Chapter 23 The United States and the Cold War, 1945-1953
I. Origins of the Cold War
A. The Two Powers
1. The US emerged from WWII as by far the world’s greatest power
2. The only power that could rival the US was the Soviet Union
B. Roots of Containment
1. It seems all but inevitable that the two major powers to emerge from the war would come to into power conflict.
2. Many Americans became convinced that Stalin (leader of Soviet Union) was violating the promise of a free election
in Poland. This promise was made at the Yalta Conference in 1945.
3. The Long Telegram advised the Truman admin that the Soviets could not be dealt with as a normal government
a. Containment: US needed to commit itself to prevent any further expansion of Soviet Power
b. Iron Curtain Speech: Churchill petitioned free West from Communist East (there was an “iron curtain”
dividing two
C. The Truman Doctrine
1. Truman soon determined to put the policy of containment into effect
2. To rally popular backing from Greece e and Turkey, Truman argued financial support in the defense of freedom.
3. The Truman Doctrine created the language through which most Americans came to understand the postwar world.
4. Truman’s rhetoric suggested that the US had assumed a permanent global responsibility (This set a precedent for
American assistance to anticommunist regimes throughout the world no matter how undemocratic & it set for
the creation of a global military alliance directed against the Soviet Union.)
D. The Marshall Plan
1. George Marshall pledged the US to contribute billions of dollars to finance the economic recovery of Europe.
2. The Marshall Plan offered a positive vision to go along with containment.
3. The Marshall Plan proved to be one of the most successful foreign aid programs in history.
4. By 1950, western Europe production exceeded pre war levels.
E. The Berlin Blockade and NATO
1. In 1945, the Soviets cut off road and rail traffic from the American, British and French zones of occupied Germany
to Berlin. (Berlin, the capital, was located in Eastern Germany.)
2. The US and Western European powers begin an 11 month airlift to drop supplies over Western Berlin.
3. In 1949, the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb, signaling the beginning of a new nuclear arms race between
the US and Soviet Union.
4. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) pledged mutual defense against any future Soviet attack.
5. This was countered by the Soviet Union with the Warsaw Pact, an alliance between the Soviet Union and it’s own
Eastern European Alliance.
6. In the wake of these events, the National Security Council approved a call for a permanent military buildup to enable
the US to pursue a global crusade against communism. This was formalized in a 58 page report called the
NSC 68.
F. The Korean War
1. In June 1950, the North Korean army invaded the south, hoping to reunify the country under communist control.
2. American troops did the bulk of the fighting on this first battlefield of the Cold War.
3. General Douglas MacArthur, in command, disagreed with Truman and was fired.
4. Korea made it clear that the Cold War, which began in Europe, had become a global conflict.
G. Cold War Critics
1. Casting the Cold War in terms of a worldwide battle between freedom and slavery had unfortunate consequences.
2. Walter Lippman objected to turning foreign policy into an “ideological crusade”
3. Although America granted independence to the Philippines in 1946, much of Europe intended to keep their empires.
4. Economics and geopolitical interests motivated American foreign policy, but the language of freedom was used to
justify American’s actions.
II. The Cold War and the Idea of Freedom
A. The Cultural Cold War
1. One of the more unusual Cold War battlefields involved American history and culture such as Hollywood
2. The Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Department emerged as unlikely patrons of the arts.
B. Freedom and Totalitarianism
1. Works produced by artists who considered themselves thoroughly nonpolitical became weapons in the cultural cold
war (i.e. Jackson Pollack and the New York School)
Chapter 23 The United States and the Cold War, 1945-1953
2. Along with freedom, the Cold War’s other great mobilizing concept was totalitarianism: “the defining elements were
intended to be taken as a mutually supportive organic entity composed of the following: an elaborating
guiding ideology; a single mass party, typically led by a dictator; a system of terror; a monopoly of the means
of communication and physical force; and central direction, and control of the economy through state
planning”
3. Totalitarianism left no room for individual rights or alternative values and therefore could never change from within.
As a result, the McCarran Internal Security Act was passed that barred totalitarians from entering the US.
4. Just as the conflict over slavery redefined American freedom in the 19th century and the confrontation with the Nazis
shaped understandings of freedom during WWII, the Cold War reshaped them once again.
C. Rise of Human Rights
1. The idea that rights exist applicable to all members of the human family originated during the 18 th century in the
Enlightenment and French Revolution.
2. In 1948, the UN General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
3. After the Cold War ended, the idea of human rights would play an increasingly prominent role in world affairs.
III. The Truman Presidency
A. The Fair Deal
1. Focused on improving the social safety net and raising the standard of living by increasing minimum wage, offering
national health insurance, expanding public housing, expanding social security and offering more aid to
education
2. Truman’s first domestic task was to preside over the transition from wartime to a peacetime economy
3. He moved to revive the stalled momentum of the New Deal with his Fair Deal program.
B. The Postwar Strike Wave
1. The AFL and CIO launched Operation Dixie, a campaign to bring unionization to the South.
2. In 1946, nearly 5 million workers went on strike.
3. President Truman feared the strikes would seriously disrupt the economy.
C. The Republican Resurgence
1. Republicans swept to control both houses of Congress in 1946.
2. Congress turned aside Truman’s Fair Deal Program but passed the Taft Hartley Act (this authorized the president to
suspend strikes by ordering an 80 day cool off period, banned sympathy strikes & secondary boycotts,
outlawed closed shops that prohibited forced membership, and the act also gave the wealthy tax cuts)
D. Postwar Civil Rights
1. Immediately after the war, the status of black Americans enjoyed a prominence in national affairs unmatched since
Reconstruction.
2. The Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 added Jackie Robinson to their team.
E. To Secure These Rights
1. A Commission on Civil Rights appointed by the president issued To Secure These Rights
2. The commission called on the federal government to abolish segregation and discrimination; it stated that there
should be a permanent federal civil rights commission, and national law against lynching and poll tax &
equal access to jobs and education
3. In 1948, Truman desegregated the armed forces as well as the federal work force
F. The Dixiecrat and Wallace Revolts
1. Dixicrats formed the States’ Rights party under the leadership of Strom Thurmond
2. A group of left-wing critics of Truman’s foreign policy formed the Progressive Party under the leadership of Henry
Wallace, and they called for international control of nuclear weapons and developing relations with the
Soviet Union
G. The 1948 Campaign
1. Truman’s main opponent was the colorless Republican Thomas A. Dewey
2. Truman’s success represented one of the greatest upsets in American Political History
IV. The Anticommunist Crusade
A. Loyalty and Disloyalty
1. The Cold War encouraged a culture of secrecy and dishonesty
2. At precisely the moment when the US celebrated freedom as the foundation of American life, the right to dissent
came under attack
3. Those who could be linked to communism were enemies of freedom
4. HUAC hearings against Hollywood began in 1947
Chapter 23 The United States and the Cold War, 1945-1953
B. The Spy Trials
1. HUAC investigated Alger Hiss
2. The Rosenburgs were convicted of spying and executed in 1953
C. McCarthy and McCarthyism
1. Senator Joseph McCarthy announced in 1950 that he had a list of 205 communists working for the State Department
2. McCarthy’s downfall came with nationally televised Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954
D. An Atmosphere of Fear
1. Anticommunism was as much a local as a national phenomenon
2. Local anticommunist groups forced public libraries to remove “un American” books from their shelves
3. The courts did nothing to halt the political repression (i.e. Dennis v. United States the Supreme Court upheld jailing
of Communist Party leaders due to their beliefs)
E. The Uses of Anticommunism
1. Anticommunism had many faces and purposes
2. Anticommunism also served as a weapon wielded by individuals and groups in battles unrelated to defending the US
against subversion
3. The anticommunist crusade promoted a new definition of loyalty-conformity
F. Anticommunist Politics
1. The McCarran Internal Security Bill of 1950: subversive groups had to register with government and could deny
passports to members or authorize deportation of members
2. The McCarran Walter Act of 1952 cut down on immigration of people with subversive affiliations or beliefs
G. The Cold War Rights and Organized Labor
1. Every political and social organization had to cooperate with the anticommunist crusade or face destruction
2. Organized labor rid itself of its left-wing officials and emerged as a major supporter of the foreign policy of the Cold
War
H. Cold War Civil Rights
1. The civil rights movement also underwent a transformation as the NAACP purged communists from local branches
2. The Cold War caused a shift in thinking and tactics among civil rights groups