Transcript The United States After WWII

Post – WWII
Foreign Policy
1945 - 1960
Cleaning up the
Mess
What happened after the
War??
Where do we begin??
 In
your opinion what were the
biggest foreign policy concerns
for the US immediately after
WWII?
What happens to Germany after
WWII?
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Potsdam Conference – the 1st time Truman meets w/
Churchill and Stalin (July-August 1945)
Agree on joint occupation of Germany
West = British, French & USA.This was the
industrialized sector
East = USSR, poorer more rural sector
Joint administration of Berlin which lies in the USSR
controlled East
POTSDAM
The Significance of Potsdam
“There are moments when the drama of
our times seems to focus on a single
scene. The meeting at Potsdam is one
of these moments”
-Truman, by David McCullough
Nuremberg Trials
German war crime
trials
 International
military trial
 12 Nazi leaders
were executed, 7
were jailed
 Many escaped or
hid their identities
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Robert Jackson (USA) – Lead
Prosecutor
Victor's Justice?
Some of the potential criticisms of the trial are:
 The Nuremberg judges came from the same four countries as
the prosecutors: the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet
Union, and France, which together had formed
the International Military Tribunal. The defense attorneys, in
contrast, were all Germans.
 The Allied countries had committed some of the very acts that
the defendants were accused of committing, such as bombing
civilians.
 The defendants were accused of committing crimes that were
not legally defined as crimes at the time they were committed,
such as waging aggressive war.
 Under the rules of the court, defendants were responsible for
the acts they committed even if they were just following
orders.
A Survivor Speaks
“For months, for years we had one wish
only: the wish that some of us would
escape alive, in order to tell the world
what the Nazi convict prisons were like.
There was the systematic…..urge to use
human beings as slaves and to kill them
when they could work no more”
- Marie Vaillant
What happens to Japan after
WWII?
USA occupied Japan from 1945 – 1952
 Douglas MacArthur, his staff, and a
new Japanese Congress ran the
country
 1947 – new Japanese Constitution, set
up a democracy and abolished the
army and navy
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Trials in Tokyo
1946 MacArthur sets up Military
Tribunal
 20 Japanese military leaders
 5/1946 – 11/1948
 Hideki Tojo and 7 other were executed
 Set precedent holding people
responsible for “war crimes”
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MacArthur and Hirohito
Tojo Takes the Stand at Trial
Eleanor lends a hand in
creating the “Declaration of
Human Rights”
How do we prevent another
world conflict?
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The United Nations
10/24/1945 – It’s
official
50 Nations
Established the General
Assembly & Security
Council, 5 permanent
members
Headquarters – NYC
Eleanor Roosevelt was
on the US’s first
delegates to the UN
The UN Charter
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WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS
DETERMINED:
to save succeeding generations from the scourge of
war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to
mankind, and
to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity
and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men
and women and of nations large and small, and
to establish conditions under which justice and respect for
the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of
international law can be maintained, and
to promote social progress and better standards of life in
larger freedom
Harry Signs the Charter
UN Headquarters in NYC
THE ICJ – The Hague,
Netherlands
Ban Ki-Moon
The Founding of Israel
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Zionism – movement seeking a Jewish
homeland (1900s)
After WWII many Jews moved to Palestine in
instead of back to Europe
Both the Torah and Quran claim this as “holy
land”
Area was Ottoman controlled for 500 yrs until
1919
Palestine was controlled by the UK since 1919
The UN & Israel
The UN ruled that 2 states would be
created out of Palestine, one
controlled by the Jews and one Arab
controlled
 This was rejected by the Arab states =
1948 Arab-Israeli War
 1949 official boundaries established
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Arab – Israeli conflict cont.
Arab countries that attacked Israel in
1948 were: Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria
and Jordan along with Palestinian forces
 US Diplomat Ralph Bunche convinced
both sides to accept the 1949 armistice
 A permanent determination on the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip is yet to
be negotiated
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Ban Ki-Moon 1/2009
“I believe a massive and united
international effort is required to help
Palestinians achieve statehood and
Israel and Palestine to live side by side
in peace and security. I am more
determined than ever to see this
achieved.”