Download World War II

Cold
War
America
1945-1954
Hiss-Chambers Affair
Containing the Russian Bear
Origins of the Cold War
• Unsettled questions over the future of Poland and Germany
• Britain and France had entered war to aid Poland; Soviet
Union had invaded Poland
• Stalin was forced to join Grand Alliance in 1941
• Soviets defeated Germany alone on Eastern Front and
occupied all of Eastern Europe at war’s end
• Truman insisted on free and democratic elections in Poland
• Stalin refused to give up Poland or any other Eastern
European nation; Russia’s security
• Truman threatened to cut off American economic aid;
Stalin accepted the loss of American money and strained
relationship with the United States
A World Divided
• At the end of World War II, both the U.S.A. and Soviet
Union occupied large areas of land
– U.S. occupation depended on its economy and
military position
– Soviet occupation depended on a physical presence
• Truman refused to accept Soviet occupation of Eastern
Europe; believed in free trade, national selfdetermination, and democracy
• “While the British and the Americans held firmly … the
whole position in Africa and the Mediterranean … and
the whole of Western Germany … they undertook by
negotiation and diplomatic pressure to reduce Russia’s
position in Eastern Europe.”
Walter Lippmann
A World Divided
• Germany was literally divided by Truman and Stalin;
East Germany became a Soviet satellite and West
Germany fell under the American, British, and French
spheres of influence
• Control over atomic weapons divided the U.S. and
U.S.S.R.
– “A single demand of you, comrades: provide us with atomic
weapons in the shortest possible time … the equilibrium has
been destroyed. Provide the bomb. It will remove a great
danger from us.”
Joseph Stalin
• The result: an atomic arms race instead, not
international cooperation
A World Divided
• 1946, Stalin warned Soviets that communism could not
coexist with capitalism; “tantamount” declaration of
World War III
• 1946, Churchill announced that “from Stettin in the
Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has
descended across the continent.” Winston Churchill
• “God has willed” the atomic bomb to America
A World Divided
Tough Talk
• Emotionally charged rhetoric and the emergence of
Cold War myths turned American public opinion
against Soviet Union
• By 1947, Britain could no longer stand as the leader of
Western democracies in Europe – shattered economy
– Could not economically support Greece and Turkey
in their fight against communist rebels
– Republicans (conservatives) controlled Congress
and rapid demobilization following World War II
limited effectiveness of American military forces
• 12 March 1947 – Truman Doctrine
Truman Doctrine
“At the present moment in world history nearly every
nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice
is too often not a free one.
One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and
is distinguished by free institutions, representative government,
free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of
speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression.
The second way of life is based upon the will of a
minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror
and oppression, a controlled press and radio; fixed elections,
and the suppression of personal freedoms.
I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to
support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by
armed minorities or by outside pressures.”
Truman Doctrine
• Republican Congress supported Truman
– Allocated $400 million for Greece and
Turkey
– Established precedent of providing economic
aid and military aid to countries fighting
communism; even supporting dictators
– “anticommunists” and “free peoples” became
synonymous
Marshall Plan
• Western European economies were devastated from
World War II
• Winters of 1946 and 1947 were especially harsh
• Communist parties made gains in Western Europe due
to hard times
• Marshall Plan, 1948 – Congress appropriated $17
billion for the European Recovery Program (ERP)
– Rebuilt infrastructure of Western Europe and
restored economic prosperity; also created stable
markets for American goods in Europe
– Led to economic integration of Europe; EPU (1950),
ECSA (1951), EEC (1958)
Marshall Plan
Containment Policy
• “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” by Mr. X proposed
policy of containment, July 1947
– Mr. X was George Kennan
– Soviet communism was driven by the need for
repressive dictatorship at home and belief that that it
could not coexist with capitalism
– Stalin was more interested in security than
expansion; Russia would only expand when allowed
to by American weakness
– “containment” by a politically, economically, and
militarily active United States
– Soviet Union would self-implode eventually
Containment Policy
• The Cold War: A Study in U.S. Foreign Policy (1947)
by Walter Lippmann
– Containment allowed the Soviet Union to decide
when and where battles against America would take
place
– Would tie America to small, unstable countries;
political, economic, and military drain
– Could lead to a land war in Asia; would cost billions
of dollars and thousands of Americans dying in
foreign lands
Containment Policy
• Containment was a defensive policy; prolonged
conflict
• Emphasize limited wars with limited goals
• Would breed frustration and anxiety in the
American public and influence domestic, as
well as foreign policy
Berlin
• June 1948, Stalin stopped all road and rail traffic
between West Germany and West Berlin
• Truman responded with the Berlin Airlift
– For one year, American and British planes
kept West Berlin alive and democratic with
massive supply drops
– 277,264 flights
– 2,343,315 tons of food, fuel, medicine and
clothing
• 12 May 1949, Stalin lifted the blockade
Berlin
Berlin
Election of 1948
Troubling Times
• 1949 - North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO)
• August 1949 – Soviet Union tested first atomic
bomb; full decade before Americans expected it
• Between 1945 and 1949, the bomb had been the
teeth of American foreign policy with the USSR
– James F. Byrnes vs. V. M. Molotov
• Race for the Hydrogen bomb
– U.S., 1952
– Soviet Union, 1953
Fall of China
• Chinese Civil War
– Communists Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai vs.
Nationalist Chiang Kai-shek
– United States provided Kai-shek with more
than $3 billion in aid between 1945 and 1949
• May 1949, Kai-shek and Nationalists fled to
Taiwan, established Republic of China
• Communists established People’s Republic of
China on the mainland
Fall of China
Fall of China
• Sec State Dean Acheson released white paper
that explained how Mao won the civil war
– Corruption in Nationalist government
– Truman was still blamed for the fall of China
to Communism; Chinese were the “good
Asians”
• China Lobby, Henry Luce and Time and Life
• Truman refused to recognized the PROC and
insisted that Taiwan (ROC) was the legitimate
government of China; not reversed until 1979
NSC-68
• National Security Council Paper Number 68
– Communism was a monolithic movement
directed by Soviet Union
– Advocated “an immediate and large-scale buildup in our military and general strength of our
allies”
– Extended the Truman Doctrine and called for
America to protect the world against
communism
– 300 percent increase in military appropriations
Korean War
• Korea was divided after World War II; Japanese
surrendered North Korea to Soviets, South Korea to
U.S. – 38th parallel
– North Korea, Kim Il Sung
– South Korea, Syngman Rhee
– 1950, Acheson speech – National Press Club
• 25 June 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea
• Issue was referred to Security Council of United
Nations; voted unanimously (Soviet Union was absent)
to condemn attack and demanded cease-fire
• UN Police Action; primarily American troops
Korean War
• September 1950, North Koreans controlled all of
peninsula except Pusan
• Douglas MacArthur led counterattack, two invasions in
September 1950; advanced to Chinese border by
November 1950
– Liberation, not containment
– Chinese officials warned Americans to stop the advance
• November, 1950 – Chinese invaded North Korea
– MacArthur wanted to drop atomic bomb on China,
Truman disagreed
– After publicly criticizing Truman, MacArthur was fired
in April 1951
Korean War
Korean War
• Negotiations began in July 1951
• Cease-fire declared on July 26, 1953
– War ended as it began with the 38th parallel dividing
North and South Korea
– 34,000 Americans died and 103,000 were wounded
– Victory for containment, but left many Americans
frustrated
Korean War
Adjusting to Peace
• At the end of World War II, Truman was
worried about the return of the Depression
– Wanted to continue OPA price controls, increase
the minimum wage to 65 cents an hour,
nationalize housing industry, and pass stronger
fair employment practices legislation
• Employment Act of 1946
– Created Council of Economic Advisors
• Republicans and conservative Democrats did
not want a return to “New Dealism”; destroyed
the OPA – resulted in immediate inflation
Adjusting to Peace
• America did not tumble into another depression
because the economy was sound
• Wartime employment and wartime savings left
people with a lot of money and desire for
consumer goods
• Consumer supplies rose to meet demand and
prices leveled off
Demands of Labor
• End of OPA led to demands for higher wages by
labor unions
• Virtually no production time was lost to strikes
during the war; “no strike” pledges
• During 1946, more than 4.5 million workers
went on strike
• Truman was angry; threatened to draft workers
– Compared labor unions to Japanese at Pearl
Harbor
Demands of Labor
• Labor was angry; John L. Lewis led United
Mine Workers on strike as winter approached
– Truman threatened to seize the mines; then
appealed directly to workers
• Republicans won control of Congress in 1946
midterm elections; Robert Taft
• Taft-Hartley Act of 1947
– Outlawed the closed shop
– Gave president power to delay strikes
– Limited political and economic power of unions
Demands of Labor
• Labor was angry; John L. Lewis led United
Mine Workers on strike as winter approached
– Truman threatened to seize the mines; then
appealed directly to workers
• Republicans won control of Congress in 1946
midterm elections; Robert Taft
• Taft-Hartley Act of 1947
– Outlawed the closed shop
– Gave president power to delay strikes
– Limited political and economic power of unions
Election of 1948
Fair Deal
• In 1949, Truman introduced a legislative packet that
included an expansion of Social Security, federal aid to
education, higher minimum wage, federal funding for
public housing projects, national medical insurance, civil
rights legislation, and other social and economic justice
measures
• Believed that government-controlled economic
expansion blunted extremism from the right and left and
ensured economic prosperity
• Congress only extended Social Security and raised
minimum wage to 75 cents an hour
• Truman was unable to work with Congress on domestic
issues; by 1949, foreign policy dominated president’s
attention and federal budget
Cold War at Home
• Rhetoric encouraged Americans to view Cold
War in simplistic terms
– “defender of free people” vs. “atheistic enslaver
of millions”
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Igor Gouzenko, 1945
Dr. Alan Munn and Dr. Klaus Fuchs
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, and Donald Maclean
Cold War at Home
• Rise of Richard Nixon; Republicans accused
Democrats and Truman of being “soft” on
communists
– “Fall” of China
– Atomic bomb in Soviet Union
– Alger Hiss
• Executive Order 9835
• “Freedom Train”
• Execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg in
1953
McCarthyism
Paranoid Style
• “paranoid style”
• House of Un-American
Activities Committee
(HUAC) 1938-1975
• “Hollywood Ten”, 1947
• Hollywood, 1951
– Walt Disney
– Anti-communist films
• Kefauver Crime
Committee, 1950-1951
What’s Wrong with our Kids?
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The Wild One (1954)
Blackboard Jungle (1955)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
J. Edgar Hoover, FBI
Frederic Wertham, Seduction of
Innocents (1954)
• City College of New York
basketball team, 1951
• West Point football team, 1951
• American soldiers in Korea
Thaw in the Cold War
• Stalin died on March 5, 1953
– Soviet leaders shifted to position of co-existence with
United States
• Korean War ended in summer 1953
• Fall of McCarthy in 1954
• By 1954, both United States and Soviet Union had
become more comfortable in their positions as world
powers; both had carved out spheres of influence
– Soviet Union and “ally” China: Eastern Europe and
Asian mainland
– U.S. and allies: Western Europe, Americas, most of
Pacific, Africa, Middle East, and SE Asia
• Truman Doctrine and Containment policy governed
foreign policy; raised economic and political questions