Post WWII:The US & the Cold War

The indirect conflict between the US and the USSR

Review: Tension between Wartime Allies

• Ideological Differences– Capitalism vs. Marxist Socialism– Democracy vs. Communist Dictatorship– Freedom vs. Equality

• A History of Tension– US aid vs. Bolshevik Revolution– US refusal to recognize USSR– Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact– No 2nd Front until 1944– No free elections (Poland, Germany, Korea…)– Armies left in Europe & Asia– US “threatens” use of the bomb

Crisis! Communism in Asia

• Chinese Civil War, 1945-1949

– Nationalist Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi) v. Communist Mao Zedong– US sends billions…– “Taiwan”– US tries to balance loss

of influence in Asia…

• Japan– Under Allied occupation– Rapid economic growth

encouraged…

Crisis! Communism in Europe

Soviet army left to control the “Eastern Bloc”

• USSR “spread” to 15 member countries– Armenia, Azerbaijan,

Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

• “Satellite” Countries• Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Yugoslavia• Hungary (1947), Czechoslovakia (1948), East Germany (1949)

• Drawing of the IRON CURTAIN…

Response! The Truman Doctrine

• Response to Soviet influence in Greece, Turkey

• $400 million to fight communists

• New US Foreign Policy: CONTAINMENT– US must help those resisting

communism– Based on three ideologies:

• Communism was an ideological threat• Communism was indivisible/unified• Communist expansion would cause a “DOMINO EFFECT"

→ Military Containment

Response! The Marshall Plan

• Economic reconstruction of Europe– 16 European Nations join– Soviets forbid E. Europe to join

• Molotov Plan• Why?

– Strong economies thwart communist movements

– Developed Europe won't drain US economy

– Market for American Products– Humanitarianism

• Economic Cooperation Administration 1948– Billions go to Europe 1948-1951– By 1951 European Industrial production ↑ 64%

→ Economic Containment

“Stalin regarded the plan's vision of an integrated European market with freedom of movement, goods, services, information, and, inevitably, people, as incompatible with his economic, political, and foreign-policy goals…. Subsequent Soviet propaganda portrayed the plan as an American plot to subjugate Western Europe.”

Edwin Marcus. "Can He Block It?" ca. 1947

Library of Congress

Crisis! Berlin Blockade

• W. zones of Germany unified• Berlin Blockade, June 1948

– Stalin cut off West Berlin– Hoped US would abandon West Berlin

• Berlin Airlift– 2.5 million tons of materials sent in just over 10 months– Spring 1949 Stalin lifts blockade

→ Military Containment

View from the west side of graffiti art on the wall's infamous "death strip"

Brandenburg Gate between East and West Germany

The Berlin Wall was built August 13, 1961. It split the city (yellow). Around the city was “no man’s land”—barbed wire, barren land, guard towers, trip wires/mines, machine guns & shards of glass.

In 1989 the East German Government shocked the world and allowed the wall to come down.

Crisis! Berlin Wall, 1961

Response! NATO etc.• Berlin Crisis pulls Europe together…• NATO, April 1949

– Armed attack against one was against all 10– NATO = permanent military in Europe– US single biggest supplier

• USSR responds with Warsaw Pact, 1955→ Military & Diplomatic Containment

Crisis! Tensions Escalate

• The Arms Race begins…– September 1949, Soviets explode A-bomb– 1952, US explodes 1st Hydrogen Bomb

• China falls to communism, 1949• National Security Council Report (NSC-68), 1950

– US can’t rely on other nations– US must be the firm leader of Non-Communist World– Defense budget increases 4X

Crisis & Response! The Korean War & the UN• April 1945 – 50 nations create UN charter

– Security Council: 10 rotating + 5 permanent members• US USSR UK FR China

• 1945 Korea Divided–1949 US troops leave SK

• 1950 NK attacks SK– US sends troops; no declaration of war– UN command established (troops from US, Scot,

Eng, Australia, NZ, Can, Neth)– Surprise attack of NK at Inchon by MacArthur

• 1951 Chinese communist forces attack– MacArthur fired by Truman = CONTROVERSIAL

•1952 Peace talks? POWs? Back to 38th II•1953 Cease Fire•Today’s Question: Who started the Korean War?

Response! Stopping Communism at Home

• Atomic Energy Act, 1946 • House Un-American Activities Committee, 1938

– Hearings, 1947

• Federal Employee Loyalty Program, 1947• Selective Service System, 1948• National Security Act, 1947

– Department of Defense– National Security Council – CIA

→ Domestic Containment