THE COLD WAR

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The Cold War Begins:Issues Dividing U.S., U.S.S.R.

• Control of postwar Europe• Economic aid• Nuclear disarmament

The Division of Europe

• 1945--Russians occupy eastern Europe, American troops occupy western Europe

• Soviet Union seeks eastern European buffer

• U.S. demands national self-determination through free elections throughout Europe

• Stalin converts eastern Europe into a system of satellite nations

Europe after World War II

Lend-Lease (Public Law 77-11)

Program under which the US supplied the UK, the Soviet Union, China, France and other Allied nations with vast amounts of war material between 1941 and 1945.

Withholding Economic Aid

• Russia devastated by World War II • Some Americans seek to influence

Russia with Lend-Lease economic aid• 1945—US halts Lend-Lease without

Russian settlement• Leverage lost in shaping Soviet policy

The Baruch Plan

A proposal by the US government to the UN Atomic Energy Commission (UNAEC) in its first meeting in June 1946. The United States, Great Britain and Canada called for an international organization to regulate atomic energy. President Truman asked Undersecretary of State Dean Acheson and David Lilienthal to draw up a plan-later known as the4 Baruch Plan.

The Atomic Dilemma

• 1943--nuclear race between U.S., U.S.S.R.

• 1946--Baruch Plan – rapid reduction of U.S. military force– gradual reduction favors U.S. atomic

monopoly• Soviet Union

– larger conventional army than U.S.– immediate abolition of atomic weapons

Containment

• 1947--George C. Marshall appointed Secretary of State

• Dean Acheson seeks for U.S. England's former role as arbiter of world affairs

• George Kennan calls for “containment of Russia’s expansive tendencies”

The Truman Doctrine

• 1947--Truman seeks funds to keep Greece, Turkey in western sphere of influence

• Truman Doctrine: “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressure”

• Doctrine an informal declaration of cold war against the Soviet Union

The Marshall Plan

• 1947--George Marshall proposes aid for rebuilding European industries

• Russia refuses aid • 1948--Marshall Plan adopted by

Congress• Plan fosters western European

prosperity

Marshall Plan to Aid Europe, 1948-1952

The Western Military Alliance

• 1949--North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)– military alliance includes U.S., Canada,

most of western Europe– U.S. troops stationed in Europe

• NATO intensifies Russia's fear of the West

The Berlin Blockade

• June, 1948--Russians blockade Berlin• Truman orders airlift to supply the city

• 1949--Russians end blockade

• U.S. political victory dramatizes division

The Cold War Expands

• 1947--U.S.-Russian arms race accelerates

• Conflict expands to Asia

The Military Dimension

• 1947--National Security Act – Department of Defense unifies armed forces– Central Intelligence Agency coordinates

intelligence-gathering– National Security Council advises president

• Defense budget devoted to air power• 1949--first Russian atomic bomb

explodes, U.S. begins hydrogen bomb development

The Cold War in Asia

• 1945--U.S. consolidates hold on Japan, former Japanese possessions in Pacific

• 1949--victory of Mao Tse-tung brings China into Soviet orbit

• Truman refuses recognition of Communist China, begins building up Japan

The Korean War

• June25, 1950--Communist North Korean forces invade U.S.-influenced South Korea

• Truman makes South Korea’s defense a U.N. effort, sends in U.S. troops– U.S. routs Korean forces in South– Attempt to unify Korea draws in China– U.S. pushed back to South, war a

stalemate• Result--massive American rearmament

The Korean War, 1950-1953

The Cold War at Home

• New Deal economic policies undermined

• Fears of Communist subversion

• Republicans use anticommunism to revive their party

Truman's Troubles

• Obstacles to Truman’s Fair Deal reforms

– apathetic public– inflation– labor unrest

• 1946--Republicans win Congress

Truman Vindicated

• 1948--Thomas Dewey versus Truman– Truman thought unelectable– Southern Democrats, Northern liberals

desert– Roosevelt coalition reelects Truman on

domestic issues

• Republicans respond by challenging Truman’s handling of the Cold War

The Loyalty Issue

• Fear of Communist subversion• Truman administration conducts

campaign against “subversives”• Democrats blamed for

– "losing" China to Communism – Russia's development of a hydrogen

bomb

McCarthyism in Action

• 1950--Senator Joseph McCarthy launches anticommunist campaign

• Innocent overwhelmed by accusations • Attacks on privileged bureaucrats

– supported by Midwest Republicans – attract Irish, Italian, Polish workers to

Republicans

The Republicans in Power

• 1952--Eisenhower captures White House for Republican Party

• July 27, 1953--stalemate accepted in Korea

• Eisenhower deals passively with McCarthy

• 1954--attack on Army discredits McCarthy who is then censured

Eisenhower Wages the Cold War

• Eisenhower relaxes tensions with Russia

• Eisenhower’s fears– debt imposed by defense spending – possibility of atomic warfare

Entanglement in Indochina

• Eisenhower refuses military aid for French retention of colonial Indochina

• Victory of Communist Ho Chi Minh prompts intervention to prevent election

• Vietnam divided• South Vietnam under U.S. puppet

regime

Containing China

• Tough line against China• Drive wedge between China, Russia• Strategy ultimately works• Effects not immediately apparent

Covert Actions

• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used to achieve covert objectives

• Iran--CIA restores the shah to power• Guatemala--CIA ousts leftist

government• Eastern Europe--refused to help East

Germans or Hungarians

Waging Peace

• October, 1957--Russians launch Sputnik

• October--U.S., U.S.S.R. agree to suspend nuclear testing in the atmosphere

• November--Berlin blockade threatened• May, 1960--U-2 incident

The Continuing Cold War

• January, 1961--Eisenhower warns against growing military-industrial complex

• Post-war era marked by Cold War rather than peace and tranquility