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Chapter 17 Cold War Begins SECTION 1 An Iron Curtain Falls At the heart of the Allied alliance stood the United States and the Soviet Union—two nations bound together by a common enemy and mutual distrust of each other. When the war ended, the Soviets and the Americans looked at the world through different eyes. The Soviets saw awful destruction. Nothing was more important to them than protecting their nation from a rearmed Germany and rebuilding their shattered economy. The Americans, on the other hand, saw a booming economy and a thriving democracy. Many Americans felt they had a mission to build a free world, with the United States leading the way. Turning Point at Yalta Near the end of the war, the Big Three— Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin—met at the Soviet city of Yalta to work out control of the postwar world. At Yalta, Stalin agreed to support the United Nations and to join the fight against Japan after Germany surrendered. In exchange, Stalin would receive territories in Asia. When agreement broke down over Germany and Eastern Europe, the three leaders agreed to joint control of Germany until a commission could settle the issue of war payments. With war still raging in the Pacific, Roosevelt and Churchill had little choice but to accept Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe. Roosevelt felt confident that he could win Stalin’s trust and convince him to relax his iron grip on Eastern Europe. However, he died before he had a chance to test this belief. Truman Comes to Power Truman, who had little international experience when he assumed the presidency, stepped forward to support formation of the United Nations and to resolve control of Germany. Truman assumed a get-tough attitude at Potsdam that would become a trademark of his cold war diplomacy. Despite this attitude, the leaders worked out an agreement to carve Germany and the capital of Berlin into four zones controlled by France, Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Each occupying nation would take war payments from its zone. As Truman’s and Stalin’s mistrust of one another grew, they began to see the world as divided into two camps—one dominated by capitalism, the other by communism. In 1946 Stalin declared that capitalism was a danger to world peace. Truman responded by adopting the policy of containment suggested by George Kennan. Churchill added fuel to the fire with his “iron curtain” speech and urged a show of strength against the Soviets. Cold War is Declared The start of the cold war marked a long struggle in which the United States and Soviet Union would try to block each other’s goals around the world, using all tactics short of allout war. The first test of containment came in Greece and Turkey, which Truman believed might soon fall under Communist influence. To prevent Communist takeovers, he proposed a plan to provide military and economic aid to all free people who were “resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures.” The so-called Truman Doctrine defined United States foreign policy for the next 20 years. The cold war was not just a struggle for territory but a fight between two opposing world views. To prevent the Communists from making gains in war-torn Europe, the United States implemented the Marshall Plan, named after Secretary of State George Marshall. The plan provided massive amounts of financial aid to help European nations rebuild their infrastructures and economies. The Soviet Union, which was included in the Marshall Plan, rejected the aid. Because the money had to be spent on American goods, Soviet leaders charged that the aid strengthened United States capitalism at the expense of European freedom. Question 1 In Stalin’s view, possession of a ring of proSoviet satellite nations such as Poland was “not a question of honor for Russia, but one of life and death.” What may have prompted this comment? Question 2 How did the Soviets take power in Eastern Europe? Question 3 Do you think Roosevelt could have negotiated more effectively with Stalin had he lived? Question 4 What economic reasons did the United States have for stopping the spread of communism? Berlin Crisis Since the end of the war, Soviet and American plans for Germany had put the two nations on a collision course. Unable to find a common ground, the United States, Great Britain, and France laid the basis for a free West German state with strong economic ties to the rest of Europe. Berlin Crisis The introduction of a common currency in the three western zones and West Berlin enraged the Soviets, who demanded that Western leaders scrap their currency plan or accept a Soviet currency in eastern Germany and all of Berlin. When Western leaders went ahead with their plan, the Soviets imposed a blockade around Berlin. Taking advantage of a 1945 agreement to keep three air corridors open to Berlin, Truman organized a massive airlift into West Berlin. World opinion turned against the Soviet Union for starving innocent people to achieve its ends. The United States, on the other hand, won the goodwill of many West Germans, melting wartime hatreds. In 1949, with cold war tensions rising, the United States, Canada, and 10 European nations formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance to prevent Soviet invasion of Western Europe. In 1955 the Soviet Union matched NATO with the Warsaw Pact—a Soviet-Eastern European alliance planted squarely across the iron curtain. The Cold War in Asia World War II caused nations throughout Asia to seek independence. Stretched thin by the job of rebuilding at home, Great Britain gave in to demands for freedom in India and Pakistan—which later split into Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Dutch did the same in Indonesia. Meanwhile, a civil war raged in China between the Nationalist forces of Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek) and the Communist forces of Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung). The war grew, in part, out of broken promises by the Nationalists to institute land reforms when they took power in 1910. Only the Japanese invasion during World War II had caused a temporary alliance between the warring armies. Late in 1945 Truman sent George Marshall to find a way to end the fighting, but both Mao and Jiang wanted to control China alone. Truman made a decision to back the Nationalists, but the aid came too late. Corruption and refusal to enact land reforms made Jiang’s war-tattered army vulnerable to defeat. In December 1949 the Nationalists fled to the island of Taiwan, which seemed in the eyes of many to be a failure of containment. The National Security Council urged the President to support the remaining friendly governments in Asia, including Vietnam. Events in Berlin and China unnerved everybody—including Truman. A high-level defense study—National Security Council Report NSC-68— suggested beginning a massive buildup of weapons to stay ahead of the Soviet Union. The nation now embarked on a dangerous arms race. War Flares in Korea Korea, which had been brutally ruled by Japan since 1910, suffered a fate much like Germany. At the end of the war, it was divided at the 38th parallel, leaving a Communist government in the north and a pro-Western government in the South. On June 25, 1950, North Korean troops followed Soviet-made tanks across the 38th parallel. Truman, who saw the assault as a test of containment, ordered air and naval forces to Korea without the approval of Congress. He then sought help from the UN. With the Soviet delegate absent from the Security Counsel, the UN backed Truman’s request. UN troops, led by the United States, drove the North Koreans back to the 38th parallel. Smelling victory, MacArthur persuaded Truman to let him attempt to unify Korea. With North Korean troops pinned against the Chinese border at the Yula River, MacArthur ignored warnings from Mao to back off and crossed into China. The action drew Chinese troops into the conflict, which pushed UN forces back across the 38th parallel. During the ensuing stalemate, MacArthur openly criticized Truman for refusing to use nuclear weapons against North Korea. Truman defended his policy of limited war and fired MacArthur. Fighting in Korea dragged on until the next President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, oversaw a ceasefire. The Korea War settled little. Korea remained divided geographically and politically in much the same way as before the war. However, the war had long-lasting effects on the United States. It convinced Americans to back a huge military buildup and to overlook the fact that Truman had never sought a formal declaration of war from Congress—a fact that greatly enhanced the power of the presidency. 1. How did United States membership in NATO mark a departure from its traditional pre-World War II foreign policy? 2. What was the link between the Communist victory in China and the arms race? 3. Why do you think Truman jumped so quickly into the Korean conflict? 4. What precedent did Truman set for the future? Cold War in the Atomic Age Chapter 17 Section 3 notes Living With Fear The atomic age terrified Americans. To help calm the public Truman organized the Federal Civilian Defense Administration to show people they could survive a nuclear war. Americans learned how to build bomb shelters, how to keep from panicking, how to cope with radiation injuries, and more. Most Americans thought the best way to prevent nuclear war was to have more and better bombs than the Soviets. After a heated debate, Truman ordered scientists to develop a deadly hydrogen bomb, a superbomb. Nuclear Suvival Nuclear Survival Question “ There is only one thing worse than one nation having an atomic bomb,” said on scientist in 1949. “ That’s two nations having it.” How does this remark reflect the thinking of Americans in the late 1940s? Eisenhower Elected Eisenhower walked into the presidency at the height of cold war tensions: China had just fallen, the Korean War dragged on, and the H-bomb heated up the arms race. Yet people trusted that “Ike” would lead the country through dangerous times. The death of Stalin and Eisenhower’s bluffs about a nuclear attack led Communist delegates to seek a resolution to the Korean War. Eisenhower Elected •Eisenhower found in John Foster Dulles a secretary of state who equaled his own fierce anti-communism and command of world affairs. Question What advantages did Eisenhower have over Truman in negotiating with Communists? A New Strategy Instead of depending on costly armies and navies to limit wars as Truman did, Eisenhower relied on cheaper air power and nuclear weapons. Under a program called the New Look, he reduced the manpower of the army and navy, while increasing the number of air force personnel. To put teeth into the scaled-down military, Eisenhower and Dulles pledged to meet aggression with massive retaliation—an instant nuclear attack. To back up this tough stance, they circled the Soviet Union and China with American military bases and allies. A New Strategy Critics dubbed the new foreign policy brinkmanship—the art of never backing down from a crisis. It posed two dangers: – (1) It gave the United States only two choices—either fight a nuclear battle or do nothing. – (2) It also led the Soviets to develop more powerful bombs, creating what Churchill called a “balance of terror. ” Question What did Eisenhower mean when he told Americans his defense plan provided “ a bigger bang for the buck.” Eisenhower Wages Peace While Eisenhower used the war machine to curb Communist aggression, he also worked for peace. – He approved the explosion of the biggest H-bomb ever tested; – He proposed the “atoms for peace” plan to the UN. The radioactive fallout from H-bomb tests led people worldwide to clamor for a halt in the arms race. Eisenhower met with Soviet leaders Nikolay Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss disarmament. Although the conference yielded few results, the two powers were talking again. Eisenhower Wages Peace The radioactive fallout from H-bomb tests led people worldwide to clamor for a halt in the arms race. Eisenhower met with Soviet leaders Nikolay Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss disarmament. Although the conference yielded few results, the two powers were talking again. Questions How did the arms race become a global issue? The Deep Freeze Returns Two events revived tensions: – (1) In 1956 Khrushchev ordered troops to crush an uprising in Hungary. – (2) In 1957 the Soviets launched Sputnik, leading the United States to launch the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)—the start of the space race. Pressure to rein in arms production remained strong. In 1957 a group of business, scientific, and publishing leaders organized SANE—the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy—to lobby for arms reductions. That same year the publication of On the Beach whipped up public support for a halt in H-bomb tests. The Deep Freeze Returns Pressure to rein in arms production remained strong. In 1957 a group of business, scientific, and publishing leaders organized SANE—the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy—to lobby for arms reductions. That same year the publication of On the Beach whipped up public support for a halt in H-bomb tests. The Deep Freeze Returns In 1963 the United States and the Soviet Union bowed to a growing world outcry and signed a test-ban treaty prohibiting nuclear testing in the atmosphere. However, the treaty permitted tests underground and in outer space. By the end of his presidency, Eisenhower had become deeply concerned about the power of the military-industrial complex—the vast, interwoven military establishment and arms industry Question What threats did the military-industrial complex pose to democracy?