Learning Target:
Explain how the United States
struggled to fight Communist
aggression in Europe and Asia.
 What
do you think was the most
significant cause of the Cold War? Why?
 George
Kennan : “The Soviet system
(communism) will fall apart if the United
States can keep the Soviets from
expanding their power.”
 Containment: keeping Communism
within its present territory through
diplomatic, economic, and military action
• Containment Doctrine
 During WWII, the
U.S. had troops in
southern Iran and the Soviets had troops
in northern Iran.
• Soviets failed to remove troops after the war
ended
• Soviets began to demand access to Iran’s oil
• Soviets helped Communists in N. Iran establish a
separate government
 U.S. threatened
not withdraw
military use if Soviets did
 March
12, 1947
 Truman asked Congress for $400 million
to fight Communism in Turkey and
Greece
• Provide aid to “free peoples who are resisting
attempted subjugation by armed minorities or
by outside pressures”
 June
1947
 Aid to European countries to rebuild
their economies
• To combat hunger, poverty, desperation, and
chaos
 Western
Europe’s recovery weakened
the appeal of communism
 West
Germany and West Berlin were created
by the U.S., France, and Great Britain
merging their zones
 The Soviets blocked Berlin to the Allies
• Truman ordered the Berlin Airlift
 NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• Mutual defense alliance
• U.S., Canada, Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Denmark,
Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, and
Iceland
 Warsaw
NATO
Pact – Eastern European answer to
 Mao
Zedong, Chinese – Communist
 Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese – Nationalist
 U.S. sent Nationalist government $2
billion in aid
 People’s Republic of China formed in
October 1949
• Chinese Nationalists fled to Taiwan
 Soviets
and PR of C signed treaty
 U.S. turned attention to Japan to help
stabilize economy and government
 Korea
divided at 38th parallel with Soviets
controlling north and U.S. the south
during WWII
 After the war, Soviets supported a
communist north Korean government
 June 25, 1950 the north Korean military
crossed into south Korea
• Direct violation of the Truman Doctrine
 With
support from U.N., Truman ordered
troops to Korea led by General
MacArthur
 MacArthur pushed the N. Korean troops
close to the Chinese border
• Chinese troops pushed into Korea and
MacArthur asked to go into China – threatened
use of atomic bomb
 Truman
fired MacArthur and remained
committed to a limited war
 Armistice
signed July 1953 – border
settled on 38th parallel
 33,600 American soldiers killed in action
 2,800 died from accident or disease
 Korean War forced America to embark on
a military buildup