Truman’s Difficulties

• Domestic Fear of Communism• Foreign Policy Concerns

– Soviet control of Eastern Germany/Europe– China became Communist– War in Korea– War between Israel and Arab countries

• Divided Democratic Party– Civil Rights– “Traditional” New Dealers

• Republican control of Congress

GB

FRUS

USSR

The Cold War Begins• The division of post-war Europe

was likely to be long-term AND… it would become the major arena for the new competition for global power and influence– US sought to maintain its

traditional alliances with Western Europe

– Arms race began– Economies competed– Superpowers pushed their

gov’ts philosophy– All-out war a constant threat

“Iron Curtain” Speech

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an "iron curtain" has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.”

Containment Theory• George Kennan wrote an influential critique of the Soviet

system. – Kennan was a Moscow Embassy official who had lived in

Moscow since 1933

• Kennan's 8,000-word report - nicknamed 'the Long Telegram' - advised:– The Russians are determined to destroy the American way of life

and will do everything they could to oppose America.– This is the greatest threat the US has ever faced.– The Soviets can be beaten and must be stopped.– This can be done without going to war.– The way to do it is by educating the public against Communism,

and by making people wealthy, happy and free.

The Truman Doctrine

• In response to feared spread of communism in Turkey and in Greece, Truman declared in a message to Congress that:

“It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation [conquest] by armed minorities or outside pressures”

March 12, 1947

The Truman Doctrine

What far reaching effects would a doctrine like this have on

American foreign policy? What were its limits?

What problems might be created by adhering to

such a doctrine?

The Marshall Plan

• General George C. Marshall promoted a plan to prop up an economically faltering Europe which he claimed was facing, “economic, social and political” collapse.– Uniontown, PA

• Between 1948-1952 $12 Billion given to Western Europe

A Soviet Perspective

Tensions of Berlin

• The Soviets wanted the US and their allies out of the Berlin– How did its location cause the

Soviets concern for the American presence?

– Why would the US have wanted to keep a contingency in Western Berlin?

• Transportation routes from Western Berlin were closed– Roadways– Railways

Operation Vittles

• The three Western powers responded by airlifting supplies into Western Berlin– Food– Fuel

• At the height of the operation, in April 1949, an allied aircraft landed in Berlin every minute

• In one day they flew:– 1,398 flights– 12,940 tons of goods, coal

and machinery

How do these Cold War enemies view one another?

Who’s actions are more justified?

Soviet power...bears within itself the seeds of its own decay, and the sprouting of these seeds is well advanced...[If] anything were ever to disrupt the unity and efficacy of the Party as a political instrument, Soviet Russia might be changed overnight from one of the strongest to one of the weakest and most pitiable of national societies....This would...warrant the United States entering with reasonable confidence upon a policy of firm containment, designed to confront the Russians with unalterable counter-force at every point where they show signs of encroaching upon the interests of a peaceful and stable world.

George Kennan

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, 1947

The truth of the matter is that Europe's requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products--principally from America--are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and political deterioration of a very grave character....

Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.

The Marshall Plan, 1947

The pact destroys the chances of European recovery. A permanently militarized Europe is doomed to living on an American dole. The pact is not an instrument of defense but a military alliance designed for aggression. It bypasses the United Nations and violates its Charter in a most flagrant manner. It divides the world permanently into two armed camps. And it provocatively establishes military bases on the borders of the Soviet Union.

Henry Wallace

Today the ruling circles of the U.S.A. and Great Britain head one international grouping, which has as its aim the consolidation of capitalism and the achievement of the dominations of these countries over other peoples. The countries are headed by imperialist and anti-democratic forces in international affairs, with the active participation of certain Socialist leaders in several European states.

V.M. Molotov

One cannot forget the following fact: the Germans carried out an invasion of the U.S.S.R. through Finland, Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Hungary....One can ask, therefore, what can be surprising in the fact that the Soviet Union, in a desire to ensure its security for the future, tries to achieve that these countries should have governments whose relations to the Soviet Union are loyal?

Joseph Stalin

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

• A defensive alliance formed in Washington, D.C. in April 1949

• Its member states agreed to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party

• Sought to counter a potential Soviet threat to Western Europe

Modern NATO

Soviet Reaction to NATO• USSR and its Eastern European satellites

formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955• Immediate cause for its formation was the

"re-militarization“ of West Germany

Asian Cold War Tensions

China Falls to Communism• Chinese Civil War -1934

– Chiang Kai-hek– Mao Zedong (Tse-tong)

• LONG MARCH

• Sino-Japanese War – 1937-1945

• Conflict Resumes – Soviet Aid

Outcomes of the Occupation

• Disarmament• Economic Liberalization

– End of Japanese zaibatsu– Land reform: 3 million new land owners

• Democratization– 1947 - parliamentary system put in place– Emperor = symbol, women given vote– Article Nine, outlawed belligerency as an instrument of

state policy and the maintenance of a standing arm• Education reform

– Consolidated written language– University system created

What should the U.S. do about the expanding communist world?

NSC-68 - 1950• “[U.S.] must establish firm and active

leadership of the noncommunist world”• U.S. must stop communism expansion

ANYWHERE – regardless of perceived value

• U.S. needed large standing army to do the job– Called for 4 x budgetary increase for military

• NSC-68 would shape U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War for the next 20 years. It was declassified in 1975.

Internal Security Act 1950• Required the registration of Communist organizations

with the government• Established the Subversive Activities Control Board to

investigate persons thought to be engaged in "un-American" activities– Members of these groups could not become citizens. – Allowed for the detention and deportation of

dangerous, disloyal, or subversive persons in times of "internal security emergency“

• Democratic Congress overrode Truman's veto to pass this bill– Truman called the bill "the greatest danger to freedom

of speech, press, and assembly since the Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798."

Communism at Home

• House Un-American Activities Committee– Former CPUSA Whittaker

Chambers testified that Soviet spies and Communist sympathizers had been successful in penetrating several U.S. government agencies during and after World War II.

– Chambers claimed active Soviet and Communist infiltration of the United States government.

Communism at Home

• Ethel and Julius Rosenberg convicted (1951-1953) for espionage – Aided acquisition of an atomic

bomb by the Soviet Union. • These events influenced the

opinions of many Americans regarding their own security– Fear of a nuclear attack by the

Soviet Union – Fear of the Communist Party of

the United States (CPUSA).

Joe I - August 29, 1949

Hollywood Ten

Post-War Domestic Concerns

• Returning Soldiers – Fear of return to Depression– G.I. Bill of Rights

• Employment Act– Sought to maintain FULL employment through

gov’t intervention (Keynesian)

Labor Unrest

• 1946 was a strike-filled year– Coal Strike – 400,000 workers walk

• Wages• Hours

– “You can’t dig coal with bayonets”» John L. Lewis

– Railway Strike – • Truman threatened to draft them into the military

Labor Unrest

• Spike in worker strikes led to gov’t action• Taft-Hartley Act

– Federal law that greatly restricts the activities and power of labor unions. • Allowed courts to end strikes• Ended Closed Shops• Restricted union’s political contributions• Forced union leadership to disavow communism

– Passed over Truman's veto on June 23, 1947– Labor leaders called it the "slave-labor bill“– The Taft-Hartley Act amended the NLRA/Wagner Act

Civil Rights Movement• African-Americans sought to

maintain and extend wartime gains– Fair Employment Practices Act

• Committee on Civil Rights– Called for new legislations to stop…

• Poll Taxes• Lynching (need for federal anti-

lynching law)• Housing and workplace

discrimination

"Our immediate task is to remove the last remnants of the barriers which stand between millions of our citizens and their birthright. There is no justifiable reason for discrimination because of ancestry or religion or race or color."

H. Truman

1948 Election

• Post-War Unpopularity– “To err is Truman”

• 1948 Democratic National Convention– “Let ‘em walk!”

• Dixiecrats– Strom Thurmond

• Progressives– Henry Wallace

1948 Presidential Election

• Down in the polls early in the race, Truman pulled off one of the great comeback

• Dewey appeared to some as cold and aloof– Dewey refused to

answer personal attacks

– Rep’s high budget newsreel

– Truman’s passion

Enacting the Fair Deal

• The Fair Deal was to redistribute income - transfer money from the very rich to the very poor - and, in the process, lessen many of the nation's most pressing social problems.

• Truman's Fair Deal initiatives: – New civil rights legislation– Federal low income housing programs– Unemployment insurance benefits– Tax cuts for the poor– Increased federal funding for education– A federal health care and health

insurance program – Increased minimum wage