The Nature of the Soviet Threat in the Early Cold War, 1945-1953 MILS521: Strategy, Tactics, and the

Operational Art American Military University Martin S. Catino, Ph.D. Instructor

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front): The nature of the Soviet threat to the United States, West, and developing nations and regions of the globe was multidimensional, existential (as the Soviets had nuclear weapons), and well executed in timing, phasing, and operations, using asymmetrical tactics strategically, globally, and politically. This subject is among the more misunderstood in modern history as modern historians often depict US strategy and defense policy as a needless overreaction to an exaggerated threat, a threat of minimal to moderate importance. The US defense posture, and forward presence militarily, occurred during the era in order to meet the Soviet challenge, and influenced much of the bifurcated world that marked the Cold War era.1
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The United States created these security alliances in addition to individual security treaties with nations like Japan and the Philippines. North Atlantic Treaty, April 4, 1949, http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/nato.htm (accessed March 10, 2007); Mutual Defense Treaty Between the United States and the Republic of the Philippines, August 30, 1951, http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/philippines/phil001.htm (accessed March 15, 2007); Security Treaty Between the United States, Australia, and New Zealand (ANZUS), September 1, 1951, http://www.yale.edu?lawweb/avalon/intdip/usmulti/usmu002.htm (accessed March 25, 2007); Security Treaty Between the Unites states and Japan, September 8, 1951, http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/japan/japan001.htm (accessed March 26, 2007). U.S. Special Committee Report on Southeast AsiaPart II, 5 April 1954, http://www. mtholyoke .edu/ acad/intrel /vietnam.htm (accessed January 14, 2008).

Winston Churchills words delivered during his speech, The Sinews of Peace, are noteworthy as they capture the very nature of the Soviet threat during the early Cold War:
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow. . . . The Russian-dominated Polish Government has been encouraged to make enormous and wrongful inroads upon Germany, and mass expulsions of millions of Germans on a scale grievous and undreamed-of are now taking place. The Communist parties, which were very small in all these Eastern States of Europe, have been raised to pre-eminence and power far beyond their numbers and are seeking everywhere to obtain totalitarian control. Police governments are prevailing in nearly every case, and so far, except in 2 Czechoslovakia, there is no true democracy.

Here are some of the threats that the Soviet Union posed: 1. Conventional military threat to Europe: Soviet forces had remained large and battle ready after WWII had ended, far disproportionate to the security needs of the Soviet Unionand postured toward Western Europe for a rapid invasion. Given that the Soviets violated their pledges with the West, annexed much of Eastern Europe, and openly boasted of taking Europe, the conventional threat to the most important markets, industrial centers, and allies of the United States was imminent and very real.3 2. Supporting proxy wars globally. The Soviets had supported proxy wars against the West, its allies, and its partners around the globe. The Communist wars of national liberation and subversions occurred throughout Europe to varying degrees, and throughout East Asia and other developing regions including Africa and Latin America. Contrary to popular notions, the Cold War often turned hot, and created serious conflicts including the Korean War, Vietnam War (with help from China), and numerous lesser conflicts in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and mainland Southeast Asia. These proxy wars escalated rapidly in Africa and Latin America after the withdrawal of US forces from Vietnam in 1975. 3. Subversion, infiltration, and penetration of Western governments, militaries, politics, and society. The Soviets were masters of penetrating the highest levels of opponent governments and other critical infrastructures of the state. Adolf Hitlers Wehrmacht, the United Kingdoms MI6 (Kim Philby), and the US nuclear development community (Manhattan Project) were all victims of Communist infiltration and subversion. The fact that these organizations and institutions were/are among the most guarded and vital areas of the state indicates the level of Soviet capabilities and threat. Many such examples could be cited and demonstrate that Soviet designs threatened the West even when no or low military presence was evident.

Winston Churchill, Sinews of Peace, http://history1900s.about.com/od/churchillwinston/a/Iron-Curtain.htm (accessed 01 August 2012).

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Martin S. Catino, The Aggressors: Ho Chi Minh, North Vietnam, and the Communist Bloc (Indianapolis: Dog Ear Press, 2010).

4. Deceptive ideology that misled nations and Communist supporters. Contrary to popular myth, Communism not only challenged the flaws of global and Western capitalism, imperialism, and economic liberalism, but did so using political and military deception (MILDEC) as the primary means of winning support. The first phase of Communist movements after developing an effective underground and party apparatus involved creating a mass movement by luring the public into participation based on the promotion of democracy, freedom, and human rights. After taking power, Communist forces systematically destroyed these rights, and many of the people who supported them. 5. Economic warfare against the United States and the West. Critical to Soviet and US military strategy was resource control, denial, and depletion. The Soviet Union ultimately was defeated by the US strategy of economic warfare implemented as US policy early in the Cold War and in earnest by President Ronald Reagan and his administration during the 1980s. That fact should not detract focus from the successful anti-Communist efforts of Eastern Europeans, non Western forces committed to anti-Communist activities, and dissidents in Communist countries, all essential aspects of strategy leading to the defeat of Marxism-Leninism as a global threat. Make no mistake about this strategy of economic warfare: the Soviets tried the same, hoping to dominate and control the resources of Africa, Asia, and then the Mideast (oil) in order to deny the West the strategic resources necessary for its primacy, viability, and survival. 6. Nuclear warfare and threat against the West. The Soviet Union repeatedly sought a strategic advantage in nuclear weapons and first strike capabilities. Given their record of aggression and genocide against their own citizens, neighboring states, and other nations, the nuclear threat was credible. Adding to the seriousness of the issue were repeated threats by Soviet leaders to annihilate the West. 7. Support of international terrorism. During the Cold War era, the Soviet Union was the primary state supporter of international terrorism: funding, training, and financing terrorist groups around the world and in the Western Hemisphere. 8. Thwarting the development of democracy and independence around the globe. The Soviet Union opposed, obstructed, undermined, and fought democratic states and developing states around the globe, waging this battle locally and in the United Nations. The so-called wars of national liberation and peoples wars created totalitarian states that outlawed and extinguished all aspects of democracy. The Vietnam War proved that fact, with totalitarian states implemented in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in the aftermath of Communist victory in 1975. The denial of democratic development not only posed a humanitarian problem but also denied the US strategic allies, markets, and regional theater access and thus were security related problems. 9. Creating a humanitarian crisis in every state under Communist control. The level of human suffering, mass executions, mass starvation through economic mismanagement and design (Stalin and Mao Zedong both used famines as a means to control and purge populations), and human rights

violations in areas controlled by Communist parties and forces are unparalleled in world history. Communism differed from other brutal militaristic policies of world history in that victory was never the objective (the taking of land, resources, populations, and governments). The Communist objective was mind control and population engineering. The Communists sought mind control and population engineering and thus used mass murder and psychological torture to create the desired utopist state well after they had seized terrirtory or won military victories. Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn is among the more famous dissidents who wrote of the extensive system of repression, torture, and mass execution in the Soviet Union, a system that not only murdered 20 million of its own citizens (this is the number given by Pravda) but destroyed entire villages in the 1970s without the outside world every knowing of the event. And these killings pale in comparison to the numbers killed in Maos purges of the Chinese population, and Pol Pots purges of the Cambodian people (the largest per capita killings of the modern era). The astute scholar R. J. Rummel has coined the word democide to detail and understand this phenomenon of Communist mass execution of populations. [Rummel also studies Fascist democide.] CONCLUSION: The Soviet threat to Western security and interests during the Cold War was far more than an interesting and debatable epoch in modern history. The Soviet threat was the most serious security dilemma that the United States had every faced and one that could have had very different outcomes. The strategy, tactics, and operations of the Kremlin during the Cold War demonstrated a multi-dimensional approach using combinations of hard and soft power, a diversity of material and spiritual (as the Communists called it) assets, and a juxtaposition of war and subversion to dominate resources, manpower, leaders, and land area in order to deny, degrade, and ultimately defeat the United States and its Western allies. The fact that this major effort that spanned decades failed should not deter serious students from studying and understanding the strategies, tactics, and operations that defined modern warfare in the era.

Selected Bibliography

The Atlantic Charter, August 14, 1941, in Henry Steele Commager, ed., Documents of American History, 451. Bailey, Thomas A Diplomatic History of the American People, 6th edition (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1958), 804. Catino, Martin S. The Aggressors: Ho Chi Minh, North Vietnam, and the Communist Bloc (Indianapolis: Dog Ear Press, 2010). Chambers, Whitaker. Witness (New York: Random House, 1952). Eisenhower, Dwight D. Mandate for Change: The White House Years, 1953-1956 (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Co., Inc., 1963). Hoover, J. Edgar. Masters of Deceit: the Story of Communism in America and How to Fight It (New York: Holdt, 1958).

Kennan, George F. The Sources of Soviet Conduct July 1947 in James F. Hodge, Jr., and Fareed Zakaria, eds., The American Encounter: The United States and the Making of the Modern World (New York: Basic Books, 1997), 155-169. McCarran Internal Security Act, September 23, 1950 in Henry Steele Commager, ed., Documents of American History, 554. Nixon, Richard. The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, 44-45. NSC 68: United States Objectives and Programs for National Security, April 7, 1950, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/nsc-68/nsc68-1htm (accessed February 25, 2007). NSC 68 remains among the most criticized documents of the Cold War. In hindsight, the document proved itself to be a valuable and accurate assessment of the hostility and the objectives of the Soviet Union and international Communism. Overstreet, Harry Bonaro. What We Must Know About Communism (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1958), 97-102. Philbrick, Herbert A. I Led Three Lives: Citizen, Communist, Counterspy (Washington, Capitol Hill Press, 1972). Reagan, Ronald. The Unknown Soldier of the Vietnam War in Ryn Shane-Armstrong and Lynn Armstrong, eds., The Vietnam War: Great Speeches in History (Farmington Hills, M.I.: Green Haven Press, 2003), 185. Roosevelt, Franklin, D. F.D. Roosevelts The Four Freedoms Speech, January 6, 1941, in Henry Steele Commager, ed., Documents of American History, 9th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1973), 446-449. Statement of Policy by the National Security Council on Basic National Security Policy, 30 October 1953, http://www.mtholyoke.edu/ acad/intrel /vietnam.htm (accessed January 14, 2008). Truman, Harry S. Years of Trial and Hope (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1956), 278-290. Truman, Harry S. Loyalty Order, in The Second World War and After, 1940-1949, vol. 16 of The Annals of America (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1968), 446. Truman, Harry S. President Trumans Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress, April 16, 1945, http://www.trumanlibrary.org/ww2/stofunio.html (accessed January 15, 2007). Truman, Harry S. Trumans Statement on Fundamentals of American Foreign Policy, October 27, 1945 in Henry Steele Commager, ed., Documents of American History, 504. Truman, Harry S. The Truman Program: Addresses and Messages by President Harry S. Truman, 60-61. Truman, Harry S. The Truman Doctrine, March 12, 1947, in Henry Steele Commager, ed., Documents of American History, 526-527. Contrary to public misunderstanding on the subject, Truman never believed that the Soviets gave direct orders to every Communist group or nation but rather the Soviets, he understood, had a variety of power mechanisms for manipulating these groups, from outright control to influence through aid and arms, to unity based on a common enmity of the United States. The argument

against monolithic Communism is therefore a pointless discourse that does not address the fact that the Soviet Union during the Cold War engineered an anti-American global alliance and effort using a variety of international relations between countries that supported Moscow. U.S. Congress, House Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Eighty-sixth Congress. Facts on Communism (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1960-1961), 94-95. We Will Bury You, Time. November 26, 1956, 24. Westmoreland, William . "As I Saw It and Now See It: A Perspective on America's Unique Experience In Vietnam," Viet Myths Conference website, http://www.viet-myths.net/westy.htm (accessed January 15, 2007). Originally appeared in Feb. 1990 issue of Vietnam magazine. Italics are added. Widener, Alice. Teachers of Destruction: Their Plans for a Socialist Revolution, An Eyewitness Account (Washington: Citizens Evaluation Institute, 1971).