Download A civil war in Greece in 1946 contributed to tensions between the

Chapter 27 notes
Europe after WWII
The traditional holder of power in Europe, Great Britain declined economically after World
War II.
But, the cost of building a welfare state at home in England resulted in the dismantling of the
British Empire.
A civil war in Greece in 1946 contributed to tensions between the Soviet Union and Great
Britain.
To assist the Greeks and other nations, Harry Truman announced an aid package called the
Truman Doctrine.
The Truman Doctrine stated that the U.S. would provide money to any nations threatened by
Communist expansion.
Also during this time, French president Charles de Gaulle attempted to return France to the
status of a world power by investing heavily in nuclear weapons.
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was designed to restore the economic stability of European nations after
World War II as well as minimize the influence of communism.
With the help of the United States, West Germany experienced an “economic miracle” after
World War II.
Although the Soviets were offered the Marshall Plan, they declined the offer. Instead, the
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, founded in 1949, was the Soviet Union’s response
to the Marshall Plan
Alliances
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was a mutual assistance treaty that included the U.S.
and 10 other western European nations including GB.
Although Spain was a western European nation on the Atlantic, it was not an original
member of NATO.
Also Turkey, a non-Atlantic, Eastern European nation joined the NATO alliance several
years after it was founded.
At the same time, SEATO or the South East Asian Treaty Organization was set up as a
Pacific alliance against communism.
As a reaction to NATO, the USSR and its satellite nations created the Warsaw Pact.
The Warsaw Pact sought to create a military alliance between the Soviet Union and various
Eastern European nations.
Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and other Eastern European nations were
members of the Warsaw Pact.
Yugoslavia was one of the few Communist nations that remained independent of Soviet
control.
After the death of Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev became the chief Soviet policymaker.
Communist Fears
Throughout the 1950’s the United States pursued the “domino theory” in South East Asia.
The domino theory states that if one country fell to communism, other would soon follow.
Therefore, it was the United States responsibility to contain communism wherever it spread.
When the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik I satellite in 1957, many Americans feared that
the Soviet Union was ahead of the U.S. in the production of missiles.
U.S. fears about the spread of communism were increased when China became a Communist
nation in 1949 under the leadership of Mao Zedong.
The U.S. senator responsible for the anti-Communist movement known as the “Red Scare”
was Joseph McCarthy.
In 1959, Fidel Castro led a Communist revolution in Cuba and caused much concern for the
U.S. government.
The “Bay of Pigs” refers to a failed U.S. attempt to overthrow the Cuban government soon
after Castro’s revolution.
John F. Kennedy was the U.S. president involved in the Cuban missile crisis, which was a
showdown between the U.S. and the USSR to remove Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba.
The Berlin Wall was built in order to prevent East Germans from defecting to West
Germany.
Protest
Communist leader Alexander Dubcek initiated the “Prague Spring” with a series of reforms
in Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Unfortunately for the Czechs, the Soviet army invaded Czechoslovakia in later 1968 to crush
the reform and reestablish Communist control.
By the late 1960’s, the American public was largely protesting the Vietnam War.
In 1970, the Ohio National Guard killed four students at Kent State University during an
antiwar demonstration pertaining to the unpopular U.S. war in Vietnam.
Despite repeated violence & intimidation by whites, Civil Rights activists including Martin
Luther King, Jr. maintained peaceful protest by civil disobedience. As a result of these
actions, U.S. president Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights & Voting Rights
Acts.
U.S. participation in the Vietnam War ends when President Nixon reached an agreement with
North Vietnam that allowed the United States to withdraw its troops.