Origins of the Cold War - Mr. Quamme Beloit Memorial High...

602 CHAPTER 18

One American's Story

Origins of the Cold War

Seventy miles south of Berlin, Joseph Polowsky and apatrol of American soldiers were scouting for signs of theSoviet army advancing from the east. As the soldiersneared the Elbe River, they saw lilacs in bloom. Polowskylater said the sight of the flowers filled them with joy.

Across the Elbe, the Americans spotted Soviet soldiers, who signaled for them to cross over. When theAmericans reached the opposite bank, their joy turnedto shock. They saw to their horror that the bank wascovered with dead civilians, victims of bombing raids.

A PERSONAL VOICE JOSEPH POLOWSKY

“ Here we are, tremendously exhilarated, and there’s asea of dead. . . . [The platoon leader] was much moved. . . . He said,‘Joe, let’s make a resolution with these Russians here and also theones on the bank: this would be an important day in the lives of thetwo countries.’ . . . It was a solemn moment. There were tears in theeyes of most of us. . . . We embraced. We swore never to forget.”

—quoted in The Good War

The Soviet and U.S. soldiers believed that their encounter would serve as asymbol of peace. Unfortunately, such hopes were soon dashed. After World WarII, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as rival superpowers, eachstrong enough to greatly influence world events.

Former Allies ClashThe United States and the Soviet Union had very different ambitions for thefuture. These differences created a climate of icy tension that plunged the twocountries into a bitter rivalry.

Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

•United Nations (UN)•satellite nation•containment•iron curtain•Cold War•Truman Doctrine

•Marshall Plan•Berlin airlift•North AtlanticTreaty Organization(NATO)

The United States and theSoviet Union emerged fromWorld War II as two“superpowers” with vastlydifferent political andeconomic systems.

After World War II, differencesbetween the United States and the Soviet Union led to aCold War that lasted almost tothe 21st century.

▼

American and Sovietsoldiers meet (top)at the Elbe River inGermany near the endof World War II. A 1996postage stamp (above)commemorates thehistoric meeting.

602-608-Chapter 18 10/21/02 5:39 PM Page 602 Page 1 of 7Page 1 of 7

Image not available for use on CD-ROM. Please refer to the image in the textbook.

A

Under Soviet communism,the state controlled all propertyand economic activity, while inthe capitalistic American system,private citizens controlled almostall economic activity. In theAmerican system, voting by thepeople elected a president and acongress from competing politi-cal parties; in the Soviet Union,the Communist Party estab-lished a totalitarian governmentwith no opposing parties.

The United States was furi-ous that Joseph Stalin—theleader of the Soviet Union—hadbeen an ally of Hitler for a time.Stalin had supported the Alliesonly after Hitler invaded theSoviet Union in June 1941. Insome ways, the Americans andSoviets became more suspiciousof each other during the war.Stalin resented the WesternAllies’ delay in attacking theGermans in Europe. Such anattack, he thought, would drawpart of the German army awayfrom the Soviet Union. Relationsworsened after Stalin learnedthat the United States had keptits development of the atomicbomb secret.

THE UNITED NATIONS In spiteof these problems, hopes forworld peace were high at the endof the war. The most visible sym-bol of these hopes was the United Nations (UN). On April 25, 1945, the repre-sentatives of 50 nations met in San Francisco to establish this new peacekeepingbody. After two months of debate, on June 26, 1945, the delegates signed thecharter establishing the UN.

Ironically, even though the UN was intended to promote peace, it soon becamean arena in which the two superpowers competed. Both the United States and theSoviet Union used the UN as a forum to spread their influence over others.

TRUMAN BECOMES PRESIDENT For the United States, the key figure in theearly years of conflict with the Soviets was President Harry S. Truman. On April12, 1945, Truman had suddenly become president when Franklin Roosevelt died.This former Missouri senator had been picked as Roosevelt’s running mate in1944. He had served as vice-president for just a few months before Roosevelt’sdeath. During his term as vice-president, Truman had not been included in toppolicy decisions. He had not even known that the United States was developingan atomic bomb. Many Americans doubted Truman’s ability to serve as president.But Truman was honest and had a willingness to make tough decisions—qualitiesthat he would need desperately during his presidency.

Cold War Conflicts 603

BackgroundSee communismon page R39 andcapitalism onpage R38 in theEconomicsHandbook.

KEY PLAYERSKEY PLAYERS

A. AnswerDifferent political andeconomic systems; SovietUnion had beenan ally ofGermany; Stalinresented Allies’delay in attack-ing Germans inEurope.

HARRY S. TRUMAN1884–1972

Harry S. Truman, the son of aMissouri livestock trader andhis wife, did not seem des-tined for greatness. When hegraduated from high school in1901, he drifted from job tojob. After WWI, he invested ina men’s clothing store, butthe business failed.

Discouraged by his busi-ness failure, Truman sought acareer in politics. As a politi-cian, his blunt and outspokenstyle won both loyal friendsand bitter enemies. As presi-dent, his decisiveness andwillingness to accept respon-sibility for his decisions (“TheBuck Stops Here” read a signon his desk) earned himrespect that has grown overthe years.

JOSEPH STALIN1879–1953

As a young revolutionary, IosifVissarionovich Dzhugashvilitook the name Stalin, whichmeans "man of steel" inRussian.

His father was a failed shoe-maker and an alcoholic. Hismother helped support thefamily as a washerwoman.

Stalin is credited with turn-ing the Soviet Union into aworld power but at a terriblecost to its citizens. He ruledwith terror and brutality andsaw “enemies” everywhere,even among friends and sup-porters. He subdued the pop-ulation with the use of secretpolice and labor camps, andhe is believed to have beenresponsible for the murder ofmillions of Soviets.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

AnalyzingCauses

What causedthe tensionbetween theSoviet Union andthe United Statesafter the war?


B

THE POTSDAM CONFERENCE Truman’s test as a diplomat came in July 1945when the Big Three—the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union—metat the final wartime conference at Potsdam near Berlin. The countries that partici-pated were the same ones that had been present at Yalta in February 1945. Stalinstill represented the Soviet Union. Clement Attlee replaced Churchill as Britain’srepresentative mid-conference, because Churchill’s party lost a general election.And Harry Truman took Roosevelt’s place.

At Yalta, Stalin had promised Roosevelt that he would allow free elections—that is, a vote by secret ballot in a multiparty system—in Poland and other partsof Eastern Europe that the Soviets occupied at the end of the war. By July 1945,however, it was clear that Stalin would not keep this promise. The Soviets pre-vented free elections in Poland and banned democratic parties.

Tension MountsStalin’s refusal to allow free elections in Poland convinced Truman that U.S. andSoviet aims were deeply at odds. Truman’s goal in demanding free elections wasto spread democracy to nations that had been under Nazi rule. He wanted to cre-ate a new world order in which all nations had the right of self-determination.

BARGAINING AT POTSDAM At the Yalta conference, the Soviets had wanted totake reparations from Germany to help repay Soviet wartime losses. Now, atPotsdam, Truman objected to that. After hard bargaining, it was agreed that theSoviets, British, Americans, and French would take reparations mainly from theirown occupation zones.

Truman also felt that the United States had a large economic stake in spread-ing democracy and free trade across the globe. U.S. industry boomed during thewar, making the United States the economic leader of the world. To continuegrowing, American businesses wanted access to raw materials in Eastern Europe,and they wanted to be able to sell goods to Eastern European countries.

SOVIETS TIGHTEN THEIR GRIP ON EASTERN EUROPE The Soviet Unionhad also emerged from the war as a nation of enormous economic and militarystrength. However, unlike the United States, the Soviet Union had suffered heavydevastation on its own soil. Soviet deaths from the war have been estimated at 20million, half of whom were civilians. As a result, the Soviets felt justified in theirclaim to Eastern Europe. By dominating this region, the Soviets felt they couldstop future invasions from the west.

604 CHAPTER 18

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B

AnalyzingCauses

What didStalin do to makePresident Trumandistrust him?

B. AnswerStalin would notallow free elec-tions in EasternEurope.

U.S. Aims Versus Soviet Aims in Europe

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Charts1. Which aims involved economic growth of the United States?2. Which Soviet aims involved self-protection?

SkillbuilderAnswers1. Gainingaccess to rawmaterials andmarkets;rebuildingEuropean governments.2. ControllingEastern Europe;keepingGermany divided andweak.

The United States wanted to . . . The Soviets wanted to . . .

• Create a new world order in which all nationshad the right of self-determination

• Gain access to raw materials and markets forits industries

• Rebuild European governments to ensurestability and to create new markets forAmerican goods

• Reunite Germany, believing that Europe wouldbe more secure if Germany were productive

• Encourage communism in other countries as part of the worldwide struggle between workers and thewealthy

• Rebuild its war-ravaged economy using EasternEurope’s industrial equipment and raw materials

• Control Eastern Europe to balance U.S. influence inWestern Europe

• Keep Germany divided and weak so that it wouldnever again threaten the Soviet Union


C

Stalin installed communist governments in Albania, Bulgaria,Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Poland. These countries became knownas satellite nations, countries dominated by the Soviet Union. In early 1946,Stalin gave a speech announcing that communism and capitalism were incom-patible—and that another war was inevitable.

UNITED STATES ESTABLISHES A POLICY OF CONTAINMENT Faced withthe Soviet threat, American officials decided it was time, in Truman’s words, tostop “babying the Soviets.” In February 1946, George F. Kennan, an Americandiplomat in Moscow, proposed a policy of containment. By containment hemeant taking measures to prevent any extension of communist rule to othercountries. This policy began to guide the Truman administration’s foreign policy.

Europe was now divided into two political regions, a mostly democraticWestern Europe and a communist Eastern Europe. In March 1946, WinstonChurchill traveled to the United States and gave a speech that describedthe situation in Europe.

A PERSONAL VOICE WINSTON CHURCHILL

“ A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Alliedvictory. . . . From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an ironcurtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all thecapitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. . . . Allthese famous cities and the populations around them lie in . . . the Sovietsphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influ-ence but to a very high and . . . increasing measure of control from Moscow.”

—“Iron Curtain” speech in Fulton, Missouri

The phrase “iron curtain” came to stand for the division of Europe. WhenStalin heard about the speech, he declared in no uncertain terms that Churchill’swords were a “call to war.”


60°N

45°N

0°

30°E

ATLANTICOCEAN

Adriatic Sea

Baltic

Sea

NorthSea

M e d i t e r r a n e a n S e a

FRANCE

GREECETURKEY

ALBANIA

ITALYBULGARIA

YUGOSLAVIA

SWITZ.ROMANIA

HUNGARYAUSTRIA

BELG.

LUX.WEST

GERMANY

EASTGERMANY

NETH.POLAND

SOVIETUNION

DENMARK

FINLANDNORWAYSWEDEN

PORTUGAL SPAIN

GREATBRITAIN

IRELAND

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

N

S

EWCommunist nations

0 250 500 kilometers

0 250 500 miles

The Iron CurtainGEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER1. Location Which communist nations were located

between the Soviet Union and the iron curtain?2. Human-Environment Interaction Why did

the Soviet Union want to control these nations?

Winston Churchill,Prime Minister of Great Britain

North Sea

FrenchZone

FrenchZone

BritishZone

AmericanZone

Berlin

WESTGERMANY

EASTGERMANY


0 150 300 miles

Postwar Germany, 1949

The Iron Curtain, 1949

C. AnswerTo stop thespread of Sovietinfluence.

SkillbuilderAnswers1. Bulgaria,Romania,Poland, Albania,Hungary,Yugoslavia,Czechoslovakia,East Germany.2. To protect theSoviet Unionfrom invasion onits eastern front,especially byGermany.

Spree R.Havel

R. EastBerlin

WestBerlin

FrenchZone

British Zone

AmericanZone

0 6 12 kilometers

0 6 12 miles

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

C

AnalyzingMotives

What wereTruman’s goals in establishing the policy ofcontainment?


Cold War in EuropeThe conflicting U.S. and Soviet aims in Eastern Europe led to the Cold War, aconflict between the United States and the Soviet Union in which neither nationdirectly confronted the other on the battlefield. The Cold War would dominateglobal affairs—and U.S. foreign policy—from 1945 until the breakup of the SovietUnion in 1991.

THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE The United States first tried to contain Soviet influ-ence in Greece and Turkey. Britain was sending economic and military support toboth nations to prevent communist takeovers. However, Britain’s economy hadbeen badly hurt by the war, and the formerly wealthy nation could no longerafford to give aid. It asked the United States to take over the responsibility.

President Truman accepted the challenge. On March 12, 1947, Truman askedCongress for $400 million in economic and military aid for Greece and Turkey. Ina statement that became known as the Truman Doctrine, he declared that “itmust be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resistingattempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” Congress

agreed with Truman and decided thatthe doctrine was essential to keepingSoviet influence from spreading.Between 1947 and 1950, the UnitedStates sent $400 million in aid toTurkey and Greece, greatly reducingthe danger of communist takeover inthose nations.

THE MARSHALL PLAN Like post-war Greece, Western Europe was inchaos. Most of its factories had beenbombed or looted. Millions of peoplewere living in refugee camps whileEuropean governments tried to figureout where to resettle them. To makematters worse, the winter of 1946–1947 was the bitterest in several cen-turies. The weather severely damagedcrops and froze rivers, cutting offwater transportation and causing afuel shortage.

In June 1947, Secretary of StateGeorge Marshall proposed that theUnited States provide aid to allEuropean nations that needed it, say-ing that this move was directed “notagainst any country or doctrine butagainst hunger, poverty, desperation,and chaos.”

The Marshall Plan revivedEuropean hopes. Over the next fouryears, 16 countries received some $13billion in aid. By 1952, Western Europewas flourishing, and the Communistparty had lost much of its appeal to voters.

606 CHAPTER 18

Vocabularysubjugation:bringing undercontrol

BackgroundThe Marshall Planalso benefited theUnited States. Tosupply Europewith goods,American farmsand factoriesraised productionlevels. As a result,the Americaneconomycontinued itswartime boom.

The Marshall Plan

Source: Problemes Economiques, No. 306

Great Britain

France

Italy

West Germany

Holland

Austria

Belgium/Lux.

Greece

Denmark

Norway

Turkey

Ireland

Sweden

Portugal

Yugoslavia

Iceland

Other

U.S. Aid (in millions of dollars)

2,826

2,445

1,316

1,297

877

561

547

515

350

257

237

153

146

119

51

33

29

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Graphs1. Which two countries received the most aid?2. Why do you think these countries received so much aid?

SkillbuilderAnswers1. Great Britainand France. 2. They hadbeen thestaunchest U.S. allies.


D

Superpowers Struggle over GermanyAs Europe began to get back on its feet, the United States and its allies clashedwith the Soviet Union over the issue of German reunification. At the end of WorldWar II, Germany was divided into four zones occupied by the United States, GreatBritain, and France in the west and the Soviet Union in the east. In 1948, Britain,France, and the United States decided to combine their three zones into onenation. The western part of Berlin, which had been occupied by the French,British, and Americans, was surrounded by Soviet-occupied territory. (See map,page 605.)

Although the three nations had a legal right to unify their zones, they had nowritten agreement with the Soviets guaranteeing free access to Berlin by road orrail. Stalin saw this loophole as an opportunity. If he moved quickly, he might beable to take over the part of Berlin held by the three Western powers. In June1948, Stalin closed all highway and rail routes into West Berlin. As a result, nofood or fuel could reach that part of the city. The 2.1 million residents of the cityhad only enough food to last for approximately five weeks.

THE BERLIN AIRLIFT The resulting situation was dire. In an attempt to breakthe blockade, American and British officials started the Berlin airlift to fly foodand supplies into West Berlin. For 327 days, planes took off and landed every fewminutes, around the clock. In 277,000 flights, they brought in 2.3 million tons ofsupplies—everything from food, fuel, and medicine to Christmas presents thatthe planes’ crews bought with their own money.

West Berlin survived because of the airlift. In addition, the mission to aidBerlin boosted American prestige around the world. By May 1949, the SovietUnion realized it was beaten and lifted the blockade.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D

AnalyzingEffects

What were theeffects of theBerlin airlift?

D. AnswerIt broke theSoviet blockade,increasedAmerican prestige, andreduced Sovietprestige.

Beginning in June 1948, planes bringing tons offood and other supplies to West Berlin landedevery few minutes.▼


In the same month, the western part of Germany officially became a newnation, the Federal Republic of Germany, also called West Germany. It includedWest Berlin. A few months later, from its occupation zone, the Soviet Union creat-ed the German Democratic Republic, called East Germany. It included East Berlin.

THE NATO ALLIANCE The Berlinblockade increased Western Europeanfear of Soviet aggression. As a result,ten Western European nations—Belgium, Denmark, France, GreatBritain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg,the Netherlands, Norway, andPortugal—joined with the UnitedStates and Canada on April 4, 1949, toform a defensive military alliancecalled the North Atlantic TreatyOrganization (NATO). (See map,page 624.) The 12 members of NATOpledged military support to oneanother in case any member wasattacked. For the first time in its histo-ry, the United States had entered intoa military alliance with other nationsduring peacetime. The Cold War hadended any hope of a return to U.S.isolationism. Greece and Turkey joinedNATO in 1952, and West Germanyjoined in 1955. By then, NATO kept astanding military force of more than500,000 troops as well as thousands ofplanes, tanks, and other equipment.

608 CHAPTER 18

•United Nations (UN)•satellite nation•containment

•iron curtain•Cold War•Truman Doctrine

•Marshall Plan•Berlin airlift

•North Atlantic TreatyOrganization (NATO)

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

MAIN IDEA2. TAKING NOTES

Use a graphic organizer like the onebelow to describe the U.S. actionsand the Soviet actions thatcontributed most to the Cold War.

Write a paragraph explaining whichcountry was more responsible andwhy you think so.

CRITICAL THINKING3. EVALUATING LEADERSHIP

People who had served as aides toPresident Franklin Roosevelt worriedthat Truman was not qualified tohandle world leadership. Consideringwhat you learned in this section,evaluate Truman as a world leader.Think About:

• his behavior toward Stalin• his economic support of

European nations• his support of West Berlin

4. MAKING INFERENCESWhich of the two superpowers doyou think was more successful inachieving its aims during the period1945–1949? Support your answerby referring to historical events.

5. ANALYZING MOTIVESWhat were Stalin’s motives insupporting Communist governmentsin Eastern Europe?

U.S. Actions SovietActions

▼

This cartoon depicts the nations that signed the North Atlantic Pact,which created NATO in 1949. The nations, shown as hats, are arrangedin a pyramid to show the bigger countries on the bottom supporting thesmaller, weaker nations on top.



First Lieutenant Philip Day, Jr., vividly remembers his first taste of battle in Korea.On the morning of July 5, 1950, Philip Day spotted a column of eight enemytanks moving toward his company.

A PERSONAL VOICE PHILIP DAY, JR.

“ I was with a 75-mm recoilless-rifle team.‘Let’s see,’ I shouted, ‘if we can get one ofthose tanks.’ We picked up the gun andmoved it to where we could get a clean shot.I don’t know if we were poorly trained, . . .but we set the gun on the forward slope ofthe hill. When we fired, the recoilless blastblew a hole in the hill which instantly cov-ered us in mud and dirt. . . . When we wereready again, we moved the gun to a betterposition and began banging away. I swear wehad some hits, but the tanks never sloweddown. . . . In a little less than two hours, 30North Korean tanks rolled through the posi-tion we were supposed to block as if we had-n’t been there.”

—quoted in The Korean War: Pusan to Chosin

Only five years after World War II ended, the United States became embroiledin a war in Korea. The policy of containment had led the United States into bat-tle to halt communist expansion. In this conflict, however, the enemy was notthe Soviet Union, but North Korea and China.

China Becomes a Communist CountryFor two decades, Chinese Communists had struggled against the nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek (chBngP kFPshDkP). The United States supportedChiang. Between 1945 and 1949, the American government sent the Nationalistsapproximately $3 billion in aid.


The Cold War Heats UpTerms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

•Chiang Kai-shek •Mao Zedong•Taiwan

•38th parallel•Korean War

After World War II, Chinabecame a communist nationand Korea was split into acommunist north and ademocratic south.

Ongoing tensions with China andNorth Korea continue to involvethe United States.

▼

American soldiersfire mortars atcommuniststrongholds nearMundung-ni inKorea.


A

Many Americans were impressed by Chiang Kai-shek and admired thecourage and determination that the Chinese Nationalists showed in resisting theJapanese during the war. However, U.S. officials who dealt with Chiang held a dif-ferent view. They found his government inefficient and hopelessly corrupt.

Furthermore, the policies of Chiang’s government undermined Nationalistsupport. For example, the Nationalists collected a grain tax from farmers evenduring the famine of 1944. When city dwellers demonstrated against a 10,000percent increase in the price of rice, Chiang’s secret police opened fire on them.

In contrast, the Communists, led by Mao Zedong (mouPdzOPdJngP), gainedstrength throughout the country. In the areas they controlled, Communistsworked to win peasant support. They encouraged peasants to learn to read, andthey helped to improve food production. As a result, more and more recruitsflocked to the Communists’ Red Army. By 1945, much of northern China wasunder communist control.

RENEWED CIVIL WAR As soon as the defeated Japanese left China at the endof World War II, cooperation between the Nationalists and the Communistsceased. Civil war erupted again between the two groups. In spite of the problemsin the Nationalist regime, American policy favored the Nationalists because theyopposed communism.

From 1944 to 1947, the United States played peacemaker between the twogroups while still supporting the Nationalists. However, U.S. officials repeatedlyfailed to negotiate peace. Truman refused to commit American soldiers to back upthe nationalists, although the United States did send $2 billion worth of militaryequipment and supplies.

The aid wasn’t enough to save the Nationalists, whose weak military leader-ship and corrupt, abusive practices drove the peasants to the Communist side. InMay 1949, Chiang and the remnants of his demoralized government fled to theisland of Taiwan, which Westerners called Formosa. After more than 20 years ofstruggle, the Communists ruled all of mainland China. They established a newgovernment, the People’s Republic of China, which the United States refused toaccept as China’s true government.

610 CHAPTER 18

A. AnswerThe Nationalistswere corruptand non-supportive ofthe peasants.The Communistshad strong leadership, and they worked towin peasantsupport.

Nationalists Versus Communists, 1945

NationalistsLeader: Chiang Kai-shek

CommunistsLeader: Mao Zedong

• Ruled in southern and eastern China • Relied heavily on aid from United States• Struggled with inflation and a failing economy• Suffered from weak leadership and poor morale

• Ruled in northern China• Relied heavily on financial aid from Soviet Union• Attracted peasants with promises of land reform• Benefited from experienced guerrilla army and a

highly motivated leadership

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

AnalyzingCauses

What factorsled to theCommunisttakeover in China?


B

AMERICA REACTS TO COMMUNIST TAKEOVER TheAmerican public was stunned that China had becomeCommunist. Containment had failed! In Congress, conser-vative Republicans and Democrats attacked the Trumanadministration for supplying only limited aid to Chiang. Ifcontaining communism was important in Europe, theyasked, why was it not equally important in Asia?

The State Department replied by saying that what hadhappened in China was a result of internal forces. TheUnited States had failed in its attempts to influence theseforces, such as Chiang’s inability to retain the support of hispeople. Trying to do more would only have started a war inAsia—a war that the United States wasn’t prepared to fight.

Some conservatives in Congress rejected this argumentas a lame excuse. They claimed that the American govern-ment was riddled with Communist agents. Like wildfire,American fear of communism began to burn out of control,and the flames were fanned even further by events in Koreathe following year.

The Korean WarJapan had taken over Korea in 1910 and ruled it untilAugust 1945. As World War II ended, Japanese troops northof the 38th parallel (38º North latitude) surrendered tothe Soviets. Japanese troops south of the parallel surren-dered to the Americans. As in Germany, two nations devel-oped, one communist and one democratic.

In 1948, the Republic of Korea, usually called SouthKorea, was established in the zone that had been occupiedby the United States. Its government, headed by SyngmanRhee, was based in Seoul, Korea’s traditional capital.Simultaneously, the Communists formed the DemocraticPeople’s Republic of Korea in the north. Kim Il Sung led itsgovernment, which was based in Pyongyang. (See map,page 613.)

Soon after World War II, the United States had cut backits armed forces in South Korea. As a result, by June of 1949there were only 500 American troops there. The Soviets concluded that the UnitedStates would not fight to defend South Korea. They prepared to back North Koreawith tanks, airplanes, and money in an attempt to take over the entire peninsula.

NORTH KOREA ATTACKS SOUTH KOREA On June 25, 1950, North Koreanforces swept across the 38th parallel in a surprise attack on South Korea. The conflict that followed became known as the Korean War.

Within a few days, North Korean troops had penetrated deep into SouthKorea. South Korea called on the United Nations to stop the North Korean inva-sion. When the matter came to a vote in the UN Security Council, the SovietUnion was not there. The Soviets were boycotting the council in protest over thepresence of Nationalist China (Taiwan). Thus, the Soviets could not veto the UN’splan of military action. The vote passed.

On June 27, in a show of military strength, President Truman ordered troopsstationed in Japan to support the South Koreans. He also sent an American fleetinto the waters between Taiwan and China.


WORLD STAGEWORLD STAGE

TAIWAN In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek andother Nationalist leaders retreatedto the island of Taiwan, which liesabout 100 miles off the southeastcoast of the Chinese mainland.There the United States helpedset up a Nationalist government-—the Republic of China. From 1949through the 1960s, the UnitedStates poured millions of dollarsof aid into the Taiwanese economy.

During the 1970s, a number ofnations, including the UnitedStates, decided to end diplomaticrelations with Taiwan and estab-lished ties with CommunistChina. With the collapse of Sovietcommunism in the early 1990s,relations between Taiwan and theUnited States improved. In 2001,the United States sold weaponsto Taiwan to bolster the islandnation’s defense system.

PACIFICOCEANSouth

ChinaSea

EastChina

SeaTAIWAN

CHINA

PHILIPPINES

VIETNAM

CAMBODIA

LAOS

JAPAN

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B

AnalyzingEvents

How did Koreabecome a dividednation after WorldWar II?

B. AnswerNorth Koreasurrendered tothe Soviets.South Koreasurrendered tothe UnitedStates. Two sep-arate countriesemerged: NorthKorea and SouthKorea.


In all, 16 nations sent some 520,000 troops to aid South Korea. Over 90 percentof these troops were American. South Korean troops numbered an additional590,000. The combined forces were placed under the command of General DouglasMacArthur, former World War II hero in the Pacific.

The United States Fights in KoreaAt first, North Korea seemed unstoppable. Driving steadily south, its troops cap-tured Seoul. After a month of bitter combat, the North Koreans had forced UN and South Korean troops into a small defensive zone around Pusan in the south-eastern corner of the peninsula.

MACARTHUR’S COUNTERATTACK MacArthur launched a counterattack withtanks, heavy artillery, and fresh troops from the United States. On September 15,1950, his troops made a surprise amphibious landing behind enemy lines atInchon, on Korea’s west coast. Other troops moved north from Pusan. Trappedbetween the two attacking forces, about half of the North Korean troops surren-dered; the rest fled back across the 38th parallel. MacArthur’s plan had saved hisarmy from almost certain defeat.

The UN army chased the retreating North Korean troops across the 38th par-allel into North Korea. In late November, UN troops approached the Yalu River,the border between North Korea and China. It seemed as if Korea was about tobecome a single country again.

THE CHINESE FIGHT BACK The Chinese, however, had other ideas.Communist China’s foreign minister, Zhou En-lai, warned that his country wouldnot stand idly by and “let the Americans come to the border”—meaning the YaluRiver. In late November 1950, 300,000 Chinese troops joined the war on the sideof North Korea. The Chinese wanted North Korea as a Communist buffer state toprotect their northeastern provinces that made up Manchuria. They also feltthreatened by the American fleet that lay off their coast. The fight between NorthKorea and South Korea had escalated into a war in which the main opponentswere the Chinese communists and the Americans.

By sheer force of numbers, the Chinese drove the UNtroops southward. At some points along the battlefront,the Chinese outnumbered UN forces ten to one. By earlyJanuary 1951, all UN and South Korean troops had beenpushed out of North Korea. The Chinese advanced to thesouth, capturing the South Korean capital, Seoul. “Weface an entirely new war,” declared MacArthur.

For two years, the two sides fought bitterly to obtainstrategic positions in the Korean hills, but neither sidewas able to make important advances. One officerremembered the standoff.

A PERSONAL VOICE BEVERLY SCOTT“ Our trenches . . . were only about 20 meters in front of theirs. We were eyeball to eyeball. . . . We couldn’tmove at all in the daytime without getting shot at.Machine-gun fire would come in, grenades, small-armsfire, all from within spitting distance. It was like WorldWar I. We lived in a maze of bunkers and deep trenches.. . . There were bodies strewn all over the place.Hundreds of bodies frozen in the snow.”

—quoted in No Bugles, No Drums: An Oral History of the Korean War

612 CHAPTER 18

Vocabularyamphibious:capable oftraveling both on land and on water

Beverly Scott

C

C. AnswerJust as UNforces had over-taken NorthKorea, theChinese enteredthe war on theside of NorthKorea andpushed UNtroops south-ward.

SkillbuilderAnswers1. To Pusan.2. Other UNtroops movednorth fromPusan, and thetwo forcestrapped theNorth Koreans,who wereforced to fleenorth across theborder.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

C

AnalyzingCauses

How did theinvolvement ofcommunist Chinaaffect the KoreanWar?


128°E

42°N

30°N

38th Parallel

YellowSea

Sea ofJapan

PACIFICOCEAN

Yalu

River

Pusan

Pyongyang

Seoul

Inchon

Panmunjom

NORTHKOREA

SOUTHKOREA

C H I N A

SOVIETUNION

N

S

EW


0 100 200 miles


June 1950North Korean troops invadeSouth Korea and capture thecapital, Seoul.

Truce Line, 1953(present-day boundary)

September 1950North Koreans push SouthKoreans and UN troops southto the perimeter of Pusan.

November 1950 to January 1951The Chinese intervene and forceUN troops to retreat across the38th parallel.

September to October 1950UN troops under MacArthur landat Inchon and move north fromPusan. This two-pronged attackdrives the North Koreans out ofSouth Korea. UN troops thencontinue into North Korea, takePyongyang, and advance to theYalu River.

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER1. Movement How far south did North

Korean troops push the UN forces?2. Place Why do you think MacArthur

chose Inchon as his landing place?

American paratroopers comb through a village in North Korea onOctober 20, 1950, during the Korean War.

The Korean War, 1950–1953


D

MACARTHUR RECOMMENDS ATTACKING CHINA Tohalt the bloody stalemate, in early 1951, MacArthur calledfor an extension of the war into China. Convinced thatKorea was the place “where the Communist conspiratorshave elected to make their play for global conquest,”MacArthur called for the use of nuclear weapons againstChinese cities.

Truman rejected MacArthur’s request. The SovietUnion had a mutual-assistance pact with China. AttackingChina could set off World War III. As General Omar N.Bradley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, an all-out conflict with China would be “the wrong war, at thewrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrongenemy.”

Instead of attacking China, the UN and South Koreanforces began to advance once more, using the U.S. EighthArmy, led by Matthew B. Ridgway, as a spearhead. By April1951, Ridgway had retaken Seoul and had moved back upto the 38th parallel. The situation was just what it had beenbefore the fighting began.

MACARTHUR VERSUS TRUMAN Not satisfied with therecapture of South Korea, MacArthur continued to urge thewaging of a full-scale war against China. Certain that hisviews were correct, MacArthur tried to go over the presi-dent’s head. He spoke and wrote privately to newspaperand magazine publishers and, especially, to Republicanleaders.

MacArthur’s superiors informed him that he had noauthority to make decisions of policy. Despite repeatedwarnings to follow orders, MacArthur continued to criticize

the president. President Truman, who as president was commander-in-chief of thearmed forces and thus MacArthur’s boss, was just as stubborn as MacArthur.Truman refused to stand for this kind of behavior. He wanted to put together asettlement of the war and could no longer tolerate a military commander whowas trying to sabotage his policy. On April, 1, 1951, Truman made the shockingannouncement that he had fired MacArthur.

Many Americans were outraged over their hero’s downfall. A public opinionpoll showed that 69 percent of the American public backed General MacArthur.When MacArthur returned to the United States, he gave an address to Congress,

an honor usually awarded only to heads of govern-ment. New York City honored him with a ticker-tape parade. In his closing remarks to Congress,MacArthur said, “Old soldiers never die, they justfade away.”

Throughout the fuss, Truman stayed in thebackground. After MacArthur’s moment of publicglory passed, the Truman administration began tomake its case. Before a congressional committeeinvestigating MacArthur’s dismissal, a parade ofwitnesses argued the case for limiting the war. Thecommittee agreed with them. As a result, publicopinion swung around to the view that Trumanhad done the right thing. As a political figure,MacArthur did indeed fade away.

614 CHAPTER 18

INDIA’S VIEWPOINTNonaligned nations such as Indiawere on neither side of the ColdWar and had their own perspec-tives. In 1951, the prime ministerof India, Jawaharlal Nehru (shownabove), had this to say about theKorean War:

“This great struggle betweenthe United States and SovietRussia is hardly the proper role inthis world for those great powers. . . . Their role should beto function in their own territoriesand not be a threat to others.”

ANOTHER

PERSPECTIVEPERSPECTIVE Vocabularyconspirator: aperson who takespart in secretlyplanningsomethingunlawful

General DouglasMacArthur (left)and PresidentTruman (right)strongly disagreedabout how best toproceed in theKorean War.

▼

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

DComparing

How didTruman andMacArthur differover strategy inthe Korean War?

D. AnswerMacArthurwanted to wagefull-scalenuclear waragainst China.Truman wantedto limit the war.


SETTLING FOR STALEMATE As the MacArthur contro-versy died down, the Soviet Union unexpectedly suggesteda cease-fire on June 23, 1951. Truce talks began in July 1951.The opposing sides reached agreement on two points: thelocation of the cease-fire line at the existing battle line andthe establishment of a demilitarized zone between theopposing sides. Negotiators spent another year wranglingover the exchange of prisoners. Finally, in July 1953, thetwo sides signed an armistice ending the war.

At best, the agreement was a stalemate. On the onehand, the North Korean invaders had been pushed back,and communism had been contained without the use ofatomic weapons. On the other hand, Korea was still twonations rather than one.

On the home front, the war had affected the lives ofordinary Americans in many ways. It had cost 54,000American lives and $67 billion in expenditures. The highcost of this unsuccessful warwas one of many factors lead-ing Americans to reject theDemocratic Party in 1952 andto elect a Republican admin-istration under World War IIhero Dwight D. Eisenhower.In addition, the Korean Warincreased fear of communistaggression and prompted ahunt for Americans whomight be blamed for the communist gains.


NOWNOW THENTHEN

THE TWO KOREASKorea is still split into NorthKorea and South Korea, evenafter 50 years. South Korea isbooming economically, whileNorth Korea, still communist,struggles with severe shortagesof food and energy.

Periodically, discussions aboutreuniting the two countriesresume. In 2000, South KoreanPresident Kim Dae-jung won theNobel Peace Prize for his effortsto improve ties with North Korea.The two nations met in North

Korea for the first time sincethe nations were establishedin 1948. Although economicand political differences con-tinue to keep the two coun-tries apart, there is renewedhope that one day Korea willbecome a united nation.

•Chiang Kai-shek•Mao Zedong

•Taiwan•38th parallel

•Korean War1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.


On a time line such as the oneshown below, list the major eventsof the Korean War.

Choose two events and explain howone event led to the other.

CRITICAL THINKING3. HYPOTHESIZING

What might have happened ifMacArthur had convinced Truman toexpand the fighting into China? Howmight today’s world be different?

4. ANALYZING EVENTSMany Americans have questionedwhether fighting the Korean War wasworthwhile. What is your opinion?Why? Think About:

• the loss of American lives• the fear of communism that

enveloped the country at the time• the stalemate that ended the war

5. EVALUATING DECISIONSAt the end of China’s civil war, theUnited States refused to accept thecommunist People’s Republic ofChina as China’s true government.What were the advantages of such a policy? What were thedisadvantages? Do you agree withthis decision? Why or why not?

event one event three

event two event four

Vocabularydemilitarize: toban military forcesin an area orregion

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung waves to cheering North Koreans on June 13, 2000.

▼


616 CHAPTER 18


Tony Kahn made the neighbors uncomfortable because theythought his father, Gordon Kahn, was a Communist. In 1947,Gordon Kahn was a successful screenwriter. However, when acongressional committee began to investigate Communists inHollywood, Kahn was blacklisted—named as unfit to hire. Later, in 1951, he was scheduled to testify before the committeehimself.

To save himself, Gordon Kahn simply had to name others as Communists, but he refused. Rather than face the con-gressional committee, he fled to Mexico. Tony Kahn remembershow the Cold War hurt him and his family.

A PERSONAL VOICE TONY KAHN

“ The first time I was called a Communist, I was four years old. . . .I’ll never forget the look in our neighbors’ eyes when I walked by. I thought it was hate. I was too young to realize it was fear.”

—from The Cold War Comes Home

The members of the Kahn family were among thousands of victims of the anti-Communist hysteria that gripped this country inthe late 1940s and early 1950s. By the end of the period, no one wasimmune from accusations.

Fear of Communist InfluenceIn the early years of the Cold War, many Americans believed that there was goodreason to be concerned about the security of the United States. The Soviet domi-nation of Eastern Europe and the Communist takeover of China shocked theAmerican public, fueling a fear that communism would spread around the world. In addition, at the height of World War II, about 80,000 Americans claimedmembership in the Communist Party. Some people feared that the first loyalty ofthese American Communists was to the Soviet Union.


•HUAC•Hollywood Ten•blacklist•Alger Hiss

•Ethel and JuliusRosenberg

•Joseph McCarthy•McCarthyism

During the late 1940s andearly 1950s, fear ofcommunism led to recklesscharges against innocentcitizens.

Americans today remain vigilantabout unfounded accusations.

Tony Kahn

The Cold War at Home

THE COLD WARCOMES HOMEHollywoodBlacklists theKahn Family


A

LOYALTY REVIEW BOARD Strongly anti-CommunistRepublicans began to accuse Truman of being soft on com-munism. Consequently, in March 1947, President Trumanissued an executive order setting up the Federal EmployeeLoyalty Program, which included the Loyalty Review Board.Its purpose was to investigate government employees andto dismiss those who were found to be disloyal to the U.S.government. The U.S. attorney general drew up a list of 91“subversive” organizations; membership in any of thesegroups was grounds for suspicion.

From 1947 to 1951, government loyalty boards investi-gated 3.2 million employees and dismissed 212 as securityrisks. Another 2,900 resigned because they did not want tobe investigated or felt that the investigation violated theirconstitutional rights. Individuals under investigation werenot allowed to see the evidence against them.

THE HOUSE UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES COMMITTEEOther agencies investigated possible Communist influence,both inside and outside the U.S. government. The mostfamous of these was the House Un-American ActivitiesCommittee (HUAC). HUAC first made headlines in 1947,when it began to investigate Communist influence in themovie industry. The committee believed that Communistswere sneaking propaganda into films. The committee pointed to the pro-Soviet films made during World War IIwhen the Soviet Union had been a United States ally.

HUAC subpoenaed 43 witnesses from the Hollywoodfilm industry in September 1947. Many of the witnesseswere “friendly,” supporting the accusation that Communistshad infiltrated the film industry. For example, the movie starGary Cooper said he had “turned down quite a few scriptsbecause I thought they were tinged with Communisticideas.” However, when asked which scripts he meant,Cooper couldn’t remember their titles.

Ten “unfriendly” witnesses were called to testify butrefused. These men, known as the Hollywood Ten, decided not to cooperatebecause they believed that the hearings were unconstitutional. Because theHollywood Ten refused to answer questions, they were sent to prison.

617

Protestersdemonstrate insupport of theHollywood Ten.▼

SPOTLIGHTSPOTLIGHTHISTORICALHISTORICAL

PAUL ROBESON Paul Robeson was an all-American football player and PhiBeta Kappa member at RutgersUniversity. After earning a lawdegree in 1923, he began a distinguished international careeras a singer and actor. He was avocal civil rights activist, and hewas sympathetic to the Soviet culture and political philosophy.

In 1950, when he refused tosign an affidavit indicating whetherhe had ever been a member ofthe Communist Party, the StateDepartment revoked his passportfor eight years. During that time,he was unable to perform abroadand was blacklisted at home. Hisincome fell from $150,000 ayear to $3,000 a year.

A. AnswerIndividualsunder investiga-tion were notallowed to seethe evidenceagainst them.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

DrawingConclusions

How did theLoyalty ReviewBoard pose athreat to civilliberties?


In response to the hearings, Hollywood executives instituted a blacklist, alist of people whom they condemned for having a Communist background.People who were blacklisted—approximately 500 actors, writers, producers, anddirectors—had their careers ruined because they could no longer work.

THE MCCARRAN ACT As Hollywood tried to rid itself of Communists,Congress decided that Truman’s Loyalty Review Board did not go far enough. In1950, Congress passed the McCarran Internal Security Act. This made it unlawfulto plan any action that might lead to the establishment of a totalitarian dictator-ship in the United States. Truman vetoed the bill, saying, “In a free country, wepunish men for the crimes they commit, but never for the opinions they have.”But Congress enacted the law over Truman’s veto.

Spy Cases Stun the NationTwo spy cases added to fear that was spreading like an epidemic across the coun-try. One case involved a former State Department official named Alger Hiss.

ALGER HISS In 1948, a former Communist spy named Whittaker Chambersaccused Alger Hiss of spying for the Soviet Union. To support his charges,Chambers produced microfilm of government documents that he claimed hadbeen typed on Hiss’s typewriter. Too many years had passed for government pros-ecutors to charge Hiss with espionage, but a jury convicted him of perjury—forlying about passing the documents—and sent him to jail. A young conservativeRepublican congressman named Richard Nixon gained fame for pursuing thecharges against Hiss. Within four years of the highly publicized case, Nixon waselected vice president of the United States.

Hiss claimed that he was innocent and that Chambers had forged the docu-ments used against him. However, in the 1990s, Soviet cables released by theNational Security Agency seemed to prove Hiss’s guilt.

618 CHAPTER 18

1954 In 1954, the Communist-hunting senator Joseph McCarthy,in U.S. Senate hearings that weretelevised live, accused the U.S.Army of “coddling Communists.” Asmany as 20 million Americanswatched the combative senatormalign people who had no chanceto defend themselves.

1960 In the 1960 presidentialelection, a major factor in JohnKennedy’s victory over RichardNixon was a series of four tele-vised debates, the first televisedpresidential debates in history.An estimated 85 million to 120 million Americans watchedone or more of the debates,which turned the tide in favor of Kennedy.

B

NOWNOW THENTHEN

TELEVISION: MAKING NEWS

Historians of popular culturebelieve that the early 1950s werethe best years of television. Mostprograms were filmed live andhad a fresh, unrehearsed look.Along with variety shows, earlytelevision presented some of thebest serious drama of the age.

Since the 1950s, television hasalso become a major vehicle forreporting the news. Not only doestelevision report the news, it alsohas increasingly helped to shapeit.

B. AnswerHUAC believedthat Hollywoodwas sneakingpropaganda intofilms. Its mem-bers pointed topro-Soviet filmsmade during thewar.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B

AnalyzingCauses

Why wasHollywood a targetof anti-Communistinvestigations byCongress?


THE ROSENBERGS Another spy case rocked thenation even more than the Hiss case, partially becauseof international events occurring about the same time.On September 3, 1949, Americans learned that theSoviet Union had exploded an atomic bomb. MostAmerican experts had predicted that it would take theSoviets three to five more years to make the bomb.People began to wonder if Communist supporters inthe United States had leaked the secret of the bomb.

This second spy case seemed to confirm that sus-picion. In 1950, the German-born physicist KlausFuchs admitted giving the Soviet Union informationabout America’s atomic bomb. The information prob-ably enabled Soviet scientists to develop their ownatomic bomb years earlier than they would have oth-erwise. Implicated in the Fuchs case were Ethel andJulius Rosenberg, minor activists in the American Communist Party.

When asked if they were Communists, the Rosenbergs denied the chargesagainst them and pleaded the Fifth Amendment, choosing not to incriminatethemselves. They claimed they were being persecuted both for being Jewish andfor holding radical beliefs. The Rosenbergs were found guilty of espionage andsentenced to death. In pronouncing their sentence, Judge Irving Kaufmandeclared their crime “worse than murder.” To him, they were directly responsiblefor one of the deadliest clashes of the Cold War.

A PERSONAL VOICE IRVING KAUFMAN

“ I believe your conduct in putting into the hands of the Russians the A-bombyears before our best scientists predicted Russia would perfect the bomb hasalready caused, in my opinion, the Communist aggression in Korea . . . .”

—quoted in The Unquiet Death of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg


1967 By 1967, Americansupport for the Vietnam Warhad plummeted as millionsof TV viewers witnessed thehorrors of war on the nightlynews.

2000 During the 2000 presidentialelection, TV networks first declared AlGore the winner and then declaredGeorge W. Bush the winner. The latterdeclaration led Al Gore to concede.However, Gore subsequently retractedhis concession because the electionwas too close to call. This “electionmuddle” blurs even further the alreadyindistinct line between reporting thenews and making it.

1974 The Watergate scandalthat toppled Richard Nixon’spresidency in 1974 played toa rapt TV audience. During theSenate hearings in 1973, thetelevised testimony of JohnDean, the president’s counsel,had convinced two out of threeAmericans that the presidenthad committed a crime.

C

▼

Ethel and JuliusRosenberg wereexecuted in June1953 despitenumerous pleasto spare theirlives.

C. AnswerThey added tothe impressionthat the U.S.was beingbetrayed byCommunistspies.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

C

AnalyzingCauses

Why did thecases of AlgerHiss and theRosenbergsheighten the anti-Communist moodof Americans?


620 CHAPTER 18

People from all over the world appealed forclemency for the Rosenbergs. Many considered the evidenceand the testimony too weak to warrant the death sentence. The case was appealedto the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Court refused to overturn the conviction. Juliusand Ethel Rosenberg died in the electric chair in June 1953, leaving behind twosons. They became the first U.S. civilians executed for espionage.

McCarthy Launches His “Witch Hunt”The most famous anti-Communist activist was Senator Joseph McCarthy, aRepublican from Wisconsin. During his first three years in the Senate, he hadacquired a reputation for being an ineffective legislator. By January 1950, he real-ized that he was going to need a winning issue in order to be reelected in 1952.Looking for such an issue, McCarthy charged that Communists were taking overthe government.

MCCARTHY’S TACTICS Taking advantage of people’s concerns about commu-nism, McCarthy made one unsupported accusation after another. These attacks onsuspected Communists in the early 1950s became known as McCarthyism. Sincethat time, McCarthyism has referred to the unfair tactic of accusing people of dis-loyalty without providing evidence. At various times McCarthy claimed to have inhis hands the names of 57, 81, and 205 Communists in the State Department. (Henever actually produced a single name.) He also charged that the Democratic Partywas guilty of “20 years of treason” for allowing Communist infiltration into thegovernment. He was always careful to do his name-calling only in the Senate,where he had legal immunity that protected him from being sued for slander.

The Republicans did little to stop McCarthy’s attacks because they believedthey would win the 1952 presidential election if the public saw them purging thenation of Communists. But one small group of six senators, led by SenatorMargaret Chase Smith of Maine, did speak out.

A PERSONAL VOICE MARGARET CHASE SMITH

“ I speak as a Republican. I speak as a woman. I speak as a United States senator. I speak as an American. . . . I am not proud of the way in which theSenate has been made a publicity platform for irresponsible sensationalism. I amnot proud of the reckless abandon in which unproved charges have been hurledfrom this side of the aisle.”

—Declaration of Conscience

Vocabularyinfiltration: the act of penetratinga group ororganizationwithout beingnoticed forpurposes such as spying

AnalyzingAnalyzing

“IT’S OK—WE’RE HUNTING COMMUNISTS”The fear of Communist subversion affected the entire society. Peoplewere so suspicious that almost any unusual opinion might be labeled“un-American.” The climate of suspicion was most severe in theyears 1947–1954, but it lasted throughout the 1950s.

SKILLBUILDER Analyzing Political Cartoons1. What organization does the car represent?2. What does the cartoon imply about the methods of this

organization?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R24.


MCCARTHY’S DOWNFALL Finally, in1954, McCarthy made accusationsagainst the U.S. Army, which resulted ina nationally televised Senate investiga-tion. McCarthy’s bullying of witnessesalienated the audience and cost himpublic support. The Senate condemnedhim for improper conduct that “tendedto bring the Senate into dishonor anddisrepute.” Three years later, JosephMcCarthy, suffering from alcoholism,died a broken man.

OTHER ANTI-COMMUNIST MEASURESOthers besides Joseph McCarthy made ittheir mission to root communism out ofAmerican society. By 1953, 39 states hadpassed laws making it illegal to advocatethe violent overthrow of the government,even though such laws clearly violatedthe constitutional right of free speech.Across the nation, cities and towns passedsimilar laws.

At times, the fear of communism seemed to have no limits. In Indiana, pro-fessional wrestlers had to take a loyalty oath. In experiments run by newspapers,pedestrians on the street refused to sign petitions that quoted the Declaration ofIndependence because they were afraid the ideas were communist. The govern-ment investigated union leaders, librarians, newspaper reporters, and scientists. Itseemed that no profession was safe from the hunt for Communists.


•HUAC•Hollywood Ten

•blacklist•Alger Hiss

•Ethel and Julius Rosenberg•Joseph McCarthy

•McCarthyism1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.


Re-create the web below on yourpaper and fill in events that illustratethe main idea in the center.

Which event had the greatest impacton the country?


If you had lived in this period andhad been accused of being aCommunist, what would you havedone? Think About:

• the Hollywood Ten, who refusedto answer questions

• the Rosenbergs, who pleadedthe Fifth Amendment

4. ANALYZING MOTIVESChoose one of the following roles:Harry Truman, a member of HUAC,Judge Irving Kaufman, or JosephMcCarthy. As the person you havechosen, explain your motivation foropposing communism. 5. ANALYZING VISUAL SOURCES

What does this cartoon suggestabout McCarthy’s downfall?

Causes and Effects of McCarthyism

Causes

• Soviets successfully establish Communist regimes inEastern Europe after World War II.

• Soviets develop the atomic bomb more quickly thanexpected.

• Korean War ends in a stalemate.• Republicans gain politically by accusing Truman and

Democrats of being soft on communism.

Effects

• Millions of Americans are forced to take loyalty oathsand undergo loyalty investigations.

• Activism by labor unions goes into decline.• Many people are afraid to speak out on public issues.• Anti-communism continues to drive U.S. foreign policy.

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Charts1. How did world events help lead to McCarthyism? 2. How did McCarthyism affect the behavior of

individual Americans?

Anti-Communist fear gripped the country.

SkillbuilderAnswers1. Soviet domi-nation ofEastern Europeand Sovietdevelopment ofthe bombheightened fearof communism. 2. McCarthyismled to requiredloyalty oaths,hesitancy tospeak out onpublic issues,and decreasedactivism bylabor unions.


622 CHAPTER 18


Writer Annie Dillard was one of thousands of children who grew up in the 1950swith the chilling knowledge that nuclear war could obliterate their world in aninstant. Dillard recalls practicing what to do in case of a nuclear attack.

A PERSONAL VOICE ANNIE DILLARD

“At school we had air-raid drills. We took the drills seriously; surely Pittsburgh, which had the nation’s steel,coke, and aluminum, would be the enemy’s first target. . . .When the air-raid siren sounded, our teachers stopped talking and led us to the school basement. There the gymteachers lined us up against the cement walls and steellockers, and showed us how to lean in and fold our armsover our heads. . . . The teachers stood in the middle of the room, not talking to each other. We tuckedagainst the walls and lockers. . . . We folded our skinnyarms over our heads, and raised to the enemy a clatterof gold scarab bracelets and gold bangle bracelets.”

—An American Childhood

The fear of nuclear attack was a direct result of the Cold War. After the SovietUnion developed its atomic bomb, the two superpowers embarked on an armsrace that enormously increased both the number and the destructive power ofweapons.

Brinkmanship Rules U.S. PolicyAlthough air-raid drills were not common until the Eisenhower years(1953–1961), the nuclear arms race began during Truman’s presidency. When theSoviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb in 1949, President Truman had tomake a terrible decision—whether to develop an even more horrifying weapon.


During the 1950s, the UnitedStates and the Soviet Unioncame to the brink of nuclearwar.

The Cold War continued into thefollowing decades, affecting U.S.policies in Cuba, Central America,Southeast Asia, and the MiddleEast.

Two Nations Live on the Edge

▼

A father helps hisdaughter practicegetting into abomb shelter.

•H-bomb•Dwight D.Eisenhower

•John Foster Dulles•brinkmanship•CentralIntelligenceAgency (CIA)

•Warsaw Pact •EisenhowerDoctrine

•Nikita Khrushchev•Francis GaryPowers

•U-2 incident


A

RACE FOR THE H-BOMB The scientistswho developed the atomic bomb had suspected since 1942 that it was possible tocreate an even more destructive thermo-nuclear weapon—the hydrogen bomb, orH-bomb. They estimated that such abomb would have the force of 1 milliontons of TNT (67 times the power of thebomb dropped on Hiroshima). But theyargued vehemently about the morality ofcreating such a destructive weapon.

Despite such concerns, the UnitedStates entered into a deadly race withthe Soviet Union to see which countrywould be the first to produce an H-bomb. On November 1, 1952, theUnited States won the race when itexploded the first H-bomb. However,the American advantage lasted lessthan a year. In August 1953, theSoviets exploded their own ther-monuclear weapon.

THE POLICY OF BRINKMANSHIPBy the time both countries had theH-bomb, Dwight D. Eisenhowerwas president. His secretary of state,John Foster Dulles, was staunchlyanti-Communist. For Dulles, the Cold War was a moral crusadeagainst communism. Dulles proposed that the United States could prevent thespread of communism by promising to use all of its force, including nuclearweapons, against any aggressor nation. The willingness of the United States,under President Eisenhower, to go to the edge of all-out war became known asbrinkmanship. Under this policy, the United States trimmed its army and navyand expanded its air force (which would deliver the bombs) and its buildup ofnuclear weapons. The Soviet Union followed suit.

The threat of nuclear attack was unlike any the American people had everfaced. Even if only a few bombs reached their targets, millions of civilians woulddie. Schoolchildren like Annie Dillard practiced air-raid procedures, and somefamilies built underground fallout shelters in their back yards. Fear of nuclear warbecame a constant in American life for the next 30 years.

The Cold War Spreads Around the WorldAs the nation shifted to a dependence on nuclear arms, the Eisenhower adminis-tration began to rely heavily on the recently formed Central IntelligenceAgency (CIA) for information. The CIA used spies to gather information abroad.The CIA also began to carry out covert, or secret, operations to weaken or over-throw governments unfriendly to the United States.

COVERT ACTIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND LATIN AMERICA One of theCIA’s first covert actions took place in the Middle East. In 1951, Iran’s prime min-ister, Mohammed Mossadegh, nationalized Iran’s oil fields; that is, he placed theformerly private industries (owned mostly by Great Britain) under Iranian control. To protest, the British stopped buying Iranian oil. As the Iranian economy


▼

A dramatic civildefense postershows the fear ofnuclear attack.

BackgroundFrom ancienttimes until 1935,Iran was known asPersia. Persiaonce ruled a greatempire thatstretched from theMediterraneanSea to India’sIndus River.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

AnalyzingCauses

How did theU.S. and theSoviet Union startthe arms race?

A. AnswerBy developingmore powerfulweapons,including the H-bomb.


faltered, the United States feared that Mossadegh might turn to the Soviets forhelp. In 1953, the CIA gave several million dollars to anti-Mossadegh supporters.The CIA wanted the pro-American Shah of Iran, who had recently been forced toflee, to return to power. The plan worked. The Shah returned to power and turnedover control of Iranian oil fields to Western companies.

In 1954, the CIA also took covert actions in Guatemala, a Central Americancountry just south of Mexico. Eisenhower believed that Guatemala’s governmenthad Communist sympathies because it had given more than 200,000 acres ofAmerican-owned land to peasants. In response, the CIA trained an army, whichinvaded Guatemala. The Guatemalan army refused to defend the president, andhe resigned. The army’s leader then became dictator of the country.

THE WARSAW PACT In spite of the growing tension between the superpowers,U.S.-Soviet relations seemed to thaw following the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953.The Soviets recognized West Germany and concluded peace treaties with Austriaand Japan. However, in 1955, when West Germany was allowed to rearm and joinNATO, the Soviet Union grew fearful. It formed its own military alliance, knownas the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact linked the Soviet Union with sevenEastern European countries.

A SUMMIT IN GENEVA In July 1955, Eisenhower traveled to Geneva,Switzerland, to meet with Soviet leaders. There Eisenhower put forth an “openskies” proposal. The United States and the Soviet Union would allow flights overeach other’s territory to guard against surprise nuclear attacks. Although theSoviet Union rejected this proposal, the world hailed the “spirit of Geneva” as astep toward peace.

624 CHAPTER 18

ATLANTICOCEAN

NorthSea

Black Sea

Baltic

Sea

Medi terranean Sea

DENMARK

ITALY

HUNGARY

FINLANDNORWAY

SWEDEN

SPAIN

ROMANIA

TURKEY

POLAND

SOVIETUNION

FRANCE

WESTGERMANY

EASTGERMANY

PORTUGAL

GREECE

BULGARIA

AUSTRIASWITZERLAND

IRELAND

YUGOSLAVIA

UNITEDKINGDOM

ICELAND

ALBANIA

LUXEMBOURG

BELGIUM

NETHERLANDS

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

50°N

60°N

10°E 30°E0°10°W

40°N

N

SE

W

Warsaw Pact countries

European NATO members

Nonaligned nations


0 300 600 miles

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER1. Region Which nations shown on the map

belonged to NATO, and which to the Warsaw Pact? 2. Region Which nations shown on the map did

not belong to either defense alliance?

The Warsaw Pact and NATO, 1955

B

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

BSummarizing

What was therole of the CIA inthe Cold War?

B. AnswerTo gather intelligencesand to carry outsecret opera-tions againstunfriendly governments.

SkillbuilderAnswers1. NATO: GreatBritain,Netherlands,Belgium,France,Luxembourg,West Germany,Denmark,Norway,Greece, Turkey,Portugal, Italy.Warsaw Pact:East Germany,Poland,Czechoslovakia,Hungary,Romania,Bulgaria,Albania, Soviet Union.2. Spain,Switzerland,Austria,Yugoslavia,Sweden,Finland, Ireland.


THE SUEZ WAR In 1955, the same year in which theGeneva Summit took place, Great Britain and the UnitedStates agreed to help Egypt finance construction of a dam atAswan on the Nile River. However, Gamal Abdel-Nasser,Egypt’s head of government, tried to play the Soviets andthe Americans against each other, by improving relationswith each one in order to get more aid. In 1956, after learn-ing that Nasser was making deals with the Soviets, Dulleswithdrew his offer of a loan. Angered, Nasser responded bynationalizing the Suez Canal, the Egyptian waterway thatwas owned by France and Great Britain. The French and theBritish were outraged.

Egyptian control of the canal also affected Israel. Nasserrefused to let ships bound for Israel pass through the canal,even though the canal was supposed to be open to allnations. Israel responded by sending troops. So did GreatBritain and France. The three countries seized theMediterranean end of the canal. The UN quickly stepped in to stop the fighting. It persuaded Great Britain, France,and Israel to withdraw. However, it allowed Egypt to keepcontrol of the canal.

THE EISENHOWER DOCTRINE The Soviet Union’s pres-tige in the Middle East rose because of its support for Egypt.To counterbalance this development, President Eisenhowerissued a warning in January 1957. This warning, known asthe Eisenhower Doctrine, said that the United Stateswould defend the Middle East against an attack by anycommunist country. In March, Congress officially approvedthe doctrine.

THE HUNGARIAN UPRISING Even as fighting was ragingin the Middle East, a revolt began in Hungary. Dominated by the SovietUnion since the end of World War II, the Hungarian people rose in revoltin 1956. They called for a democratic government.

Imre Nagy, the most popular and liberal Hungarian Communist leader,formed a new government. He promised free elections, denounced theWarsaw Pact, and demanded that all Soviet troops leave Hungary.

The Soviet response was swift andbrutal. In November 1956, Soviettanks rolled into Hungary and killedapproximately 30,000 Hungarians.Armed with only pistols and bottles,thousands of Hungarian freedomfighters threw up barricades in thestreets and fought the invaders to noavail. The Soviets overthrew the Nagygovernment and replaced it with pro-Soviet leaders. Nagy himself was exe-cuted. Some 200,000 Hungarians fledto the west.

Although the Truman Doctrinehad promised to support free peopleswho resisted communism, the UnitedStates did nothing to help Hungarybreak free of Soviet control. Many


ISRAELOn May 14, 1948, the UnitedNations created the nation ofIsrael by partitioning Palestine intotwo states, one Jewish and oneArab. Thousands of Jews had im-migrated to Palestine from Europebefore and during World War II,and Israel became the “promisedland” they had been seeking sincebiblical times. The creation ofIsrael was one of the few issuesupon which the United States andthe Soviet Union agreed, as theworld reacted uniformly to the hor-ror that had befallen the Jews inthe Holocaust.

Red Sea

’

MediterraneanSea

ISRAEL

JORDAN

LEBANON SYRIA

EGYPT

SAUDIARABIA

C


Crowds surround acaptured Russian tankduring the anti-Communistrevolution in Hungary.▼

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

C

AnalyzingEffects

What were theresults of the SuezWar?

C. AnswerGreat Britain,France, andIsrael withdrewfrom theMediterraneanend of the canaland control ofthe canalpassed to Egypt.


Hungarians were bitterly disappointed. The American policy of containment didnot extend to driving the Soviet Union out of its satellites.

No help came to Hungary from the United Nations either. Although the UNpassed one resolution after another condemning the Soviet Union, the Sovietveto in the Security Council stopped the UN from taking any action.

The Cold War Takes to the SkiesAfter Stalin’s death in 1953, the Soviet Union had no well-defined way for one leader to succeedanother. For the first few years, a group of leaders shared power. As time went by, how-ever, one man did gain power. That man was Nikita Khrushchev (krMshPchDf). Like Stalin,Khrushchev believed that communism would takeover the world, but Khrushchev thought it couldtriumph peacefully. He favored a policy of peacefulcoexistence in which two powers would competeeconomically and scientifically.

THE SPACE RACE In the competition for inter-national prestige, the Soviets leaped to an earlylead in what came to be known as the space race.On October 4, 1957, they launched Sputnik, theworld’s first artificial satellite. Sputnik traveledaround the earth at 18,000 miles per hour, circlingthe globe every 96 minutes. Its launch was a tri-umph of Soviet technology.

Americans were shocked at being beaten andpromptly poured money into their own space pro-gram. U.S. scientists worked frantically to catch upto the Soviets. The first attempt at an Americansatellite launch was a humiliating failure, with the rocket toppling to the ground. However, onJanuary 31, 1958, the United States successfullylaunched its first satellite.

A U-2 IS SHOT DOWN Following the rejection ofEisenhower’s “open skies” proposal at the 1955

Geneva summit conference, the CIA began making secret high-altitude flightsover Soviet territory. The plane used for these missions was the U-2, which couldfly at high altitudes without detection. As a U-2 passed over the Soviet Union, itsinfrared cameras took detailed photographs of troop movement and missile sites.

By 1960, however, many U.S. officials were nervous about the U-2 program fortwo reasons. First, the existence and purpose of the U-2 was an open secret amongsome members of the American press. Second, the Soviets had been aware of theflights since 1958, as Francis Gary Powers, a U-2 pilot, explained.

A PERSONAL VOICE FRANCIS GARY POWERS

“ We . . . knew that the Russians were radar-tracking at least some of our flights.. . . We also knew that SAMs [surface-to-air missiles] were being fired at us, thatsome were uncomfortably close to our altitude. But we knew too that theRussians had a control problem in their guidance system. . . . We were concerned,but not greatly.”

—Operation Overflight: The U-2 Spy Pilot Tells His Story for the First Time

626 CHAPTER 18

D

U.S. Budget, 1940–2000

Percentage Spent on Defense

Source: Historical Tables, Budget of the United States Government

194018%

195032%

196052%

200016%

SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Graphs1. By how much did the percentage of

the federal budget for defense increase between 1950 and 1960?

2. Why do you think it increased that much?

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

DComparing

CompareJoseph Stalin withNikita Khrushchev.How were theyalike? How werethey different?

D. AnswerThey bothbelieved thatcommunismwould take overthe world.Unlike Stalin,Krushchevbelieved com-munism couldtriumph peacefully.

SkillbuilderAnswers1. 20 percent.2. The arms racewith the SovietUnion led to theincrease.


Finally, Eisenhower himself wanted the flights discontinued. He andKhrushchev were going to hold another summit conference on the arms race onMay 15, 1960. “If one of these aircraft were lost when we were engaged in appar-ently sincere deliberations, it could . . . ruin my effectiveness,” he told an aide.However, Dulles persuaded him to authorize one last flight.

That flight tookplace on May 1, and thepilot was Francis GaryPowers. Four hoursafter Powers enteredSoviet airspace, a Sovietpilot shot down hisplane, and Powers wasforced to parachuteinto Soviet-controlledterritory. The Sovietssentenced Powers toten years in prison.

RENEWED CONFRONTATION At first, Eisenhowerdenied that the U-2 had been spying. The Sovietshad evidence, however, and Eisenhower finally hadto admit it. Khrushchev demanded an apology forthe flights and a promise to halt them. Eisenhoweragreed to stop the U-2 flights, but he would notapologize.

Khrushchev angrily called off the summit. Healso withdrew his invitation to Eisenhower to visitthe Soviet Union. Because of the U-2 incident, the1960s opened with tension between the two super-powers as great as ever.


•H-bomb•Dwight D. Eisenhower•John Foster Dulles

•brinkmanship•Central Intelligence Agency(CIA)

•Warsaw Pact•Eisenhower Doctrine•Nikita Khrushchev

•Francis Gary Powers•U-2 incident

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.


List Cold War trouble spots in Iran,Guatemala, Egypt, and Hungary. Foreach, write a newspaper headlinethat summarizes the U.S. role andthe outcome of the situation.

Choose one headline and write aparagraph about that trouble spot.


How might the Cold War haveprogressed if the U-2 incident hadnever occurred? Think About:

• the mutual distrust between the Soviet Union and the UnitedStates

• the outcome of the incident

4. EVALUATINGWhich of the two superpowers doyou think contributed more to ColdWar tensions during the 1950s?

5. FORMING GENERALIZATIONSShould one nation have the right toremove another nation’s head ofgovernment from power? If so,when? If not, why?

BackgroundAfter 18 months,Francis GaryPowers wasreleased from theSoviet Union inexchange forSoviet agentRudolf Abel,who had beenconvicted of spyingin the UnitedStates.

Trouble Spot Headline

Francis Gary Powers at a Senate committeehearing following hisrelease by the Soviets▼

Image not availablefor use on CD-ROM.Please refer to theimage in the textbook.



John F. Kennedy became the 35th president of the UnitedStates on a crisp and sparkling day in January 1961. Appearingwithout a coat in freezing weather, he issued a challenge to theAmerican people. He said that the world was in “its hour ofmaximum danger,” as Cold War tensions ran high. Rather thanshrinking from the danger, the United States should confrontthe “iron tyranny” of communism.

A PERSONAL VOICE JOHN F. KENNEDY

“ Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend andfoe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation ofAmericans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined bya hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, andunwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those humanrights to which this nation has always been committed. . . .

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, thatwe shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, sup-port any friend, oppose any . . . foe, in order to assure . . . thesurvival and the success of liberty.”

—Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961

The young president won praise for his well-crafted speech.However, his words were put to the test when several Cold Warcrises tried his leadership.

The Election of 1960In 1960, as President Eisenhower’s second term drew to a close, a mood of rest-lessness arose among voters. The economy was in a recession. The USSR’s launch of Sputnik I in 1957 and its development of long-range missiles had sparkedfears that the American military was falling behind that of the Soviets. Further set-backs including the U-2 incident and the alignment of Cuba with the Soviet Unionhad Americans questioning whether the United States was losing the Cold War.

670 CHAPTER 20

Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

Kennedy and the Cold War

•John F. Kennedy•flexible response•Fidel Castro•Berlin Wall

•hot line•Limited Test BanTreaty

The Kennedy administrationfaced some of the mostdangerous Soviet confronta-tions in American history.

America’s response to Sovietthreats developed the UnitedStates as a military superpower.

WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

▼

John F. Kennedy delivers his inauguraladdress on January 20, 1961.


A

The Democratic nominee for president, Massachusetts senator John Kennedy,promised active leadership “to get America moving again.” His Republican oppo-nent, Vice President Richard M. Nixon, hoped to win by riding on the coattails ofEisenhower’s popularity. Both candidates had similar positions on policy issues.Two factors helped put Kennedy over the top: television and the civil rights issue.

THE TELEVISED DEBATE AFFECTS VOTES Kennedy had a well-organizedcampaign and the backing of his wealthy family, and was handsome and charismatic. Yet many felt that, at 43, he was too inexperienced. If elected, he wouldbe the second-youngest president in the nation’s history.

Americans also worried that having a Roman Catholic in the White Housewould lead either to influence of the pope on American policies or to closer tiesbetween church and state. Kennedy was able to allay worries by discussing theissue openly.

One event in the fall determined the course of the election. Kennedyand Nixon took part in the first televised debate between presidentialcandidates. On September 26, 1960, 70 million TV viewers watched thetwo articulate and knowledgeable candidates debating issues. Nixon, anexpert on foreign policy, had agreed to the forum in hopes of exposingKennedy’s inexperience. However, Kennedy had been coached by televi-sion producers, and he looked and spoke better than Nixon.

Kennedy’s success in the debate launched a new era in American politics: thetelevision age. As journalist Russell Baker, who covered the Nixon campaign, said,“That night, image replaced the printed word as the natural language of politics.”

KENNEDY AND CIVIL RIGHTS A second major event of the campaign took placein October. Police in Atlanta, Georgia, arrested the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.,and 33 other African-American demonstrators for sitting at a segregated lunchcounter. Although the other demonstrators were released, King was sentenced tomonths of hard labor—officially for a minor traffic violation. The Eisenhoweradministration refused to intervene, and Nixon took no public position.

When Kennedy heard of the arrest and sentencing, he telephoned King’s wife,Coretta Scott King, to express his sympathy. Meanwhile, Robert Kennedy, his broth-er and campaign manager, persuaded the judge who had sentenced King to releasethe civil rights leader on bail, pending appeal. News of the incident captured theimmediate attention of the African-American community, whose votes would helpKennedy carry key states in the Midwest and South.

The New Frontier and the Great Society 671

“ That night, image replaced theprinted word asthe natural lan-guage of politics.”RUSSELL BAKER

John F. Kennedy(right) appearedconfident and atease during atelevised debatewith his opponentRichard M. Nixon.

▼

Vocabulary charismatic: possessing personal charmthat attracts devoted followers

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

PredictingEffects

What effectdo you think thetelevised debatewould have onAmerican politics?

A. PossibleAnswerVoters wouldbegin makingdecisions basedon a candidate’sperceived imagerather than onhis or her standon the issues.


The Camelot Years The election in November 1960 was the closest since 1884; Kennedy won by fewerthan 119,000 votes. His inauguration set the tone for a new era at the WhiteHouse: one of grace, elegance, and wit. On the podium sat over 100 writers,artists, and scientists that the Kennedys had invited, including opera singerMarian Anderson, who had once been barred from singing at Constitution Hallbecause she was African American. Kennedy’s inspiring speech called for hope,commitment, and sacrifice. “And so, my fellow Americans,” he proclaimed, “asknot what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

During his term, the presidentand his beautiful young wife,Jacqueline, invited many artists andcelebrities to the White House. Inaddition, Kennedy often appearedon television. The press loved hischarm and wit and helped to bolsterhis image.

THE KENNEDY MYSTIQUE Criticsof Kennedy’s presidency argued thathis smooth style lacked substance.But the new first family fascinatedthe public. For example, after learn-ing that JFK could read 1,600 wordsa minute, thousands of peopleenrolled in speed-reading courses.The first lady, too, captivated thenation with her eye for fashion andculture. It seemed the nation couldnot get enough of the first family.Newspapers and magazines filledtheir pages with pictures and storiesabout the president’s young daugh-ter Caroline and his infant son John.

With JFK’s youthful glamour and his talented advisers, the Kennedy WhiteHouse reminded many of a modern-day Camelot, the mythical court of KingArthur. Coincidentally, the musical Camelot had opened on Broadway in 1960.Years later, Jackie recalled her husband and the vision of Camelot.

A PERSONAL VOICE JACQUELINE KENNEDY

“ At night, before we’d go to sleep, Jack liked to play some records and the songhe loved most came at the very end of [the Camelot] record. The lines he loved tohear were: ‘Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shiningmoment that was known as Camelot.’ There’ll be great presidents again . . . butthere’ll never be another Camelot again.”

—quoted in Life magazine, John F. Kennedy Memorial Edition

THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST Kennedy surrounded himself with a team ofadvisers that one journalist called “the best and the brightest.” They includedMcGeorge Bundy, a Harvard University dean, as national security adviser; RobertMcNamara, president of Ford Motor Company, as secretary of defense; and DeanRusk, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, as secretary of state. Of all theadvisers who filled Kennedy’s inner circle, he relied most heavily on his 35-year-old brother Robert, whom he appointed attorney general.

672 CHAPTER 20

President andMrs. Kennedyenjoy time withtheir children,Caroline and John,Jr., whilevacationing inHyannis Port,Massachusetts.▼

BackgroundThe fictional KingArthur was basedon a real fifth- orsixth-century Celt.In literature,Arthur’s romanticworld is marked bychivalry andmagic.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B

DevelopingHistoricalPerspective

What factorshelp explain thepublic’s fascin-ation with theKennedys?

B. AnswersThe press por-trayed theKennedys as ayoung, attrac-tive, energetic,and stylish cou-ple; attention toarts and culture;young children;Kennedy’s elo-quence; televi-sion; an admir-ing press.

B


A New Military Policy From the beginning, Kennedy focused on the Cold War. Hethought the Eisenhower administration had not doneenough about the Soviet threat. The Soviets, he concluded,were gaining loyalties in the economically less-developedthird-world countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Heblasted the Republicans for allowing communism to developin Cuba, at America’s doorstep.

DEFINING A MILITARY STRATEGY Kennedy believed hismost urgent task was to redefine the nation’s nuclear strategy.The Eisenhower administration had relied on the policy ofmassive retaliation to deter Soviet aggression and imperialism.However, threatening to use nuclear arms over a minor con-flict was not a risk Kennedy wished to take. Instead, his teamdeveloped a policy of flexible response. Kennedy’s secretaryof defense, Robert McNamara, explained the policy.

A PERSONAL VOICE ROBERT S. MCNAMARA

“ The Kennedy administration worried that [the] reliance onnuclear weapons gave us no way to respond to large non-nuclear attacks without committing suicide. . . . We decidedto broaden the range of options by strengthening and mod-ernizing the military’s ability to fight a nonnuclear war.”

—In Retrospect

Kennedy increased defense spending in order to boostconventional military forces—nonnuclear forces such astroops, ships, and artillery—and to create an elite branch ofthe army called the Special Forces, or Green Berets. He alsotripled the overall nuclear capabilities of the United States. These changes enabledthe United States to fight limited wars around the world while maintaining a balance of nuclear power with the Soviet Union. However, even as Kennedyhoped to reduce the risk of nuclear war, the world came perilously close to nuclearwar under his command as a crisis arose over the island of Cuba.

Crises over CubaThe first test of Kennedy’s foreign policy came in Cuba, just 90 miles off the coastof Florida. About two weeks before Kennedy took office, on January 3, 1961,President Eisenhower had cut off diplomatic relations with Cuba because of a rev-olutionary leader named Fidel Castro. Castro openly declared himself a com-munist and welcomed aid from the Soviet Union.

THE CUBAN DILEMMA Castro gained power with the promise of democracy.From 1956 to 1959, he led a guerrilla movement to topple dictator FulgencioBatista. He won control in 1959 and later told reporters, “Revolutionaries are notborn, they are made by poverty, inequality, and dictatorship.” He then promisedto eliminate these conditions from Cuba.

The United States was suspicious of Castro’s intentions but neverthelessrecognized the new government. However, when Castro seized threeAmerican and British oil refineries, relations between the United States andCuba worsened. Castro also broke up commercial farms into communes thatwould be worked by formerly landless peasants. American sugar companies,


C

ANOTHER

PERSPECTIVEPERSPECTIVEEISENHOWER’S WARNING

The increase in defense spendingin the 1960s continued the trendin which Defense Departmentsuppliers were becoming moredominant in the American econo-my. Before leaving office,President Eisenhower warnedagainst the dangers of what hecalled the “military-industrial com-plex.” He included in his partingspeech the following comments:

“This conjunction of animmense military establishmentand a large arms industry isnew in the American experience.The total influence—economic,political, even spiritual—is felt inevery city, every statehouse,every office of the federal gov-ernment. We recognize theimperative need for this develop-ment. Yet we must not fail tocomprehend its grave implica-tions. . . . The potential for thedisastrous rise of misplacedpower exists and will persist.”

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

CSummarizing

What was thegoal of thedoctrine of flexibleresponse?

Vocabulary guerrilla: a soldierwho travels in asmall group,harassing andundermining theenemy

Vocabularythird world: during the ColdWar, thedeveloping nationsnot allied witheither the UnitedStates or theSoviet Union

C. AnswerTo allow the U.S.to fight limitedwars around theworld whilemaintaining anuclear balanceof power withthe Soviets.


D

674 CHAPTER 20

Vocabulary politicalrepression:governmentintimidation ofthose withdifferent politicalviews

D. AnswersFailure to oustCastro, loss ofworld prestige,embarrassmentfor JFK, ransomfor capturedcommandos.

SkillbuilderAnswers1. Between 10and 15 minutes2. Becausepower,resources, andwealth are con-centrated inthese places.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D

AnalyzingEffects

What were theconsequences ofthe failed invasionfor the UnitedStates?

which controlled 75 percent of the crop landin Cuba, appealed to the U.S. government forhelp. In response, Congress erected trade barri-ers against Cuban sugar.

Castro relied increasingly on Soviet aid—and on the political repression of those who didnot agree with him. While some Cubans weretaken by his charisma and his willingness tostand up to the United States, others saw Castroas a tyrant who had replaced one dictatorshipwith another. About 10 percent of Cuba’s popu-lation went into exile, mostly to the UnitedStates. Within the large exile community ofMiami, Florida, a counterrevolutionary move-ment took shape.

THE BAY OF PIGS In March 1960, PresidentEisenhower gave the CIA permission to secretlytrain Cuban exiles for an invasion of Cuba. TheCIA and the exiles hoped it would trigger a massuprising that would overthrow Castro. Kennedylearned of the plan only nine days after his elec-tion. Although he had doubts, he approved it.

On the night of April 17, 1961, some 1,300 to 1,500Cuban exiles supported by the U.S. military landed on theisland’s southern coast at Bahia de Cochinos, the Bay ofPigs. Nothing went as planned. An air strike had failed toknock out the Cuban air force, although the CIA reportedthat it had succeeded. A small advance group sent to dis-tract Castro’s forces never reached shore. When the maincommando unit landed, it faced 25,000 Cuban troopsbacked up by Soviet tanks and jet aircraft. Some of theinvading exiles were killed, others imprisoned.

The Cuban media sensationalized the defeat of “NorthAmerican mercenaries.” One United States commentator

observed that Americans “look like fools to our friends, rascals to our enemies,and incompetents to the rest.” The disaster left Kennedy embarrassed. Publicly, heaccepted blame for the fiasco. Privately, he asked, “How could that crowd at theCIA and the Pentagon be this wrong.”

Kennedy negotiated with Castro for the release of surviving commandos andpaid a ransom of $53 million in food and medical supplies. In a speech in Miami,he promised exiles that they would one day return to a “free Havana.” AlthoughKennedy warned that he would resist further Communist expansion in theWestern Hemisphere, Castro defiantly welcomed further Soviet aid.

THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS Castro had a powerful ally in Moscow: SovietPremier Nikita Khrushchev, who promised to defend Cuba with Soviet arms.During the summer of 1962, the flow to Cuba of Soviet weapons—includingnuclear missiles—increased greatly. President Kennedy responded with a warningthat America would not tolerate offensive nuclear weapons in Cuba. Then, onOctober 14, photographs taken by American planes revealed Soviet missile basesin Cuba—and some contained missiles ready to launch. They could reach U.S.cities in minutes.

On October 22, Kennedy informed an anxious nation of the existence ofSoviet missile sites in Cuba and of his plans to remove them. He made it clear thatany missile attack from Cuba would trigger an all-out attack on the Soviet Union.

▼

(top) Castrocelebrates aftergaining power inCuba.(above) The Bayof Pigs missionwas said to haveblown up inKennedy’s face.


837M

ILES

1,898 MILES

1,020 MILES

1,432M

ILES

1,259M

ILES

2,000

MILE

S (17MIN

UTES)

1,500

MILE

S(15

MIN

UTES)

1,000

MILE

S (12MIN

UTES)

1,554 MILES

Guantanamo

New York

Washington, D.C.

Denver

Houston

Atlanta

Chicago

Havana

U N I T E D S T A T E S

CUBA

Gulfof

Mexico

Caribbean Sea

PACIFICOCEAN

ATLANTICOCEAN

40°N

30°N

110°W 80°W90°W

Tropic of Cancer

Missile complex

Possible missile path

Range of quarantine

U.S. military installation

0


200 400 miles

N

S

E

W

OCT. 22 OCT. 24 OCT. 25 OCT. 28OCT. 14 OCT. 22 OCT. 24 OCT. 25 OCT. 28OCT. 14

U.S. spy planes reveal nuclearmissile sites in Cuba.

Kennedy tells the nationof his intention to haltthe missile buildup.

Soviet shipsapproaching Cubacome to a halt.

Khrushchev announcesplan to remove missilesfrom Cuba.


GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER1. Movement About how long would it have

taken for a missile launched from Cuba toreach New York?

2. Human-Environment InteractionWhy do you think it may have been importantfor Soviet missiles to reach the U.S. citiesshown above?

Kennedy implements a naval “quarantine” of Cuba, blockingSoviet ships from reaching theisland. (below) A U.S. patrol planeflies over a Soviet freighter.

Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962*

*Missile path times and distancesare approximate.


For the next six days, the worldfaced the terrifying possibility ofnuclear war. In the Atlantic Ocean,Soviet ships—presumably carryingmore missiles—headed towardCuba, while the U.S. Navy pre-pared to quarantine Cuba and pre-vent the ships from coming within500 miles of it. In Florida, 100,000troops waited—the largest inva-sion force ever assembled in theUnited States. C. Douglas Dillon,Kennedy’s secretary of the treasuryand a veteran of nuclear diploma-cy, recalled those tension-filleddays of October.

A PERSONAL VOICEC. DOUGLAS DILLON

“ The only time I felt a fear ofnuclear war or a use of nuclearweapons was on the very first day,when we’d decided that we had todo whatever was necessary to getthe missiles out. There wasalways some background fear ofwhat would eventually happen,and I think this is what wasexpressed when people said theyfeared they would never seeanother Saturday.”

—quoted in On the Brink

The first break in the crisisoccurred when the Soviet shipsstopped suddenly to avoid a con-frontation at sea. Secretary of StateDean Rusk said, “We are eyeball to eyeball, and the other fellow justblinked.” A few days later,Khrushchev offered to remove the

missiles in return for an American pledge not to invade Cuba. The United States alsosecretly agreed to remove missiles from Turkey. The leaders agreed, and the crisisended. “For a moment, the world had stood still,” Robert Kennedy wrote years later,“and now it was going around again.”

KENNEDY AND KHRUSHCHEV TAKE THE HEAT The crisis severely damagedKhrushchev’s prestige in the Soviet Union and the world. Kennedy did not escapecriticism either. Some people criticized Kennedy for practicing brinkmanshipwhen private talks might have resolved the crisis without the threat of nuclearwar. Others believed he had passed up an ideal chance to invade Cuba and oustCastro. (It was learned in the 1990s that the CIA had underestimated the num-bers of Soviet troops and nuclear weapons on the island.)

The effects of the crisis lasted long after the missiles had been removed. ManyCuban exiles blamed the Democrats for “losing Cuba” (a charge that Kennedyhad earlier leveled at the Republicans) and switched their allegiance to the GOP.

676 CHAPTER 20

KEY PLAYERSKEY PLAYERS

JOHN F. KENNEDY 1917–1963

John F. “Jack” Kennedy grewup in a politically powerfulfamily that helped make hisdreams possible. His parentsinstilled in him the drive toaccomplish great things.

During World War II heenlisted in the navy and wasdecorated for heroism. In1946, he won his first seat inCongress from a Boston dis-trict where he had neverlived. While a senator, he wona Pulitzer Prize for his bookProfiles in Courage.

Although he radiated self-confidence, Kennedy sufferedmany ailments, includingAddison’s disease—a debili-tating condition that he treated with daily injections of cortisone. “At least onehalf of the days that he spenton this earth were days ofintense physical pain,”recalled his brother Robert.

NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV 1894–1971

“No matter how humble aman’s beginnings,” boastedNikita Khrushchev, “heachieves the stature of theoffice to which he is elected.”Khrushchev, the son of aminer, became a CommunistParty organizer in the 1920s.Within four years of Stalin’sdeath in 1953, Khrushchevhad consolidated his power inthe Soviet Union.

During his regime, whichended in 1964, Khrushchevkept American nerves onedge with alternately concilia-tory and aggressive behavior.During a 1959 trip to theUnited States, he met forfriendly talks with PresidentEisenhower. The next year, infront of the UN GeneralAssembly, he took off hisshoe and angrily pounded it on a desk to protest the U-2incident.


Meanwhile, Castro closed Cuba’s doors to the exiles in November 1962 by ban-ning all flights to and from Miami. Three years later, hundreds of thousands ofpeople took advantage of an agreement that allowed Cubans to join relatives inthe United States. By the time Castro sharply cut down on exit permits in 1973,the Cuban population in Miami had increased to about 300,000.

Crisis over BerlinOne goal that had guided Kennedy through the Cuban missile crisis was that ofproving to Khruschev his determination to contain communism. All the while,Kennedy was thinking of their recent confrontation over Berlin, which had led tothe construction of the Berlin Wall, a concrete wall topped with barbed wirethat severed the city in two.

THE BERLIN CRISIS In 1961, Berlin was a city in great tur-moil. In the 11 years since the Berlin Airlift, almost 3 millionEast Germans—20 percent of that country’s population—hadfled into West Berlin because it was free from Communistrule. These refugees advertised the failure of East Germany’sCommunist government. Their departure also dangerouslyweakened that country’s economy.

E

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

E

AnalyzingEffects

What were theresults of theCuban missilecrisis?E. AnswersKennedy stavedoff war;Khrushchev’sprestige tar-nished; manyCuban exilesblamedDemocrats for“losing Cuba”and switchedallegiance toGOP; Castro limit-ed exiles’ accessto Cuba.

The “death strip” stretched like a barrenmoat around West Berlin, with patrols,floodlights, electric fences, and vehicletraps between the inner and outer walls.

Walls and other barriers 10–15 feethigh surrounded West Berlin. Thelength of the barriers around the citytotaled about 110 miles.

Guard dogs and machine guns dis-uaded most people from crossingover illegally, yet some still dared.



EastBerlin

WestBerlin

FrenchZone

BritishZone

AmericanZone

CheckpointCharlie

BrandenburgGate

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THE BERLIN WALL, 1961In 1961, Nikita Khrushchev, theSoviet premier, ordered the BerlinWall built to stop the flow ofrefugees from East to West Berlin.Most were seeking freedom fromCommunist rule.

The wall isolated West Berlinfrom a hostile German DemocraticRepublic (GDR). Passing from Eastto West was almost impossiblewithout the Communist govern-ment's permission.

During the 28 years the wall wasstanding, approximately 5,000 peo-ple succeeded in fleeing. Almost200 people died in the attempt;most were shot by the GDR borderguards. In 1989, East Germanyopened the Berlin Wall to cheeringcrowds. Today the rubbled concreteis a reminder of the Cold War ten-sions between East and West.

The Berlin Wall was first made of brick and barbed wire,but was later erected in cement and steel.

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678 CHAPTER 20

•John F. Kennedy•flexible response

•Fidel Castro•Berlin Wall

•hot line•Limited Test Ban Treaty

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining itssignificance.

MAIN IDEA 2. TAKING NOTES

Using diagrams such as the onebelow, list two outcomes for each ofthese events: first Kennedy-Nixondebate, Bay of Pigs invasion, Cubanmissile crisis, and construction ofthe Berlin Wall.

Which of these outcomes leddirectly to other events listed hereor described in this section?

CRITICAL THINKING3. EVALUATING DECISIONS

How well do you think PresidentKennedy handled the Cuban missilecrisis? Justify your opinion with spe-cific examples from the text. Think About:

• Kennedy’s decision to impose anaval “quarantine” of Cuba

• the nuclear showdown betweenthe superpowers

• Kennedy’s decision not to invadeCuba

4. ANALYZING VISUAL SOURCESExamine the cartoon above ofKennedy (left) facing off withKhrushchev and Castro. What doyou think the cartoonist was tryingto convey?

5. DRAWING CONCLUSIONSWhat kind of political statement wasmade by the United States’ supportof West Berlin?

OutcomeEvent

Outcome

F

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

F

AnalyzingMotives

What ledKhrushchev toerect the BerlinWall?

F. AnswerCommunistswanted to stopthe flow of EastGermanrefugees intoWest Berlin andfurther isolatethe thriving city.

Khrushchev realized that this problem had to besolved. At a summit meeting in Vienna, Austria, inJune 1961, he threatened to sign a treaty with EastGermany that would enable that country to close allthe access roads to West Berlin. When Kennedy refusedto give up U.S. access to West Berlin, Khrushchev furi-ously declared, “I want peace. But, if you want war,that is your problem.”

After returning home, Kennedy told the nation in a tele-vised address that Berlin was “the great testing place ofWestern courage and will.” He pledged “[W]e cannot and willnot permit the Communists to drive us out of Berlin.”

Kennedy’s determination and America’s superior nuclearstriking power prevented Khrushchev from closing the air andland routes between West Berlin and West Germany. Instead, the Soviet premier sur-prised the world with a shocking decision. Just after midnight on August 13, 1961,East German troops began to unload concrete posts and rolls of barbed wire alongthe border. Within days, the Berlin Wall was erected, separating East Germany fromWest Germany.

The construction of the Berlin Wall ended the Berlin crisis but further aggra-vated Cold War tensions. The wall and its armed guards successfully reduced theflow of East German refugees to a tiny trickle, thus solving Khrushchev’s mainproblem. At the same time, however, the wall became an ugly symbol ofCommunist oppression.

SEARCHING FOR WAYS TO EASE TENSIONS Showdowns between Kennedy andKhrushchev made both leaders aware of the gravity of split-second decisions thatseparated Cold War peace from nuclear disaster. Kennedy, in particular, searched forways to tone down his hard-line stance. In 1963, he announced that the two nationshad established a hot line between the White House and the Kremlin. This dedi-cated phone enabled the leaders of the two countries to communicate at once shouldanother crisis arise. Later that year, the United States and Soviet Union also agreedto a Limited Test Ban Treaty that barred nuclear testing in the atmosphere.

“ I want peace. But, if you wantwar, that is yourproblem.”SOVIET PREMIER NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV

▼

Reading from this note card during aspeech in West Berlin, Kennedyproclaimed “Ich bin ein Berliner” (“I ama Berliner”).


848 CHAPTER 25

Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

Foreign PolicyAfter the Cold War

WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

Colin Powell did not start out in life with any special privi-leges. He was born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx, wherehe enjoyed street games and tolerated school. Then, whileattending the City College of New York, he joined theReserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). He got straight A’s inROTC, and so he decided to make the army his career.

Powell served first in Vietnam and then in Korea andWest Germany. He rose in rank to become a general; thenPresident Reagan made him national security adviser. In thispost, Powell noted that the Soviet Union was a factor in allthe administration’s foreign policy decisions.

A PERSONAL VOICE COLIN POWELL

“ Our choosing sides in conflicts around the world wasalmost always decided on the basis of East-West competi-tion. The new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, however, wasturning the old Cold War formulas on their head. . . . RonaldReagan . . . had the vision and flexibility, lacking in many knee-jerk Cold Warriors[participants in the Cold War between the U.S. and the USSR], to recognize thatGorbachev was a new man in a new age offering new opportunities for peace.”

—My American Journey

Though U.S. foreign policy in the early 1980s was marked by intense hostilitytoward the Soviet Union, drastic economic problems in the Soviet Uniondestroyed its ability to continue the Cold War standoff.

The Cold War EndsIn March of 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the general secretary of theCommunist Party in the Soviet Union. His rise to power marked the beginning ofa new era in the Soviet Union.

•MikhailGorbachev

•glasnost•perestroika•INF Treaty

•TiananmenSquare

•Sandinistas•Contras•Operation DesertStorm

The end of the Cold War,marked by the breakup ofthe Soviet Union in 1991, ledto a redirection of many U.S.goals and policies.

After the Cold War, the UnitedStates provided and continues toprovide substantial economicsupport to the new capitalisticand democratic nations.

General Colin Powell



GORBACHEV INITIATES REFORM Gorbachev had inher-ited a host of problems in the Soviet Union. Many of themrevolved around the stagnant Soviet economy. But in factthe entire Soviet system suffered from gross inefficiency andrecession.

An imaginative, skilled diplomat and political leader,Gorbachev advocated a policy known as glasnost (Russianfor “openness”). He allowed open criticism of the Sovietgovernment and took some steps toward freedom of thepress. In 1985, he outlined his plans for perestroika, arestructuring of Soviet society. He called for less govern-ment control of the economy, the introduction of some pri-vate enterprise, and steps toward establishing a democraticgovernment in the Soviet Union. His plan of action reflectedthe failure of the Communist system.

Gorbachev recognized that better relations with theUnited States would allow the Soviets to reduce their mili-tary spending and reform their economy. As a result, he ini-tiated a series of arms-control meetings that led to the INFTreaty (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty)signed on December 8, 1987. The United States Senate rati-fied the treaty five months later in May 1988. The treatyeliminated two classes of weapons systems in Europe andallowed each nation to make on-site inspections of theother’s military installations.

THE SOVIET UNION DECLINES Gorbachev’s introductionof democratic ideals led to a dramatic increase in national-ism on the part of the Soviet Union’s non-Russian republics.The pressure for complete change was overwhelming. InDecember 1991, 14 non-Russian republics declared theirindependence from the Soviet Union. Muscled aside byRussian reformers who thought he was working too slowlytoward democracy, Gorbachev himself lost power andresigned as Soviet president. After 74 years, the SovietUnion dissolved.

A loose federation known as the Commonwealth ofIndependent States (CIS) took the place of the SovietUnion. In February 1992, President George Bush andRussian president Boris Yeltsin issued a formal statementdeclaring an end to the Cold War that had plagued the two nations and dividedthe world since 1945. The statement marked the beginning of a new era of“friendship and partnership” between the two nations. In January 1993, Yeltsinand Bush signed the START II pact, designed to cut both nations’ nuclear arsenalsby two-thirds.

THE COLLAPSE OF COMMUNIST REGIMES Before his resignation, Gorbachevhad encouraged the people of East Germany and Eastern Europe to go their ownways. In 1988, when the Soviet Union was still intact, he reduced the number ofSoviet troops in Eastern Europe and allowed non-Communist parties to organizein satellite nations, such as East Germany and Poland. He encouraged the satel-lite nations to move toward democracy. The impoverished Soviet Union wouldno longer support unpopular Communist regimes.

In October 1989, East Germans startled the world by repudiating theirCommunist government. On November 9, 1989, East Germany opened the BerlinWall, allowing free passage between the two parts of the city for the first time in


DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS IN RUSSIA

After the Soviet Union dissolvedin 1991, Boris Yeltsin continuedas president of Russia. Yeltsinended price controls andincreased private business own-ership. The Russian parliamentopposed Yeltsin’s policies, evenafter a 1993 referendum showedthat the majority of voters supported them.

In December 1993, Russianvoters installed a new parliamentand approved a new constitution,parts of which resembled theU.S. Constitution. The electionresults heralded an era of increas-ing democracy in Russia. In 1996,Yeltsin won reelection as presi-dent of Russia. He was succeed-ed in 2000 by Vladimir Putin.

The Conservative Tide 849

A

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

A

EvaluatingLeadership

Whichevidence in thetext supports theviewpoint thatGorbachev was askilled politicianand diplomat?

A. AnswerGorbachev rec-ognized that theSoviet economyand politicalsystem were indisarray. Ratherthan trying toheal these sys-tems, he offerednew plans forgovernment andthe economythrough glas-nost and perestroika.


A Chineseprotester defiesthe tanks inTiananmenSquare in 1989.

28 years. East German border guards stood byand watched as Berliners pounded away withhammers and other tools at the despised wall.In early 1990, East Germany held its first freeelections, and on October 3 of that year, thetwo German nations were united.

Other European nations also adopteddemocratic reforms. Czechoslovakia withdrewfrom the Soviet bloc. The Baltic states of Latvia,Estonia, and Lithuania declared their inde-pendence from the Soviet Union. Hungary,Bulgaria, and Romania made successful transi-tions from communism.

Yugoslavia, however, collapsed. Four of itssix republics seceded. Ethnic rivalries deterio-rated into a brutal war among Muslims,Orthodox Serbs, and Roman Catholic Croats,who were dividing Yugoslavia, each claimingparts of it. Serbia backed Serb minorities thatwere stirring up civil unrest in Croatia andBosnia.

COMMUNISM CONTINUES IN CHINA Even before perestroika unfolded in theSoviet Union, economic reform had begun in China. Early in the 1980s, theChinese Communist government loosened its grip on business and eliminatedsome price controls. Students in China began to demand freedom of speech anda greater voice in government.

In April 1989, university students in China held marches that quickly grewinto large demonstrations in Beijing’s Tiananmen (tyänPänPmDnP) Square andon the streets of other cities. In Tiananmen Square, Chinese students constructeda version of the Statue of Liberty to symbolize their struggle for democracy.

China’s premier, Li Peng, eventually ordered the military to crush the pro-testers. China’s armed forces stormed into Tiananmen Square, slaughteringunarmed students. The world’s democratic countries watched these events inhorror on television. The collapse of the pro-democracy movement left thefuture in China uncertain. As one student leader said, “The government has wonthe battle here today. But they have lost the people’s hearts.”

850 CHAPTER 25

B

▼

A demonstratorpounds away onthe Berlin Wall as East Germanborder guardslook on fromabove at theBrandenbergGate, onNovember 11,1989.

▼

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

B

AnalyzingEvents

What signssignaled that theCold War hadcome to an end?

B. Answer TheSoviet Uniondissolved. EastGermany andWest Germanywere unified.Several EasternEuropean coun-tries adopteddemocratic governments.


Central American and Caribbean PolicyCold War considerations during the Reagan and Bush administrations continuedto influence affairs in Central America and the Caribbean. In these places, theUnited States still opposed left-leaning and socialist governments in favor of gov-ernments friendly to the United States.

NICARAGUA The United States had had a presence in Nicaragua ever since 1912,when President Taft sent U.S. Marines to protect American investments there. Themarines left in 1933, but only after helping the dictator Anastasio Somoza cometo power.

The Somoza family ruled Nicaragua for 42 years. To keep control of its busi-ness empire, the family rigged elections and assassinated political rivals. Manypeople believed that only a revolution would end the Somoza dictatorship.

Between 1977 and 1979, Nicaragua was engulfed in a civil war betweenSomoza’s national guard and the Sandinistas, rebels who took their name froma rebel leader named Sandino who had been killed in 1934. When Sandinistarebels toppled the dictatorship of Somoza’s son in 1979, President Carter recog-nized the new regime and sent it $83 million in economic aid. The Soviet Unionand Cuba sent aid as well.

In 1981, however, President Reagan charged that Nicaragua was a Soviet out-post that was “exporting revolution” to other Central American countries. Reagancut all aid to the Sandinista government and threw his support to guerrilla forcesknown as the Contras because they were “against” the Sandinistas. By 1983, theContra army had grown to nearly 10,000 men, and American officials from theCIA had stationed themselves to direct operations—without congressionalapproval. In response, Congress passed the Boland Amendment, banning military


SanJuan

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0 200 400 milesGEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER1. Location Which Central American and Caribbean countries experienced an

actual U.S. invasion of their territory during the 1980s?2. Region Besides direct attack, what other techniques did the United States

employ to influence countries in the Caribbean and Central American regions?

Central America and the Caribbean, 1981–1992

Guatemala Dec. 1990 U.S. suspends military aidbecause of regime’s civilrights abuses.

Honduras 1982–1990 Military aid includes100 military advisers. Country is a base forNicaraguan Contras.

Grenada Oct. 25, 1983 In first large-scale in-vasion in region since1965, 1,200 marinesand 700 Army Rangersrestore law and orderafter overthrow ofBishop government.

Panama Dec. 20, 1989 In Operation Just Cause,22,000 U.S. troops overthrowGeneral Manuel Noriega.

Nicaragua 1982–1990 Opposed to militarybuildup of Sandinista government and itsaid to leftist rebels in El Salvador, U.S.trains and aids Nicaraguan Contra rebels.

El Salvador 1981–1992U.S. expands economic andmilitary aid; sends advisers,including Green Berets, tohelp government combat leftist guerrillas.

SkillbuilderAnswers1. Grenada andPanama.2. Providingeconomic andmilitary aid, aswell as dis-patching militaryadvisors.


C

aid to the Contras for two years. However, Reagan’s administration still foundways to negotiate aid to the Contras.

On February 25, 1990, Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega held free elec-tions, and Violeta de Chamorro, a Contra supporter, was elected the nation’snew president. Chamorro’s coalition was united only in opposition to theSandinistas; it was too weak and divided to solve Nicaragua’s ongoing problems.

GRENADA On the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada, the United States useddirect military force to accomplish its aims. After noting that the island wasdeveloping ties to Communist Cuba, President Reagan sent approximately 2,000troops to the island in 1983. There they overthrew the pro-Cuban government,which was replaced by one friendlier to the United States. Eighteen American sol-diers died in the attack, but Reagan declared that the invasion had been necessaryto defend U.S. security.

PANAMA Six years later, in 1989, President Bush sent more than 20,000 soldiersand marines into Panama to overthrow and arrest General Manuel AntonioNoriega on charges of drug trafficking. Noriega had been receiving money since1960 from the CIA, but he was also involved in the international drug trade. Afterhe was indicted by a Miami grand jury, Noriega was taken by force by theAmerican military and flown to Miami to stand trial. In April 1992, Noriega wasconvicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Many Latin American govern-ments deplored the “Yankee imperialism” of the action. However, manyAmericans—and Panamanians—were pleased by the removal of a military dic-tator who supported drug smuggling.

Middle East Trouble SpotsResults favorable to U.S. interests were more difficult to obtain in the Middle East.Negotiating conflicts between ever-shifting governments drew the United Statesinto scandal and its first major war since Vietnam.

THE IRAN-CONTRA SCANDALIn 1983, terrorist groups loyal to Iran took a number ofAmericans hostage in Lebanon.Reagan denounced Iran andurged U.S. allies not to sell armsto Iran for its war against Iraq. In1985, he declared that “Americawill never make concessions toterrorists.” Therefore, Americanswere shocked to learn in 1986that President Reagan hadapproved the sale of arms toIran. In exchange for those sales,Iran promised to win the releaseof seven American hostages heldin Lebanon by pro-Iranian ter-rorists. What’s more, membersof Reagan’s staff sent part of theprofits from those illegal arms

852 CHAPTER 25

▼

President Reagan's message totelevision audiences about sellingarms to Iran differed greatly from whatwas going on behind the scenes.

C. Answer Thegovernmentused directintervention inCentral Americaand diplomacyin Europe.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

CComparing

Between1980 and 1992,how did U.S.policies regardingCentral Americadiffer from thoseregarding Europe?


“The United States should not intervene militarily in regional conflicts.”

A foreign-policy analyst at the Cato Institute, BarbaraConry, stated that “intervention in regional wars is adistraction and a drain on resources.” What’s more, sheargued, “it does not work.” Recalling the presence ofAmerican troops in Lebanon, Conry argued that inter-vention not only jeopardized American soldiers, it oftenobstructed what it sought to achieve.

“The internal freedomof a political communitycan be achieved only by members of that com-munity,” agreed ProfessorStephen R. Shalom. Headded that “using [militaryaction] encourages quick fix solutions that ignore the underlying sources ofconflict.”

“The United States must occasionally intervene militarily in regional conflicts.”

Proponents of U.S. military intervention abroad agreedwith General Norman Schwarzkopf that “as the onlyremaining superpower, we have an awesome responsi-bility . . . to the rest of the world.”

“The United States must take the lead in promo-ting democracy,” urged Morton H. Halperin, former direc-tor of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). “To say‘Let the UN do it’ is a cop-out,” stated adviser RobertG. Neumann.

Political scientist JaneSharp expressed a similarsentiment. She asked,“Can any nation that hastaken no action [in Bosnia]to stop the Serbian prac-tice of ethnic cleansingcontinue to call itself civilized?”

C O U N T E R P O I N TC O U N T E R P O I N TP O I N TP O I N T

sales to the Contras in Nicaragua—in direct violation of the Boland Amendment.President Reagan held a press conference to explain what had happened.

A PERSONAL VOICE RONALD REAGAN

“ I am deeply troubled that the implementation of a policy aimed at resolving atruly tragic situation in the Middle East has resulted in such controversy. As I’vestated previously, I believe our policy goals toward Iran were well founded.”

—presidential press conference, November 25, 1986

In the summer of 1987, special committees of both houses of Congress con-ducted a dramatic inquiry into the Iran-Contra affair during a month of joint tele-vised hearings. Among those testifying was Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, amember of the National Security Council staff who played a key role in providingaid to the Contras. North appeared in military uniform adorned with medals. Indefending his actions, North talked about patriotism and love of country. Heasserted that he thought he was carrying out the president’s wishes and that theend of helping the Contras justified almost any means.

After a congressional investigation, Special Prosecutor Lawrence E. Walsh,early in 1988, indicted various members of the Reagan administration who wereinvolved in the scandal. Oliver North was found guilty of taking part in thecover-up. He was sentenced to pay a stiff fine and perform community service. OnChristmas Eve of 1992, President Bush pardoned a number of Reagan officials.

THE PERSIAN GULF WAR Regardless of the scandal surrounding the Iran-Contraaffair, conflict with Iraq (Iran’s long-standing enemy) and its leader, SaddamHussein, soon eclipsed U.S. problems with Iran. During the 1980s, Iran and Iraqhad fought a prolonged war, and Hussein found himself with enormous war debtsto pay. Several times, Hussein had claimed that the oil-rich nation of Kuwait waspart of Iraq. On August 2, 1990, Iraqi troops invaded a disputed area claimed byKuwait. The Iraqi invaders looted Kuwait, then headed toward Saudi Arabia andits oil fields. If Iraq conquered Saudi Arabia as well as Kuwait, it would control


THINKING CRITICALLYTHINKING CRITICALLY

1. CONNECT TO TODAY Comparing and ContrastingWhat do you think are the strongest arguments for and against military intervention in regional conflicts?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R8.

2. CONNECT TO HISTORY Hypothesizing With at leastone partner, research the events leading up to U.S.involvement in one of these countries: Lebanon, Grenada,Panama, or Kuwait. Then negotiate to resolve the conflict.


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The Persian Gulf War, 1990–1991

854 CHAPTER 25

GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER 1. Region What did UN coalition forces probably hope

to achieve by moving forces into southern Iraq? 2. Movement How did the movements of coalition

ground forces show that the intention of the coalition inthe Gulf War was ultimately defensive, not offensive?

Aug. 2, 1990 Iraq invades Kuwait.

Women served along withmen in the military during theGulf War (right). Massive oilfires started by the Iraqisburned in Kuwait (below).

Feb. 24, 1991 UN coalition launchesground war.

Jan. 16, 1991 US/UN air attacksbegin against Iraq.


one-half of the world’s known oil reserves, which wouldseverely threaten U.S. oil supplies.

For several months, President Bush and Secretary ofState James Baker organized an international coalitionagainst Iraqi aggression. With the support of Congress andthe UN, President Bush launched Operation DesertStorm to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi control. On January16, 1991, the United States and its allies staged a massive airassault against Iraq. On February 23, they launched a suc-cessful ground offensive from Saudi Arabia. On February 28,1991, President Bush announced a cease-fire. OperationDesert Storm was over. Kuwait was liberated.

Millions of Americans turned out for the victory paradesthat greeted returning soldiers. After the debacle in Vietnam,they were thrilled the war was over, with fewer than 400casualties among UN coalition forces. (However, there weresubsequent reports that Gulf veterans were suffering fromdisabilities caused by chemicals used in the war.) By con-trast, Iraq had suffered an estimated 100,000 military andcivilian deaths. During the embargo that followed, manyIraqi children died from outbreaks of cholera, typhoid,enteritis, and other diseases.

BUSH’S DOMESTIC POLICIES Despite his great achieve-ment in the Persian Gulf War, President Bush was not assuccessful on the domestic front. He was hurt by risingdeficits and a recession that began in 1990 and lastedthrough most of 1992. Bush was forced to raise taxesdespite his campaign pledge. His approval rating haddropped to 49 percent by 1992. The weak economy and thetax hike doomed Bush’s reelection campaign, and 12 years of Republican leader-ship came to an end.


•Mikhail Gorbachev•glasnost

•perestroika•INF Treaty

•Tiananmen Square•Sandinistas

•Contras•Operation Desert Storm

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its meaning.


Use a chart like the one below toexplain U.S. foreign policy towardworld regions.

Now write a paragraph in which youdescribe a trouble spot in one ofthese regions.

CRITICAL THINKING3. ANALYZING CAUSES

What factors caused the end of theCold War? Think About:

• events in the Soviet Union• events in Germany and Eastern

Europe• how U.S. leaders responded to

those events

4. FORMING GENERALIZATIONS What factors do you thinkdetermined whether or not theUnited States intervened militarily inother nations?

5. HYPOTHESIZINGIs it possible for an authoritariangovernment to make economicreforms without also making politicalreforms? Support your answer withdetails from the text.

U.S. Foreign PolicyEurope

Central America and Caribbean

Middle East

KEY PLAYERKEY PLAYER

H. NORMAN SCHWARZKOPF1934–

In 1988, Norman Schwarzkopf,shown above, became comman-der in chief of forces in Asia andAfrica. During the Persian GulfWar, more than 540,000 menand women served under thecommand of “Stormin’ Norman.”Schwarzkopf said of SaddamHussein that he was “neither astrategist, nor is he schooled inthe operational art, nor is he atactician, nor is he a general, noris he a soldier. Other than that,he is a great military man.”

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D

DrawingConclusions

What issueled to the conflictin the MiddleEast?

D. AnswerControl over theoil in the region.

SkillbuilderAnswers1. By securingthe area, coali-tion forces wereprobably hopingto cut Iraq offfrom furtherland access toKuwait and alsoto isolate Iraqiforces alreadyin Kuwait. 2. Coalitionforces did notstrike deep intoIraq, only goingfar enough toprotect Kuwait.

D


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