Transcript The Cold War - Montgomery County Public Schools

THE COLD WAR
A Clash of Interests
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After World War II, the U. S. and the Soviet Union became
hostile
-U.S.S.R. (Union of Soviet Socialists Republic)
-became known as the Cold War (from 1946 until 1992)
-War of words; no actual fighting
-Never an actually declared war
-est. a border of Soviet friendly nations on the western
side
-acted as a “buffer zone”
-became the Soviet Block
(Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, East Germany,
Czechoslovakia)
-Winston Churchill declared that an “Iron Curtain” had
descended upon the east
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UNITED NATIONS
-The first organization to keep world peace failed terribly;
what was it and why did it fail?
-This time the U.S. would be in it
-1945 delegates from 50 nations gathered in San Francisco to
dev a charter and rules for the new U.N.
(see handout)
-charter went into effect June 26, 19454
The Potsdam Conference
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Potsdam, 1945: Churchill, Truman, Stalin met to decide
what to do with Germany
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split it up into 4 zones with the US, Br, Fr, and USSR each
one
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East Germany & West Germany
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Also split the city of Berlin up
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Also agreed to let Poland have free elections
Containing Communism
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Truman did not trust the Soviets
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Feared that communism would spread
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He proposed a long-term containment of Soviet
expansion
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policy of containment–keeping communism within its
present territory through diplomatic, economic, and military
actions.
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The 1st test of containment came in 1947
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Gr. Br. told US they could no longer help Greece and Turkey
rebuild
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On March 12, 1947, Truman went before Congress to
request $400 million to fight Soviet aggression in Greece
and Turkey.
**The policy became known as the Truman Doctrine.
It became the United States' pledge to stop communism in the
world.
The Marshall Plan
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Postwar Western Europe faced economic ruin and
starving people.
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In June 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall
proposed the Marshall Plan
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Program of econ. recovery after WWII financed by the
US; helped Europe and Japan
-USSR was offered but declined
$17 billion over a 5 year period to 16 nations was
given
Berlin Airlift
One of the countries helped was West Germany (combined
zones of the Br., Fr., and US)
-June 18, 1948 W.G. was to get a new currency
-Soviets did not like this idea; said Germany should be
treated as one country or they could use the Soviet
currency
• Western leaders reminded USSR that they had no place
in W.B.
• June 23 USSR announced that their currency would
begin in Soviet section and all of Berlin
• Also blocked highways & R.R., cut off electricity, food, &
fuel to 2 million people in W.B.
• USSR leaders were hoping to force Western leaders to
give up and let them have all of Germany
• Truman refused to be forced out
• He launched 50 C-54 and 80 C-47 planes to fly supplies in
(milk, potatoes, blankets, etc)
• 11 months this continued (every 3 minutes a plan would
land delivering 2400 lbs of supplies each day)
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By April 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO), a mutual defense alliance, was created with
initially twelve countries joining.
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US & 11 other countries
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HQ: Brussels, Belgium
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The members agreed to come to the aid of any
member who was attacked.
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Soviet leaders responded with the organization of a
military alliance in Eastern Europe known as the
Warsaw Pact.
The Cold War Spreads to East Asia
• The Cold War spread to Asia: Revolution in Asia
• Two leaders tried to control it:
-Chiang Kai-shek (dem. { Nationalist})
-Mao Tse-tung (communist)
-1920’s Nationalist Party promised to rid China of foreign
influence
-but once in office they forgot their promises
• Communism grew
• Truman decided to help Chiang by sending $3 billion to
Chiang
• Chiang still cont to ignore the prob
• January 1949 Chiang was forced to flee Beijing and
eventually left for Taiwan in Dec.
• Oct. 1949 Mao declared the People’s Republic of China
The Korean War (1950 – 1953)
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After WWII Korea was divided at the 38th Parallel
-North Korea (NK) became comm.
{influence by China and USSR}
-South Korea (SK) became dem.
{influenced by US, Britain}
-June 25, 1950 NK invaded SK in order to unify the
country
• Truman decided that this was a true test of containment
• June 27, w/o Congr. Approval, he sent both air and naval
troops led by Douglas MacArthur
• UN Security Council also sent troops
• 1st time the US directly fought a communist country
• NK fought hard and cont to push south
• MacArthur used a strategy – he invaded behind enemy
lines at Inchon,
• cutting off supplies below the line and pushing the NK
back past the 38th
• Having come this far, he felt he could take all of NK
• By fall, pushed well into NK and by Nov. pushed them
past the Yalu River near China
• Now, Truman asked to meet w/ MacArthur to whether
China would get involved
• MacArthur said very little
• Shortly after, Mao did make a warning for MacArthur not
to cross over into China
• MacArthur ignored the warning and went ahead anyway
• Nov. 26, 1950, Mao sent 250,000 Chinese soldiers to push
MacArthur back past the 38th
• A stalemate then occurred
• Meanwhile, a split occurred between Truman and Mac.
• Truman wanted to settle for the 38th
• Mac. felt he could win if used the atomic bomb
• Truman was afraid to use a-bomb because USSR also had
one (1949)
• Mac publicly opposed Truman and in April 1951 Truman
fired him; replaced him w/ Matthew Ridgeway
• Fighting cont until 1953 when
(1) Stalin died and was replace w/ Nikita Khrushchev
(2) Dwight Eisenhower elected US President
• Eisenhower told the Chinese that we would bomb
Manchuria and remove the US fleet to allow Taiwanese to
invade China
• Middle 1953 both sides = armistice
-created new boundary:
38th Parallel
-created a demilitarized zone (DMZ)
a neutral land 2.5 miles wide to be a buffer zone to keep
the peace
• US wanted an organization in southeast Asia to keep a
check on the spread of communism
• Sept. 1, 1954 – formed the Southeast Asia Treaty
Organization (SEATO)
• – US, GB, Fr, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines,
Thailand, and Pakistan
A New Red Scare
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rumors and accusations of Communists in the United
States led to fears that Communists were attempting to
take over the world.
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(The 2nd Red Scare) subversion–an effort to secretly
weaken a society and overthrow its government.
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1930’s the House est the House Un-American Activities
Committee to investigate the influence of communism
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FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover went to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) to urge them to
hold public hearings on Communist subversion.
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In 1948 Time magazine editor Whittaker Chambers
testified before the HUAC that several government officials
were also Communists or spies;
-Rep. Richard Nixon included
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The most well-known among these was lawyer and
diplomat Alger Hiss.
• Hiss had served in Roosevelt’s administration, attended
the Yalta conference, and helped with the organization of
the UN.
• FBI investigated him but found nothing; Hiss denied
everything
• Chambers continued to insist that he was a communist
spy
• Hiss denied the charges, but he was convicted of
committing perjury, or lying under oath.
• “Pumpkin Papers”
• With the investigation going badly, Chambers told Nixon
he should search Hiss’ home in Maryland
• There, in a pumpkin, they found microfilm of secret State
Dept documents typed on Hiss’ own typewriter
• The search for spies intensified when the Soviet Union
produced an atomic bomb.
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Klaus Fuchs, a British scientist, admitted giving
information to the Soviet Union.
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This led to the arrest of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a
couple who were members of the Communist Party and
were charged with heading a Soviet spy ring.
-Although many believed the Rosenbergs were not guilty, the
couple was executed in June 1953.
• Many of Truman’s critics claimed that he was soft on
communism
• To prove them wrong he passed
– (1) Federal Employee Loyalty Program to evaluate the
loyalty of govt employees
– (2) McCarran Act which did not directly outlaw
communism just the activities which might lead to
creating a communist govt
“A Conspiracy So Immense”
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Americans continued to believe that Communists were
inside the government.
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Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, in a political speech,
stated that he had a list of 205 Communists in the
state department
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(the # changed every time he gave a speech)
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His investigations, through the senate, turned into a
witch hunt as he searched for disloyalty based on poor
evidence and fear.
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He ruined reputations without proper evidence.
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This tactic became known as McCarthyism.
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In 1954 the televised Army-McCarthy hearings and saw
how McCarthy attacked witnesses, and his popularity
faded.
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Finally, an army lawyer named Joseph Welch stood up
to McCarthy.
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the Senate passed a vote of censure, or formal
disapproval, against McCarthy.
Eisenhower’s “New Look” (cont.)
• Eisenhower felt the way to win the Cold
War was through a strong military and a
strong economy.
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Eisenhower believed a conventional war would be too
expensive and would hurt the economy.
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He believed the use of atomic weapons was necessary.
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Eisenhower felt the United States needed a “New Look” in
its defense policy.
(pages 675–677)
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Eisenhower’s “New Look”
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Eisenhower wanted to prevent war from happening in the
first place.
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A policy called massive retaliation was used to threaten the
use of nuclear weapons on any Communist state that tried
to gain territory through force.
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This resulted in a cut in military spending and an increase
in America’s nuclear arsenal.
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New technology brought the B-52 bomber, which could fly
across continents and drop nuclear bombs anywhere in
the world.
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Intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarines
capable of launching nuclear missiles were also
created.
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Americans discovered that the Soviets had developed
their own nuclear missiles.
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On October 4, 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik, the
first artificial satellite to orbit the earth.
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The Americans felt they were falling behind in missile
technology.
Eisenhower’s “New Look” (cont.)
• The next year, Congress created the
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) and also
passed the National Defense
Education Act (NDEA).
(pages 675–677)
Brinkmanship In Action
• President Eisenhower’s willingness to
threaten nuclear war to maintain peace
worried some people.
• Critics argued that brinkmanship, the
willingness to go to war to force the
other side to back down, was too
dangerous.
(pages 677–679)
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Brinkmanship In Action (cont.)
• The Korean War ended with the signing
of an armistice in 1953.
• This came after Eisenhower had gone to
the brink and threatened to use nuclear
weapons.
• The battle line became the border
between North Korea and South Korea.
• Although there was no victory, it had
stopped communism from spreading.
(pages 677–679)
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Brinkmanship In Action (cont.)
• In 1954 China threatened to take over
two of the islands from the Nationalists
in Taiwan.
• Eisenhower threatened the use of nuclear
weapons if China tried to invade Taiwan.
• China retreated.
(pages 677–679)
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Brinkmanship In Action (cont.)
• Eisenhower wanted to prevent Arab
nations in the Middle East from aligning
with the Soviet Union.
• To gain support, the United States offered
to help finance the construction of a dam
on the Nile River for Egypt.
• Congress forced the United States to
withdraw the offer.
• Egyptians took control of the Suez Canal
to use its profits to pay for the dam.
(pages 677–679)
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Brinkmanship In Action (cont.)
• British and French troops responded by
invading the Suez Canal.
• Soviets threatened rocket attacks on
Britain and France.
• Eisenhower put American nuclear
forces on alert, and through strong
American pressure the British and
French called off their invasion.
(pages 677–679)
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Fighting Communism Covertly
• Brinkmanship would not work in all
situations, and it could not prevent
Communists from revolting within
countries.
• To prevent this, Eisenhower used
covert, or hidden, operations
conducted by the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA).
(pages 679–680)
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Fighting Communism Covertly (cont.)
• Covert operations did not always work.
• After Stalin died, Nikita Khrushchev
became the new leader of the Soviet
Union in 1956.
• He delivered a secret speech to Soviet
leaders, which the CIA broadcast to
Eastern Europe.
• Eastern Europeans, frustrated by
Communist rule, staged riots, and a fullscale uprising took place in Hungary.
(pages 679–680)
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