Title: Early Cold War America: A New Role, Irrational Fears, and the Dream 1945 - 1956
1Early Cold War America A New Role, Irrational
Fears, and the Dream1945 - 1956
2President Harry S. Truman, 1945 - 1952
- Decisive The buck stops here.
- A-Bomb
- Berlin Crisis
- Civil Rights
- Firing of MacArthur
- Growth of presidential power (FDR Nixon)
3Post World War II European Politics
- Atlantic Charter (1941) and Yalta Conference
(1945) ? US hoped for a Wilsonian peace - End of US isolationism
- US world leader
- United Nations involvement vs. League of Nations
in 1919 - Division of Europe
- Germany and Berlin ? divided into 4 sectors
- East Europe Communist (Soviet satellite states)
- West Europe Democracies
4The Division of Germany and Berlin
5An iron curtain has descended across the
Continent Churchill
6Trumans Foreign Policy
- Europe 1 priority
- Containment (1947 George F. Kennan)
- Limit the spread and influence of Communism
- No more total victory or unconditional
surrender - Truman Doctrine March 1947
- 400 million in aid to Turkey and Greece
- US military and economic aid to nations that were
threatened by Communism - Marshall Plan June 1947
- Massive international aid to rebuild Europe
- Total of 13 billion
7Marshall Plan
8Trumans First Major Cold War Test
- Crisis in Berlin (March 1948)
- Soviet reaction to unification of W. Germany ?
blockade W. Berlin - We are very close to war. Trumans diary
- Trumans options
- The choiceBerlin Airlift (June 1948 May 1949)
9Berlin Airlift
- 4500 tons of supplies/day for 2.2 million
Berliners - 1 flight every 3 minutes
Operation Little Vittles
10Peacetime Alliances
NATO (1949) W. Europe, US, Canada An attack on
one an attack on all Warsaw Pact (1955) E.
Europe
11Post WWII Asia
- Firmly in US sphere of influence
- Japan
- US occupied with US written Constitution ?
democracy and capitalistic - All imperial holdings lost
- Philippines
- Independent in 1946
12Post World War II Asia
- 1949 A year of uncertainty
- Containment tested China
- Civil war resumed after WWII
- Chiang Kai-Shek US backed Nationalists
- Mao Zedong Communists
- Communists won in 1949 and Nationalists fled to
Taiwan ? Trumans commitment to containment
questioned - Formal alliance with USSR in 1950 no US
recognition for 30 years
13Chinese Civil War
14Mao Zedong, 1949 - 1976
15Post WWII Asia Korean War, 1950 - 1953
- The Cold War turns hot
- Causes
- Pre WWII Japanese occupation ? post WWII divided
Korea between US and USSR - 38th Parallel
- North Korea Communist Kim Il Sung
- South Korea Democratic Syngman Rhee
- Ongoing civil war both leaders want to unite
Korea, but under different ideals - June 1950 Stalin backs N. Korean plan to invade
S. Korea
16The Korean War
17The Korean War
- Legacy
- The Forgotten War why?
- Active US involvement in Asia (Vietnam)
- Permanently divided Korea
- Tense US/China relations
- Fading domestic support for US military action
- Rise of UN
- Growth of presidential power
- No formal declaration of war police action
- Firing of MacArthur
18Domestic Politics 1948 Election
1. Civil Rights divided the Democratic Party ?
Dixiecrats
3. Continuation of New Deal ? Fair Deal
2. A stunning upset Truman over Dewey
19Cold War Fears at Home
- In fighting Communism, did we undermine democracy?
Blacklisting and the Hollywood Ten
The HUAC
20Cold War Fears at Home
- Fear of Communism nothing new
- Anti-Labor Union sentiment (Haymarket Affair
1886), Red Scare of 1920s, Liberals/Dems.
Communists - Federal Employee Loyalty Program (1947 - 1951)
under Truman - Background checks
- Violated 6th Amendment rights
- HUAC congressional
- committee formed to
- investigate suspected
- Communists
21Cold War Fears at Home
- HUAC Target Hollywood
- Movies power of public opinion/propaganda
- Naming names ? blacklisting of over 300
- Hollywood Ten (1947)
- Violations of 1st and 5th Amendment rights ? no
testimony - Jailed and fined for contempt of Congress
22McCarthyism
Senator Joseph McCarthy Republican from
Wisconsin
23Cold War Fears (Seemingly) Confirmed
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg 1950 - 1953
Alger Hiss Case 1948 50
24The Election of 1952
Truman CHOSE not to run for a 3rd term
Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower
Democrat Adlai Stevenson (Senator from IL)
25The Election of 1952
- Southern voting patterns ? 1st Republican wins
since Reconstruction - Use of TV commercials http//www.youtube.com/watc
h?v8zB2rqaLXP4
26Eisenhowers Presidency, 1953 - 1961
- First Republican president since 1932 ? cut
budget deficits and spending, BUT maintained
basic New Deal programs - Korean War armistice
- Represented traditional American values
democracy, freedom, prosperity, family - Stalin died in 1953 replaced by Nikita
Khrushchev
27Eisenhowers Foreign Policy
- Containment ? Brinkmanship
- Containment unnecessarily defensive and
complacent ? US needs to be more assertive - Brinkmanship (Sec. of State John Foster Dulles)
- Take the nation to the brink of war if needed to
stop Communism - Gamble Would the aggressor back down before war
broke out? - Nuclear weapons the deterring threat ?
heightened arms race and mutually assured
destruction policy ? no incentive to go to war
28Eisenhowers Foreign Policy
- CIA (1947) and Covert Operations
- Battle for influence in 3rd World Nations
- Instability ? appeal of Communism
- Covert operations used to support anti-Comm.
governments even if they were ruthless and
undemocratic lesser of two evils philosophy - Ex Iran and the Middle East
- Eisenhower Doctrine US will provide aid to
Middle Eastern nations to defeat Communist
rebellions
29The Middle East
30Iran and the Cold War Key Points
- Motivation OIL
- Azerbaijan Crisis 1946-47
- Iranian Coup (1953)
- Pro-British, Pro-Western Shah Mohammed Reza
Pahlevi - Popularly elected PM Mohammed Mossadegh
nationalized Irans oil industry ? threatened
British economy and empire - US concerned that Mossadegh would sell oil to
USSR Mossadegh supported by Iranian Comm. Party - Joint US and British operation to overthrow
Mossadegh and reinstate the shah (US and arms)
in August 1953 - Legacies
- Anti-US sentiment in Iran
- 1979 Iranian Revolution (overthrow Shah by
Islamic fundamentalists) and Iranian Hostage
Crisis - US lost Iran as a cold war ally in the region
- Iran-Iraq war (1980 1988)
31The Space Race and U-2 Incident
- October 1957 USSR launch Sputnik ? Americans
fear they are losing to Soviets - Response NASA and National Defense Education Act
(emphasize science and math) - U-2 Incident (1960) American spy plane shot down
and pilot taken captive by Soviets