The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Cold War (A Synopsis) - Part I - Sep. 20th, 2004

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[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

...................................................................................... ...........................................

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Comrades: 1917-1945

REVOLUTION

The seeds for the Cold War are planted during World War I and the ensuing revolution in Russia. In 1917, the new communist government led by Vladimir Lenin withdraws Russia from the war -- and signs a separate peace with Germany. Many of the Western Allies view the new Russian government with suspicion.

Lenin

Russia's treaty with Germany ends fighting on the Eastern Front. But from 1918 to 1920, civil war rages in Russia -- with the anti-communist forces receiving support from the West and elsewhere as part of an unsuccessful attempt to oust the Bolsheviks.

Following Lenin's death in 1924, Joseph Stalin rapidly rises to power. By the 1930s, Stalin's "Great Purge" is under way. Millions are arrested, and many are executed or sent to prison camps, as Stalin tightens his grip on the nation.

DEPRESSION

At the end of the 1920s, the Great Depression plunges much of the world into economic hard times. In the West, there is growing support for the Soviet Union -- where socialism offers an alternative to the harsh realities of capitalism. Around the same time, Stalin begins the first of the Soviet Union's five-year plans for economic development. Many in the United States and elsewhere chose to ignore reports of the widespread calamities caused by Stalin's policies of collectivization.



In the United States, President Roosevelt promises a New Deal, a series of sweeping reforms. And among those policy changes, the United States recognizes the Soviet Union.

American politics also shifts to the left during the Depression, especially as the trend toward fascism grows in Europe.

WARTIME ALLIANCES

Despite European attempts at appeasing Hitler, Nazi Germany continues its war preparations. Stalin, in an attempt to buy time for the Soviet Union, signs a non-aggression pact with Berlin on August 23, 1939.



German troops storm into Poland just over a week later, starting World War II. Soviet forces take over the Baltic states and invade Finland. Stalin's treaty serves to keep Moscow out of the greater war, while the Nazis conquer much of Western Europe.

But Hitler's appetite for territory isn't sated. The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, "Operation Barbarossa," takes the Soviet military by surprise.



After months of retreats and millions of casualties, the Red Army begins to beat back the German forces. The costly Soviet victory during the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943 ends the German advance and signals the beginning of the end for the Nazis.

SUMMITS

In 1943, the leaders of Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States gather in Tehran, Iran, where they agree to work toward the defeat of Nazi Germany. They also begin to map out the future of post-war Europe.



The so-called "Big Three" meet again in February 1945 in Yalta, a town on the Black Sea and a resort for Russia's former czars.

While in Yalta, Joseph Stalin, now marshal of the Soviet Union, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt consider the fate of Poland, which is already occupied by the Soviets.

Yalta ends with Britain and the United States securing Stalin's agreement that the Soviets will attack Japan once Germany is defeated. Victory over the Nazis, meanwhile, is fast becoming reality. Soviet and U.S. troops meet on the Elbe River in April 1945, effectively cutting Germany in two.



Roosevelt dies soon after the Yalta summit, just weeks before V-E Day. Vice President Harry S. Truman then assumes the presidency and represents the United States at the first post-war "Big Three" meeting -- which takes place in Potsdam, just outside Berlin. But there are already signs that the wartime alliance between the West and the Soviets is quickly unraveling.

HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI

The Potsdam conference ends on August 2, 1945. Four days later, the United States drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. A second atomic device is dropped on the port city of Nagasaki three days after Hiroshima. Japan soon surrenders, ending World War II.



But the world has entered the Nuclear Age, a time of unprecedented danger. And that nuclear threat would overshadow all the future Cold War confrontations to come.

Thanks to Freeper Spookbrat for the idea of providing this synopsis of the Cold War

[SAMWolf]

Evening Matt.

Thanks for all the additional info and graphics.

Labor in the USSR Is a Matter of Honor, Courage, and Heroism

Sounds a lot like the "slogans" the Germans used; "Arbeit Macht Frei"

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Matt.

Those countries that never gave up hope helped the United States to defeat the "Evil Empire"

[SAMWolf]

LOL!

[SAMWolf]

Evening aomagrat.

1943 to 1993, not a bad career.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Evening all!

[snippy_about_it]

oooh. I like this eagle and flag graphic. I've borrowed it for our 'collection'. :-)

[snippy_about_it]

Good evening Mayor.

[snippy_about_it]

Good evening alfa6.

[snippy_about_it]

Wow. Neat flag-o-gram. You're finding the best graphics.

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. It must seem like we've been abducted by aliens. Now we have to play catch up in the evenings.

[The Mayor]

Hi Snippy.

[snippy_about_it]

Hi Matthew.

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. Good cartoon.

[snippy_about_it]

wags... Did a search of wags and hobbits, it comes up in other conversations on google too. It's always someone making an argument of some type, i.e., "but the wags say...."

Maybe this passage will help. I'm clueless:

A few unenlightened wags have suggested that Lord of the Rings is no different from Harry Potter. Well, I'd respond, 'sure, and Beowulf's the same as Batman in the DC comics.' And I don't just mean that there is a literary gulf that separates Tolkien from other popular fantasy literature. There is a moral gulf.

Link:

http://www.christianity.com/partner/Article_Display_Page/0,,PTID307086%7CCHID581338%7CCIID1415578,00.html

[snippy_about_it]

Good evening Victoria.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Hi Snippy.

[Soaring Feather]

LOL just having some fun on the History Thread!!

[Professional Engineer]

Hiya Sam

[Professional Engineer]

Howdy ma'am. Ready to sell some bird seed yet?

[SAMWolf]

Evening Victoria.

Like the poster.