The Cold War at Home
US History
No. Few
communists were
actually found.
Key Concepts
• Effects of the Cold War on America’s
Home life
• McCarthyism
Fear of Communist Influence
• At the height of WWII ~80,000
Americans claimed membership
in the Communist party
• Loyalty Review Board
– Led by anti-Communist Republicans
– Accused Truman of being soft
– March 1947 – Truman set up the
Fed. Loyalty Program
• Loyalty Review Board
– Listed 91 “subversive” organizations
– Investigated 3.2 million fed.
Employees
• Dismissed 212
• 2,900 resigned
• Not allowed to see evidence against
them
HUAC
• House Un-American Activities
Committee
– Started by investigating movie
industry
– Led by Richard Nixon
– Friendly vs. unfriendly witnesses
– Hollywood Ten
• McCarran Act
– 1950 - Passed by Congress
– Unlawful to plan action that
might led to totalitarianism
– Vetoed by Truman
– Overridden by Congress
Spy Cases Stun the Nation
• Alger Hiss
– High level U.S. State Department
official educated at Harvard
University
– Accused of espionage [spying] by
Whittaker Chambers – former
Communist Spy
– Richard Nixon gained fame for
pursuing Hiss with H.U.A.C.
– Hiss went to prison for perjury
since too much time had passed to
be convicted of espionage [statute
of limitation].
– 1990s – Soviet cables released by
the N.S.A. proved Hiss’s guilt.
Spy Cases Stun the Nation
• The Rosenbergs
– Sept. 3, 1949
• USSR exploded an Atomic Bomb
– Klaus Fuchs, a nuclear physicist,
admitted giving nuclear secrets to
Soviets
• Implicated Ethel & Julius
Rosenberg – minor activists for
Communist Party
– The Rosenbergs professed their
innocence
– They were convicted [found guilty]
of treason on relatively weak and
circumstantial evidence.
– Executed via Electric Chair for
Espionage in June 1953 leaving
behind young children.
McCarthy Launches His “Witch Hunt”
• Joseph McCarthy
– Senator From Wisconsin
– Became well known for making random
unsupported accusations of communist
affiliation.
– “Name calling” in Senate was permitted
due to congressional immunity from
slander.
– The mere accusations of communist
affiliation ruined lives.
• Downfall
– Accused several U.S. Army officials of
communist affiliation
– Televised hearings exposed the baseless
and “cruelty” of his accusations
– The nation became to realize that
McCarthy was bully and “reckless”
– Censured by Senate and died of liver
disease
Anti-Communist Measures
• States passed laws making it
illegal to advocate overthrow
of government
– Many civil rights groups
believed such laws were a
violation of constitutional rights
[1st Amendment]
• Loyalty oaths
• Law enforcement
interrogation of Union
leaders, librarians, newspaper
reporters, & scientists
• Nobody was immune to
investigation.
Effects of McCarthyism
2 Nations Live on the Edge
US History
Brinkmanship
• 1949 – Soviets explode ABomb
• Race for the H-Bomb
– 67 times more powerful
than Hiroshima
– Nov. 1, 1952 – US 1st to
explode H-Bomb
– Aug. 1953 – USSR
explodes an H-Bomb
– Thermonuclear weapon
Brinkmanship
• New Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Sec. Of State John Foster Dulles
– Very anti-communist
– Promise to use all US force agnst
communist nations to prevent spread
– Promise to go to edge of all out war
– Brinkmanship
– Trimmed army & navy
– Expanded air force
– Buildup of nuclear arsenal
– USSR followed suit
• School children practiced air-raid
procedures, families built fall out
shelters
• Next 30 yrs – fear of nuclear war
Brinkmanship
• Sec. of State- John Foster Dulles, helped to shape US
foreign policy; he had been critical of Truman’s
“Containment” policy which did not challenge the
communist.
• Brinkmanship- Dulles proposed brinkmanship to
discourage aggression by threatening to use all US
force (the Bomb) against aggressor nations.
• Massive Retaliation- Dulles wanted to increase
funding for Nuclear weapons, and cut back spending
on conventional forces.
• In 1953, the US developed the Hydrogen bomb
Fallout Shelters were highly
advertised in magazines and
newspapers
Cold War Spreads Around the World
• Formation of CIA
– Used spies
• Middle East & Latin
America
– Iran
• Nationalization of oil
• US backed Shah
• 1953 Shah returned to
power – oil back in
western hands
Warsaw Pact
• 1953 – Stalin Died
• USSR recognized West
Germany
• 1955 – WG allowed to
rearm & join NATO
• Made Soviets fearful so…
– Formation of Warsaw Pact
– Defensive alliance against
NATO
• Geneva Summit
– Ike offered “open skies”
proposal
– Soviets rejected it
Warsaw Pact
• The Warsaw Pact, was an alliance set up under
a mutual defense treaty signed in Warsaw,
Poland, in 1955.
• The organization was the Soviet response to
the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization.
Warsaw Pact
• Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East
Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the
Soviet Union.
• The 1989 collapse of the Communist
governments in Eastern Europe ended the
pact.
The Suez War
• 1955
• GB & US agreed to help
Egypt finance construction of
Aswan Dam
• Egyptian Pres. Gamal AbdelNasser
– Tried to pit US vs. USSR
– After find’g out about Nasser’s
deals w/ Soviets
• Dulles w/d US offer
• Nasser nationalized the Canal
• Fr. & Brits outraged (they
owned it)
The Suez War
• Affected Israel
– Did not allow ships bound
for or coming from Israel
thru canal
• Israel sent in troops
• GB & Fr. Sent in troops
– Seized Med. End of Canal
• UN stepped in & ended
fighting
• Fr., GB, & Israel w/d, but
Egypt kept canal
Eisenhower Doctrine
• Jan 1957
• US would defend the
Middle East agnst
attack by any
communist country
Hungarian Uprising
• Led by Imre Nagy
• Demanded Soviets leave
Hungary
• Used Molotov cocktails
• Soviets response was harsh
– Nov. 1956
– Tanks rolled into Hungary &
killed ~30,000 Hungarians
– Nagy – executed
– ~200,000 Hungarians fled to
west
– US did nothing to help
– UN could do nothing due to
Soviet veto
Cold War in the Skies
• After Stalin – new Soviet
leader was Nikita
Khrushchev
– Favored policy of peaceful
coexistence
• Space Race
– Oct 4, 1957
– Sputnik
– US shocked & poured $$$
into space program
– Creation of NASA
– Jan. 31, 1958 – 1st US
satellite in space
Cold War in the Skies
• U-2 Incident
– CIA began secret high altitude
flights over USSR
– Used U-2 plane
– 1960 US nervous about U-2
program
• Why?
– Nobody knew about it
– Soviets knew about them in ’58
– Eisenhower wanted flights ended
– Dulles authorized 1 last flight
•
•
•
•
May 1, 1960
Pilot Gary Powers
Shot down by Soviet planes
Parachuted into Soviet lands
– Caught & jailed for 2 yrs
Renewed Confrontation
• Khrushchev demanded
apology & promise to stop
flights
• Eisenhower agreed to stop
flights but did not
apologize
• Khrushchev called off
May 16 summit
• B/C of U-2 incident the
60s opened w/ tension as
great as ever