Early Cold War America: A New Role, Irrational Fears, and the Dream 1945 - 1956

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Early Cold War America A New Role, Irrational
Fears, and the Dream1945 - 1956
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President 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)

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Post 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

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The Division of Germany and Berlin
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An iron curtain has descended across the
Continent Churchill
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Trumans 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

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Marshall Plan
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Trumans 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)

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Berlin Airlift

• 4500 tons of supplies/day for 2.2 million
  Berliners
• 1 flight every 3 minutes

Operation Little Vittles
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Peacetime Alliances
NATO (1949) W. Europe, US, Canada An attack on
one an attack on all Warsaw Pact (1955) E.
Europe
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Post 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

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Post 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

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Chinese Civil War
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Mao Zedong, 1949 - 1976
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Post 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

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The Korean War
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The 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

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Domestic 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
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Cold War Fears at Home

• In fighting Communism, did we undermine democracy?

Blacklisting and the Hollywood Ten
The HUAC
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Cold 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

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Cold 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

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McCarthyism
Senator Joseph McCarthy Republican from
Wisconsin
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Cold War Fears (Seemingly) Confirmed
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg 1950 - 1953
Alger Hiss Case 1948 50
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The Election of 1952
Truman CHOSE not to run for a 3rd term
Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower
Democrat Adlai Stevenson (Senator from IL)
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The Election of 1952

• Southern voting patterns ? 1st Republican wins
  since Reconstruction
• Use of TV commercials http//www.youtube.com/watc
  h?v8zB2rqaLXP4

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Eisenhowers 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

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Eisenhowers 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

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Eisenhowers 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

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The Middle East
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Iran 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)

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The 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