The American Promise – Lecture Notes
Chapter 26 – Cold War Politics in the Truman Years, 1945-1953
I. From the Grand Alliance to Containment
A. The Cold War Begins
1. An Antagonistic Relationship—Although the Allies overcame a common enemy,
the prewar mistrust and antagonism between the Soviet Union and the West
resurfaced over their very different visions of the postwar world; Western Allies’
delay in opening a second front in Western Europe aroused Soviet suspicions during
the war; Soviet leader Joseph Stalin wanted to make Germany pay for the rebuilding
of the Soviet economy, to expand Soviet influence in the world, and to have friendly
governments on the Soviet Union’s borders in Eastern Europe; in contrast, the
United States emerged from the war with a vastly expanded productive capacity and
a monopoly on atomic weapons, making it the most powerful nation on the planet.
2. Spreading Capitalism—Fearing a return of the depression, U.S. officials believed
that a healthy economy depended on opportunities abroad; Americans believed
their needs could best be met in countries with similar economic and political
systems; but American leaders and citizens regarded their foreign policy not as a
self-interested campaign to guarantee economic interests but as the means to
preserve national security and bring freedom, democracy, and capitalism to the rest
of the world.
3. Avoiding Appeasement—Recent history also shaped postwar foreign policy;
many Americans believed World War II might have been prevented had Hitler’s
initial aggression been resisted rather than appeased.
4. The Future of Eastern Europe—Soviet and American interests first clashed in
Eastern Europe; Stalin considered U.S. officials hypocritical for demanding
democratic elections in Eastern Europe while supporting dictatorships friendly to
U.S. interests in Latin American countries; the Allies issued sharp protests but failed
to prevent the Soviet Union from establishing satellite countries throughout Eastern
Europe.
5. The Future of Germany—In 1946, wartime Allies also contended over
Germany’s future; U.S. policymakers wanted industrial revival there to promote
European recovery, while the Soviet Union wanted Germany weak militarily and
economically; resulted in the division of Germany.
6. The Iron Curtain—In March 1946, Truman, with Winston Churchill, traveled to
Fulton, Missouri, where the former prime minister denounced Soviet suppression of
the popular will in Eastern and central Europe and famously declared that an “iron
curtain” had descended across the continent.
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7. Containment—In February 1946, career diplomat George F. Kennan wrote a
comprehensive rationale for a foreign policy of containment—the idea that Soviet
expansion could be checked “in the face of superior force;” not all public figures
accepted the toughening line, but those who criticized the administration’s policy
met stiff resistance from Truman’s cabinet.
B. The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan
1. The Domino Theory—Crises in Greece and Turkey triggered the implementation
of containment through U.S. military and economic aid; outlining what would later
be called the domino theory, Truman warned that if Greece fell into the hands of
leftist rebels, “confusion and disorder” would spread throughout the entire Middle
East and eventually would threaten Europe.
2. The Truman Doctrine—According to what came to be called the Truman
Doctrine, the United States would not only resist Soviet military power but also
“support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities
or by outside pressures”; would aid any kind of government if the only alternative
appeared to be communism.
3. The Marshall Plan—Congress authorized aid for Greece and Turkey and later
followed with a much larger assistance program for Europe; in March 1948,
Congress approved the European Recovery Program, which came to be known as
the Marshall Plan; over the next five years, the United States spent $13 billion to
restore the economies of sixteen Western European nations; invited the Soviet
Union to participate, but, as the United States expected, the Soviets declined.
4. Opportunities for American Investment—The Marshall Plan helped boost the
U.S. economy because participating nations spent money to buy American products;
Europe’s recovery also created new markets and opportunities for American
investment.
5. The Berlin Airlift—In February 1948, the Soviets staged a brutal coup against
the government of Czechoslovakia, installing a Communist regime; then staged a
blockade of Berlin; the United States circumvented the blockade by airlifting goods
to West Berliners for nearly a year; Berlin was divided into East Berlin, under Soviet
control, and West Berlin, which became part of West Germany; the Soviet
abandonment of the blockade lent credence to the containment policy.
C. Building a National Security State
1. Developing Atomic Weapons—Advocates of the new policy of containment
quickly developed a defense strategy to back it up; after learning that the Soviets
had successfully detonated an atomic bomb, thus ending the U.S. monopoly on
nuclear weapons, Truman approved development of an even deadlier weapon, a
hydrogen bomb; the Soviets soon followed with their own hydrogen bomb; from the
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1950s to the 1980s, deterrence formed the basis of American nuclear strategy;
created an ever-escalating arms race.
2. Strengthening Traditional Military Power—The second component of U.S.
defense strategy was to beef up its conventional military power; formed the
National Security Council to advise the president; united military branches under a
single secretary of defense; enacted a peacetime draft; made women’s military
branches permanent; increased defense expenditures.
3. Forging Military Alliances with Other Nations—Marked a reversal of the
nation’s traditional foreign policy; in 1949, the United States joined its first
peacetime military alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); pledged
to go to war if one of its allies was attacked.
4. Strengthening Friendly Countries—In 1949 Congress approved $1 billion of
military aid to its NATO allies, and the government began economic assistance to
nations in other parts of the world.
5. Establishing a Secret Spy Network to Subvert Communist Expansion—The
government improved espionage capabilities; created the Central Intelligence
Agency to gather intelligence and perform sabotage, propaganda, and other antiCommunist activities; would topple legitimate foreign governments and violate the
rights of U.S. citizens.
6. Capturing Hearts and Minds—Lastly, the government intensified propaganda
efforts to win hearts and minds throughout the world.
D. Superpower Rivalry around the Globe
1. National Liberation Movements—The United States promoted the idea of selfdetermination, granted independence to the Philippines, and encouraged European
nations to withdraw from their Asian and African empires; at the same time, both
the United States and the USSR strived to cultivate relationships with emerging
nations’ governments that were friendly to their own interests.
2. Adopting Communist Ideas—Leaders of many liberation movements,
impressed with the rapid economic growth of Russia, adopted socialist or
Communist ideas; few had formal ties with the Soviet Union, but American leaders
saw them as a threatening extension of Soviet power.
3. Chinese Civil War—Civil war raged in China; Communists led by Mao Zedong
fought the corrupt and incompetent official Nationalist government under Chiang
Kai-shek; after providing almost $3 billion in aid to the Nationalists, Truman’s
advisers believed that further aid would prove fruitless given the ineptness of
Chiang’s government; in October 1949, Mao established the People’s Republic of
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China; formed a mutual defense treaty with the Soviet Union in order to guard
against an American-supported invasion.
4. Japan—With China in turmoil, the administration reconsidered its plans for
postwar Japan; by 1948, U.S. policy had shifted from decentralizing Japan’s economy
to a focus on reindustrializing it; now an economic hub within the American orbit.
5. Palestine—The one area where Cold War considerations did not control
American policy was Palestine; Truman committed U.S. support to the new state of
Israel despite his administration experts’ insistence that American-Arab friendship
was critical to protect against Soviet influence in the Middle East and to secure
access to Arabian oil.
II. Truman and the Fair Deal at Home
A. Reconverting to a Peacetime Economy
1. Sustaining Wartime Prosperity—Worried about both sustaining the wartime
standard of living and providing jobs for millions of returning soldiers, Truman
asked Congress to enact a twenty-one-point program of social and economic
reforms; Congress approved only one of Truman’s key proposals—full-employment
legislation—and even that was watered down.
2. Inflation—Inflation, not unemployment, turned out to be the most severe
problem in the early postwar years; shortages and consumer demand drove up
prices until industry could convert fully to civilian production.
3. Labor Relations—Another thorn in Truman’s side; unions sought to preserve
wartime gains with the weapon they had set aside during the war—the strike; 5
million workers went on strike in 1946; although most Americans approved of
unions in principle, they became fed up with strikes, blamed unions for rising prices
and shortages of consumer goods, and called for more government restrictions on
organized labor.
4. Women Workers—As many as 68 to 85 percent of women wanted to keep their
wartime jobs, but most who remained in the workforce had to settle for relatively
low-paying jobs in light industry or the service sector.
5. A Stabilized Economy—By 1947, the nation had survived the strains of
reconversion and avoided a postwar depression; economic boom lasted through the
1960s.
6. The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act—The GI Bill was the only large welfare
measure passed after the New Deal; offered 16 million veterans job training and
education; unemployment; and low-interest loans; sparked a boom in higher
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education; but the GI Bill discriminated against women because they filled just a
small number of military spots; discriminated against blacks because the funds were
administered at the state and local levels.
B. Blacks and Mexican American Push for Their Civil Rights
1. A Renewed Determination to Combat Racial Injustices—Black veterans as
well as civilians resolved that the return to peace would not be a return to the racial
injustices of prewar America; in the postwar years, individual African Americans
broke through the color barrier, achieving several “firsts”; in most respects,
however, little had changed, especially in the South where violence greeted African
Americans’ attempts to assert their rights.
2. America’s Racist Reputation—The Cold War heightened American leaders’
sensitivity to racial issues, as the United States and Soviet Union competed for the
allegiance of newly independent nations with nonwhite populations; the United
States was concerned that segregation and discrimination damaged its reputation in
the third world.
3. Truman’s Civil Rights Program—Despite his need for southern white votes,
Truman acted more boldly on civil rights than any previous president, thus
appealing more to northern black and liberal voters; created the President’s
Commission on Civil Rights and became the first president to address the NAACP.
4. Lack of Implementation—As with much of his domestic program, the president
failed to follow up aggressively on his bold words that all Americans should have
equal rights to housing, education, employment, and the ballot; but he did
desegregate the armed forces in 1950; Truman broke sharply with the past and
used his office to set a moral agenda for the nation’s longest unfulfilled promise.
5. Mexican Americans—Mexican Americans endured similar injustices, such as the
routine segregation of children in the public schools, and they too raised their voices
after World War II; formed the American GI Forum to battle discrimination against
Latinos.
C. The Fair Deal Flounders
1. The Republicans Take Congress—Republicans capitalized on public
frustrations with economic reconversion in the 1946 congressional elections;
accused the administration of “confusion, corruption, and communism”; Republicandominated Eightieth Congress weakened some reform programs and enacted tax
cuts favoring higher income groups.
2. Targeting Organized Labor—Organized labor took the most severe attack; in
1947, Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act over Truman’s veto; reduced the power
of unions and made it more difficult to organize workers.
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3. The Election of 1948—As the 1948 elections approached, Truman faced not only
a resurgent Republican Party headed by its nominee, Thomas E. Dewey, but also two
revolts within his own party: Henry Wallace on the left and Strom Thurmond on the
right; almost alone in believing he could win, Truman crisscrossed the country by
train and gained supporters; stunned the country with his election victory; testified
to the broad support of his foreign policy and enduring popularity of New Deal
reform.
4. The Failure of the Fair Deal—Truman failed to turn his election victory into
success for his Fair Deal agenda; Congress rejected Truman’s civil rights measures
and proposals for a federal health care program, aid to education, and a new
agricultural program to benefit small farmers and consumers; although Truman
blamed political opponents for defeating his Fair Deal, the president chose to devote
much more energy to foreign policy than to his domestic proposals; lack of an
expansive welfare state set the United States apart from most European nations.
D. The Domestic Chill: McCarthyism
1. The Second Red Scare—Truman’s domestic program also suffered from a wave
of anti-Communist hysteria that weakened both left and liberal forces; Republicans
who had attacked the New Deal as a plot of radicals now jumped on revelations of
Soviet espionage and Cold War setbacks, such as the Communist triumph in China,
to accuse Democrats of fostering internal subversion.
2. Joseph McCarthy—Senator Joseph McCarthy argued that Communists within the
United States were more dangerous than those abroad; got press coverage in spite
of his reckless and often ludicrous accusations; influence was so great that
McCarthyism became a term synonymous with the anti-Communist crusade.
3. Revelations of Espionage—Revelations of Soviet espionage gave some
credibility to fears of internal communism, but most individuals hunted down in the
Red Scare had done nothing more than join the Communist Party at one time,
associate with Communists, or support radical causes; most of these activities had
already taken place before the Cold War made the Soviet Union an enemy.
4. Identifying Communists—Hunt for Communists conducted by both the
executive branch and Congress; in 1947, Truman issued Executive Order 9835,
establishing loyalty review boards to investigate federal employees; hundreds of
employees were fired or resigned over accusations of disloyalty or “sexual
perversion”; the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigated
government employees and the movie industry; targets of the investigations often
lost their jobs and suffered public ostracism.
5. The Smith Act—The administration also went directly after the Communist
Party; prosecuted its leaders under the Smith Act, passed in 1940, which made it a
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crime to “advocate the overthrow and destruction of the Government of the United
States by force and violence”; Supreme Court agreed that the Communist threat
overrode constitutional guarantees.
6. Beyond Washington—The domestic Cold War spread beyond the nation’s
capital to state and local governments, which investigated citizens, demanded
loyalty oaths, fired individuals suspected of disloyalty, banned books from public
libraries, and more; overall, McCarthyism caused untold economic and psychological
harm to individuals innocent of breaking any law.
III. The Cold War Becomes Hot: Korea
A. Korea and the Military Implementation of Containment
1. Korea Divided—After World War II, Korea was divided into two occupation
zones at the thirty-eighth parallel: North Korea, supported by the Soviet Union, and
South Korea, supported by the United States.
2. North Invades South—Skirmishes between North and South Korean troops had
occurred since 1948; in June 1950, however, 90,000 North Koreans swept into
South Korea.
3. Committing Troops—Truman assumed that the Soviet Union and/or China had
instigated the attack; obtained UN sponsorship of a collective effort to repel the
attacks; named Douglas MacArthur as commander of UN force; sixteen nations,
including many NATO allies, sent troops to Korea, but the United States furnished
most of the personnel and weapons, deploying almost 1.8 million troops and
dictating military strategy. By mid-October, UN forces had pushed the North
Koreans back to the thirty-eighth parallel; the United States was faced with the
momentous decision of whether to invade North Korea and seek to unify the
country.
B. From Containment to Rollback to Containment
1. Crossing the Thirty-Eighth Parallel—Transforming the military objective from
containment to elimination of the enemy and unification of Korea enjoyed popular
and official support; with UN approval, U.S. forces moved beyond the thirty-eighth
parallel; MacArthur sent UN forces to within forty miles of China, disregarding
Truman’s orders; 300,000 Chinese soldiers crossed the Yalu River and helped the
North Koreans recapture Seoul by December 1950.
2. MacArthur Relieved—After three months, UN forces fought their way back to
the thirty-eighth parallel; Truman favored a negotiated settlement, but General
Douglas MacArthur, commander of the UN forces, challenged this plan; MacArthur
took his case to the public; fed up with MacArthur’s insubordination, Truman fired
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him in April 1951; but many people sided with MacArthur, reflecting American
frustration with containment.
C. Korea, Communism, and the 1952 Election
1. Eisenhower for President—Popular discontent with Truman’s war gave the
Republicans a decided edge in the election of 1952; General Dwight D. Eisenhower,
popular with the American public following World War II and current commander
of NATO forces, defeated Robert Taft for the Republican Party’s nomination; chose
Richard M. Nixon as his running mate to help appease the Republican right wing and
ensure that anticommunism would be a major theme of the campaign; with his
approval ratings plummeting, Truman decided not to run for reelection; the
Democrats nominated Adlai E. Stevenson, a popular governor of Illinois who was
acceptable to both liberals and southern Democrats.
2. The “Checkers Speech” Saves Nixon—When the press reported Nixon received
money from a private political fund, Democrats attacked; Nixon defused the
controversy by making a nationwide appeal on the new medium of television; said
his family pet, Checkers, might be an illegal gift but he didn’t want to break his
daughters’ hearts by returning the gift; received an overwhelmingly positive
response.
3. Republican Victory—Republicans harped on communism at home and failure to
achieve victory in Korea; voters registered their confidence in Eisenhower’s ability
to end the war; he won 55 percent of the popular vote.
C. An Armistice and the War’s Costs
1. The War Ends—Eisenhower made good on his pledge to end the Korean War;
the armistice left Korea divided at the thirty-eighth parallel, with North and South
separated by a 2.5-mile-wide demilitarized zone; the war took the lives of 36,000
Americans and wounded more than 100,000; South Korea lost more than 1 million
people to war-related deaths; North Korea and China had 1.8 million killed or
wounded.
2. A Success for Containment—The Truman administration judged the war a
success for containment, because the United States had supported its promise to
help nations that were resisting communism; despite both presidents’ threats to use
nuclear bombs, the war had been limited to conventional weapons.
3. NSC 68—The war had an enormous effect on defense policy and spending; the
National Security Council Report, NSC 68, warned that the survival of the nation
required military buildup; led to a huge increase in defense spending and a tripling
of the armed forces.
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4. U.S. Involvement in Asia—The Korean War convinced the Truman
administration to expand its role in Asia by increasing aid to the French, who were
fighting to hang on to their colonial empire in Indochina.
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