The Continuing Cold WarChapter 19, section 4

Setting the Scene

• 2nd Red Scare

• Americans are paranoid that anyone could be a Communist Spy!

• ANYONE!

Pete Seeger

Charlie Chaplin

W.E.B. Dubois

Burgess Meredith

The Cincinnati Reds!?!?

1950 - McCarthy’s List

• 205 known Communists working for the US government– Actually people who

had been investigated under Truman’s Loyalty Programs

• Used this list to catapult himself to fame (he was a nobody rookie senator before this)

• Uses SMEAR TACTICS to intimidate his opponents

• Even Went after George Marshall– “a conspiracy so

immense and an infamy so black as to dwarf any previous venture in the history of man”

1953

• Reelected to the Senate

– Made Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee to investigate Communist influence in the US

• Merely being accused by McCarthy’s committee ruins many careers and reputations

• Many Senators were afraid to stand up to him for fear of being branded a “pinko” (communist sympathizer)

Margaret Chase Smith“Declaration of “Conscience”• “Americanism is … The

right to criticize; The right to hold unpopular beliefs; The right to protest; The right of independent thought. The exercise of these rights should not cost one single American citizen his reputation or his right to a livelihood nor should he be in danger of losing his reputation or livelihood merely because he happens to know someone who holds unpopular beliefs.”

1954 • McCarthy’s aid is drafted into the Army. • McCarthy accuses the army of being “overrun

with Communists”

• Senate Sub-Committee votes to investigate the Army, Democrats ask to televise the hearings

• Americans are shocked to see McCarthy bully and intimidate witnesses

– McCarthy is exposed as a fraud and loses all credibility, and the Senate condemns him.• McCarthy

accuses the Senate of being Communists

Edward R. Murrow Journalist who tried to expose McCarthy as a

fraud on his program “See it Now”

Effects of McCarthyism

• The US went through an extensive period of suppression of free speech and open debate.

• ***IT WAS DANGEROUS TO HAVE A DISSENTING OPINION***

The Cold War in the 1950’s• Many policy makers

in Washington wanted to “roll back” Communism

• Eisenhower knew that open war with the Soviets could be devastating– East Germans

(1954) – Poles (1956) – Hungarians (1956)

• Ends the war in Korea

• Begins sending aid to France who is trying to hold on to on of their colonies, French Indochina

Middle East

• Creation of Israel and Palestine in 1948 are a major cause of tension in the Middle East

• Eisenhower struggles to keep OPEC nations from falling under Communist influence

• Overthrow the temporary Iranian government; reinstate the pro-American Shah of Iran– Eisenhower

Doctrine – Support any country in the Middle East that was attempting to resist the influence of Communism

Latin America

• We (CIA) overthrow the Guatemalan Government that was too radical for our tastes

• We invade Nicaragua and Honduras to help “prop up” two unpopular (but pro-American) leaders

Nuclear Bomb Yields• Kiloton = 1000 tons of TNT• Megaton = 100,000,000 tons of TNT• Little Boy (Hirosima) = 13 Kilotons (390,000,000lbs!)

“Davy Crockett” - .01 to 1 Kiloton

Castle Bravo – 15 Megatons(3,000,000,000,000lbs)

• 1,200 times more powerful than the atomic bombs which were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII

The race heats up…• 1953 – We test our first thermonuclear bomb• 1954 – Soviets test their first thermonuclear bomb• 1954 – We test 19 thermonuclear bombs

TSAR bomb 50 megatons(10,000,000,000,000 lbs)

• Mushroom cloud was 64 miles high• Blast was felt in Finland• Broke glass windows 1000 miles away• Shockwave traveled the Earth 3 times

• The US government believes in a policy of deterrence. We will become so strong, no one will attack us

• Brinksmanship – the ability to go the very edge of open war to achieve political goals

• ICBM’s – since we had much better planes to deliver our bombs, the Soviets began to develop missiles

Sputnik

• 1957 – Soviets use an ICBM to launch Sputnik. Americans realize that they now have the ability to launce a missile at the US from the USSR

U2 spy plane is shot down

• Both Sputnik and the U2 incident show that we are lagging behind the soviets in military research.

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