The Pros And Cons Of The Warsaw Pact

1163 Words3 Pages

Following the end of World War II, Europe was in shambles and a drastic rebuild was needed. The war resulted in a division of Europe which led to among other things, the creation of the United Nations and the Soviet Bloc. The conclusion of World War II lead to East Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and others to align themselves with the Soviet Union through the Warsaw Pact. Each country’s future was shaped by the policies of each organization. Since the end of World War II, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and East Germany have experienced the advantages and disadvantages of a centrally planned economy and their individual struggles to transition to a free market economy.

LAY OUT EACH COUNTRY’S ECONOMIC SYSTEM UNDER USSR…….
HOW THEY TRANSITIONED …show more content…

This region also came to known as the Soviet Bloc, and its members consisted of countries that had communist governments and foreign policies that were aligned with that of the Soviet Union. The agreement designated a unified military presence among its member countries. The treaty was in response to the Paris Agreement allowing West Germany to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO.) This agreement was the initial step towards the Soviet Union strengthening and expanding its grasp across Europe. (Britannica) In 1968, the Soviet Union sent Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia in an attempt to regain order after freedom of expression bans had been loosened and relations with the West were gaining strength. After democratic revolutions and upheavals swept Eastern Europe in 1989, the Warsaw Pact was deemed “nonexistent” on July 1, 1991 at the final summit of Warsaw Pact leaders. The meeting was held in Prague, Czechoslovakia. All of the former members of the Warsaw Pact joined NATO, except for the former Soviet Union, now known as Russia. …show more content…

The disadvantages of this economic system are the ignorance of product quality and the inefficient utilization of resources and goods and services. This in turn makes trade with other economies that produce higher quality products very difficult. To combat this, the central agency created five-year and one-year plans to produce goods and services in the most efficient way possible.(Econ10 Paper).
The Eastern Bloc countries depended on materials from the Soviet Union. Trading in the Eastern Bloc was significantly impacted by joining the Warsaw Pact. Prior to the War, the Eastern Bloc averaged 1%-2% of their trade with the Soviet Union. By 1953, trade with the Soviet Union by other Pact nations averaged 37%. Stalin’s prohibition of the Marshall Plan and its trade initiatives played a huge role in this increase.
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA), or COMECON, determined what products would be traded within the Eastern Bloc. Upon conception, COMECON was intended to allow the Soviets to take materials and equipment at will from other Eastern Bloc countries. However, by the 1970’s, the Soviet Union became the net subsidizers for the other countries by exchanging low quality finished goods for low cost raw

Show More
Related

  • Autonomy and Political Responsibility after the Cold War

    2605 Words  | 6 Pages

    After World War II, Europe emerged as a continent torn between two very different political ideologies, Communism and Democracy. As the two major superpowers, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States, struggled to defend their respective governmental policies, the European Continent was caught in an intrinsic struggle to preserve the autonomy which had taken so long to achieve. During the Cold War, Eastern European nations struggled to achieve autonomy with the help of the West's dedication to break the Soviet sphere of influence. After the disintegration of the USSR, the struggle for autonomy among nations shifted from an intense, inward, nationalistic struggle to break away from a superpower to a commitment of international unity and cooperation as nations began to take moral and political responsibility for their actions.

    Read More

  • Reasons For The United States Involvement In The Vietnam War

    1102 Words  | 3 Pages

    During 1940-1970, the USSR and the USA were the world’s leading superpowers. After WW2, it was the US money that helped rebuild nearly all of Western Europe, putting nearly half a dozen countries into debt. They opened trade and helped Europe’s ravaged economy to get back onto its feet. They did so by creating the ‘Marshall Plan’ on June the 5th, 1947. The plans aim was to reconstruct Western Europe and at the same time to stop Communism spreading to them – the Americans were avid believers in the Domino Theory, and believed that communism would take over all of Europe if they did not intervene. They also created other policies such as the Truman doctrine on March the 12th, 1947 (which is a set of principles that state that the US as the worlds ‘leading country’ will help out other democratic governments worldwide) and NATO, 4th of April 1949.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Phillip Hallie's Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed

    1249 Words  | 3 Pages

    World War II left the Soviet Union feeling uneasy; Stalin had lived to see his country invaded a total of three times. Stalin was determined to prevent further damage to his country, so he began creating a buffer zone by essentially forcing the countries of Central Europe to agree to a communistic government that was closely aligned with the USSR. Stalin created the Warsaw Pact in 1955, which bound Central Europe together. However, after Stalin died his iron grip was no longer available to keep the countries of Central Europe in line. Stalin’s successor Khrushchev was an advocate for loosening of the iron grip. Khrushchev believed in the idea that there was “more than one road to socialism.” It was Khrushchev’s policies in regards to socialism

    Read More

  • Comparing and Contrasting the Social & Economic Systems of Western and Eastern Europe

    974 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Marshall Plan was the United States sponsored program designed to rehabilitate the countries of Europe that suffered the incredibly damaging consequences after World War II. Western Europe’s real attitude toward economic union came about when they avoided discussion of a European free trade area, offered to them as an alternative in the Marshall Plan (Rebuilding Europe After World War II). When communist forces took over Czechoslovakia in 1948, the United States Congress realized the seriousness of the Soviet threat to European democracy. They voted for full funding of the European Recovery Program (the Marshall Plan). The USSR rejected contributions from the Marshall Plan, due to the conditions that accompanied it, such as allowing United States supervision of the participant's economy, and to be part of a unified European economy based on free trade (European-United States History). Under t...

    Read More

  • The Role Of Domesticity In The 1950's

    1482 Words  | 3 Pages

    “In the wake of the Cold War, Americans felt it was their patriotic duty to buy consumer goods to help the economy grow. In turn, the U.S. became the world’s dominant economic power” ("Cold War Influences on American Culture, Politics, and Economics").

    Read More

  • Cold War

    1240 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... rule came to an end in a number of Eastern European countries, including Poland, Hungary, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia (Kennedy 1034). In addition, East Germany began to allow its people to pass freely to West Berlin through the Berlin Wall, and the East Germans soon began to tear the wall down. Germany was reunified in 1990, when East Germany united with West Germany (Walker 388). In 1991, the Soviet Communist Party lost control of the Soviet government. Later that year, the Soviet Union was dissolved, and the republics that made up the nation became independent states. Russia was by far the largest of these states. In 1992, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and U.S. President George Bush formally declared that their countries did not regard each other as potential enemies (Walker). These events marked the end of the Cold War and of communist threat as we know it.

    Read More

  • The Cold War

    1177 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe became the East nations, and the United States, centered on NATO formed the West nations, dividing the world in two. Belonging to neither the East nor the West, developing countries were called Third World nations and became a stand-in for wars between the East and West (Gaddis, The Strategies of Containment 70-78). The end of WWII and the beginning of the C... ... middle of paper ... ... a, from containment to rollback in Korea; welcoming European integration because it portended the creation of an economic unit that encouraged technological innovation; building a configuration of power in the international system, nurturing free markets while safeguarding American interests, a constant in Washington for more than 35 years; and, free political economy at home were just a few of the strategic methods used to change, influence, and shape American domestic policy (Leffler, The Specter of Communism,100-129).

    Read More

  • Relations Between Turkey and America

    5051 Words  | 11 Pages

    The Soviet Union and the United States, after World War II, began a military competition. The Soviet Union, after the end of World War II, wished to expand the buffer zone between itself and the Western world. In addition to the original Polish territory, the USSR established communism in Rumania, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and East Germany.

    Read More

  • The Magic Lantern Analysis

    854 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the fall of 1989, people all around the world were watching unbelievable scenes on their televisions. Thousands of people in eastern Europe were meeting in the streets and squares and demanding the end of the communist rule. For the first time in history, opposition to communism was publically voiced. Barbed wire border fences in Hungary were being torn down. East Germans were fleeing to the West. Overnight the Berlin wall collapsed. The start of these historical events was the Polish Revolution of 1989.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The Treaty Of Versailles

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Treaty of Versailles was a treaty created at the end of World War I, in hopes of establishing peace among nations. Although it sought after harmony, the United States’ Senate refused to ratify the treaty due to the distasteful idea of the United States’ involvement in the League of Nations, and Woodrow Wilson’s unwillingness to compromise with Henry Cabot Lodge’s revisions of The Treaty of Versailles.

    Read More

  • US Ideological Warriors: A Stance Against Imperialism

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    The source outlines the open door policy which aimed to assure the USA unrestricted economic access to as many global markets as possible. The passage contrasts strongly with Gaddis’s interpretation, as Williams claims that the issue of sustaining capitalism was primarily on the minds of US policy makers rather than the threat from the USSR which was largely exaggerated. William’s claims that policy makers were deeply concerned about the risk of a depression and America post war policy centred around keeping this risk to a minimum. To offset the risk of depression, American policy makers looked to underdeveloped foreign countries to facilitate trade between them and the USA. However, the USA also tried to apply the open door policy to eastern Europe, this economic imperialist drive for new markets broke the sphere of influence agreement and the percentages agreement ensuring a break down in post war relations which was brought about by the US. Indeed, Secretary of Commerce Wallace cautioned Truman that “[the open door policy] was increasing tensions.” Truman did not heed his warning and went ahead with trying to consolidate power in eastern orchestrating protests over the soviet sphere of influence. The passage also contrasts strongly with Gaddis as he claims that economic instruments were used to serve political and not economic ends. However, this

    Read More

  • The Collapse of the Soviet Union

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    Also, the Soviet Union’s quest to remain a world superpower cost it dearly, as they were hard pressed to keep up with US defense spending under Ronald Reagan. The “Soviet Union was spending a large percentage of its GNP on the military because of the expansion of US spending” (p.3.fsmitha.com). Th...

    Read More

  • Collapse Of The Berlin Wall Essay

    1188 Words  | 3 Pages

    The alienation of intellectuals and the authoritative nature of communist regimes further contributed to the failure of communism in Europe. However, the collapse of the Berlin Wall would not have occurred had it not been for Gorbachev’s Glasnost, Perestroika, and the end of the Brezhnev Doctrine. Along with German official Schabowski, whose actions were the catalyst for the mass exodus of persons from the GDR into West Germany. The collapse of the Berlin Wall would not have occurred so swiftly had Gorbachev not tried to implement reforms to communism. Europe was divided into two blocks; the communist East and the democratic West was governed collectively by the French, British, and Americans, respectively.

    Read More

  • Types Of Welfare Systems

    943 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Capitalism versus Communism showdown that occurred during the Cold War has left profound effects on Europe today. In 2014 The fourteen poorest countries in Europe, by GDP per capita, hailed in Eastern Europe (World Economic Outlook). Nearly all of those countries subscribed to a Communist philosophy during the Cold War. Furthermore, Eastern European countries are still suffering the consequences from underdevelopment during and after the Cold War. Consequently, Eastern Europeans are still trying to catch up to their Western brethren. Furthermore, much of the political power within Europe is held by Western Europeans and several Eastern nations have not yet gained admittance into the European Union. Overall the East-West divide during the Cold War is still having systematic consequences on how Europe is shaped today and how it will be shaped moving forward. Another divide in modern Europe is the North-South divide. The recent European debt crisis highlighted the vast economic discrepancies between Northern and Southern European countries. Southern countries like Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, and Spain suffer tremendously from piling debt and Northern European nations have felt burdened by their neighbors to the South. However, if Northern countries do not come to the aid of their fiscally irresponsible brothers than the entire economic system of the Euro

    Read More

  • The Velvet Revolution

    1337 Words  | 3 Pages

    Before the outbreak of World War I, Slovakia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and declared its independence in October 1918, joining the Czech provinces of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia to form the Republic of Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia in the interwar period was the only functioning parliamentary democracy in eastern Europe. Even though it was the only functioning parliamentary democracy, the Czechs and Slovaks had issues that divided them from one another. In the Czech lands, they were more populated and industrialized than Slovakia’s. The Slovak population was also poorer, less educated, and extremely Catholic. The Prague government (Prague is the capital of Czechoslovakia; and why the government is called the Prague government) “attempted to address these economic inequalities by industrializing Slovakia in the 1920s but these efforts were cut short by the Great Depression (Merriman, Winter 2358). The result from the attempted fixes was the Slovaks grew resentful in the 1930s and a separatist movement began, which was led by Father Andrej Hlinka and Jozef Tiso.

    Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of The Warsaw Pact

Open Document