from the grand alliance to containment cold war politics and truman
TRANSCRIPT
From the Grand Alliance to ContainmentCold War Politics and Truman
Marshall Plan“European Recovery Plan”, US spent $13 billion to restore the economies of 16 Western European nations [which in turn helped the US economy]
• Soviet Union did not participate because it objected to free enterprise
General George C. Marshall, Secty of State
“Iron Curtain”• Term coined by Winston Churchill in 1946• “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron
curtain has descended across the Continent.”
Containment• The foreign policy of the US to hold in check the power and
influence of the Soviet Union and others espousing communism.
• The strategy first articulated by diplomat George F. Kennan in 1946-47.
• Kennan believed that Stalin exaggerated foreign press to maintain power in his own country, because it was increasingly politically and economically unstable
• Kennan predicted that The Soviet Union would only retreat from expansionist efforts “in the face of superior force.” [containment]
Truman containment policy had six-pronged defense strategy:
1. Development of atomic weapons2. Strengthen traditional military power3. Military alliances with other nations4. Military and economic aid to friendly nations5. An espionage network and secret means to
subvert Soviet expansion6. a propaganda offensive to win popular
admiration for the US around the world.
Truman Doctrine• Truman’s claim that American security depended on stopping
any Communist government from taking over any non-communist government, anywhere in the world. This approach became the cornerstone of American foreign policy during the Cold War.
What was the Cold War?• Cold War: the hostile and tense relationship between the
Soviet Union and the US (and other Western nations) from 1947 until 1989
• “cold” because it stopped short of armed conflict, warded off by the strategy of Nuclear Deterrence
Deterrence• the strategy of the US that it would maintain a nuclear arsenal
so substantial that the Soviet Union would refrain from attacking the US and its allies out of fear that the US would retaliate in devastating proportions. The Soviets pursued a similar strategy.
Superpower Rivalry Around the Globe
• “third world” a term referring to about forty countries which had won independence but were not in the Western (first) world, nor the Soviet (second) world.
• 1949, communists under Mao Zedong took China, chasing Nationalists under Chang Kai-shek to Tiawan
• People’s Republic of China under Mao signed a treaty with Soviets
Rivalry, cont’• Japan rebuilt with American dollars, sides with US• State of Israel established in Palestine, endorsed by US
Election 1948
Truman and the Fair Deal at Home
• Reconverting to a Peacetime Economy • Blacks and Mexican Americans Push for Their Civil Rights • The Fair Deal Flounders • The Domestic Chill: McCarthyism
Second “Red Scare”• “Red Scare” happens after a war• After the collapse of the Soviet-American alliance• Suspicions of espionage• “red baiting” = attempts to discredit people by associating
them with communism
House Un-American Activities Committee
The Cold War Becomes Hot: Korea
•A Military Implementation of Containment • First time Americans go to battle for
containment•A militarization of American foreign
policy
Korean War
Costs of the War
• Total civilians killed/wounded: 2.5 million South Korea: 990,968• 373,599 killed• 229,625 wounded• 387,744 abducted/missing• North Korea: 1,550,000• US: 36,000 killed, 100,000 wounded
US and USSR
US and USSR
• Stalin died in 1953• New Soviet premier is
Nikita Khrushchev• Eisenhower and
Khrushchev meet in 1955 in Geneva, the first time leaders from these two countries have met since WWII
Nuclear Arms Race and Space Race
Nuclear Arms Race• 1957, Soviets tested ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) • Fears emerged that the US was lagging behind the Soviets • Signed the National Defense Act (student loan and
scholarships for math science).• Civil Defense Administration recommended home bomb
shelters
Space Race• 1957, Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to circle the earth• The American first satellite was dubbed “Flopnik” because it
exploded• 1958, Eisenhower established National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA)
“Brinksmanship” and “MAD” • Secty of State John Foster Dulles, America’s willingness to go
to the “brink” of war as a threat• “MAD” Mutually assured destruction = nuclear stand-off
1959 “kitchen debate” Nixon and Khrushchev• Nixon: “ to make things
easier for our women.”• Khrushchev: we do not
have the “capitalist attitude toward women.”
Cold War had created a warfare state • “military-industrial complex”• A term coined by Eisenhower in his farewell address• the power and influence of the military and defense contractors
who now controlled the economy• nearly one of every three California workers held a defense-
related job.• one in every ten American jobs depended on defense spending
Consequences of the Cold War• Shifted priorities of the federal government from
domestic to foreign affairs• Increased the power of the president• Defense contracts encouraged economic
population booms in the West and Southwest• The Nuclear Arms races consumed dollars and
resources, skewed the economy toward dependence on military projects• Anti-communist hysteria which stifled debate,
politically or socially