The Truman Doctrine
• 12 March 1947: Truman  Congress;
Greece & Turkey need aid
• Communist victory in the Eastern
Mediterranean could mean Soviet
domination of the Middle East
• Truman declared that the US should
support free peoples throughout the world
who were resisting takeovers by “armed
minorities” or “outside pressures” 
• The Truman Doctrine
The Truman Doctrine (cont’d)
• $400 million approved
• Ended policy of post-war cutbacks
• Suggested new level of confrontation with
the Soviets
• Truman built a national consensus that
fighting communism was the purpose of
containment
Significance of the Truman Doctrine
• One of the declarations of Cold War
• Point at which the Truman administration
& Congress made public the decision that
Communism was a great threat
The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan - Go to
http://www.johndclare.net/cold_war8.htm
Postwar Europe
• Economic chaos  high unemployment,
active black markets, thefts
• Millions in refugee camps
• 1946-1947 winter: bitterest in centuries;
below-zero temperatures & record snow
• Damaged crops; froze rivers which
prevented water transport (creates fuel
shortages); food rationing in UK
The Marshall Plan (June 1947)
• US Secretary of State George Marshall
proposed that the US provide aid to all
European nations that needed it
• Move directed, “not against any country or
doctrine but against hunger, desperation,
and chaos.”
• Recipients had to remove trade barriers
and cooperate economically with each
other
Other Goals of the Marshall Plan
• 1) It could act as a barrier to Soviet
expansion
• 2) Pull Eastern Europe out of the Soviet
bloc
• 3) Integrate Germany and contain it
Marshall Plan Approved
• Many resist giving away billions of dollars
• February 25, 1948 communist coup in
Czechoslovakia (backed by Moscow)
• Coup convinced Congress of the need
strong, stable governments in Europe to
resist communism
• $12 billion over 4 years to 16 countries
The Marshall Plan
Significance of the Marshall Plan
• Great success economically & politically
• Nutrition improved and industry grew
• 1952: Western Europe was flourishing
• The threat of communist parties taking
over was ended
• USSR sees plan as a lure to Eastern
Europe to “be like us”
II. The First Cold War
1948-1953
• West & USSR clash over German
reunification
• Desire a productive Germany for European
stability
• June 1948: US, UK, & France fuse
occupied zones into one
• Want to encourage the political unity of
Berlin
The Berlin Blockade
(June 1948-May 1949)
• USSR fear  block all road, rail, & river
traffic to Berlin
• Stalin believed the Western powers would
give up the idea of a unified Germany or
surrender control of Berlin
• US & UK Response: 11 month Berlin Airlift
• US prestige increases; USSR prestige
declines
The Berlin Blockade - Go to
http://www.johndclare.net/cold_war9.htm
China from 1912-1949
Yuan Shikai (left) and Sun Yat-sen (right) with
flags representing the early republic
Wade-Giles & Pinyin
transliteration
• Nationalists (Kuomintang - KMT) also the
Guomindang – GMD
• Chiang Kai-shek - Jiang Jieshi
• Mao Tse-tung – Mao Zedong
Imperialism & Civil War In China
• I. The Early Republic (1912-1916)
– Western style democracy
– Sun Yat-sen (President); powerless govt.;
Allied Power in WWI
• II. Era of the Warlords (1916-1927)
• Popular anger over Versailles;
disillusionment w/West & democracy
• Sun Yat-sen dies 1925; Chiang Kai-shek
• Joint Nationalist/Communist efforts to
destroy warlords
Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek
(Jiang Jieshi)
Civil War In China
• III. From the White Terror to the Yanan
Soviet (1927-1937)
• White Terror, 1927
• Nationalists (Kuomintang - KMT) vs.
Communists
• Mao Tse-tung
• The Long March, 1934-1935
• IV. Nationalist China (1937-1945)
• Japanese invasion 1937
• Nationalist/Communist cooperation
Mao Tse-tung
Civil War In China
• V. The Chinese Civil War (1945-1949)
• Chiang Kai-shek (Nationalists)
• Mao Tse-tung (Communists)
• Mao & Communist forces victorious 1949
– Nationalists had lost popular support since
they rarely engaged the Japanese armies
during WW2 – peasants also favored Mao’s
promise of land reform
• Nationalists (Chiang) flee to Taiwan
Chinese Civil War, 1945-49
Mao Tse-tung proclaiming the establishment
of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
The Cold War Spreads to Asia
• The “Loss” of China:
• Republicans blame the Democrats for this:
• Insufficient US aid to Chiang
• Treachery within the State Department
• Democrats & Truman:
• Chiang never “had” China to lose
• Chiang had no popular support – outside
support no substitute
The “Loss” of China (cont’d)
• Many Americans believe the “treachery” &
“loss” theories
• Chinese Nationalists (UN) warn of the
spread of Communism throughout Asia
• Korean War in the summer of 1950
caused many Americans to believe this
The US Prepares to Confront
the Soviet Union
National Security Act of 1947
• Created the Department of Defense
(army, navy, air force)
• Joint Chiefs of Staff
• NSC (National Security Council)
established to advise the president on
security matters
• CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) created
to coordinate the government’s foreign
fact-gathering
The Pentagon
• Home of the Department of Defense
NSC-68
• NSC memorandum from 1950
• Said US should quadruple defense spending
• Resurrected by the Korean crisis
• Truman: $50 billion per year; 3.5 million men
under arms
• Marked the militarization of US foreign policy
• Move from “containment” to “roll-back”
• objective: stop the Soviets from imposing
absolute authority over the rest of the world
The Atomic Arms Race
• US was the only nation with the A-bomb
• Soviet spies help USSR develop the bomb
by 1949
• Truman approves the development of the
H-bomb
• 1952 – US explodes 1st H-Bomb (Ivy Mike)
• 1953 – USSR explodes 1st H-Bomb
• Peace through mutual terror
Ivy Mike Hydrogen Device
Ivy Mike (10.4 mT, Eniwetok, Oct. 31, 1952)
RDS-6 “Joe 4” (400 kT August 12, 1953)
The Korean War - Go to
http://www.johndclare.net/cold_war10.htm