The Truman Doctrine and
McCarthyism
IB History
Nain Lopez & Elexuis Givens
Long Telegram from George Kennan
• On February 22, 1946 George Kennan, The
American charge d’ affaires in Moscow, sent
an 8,000 word telegram to the Department of
State with his views on the Soviet Union, and
U.S. foreign policy towards the Communist
State.
• In 1933 Kennan was among the U.S diplomats
to help establish the first American embassy in
the Soviet Union.
Long Telegram Cont.
• Throughout WWII he thought that President
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s friendliness and
cooperation with Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin
was a bad idea. Less than a year after
Roosevelt died Kennan was serving in Moscow
and released his opinions in what came to be
known as the Long Telegram.
• He was convinced that the Soviets would try
to expand their Sphere of Influence.
Long Telegram Cont.
• This telegram caused a sensation in
Washington.
• Stalin started making aggressive speeches and
threatening gestures towards Iran and Turkey
in 1945 to 1946 and this lead to the Truman
Administration deciding to take a stance and
rely on the nation’s military and economic
muscle rather than diplomacy in dealing with
the Soviets.
Harry S.
Truman
The Truman Doctrine
• The Truman Doctrine was made in 1947, it
established that the United States would
provide political, military, and economic
assistance to all democratic nations under the
threat from external or internal authoritarian
forces.
Truman Doctrine Cont.
• The Truman doctrine came from a speech
delivered by President Truman before a joint
session of congress on March 12, 1947. The
cause for the speech was an announcement
from the British government made on March
31, that they would no longer provide military
and economic assistance to the Greek
government in its civil war against the Greek
Communist Party.
Truman Doctrine Cont.
• Truman asked congress to support the Greek
government against the Communists. He had
also asked them to provide assistance for
Turkey had also been dependent on the British
for aid. The U.S. government believed that the
Soviet Union supported the Greek Communist
war effort and worried that if the communists
won in the Greek Civil War, the soviets would
influence Greek policy.
Other foreign policy problems that
influenced Truman’s decision to aid
Turkey and Greece
• 1. The soviet’s failure to withdraw their troops
from Iran in early 1946.
• 2. The soviet attempts to pressure the Iranian
Government into granting them oil
concessions.
• 3.Soviet efforts to force the Turkish
Government into granting them base and
transit rights through Turkish Straits.
Continued…
• President Truman requested that congress
provide $400,000,000 worth of aid to the
Greek and Turkish Governments and support
the dispatch of American civilian and military
personnel and equipment to the region. He
justified his request by saying that a victory by
the Communist in the Greek Civil War would
endanger the political stability of Turkey,
which would undermine the political stability
of the Middle East.
Containment
• Was a principle of the U.S. foreign policy that
sought to prevent the expansion of Communist
power (from 1947 to the mid 1970’s). This policy
was used by the U.S. after WWII in the Truman
Doctrine of 1947.
• President Truman worried that communism
threatened the democratic freedom of people
because like the U.S. the Soviet Union wanted a
world modeled on their own country’s society
and values.
Containment’s implications for the
Americas
• Positive implications: The Soviet Union would
break up. People could still have their
democratic rights.
• Negative implications: Getting into a third war
with the Soviet Union. The spread of
Communism.
Rio Pact
• It was originally made Sep. 2, 1947 and came
into force Dec. 3, 1948. The Rio pact was an
agreement signed in 1947 in Rio De Janeiro by
many countries of America. The main principle
in its articles was that an attack against one
was considered to be an attack on all of them.
This was known as the hemispheric defense
doctrine. The treaty came into force in 1948.
In 1982 the Bahamas was the most recent
country to sign it and ratify it.
Rio Pact Cont.
• One reason it was made was because after the
Truman Doctrine was made the U.S. wished to
make those new anti communist
commitments permanent.
Joseph
McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
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Born in Appleton, Wisconsin
Marquette University
Democrat early in his political years
joined the Marines during World War II
Republican candidate for the Wisconsin Senate seat
McCarthy won the election and became Senator.
re-election began to get closer
February 9, 1950
The fear became known as the Red Scare
McCarthyism
• American public went crazy
• chairman of the Government Committee on Operations of the
Senate
• accused several innocent citizens
• “evil and unmatched in malice”
Video
• How to spot a Communist
McCarthyism
Black List
• The people on McCarthy's list and others (actors, businesspeople
and even foreign diplomats) were hauled into secretive hearings led
by McCarthy and essentially accused of treason.
McCarthy and Foreign Policy
• McCarthy's actions were extreme, but they were similar to
measures taken by state and municipal governments out of fear of
a communist takeover. President Harry Truman's foreign policy,
known as the Truman Doctrine, was created not long before
McCarthy debuted his black list. The Truman Doctrine stood for
decades as the U.S. Government’s reasoning for entering into
uprisings, wars and disputes all over the globe.
*Russia successfully donates their first atomic bomb. This escalates the
global nuclear warhead stockpiling race.
Happenings…
• Russia successfully donates their first atomic
bomb. This escalates the global nuclear
warhead stockpiling race.
• Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist
Party defeats the Chinese Nationalists in 1949.
• NSC-68 is enacted in the Korean War from
1950 to 1953.
• This policy reinvigorated the containment of
the USSR.
Mao Zedong
Happenings…
• The Korean War was fought to a stalemate in
1951.
• This eroded domestic support for Truman
• Eisenhower became a hero in WW2 and was
elected President.
• The enactment of the National Security
Council was reinforced by his election.
• Armistice signed in1953.
President
Eisenhower
Happenings..
• John Foster Dulles becomes
Secretary of State.
• He was an Anti-Communist.
• Enacts policy of
Brinkmanship and Massive
Retaliation.
Happenings…
• French Indochina in abandoned in 1954.
• Eisenhower begins to give aid to Democratic
South Vietnam in 1955.
• Origins of the Vietnam Conflict.
USSR
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Conflict between the Western nations (including the United States, Great Britain,
France and other countries) and the Communist Eastern bloc (led by the Union of
Soviet Socialists Republics or USSR) began almost as soon as the guns fell silent at
the end of World War II (1939-45)
The USSR oversaw the installation of pro-Soviet governments in many of the areas
it had taken from the Nazis during the war
In 1947, U.S. leaders introduced the Marshall Plan, a diplomatic initiative that
provided aid to friendly nations to help them rebuild their war-damaged
infrastructures and economies.
In February 1948, a coup sponsored by the Soviet Union overthrew the democratic
government of Czechoslovakia and brought that nation firmly into the Communist
camp. Within a few days, U.S. leaders agreed to join discussions aimed at forming
a joint security agreement with their European allies.
USSR
• The process gained new urgency in June of
that year, when the USSR cut off ground
access to Berlin, forcing the U.S., Britain and
France to airlift supplies to their sectors of the
German city, which had been partitioned
between the Western Allies and the Soviets
following World War II.
NATO
(North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
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April 4, 1949
of Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United States
NATO formed the backbone of the West's military bulwark against the USSR and its
allies for the next 40 years, with its membership growing larger over the course of
the Cold War era.
Greece and Turkey were admitted in 1952, the Federal Republic of Germany (West
Germany) in 1955 and Spain in 1982. Unhappy with its role in the organization,
France opted to withdraw from military participation in NATO in 1966 and did not
return until 1995.
Warsaw Pact: The Communist Alliance
• Like NATO, the Warsaw Pact focused on the objective of
creating a coordinated defense among its member nations in
order to deter an enemy attack. There was also an internal
security component to the agreement that proved useful to
the USSR. The alliance provided a mechanism for the Soviets
to exercise even tighter control over the other Communist
states in Eastern Europe and deter pact members from
seeking greater autonomy
• occurred until six years after the Western alliance came into
being
• inspired by the rearming of West Germany and its admission
into NATO in 1955
Warsaw Pact: The Communist Alliance
• In the mid-1950’sthe U.S. and a number of other NATO
members began to advocate making West Germany part of
the alliance and allowing it to form an army under tight
restrictions
• West Germany formally joined NATO on May 5, 1955, and
the Warsaw Pact was signed less than two weeks later, on
May 14
• Joining the USSR in the alliance were Albania, Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic (East
Germany), Hungary, Poland and Romania. This lineup
remained constant until the Cold War ended with the
dismantling of all the Communist governments in Eastern
Europe in 1989 and 1990
Sources
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Offner, Arnold A. "President Truman and the Origins of the Cold War." BBC News. BBC, 17 Feb. 2011.
Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
"53a. McCarthyism." McCarthyism [ushistory.org]. Ushistory, 2008-2013. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
Memory, American. "Lesson 3: The Rise and Fall of Joseph McCarthy | EDSITEment." Lesson 3: The
Rise and Fall of Joseph McCarthy | EDSITEment. The National Endorsment for the Humanities, 2000.
Web. 18 Apr. 2013.
Schmidt, Eric, and Jared Cohen. "McCarthyism, Red Scare, and Domestic Subversion - Discover
the Networks." McCarthyism, Red Scare, and Domestic Subversion - Discover the Networks. A
Guide to the Political Left, 14 Feb. 2005. Web. 18 Apr. 2013.
Gerard, Pacillo. "Epistemologics." Epistemologics. Epistemologist, 08 Nov. 2010. Web. 18 Apr.
2013.
USA. US Department of State. Office of the Historian. Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public
Affairs, United States Department of State. By Bureau of Public Affairs. Office of the Historian,
Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State, n.d. Web. Apr.-May 2013
"Cold War." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 1996-2013. Web. 18 Apr. 2013
“Joseph McCarthy.” 2008. NNDB Tracking the Entire World. 2 Jun 2008 .
“Joseph McCarthy (1908-1957).” Biography. 21 Apr 2003. Appleton History. 2 Jun 2008 .
Simkin, John. “Joseph McCarthy.” Spartacus Educational. 30 May 2008 .
Truman, Harry S. Telegram to Joseph McCarthy. Feb 1950.
THE COLD WAR AND THE AMERICAS
1945-1981
TRUMAN: CONTAINMENT AND ITS
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE AMERICAS: THE RISE
OF MCCARTHYISM AND ITS EFFECT ON
DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN POLICY; IMPACT ON
SOCIETY AND CULTURE.
By: NAIN LOPEZ & ELEXUIS GIVENS