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Creating World Peace & Prosperity

  • At the end of WW2, the major world powers addressed the global economy & peace-keeping:
    • To rebuild war-torn Europe, the International Monetary Fund & World Bank were created at Bretton Woods Conference in 1944
    • The United Nations replaced the League of Nations in 1945 on April 25, 1945 @ San Francisco Opera House

U.S. leaders hoped to continue its trade dominance in Western Europe, Asia, & Latin America

The USA was the largest supplier of funds for both, so the USA had the greatest control over policy

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All 50 member nations were represented on the General Assembly

The U.S., U.S.S.R, England, France, & Nationalist China made up the Security Council

Each member of the Executive Council has veto power over other members

An army!

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Fighting a Cold War & Containing Communismďż˝

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The Beginning of the Cold War

  • The Cold War was an era of distrust, threat of nuclear war, & ideological expansion between the superpowers, USA & USSR:
    • The Cold War began during the Russian Civil War (1917-1921) & Soviet pullout of WW1
    • But, American-Soviet tensions heightened at the Yalta & Potsdam WW2 conferences

The USA supported the Russian White Army against Lenin’s Red Army

Stalin agreed to allow self-determination in Eastern Europe…but never did

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The Cold War Begins

  • In July 1945, Truman first met Stalin at Potsdam to discuss post-war Europe & ending the war with Japan

“I can work with Stalin…he is honest—but smart as [heck].”

Truman, a rookie, was a “Wilsonian idealist” & hoped for international cooperation

Stalin had ruled Russia for 2 decades, was a cautious realist, & believed the USSR needed to protect itself

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Cold War Divisions

At Yalta, Stalin agreed to allow self-determination in Eastern Europe

By Potsdam, Stalin had extended his control over Eastern Europe to create a buffer zone between the USSR & its future enemies

Because Britain, France, the USA, & USSR could not agree on German war reparations, Germany was divided into occupied zones at the Potsdam Conference

Potsdam presented a major Cold War theme: Because they could not agree on how do govern Europe, Truman & Stalin divided it

Potsdam was the conclusion of the American-Soviet alliance that brought an end to World War 2

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Withholding Economic Aid

  • The USSR was badly damaged in WW2 & needed help to rebuild
    • FDR & Truman declined loans & ended all Lend-Lease aid
    • So, Stalin took over factories in Eastern Europe & Manchuria
    • The USSR slowly recovered but this deepened the hostility & antagonism of the Cold War

Rejected request for $6 billion loan despite approving $3.75 billion to Berlin.

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Capitalism & Democracy

Communism & Totalitarianism

The Iron Curtain

The USA began to view Stalin in the 1940s as a new Hitler—a dangerous threat & an aggressive dictator desiring world domination

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Containment

  • Truman’s Secretary of State, George Marshall, began a policy of Containment in 1947
    • Crafted by George Kennan in Long Telegram
    • Strong resistance to the USSR would stop Russian expansion & the spread of communism
    • The U.S. initiated containment in 3 phases: Truman Plan, Marshall Plan, & NATO

“A long-term, patient but firm, and vigilant containment of Russian expansionist policies… Will not lead to any immediate victory but will eventually force the USSR to live in peace with the West”

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The Truman Doctrine

    • Britain could no longer financially/militarily defend Greece & Turkey… U.S. fears of Russian influence on 3 continents
    • Taking Greece might lead to communism in Iran & all of Asia
    • Then, into Egypt & all of Africa
    • Then, all of Europe through Italy
  • The Truman Doctrine offered U.S. assistance to any nation threatened by Communism
    • $400 million to help Greece & Turkey from falling to communists
    • Polarized world into pro-America good versus pro-Soviet evil

This commitment to stopping the spread of Communism was viewed by the Soviet Union as an informal declaration of a cold war

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The Marshall Plan

  • European nations had difficulty recovering after WW2 which led to U.S. fears of Communist coups in Europe
  • The Marshall Plan offered aid to help Europe recover (Sec. of State: George Marshall)
    • When Soviet-sponsored coup toppled Czechoslovakia, Congress finally passed the plan in April 1948.
    • SUCCESS: Industry revived & Western Europe became a bonanza for U.S. trade & consumer goods
    • The “Communist threat” ended

$12.5 billion to 16 different countries

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Marshall Plan to Aid Europe 1948-1952

Stalin refused to accept Marshall Plan aid in the USSR or any Soviet satellite & responded with his own Molotov Plan in Eastern Europe

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The Military Dimension

  • By 1947, 3 new agencies were created by the National Security Act so the military could better respond to threats to U.S. security
    • Dept of Defense to direct the army, navy, & the new air force
    • Central Intelligence Agency to collect & manage information among all gov’t agencies
    • Nat’l Security Council to advise the president on nat’l security

The new air force was the preferred military agency of the Cold War due to its ability to deliver nuclear bombs & deter enemy attacks

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1948

  • Congress authorized the “Voice of America” radio program to be broadcasted behind iron curtain
  • Congress reintroduced Selective Service System 🡪 many men made military their careers/were able to go to college

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NATO

  • Fears of Soviet aggression led to the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1948/1949:
    • To provide collective security for Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Greece, & Turkey
    • The Cold War now had an ideological (Truman Doctrine) & economic (Marshall Plan) base & military enforcement (NATO)
    • This was also a boost for European unification and a step in the militarization of the Cold War

This is a major departure from the traditional U.S. policy of isolationism

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The USSR responded in 1955 with the formation of the Warsaw Pact

NATO initiated as a result of a Soviet coup in Czechoslovakia in 1948

USSR responds with Warsaw Pact

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The Berlin Blockade

  • In 1948, the USSR responded to Containment by cutting off all traffic to Berlin in East Germany in the hope to starve the Allies out
    • Truman allowed food, fuel, & supplies to be airlifted into West Berlin & moved several U.S. bombers to England
    • The standoff lasted almost a year until Stalin lifted the blockade in May 1949
    • Two Germanies were officially established in 1949

After controversy over currency & 4 power control

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Here comes help!

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The Cold War Expands

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The Nuclear Arms Race

The American monopoly on nuclear weapons technology ended in 1949 when the USSR successfully tested their own atomic bomb

The Soviet testing of the atomic bomb motivated the USA to regain its advantage; In 1952, the U.S. tested the 1st hydrogen bomb (1,000 times more powerful than the a-bomb)

The Soviets responded with their own h-bomb in 1953

Thus began the arms race of the Cold War 🡪 Mutually assured destruction

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The Cold War at Home

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The Cold War at Home

  • Truman’s domestic policy was not as successful as his foreign policy
    • Post-war Americans found prices too high & supply too low on new consumer goods
    • Union members went on strike to demand their share of wartime company profits
    • In the 1946 mid-terms, Repubs took back the House & Senate

“Had enough?”

“To err is Truman”

The Republican Congress overturned the Wagner Act with the Taft-Hartley Act that weakened unions by forcing members to swear an anti-communist oath

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The Cold War at Home

  • Reelection in 1948 seemed remote
    • Truman faced strong opposition from Republican Thomas Dewey, Progressive Henry Wallace, & Dixiecrat Strom Thurman
    • With nothing to lose, Truman campaigned across the country
    • The “FDR coalition” of farmers, labor, urban, black voters held together to keep Truman in office

He attacked the “do-nothings” Republicans

He reminded voters that the Democrats ended the Depression

The Republicans couldn’t attack Truman’s Cold War successes

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Truman and the Fair Deal

  • Truman’s Fair Deal tried to extend FDR’s social aid programs:
    • Called for increasing minimum wage & Social Security benefits
    • Wanted national heath insurance
    • Fair Employment Practices Commission to end economic discrimination against blacks
  • Repubs & southern Democrats blocked all Fair Deal legislation

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The Loyalty Issue

  • Fear of radicalism is a recurrent theme in U.S. history; In the 1940s & 1950s, American fears of Communism grew as a result of:
    • The fall of China to communism
    • The successful testing of an atomic bomb by the USSR
    • The discovery of American spies
    • Fear of an unseen conspiracy

The Federalists in the 1790s used the Alien & Sedition Acts

The Red Scare after WW1 was aimed at radicals & foreigners

The Know-Nothings attacked foreigners in the 1850s

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The Loyalty Issue

  • The fear of Communism abroad led to a 2nd Red Scare in America:
    • Fears of Soviet espionage led to House Un-American Activities Committee to rid gov’t of spies
    • Loyalty Review Board fired gov’t workers for “reasonable doubt” (investigated 3 million)
    • Justice Dept jailed 11 members of the Communist Party for plotting a socialist revolution

Alger Hiss in the State Dept was accused of being a USSR spy (the “pumpkin papers”)

Ethel & Julius Rosenberg were executed for leaking atomic secrets to the USSR despite a lack of hard evidence

Manhattan Project employee Klaus Fuchs admitted to providing nuclear plans to the USSR

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McCarthyism in Action

  • In 1950 Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) accused 205 State Dept workers of being Communists; Began a 4½ year attack on “Communists”
  • McCarthyism was popular because it offered an easy solution to the Cold War: defeat the enemy at home & avoid costly, entangling policies abroad

Used a barrage of treasonable actions against the accused that overwhelmed the defendant’s ability to respond

He attacked U.S. gov’t agencies, especially the State Dept, of harboring spies

McCarthy failed to find a single confirmed Communist in the U.S. gov’t & never had more than 50% approval rating among voters

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The Cold War in Asia

  • By 1952, Asia also was divided:
    • After WW2, the U.S. helped create a Japanese democracy & signed a U.S.-Japanese alliance
    • In 1949, Truman “lost” China after a Mao Zedong’s defeat of Chiang Kai-shek & Kuomintang
    • In 1950, China signed a mutual assistance treaty with the USSR

The U.S. refused to recognize Communist China & continued its diplomatic relations with the Kuomintang Nationalists in Taiwan

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Based upon this chart, why were Mao & the Communists so popular among the Chinese people?

Chinese Communist propaganda

What message does this poster project?

Notice the sun

Notice the Chinese people

Chinese Communist propaganda

Who might this poster appeal to?

Industrial workers

Loyal communists

Farmers

Women

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Chinese Civil War

VS.

Nationalist Leader Chiang Kai-shek (Kuomintang)

Communist Leader Mao Zedong

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The Military Dimension

  • In 1950, the NSC created a new nat’l defense plan, NSC-68:
    • Labeled communism a “fanatical” & “permanent” threat to the U.S. & rest of the world
    • Pledged the U.S. not only to contain communism but to liberate communist countries
    • Recommended the expansion of U.S. military, stockpiling nuclear weapons, & covert operations

NSC-68 came in response to the Soviet development of an atomic bomb & the “loss” of China to communism

This policy paper became a “blueprint” for the Cold War & shaped U.S. actions over the next 20 years

NSC-68 was a military, economic, political & psychological examination of the USSR & China in order to develop an appropriate American responses to these threats

3 months after NSC-68 was written, its assessment appeared correct when North Korea attacked South Korea; U.S. military buildup began

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The Korean War

  • The showdown between the U.S. & USSR in Asia came in Korea:
    • After WW2, Korea was divided along the 38° with USSR in the North & the USA in the South
    • Soviet-trained North Korea attacked across the 38° in 1950
    • The United Nations condemned North Korea & sent (U.S.) troops

Stalin & Mao approved of the attack, but Stalin warned: “If you should get kicked in the teeth, I shall not lift a finger. You have to ask Mao for help.”

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North Korean Invasion

June-September 1950

United Nations Counter-Attack

September-October 1950

Chinese Advance

October-January 1951

Truman was unable to end the Korean War

Eisenhower made the Korean War a campaign issue in 1952

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The Korean War

  • MacArthur hoped to unify Korea but Truman feared a world war
  • In 1953, the 38° was restored under Eisenhower, but:
    • Truman achieved his original goal to defend South Korea
    • The U.S. showed its dedication to fight (not just talk) in the war against the Communists

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Armistice

January 1951-July 1953

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…& the U.S. became involved in France’s attempt to end an independence attempt by communist Ho Chi Minh

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Conclusions

  • Cold War foreign policy dominated American thoughts throughout the 1940s & early 1950s:
    • Defense spending increased dramatically
    • The nuclear arms race made people anxious about the future
  • With Eisenhower’s election in 1952 American anxieties subsided as the Cold War became more covert