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Article published known as “The Sources of
Soviet Conduct”
Soviets were motivated by an innate
antagonism between capitalism and socialism
And the infallibility of the Kremlin
Soviets were bent on world conquest and they
believed in the eventual fall of capitalism
Article argued for the policy of containment to
meet all Soviet threats around the globe
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Marshal Plan
France, Britain, and Benelux nations signed a
military pact with the US
Talk of involving more countries
Determination to give independence to West
Germany
Marshal Tito struck out on an independent
course and would not listen to Stalin
West Berlin seen as a listening post and
outpost in the heart of the Soviet realm
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Frustrated, the Soviets ordered a blockade of
road traffic into Berlin and the US countered
with a blockade on the movement of goods
from the east into western Germany
Feeling that if Berlin is abandoned (don’t want
to risk WWIII) then all of West Germany then
Europe is next
Supplied a huge city with 13,000 tons of
supplies daily with an air lift
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On July 15, B-29s (known to carry atomic
bomb) were sent to Britain
Showed the US was serious, give the Air Force
experience, and they would become an
accepted fixture
Principle of forward air bases had been
established
The draft was reinstated, and army build began
Marshal Plan was reorientated as a military one
of containment
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Jews were returning in large numbers to Israel
because of the Holocaust – known as Zionism
Britain had a mandate over Palestine but did
not want to anger Arabs because of oil.
Handed it over to the United Nations where a
piece of land was given to the Jewish nation
with indefensible borders
Israel declared on May 14, 1948 and both US
and Soviets recognized it
Israel looks to Soviets for military arms
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Combined forces of Egyptian, Lebanese,
Syrian, Jordanian, and Iraqis attacked Israel
and pushed them back in 1948.
Four week truce negotiated and allowed Israel
to gain more military arms and they pushed
back the combined forces and beyond UN
boundaries into Western Galilee and Negev
Desert.
Problem of Palestinian refugees begins
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Creation of Israel
Creation of NATO – for the first time the US
entered an entangling alliance in peacetime – it
also provided air bases on European soil
May 12th – Russian lifted the blockade – West’s
blockade was hurting more than the Russian
blockade of Berlin
Bonn Republic formed
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The Soviets explode an atomic bomb
Now Soviets have the bomb and the Red Army
in Europe
Europeans are worried about Europe being the
atomic battlefield between the US and USSR
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Senator Fulbright called it “the arrogance of
power”
The idea that in the end every situation was
controllable and could be made to come outs as
the US wished
This thought process would lead right-wingers
to charge that the Truman administration was
full of traitors – how else could there be an
explanation for American failures
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In 1949, Chiang flees to Taiwan and China falls
to Mao and the Communists
Soviet Union and China sign a mutual-aid
treaty for 30 years
Klaus Fuchs was found guilty of giving atomic
secrets to agents of the Soviet Union
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Senator McCarthy , Feb. 9, 1950, states he has a
list of individuals in the State Department who
are card carrying members of the Communist
party
McCarthy argued, along with Republicans, that
the Truman administration had not done
enough. Truman countered that Republicans
always voted against increased funding
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House Un-American
Activities Committee
Purpose was to root
out Communists in
the federal
government
Investigated
individuals in
Hollywood
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January 1950 – Truman orders a reassessment
of American foreign and defense policy in the
light of the loss of China and Soviet mastery of
the atomic bomb
April 12 – a policy paper for the National
Security Council, number 68
“one of the key historical documents of the
Cold War”
First comprehensive statement of a national
strategy
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Called on the United States to assume
unilaterally the defense of the non-Communist
world. Furthermore, not take back areas under
Communist control but prevent expansion
An expansion of the Truman Doctrine
Americans would assume the role of world
policemen
This would be extremely expensive
The crisis that would allow Truman to
implement NSC-68 was just around the corner