Download Truman and the Cold War

Truman and the Cold War
From 1945-1953…
Truman left office in 1953 but the
war was not yet over.
Outline
•
•
•
•
•
•
The end of World War II
and, 1945 the Yalta
conference
1945 FDR dies Truman
takes over
1946 The Potsdam
conference
1947 Marshall Plan,
Stalin refuses it
1948, Truman is elected
1948 Berlin Blockade
•
•
•
•
•
1949, NATO is
established
1949, china becomes
communist after civil war
1950 Korean war began
1953 Korean war ended
1953 Truman’s term is
over doesn’t run for reelection
1945
•
•
•
•
•
In 1945 at the Yalta conference
the “big three” met.
America, England, and the
Soviet Union. Roosevelt for
America, Churchill for England
and Stalin for the Soviet Union
It was right after the end of
world war II and they were there
to decide what to do with post
war Europe
Nothing was decided at this
conference other than that they
needed to keep the Germans
down and make sure that the
Eastern Europe economies
didn’t fail.
On April 12th of 1945 just after
this conference FDR died.
•
•
•
Roosevelt was very sick and his
death was not a surprise.
Truman was Roosevelt’s vice
president and he took over office
when Roosevelt died.
On the far left is FDR just before his
death in 1945 and in the middle is
Truman
The Potsdam Conference
•
•
•
After the death of FDR and
Truman’s taking over office the
problems of what to do with
Eastern Europe was still there
and it needed to be solved so
the Potsdam conference was
called in 1946.
The attendance of that was
Stalin, Truman and Churchill
and it was known that Truman
and Stalin did not like each
other
The three could not agree on
what to do with Eastern Europe
but the three were diplomatic
and they decided that they
couldn’t do anything at the time
and needed to think more about
what to do but one thing was
clear they needed to forever
keep Germany down.
The Marshall Plan
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Marshall Plan was made by general
George Marshall secretary of state at
Harvard University in 1947
Europe needed our money to get their
economies going again
Money came out of the pockets of the
American people
Europe was in desperate need of money
and our economy couldn’t function
without theirs
We gave over 13 billion dollars to
countries in Europe
We would give money to any country that
was democratic and any country that
tried to stand in our way would be taken
down
It was not favored by the American
citizens because it forced the taxes to go
up because that was where the money
was mostly coming from but it had to be
done
Stalin refused our help and wanted to
stand in the way of America
• The Marshall Plan
helped most all
countries in Europe
• The countries that did
not receive aid were
either in alliance with
the USSR or they were
not democratic
• Stalin refused the help
and didn’t like the
Marshall Plan to get
Europe back on track
• The soviet union refused the idea of the
Marshall plan and tried to stand in the way of
America
• The soviets were communists and this started
the idea that the communists were trying to
take over and that caused the American’s to
see the soviets as their enemy and that they
needed to be stopped
• Truman and Stalin did not like each other and
it was said that during the war they only
united because they had the same enemy,
Nazi Germany
• Now that the war was over another was
starting, between the soviets and all who
were against the communists.
The election of 1948
• The election of 1948
began when the
democratic party split into
three parts because so
many people disagreed
with what Truman wanted
• So not only was Truman
running against Dewey
and the Republicans but
his own Democratic party
• The odds were against
him and most thought the
best thing to do would
just be to drop out of the
election and stop the
embarrassment
• The Chicago Tribune
along with many others
had said that Truman
had no chance of
winning and that Dewey
was most definitely
going to win
• Dewey lost
• Truman won with 112
electoral votes to
Dewey’s 12
• He laughed at the
headlines when it was
announced that he had
been elected as the
president of the united
states
1948 Berlin Blockade
• The Berlin blockade
was the soviet union
blocking off Berlin and
forcing the western
powers to fly in supplies
• It was called the air lift
and no one thought that
it would work
• When it did the soviets
were humiliated
• By the end of the air lift
Berlin was receiving
more cargo then before
the blockade even
began
NATO
• In 1949 NATO was formed
• The North Atlantic Treaty
Organization
• At first a political alliance
• Many believed that they
would have no defense
against a soviet attack
• It was just many countries
unifying together and they
would defend each other if a
communist country attacked
them
Civil war in China
• The Chinese broke
out into civil war in
1949
• It was a power
struggle in the
Chinese government
• It was brutal and
many innocent
civilians were killed
in the street
• The outcome was
the Chinese
becoming
communists
1950 the Korean War
• The Korean war was
a civil war between
North and South
Korea
• It began in 1950
when the two
decided that they
wanted to unite under
one government but
each side wanted it
to be their
government
• The North attacked
the South and the
United Nations and
America were quick
to intervene
•
•
•
•
•
America attacked the
north and would have
easily won if
Communist china had
not come to their
rescue
We fought against the
communists for three
long bloody years and
lost many American’s
In 1953 the two sides
signed a treaty that
set borders and
ended the war
The borders were
only a few miles
different from how
they had been before
the war
Americans blamed
Truman for the
deaths of soldiers and
for entering such a
pointless war
1953 the War Ends
Truman Leaves Office
• In 1953 Truman’s term
of office was over
• By this time he had the
lowest public approval
ratings in history
• He didn’t run for
another term
• He simply left office
quietly