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The Cold War
QUICKWRITE
• How is being “cold” to someone different
than fighting them?
Cold War
• 1946-1990
• Era of confrontation between the Soviet
Union and the United States
Disagreement over Germany
Soviets’ refusal to honor Declaration
of Liberated Europe (Yalta
Conference)
Events that led to
the Cold War
Soviet actions in Poland: no
intention of holding free elections
Potsdam Conference: Soviets
reluctant to accept US demands; felt
bullied by successful a-bomb testing
Communist victory in China
Differences & tensions between the
United States and the Soviet Union
The Iron Curtain
Soviet Views vs. American Views
SOVIET VIEW
SECURITY
1. Concerned about
being invaded twice
in less than 30 years
by the Germans =
keep Germany weak
and create buffer
states (satellite
nations)
2. Communist
AMERICAN VIEW
ECONOMIC
1. Capitalist
2. Concerned about
economic problems
3. Promote Democracy
+ free enterprise =
promote economic
growth by increasing
world trade
Containment
• To keep something from spreading
• Containment of communist expansion
was a central principle of United States'
foreign policy from 1947 to the 1975
Efforts at Containment
Containment
TRUMAN DOCTRINE
MARSHALL PLAN
Gave basis for providing Provided aid in terms of
military and
money, supplies,
economic support
and machinery to
to nations
Western European
threatened by
countries trying to
communism
rebuild their
economy and resist
Used in Greece and
communism
Turkey
Strategies for
Containing
Communism
Strong
Economy
Nuclear
weapons
for
massive
retaliation
brinkmanship
Covert
operations
Economy
• The US had to show the world that free
enterprise could produce a better more
prosperous society than communism
• Economic prosperity would prevent
communism from gaining support
Massive Retaliation
• Threaten to use nuclear weapons if
Communists tried to seize a territory by
force
• Required new technology to deliver
nuclear weapons
Success of Massive Retaliation
• Military spending was cut from $50 billion to $34
billion.
• Cut army personnel
• Increased America’s nuclear arsenal
Brinkmanship
• The willingness to go to the brink of nuclear
war to force the other side to back down
– Korean War: hinted to China = armistice
– Taiwan Crisis: any attempts by China to invade
Taiwan would be resisted by the US… HINT,
HINT… we have nuclear weapons!
– The Suez Crisis: the Egyptians seized the Suez
Canal causing the British and French to retaliate =
Soviet threat to attacks on Britain and France...
US responds… you use yours, we will use ours…
pressure causes Britain and France to back down
= diplomatic victory for SU as Arab nations begin
accepting their aid
Covert Action
• Hidden operations
conducted by the CIA
(Central Intelligence
Agency)
– Developing nations to
overthrow antiAmerican leaders and
replace them with
pro-American leaders
The Cold War on the
Homefront
The New Red Scare
- Feared Communists
would take over the
world
Causes of the New Red Scare
The Hydrogen Bomb
– 1953: Soviets test bigger bomb: the H-bomb
– Now, Americans afraid of nuclear war
Effect
1. Schools set aside areas as bomb shelters
• “duck-and-cover drills”- bomb drills where kids
hid under desks, covering head with hands
2. Fallout shelters: built
in backyards, under
homes
• Stocked with
canned foods,
water, batteries,
etc.
The Red Scare Spreads
•
Joseph R. McCarthy
begins witch-hunt for
suspected
Communists
•
McCarthyism: buzz
word for damaging
reputations with
unfounded charges,
based on flimsy
evidence & irrational
fears
McCarthyism
• Public accusation that more than two hundred “card-carrying”
communists had infiltrated the United States government.
• The House Un-American Activities Committee had been formed in
1938 as an anti-Communist organ.
• The paranoid hunt for infiltrators was notoriously difficult on writers
and entertainers, many of whom were labeled communist
sympathizers and were unable to continue working.
• The trials often destroy a career with a single unsubstantiated
accusation.
• In all, three hundred and twenty artists were blacklisted including,
Arthur Miller, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and Charlie
Chaplin.
Effect
• The McCarran Internal Security Act
– Now illegal to do anything that would
“substantially contribute to establishment of a
totalitarian government
• Communist organizations must register with US
attorney general & publish their records
• Restricted Communist Party members
• Allowed arrest, detention of Communists &
sympathizers... Truman vetoed bill, but Congress
overrides in 1950
• Later, Supreme Court rulings made sure McCarran
Act was not effective
Cause and Effect of the Cold
War
EFFECTS
CAUSES
1. Soviet Union controls
Eastern Europe after
World War II
2. Chinese Communists
win control of
mainland China
3. US and Soviet Union
explode atomic bombs
1. Marshall Plan provides
aid to W. Europe and
Japan
2. W. nations form
NATO; Communist
nations = Warsaw
Pact
3. Korean War erupts
4. American and Soviet
arms race
5. Red Scare leads to
hunt for Communists
in the US