Chapter Twenty-Six

The Cold War, 1945—1952

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/

". . . We have about 50% of the world's wealth, but only 6.3% of its population. . . In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming, and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objective. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction. . . We should cease to talk about vague and -- for the Far East -- unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better."

George Kennan Head of the State Dept planning staff in the early post-World War II period (This was a top secret internal document written in 1948.)

There's an interesting set of essays on Marx, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto, in a publication called NEW POLITICS, which you are sure not to be able to get at your corner newsstand. I think Marx's greatest contribution was his critique of capitalism, and if you make your way through the jungle of Marxist economic theory (three volumes of Das Kapital, plus a fat book which he wrote as preface to Das Kapital, called der Grundrisse, and a couple of heavy volumes on Theories of Surplus Value), or, better still, fly above the jungle in a helicopter, you can find a powerful analysis, still valid today: the tendency of capitalism to create larger and larger conglomerates, its tendency to create poles of wealth and poverty, a fundamental conflict between the private profit central to capitalist accumulation and the increasingly social nature, both internally and internationally, of economic relations. You don't need to know the intricacies of the theory of surplus value to see its basic truth: that the tendency of capitalism is to drive wages down to the means of subsistence, and to keep all the rest; and that this is helped by maintaining a large group of unemployed, "reserve army of labor". Marx and Engels (don't forget that guy) saw economic crisis as inevitably getting worse and worse, and Marxist economists, in the depression of 1929 saw the fulfillment of this prophecy, but after the war, when the expected capitalist depression didn't occur, Paul Sweezy and Paul Baran, in their book MONOPOLY CAPITAL, analyzed the ways in which a capitalism unforeseen by Marx and Engels, was able to stave off depression by military spending and other devices.

[continued]

When you get to the issue of what happens after capitalism, and the "dictatorship of the proletariat", Marx is not really clear. The idea is that in the post-capitalism transition period there will be a need for a strong state, a state of "the majority", the working class. As we know, that supposed dictatorship of the "majority", in the Soviet Union, quickly became a dictatorship of a party, a Central Committee, one man. Bakunin and other anarchists argued that the state would not wither away by itself, that it must be demolished immediately.

The closest we can get to a description of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" in Marx is where he writes about the Paris Commune of 1871, indeed a remarkable example of grass-roots democratic involvement, and says "If you want to know what I mean by 'dictatorship of the proletariat' take a look at the Paris Commune." Marx and Engels thought the apparatus of the state -- police, army, all coercive instruments--- would become less and less necessary as society became more and more classless. But they did not foresee the complicated developments of the 20th century, the overthrow of capitalism in semi-developed countries like Russia and China, the rise of bureaucratic police states calling themselves "socialist" and "Marxist".  

Howard Zinn on Marxism

Chronology1941 Henry Luce forecasts the dawn of "the American Century" 1944 GI Bill of Rights authorizes educational + benefits for WW II veterans

International Monetary Fund and World Bank founded at Bretton Woods

1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office; Harry Truman becomes president United Nations charter signed; World War II ends; Strike wave begins Truman proposes program of economic reforms

1946 Employment Act creates Council of Economic Advisers Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech Atomic Energy Act establishes Atomic Energy Commission Republicans win control of Congress Benjamin Spock publishes Baby And Child Care

1947 Americans for Democratic Action founded Truman Doctrine; Congress appropriates $400 million for Greece/Turkey Federal Employees Loyalty and Security Program established and attorney

general's list of subversive organizations authorized Taft-Harley Act restricts union activities National Security Act establishes Department of Defense, the National Security

Council, and the Central Intelligence Agency House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in Hollywood

1948 State of Israel founded; Berlin blockade begins Henry Wallace nominated for president on Progressive Party ticket Truman’s peacetime draft; desegregates armed forces + civil service Truman wins election; Democrats sweep both houses of Congress

1949 Truman’s Fair Deal; North Atlantic Treaty Organization created Communists led by Mao Zedong win in China; Berlin blockade ends Soviet Union explodes atomic bomb

1950 Alger Hiss convicted of perjury Senator Joseph McCarthy begins anticommunist crusade Republic of China sign an allianceAdoption of NSC-68 consolidates presidential war powers Korean War begins Internal Security (McCarran) Act requires registration of communist organizations and arrest of communist during national emergencies

1951 Truman dismisses General Douglas MacArthur Armistice talks begin in Korea

1952 Immigration and Nationality Act retains quota system, lifts ban on immigration of Asian peoples, bans "subversives" + homosexuals US explodes first hydrogen bomb; Eisenhower presidency; Nixon VP

1953 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed for atomic espionage Armistice ends fighting in Korea

1954 Army-McCarthy hearings end 1955 Warsaw Pact created

Chapter Focus Questions

• What were the prospects for world peace at the end of World War II?

• What as the diplomatic policy during the Cold War?

• What characterized the Truman presidency?• What led to Anti-communism and McCarthyism?• What characterized Cold War culture and

society?• What were the causes, battles, and results of the

Korean War?

George C. Marshall [1880-1959], Secretary of State 1947 – 1949 – in March 1947 Truman asked Congress for $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey to

“support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”

George F. Kennan [b. 1904] architect of “containment” policy

David ben-Gurion [Israel’s first prime minister] proclaims Israel’s independence,

May 15, 1948. Truman acted quickly to recognize Israel.

Berliners watch Berlin Airlift C-54 in flight – began July 1948 and lasted until May 1949 – 12,000 tons of food, fuel, and others supplies daily at the height.

NY Governor Thomas Dewey [1902-1971] campaigning for the presidency in

1948. [His vice president was Bakersfield’s Earl Warren.]

Strom Thurmond [b. 1902] was nominated by Dixiecrats in 1948 challenging

Truman’s tentative moves to assist African Americans.

Liberal Henry Wallace ran as a Progressive for president in 1948. Truman had fired him as Secretary of Commerce due to a critical speech about Truman’s

diplomacy with Russia.

Margaret, Bess, and Harry Truman

George Democratic Senator Herman Talmadge, leader of the opposition to Truman’s programs

President Truman signing NATO treaty on August 24, 1949.

Free US tank on way to France - part of NATO’s Mutual Defense Assistance

Program.

Nationalist Chinese soldiers retreating from communist forces near Shanghai,

May 1949.

Mao Zedong [Mao Tse-Tung, 1893-1976] proclaiming the People’s Republic of China in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on October 1, 1949

Ho Chi Minh [1890-1969] with French president Georges Bidault in 1946. At the end of WW II, Ho proclaimed Vietnam’s independence from France and the

establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. [At the Potsdam Conference, the Allied nations divided Vietnam at the 16th parallel giving the north part to Nationalist China and the south part to Britain who withdrew in favor of the

French. When France wouldn’t accept the Republic in the south, war erupted.]

Emperor Bao Dai [Nguyen Vinh Thuy in center] and Premier Huu Tran Van. During WW II he had cooperated with the Japanese – in 1945 he had been

forced to abdicate by the Viet Minh.

Secretary of State Dean Acheson – “present at the creation.”

Truman presiding over a meeting of the National Security Council in 1948. NSC 68 was issued in April of 1950 proposing “an immediate and large-scale

buildup of our military” to deal with the Soviet threat.

Korean map showing the southernmost advance of the North Korean forces, the

northernmost advance of the UN troops and the July 1953 truce line.

The UN Security Council voted 9-0 [Russia was absent] to condemn North Korea for its June 25, 1950 invasion of South Korea. [Kim Il-Sung probably invaded for

nationalistic and internal political reasons.]

The Inchon invasion of September 1950 by General Douglas MacArthur.

General Douglas MacArthur, commander-in-chief of the UN command with

General Omar Bradley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff on Wake Island.

A Navy AD-3 bomber pulling out of a dive after dropping a 2,000 pound bomb on the Korean bridge on the Yalu River next to Manchuria, Nov. 15, 1950.

A Mobile Army Surgical Hospital [M.A.S.H.] 20 miles from the front line in August 1952. The UN lost 120,000 men [33,000 were Americans] – more than 2 million civilians died and perhaps 1.5 million Korean and Chinese soldiers also died.

[There was a fictional MASH TV show in the 1970s.]

An armistice, not a peace treaty, was signed on July 27, 1953 leading to US

civilian disillusionment with a “non-victory” ending.

Alger Hiss served in the State Department from 1936-1947. In 1948, Whittaker Chambers confessed to being a courier for Hiss to pass confidential documents to

the Russians. Hiss was guilty of “perjury” and sentenced to 5 years in prison.

A famous Hollywood union leader testifying before the House of Representatives’ Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947. A “red scare”

lasted until the mid-1950s against 1930s Hollywood filmmakers and scriptwriters. Nixon was a member of HUAC who rose to prominence.

1957 photo of J. Edgar Hoover [1895-1972], FBI director who set up loyalty boards in federal agencies and authorized the attorney general to draw up a list

of subversive organizations.

President Truman honoring first CIA director Admiral Sidney Souers – the CIA was

established in 1949.

Communists Ethel and Julius Rosenberg who were electrocuted on July 19, 1953 after refusing leniency if they would have confessed. [Klaus Fuchs revealed

to Scotland Yard that he passed atomic information to the Soviets.]

Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin [1909-1957] who began “red-baiting” in February 1950 by using unsubstantiated charges, guilt by

association, lies, and documentation taken out of context in public forums.

Troops observing a Fall 1951 nuclear explosion in a joint Atomic Energy Commission-Department of Defense test.

First test of an H-bomb in the Fall of 1952 in the Marshall Islands. This photo of the 40,000 foot mushroom cloud was taken from a distance of 50 miles at

12,000 feet 2 minutes following the explosion.

Dwight David Eisenhower with Richard M. Nixon at the end of the Chicago

Convention in July, 1952. [Ike promised to go to Korea to resolve the stalemate.]

Former director of the Women’s Army Corps, Oveta Culp Hobby became the first

HEW secretary and served from 1953 to 1955.

The hearing room on the last day of the Army/McCarthy hearings. McCarthy’s charges that highly-placed officers were shielding communists at lower levels [while apparently inebriated] led to a Senate censure in December 1954. Two

years later he died from alcoholism.

Ike with CA Governor Earl Warren on July 13th, 1953 who replaced Chief

Justice Fred Vinson. “The stupidest thing I ever did was to appoint. . .” Ike.

Part I:

Introduction

This chapter covers the beginnings of the Cold War under the Truman presidency as it affected both foreign and domestic policies.

Peace after World War II was marred by a return to the 1917 rivalry of the United States and the Soviet Union.

Truman and his advisors introduced the basic Cold War policies of containment in the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

With the victory of the communists in Asia as well, the Cold War prompted the U.S. to rebuild its World War II enemies of Germany and Japan as counterweights to the Soviets.

At home, Americans wanted to return to normal by bringing the troops back home, spending for consumer goods and re-establishing family life but many changing social patterns brought anxieties.

A second Red Scare was caused by the Cold War rhetoric of a bipartisan foreign policy and Truman’s loyalty program but Senator Joseph McCarthy’s tactics symbolized the era.

Defense spending increased and the American economy became dependent on it to maintain recovery.

Truman tried to extend elements of the New Deal in his Fair Deal but with minimal success.

Sources

David McCullough, Truman [1992]

Walter LeFeber, America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945 – 1980 [1993]

Noam Chomsky, Towards a New Cold War [1973]

John Lewis Gaddis, The United States and the Origins of the Cold War [1972]

Louis J. Halle, The Cold War as History [1991]

Concepts

• “To err is Truman”• George Kennan’s “containment” policy, implosion• Loyalty act• Richard Hofstader, consensus historian• Death of a Salesman; Catcher in the Rye• UFOs• M*A*S*H – screenwriter Ring Lardner, Jr. • K1C2 – Korea, communism, corruption • Adlai Stevenson [Bakersfield’s Walter Stiern] • Nixon’s "Checkers speech"

Part II:

American Communities

Un. of Washington, Seattle

• In 1948 philosophy professor Melvin Rader was falsely accused of being a Communist conspirator.

• During the cold war era, the federal government was providing substantial support for higher education through the GI Bill.

• The student population at the University of Washington grew rapidly and a strong sense of community among the students grew, led by older, former soldiers.

• The Cold War put a damper on this community. • Wild charges of communist subversion led several states to

require state employees to take loyalty oaths. • In this repressed atmosphere, faculty were dismissed, students

dropped out of school, and the free speech was restrained on the campuses.

Part III:

Global Insecurities at War’s End

Financing the Future

• During WWII, the United States and Soviet Union had temporarily put aside their differences in a common fight.

• Divergent interests made a continued alliance unlikely.

• Fears of the return of depression led the United States to take a much more active international stance.

• The Soviet Union interpreted the aggressive American economic moves as a threat.

The Division of Europe

• FDR’s realism allowed him to recognize that some kinds of spheres of influence were inevitable for the winning powers. [Division of Poland and Europe at Yalta with link to Churchill’s proposals]

Part IV:

The Policy of Containment

The Truman Doctrine

• While FDR favored diplomacy and compromise, Truman was committed to a get-tough policy with the Soviets.

• When civil war threatened the governments in Turkey and Greece, the United States warned of a communist coup and provided $400 million to defeat the rebels.

• The Truman Doctrine committed the United States to a policy of trying to contain Communism.

The Marshall Plan and the Berlin Crisis

• The Marshall Plan provided $13 billion to rebuild Europe.

• The plan had the long-term impact of revitalizing the European capitalist economy and driving a further wedge between the West and Soviet Union.

• The gap widened when the western zones of Germany merged.

• When the Soviets cut off land access to West Berlin, the United States airlifted supplies to the city.

NATO and Atomic Diplomacy

• The United States also created an alliance of anti-Soviet nations, NATO, and the Soviets responded with the Warsaw Pact.

• The East/West split seemed permanent. • The American policy of containing Communism

rested on the ability to stop its expansion by military means.

• After the Soviets developed nuclear weapons, both sides amassed lethal stockpiles. The U.S. and Soviets could not come up with a plan to control them. Within a few years both sides had a stockpile of hydrogen bombs.

Part V:

Cold War Liberalism

“To Err is Truman”

• The early years of the Truman presidency were plagued by protests by Americans tired of war-time sacrifices.

• An inability to bring troops home quickly or end rationing hurt Truman’s popularity. Inflation spread and strikes paralyzed the nation.

• Congress blocked Truman's plans for reconversion. • In 1946, Republicans gained control of Congress

and started to undo the New Deal. Over Truman’s veto, Republicans passed the Taft-Hartley bill that curtailed the power of labor.

The 1948 Election

• Going into the 1948 election the liberal community was divided.

• Liberals feuded with Truman over how to extend the New Deal and the extent of the Soviet threat.

• Henry Wallace challenged Truman by running on the Progressive ticket, a campaign effectively quashed by red-baiting.

• Truman repositioned himself to the left by warning voters that Republicans would make the United States “an economic colony of Wall Street.”

• He also offered a liberal legislative package that Congress defeated.

• The Democrats split again over civil rights when segregationists ran Strom Thurmond for president.

Truman’s Victory

• Truman managed to hold on to the New Deal coalition and won re-election.

The Fair Deal

• In 1949 he proposed a package of reforms, the Fair Deal.

• Truman won some gains in public housing, minimum wage and Social Security increases, but little else.

• Truman helped to define Cold War liberalism as promoting economic growth through expanded foreign trade and federal expenditures, chiefly defense.

Part VI:

The Cold War at Home

The National Security Act of 1947

• A climate of fear developed after the war that the United States was the target of or had already fallen prey to subversive influences.

• The Cold War triggered a massive reordering of governmental power.

• Established under the National Security Act of 1947, the Defense Department became a huge and powerful bureaucracy.

• The Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation pursued scientific research, especially related to physics.

• New agencies like the CIA fed off the fear of communism.

The Loyalty-Security Program

• Allegedly to combat subversive influences, Truman promoted a loyalty program.

• The Attorney General published a list of potentially subversive organizations.

• Many groups disbanded and prior membership in them destroyed individuals’ careers. A wide range of restrictions on alleged subversives passed Congress.

The Red Scare in Hollywood

• The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) launched investigations into Communist influence in Hollywood.

• A parade of friendly witnesses denounced Communists.

• Many people gave names of suspect former friends so that they themselves would be cleared and able to work again.

• A few witnesses (many blacklisted later) attacked HUAC and a handful went to prison for contempt of Congress.

Spy Cases

• Public anxieties were heightened when former State Department advisor Alger Hiss was accused of being a Communist spy.

• Richard Nixon pursued the charges. • Hiss went to jail for perjury. • Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed

despite worldwide protests.

McCarthyism

• Sen. Joseph McCarthy caused a sensation when he charged that 200 Communists worked for the State Department.

• His lack of evidence did not stop him from striking a chord with many Americans.

• He played into fears that Communism was a demonic force and that eastern elites had successfully manipulated the public.

• McCarthyism attacked Jews, blacks, women’s organizations, and homosexuals. Effective use of the media made McCarthyism seem credible.

• McCarthy’s crusade was destroyed when he went on national TV and appeared deranged, making wild charges of Communist infiltration of the army.

Part VII:

Cold War Culture

An Anxious Mood

• After World War II, millions of Americans achieved middle-class status.

• But prosperity did not dispel American anxiety over nuclear war and economic depression.

• Movies and plays reflected cold war anxieties and alienation as well as anti-communism.

The Family as Bulwark

• The move to the suburbs, high levels of consumption, and even the rush towards marriage and parenthood illustrated these fears.

• The baby boom and high consumer spending changed the middle-class family.

Income and Consumer Spending

• To sustain support of larger families and high rates of consumer spending, a growing number of married, middle-class women sought employment.

The Family

• Commentators bemoaned the destruction of the traditional family that they linked to the threat of Communism.

• High-profile experts weighed in with popular books and articles about the dangers of women who abandoned their housewife roles.

• The conservative trend was also evident in declining numbers of woman college graduates.

Military-Industrial Communities in the West

• The Cold War impacted the West more than other regions.

• New military-industrial communities arose, especially in California, and older communities also benefited form federal spending.

• To accommodate the burgeoning population, new highway systems were built that created housing sprawl, traffic congestion, air pollution and strains on local water supplies.

Zeal for Democracy

• The revitalization of patriotism during World War II continued after the return of peace.

• The American Way became a popular theme of public celebrations and patriotic messages spread through public education.

• Voices of protest arose but had little impact.

Part VIII:

End of the Democratic Era

The “Loss” of China

• In Asia, American foreign policy yielded mixed results. • The United States achieved its greatest Asian

success in Japan where a host of reforms brought an unprecedented degree of democracy and where they received valuable military bases.

• In China, Mao Zedong’s Communist revolution overthrew the corrupt, pro-American regime of Jiang Jeishi.

• The Truman Administration was saddled with the blame for having “lost” China.

The Geography of the Korean War

The Korean War

• When North Koreans attempted a forced reunification of the peninsula, Truman called it an act of Soviet aggression.

• Smarting from McCarthyite attacks, Truman felt compelled to act. • With the Soviets boycotting the UN, the Security Council

authorized sending in troops. • American forces, commanded by Douglas MacArthur, first pushed

North Koreans back to their side of the dividing line and then went further north.

• Chinese troops pushed the UN forces back until a costly stalemate settled in.

The Price of National Security

• Criticized for bypassing Congress, Truman explained that his authority came from NSC-68, a National Security Council position paper that: – consolidated decision making– advocated a massive buildup of military power

• The war left Korea devastated and greatly expanded the containment principle far beyond Europe.

• The military stalemate left many Americans disillusioned with the promise of easy victories.

The Election of 1952

• The Korean War also effectively ruined Truman’s presidency, particularly after he fired General MacArthur.

• After Truman said he would not run for re-election, the Democratic Party turned to Adlai Stevenson who offered no solutions to the key problems.

• Dwight Eisenhower was the Republican candidate and ran a moderate campaign short on specifics.

• His running mate, Richard Nixon, waged a relentless attack on Stevenson.

• Eisenhower effectively used the peace issue, pledging to go to Korea to settle the war.

• Republicans won control of the White House and Congress.

Rules of George Bernard Shaw

Diet (no steak, coffee, or tea) Avoid all vain and unkind criticism of others Keep financial log Devote one evening a week for mediation and examination of conscience Abstain from alcohol Practice some self-denial each day 1/2 hour per day for poetry, spiritual book, writing 1 1/2 hours per week to refresh learning Don't make promises you can't keep Some music for contemplation 1/2 hour yoga or exercise each day