922, the German government – Weimar government at that time – faced a series of problems.
Occupation of the Ruhr
Reacting to the German’s default on reparation payment, the French government occupied the Ruhr region, where the German industrialization was centered. Losing the heart of its economy, it became more difficult for Germany to supply finance for the reparation. In order to oppose to this French violation toward the German economy, the government ordered the workers in the Ruhr region to strike – passive resistance -. The following sentences were the voice of the miner in Ruhr.
Essen, 25 September
After a week of walking about in this great industrial city, covering an area as big as Middlesex, I have the feeling that the working man, composing the overwhelming part of the population, is filled with contempt of the government in Berlin and with hatred of the government in Paris … This settlement will, it is felt by the Ruhr miner, dispose of the mineral wealth by which he gets his livelihood to a combine of international financiers, and he will be left to his fate … Small wonder that the feeling is widespread that the Berlin government thinks more of making propaganda out of the ‘French robbery’ than of providing the workers of the Ruhr with fuel for the winter …
– Morgan Philip Price on the end of Passive Resistance in Ruhr (1923) –
It explains that the miners in the Ruhr region felt exasperated at the German government by criticizing the governmental order to conduct the passive resistance as an inconsiderate act for the workers in Ruhr.
Hyperinflation
Although the government promised to pay the worker’s wages in return to obeying the order of passive resistance, the government was not able to raise the money for that. What the government did was simply printed more money. This rapid increase in the printed paper bill made the price of the mark out of control. The more the government printed the bill, the less the value of money became. This vicious circle of finance caused the hyperinflation. The following document explains people’s lives under this hyperinflation.
18 October
The condition of Germany now literally beggars description. That is no exaggeration but naked truth. I have lived through some very critical times during the Russian Revolution in 1917–18, but I do not remember a time quite as bad as this which has now befallen Germany. Even in the worst times in Russia one always had a feeling that the suffering was for some ideal which would make it all worthwhile. Today in Germany the economic catastrophe is worse than in Russia then, and in addition to that there is scarcely a ray of light on the horizon … In Germany today there is a complete breakdown of the capitalist mechanism of distribution and exchange, and there is no sign yet that any of the would-be dictators are in a position to set up any state machinery which can do what the Communist Party did for Russia in 1917–18 – namely, hold the nation together by making everyone bear the same burden to achieve a common end. The government of the Reich is bankrupt. The mark has ceased to be currency and is merely a vast mass of paper packets representing so many dollars or pounds. The number of packets to the dollar varies every day … Those who are lucky enough to have foreign currency can get along, but even then with difficulty. If anyone were to be asked how much it costs to live in Germany today he could only reply: ‘It cost me at ten o’clock this morning so much, and at five o’clock this afternoon so much’ …
– Morgan Philips Price on Inflation and its Effects. (October 18, 1923) –
Morgan depicts the circumstance of the German in hyperinflation as a catastrophe.
Gustav Stresemann
Gustav Stresemann was a politician and the Foreign Minister of Weimer Republic. He was known as a leading actor for the conclusion of Dawes Plan and Locarno Treaties which helped Germany to recover itself during the confusion after the defeat in WWI. He got Nobel Peace Prize with the French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand in 1926, highly evaluated his work in the negotiation of Locarno Treatie which defused the tension among European countries and made the foundation for them to collaborate with each other.
……Then came a further political shock: the invasion of the Ruhr6. Once again the feeling of being pillaged and plundered flared up in intense resistance. But this feeling now began to differentiate between those nations which apparently wanted to continue the conflict with Germany and those which held that a legal justification for the invasion did not exist. Voices were heard from the United States of America which made it clear that America wanted a peaceful and united Europe as a basis for mutual cooperation. Then came the conference in London about the Dawes Plan7…..
– Stresemann, G. (1927, June 29). Nobel Lecture. Speech. –
In his speech for Nobel Lecture, he mentioned the motivation to conclude Dawes Plan and Locarno Treaties and told that he considered the expectation of America. From this, it can be assumed that there was a sort of intervention by and influence of America in the conclusion of these treaties.
2. Economic activities among Germany and the US
Explanation: German Immigrant Entrepreneurship
Among German’s immigrants, there are different types for instance voluntary or rather forced to have contribution to American business in the period of twentieth century. Not only limited to American film industry nor academics field which excellent scientists like famous Albert Einstein which also help with having progress in American Science, or Wernher von Braun who designed V-2 Rocket which himself accepted U.S. program of recruiting German Scientists and immigrated to U.S.
On the other hand, for those who do not have extraordinary skills or talent comparing with scientists or artists and would like to pay effort in order to leave Germany, there was organization or group like Berlin Jewish Community that prepared lectures of Spanish for them to emigrate to South America
Aufnahmeort: Berlin
Systematik:
Geschichte / Deutschland / 20. Jh. / NS-Zeit / Rassenpolitik / Juden / Emigration / Sprachunterricht
Analysis (of the picture)
Staying in Germany was unlikely a good idea for Jewish during that time because of the unfair violence and humiliation treatment they received from other German citizens. Although it was a harsh decision to make to left behind what they already familiar with and start new life from zero at somewhere far away, it is estimated that 270,000 to 300,000 in 1935 Jew succeed in depart from Germany before Official Banning for Jewish emigration in 1941.
3. Americanization in German culture
The Monotonization of the World (1925)
Explanation
The author, Stefan Zweig, sounds an alarm on monotonized culture of the whole world including Germany due to the considerable influence of American culture. He claims that Americanization breaks the tradition and negates characteristics of Germany, focusing on these four points; dance, fashion, cinema, and radio.
Analysis
Europe remains the last bulwark of individualism and, perhaps, of the overly taut cramp of peoples—our vigorous nationalism, despite all its senselessness, represents to some extent a fevered, unconscious rebellion, a last, desperate effort to defend ourselves against leveling.
– Stefan Zweig, “The Monotonization of the World” (1925) –
- The author considered this situation as the conflict between European countries with individualism and America with totalitarianism.
The boredom that does not, like the earlier European variety, come from calmness, from sitting on the park bench playing dominoes and smoking a pipe—a lazy waste of time indeed, but not dangerous. American boredom is restless, nervous, and aggressive; it outruns itself in its frantic haste, seeks numbness in sports and sensations.
– Stefan Zweig, “The Monotonization of the World” (1925) –
- As German people felt antipathy toward ‘Fordism’, they might characterized the culture as relaxed especially in terms of time and regarded having allowance as humanly. Thus, in comparison, American culture and ideology connected with terms like “fast” or “efficient” was comprehended to be inhuman for them.
Among Other Things, a Word for German Tradition (1931)
Explanation
George Grosz, a German caricaturist, makes an argument about German traditional culture (especially arts), ideology, and economic policy which are destroyed by Americanization. He criticizes materialistic culture and competitive society of America as it has bad influence on German culture rather than brings about “real progress.” In the last part, he concludes that people should return to and devote more reflection to traditional culture especially that of medieval time.
Analysis
After work, doubtful amusements … rushed, noisy … fake sparkle, to rev up tired businessmen for a couple of hours. Just do not think … money, women, champagne. Cheap theater. Not to be had for anything serious outside their nerve-grating businesses. A revue and the endlessly cute, predigested cinema pictures. The women, made-up, manicured, highheeled, and neglected, with gigolos in the hotels and at the tea dance. What life?
-George Grosz, “Among Other Things, a Word for German Tradition” (1931) –
Then one takes a look at American magazines. True documents of unchecked civilization. Three-quarters advertisements; ever-new needs. Scattered among bits of a novel, in which thinly-veiled propaganda, even to the point of surfeit, is made for this doubtful life of comfort.
-George Grosz, “Among Other Things, a Word for German Tradition” (1931) –
In 1931, surprisingly, he went to America invited by an art school in New York, and subsequently he flew out from his own country to America along with the rise of Nazism in Germany. Through the life in America, he gradually lost his painting style as a caricaturist, assimilating with American style, ironically. In 1938, finally he was naturalized as American.
Having influenced by Americanization, however, the German spirit toward art, especially the field of film industry, had kept their feelings of pride. Fritz Lang, a famous film director based in German at that time, explains the elements which differentiate them from American culture as follows:
American cinematic photography is regarded, thanks to its as yet unparalleled recording equipment, its film stock and the brilliant work of its technicians, as the best photography in the world. But the Americans have still not understood how to use their magnificent equipment to elevate the miracle of photography into the realm of the spirit; that means, for example, that the concepts of light and shade are not to be made mere transporters of mood but factors that contribute to plot. I recently had the opportunity of showing an American technician a few scenes from Metropolis, in which the beam of an electric flashlight illumined the pursuit of a young girl through the catacombs of Metropolis. This beam of light pierced the hunted creature like the sharp claws of an animal, refused to release her from its grasp, drove her unremittingly forward to the point of utter panic. It brought the amiable American to a naive confession, “We can’t do that!” Of course they could. But the idea never occurs to them. For them, the thing remains without essence, unanimated, soulless. I, on the contrary, believe that the great German dramatic film of the future will have the thing play just as important a role as the human character. Actors will no longer occupy a space that they appear to have entered by accident; rather the space will be constructed in such a way that the characters’ experiences appear possible only in it, appear logical only on account of it. An expressionism of the most subtle variety will make surroundings, properties, and plot conform to one another, just as I believe in general that German film technique will develop along lines that not only raises it to the level of an optical expression of the characters’ actions but also elevate the particular performer’s environment to the status of a carrier of the action in its own right and, most important, of the character’s soul! We are already trying to photograph thoughts, that is, render them visually; we are no longer trying to convey the plot complex of an event but to make visual the ideational content of the experience seen from the perspective of the one who experiences it.
– Fritz Lang, “The Future of the Feature Film in Germany” (1926) –
According to Lang, the American film industry was characterized by its vast scale, numbers of equipment, and enormous financial resources, which the German film industry did not afford. On the other hand, he predicted that the German film industry develops abstractly and synergistically cooperating with the performers in the films, the way, the Americans would not be capable of implementing it.
References
- BBC. (n.d.). The hyperinflation crisis, 1923 in The Weimar Republic 1918-1929. Bitesize. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z9y64j6/revision/5 accessed on July 22, 2020.
- George Grosz. (1931). Among Other Things, a Word for German Tradition. Retrieved from http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=3897 on July 22, 2020.
- Lang, F. (1926). The Future of the Feature Film in Germany. The Weimar Republic Sourcebook. Retrieved from http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/docpage.cfm?docpage_id=5472 on July 22, 2020.
- Price, P. M. (October 18, 1923). Morgan Philips Price on Inflation and its Effects. Dispatches from the Weimar Republic, Versailles and German Fascism. London, Sterling, Virginia: Pluto Press, 1999, pp. 169-70. Retrieved from http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=4418 on July 22, 2020.
- Price, P. M. (1923). Mogan Philip Price on the end of Passive Resistance in Ruhr. Dispatches from the Weimar Republic, Versailles and German Fascism. London, Sterling, Virginia: London, 1999, pp. 164-65. Retrieved from http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=4420 on July 22, 2020.
- Stefan Zweig. (1925). The Monotonization of the World. Retrieved from http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=3854 on July 22,2020.
- Stresemann, G. (1927, June 29). Nobel Lecture. Speech. Retrieved from https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1926/stresemann/lecture/ on July 22, 2020.
Images
- (1). Line outside of a Berlin Grocer [photo] (1923). Retrieved from http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_image.cfm?image_id=4093
- (2). Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann Addresses the General Assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva [photo] (September 10, 1926). Retrieved from http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_image.cfm?image_id=41754
- (3). Aufnahmedatum: 1935. Aufnahmeort: Berlin. Systematik:
Geschichte / Deutschland / 20. Jh. / NS-Zeit / Rassenpolitik / Juden / Emigration / Sprachunterricht - (4). GERMANY: SPREEWALD WOMEN. Two American women photograph women from Spreewald, Germany, dressed in their traditional clothing outside a hotel in Unter den Linden, Berlin. Photograph, 1927. Full credit: A. & E. Frankl – ullstein bild / The Granger Collection.
- (5). Grosz, G. (1926). Eclipse of the Sun. [painting] Retrieved from https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/transient-effects/eclipses-art/eclipse-sun
- (6). Grosz, G. (1926). Eclipse of the Sun [painting] https://www.dialoginternational.com/dialog_international/2006/12/glitter_and_doo.html
- (7). Scenes from Metropolis by Fritz Lang (1927) Production: Universum-Film AG Berlin (Ufa) Stills: Eureka Entertainment Ltd. Retrieved from http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_image.cfm?image_id=4229.
Presidency of Franklin D, Roosevelt
Great Depression
This event was symptomatic of a decade of economic uncertainty that was precipitated by the crash in the fall of 1929 when U.S. stock prices declined dramatically. The resulting panic devastated the fortunes of many investors and caused major declines in consumption, industrial production, and employment, which in turn affected the U.S. and world economy for the next ten years.
The U.S. stock market had expanded rapidly during the 1920s, attracting many inexperienced investors.
George Mehales, a Greek immigrant who owned a diner in Spartanburg, South Carolina, began investing in the stock market just before the crash. “One day,” he recalled in a Federal Writers’ Project interview:
…one of my customers showed me how much money he was making in the market…It looked good to me, and I bit with what you folks call ‘hook, line and sinker.’…The first day of October in 1929 made me feel like I was rich…During the last days of October, my stocks began to drop. I was gambling on the margin. My brother called me and told me I would have to put up more cash. I went to the bank and put up all the cash I had in the bank with my brother…. I had about five thousand dollars invested. On that day of October 29, they told me I needed more cash to cover up. I couldn’t get it. I was wiped out that day…
“George Mehales.” R. V. Williams, interviewer; Spartanburg, South Carolina, December 1938. American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936 to 1940. Manuscript Division.
Mehales had lost everything, including his restaurant, which he had to sell at a rock bottom price. “I was wiped…I considered killing myself, ’cause I had nothing left.”
In the early 1930s, the United States moved further into economic instability, with the collapse of many banks, dramatically reduced spending on consumer goods, and increasing unemployment.
President Herbert Hoover’s response to these crises disappointed many, including WWI veterans, many of whom found themselves impoverished. They rallied in Washington in 1932, hoping that they might be able to receive their military pension funds early. When Congress rejected their appeals, some members of this so-called, “Bonus Army” reacted with frustration and violence. U.S. Army troops were called in, and the image of U.S Army soldiers confronting the veterans of the Great War in the nation’s capital and virtually running them out of town did not sit well with the public.
President Herbert Hoover’s response to these crises disappointed many, including WWI veterans, many of whom found themselves impoverished. They rallied in Washington in 1932, hoping that they might be able to receive their military pension funds early. When Congress rejected their appeals, some members of this so-called, “BonusArmy” reacted with frustration and violence. U.S. Army troops were called in, and the image of U.S Army soldiers confronting the veterans of the Great War in the nation’s capital and virtually running them out of town did not sit well with the public.
Depression of European Markets
The original caption for this photo, taken in Weimar Germany during the Great Depression, reads: “When night comes! The picture was taken in the municipal refuge for the homeless. View of one of the dormitories which can house up to 100 people.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
In the summer of 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Governor of New York, was nominated as the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party. In his acceptance speech, Roosevelt addressed the problems of the depression by telling the American people that, “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.” In the election that took place in the fall of 1932, Roosevelt won by a landslide.
The 1932 Presidential campaign was one of the most momentous in American history.
With Republican President Herbert Hoover presiding over a nation in economic collapse, it was clear a Democrat would win the presidency in 1932. But which Democrat?
By the spring of 1932, New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt emerged as the frontrunner. The popular leader of the country’s most populous state, he attracted attention by aggressively using governmental power to help alleviate the suffering of the Depression.
Saddled with responsibility for the Depression, President Hoover was deeply unpopular. FDR’s advisors urged their candidate to play it safe. His running mate, John Nance Garner of Texas, told him, “All you have got to do is stay alive until election day.”
But FDR relished campaigning and wanted to show the country he was up to the job. He traveled to 41 states, making major addresses and hundreds of whistle-stop appearances. His energy, charm, and commitment to action carried him to a decisive victory.
WPA Federal Theatre Playhouse
By 1939, the New Deal had run its course. In the short term, New Deal programs helped improve the lives of people suffering from the events of the depression. In the long run, New Deal programs set a precedent for the federal government to play a key role in the economic and social affairs of the nation.
A Letter From A Farmer to The President
“To Our Illustrious President:
Our Holy Books say: A poor man is like a dead man. You came and resurrected the poor man from the dead. You came and said: ‘Wake up, forgotten man. I will give you new life. I will give you a new deal.’ Like the prophet, Nathan, who said to King David: You have so many sheep and yet you want to take the last sheep of the poor man; so you said to the rich, to the Wall St. bankers: Leave the poor man his last sheep. Let him also live. All the rich men hate you for that. They know that you brought new hope to the poor plain man. They know that never again will the old times come back. May I end respectfully that your name, our illustrious President, will live forever.”
Frustration among people
Roosevelt is a damn good man — you take all these young fellows and you can’t talk to them like in the old days to swing them over. Today all these kids are satisfied on WPA and the NYA. My son works there and gets 44 cents an hour. I only have one son and believe me I am glad[?] I can’t buy him the things he needs. Where would I get off if I had a large family. That’s something I don’t believe in. One or two is plenty for any family.
WWII
The Atlantic Charter
“The President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, representing His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom, being met together, deem it right to make known certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which they base their hopes for a better future for the world.
First, their countries seek no aggrandizement, territorial or other;
Second, they desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned;
Third, they respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them;
Fourth, they will endeavor, with due respect for their existing obligations, to further the enjoyment by all States, great or small, victor or vanquished, of access, on equal terms, to the trade and to the raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity;
Fifth, they desire to bring about the fullest collaboration between all nations in the economic field with the object of securing, for all, improved labor standards, economic advancement and social security;
Sixth, after the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny, they hope to see established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all the men in all lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want;
Seventh, such a peace should enable all men to traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance;
Eighth, they believe that all of the nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons must come to the abandonment of the use of force. Since no future peace can be maintained if land, sea or air armaments continue to be employed by nations which threaten, or may threaten, aggression outside of their frontiers, they believe, pending the establishment of a wider and permanent system of general security, that the disarmament of such nations is essential. They will likewise aid and encourage all other practicable measure which will lighten for peace-loving peoples the crushing burden of armaments.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Winston S. Churchill”
Analysis
This charter is consisted of 8 articles and all of them reflected the thought of the President in that they agreed with no expansion of territory, paying respect to self-determination, mutual economic co-operation and exclusion of military power as a method.
This context can be seen as an emergence of concept for establishment of The United Nations.
A day of Infamy/ Declaration of War
Transcript
TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:
Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
The United States was at peace with that Nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American Island of Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.
It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.
The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.
Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.
Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.
Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island. And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.
Japan has, therefore, undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our Nation.
As Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense.
But always will our whole Nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.
No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.
Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger.
With confidence in our armed forces—with the unbounding determination of our people—we will gain the inevitable triumph- so help us God.
I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The White House,
December 8, 1941
Analysis
This manuscript implies Roosevelt’s thinking about the way to make the public opinion stand with joining to the war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s joint address to Congress on December 8, 1941, one day after the attack on the Pearl Harbor, he expressed outrage at Japan and showed determined resolution for “inevitable triumph”. About this short speech, President Roosevelt then revised the typed draft sometimes—marking it up, updating details, and altering some words to change the speech’s tone.
-“A date which will live in world history” to “a date which will live in infamy,” derived the term, “day of infamy”.
-“Simultaneously and deliberately attacked” to “suddenly and deliberately attacked.”
Additionally, he wrote the words, “without warning,” but later crossed them out.
He made some minor changes following the update of the situation in Hawaii. For example,
“In addition American ships have been torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.” Roosevelt used “reported torpedoed.”, “Very many American lives have been lost” became “I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost.”
Crimian Conference
PROTOCOL OF PROCEEDINGS OF CRIMEA CONFERENCE
The Crimea Conference of the heads of the Governments of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which took place from Feb. 4 to 11, came to the following conclusions:
I. WORLD ORGANIZATION
It was decided:
1. That a United Nations conference on the proposed world organization should be summoned for Wednesday, 25 April, 1945, and should be held in the United States of America.
2. The nations to be invited to this conference should be:
(a) the United Nations as they existed on 8 Feb., 1945; and
(b) Such of the Associated Nations as have declared war on the common enemy by 1 March, 1945. (For this purpose, by the term “Associated Nations” was meant the eight Associated Nations and Turkey.) When the conference on world organization is held, the delegates of the United Kingdom and United State of America will support a proposal to admit to original membership two Soviet Socialist Republics, i.e., the Ukraine and White Russia.
3. That the United States Government, on behalf of the three powers, should consult the Government of China and the French Provisional Government in regard to decisions taken at the present conference concerning the proposed world organization.
4. That the text of the invitation to be issued to all the nations which would take part in the United Nations conference should be as follows:
“The Government of the United States of America, on behalf of itself and of the Governments of the United Kingdom, the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics and the Republic of China and of the Provisional Government of the French Republic invite the Government of ——– to send representatives to a conference to be held on 25 April, 1945, or soon thereafter , at San Francisco, in the United States of America, to prepare a charter for a general international organization for the maintenance of international peace and security.
“The above-named Governments suggest that the conference consider as affording a basis for such a Charter the proposals for the establishment of a general international organization which were made public last October as a result of the Dumbarton Oaks conference and which have now been supplemented by the following provisions for Section C of Chapter VI:
C. Voting
“1. Each member of the Security Council should have one vote.
“2. Decisions of the Security Council on procedural matters should be made by an affirmative vote of seven members.
“3. Decisions of the Security Council on all matters should be made by an affirmative vote of seven members, including the concurring votes of the permanent members; provided that, in decisions under Chapter VIII, Section A and under the second sentence of Paragraph 1 of Chapter VIII, Section C, a party to a dispute should abstain from voting.’
“Further information as to arrangements will be transmitted subsequently.
“In the event that the Government of ——– desires in advance of the conference to present views or comments concerning the proposals, the Government of the United States of America will be pleased to transmit such views and comments to the other participating Governments.”
II. DECLARATION OF LIBERATED EUROPE
III. DISMEMBERMENT OF GERMANY
It was agreed that Article 12 (a) of the Surrender terms for Germany should be amended to read as follows:
“The United Kingdom, the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics shall possess supreme authority with respect to Germany. In the exercise of such authority they will take such steps, including the complete dismemberment of Germany as they deem requisite for future peace and security.”
The study of the procedure of the dismemberment of Germany was referred to a committee consisting of Mr. Anthony Eden, Mr. John Winant, and Mr. Fedor T. Gusev. This body would consider the desirability of associating with it a French representative.
IV. ZONE OF OCCUPATION FOR THE FRENCH AND CONTROL COUNCIL FOR GERMANY.
V. REPARATION
The following protocol has been approved:
Protocol
On the Talks Between the Heads of Three Governments at the Crimean Conference on the Question of the German Reparations in Kind
1. Germany must pay in kind for the losses caused by her to the Allied nations in the course of the war. Reparations are to be received in the first instance by those countries which have borne the main burden of the war, have suffered the heaviest losses and have organized victory over the enemy.
2. Reparation in kind is to be exacted from Germany in three following forms:
- (a) Removals within two years from the surrender of Germany or the cessation of organized resistance from the national wealth of Germany located on the territory of Germany herself as well as outside her territory (equipment, machine tools, ships, rolling stock, German investments abroad, shares of industrial, transport and other enterprises in Germany, etc.), these removals to be carried out chiefly for the purpose of destroying the war potential of Germany.
- (b) Annual deliveries of goods from current production for a period to be fixed.
- (c) Use of German labor.
3. For the working out on the above principles of a detailed plan for exaction of reparation from Germany an Allied reparation commission will be set up in Moscow. It will consist of three representatives – one from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, one from the United Kingdom and one from the United States of America.
4. With regard to the fixing of the total sum of the reparation as well as the distribution of it among the countries which suffered from the German aggression, the Soviet and American delegations agreed as follows:
“The Moscow reparation commission should take in its initial studies as a basis for discussion the suggestion of the Soviet Government that the total sum of the reparation in accordance with the points (a) and (b) of the Paragraph 2 should be 22 billion dollars and that 50 per cent should go to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.”
The British delegation was of the opinion that, pending consideration of the reparation question by the Moscow reparation commission, no figures of reparation should be mentioned.
The above Soviet-American proposal has been passed to the Moscow reparation commission as one of the proposals to be considered by the commission.
VI. MAJOR WAR CRIMINALS
The conference agreed that the question of the major war criminals should be the subject of inquiry by the three Foreign Secretaries for report in due course after the close of the conference.
[Begin second section published Feb. 13, 1945.]
VII. POLAND
VIII. YUGOSLAVIA
It was agreed to recommend to Marshal Tito and to Dr. Ivan Subasitch:
- (a) That the Tito-Subasitch agreement should immediately be put into effect and a new government formed on the basis of the agreement.
- (b) That as soon as the new Government has been formed it should declare:
- (I) That the Anti-Fascist Assembly of the National Liberation (AVNOJ) will be extended to include members of the last Yugoslav Skupstina who have not compromised themselves by collaboration with the enemy, thus forming a body to be known as a temporary Parliament and
- (II) That legislative acts passed by the Anti-Fascist Assembly of the National Liberation (AVNOJ) will be subject to subsequent ratification by a Constituent Assembly; and that this statement should be published in the communiquﾃｩ of the conference.
IX. ITALO-YOGOSLAV FRONTIER – ITALO-AUSTRIAN FRONTIER
Notes on these subjects were put in by the British delegation and the American and Soviet delegations agreed to consider them and give their views later.
X. YUGOSLAV-BULGARIAN RELATIONS
XI. SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
XII. IRAN
XIII. MEETINGS OF THE THREE FOREIGN SECRETARIES
XIV. THE MONTREAUX CONVENTION AND THE STRAITS
It was agreed that at the next meeting of the three Foreign Secretaries to be held in London, they should consider proposals which it was understood the Soviet Government would put forward in relation to the Montreaux Convention, and report to their Governments. The Turkish Government should be informed at the appropriate moment.
The forgoing protocol was approved and signed by the three Foreign Secretaries at the Crimean Conference Feb. 11, 1945.
E. R. Stettinius Jr.
M. Molotov
Anthony Eden
AGREEMENT REGARDING JAPAN
The leaders of the three great powers – the Soviet Union, the United States of America and Great Britain – have agreed that in two or three months after Germany has surrendered and the war in Europe is terminated, the Soviet Union shall enter into war against Japan on the side of the Allies on condition that:
- 1. The status quo in Outer Mongolia (the Mongolian People’s Republic) shall be preserved.
- 2. The former rights of Russia violated by the treacherous attack of Japan in 1904 shall be restored, viz.:
- (a) The southern part of Sakhalin as well as the islands adjacent to it shall be returned to the Soviet Union;
- (b) The commercial port of Dairen shall be internationalized, the pre-eminent interests of the Soviet Union in this port being safeguarded, and the lease of Port Arthur as a naval base of the U.S.S.R. restored;
- (c) The Chinese-Eastern Railroad and the South Manchurian Railroad, which provide an outlet to Dairen, shall be jointly operated by the establishment of a joint Soviet-Chinese company, it being understood that the pre-eminent interests of the Soviet Union shall be safeguarded and that China shall retain sovereignty in Manchuria;
- 3. The Kurile Islands shall be handed over to the Soviet Union.
It is understood that the agreement concerning Outer Mongolia and the ports and railroads referred to above will require concurrence of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. The President will take measures in order to maintain this concurrence on advice from Marshal Stalin.
The heads of the three great powers have agreed that these claims of the Soviet Union shall be unquestionably fulfilled after Japan has been defeated.
For its part, the Soviet Union expresses it readiness to conclude with the National Government of China a pact of friendship and alliance between the U.S.S.R. and China in order to render assistance to China with its armed forces for the purpose of liberating China from the Japanese yoke.
Joseph Stalin
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Winston S. Churchill
February 11, 1945.
Analysis
This statement can be useful for knowing what superpower leaders thought when WWII was about to end. Roosevelt used his power to get closer to make a global organization and realize world peace by involving Soviet into the agreement. Also, it can be seen that, at the time of the Yalta Conference, Roosevelt and Churchill thought Stalin would do what he promised while Stalin tried to make the Europe to communist’s nations, which became the beginning of the Cold War.
Reference
Annotated Draft of Proposed Message to Congress Requesting Declaration of War Against Japan; 12/7/1941; Franklin D. Roosevelt Master Speech Files, 1/19/1898 – 4/13/1945; Collection FDR-FDRMSF: Franklin D. Roosevelt Master Speech Files, ; Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, NY. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/annotated-draft-requesting-war-against-japan, July 22, 2020]
Atlantic Charter (5-page draft release with FDR’s annotations in pencil) – announced on the radio, August 14, 1941. FDR Library archives.
FDR Library photo. (August 10, 1941) FDR aboard HMS Prince of Wales with Winston Churchill, Harry Hopkins, W. Averell Harriman, Ernest King, George Marshall, General Dill, Admiral Starck & Admiral Pound at Atlantic Charter Conference. Retrieved from https://www.fdrlibrary.org/atlantic-charter
Federal Theatre Project, U. S. “Excursion” WPA Federal Theatre Playhouse, Tulane & Miro Sail in and see living actors in a live play. California Los Angeles, None. [California: federal art project, between 1936 and 1941] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/98516939/.
Fusco, C. (1938) Italian Munitions Worker. Connecticut. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh000232/.
Gottscho-Schleisner, I., photographer. (1939) New York Stock Exchange. View III. New York New York State New York. United States, 1939. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2018722305/.
Harris & Ewing, photographer. (1938) FDR Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt. United States United States, 1938. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2016883801/.
Lange, D., photographer. (1937) Waiting for relief checks. Calipatria, California. California Calipatria Calipatria. Imperial County United States, 1937. Mar. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2017769793/.
Verschleiser, E. & Greifer, M. (1938) Letter to President Roosevelt. New York City, New York. [Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001660/.
Roosevelt, F.D. (1933). Acceptance Speech to the 1932 Democratic Convention. FDR library. Retrieved from https://www.fdrlibrary.org/dnc-curriculum-hub
Roosevelt, F. D. (1941) Speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt, New York Transcript. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afccal000483/.
Shahn, B. & United States Resettlement Administration, P. (1936) Years of dust Resettlement Administration rescues victims, restores land to proper use / / Ben Shahn. United States, 1936. [Washington, D.C.: Resettlement Administration, Government Printing Office] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/88706324/.
War Archives. (2011, August 26). President Franklin D. Roosevelt Declares War on Japan (Full Speech) | War Archives. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK8gYGg0dkE
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Edited by Daiki Takemoto and Sota Shigenai
The End of the Cold War and Transatlantic History through NATO
Introduction
The Cold War mainly happened between the United States and the Soviet Union. The division between the US and the Soviet Union was so deep and it was called the “Iron Curtain”. To be against the power from socialism countries (especially Soviet Union), NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was established within American-led alliances. These articles explain the process of the triumph of American-style liberal international order and the relationship between the US and other countries over NATO.
1. The Establishment of NATO
NATO was formed led by British and America in the North Atlantic Treaty signed on 4 April 1949. At the beginning, it used to be an intergovernmental military alliance of the West to compete with the East communist area led by the Soviet Union. And this was known as the response to the problems of Germany underlying for long in Europe, as symbolized by the statement of Hastings Ismay; “keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down”.
Source 1: The first NATO contract with Hasting Ismay
Nato. “Lord Ismay, 1952 – 1957.” NATO. Accessed July 14, 2020. https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/declassified_137930.htm.
2. Warsaw Pact
In May of 1955, at Warsaw in Poland, socialism states followed by Soviet Union made a military alliance which is called Warsaw Pact. This alliance was established against NATO, Because NATO started to have strong power around Soviet Union and other socialism countries. With this Warsaw pact, the world officially had to confront the society with Bipolarity, which means that main global economic, military and cultural influence is held between two states, the US and the Soviet Union.
Source 2: Warsaw Pact
In the interests of further strengthening and promoting friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance, in accordance with the principles of respect for the independence and sovereignty of states, and also with the principle of noninterference in their internal affairs,…
Article 1. The contracting parties undertake, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations Organization, to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force, and to settle their international disputes by peaceful means so as not to endanger international peace and security.
Article 2. The contracting parties declare their readiness to take part, in the spirit of sincere co-operation, in all international undertakings intended to safeguard international peace and security and they shall use all their energies for the realization of these aims.
Moreover, the contracting parties shall work for the adoption, in agreement with other states desiring to co-operate in this matter, of effective measures towards a general reduction of armaments and prohibition of atomic, hydrogen and other weapons of mass destruction.
Article 3. The contracting parties shall take council among themselves on all important international questions relating to their common interests, guided by the interests of strengthening international peace and security.
They shall take council among themselves immediately, whenever, in the opinion of any of them, there has arisen the threat of an armed attack on one or several states that are signatories of the treaty, in the interests of organizing their joint defense and of upholding peace and security.
The Warsaw Pact, “The Warsaw Pact,” Making the History of 1989, Item #317, http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/317 (accessed July 14 2020, 4:00 pm).
3. Malta Summit
The summit between America and the Soviet Union was held in December 1989 by US President George H. W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Bush aimed to show the US idea of supporting Gorbachev’s reform in this meeting, and presented twenty specific proposals, including normalizing trade and arms control agreements. The concrete proposals made Gorbachev realize that they can finally reach detente between US and the Soviet Union and stated “no longer regard US as an adversary”. Malta summit signified the end of the Cold War.
Source 3 Excerpt of conversation between two presidents at Malta Summit
The President. . . . I’m especially glad we had this meeting. And we did gain a deeper understanding of each other’s views. We set the stage for progress across a broad range of issues. . . . And there is virtually no problem in the world, and certainly no problem in Europe, that improvement in the U.S.-Soviet relationship will not help to ameliorate. A better U.S.-Soviet relationship is to be valued in and of itself, but it also should be an instrument of positive change for the world.
. . . [N]ow, with reform underway in the Soviet Union, we stand at the threshold of a brand-new era of U.S.-Soviet relations. . . .
The Chairman. . . . Our meeting was characterized by openness, by a full scope of the exchange of views. Today it is even difficult, and perhaps there is no sense, to explain the entire range of issues that we have discussed. I wish to say right away, nevertheless, that on all the major issues we attempted in a frank manner, using each side’s arguments, to explain our own positions, both with regard to the assessment of the situation and the current changes in the world and Europe and as it regards disarmament issues. . . .
The President and I myself also felt it necessary to exchange views on our perception, both from Moscow and Washington, of the hot points on our planet. And this exchange of views was very significant and thorough. We reaffirmed our former positions that all those acute issues must be resolved by political methods, and I consider that this was a very important statement of fact. . . .
Q. Chairman Gorbachev, President Bush called on you to end the cold war once and for all. Do you think that has been done now?
The Chairman. In the first place, I assured the President of the United States that the Soviet Union would never start a hot war against the United States of America, and we would like our relations to develop in such a way that they would open greater possibilities for cooperation. Naturally, the President and I had a wide discussion — rather, we sought the answer to the question where we stand now. We stated, both of us, that the world leaves one epoch of cold war and enters another epoch. This is just the beginning. We’re just at the very beginning of our long road to a long-lasting peaceful period.
President George H. W. Bush, “Joint Press Conference of President Bush and Chairman Gorbachev at the Malta Summit,” Making the History of 1989, Item #40, http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/40 (accessed July 14 2020, 4:26 pm).
4. Partnership for Peace
While the Russian Federation, which was born after the collapse of the Soviet Union recovered its national power, Many of the former eastern nations have escaped Soviet rule and wish to join NATO. In 1994, Military cooperation with Eastern European countries was established resulting in PfP (partnership for Peace). Three nations joined this partnership in 1999, followed by Seven nations in 2004, and in 2009, two more nations joined.
Source 4: Excerpt of Partnership for Peace
1. Further to the invitation extended by the NATO Heads of State and Government at their meeting on 10th/11th January, 1994, the member states of the North Atlantic Alliance and the other states subscribing to this document, resolved to deepen their political and military ties and to contribute further to the strengthening of security within the Euro-Atlantic area, hereby establish, within the framework of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council, this Partnership for Peace.
2. ….
3. The other states subscribing to this document will cooperate with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in pursuing the following objectives:
- facilitation of transparency in national defence planning and budgeting processes;
- ensuring democratic control of defence forces;
- maintenance of the capability and readiness to con- tribute, subject to constitutional considerations, to operations under the authority of the UN and/or the responsibility of the CSCE;
- the development of cooperative military relations with NATO, for the purpose of joint planning, training, and exercises in order to strengthen their ability to undertake missions in the fields of peacekeeping, search and rescue, humanitarian operations, and others as may subsequently be agreed;
- the development, over the longer term, of forces that are better able to operate with those of the members of the North Atlantic Alliance …….
Nato. “Partnership for Peace: Framework Document Issued by the Heads of State and Government Participating in the Meeting of the North Atlantic Council.” NATO. January 11, 1994. Accessed July 14, 2020. https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_24469.htm.
As a consequence, most of the member states of the Warsaw pact (without Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova) joined NATO.
5. Counter-terrorism
In response to the terrorist-related terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001, article 10-2 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty (the North Atlantic Treaty) was invoked. Although it did not act as a joint organization, it carried out operations such as the attack on Afghanistan (the Afghan invasion, the expulsion of the Islamic militant Taliban from the Afghan government). It is not known how many people are in the area. While agreeing to the subsequent war on terror, the countries continued to participate voluntarily, with the participation of NATO instructors in the new Afghan army’s training.
Source 5: Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty
Article 5
The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.
Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security .
Nato. “The North Atlantic Treaty.” NATO. April 01, 2009. Accessed July 20, 2020. https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/official_texts_17120.htm.
6. President Trump and NATO
In 2017, when Donald Trump became president, he did not hide his discontent with the disparity between the U.S. and the other countries ‘ military spending. In 2017, on 7 November, Trump made a small speech at a breakfast meeting with the NATO chief about the lack of military expenditure on Germany and other issues.”I’m not going to put up with this nonsense,” he said, “and I’m not going to diminish America’s involvement.”It was reported that Trump leaked his intention to disengage from NATO in 2019/1.
President Donald Trump at NATO summit in Brussels, July 12, 2018
Source 6: Comments by President Trump about NATO
I met them last year. Stoltenberg, Secretary General, great guy, of NATO. Big fan. No one was paying their bills. Last year I went, a year ago. We picked up $44 billion. Nobody reports it. I just left recently and we’re going to pick up at least another, close to a $1 billion extra. I said to him, “you got to pay your bills.”
The United States is paying close to 90% of the costs of protecting Europe. I think that is wonderful. I said to Europe, I said, “folks, NATO is better for your than it is for us.” Believe me. Small countries, big countries, all these countries we are supposed to protect them. I said, “look, it is very simple. You got to pay out. You got to pay your bill.”
Someone said, “Sir!” Someone calls me Sir, that that shows me respect. He says, “would you leave us if we don’t pay our bills?” They hated my answer. I said, “Yeah, I would consider it.” They hated the answer Michael Powell. But if I said, “No, I won’t leave you. I promise you we will always protect you.” Then they will never pay their bills. So I said, “Yes, I will leave you.” You could see those checkbooks coming out for billions of dollars. They paid their bills. I think we will pick up in the next short while over $100 billion.
Then they said, the fake news, they said, “President Trump treated the [NATO nation leaders]” – in brackets, I put brackets, who have been ripping us off – “President Trump treated NATO leaders with tremendous contempt and disrespect.” I said, “No, they disrespected our country because they weren’t paying.” Now they are paying.
How about if we got into a conflict because a country was attacked? Now we are in World War III and protecting a country that wasn’t paying its bills.
Trump Confirms He Threatened to Withdraw from NATO.” Atlantic Council. August 23, 2018. Accessed July 20, 2020. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/natosource/trump-confirms-he-threatened-to-withdraw-from-nato/.
Edited by Kanari Maeda, Kana Sakagami, Lara Kotani and Yuki Yamaguchi
TRANSATLANTIC HISTORY 
