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The Cold War
Containment as a Foreign Policy
The Cold War
• American foreign policy after WWII was influenced by two factors:
1)The willingness of the United States to become involved in international peacekeeping efforts.
2)The United States determination to prevent the spread of communism.
• After World War II, the Soviet Union was viewed as a grave threat to the security of the non communist world.
• In defeating Nazi Germany, the Soviets had moved troops into the nations of Eastern Europe.
• After the war, the Soviet Union actively supported communist governments within this area of Europe.
• The United States, which had emerged as a superpower nation, took on the task of limiting communist expansion-a policy known as containment.
• The goal of containment was to confine communism to the area in which it already existed-the Soviet Union and the Eastern European nations.
Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” Speech
The Cold War
• In his 1946 speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain cautioned the world about the threat of communist expansion.
• Churchill’s phrase “iron curtain” was in reference to the recognizable division between the free Western Europe and the communist Eastern Europe.
The Truman Doctrine
The Cold War
• The tremendous losses and the expense of WWII weakened Britain’s influence in the Mediterranean area.
• The Soviet Union, which had long been striving for access to the Mediterranean Sea by way of the Turkish straits, sought to extend its influence in the area.
• The Soviets supported communist rebels in their attempt to topple the government of Greece.
• This led the United States to try to contain the spread of communism in the Mediterranean region.
• On March 12, 1947, President Truman asked Congress for $400 million in aid to Turkey and Greece.
• Truman believed that the failure of the United States to act at this time would endanger both the nation and the free world.
• Congress approved Truman’s request.• By 1950, more than $660 million had been
spent in aid to Turkey and Greece.• This policy of economic and military aid
became known as the Truman Doctrine.
• Overall the Truman Doctrine represents a major step in the evolution of American foreign policy further away from isolationism and neutrality.
The Marshall Plan
The Cold War
“DUCK & COVER” Propaganda
• WWII left much of Europe in ruins.
• Survivors of the war struggled to find food, shelter, and clothing.
• Dissatisfaction with such conditions grew rapidly which led many to believe that the Communist party might offer solutions to these problems.
• To prevent the spread of communist influence in Europe, General George C. Marshall, secretary of state under President Truman, announced a new economic-aid program called the Marshall Plan.
• Between 1948 and 1952, about $13 billion in economic aid was allocated by the Republican-dominated Congress for the rebuilding of Europe under the Marshall Plan.
• The largest amount went to Britain, France Italy, and West Germany.
• This aid enabled Western Europe to begin consumer production once more and to build prosperous economies.
• Both Western Europe and the United States felt that with stabilized and improving economies, communist expansion would be halted.
The Beginning of the Cold War: Germany
1948-1949The Cold War
• At the end of WWII, Germany was divided into four zones of occupation controlled by England, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States.
• Berlin, the German capital, was located in the Russian sector and also divided into four sectors, each occupied by one of the four Allies.
• Disagreements during this period of occupation marked the beginning of the Cold War, a period of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union from the end of World War II to 1990.
The Berlin Airlift
The Cold War
• When France, England, and the United States decided to unify their German zones into the Federal Republic of Germany, commonly known as West Germany, the Soviets opposed such a formation.
• On June 24, 1948, the Soviets cut off all access to West Berlin by blockading the roads leading to the city, all of which went through the Soviet-controlled sector of Germany.
• The United States, England, and France recognized that West Berlin could not get supplies by road anymore, the western powers began an airlift of food, clothing, coal, medicine, and other necessities to the city.
• Almost a year later, May 12, 1949, the Soviets recognized their defeat in the area and ended the blockade.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO
The Cold War
• The United States and other Western European nations also fought the spread of communism by forming alliances.
• In April 1949, the United States and 11 other western nations signed a collective security agreement called the North Atlantic Treaty.
• This agreement bound the participating nations to act together for their common defense, known as collective security.
• Members pledged that an attack on any one of them would be considered an attack on all of them.
• Defense arrangements were coordinated through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The Korean War
The Cold War
• During WWII, Korea had been occupied by Japan.
• At the end of the war, Korea was divided along the 38th parallel, or line of latitude.
• The northern zone was named the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a communist government under Soviet influence.
• The southern zone was named the Republic of Korea, an anticommunist government.
• North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950 in an attempt to unify the country.
• President Truman responded to this invasion by committing American troops to the Korean conflict.
• General Douglas MacArthur, a WWII hero, was sent to command the United States military in Korea.
• Troops from the U.S., along with small numbers of soldiers from other UN nations, were soon involved in battles as fierce as those of WWII.
• A devastating loss came at the Yalu River, when Chinese forces entered the conflict and pushed the UN troops south.
• By the middle of 1951, the war had reached a stalemate.
• Fighting continued, but neither side was able to advance successfully, like WWI.
• Disagreements over the objectives and military strategies of the Korean War developed between President Truman and General MacArthur.
• When MacArthur disagreed with Truman publicly about the conduct of the war, the President recalled him to the United States and dismissed him from command.
• Although truce talks began in June 1951, no resolution was reached before the American presidential election of 1952.
• Dwight D. Eisenhower, promised that if he were elected President he would go to Korea to aid in peace negotiations.
• Eisenhower won the election and kept his promise.
• A truce or ceasefire was officially signed on July 27, 1953.
• The war in Korea lasted for more than 3 years and cost more than $15 billion.
• Approximately 54,000 Americans and 1 million Koreans and Chinese died in the conflict.
The Cold War At Home
The Cold War
• Even as the United States defended democratic freedoms worldwide, sometimes those same freedoms were in danger at home.
• The continual spread of communism into China and the growing strength of the Soviet Union led some Americans to fear that communism would spread to the United States.
Looking for Communists
The Cold War
HUAC• In 1938, the House UN-American Activities
Committee (HUAC) was formed as a temporary investigative unit to look into communist activity in the United States.
• HUAC operated for more than 30 years and conducted a well publicized probe of the movie industry in the 1940s and 1950s which led to the blacklisting, or cutting off from employment, of many actors, writers, and directors.
The Smith Act
• In 1940, Congress passed the Smith Act, which made it illegal for anyone to advocate “overthrowing…any government in the United States by force” or to “affiliate” with groups that called for such action.
The Loyalty Program• In 1947, President Truman fueled
anticommunist feelings by ordering a Loyalty Review Board to conduct security checks on thousands of government employees.
• Those whose loyalty was considered doubtful were dismissed.
Spy vs Spy
The Cold War
The Hiss Case• The Alger Hiss case
led many Americans to believe that there was a reason to fear that there were communists in the government.
• In 1948, Alger Hiss, a former adviser to President Roosevelt, was charged with having been a Communist spy during the 1930s.
• A young Republican committee member from California, Richard Nixon, believed that Hiss was guilty.
• Nixon’s pursuit of the case and Hiss’s eventual conviction on perjury charges made Nixon a national figure.
The Rosenberg Case• In 1950, Ethel and
Julius Rosenberg and Morton Sobell were charged with giving atomic secrets to the Soviets during WWII.
• After a highly controversial trial, they were convicted of espionage.
• The Rosenbergs were sentenced to death and Sobell to prison.
• The Rosenbergs were executed in 1953.
McCarthyism
The Cold War
• Against this political background, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin began his hunt for communists.
• In 1950, McCarthy charged he had a list of State Department employees known to be communists.
• Over the next four years, McCarthy went on to charge that many other people and government agencies had been corrupted by communism.
• McCarthy made bold accusations without any evidence.
• This tactic became known as “McCarthyism.”• He ruined the reputations of many people he
carelessly accused of being communists.
The End of McCarthyism
• In 1954, McCarthy charged that even the army was full of communists.
• For the first time, his public support quickly faded, and in December 1954 the Senate censured, or denounced, him for conduct unbecoming a member.
• The fall of McCarthy ended the red scare of the 1950s, although anticommunist attitudes lingered as the Cold War continued to drag on.
The Cold War Continues
The Cold War
Eisenhower’s Foreign Policy
•Massive Retaliation-
• Eisenhower worried that defense spending would bankrupt the nation.
• Yet he feared that the Soviets might see cutbacks in military spending as a sign of weakness.
• In response to these concerns the Eisenhower administration determined that the United States would rely more heavily on the air power and nuclear weapons than on ground troops.
• Massive Retaliation-meant that the United States would consider the use of nuclear weapons to halt aggression if it believed the nation’s interests were threatened.
Brinkmanship• The Eisenhower
administration further stated that the nation must be ready to go “to the brink of war” in order to preserve world peace.
• This policy of brinkmanship greatly increased world tensions during the 1950s.
The Arms Race
The Cold War
• The United States and the Soviet Union began an arms race, stockpiling nuclear and non-nuclear weapons.
• Both nations rushed to develop missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
• In 1957, the Soviets launched a satellite, Sputnik, into orbit around the earth.
• The arms race then became a space race as the United States rushed to launch its own satellites, some for military purposes.
The U-2 Incident
The Cold War
• In 1960 the Soviet military shot down an American U-2 aircraft deep in Soviet territory.
• The pilot admitted that he had been spying on Soviet military bases.
• Eisenhower said he had approved the U-2 flights and promised to suspend them.
• Khrushchev denounced the United States and demanded an apology.
• Eisenhower refused to apologize, and all peace talks collapsed between the two superpowers.
• The U-2 incident would prove to be a turning point in U.S.-Soviet relations, complicating the already tension filled existence between the two giants of the 20th century.
The Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Cold War
• After President Kennedy took office, he approved a CIA plan to overthrow Fidel Castro, the communist leader of Cuba.
• The plan called for Cuban exiles-supplied with U.S. arms, materials, and training-to invade Cuba and set off a popular uprising against Castro.
• The invasion took place on April 17, 1961, at a location called the Bay of Pigs, about 90 miles from Havana.
• No uprising followed, and Castro’s troops quickly crushed the invading forces, to the embarrassment of Kennedy and the United States government.
The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cold War
• Fearing another U.S. invasion attempt, Castro agreed to a Soviet plan to base nuclear missiles aimed at the United States in Cuba.
• On October 22, 1962 Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of Cuba and demanded that the Soviets withdraw the missiles.
• The Cuban missile crisis brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of war, but the Soviets backed down and withdrew their missiles.
• In 1963, the United States, Soviet Union, and Great Britain signed a Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in which they agreed not to test nuclear weapons in the air, in outer space, or under the sea.
• Only underground testing was permitted.
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution
The Cold War
• On August 4, 1964, President Johnson escalated the looming war with communist North Vietnam when he announced on television that American destroyers had been the victim of an unprovoked attack by North Vietnamese gun boats.
• The next day, Johnson asked Congress for the authority to order air strikes against North Vietnam.
• With only two dissenting votes, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
• The resolution empowered “the President, as commander in chief, to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.”
• President Johnson used the resolution to justify expansion of the war.
• By April 1965, U.S. planes regularly bombed North Vietnam.
• On April 30, 1975, the government in Saigon collapsed with the U.S. back South Vietnam being over-run by the Soviet backed communist North.
The War Powers Act
The Cold War
• In November 1973, Congress passed the War Powers Act over Nixon’s veto.
• This law helped reverse the precedent set by the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which gave the President sweeping powers in Vietnam.
The War Powers Act included:
• The President had to notify Congress within 48 hours of sending troops into a foreign country.
• At that time, the President would have to give Congress a full accounting of the decision.
• The President had to bring the troops home within 60 days unless both houses voted for them to say.
DETENTE
The Cold War
• Nixon and Kissinger shaped a policy called détente.
• The goal of détente was to bring about a warming in the cold war.
• In contrast to President Truman’s policy of containment, President Nixon’s policy of détente was designed to prevent open conflict.
• Nixon underscored his willingness to pursue détente by visiting the Soviet Union in May 1972.
• He was the first President since World War II to make such a journey.
SALT
The Cold War
• While in Moscow, Nixon opened what became known as the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT).
• These talks led to a 1972 agreement called the SALT Agreement.
• The agreement set limits on the number of defensive missile sites and strategic offensive missiles each nation would keep.
