Transcript THE COLD WAR

THE COLD WAR
• Although the Soviet Union and the United
States had been allies during World War II,
their alliance came apart once the war was
ended.
• Three views on the cause of the Cold War:
•  All the fault of the Soviet Union…
•  All the fault of the United States…
•  All of the above
• United States and Soviet
Union had radically different
visions of the post-war world.
• America believed that the
nations of the world should
participate in international
trade and democracy.
– free and open trade necessary
to prevent another Depression
– wanted to "share" concept of
democratic self-determination
with the rest of the world
• . The Soviets were largely concerned
about establishing greater security.
– suffered military and civilian losses of 20
million + during the war
– feared that Germany would regain its strength
and launch another attack
– to ward off another attack and defend its
borders, USSR encouraged friendly regimes
in Eastern Europe
– this denied the United States free access to
markets and the opportunity to export its
vision of democracy
• competition for control created tension
– rebellions in Iran, Turkey and Greece
– Dean Acheson – the “Rotten Apple Theory” of
communist spread
– Later, Americans would rename this same
idea the “Domino Theory
• The Truman Doctrine (1947)
– President Truman asked Congress for $500 million in
aid for Greece and Turkey to put down Communist
uprisings
• “The free peoples of the world look to us for
support in maintaining their freedoms."
– Policy of “containment” to end the spread of
communism
– Later used as a justification for US involvement in
Korea, Vietnam, & other nations
– Critics of the Doctrine wondered:
• When is revolution the self-determination of
a free people and when is it a Communist
aggression orchestrated by the Kremlin?
• The Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift and
NATO
• George Marshall, US Secretary of State, proposed
that providing economic aid to European countries
would help create stability and would resist
Communism
– $13 billion in aid was spent by the US
BERLIN AIRLIFT
•
Soviet Union cut off western links to Berlin, which
was located inside the Soviet-occupied zone
– response to growing American economic and military
power in Europe
•
Truman ordered a massive, year-long airlift of
medical supplies, food and clothing for West
Berliners
– Eventually, the Soviets lifted the blockade
• Soviet Union
sponsored
Communist
revolutions Czechoslovakia,
Romania, and
Hungary (194849)
•
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was
created to defend Western Europe
– An attack on any of member nation was equal
to an attack on all 12 nations
– US provided the primary military and monetary
($) support
Civil War in China
• Communist leader Mao Tse-tung (Zedong)
pushed Nationalist leader Chiang KaiShek out of China to Formosa (aka
Taiwan)
– US recognized the ousted Nationalists’
Republic of China as official, while Chairman
Mao’s Communist People’s Republic of China
held power
• The Cold War Domestic Policy
– the Second Red Scare
• Congress organized the House Un-American
Activities Committee (1938)
• investigations after WWII focused on left-wing
Americans who were accused of being
“Communist sympathizers”
– Hollywood movie-makers were allegedly spreading
communist messages
– Actors, writers, and directors were “blacklisted”
• Alger Hiss, a New Dealer under
Roosevelt, was accused of having spied
for the USSR in the 30s {he was finally
cleared of all charges in 1992
• McCarthyism
– Senator Joseph McCarthy used the anti-communist
mood to further his name in politics
– “Subversives” were accused of communist activity with
no grounding in fact
– Conformity: political and social – it was dangerous to be
different
– When Eisenhower took office in 1952, the climate
changed and the tables turned against McCarthy
• “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At
long last, have you left no sense of
decency