Download The Cold War

The Early
Cold War:
1947-1960
United Nations
• Every nation has a seat
• Five permanent members to the
Security Council
US, USSR, China, Britain and France
• Members have Veto Power
• 50 nations arrive in San Francisco in
April 1945
• Charter Ratified on August 8, 1945
The Creation of the U. N.
Part I:
The Cold War
“Reconstruction
&
Confrontation”
Cold War Characterisitics
1. A political, strategic and ideological
struggle between the US and the USSR that
spread throughout the world-Europe, Asia,
Africa and Latin America.
2. It was a struggle that contained everything
short of war.
3. Each side denied the others right to exist.
4. Each side used propaganda against the
other.
Causes of the Cold War
1. Different political systems
2. -US is based on democracy,
capitalism and freedom
3. -USSR is based on dictatorship,
communism and control
4. Both thought their system was better
and distrusted the others intentions
The Ideological Struggle
Soviet &
Eastern Bloc
Nations
[“Iron Curtain”]
GOAL  spread worldwide Communism
METHODOLOGIES:
US & the
Western
Democracies
GOAL  “Containment”
of Communism & the
eventual collapse of the
Communist world.
[George Kennan]
 Espionage [KGB vs. CIA]
 Arms Race [nuclear escalation]
 Ideological Competition for the minds and hearts
of Third World peoples
 Bi-Polarization of Europe [NATO vs. Warsaw Pact]
The “Iron Curtain”
From Stettin in the Balkans, to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron
curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lies
the ancient capitals of Central and Eastern Europe.
-- Sir Winston Churchill, 1946
Contain Russian expansionism by drawing clear limits as to where the
United States would tolerate Russian domination…..
-George F. Kennan
Policy of Containment
• The U.S. post- W.W.II policy of checking the
political and territorial expansion of the U.S.S.R.
• Contain the Soviets
Truman Doctrine
• In 1947 the British
were helping the
Greek government
fight against
communist guerrillas.
• America promised it
would support free
countries to help fight
communism.
• Significance? Leader
of the free world
• The U.S. gave Greece
& Turkey $400 million
in aid.
Marshall Plan [1948]
1. “European Recovery Program.”
2. Secretary of State,
George Marshall
3. The U. S. should provide
aid to all European nations
that need it:
This move is not against any country or
doctrine, but against hunger, poverty,
desperation, and chaos. G. Marshall
4. $17 billion of US aid to Western Europe
extended to Eastern Europe & USSR, [but
this was rejected].
Post-War Germany
Allies decided to combine three
western zones within Germany
Berlin Crisis (1948-49)
• Soviets attempted to remove
Allies from Berlin by cutting off
access
• One of high tension points of the
Cold War; World War III?
• U.S. instituted a massive airlift;
Soviets lifted blockade in 1949
(Berlin Airlift)
Berlin Blockade
The Airlift
(1948-49)
The Arms Race:
A “Missile Gap?”
} The Soviet Union
exploded its first
A-bomb in 1949.
} Now there were
two nuclear
superpowers!
North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (1949)
 United States
 Luxemburg
 Belgium
 Netherlands
 Britain
 Norway
 Canada
 Portugal
 Denmark
 1952: Greece &
Turkey
 France
 Iceland
 Italy
 1955: West Germany
 1983: Spain
Warsaw Pact (1955)
} U. S. S. R.
} East Germany
} Albania
} Hungary
} Bulgaria
} Poland
} Czechoslovakia
} Rumania
The Republicans Comeback
1946
“Had Enough”
The Republican party gained
control of both the Senate and the
House of Representatives for the
first time since 1930.
Domestic Politics Under
Truman
• Military
• Challenge: returning military personnel to civilian
life
• Solution: Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (GI Bill)
• Challenge: reorganization of military
• Solution: National Security Act of 1947
a. The three services were brought under the
Department of Defense
b. CIA- gather intelligence, or information,
from abroad
Economy
• Challenges: 1. converting from wartime to
peacetime economy
2. providing jobs for veterans
3. meeting growing consumer needs
4. controlling inflation of prices
Solutions: 1. Employment Act of 1946-maximum
employment, production, and purchasing
2. Council of Economic Advisors
Labor
• Challenge: ending labor strikes that resulted from
lower pay
• Solutions: seizure of coal mines and threatened
seizure of railroads
• The Taft-Hartley Act: The law prohibited closed
shop, an arrangement requiring that a person be a
union member in order to be hired.
Civil Rights
• Challenge: ending racism
• Solutions: at Truman’s request, black leaders
identify their top priorities- federal antilynching
laws, abolition of poll taxes, and creation of a
permanent Fair Employment Practice Commission
• Result: Congress refuses to pass bills
• Truman’s Actions: 1. Truman appoints biracial
Committee on Civil Rights
• 2. “To Secure These Rights”- Investigative Report
• 3. Executive Order- Full integration of the armed
forces
• Dixiecrats
Dixiecrats
• Southern Democrats left the party
Robinson is seen with Branch Rickey signing a
contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Significance: First African American to
play in the Major Leagues.
Breaking the Color Barrier
April 1947: Major League debut as Dodgers first baseman
wearing #42
Threats Target Robinson
Becoming an Idol
The Hall of Fame
• 1962: Inducted into
Hall of Fame
• Inducted on first ballot
– 124 votes out of 160
ballots (77.5%)
1948 Election Truman vs.
Dewey
•
•
Truman scored an astounding
upset.
1948 Election
He campaigned against the Republican Congress, which the
President repeatedly mocked as the “do-nothing” 80th
Congress.
Give ‘Em Hell, Harry
A Fair Deal Replaces the
New Deal
Compulsory health
insurance, steady income for
farmers, increase in the
minimum wage, extended social
security, flood and irrigation
projects, aid to cities for slum
clearance and housing for
low income families.
Mao’s Revolution: 1949: The
Communists Win in China
Chiang Kai-shek vs. Mao Tse-Tung
Containment Policy Falters
The Korean War: A “Police
Action” (1950-1953)
Kim Il-Sung
Syngman Rhee
“Domino Theory”
Background
•
Post-WWII – Soviet Union
& US divided Korea at the
38th Parallel
1. Soviet troops occupied N.
Korea
2. US troops occupied S.
Korea
– Soviets and US established
friendly governments in their
sectors
1. South Korea – Syngman
Rhee
2. North Korea – Kim il Sung
The Cause
•
June 25, 1950
N. Korean soldiers
crossed 38th
Parallel & attacked
S.K.
North Korean People’s Army
(NKPA)
• Met little resistance
• Took Seoul and
advanced towards SE
port city of Pusan
MacArthur’s Plan
–
–
1.
2.
–
1.
2.
3.
Land troops behind enemy
lines at Inchon (Sept. 1950)
Reinforce Pusan
cut-off supply lines
trap NK forces
Results:
NK forces retreated across the
38th Parallel
South Korean & U.N. forces
pursued
China warned forces to stop
(MacArthur ignored)
The Chinese Strike Back
– Crossed border,
joined NK forces &
attacked S. Korean
& U.N. forces
– U.N. & S. Korean
forces were pushed
back into S. Korea
MacArthur Response
•
MacArthur wanted to
expand the war
1. Use nuclear weapons
and/or involve Chinese
Nationalists
2. Criticized Truman’s limited
war policy
•
April 11, 1951 – Truman
fired MacArthur
•
“Old soldiers never
die” -MacArthur
Truman Placed General
Matthew Ridgway in command
•
By the end of May 1951,
communist forces had
been driven out of South
Korea.
• The war had developed
into a stalemate
1. Peace talks will continue
on and off for ~2 years
2. July 1951-July 1953
• July 27, 1953 – Armistice
Signed
The Nation Seeks Internal
Security
Subversion: plots to overthrow the
government
Loyalty Checks: Truman set up the
Loyalty Review Board to
investigate 3.2 million government
employees for evidence of
associations with subversive
organizations.
Spy Case: Alger Hiss’ Word Vs.
Whittaker Chamber’s Testimony
Alger
Hiss
Whittaker
Chambers
Accused of passing classified documents to
the Communist party. Sent to jail
Importance
 Heightened American’s fears
 Projected an unknown California
congressman named Richard Nixon to
national fame
 Set the stage for Senator Joseph McCarthy's
infamous Communist-hunting
 Marked the creation of a conservative
intellectual and political movement that
would put Ronald Reagan in the White
House
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Paranoia in America:
Klaus Fuchs validated these fears
when he confessed to have given the
Russians information on the
construction of the bomb.
The Rosenbergs were convicted on
March 29, 1951, and sentenced to
death under Section 2 of the
Espionage Act.
Controversy
 In imposing the death sentence, Judge Irving Kaufman
held the Rosenbergs responsible not only for stealing
atomic secrets but also for more than 50,000 deaths in
the Korean War.
 Klaus Fuchs, who spied for many more years than the
Rosenbergs, provided far more sensitive nuclear
information to the Soviet Union, and was caught,
confessed, tried, convicted, and sentenced in the United
Kingdom, received 14 years in jail, which was the
maximum penalty in that nation for passing military
secrets to friendly nations.
Joseph McCarthy
Republican US Senator from
Wisconsin
 National spotlight shone
first on McCarthy in 1950,
when he made a speech in
Wheeling, W.Va. He
declared he had a list of
205 Communists working
in the State Department.
 In the 1950’s, he became
the most visible public face
during a period of extreme
anti-communism tensions.
McCarthyism
 Is characterized by uncontrollable, and unproven
accusations, as well as public attacks on the
character or patriotism of political opponents
 No one was able to bash
McCarthy without the risk
of being called a communist
spy or sympathizer, even
President Eisenhower
remained silent.
Have a care, sir.
House of Un-American Activities
Committee (HUAC)
 Congress established the House of Un-American
Activities Committee with the goal to prove that
the government under Democratic rule, had
tolerated communist sedition.
 A committee that was made up of the U.S. House
of Representatives, was created to investigate
treachery and subversive associations. (1938–75)
“Hollywood Ten”
Herbert Biberman, Martin Popper,
Robert W. Kenny, Albert Maltz,
Lester Cole, Dalton Trumbo, John
Howard Lawson, Alvah Bessie,
Samuel Ornitz, Ring Lardner Jr.,
Edward Dmytryk, Adrian Scott.
Not only were these
ten fined and sentenced
to years in jail for
contempt of Congress,
they were also
blacklisted from
working in the film
industry in Hollywood
until the 1960's when
the ban was lifted.
McCarthy’s Downfall
– In the spring of 1954, however, the tables
turned when McCarthy charged that the United
States Army had promoted a dentist accused
of being a Communist.
– For the first time, television broadcast allowed
the general public to see the Senator as a
blustering bully and his investigations as little
more than a misguided scam.
– In December 1954, the Senate voted to censure
him for his conduct and to strip him of his
privileges.
– The term "McCarthyism" lives on to describe
anti-Communist fervor, reckless accusations,
and guilt by association.
Eisenhower Leads the
Nation
“egghead”- an
intellectual
The Campaign of 1952
Dynamic Conservatism
• It favored a continuation of the chief New Deal
programs combined with an attempt to move the
federal government out of some areas.
• Modern Republicanism: cutting spending, reducing
taxes, and balancing the budget.
Baby Boom
It seems to me that every other young
housewife I see is pregnant.
-- British visitor to America, 1958
1957  1 baby born every 7 seconds
Levittown, L. I.:
“The American Dream”
1949  William Levitt produced
150 houses per week.
$7,990 or $60/month with no down payment.
Suburban Living:
The New “American Dream”
k 1 story high
k 12’x19’ living room
k 2 bedrooms
k tiled bathroom
k garage
k small backyard
k front lawn
By 1960  1/3 of the U. S. population in
the suburbs.
2c. Suburban Living:
The Typical TV Suburban
Families
The Donna
Reed Show
1958-1966
Father Knows Best
1954-1958
Leave It
to Beaver
1957-1963
The Ozzie & Harriet Show
1952-1966
Consumerism
1950  Introduction of the Diner’s Card
All babies were potential consumers who
spearheaded a brand-new market for food,
clothing, and shelter.
-- Life Magazine (May, 1958)
Religious Revival
Hollywood: apex of the biblical epics.
The Robe
1953
The Ten Commandments
1956
Ben Hur
1959
It’s un-American to be un-religious!
-- The Christian Century, 1954
Well-Defined Gender
The ideal modern woman Roles
married, cooked and
cared for her family, and kept herself busy by
joining the local PTA and leading a troop of
Campfire Girls. She entertained guests in her
family’s suburban house and worked out on the
trampoline to keep her size 12 figure.
-- Life magazine, 1956
Marilyn
Monroe
The ideal 1950s man was the provider, protector,
and the boss of the house. -- Life magazine, 1955
Well-Defined Gender Roles
Changing Sexual Behavior:
Alfred Kinsey:
1948  Sexual Behavior in the Human
Male
1953  Sexual Behavior in the Human
Female
v Premarital sex was common.
v Extramarital affairs were frequent
among married couples.
Kinsey’s results are an assault on the family
as a basic unit of society, a negation of moral
law, and a celebration of licentiousness.
-- Life magazine, early 1950s
Progress Through
Science
1951 -- First IBM
Mainframe Computer
1952 -- Hydrogen Bomb Test
1953 -- DNA Structure Discovered
1954 -- Salk Vaccine Tested for Polio
1957 -- First Commercial U. S. Nuclear
Power Plant
1958 -- NASA Created
1959 -- Press Conference of the First 7
American Astronauts
Hydrogen Bomb
• Developed by US in 1952 & USSR in 1953:
world now has two superpowers
Progress Through Science
Atomic Anxieties:
 “Duck-and-Cover
Generation”
Atomic Testing:
 1946-1962  U. S. exploded 217
nuclear weapons over
the Pacific and in
Nevada
Beatniks
Allen Ginsberg and Jack
Kerouac: Challenged traditional
patterns of respectability and
conformity
Stalin Dies-1953