The Cold War
Early Years 1945-1963
Review
By:
Michael Crews
Planning the Post-war World
• Yalta Conference
– Established free elections in postwar Europe
– Established the United Nations
• Every country in the world could have a seat in the general assembly
• Real power lies with the UN Security Council
– U.S., Great Britain, France, Soviet Union (Russia), and China all have permanent seats
– Outlined plans for an occupied Germany
• Germany would be split into 4 sections each controlled by one of the
four major Allied Powers
• Berlin would also be split this way
– Determined the fate of a liberated Poland
• Potsdam Conference
– Truman met with Soviets and accused them of breaking the agreements of
the Yalta Conference
– Germany and Europe now slipped into deep seated rivalry between
democracy and communism
– Germany splits into East and West Germany, so does the city of Berlin
The Cold War Begins
• Truman was reluctant to deal with Stalin
– Relations between the U.S. and Soviets cooled off considerably
– U.S. took an increasingly anti-communist position
• Stalin cut off western access to and from Berlin
• Truman ordered the Air Force to drop thousands of pounds of food
and supplies to West Berlin (Berlin Airlift)
• U.S. shifts to a policy of containment
– U.S. believed that if communism was kept inside the current Soviet Borders it
would eventually die out
– Truman Doctrine = financial aid and military advisement to countries trying to
resist communism in their borders
– Marshall Plan = financial aid to rebuild the economies of Western Europe after
WWII
– North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) = alliance that would support each
other in the event of a Soviet invasion
• Canada, U.S., France, Great Britain, and Germany among the countries
involved
• U.S. recognized Israel as a country in 1948
Korean War
• Korea divided @ 38th parallel after WWII
• Soviet backed North Korea invaded the American supported south
• MacArthur’s forces pushed the communists back all the way to the
Yalu river
– The Yalu river forms the border between China and North Korea
– Chinese troops swarmed across the border and pushed U.S. forces back south
of the 38th parallel
• U.S. then regained territory to the 38th parallel
– MacArthur wanted to invade China
– Truman fired him
The Cold War at Home
• Truman’s Fair Deal
– Stronger civil rights laws, including a ban on discrimination in hiring federal
employees
– Higher minimum wage and extension of Social Security benefits
– Funding of low-income housing projects
• Second Red Scare
– Americans became increasingly fearful that communists had infiltrated
American institutions
– Americans were growing more afraid of communism for the following reasons
• China became communist under Mao Zedong
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of providing the Soviets
information regarding the atomic bomb
• The Soviets now had nuclear weapons
• Communist forces had nearly overwhelmed the U.S. in Korea
• State Department official Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury
– Related to his espionage trial
– Joseph McCarthy = McCarthyism
• He accused anyone who disagreed with him of being communist
• He accused the Army of harboring communists
Eisenhower and Prosperity
• Funded projects like St. Lawrence Seaway and Interstate Highway
system
• Gross National Product more than doubled from 1945-1960
• ‘Baby Boom’ also fostered a need form more consumerism
• Cheap fuel, good roads, and affordable housing allowed for the
growth of suburbs
• Advertising and ‘white-collar’ jobs increased in volume as heavy
industry declined
• Consumer economics became the driving factor of the economy
• People began to buy on credit
– A dramatic shift in thinking from pre-war spending thrift
Cold War of the 50’s and 60’s
• This time period was marked by an escalating arms race
– ICMB’s, fall-out shelters, atomic bomb drills
– Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) or Massive Retaliation
• The U.S. and Soviets would virtually destroy each other if attacked by the
other one
• Space race
– Soviets launch ‘Sputnik’
– U.S. forms NASA and vows to be the first to put a man on the moon
• Eisenhower warns of being influenced by the military-industrial complex
• Kennedy takes office
– Extends liberalism
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Forced states to realign electoral districts to match population
Provide legal counsel to accused criminals who can’t afford it
Require law-enforcement to read suspected criminals their rights
Worked to limit religion in schools
– Vows to approach the Cold War differently
• Forms the Peace Corps
• Moves away from Massive Retaliation to a more ‘flexible response’
• The Bay of Pigs was an attempt by the U.S. to counter a communist
regime in Cuba
– It failed and became an international embarrassment ruining relations
between U.S. and Cuba
• Cuban Missile Crisis
– The closest the world has ever come to nuclear warfare
– U.S. blockaded Cuba
– Soviets agreed to remove missiles from Cuba if the U.S. would not invade
Cuba
– Led to the signing of arms control measures beginning with Nuclear Test Ban
Treaty
• JFK gets assassinated
– Lee Harvey Oswald
– Many conspiracies abound
Cold War Continues
• Elements of the Cold War continue up through
the 1990’s
• It ends with the fall of the Berlin Wall and
collapse of the Soviet Union