Transcript James L. Roark * Michael P. Johnson Patricia Cline Cohen * Sarah

James L. Roark ● Michael P. Johnson
Patricia Cline Cohen ● Sarah Stage
Susan M. Hartmann
The American Promise
A History of the United States
Fifth Edition
CHAPTER 26
Cold War Politics in the Truman
Years,
1945-1953
Copyright © 2012 by Bedford/St. Martin's
I. From the Grand Alliance to Containment
A. The Cold War Begins
1. An antagonistic relationship
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Western Allies’ delay in opening a second front in Western Europe aroused Soviet
suspicions during the war; Soviet leader Joseph Stalin wanted to make Germany pay for
the rebuilding of the Soviet economy, to expand Soviet influence in the world, and to
have friendly governments on the Soviet Union’s borders in Eastern Europe; in contrast,
the United States emerged from the war with a vastly expanded productive capacity and
a monopoly on atomic weapons, making it the most powerful nation on the planet.
2. Spreading capitalism
3. Avoiding appeasement
4. The future of Eastern Europe
Stalin considered U.S. officials hypocritical for demanding democratic elections in
Eastern Europe while supporting dictatorships friendly to U.S. interests in Latin American
countries; the Allies issued sharp protests but failed to prevent the Soviet Union from
establishing satellite countries throughout Eastern Europe.
5. The future of Germany
1946, wartime Allies also contended over Germany’s future; U.S. policymakers wanted industrial
revival there to promote European recovery, while the Soviet Union wanted Germany weak militarily
and economically; resulted in the division of Germany.
6. The iron curtain
March 1946, Truman, with Winston Churchill, traveled to Fulton, Missouri, where the
former prime minister denounced Soviet suppression of the popular will in Eastern and
central Europe and famously declared that an “iron curtain” had descended across the
continent.
7. Containment
1946, career diplomat George F. Kennan wrote a comprehensive rationale for a foreign
policy of containment—the idea that Soviet expansion could be checked “in the face of
superior force;” not all public figures accepted the toughening line, but those who
criticized the administration’s policy met stiff resistance from Truman’s cabinet.
I. From the Grand Alliance to Containment
B. The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan
1. The domino theory
• the domino theory, Truman warned that if Greece fell into the hands of leftist
rebels, “confusion and disorder” would spread throughout the entire Middle East
and eventually would threaten Europe.
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2. The Truman Doctrine
the United States would not only resist Soviet military power but also “support free
peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside
pressures”; would aid any kind of government if the only alternative appeared to
be communism.
3. The Marshall Plan
Congress authorized aid for Greece and Turkey and later followed with a much
larger assistance program for Europe; in March 1948, Congress approved the
European Recovery Program, which came to be known as the Marshall Plan; over
the next five years, the United States spent $13 billion to restore the economies of
sixteen Western European nations; invited the Soviet Union to participate, but, as
the United States expected, the Soviets declined.
4. Opportunities for American investment
5. The Berlin airlift
February 1948, the Soviets staged a brutal coup against the government of
Czechoslovakia, installing a Communist regime; then staged a blockade of Berlin;
the United States circumvented the blockade by airlifting goods to West Berliners
for nearly a year; Berlin was divided into East Berlin, under Soviet control, and
West Berlin, which became part of West Germany; the Soviet abandonment of the
blockade lent credence to the containment policy.
I. From the Grand Alliance to Containment
C. Building a National Security State
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1. Developing atomic weapons
after learning that the Soviets had successfully detonated an atomic bomb, thus
ending the U.S. monopoly on nuclear weapons, Truman approved development of
an even deadlier weapon, a hydrogen bomb; the Soviets soon followed with their
own hydrogen bomb; from the 1950s to the 1980s, deterrence formed the basis of
American nuclear strategy; created an ever-escalating arms race.
2. Strengthening traditional military power
second component of U.S. defense strategy was to beef up its conventional
military power; formed the National Security Council to advise the president;
united military branches under a single secretary of defense; enacted a peacetime
draft; made women’s military branches permanent; increased defense
expenditures.
3. Forging military alliances with other nations
in 1949, the United States joined its first peacetime military alliance, the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); pledged to go to war if one of its allies was
attacked.
4. Strengthening friendly countries
1949 Congress approved $1 billion of military aid to its NATO allies, and the
government began economic assistance to nations in other parts of the world.
5. Establishing a secret spy network to subvert communist expansion
government improved espionage capabilities; created the Central Intelligence
Agency to gather intelligence and perform sabotage, propaganda, and other antiCommunist activities; would topple legitimate foreign governments and violate the
rights of U.S. citizens.
6. Capturing hearts and minds
I. From the Grand Alliance to Containment
D. Superpower Rivalry around the Globe
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1. National liberation movements
United States promoted the idea of self-determination, granted independence to
the Philippines, and encouraged European nations to withdraw from their Asian and
African empires; at the same time, both the United States and the USSR strived to
cultivate relationships with emerging nations’ governments that were friendly to
their own interests.
2. Adopting communist ideas
3. Chinese civil war
Communists led by Mao Zedong fought the corrupt and incompetent official
Nationalist government under Chiang Kai-shek; after providing almost $3 billion in
aid to the Nationalists, Truman’s advisers believed that further aid would prove
fruitless given the ineptness of Chiang’s government; in October 1949, Mao
established the People’s Republic of China; formed a mutual defense treaty with the
Soviet Union in order to guard against an American-supported invasion.
4. Japan
China in turmoil, the administration reconsidered its plans for postwar Japan; by
1948, U.S. policy had shifted from decentralizing Japan’s economy to a focus on
reindustrializing it; now an economic hub within the American orbit.
5. Palestine
Truman committed U.S. support to the new state of Israel despite his
administration experts’ insistence that American-Arab friendship was critical to
protect against Soviet influence in the Middle East and to secure access to Arabian
oil.
II. Truman and the Fair Deal at Home
A. Reconverting to a Peacetime Economy
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1. Sustaining wartime prosperity
Truman asked Congress to enact a twenty-one-point program of social and
economic reforms; Congress approved only one of Truman’s key proposals—fullemployment legislation—and even that was watered down.
2. Inflation
turned out to be the most severe problem in the early postwar years; shortages
and consumer demand drove up prices until industry could convert fully to civilian
production.
3. Labor relations
unions sought to preserve wartime gains with the weapon they had set aside
during the war—the strike; 5 million workers went on strike in 1946; although most
Americans approved of unions in principle, they became fed up with strikes, blamed
unions for rising prices and shortages of consumer goods, and called for more
government restrictions on organized labor.
4. Women workers
8 to 85 percent of women wanted to keep their wartime jobs, but most who
remained in the workforce had to settle for relatively low-paying jobs in light
industry or the service sector.
5. A stabilized economy
6. The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act
GI Bill was the only large welfare measure passed after the New Deal; offered 16
million veterans job training and education; unemployment; and low-interest loans;
sparked a boom in higher education; but the GI Bill discriminated against women
because they filled just a small number of military spots; discriminated against
blacks because the funds were administered at the state and local levels.
II. Truman and the Fair Deal at Home
B. Blacks and Mexican Americans Push for Their Civil Rights
1. A renewed determination to combat racial injustices
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veterans as well as civilians resolved that the return to peace would not be a return to
the racial injustices of prewar America; in the postwar years, individual African
Americans broke through the color barrier, achieving several “firsts”; in most respects,
however, little had changed, especially in the South where violence greeted African
Americans’ attempts to assert their rights.
2. America’s racist reputation
Cold War heightened American leaders’ sensitivity to racial issues, as the United
States and Soviet Union competed for the allegiance of newly independent nations
with nonwhite populations; the United States was concerned that segregation and
discrimination damaged its reputation in the third world.
3. Truman’s civil rights program
Truman acted more boldly on civil rights than any previous president, thus
appealing more to northern black and liberal voters; created the President’s
Commission on Civil Rights and became the first president to address the NAACP.
4. Lack of implementation
president failed to follow up aggressively on his bold words that all Americans
should have equal rights to housing, education, employment, and the ballot; but he
did desegregate the armed forces in 1950; Truman broke sharply with the past and
used his office to set a moral agenda for the nation’s longest unfulfilled promise.
5. Mexican Americans
routine segregation of children in the public schools, and they too raised their
voices after World War II; formed the American GI Forum to battle discrimination
against Latinos.
II. Truman and the Fair Deal at Home
C. The Fair Deal Flounders
1. The Republicans take Congress
2. Targeting organized labor
3. The election of 1948
4. The failure of the Fair Deal
II. Truman and the Fair Deal at Home
D. The Domestic Chill: McCarthyism
1. The second Red Scare
2. Joseph McCarthy
3. Revelations of espionage
4. Identifying communists
5. The Smith Act
6. Beyond Washington
III. The Cold War Becomes Hot:
Korea
A. Korea and the Military Implementation of Containment
1. Korea divided
2. North invades South
3. Committing troops
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ruman assumed that the Soviet Union and/or China had instigated the attack; obtained UN
sponsorship of a collective effort to repel the attacks; named Douglas MacArthur as
commander of UN force; sixteen nations, including many NATO allies, sent troops to Korea,
but the United States furnished most of the personnel and weapons, deploying almost 1.8
million troops and dictating military strategy. By mid-October, UN forces had pushed the
North Koreans back to the thirty-eighth parallel; the United States was faced with the
momentous decision of whether to invade North Korea and seek to unify the country.
B. From Containment to Rollback to Containment
1. Crossing the thirty-eighth parallel
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with UN approval, U.S. forces moved beyond the thirty-eighth parallel; MacArthur sent UN
forces to within forty miles of China, disregarding Truman’s orders; 300,000 Chinese
soldiers crossed the Yalu River and helped the North Koreans recapture Seoul by December
1950.
2. MacArthur relieved
three months, UN forces fought their way back to the thirty-eighth parallel; Truman favored
a negotiated settlement, but General Douglas MacArthur, commander of the UN forces,
challenged this plan; MacArthur took his case to the public; fed up with MacArthur’s
insubordination, Truman fired him in April 1951; but many people sided with MacArthur,
reflecting American frustration with containment.
III. The Cold War Becomes Hot:
Korea
C. Korea, Communism, and the 1952 Election
1. Eisenhower for president
2. The “Checkers speech” saves Nixon
3. Republican victory
D. An Armistice and the War’s Costs
1. The war ends
2. A success for containment
3. NSC 68
4. U.S. involvement in Asia