Download The Policy of Containment

The Policy of Containment
Chapter 26 Section 2
6.0 Notes
Objectives…
• Contrast and compare the leadership
styles of President Roosevelt and Truman
• Explain the overall goal of the
Containment Policy
• Identify and explain the individual
components of the Containment Policy
• Evaluate the success of Truman’s
enforcement of the Containment Policy
Who would lead the U.S. during the
beginning of the Cold War?
President Harry Truman
– Honest and willing to
make tough decisions
– Not in the inner circle
– No – nonsense
approach with Soviets
– Plain speaker
Truman taking the oath of office…
Truman as President?
• Time to stop “babying the Soviets”
• Replaced FDR’s diplomatic advisers
with hard-line team
• Goals:
–Maintain U.S. military superiority
–Prevent communism from
spreading
What was the Truman Doctrine?
“It must be the policy of the
United States to support free
peoples who are resisting
attempted subjugation by
armed minorities or by outside
pressure” - HST
What was the situation in Greece
and Turkey?
• Greece – civil war
• Turkey – insurgents coming across the
border
• Great Britain announced withdrawal of
economic and military aid to Greece
• U.S. feared Soviet involvement
How and where was the Truman
Doctrine applied?
•
•
•
•
$400 million
Greece and Turkey
Economic and military aid
Truman warned the American people of
the serious threat to national security
posed by Soviet influence
• Committed the U.S. to the role of world
policeman
What was the significance of the
Truman Doctrine?
• Generated distrust against the Soviet
Union and popular support for the
campaign against communism at home
and abroad
• Truman would be able to wield executive
power to control legislation – similar to
wartime power
• U.S. declared the right to intervene to save
other countries from communist
subversion
What were the conditions in Europe
after WWII?
•
•
•
•
Western Europe in chaos
Factories were bombed and looted
Refugee – displaced persons camps
Winter of 1946-47 = worst in over a
century
• “a rubble heap – a charnel house, a
breeding ground for pestilence and hate” Churchill
What was the Marshall Plan?
• European Recovery Program
• Secretary of State George Marshall
• $13 billion in economic aid to 17 countries
1948-1951
• Britain, France, and W. Germany received
over half
• U.S. approved of General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT) – reduced
commercial barriers among member
nations and opened trade to U.S.
The Marshall Plan becomes law
Why should the U.S. give $13
billion in aid?
• Fear of political consequences of
total collapse of Europe’s
economy
• Aimed at turning back socialist
and communist bids for power in
northern and western Europe
How successful was the Marshall
Plan?
• Created a climate favorable to
capitalism
• Industrial production increased 200%
1947-1952
• Standard of living rose
• Western Europe became a major
center of American trade and
investment
What was Stalin’s reaction?
• Stalin denounced the plan
• Said Marshall Plan was an
American scheme to rebuild
Germany and to bring it into an
anti-Soviet bloc
How was Germany treated after
WWII?
• Germany divided into 4 zones
– U.S., British, French, and Soviet
• Berlin divided in the same way
• 1948 – U.S., G.B., and France combined
their zones in Germany and Berlin creating
the Federal Republic of West Germany
• W. Berlin was surrounded by Soviet
occupied territory
• A threatened Stalin closed all highway and
rail routes into W. Berlin
What was the significance of the
Berlin Airlift – Operation Vittles?
• 2.1 million residents of Berlin had
enough food and fuel for 5 weeks
• America and Britain flew in food and
supplies
–2.3 million tons of food, fuel,
medicine, even Christmas presents
–277,000 flights over 327 days
“Candy Bomber”
Berlin Airlift
• May, 1949 – Soviet Union gave up
–Formed in East Germany a rival
government in the German
Democratic Republic
NATO
• Blockade increased W. European fears of
Soviet aggression
• April 1949 – 12 members pledged military
support to one another in case any member
was attacked
– U.S., Canada + 10 European nations
• 1st peace-time military alliance for the U.S.
• $1.3 billion in military aid and creation of U.S.
bases overseas
What policies shaped the
Cold War?
• Truman Doctrine – ideological
basis of containment
• Marshall Plan – economic
• NATO – military enforcement
How was Japan treated after the
war?
• Military occupation – General Douglas
MacArthur
• Interim government reforms
–
–
–
–
–
–
Land reform
Creation of independent trade unions
Abolition of contract marriages
Women’s suffrage
Demilitarization
Constitutional democracy – barred communists
What were the consequences of
these reforms?
• Rebuilt Japanese economy - capitalist
• Integrated Japan into the anti-Soviet bloc
• 1952 – Japan received sovereignty and
agreed to house U.S. troops and weapons
• Cultivated new business leaders
• Japan could not trade with the Soviet
Union or later with Red China
What was our atomic policy?
• Truman relied on our monopoly of
atomic weapons to pressure the
Soviets to cooperate
• After the war many wanted control of
atomic power by the U.N.
• An American plan was submitted and
rejected by the Soviets
• America put aside plans for
international cooperation
U.S. atomic energy policy?
• 1946 Atomic Energy Act
– Atomic Energy Commission control of all
research and development according to
strictest standards of national security
• U.S. stockpiled weapons and conducted
tests – 50 bombs
• Believed Soviets nowhere close to nuclear
capability
Buster Dog Test, NV
Then what happened?
• August, 1949 – the Soviet Union tested
their first A-bomb
• Then we both tested hydrogen bombs
– 1000x greater than Hiroshima
• Stockpiled more bombs and put nuclear
warheads on missiles  nuclear arms
race
• “loss” of China to Mao Zedong’s
communist regime + Russian bomb =
Hysteria and the RED SCARE PART 2
Castle Bravo, Bikini Atoll – March
1956
Nuclear Test Sites in the 1950s
At times during the
Cold War, nuclear
war planners have
defined deterrence
as America's ability
to destroy at least
one-quarter of an
enemy's citizens in
any nuclear-war
scenario. This is
1960s-era
secretary of
defense Robert
McNamara's
infamous doctrine
of "mutually
assured
destruction"
(MAD), in which
the nuclear powers
maintain stability
by holding each
other's citizens
hostage.
•
The map above shows where, given today's high-yield nuclear weapons, an opponent would
have to explode a mere 300 warheads to kill 25 percent of the population of all NATO member
countries -- nearly 189 million people.
This map shows that 25 percent of the Chinese population, or 320 million
people, could be threatened with only 368 high-yield warheads.