Chapter 23The United States and the

Cold War, 1945–1953The World Freezes Over

Crash Courses-Cold War• The Cold War: Crash Course US History #37• (Mr. Green, 13m)• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C72ISMF_D0

• The Cold War in Asia: Crash Course US History #38 (Mr. Green, 13m)• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2IcmLkuhG0

• USA vs USSR Fight! The Cold War: Crash Course World History #39 (John Green, 12m)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9HjvHZfCUI

• Cold War Explained: World History Review (Hip Hughes, 11m)• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTk3dFC7t00

I. Origins of the Cold War: The Two Powers

• 1. The United States emerged from World War II as by far the world’s greatest power both militarily and economically.

• The U.S. sought to lead the world in democracy and economic cooperation.MEANWHILE…

• 2. The only power that could in any way rival the United States was the Soviet Union.

• The Soviet Union was determined to set up “spheres of influence” in Eastern Europe.

• Soviet Union had most powerful army in Europe, but was economically much weaker.

I. Origins of the Cold War: The Roots of Containment

1. Many Americans became convinced that Stalin was violating the promise of a free election in Poland agreed to at the Yalta conference of 1945. (Stalin had set up pro-communist governments in Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria.)*

2. The Cold War’s first real event occurred in the Middle East, where Soviet troops occupied parts of northern Iran with rich oil fields.

I. Origins of the Cold War: The Roots of Containment

• 3. The Long Telegram sent from the USSR by U.S. diplomat George Kennan advised the Truman administration that the Soviets could not be dealt with as a normal government, that they were inherently and permanently aggressive.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1xJiSPgs9Y• George F. Kennan's "Long Telegram" (2m)

I. Origins of the Cold War: The Roots of Containment

• 4. In response to Kennan’s telegram, the U.S. determined to resist any further Soviet expansion and embraced a policy of Containment, aka the Truman Doctrine. The U.S., under Truman, and with wide bi-partisan support, determined to lead and defend the free world from the spread of communism.**

I. Origins of the Cold War: The Iron Curtain

• MEANWHILE….In a speech in Missouri, former British prime minister Winston Churchill declared that an “iron curtain” had fallen over Europe, dividing the free West from the communist East. This reinforced emerging beliefs that a long-term struggle between the United States and the Soviets was at hand.

• • Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain speech" regarding USSR and Eastern Bloc,

at Wes...HD Stock Footage (7m)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMt7zCaVOWU

I. Origins of the Cold War: The Truman Doctrine

• In March 1947, Truman announced that the United States was now engaged in a global conflict with the Soviet Union. This new policy came to be called the Truman Doctrine.

• The doctrine of containment was first put into effect in Greece and Turkey when the U.K. could no longer support anti-communist govt’s there.

• Truman believed that communism would expand into these strategically important countries and decided to lead the way in the place of the U.K.

• Congress’s broad bipartisan approval* of military aid to Turkey and Greece rescued these governments and checked Soviet power.

I. Origins of the Cold War: The Truman Doctrine

• Truman’s speech and policy had committed the United States to a permanent responsibility to defend freedom everywhere for all peoples of the world.*

• The Truman administration soon established new “national security” a.k.a. TOP SECRET agencies, such as the National Security Council and Central Intelligence Agency, which were removed from congressional oversight.**

I. Origins of the Cold War: The Marshall Plan

• Other than potential military action, another part of the Truman Doctrine was the Marshall Plan, which pledged the United States to contribute billions of dollars to finance the economic recovery of Europe.

• The overarching motivation behind the plan was to eliminate the poverty that bred sympathy for Communism.

• The Marshall Plan a.k.a “Europe’s New Deal” proved to be one of the most successful foreign aid programs in history. 1950s Europe surpassed pre-war production levels, but...

• Stalin refused $$ assistance for countries in the Soviet sphere of influence.• With 23 other nations, the United States simultaneously created the

General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) to foster more free trade and create larger markets for American goods and investments.

•

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

A page from a Dutch pamphlet promotingthe Marshall Plan.

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

Bales of American cotton in a warehouse at theFrench port of Le Havre, 1949.

I. Origins of the Cold War: The Marshall Plan

• The U.S. also rebuilt Japan and the Japanese economy.• Japan became a bastion of anticommunism in the Far East.• By 1950s economy in full swing.• No need for military because under the protection of the U.S.

atomic umbrella.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJdJzCSMqeg• Reconstruction of Japan after WWII. New Constitution and

implementation of democracy...HD Stock Footage (1m) • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5U9A77PWUY

• (3m)• General Douglas MacArthur urges social reforms in Japan post World

War II and lea...HD Stock Footage

I. Origins of the Cold War: The Berlin Blockade and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

(NATO)

• 1. In 1945 the Soviets cut off road and rail traffic from the American, British, and French zones of occupied Germany to Berlin.

• -an eleven-month Allied airlift followed. Tons of food and supplies dropped from the sky into West Berlin.

• The Berlin Airlift Explained in 5 Minutes: US History Review (Hip Hughes)• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gpYsK90aio

• Berlin Airlift - The Story Of A Great Achievement (1949) (10m)• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nHdB1vJNsg

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

Map 23.1 Cold War Europe, 1956

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

Children in Berlin celebrate the arrival of a planebringing supplies

I. Origins of the Cold War: The Growing Communist Challenge

• An escalation of the Cold War began in 1949 when 1- the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb. (Thanks to U.S. spies working for the USSR) and…

• 2-Communists won the Civil War in China in 1949, under Mao Zedong

• The U.S. gov’t was greatly alarmed by both events, so…• NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was formed by

the West in response, and pledged each other to mutual defense against any future Soviet attack.

– Soviet Union responded by forming the Warsaw Pact

I. Origins of the Cold War: The Growing Communist Challenge

In the wake of these events, the National Security Council approved a call for a permanent military buildup to enable the United States to pursue a global crusade against communism.The document expressing this new policy, called NSC-68, depicted the Cold War as an epochal conflict between “the idea of freedom” and the “slavery” of the Soviets that would determine whether the “free world” survived. NSC-68 spurred monumental increases in military spending.

The Cold War - National Security Options: NSC-68 (4m) (MSLAW)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSAwXg9oRhQ

I. Origins of the Cold War: The Korean War

• 1. In 1945, at the end of WW2, Korea was split into Soviet and American zones. These became two governments: a communist North Korea, and the anti-communist and undemocratic South Korea, aligned with America.

• In June 1950, the North Korean army invaded the south, hoping to reunify the country under communist control.

• President Harry S. Truman on the Communist threat to Asia• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuLHJzDINP8 (2m)

I. Origins of the Cold War: The Korean War

• 2. The U.N. authorized military action and American troops did the bulk of the fighting on this first battlefield of the Cold War. (First “Hot War” of the Cold War)

– General Douglas MacArthur /“ The Savior of Japan” encouraged the use of nukes against China, which was supporting the North Koreans; he also wanted to invade China using American troops.

– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOVTaKkcGkM– Japan Hails General MacArthur's 70th Birthday (1950) (1m)

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

A photograph of a street battle in Seoul

I. Origins of the Cold War: The Korean War

-General MacArthur’s refusal to recognize the president’s civilian control of the military led to his dismissal. The war devolved into a stalemate, and in 1953, an armistice left the two prewar nations intact without any formal peace treaty.

–https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdrVeQIErFw–Battleground - Famous Generals - Army General Douglas MacArthur World War II (28m)

• General Douglas MacArthur delivers a farewell address at a Joint meeting of Congress...HD Stock Footage

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAXwfAH3DUQ (3m)

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

Map 23.2 The Korean War, 1950-1953

I. Origins of the Cold War: The Korean War

3. Korea made it clear that the Cold War, which began in Europe, had become a global conflict.

•4.Taken together, the events of 1947-1953 showed that the world had been divided in two. The “East” and the “West;” “capitalist” and “communist;” “free” and “unfree.”

•5. More than 33,000 Americans, 1 million Korean soldiers, 2 million civilians, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops died. •North Korea And The Demilitarized Zone (4m)•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGzcxG2gBIE•Inside North Korea (46m)•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxLBywKrTf4

The Truman Presidency: The Fair Deal

• 1. Truman’s first domestic task was to preside over the transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy:

• -rapid demobilization• -War time regulatory agencies abolished• --sharp rise in prices; skyrocketing inflation

• 2. He moved to revive the stalled momentum of the New Deal with a program he eventually called the “Fair Deal,” which would improve the social safety net and raise living standards.

• Increase minimum wage, national health insurance, public housing, social security, education

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awexw30G8fM (1m)• Really bad Harry “The Buck Stops Here” Truman Rap

The Truman Presidency: The Postwar Strike Wave

• 1. The AFL and CIO launched Operation Dixie, a campaign to bring unionization to the South.

• 2. In 1946 nearly 5 million workers went on strike (steelworkers, autoworkers, railroad workers, Hollywood actors)

• 3. President Truman feared the strikes would seriously disrupt the economy; striking coal miners ordered back to work or face arrest

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTGdo6hRyDg (1m)• U.S. Strike Wave, 1946

The Truman Presidency: The Republican Resurgence

• 1. Republicans swept to control in both houses of Congress in 1946.

• Why? –American middle class alarmed over workers’ strikes/voted Republican– Labor (Unions) disappointed w/ Truman/did not vote

Democratic

• 2. Congress rejected Truman’s Fair Deal program. – Taft-Hartley Act (significant anti-union law); organized

labor slowly declined; authorized president to suspend strikes (or face arrest)

– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMm6IZfe8Io (3m)– APUSH Review: The Taft Hartley Act

The Truman Presidency: Postwar Civil Rights

• 1. A Commission on Civil Rights appointed by the president issued To Secure These Rights.– -it called on the federal government to abolish segregation and

discrimination. Under Truman’s presidency: anti-lynching measures passed, NAACP registered southern voters.

• 2. 1948, Truman desegregated the military by executive order. Overnight, completely changed military culture

• 3. Desegregation in sports gained momentum after the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 added Jackie Robinson to their team.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MT7jEz3kOU (6m)• Jackie Robinson Tribute - Baseball Hall of Fame

The Truman Presidency: The Dixiecrat and Wallace Revolts

• 1. “Dixiecrats” formed the States’ Rights Democratic Party. (Southern Democrats who rejected civil rights at the Democratic Convention, in 1948)– Strom Thurmond (governor of South Carolina); called for “complete

segregation of the races”

2. A group of left-wing critics of Truman’s foreign policy formed the Progressive Party.

- Henry Wallace-proposed expanding the welfare state and denounced segregation even more than Truman. Advocated trading with the Soviet union and for international controls on nuclear weapons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbU0lXeJbi4Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrat Days: Newsreel (1m)

The Truman Presidency: The 1948 Campaign• 1. Truman’s main political opponent was the colorless

Republican, Thomas A. Dewey

• 2. Truman’s success represented one of the greatest upsets in American political history. “Dewey Defeats Truman”. Won an overwhelming victory in the electoral college.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVkt9E6nQlM (4m)• APUSH Review: The Election of 1948

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

Map 23.3 The Presidential Election of 1948

The Anticommunist Crusade

-Cold War America was a society that was permanently fearful and militarized. The Military-Industrial Complex forged by World War II persisted and expanded.-Large and active federal government that spent billions on weapons and overseas bases.-Vast Cold War spending fostered rapid economic growth and technological innovation in medicine, computers, and aircraft.-Immigration policy changed to favor refugees from Communist countries around the world: China, the U.S.S.R.—If you could get out, you could get in to the U.S.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtYEisenhower warns us of the military industrial complex. (2m)

The Anticommunist Crusade

• 1. The Cold War encouraged a culture of secrecy and dishonesty

• 2. At precisely the moment when the United States celebrated freedom as the foundation of American life, the right to dissent came under attack.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4yjAb6eoCw (10m)• Communism: A 1952 Anti Soviet Propaganda Short Film From The Cold

War Era

The Anticommunist Crusade: Loyalty and Disloyalty

• 1. Those who could be linked to communism were enemies of freedom. Truman’s loyalty review system ( 1947) in which federal employees had to prove their devotion to America. 100s lost jobs or resigned rather than be investigated.

• 2. House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings against Hollywood began in 1947.Hollywood Ten went to jail for contempt. Blacklisted, as well as 100s others who refused to testify.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IavxgMZA-0 (15m)• Hip Hughes on The Red Scare

The Anticommunist Crusade: The Spy Trials• 1. HUAC investigated Alger Hiss; found guilty of giving secrets

to Soviets and jailed.• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmIITOahKVM (5m)• Alger Hiss testifies before the House Committee on Un- American

Activities in Was...HD Stock Footage • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sgom1snPaQ (5m) red Scare and

HUAC

• 2. The Rosenbergs were convicted of spying and passing atomic secrets to Soviets; and executed in 1953.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY8Ie02qWpI (1h 38m)• Forum on the Rosenberg case • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atI8PgOkQF0 (7m)• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Execution/

The Anticommunist Crusade: McCarthy and McCarthyism• 1. Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy announced in 1950

that he had a list of 205 communists working for the State Department.

• 2.McCarthy’s downfall came with nationally televised Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954 (accused U.S. army of being filled with Communists.)

• 5-Star general and Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower, president in 1954. Shut down McCarthy and McCarthyism.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix5OScqjpRo (10M) (Hip Hughes)• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sgom1snPaQ (5m)• (Red Scare and HUAC [House Un-American Activities Committee])• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1eA5bUzVjA (4m)• "Have you no sense of Decency Sir?" - Welch-McCarthy

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

Senator Joseph R.Mc Carthy at the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954.

The Anticommunist Crusade: An Atmosphere of Fear• 1. Anticommunism was as much a local as a national phenomenon• -States created committees to ferret out alleged communists, and state

and local authorities required loyalty oaths of teachers, pharmacists, and other professionals.

• - Private groups like the American Legion and the National Association of Manufacturers also targeted individuals for their political beliefs.

• 2. Local anticommunist groups forced public libraries to remove “un-American” books from their shelves. “Robin Hood” an example. Universities refused to host left-wing speakers and fired teachers who would not take loyalty oaths.

• 3. The courts did nothing to halt the political repression and defended the imprisonment of communists for their beliefs.– Dennis v United States : Batman Style (1m)– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQop92Y15kQ

Give Me Liberty!: An American history, 3rd EditionCopyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company

The Cold War led to widespread fears

The Anticommunist Crusade: The Use of Anticommunism

• 1. Government agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, led by J. Edgar Hoover, used anti-communism to increase their power.

• 2. Anticommunism also served as a weapon wielded by individuals and groups in battles unrelated to defending the U.S. against subversion. E.g. McCarthy and other anti-communist leaders seemed to criticize the legacy of Roosevelt and the New Deal more than Stalin and Communism.

• 3. The anticommunist crusade promoted a new definition of loyalty—conformity and any criticism of the status quo now appeared subversive. Business used anti-communism against unions, white supremacists used it against black civil rights.

–https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUbBx6vjMHI–Inside J. Edgar Hoover's FBI: Secrets, Myths, History, Investigations, Career, Director (1995) (57m)

The Anticommunist Crusade: Anticommunist Politics

• 1-The McCarran Internal Security Bill of 1950 (Anti-communist legislation, which required “subversive” groups to register w/ the gov’t). Vetoed by Truman; passed by Congress over Truman’s veto.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvfU5C8GxrU (2m)• The McCarran Act and the Efforts of Senator Joseph McCarthy

• 2. The McCarran-Walter Act of 1952. Also passed over Truman’s veto. Kept quotas based on national origins in place. Authorized deportation of communists even if they had become citizens.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUF7MDnlJCM (1m)• 1952: The McCarran-Walter Immigration Act

• 3-Operation Wetback-1954-Employed the military to invade Mexican-American neighborhoods and deport illegal aliens. 1 million Mexicans deported within a year.

The Anticommunist Crusade: The Cold War Civil Rights and Organized Labor

• 1. Every political and social organization had to cooperate with the anticommunist crusade or face destruction. NAACP purged communists from local branches.

– Organized labor rid itself of its left-wing officials and emerged as a major supporter of the foreign policy of the Cold War

Mini-bio on Harry S. Truman

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8zA432hiJg (3m)

Stalin “One of the Worst Criminals in World History.”

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcCJ2kcLpSk• Stalin in Colour - HD Documentary (2013) (49m)

Mao's Great Famine/Great Leap Forward,

History of China

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-woaDniFQc (52m)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXMMzL5THPk• Chairman Mao Documentary - The Cultural Revolution -

Destruction Of China (45m)