The Cold War

Chapter 29

I. Origins of the Cold War A. Soviet-American Tensions

• Soviet-American Tensions– WWII = a break in the hatred… long history of

mistrust– Reasons for American hostility towards USSR

• fundamental hatred towards communism– –

• Soviet regime first act was treaty that took them out of WWI

• Soviet call for world revolution against capitalism• Stalin and the Great Purges

Soviet-American Tensions Continued

– Reasons for Russian hostility towards USA• Fundamental hatred towards capitalism

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• USA sent troops to fight against Bolsheviks during revolution• West excluded Russia from policy after WWI

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– WWII good for relations• •

Soviet-American Tensions Continued Again

– WWII bad for relations• Russia

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• United States–

– Opposing visions of post war world• Atlantic Charter 1941• One World model put forward by USA

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• Russia (and Britain) had different ideas– –

• peacemaking process would become a form of warfare

Wartime Diplomacy

– USA and Britain separate war plan from Russia: Morocco Jan 1943

• •

– Nov. 1943 Teheran, Iran: all three meet• Problems

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• Success – – –

Yalta

• . from tension to amicability–

• February 1945 all three meet in Yalta– FDR in bad health– Stalin power play

• • •

• Agreements– Kurile Islands and other lost territory to Japan– international organization… “United Nations”

Yalta Continued

• Unresolved Issues– Poland: “London” vs “Lublin” – Germany

• • • •

• Conclusions– – –

• United Nations– –

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II. The Souring of the PeaceA. The Failure of Postdam

– Roosevelt believed that Stalin could be reasoned with… Truman did not… in office two weeks before he announces that he’s going to “get tough” on communism

• •

– Limited leverage for Truman to stand on• • •

– Conceded Poland– Truman, Churchill/Altee and Stalin meet in Postdam

• •

The China Problem

– Chiang Kai-shek head of nationalist government

• •

– Mao Zedong, a communist revolutionary, rising in power

– USA sends military aid to Chiang•

– Rather than send full military assistance to help the failing Nationalists, USA decided to assist in rebuilding Japan

Chiang Kai-shek

The Containment Doctrine

– shift from ideal of unified, “open” world to “contain” threat of communism– GB announces it will no longer support democratic governments in

Greece and Turkey– Truman Doctrine

• • •

– Caused Russia to withdrawal aid to communist forces in Turkey and Greece

– Result would influence US foreign policy for the next 40 years• • •

The Marshall Plan– integral part of containment policy was economic

reconstruction of Western Europe• • • •

– June 1947 Secretary of State George Marshall announced a plan to provide economic assistance to all European nations that would join in drafting a program for recovery.

• • • •

– Results• •

*Fake Smile**Fake Smile*

Mobilization at Home

– 1947-48 series of measures designed to maintain American military power at near-wartime levels

• •

– Atomic Energy Commission established in 1946 supervisory body charged with overseeing all nuclear research

– National Security Act 1947 expanded powers of the government to pursue international goals

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The Road to NATO

– Truman agrees with England and France to merge the three western zones of Germany into a new West German republic

– Marshal Tito leads Yugoslavia into a separate communist state… USA offers assistance

– Stalin responds by imposing a tight blockade around western sectors of Berlin

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•

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The Road to NATO Continued

– Berlin Airlift• •

– Spring of 1949 Stalin lifts now ineffective blockade

– October 1949 official division between Germany (Communist East and Republic West) became official

The Road to NATO Continued Again

– Division in Germany accelerated the consolidation of what was already in effect an alliance among the United States and the countries of Western Europe….April 4, 1949 twelve nations signed an agreement establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

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•

– Spurred USSR to create it’s own alliance with all the communist governments of Eastern Europe: 1955 Warsaw Pact

The Open-Ended Crisis

• USA believed to have the upper hand… series of events change things

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– NSC-68… a national security council report that USA must establish a firm and active leadership in a non communist world

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III. American Politics and Society After the WarA. The Problems of Reconversion

• use of atomic weapons in Japan ended war sooner than expected and it hurt the economy

• Truman was in a tough position to heal the economy quickly, against the advice of economic planners

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•

The Problems of Reconversion Continued

• GI Bill of Rights” Servicemen’s Readjustment Act

• Inflation• Labor Unrest

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– • 8. Reconversion very heard for

women and minorities who would lose jobs to make room for white males

The Fair Deal Rejected

– Outline of Plan•

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•

•

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• – “Had Enough?” Republicans win control of both

houses of Congress in 1946

The Fair Deal Rejected Continued

– New Congress quickly moves to do away with New Deal reforms• • • • •

– Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 made illegal the “closed shop”…. Places where people couldn’t be hired without joining a union first

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The Election of 1948

– Truman and advisors believed that America was not ready to abandon New Deal

•

– Troubles for Democrats• Southern Dems. Leave convention in

response to Truman’s proposed civil rights bill–

• left wing leaves and forms Progressive Party and nominates Henry A. Wallace as presidential candidate

• Democrats wanted to kick out Truman and have Eisenhower run for presidentTruman

Truman

The Election of 1948 Continued

– Thomas E. Dewey, governor of New York, receives Republican nomination… early favorite

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•

– Truman turned fire away from him and towards Republican Congress

• • •

– Most dramatic upset in the history of presidential elections

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• Thomas E. Dewey

The Fair Deal Revived

– Democrats in Senate more hostile to Fair Deal than Conservatives

• no national health insurance (hooray for Kaiser!)• no increased spending in education• not able to persuade Congress to accept the civil rights legislation…

which would have… – – –

– BUT Truman is able to achieve many reforms• • • •

IV. The Korean War

Fair Deal plans would lose priority through a sudden change of events. June 24, 1950 the armies of communist North Korea swept across the border separating North and South Korea. South Korea was occupied by pro-Western forces. The USA would soon commit itself in it’s first battle of the Cold War.

The Divided Peninsula

– By 1945 both Russia and USA had sent troops to North Korea and neither wanted to leave… instead they divided the country along the 38th parallel

– Russians depart in 1949, but leave behind a communist gov’t in North Korea with Soviet equipped army

– Syngman Rhee left in charge of South• •

Invasion

– Not clear if Russians pushed for invasion, but clear that they supported it once it began

– June 27, 1950 Truman ordered limited military assistance to South Korea

– UN• • • •

– First physical expression of NSC-68•

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From Invasion to Stalemate

– For several weeks, things go smoothly•

– China alarmed by movement of American forces towards it’s border

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•

– By March UN forces able to reclaim much of the territory they had recently lost

• •

From Invasion to Stalemate Continued

– Stalemate• Truman wanted to avoid war with China…

WWIII• General MacArthur resisted limits on his

military discretion– – –

• Truman fires MacArthur on April 11, 1951–

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• Peace negotiations begin at Panmujom in July 1951… but negotiations and war would wage on until 1953

Limited Mobilization

– Wartime control• Railroad workers walk off the job in 1951: Truman seizes the railroad

to keep economy running• Steel strike 1952: Truman seizes the steel mills

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– Good effects• pumped new government funds into the economy at a point that

many believed a recession was about to begin

– Bad effects• •

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V. The Crusade Against Subversion• Reasons for Fear

– the “loss” of China to communism– Korean stalemate– Soviet development of atomic bomb

HUAC and Alger Hiss

• Republicans search for an issue to attack the Democrats• 1947 Republicans win control of Congress and hold very public meetings to prove

that the government had tolerated communist subversion… name of organization: House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

• HUAC first turned to Hollywood movie industry… argued that communists had invaded Hollywood and tainted America with propaganda– –

• Alger Hiss– – – –

• Impact– –

The Federal Loyalty Program and the Rosenberg Case

– In response to Republican attacks, and due to the fact that an election was approaching, the Truman administration initiated a widely publicized program to review the “loyalty” of federal employees

– In August 1950, president authorized sensitive agencies to fire people deemed “bad security risks”

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– Amid crazed public fervor, a Democrat Congress tries to show itself as “anti-communist”

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– Detonation of Nuclear Weapon in 1949 convinces America that military secrets had been passed to the Russians

– Ethel and Julius Rosenburg convicted of espionage April 1951

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• – FEAR

• not only fear of communism, but fear of being suspected of communism

• gripped entire country– – – –

The Federal Loyalty Program and the Rosenberg Case Continued

Ethel and Julius Rosenburg

McCarthyism

– Joe McCarthy undistinguished first term Senator from Wisconsin

• •

– 1950 “I hold in my hand” a list of 205 known communist currently working in the American State Department… in the weeks that followed McCarthy repeated and expanded on his accusations and emerged as the nation’s most prominent leader in the anti-communist crusade.

– 1952 McCarthy put in charge of special subcommittee and conducted highly publicized investigations of subversion

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– McCarthy NEVER produced solid evidence that any federal employee had communist ties

– growing contingency saw him as “fearless”

– Accused Democrats of “twenty years of treason”

Joe McCarthy

The Republican Revival

– Two big issues = 1952 bad year for Democratic party• •

– Truman withdraws from presidential contest because his popularity was so low

– Adlai E. Stevenson• • • •

The Republican Revival Continued

– Dwight Eisenhower• no previous political experience• military hero• commander of NATO• running mate was Richard Nixon

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– Team work• •

– 1952 Results•

• Dwight Eisenhower