THE COLD WAR AND THE POSTWAR YEARS 1945-1960
THE ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR:
THE TWO POWERS



The USA emerged from
WWII as by far the
world’s greatest power.
It accounted for half the
world’s mfg. capacity.
It alone possessed the
atomic bomb.


It believed it could lead
the rest of the world to a
future of international
cooperation, expanding
democracy, and everincreasing living
standards.
Organizations such as the
UN and World Bank were
created to promote these
goals.
ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR: THE
TWO POWERS

American leaders also
believed that the nation’s
security depended on the
security of Europe and
Asia, and that American
prosperity required global
economic reconstruction.
THE ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR:
THE TWO POWERS



The only power that in any
way could rival the USA was
the USSR.
It armies occupied most of
eastern Europe, including the
eastern part of Germany.
Its crucial role in WWII gave
it considerable prestige in
Europe.


Its claim that communism
had wrested a vast backward
nation into modernity also
gave it prestige among
colonial peoples struggling
for independence.
Like the USA, the USSR
looked forward to a new
world order modeled on their
own society and values.
THE ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR:
THE TWO POWERS


Having lost 25 million dead
and suffered vast devastation
during WWII, Stalin’s govt.,
was in no position to embark
on new military adventures.
But Stalin remained
determined to establish a
sphere of influence in eastern
Europe, through which
Germany twice invaded
Russia in the past 30 years.
THE ROOTS OF CONTAINMENT


It is arguable that that two
major powers to emerge from
WWII would come into
conflict.
Born of a common foe rather
than common long-term
interests, values, or history,
their wartime alliance began to
unravel from the day peace
was declared.



The USSR installed puppet
govts in Poland, Romania, and
Bulgaria.
They claimed this was no
different from American
domination of latin America or
GB’s determination to
maintain its own empire.
Many Americans were
convinced that Stalin was
violating his pledge of free
elections in Poland agreed to at
the Yalta Conference of 1945.
THE ROOTS OF CONTAINMENT

1946: In his famous Long
Telegram from Moscow,
American diplomat
George Kennan advised
the Truman Admin., that
the USSR could not be
dealt with as a normal
government.
THE ROOTS OF CONTAINMENT



He argued that
Communist ideology
drove the USSR to try and
expand their power
throughout the world.
Only the USA had the
ability to stop them.
He believed that the
USSR could not be
dislodged from eastern
Europe.
THE ROOTS OF CONTAINMENT


Kennan’s telegram laid
the foundation for what
became known as the
policy of “containment”
According to this policy,
the USA committed itself
to preventing any further
expansion of Soviet
power.
THE ROOTS OF CONTAINMENT

Shortly afterwards, in a
speech at Fulton,
Missouri, GB’s former
Prime Minister Winston
Churchill declared that a
“iron curtain” had
descended across Europe,
partitioning the free West
from the communist East.
THE ROOTS OF CONTAINMENT

Churchill’s speech helped
to popularize the idea of
an impending long-term
struggle between the USA
and USSR.

But it was not until
3/1947, in a speech did
President Truman
embrace the Cold War as
the foundation of
American foreign policy
and describe it as a
worldwide struggle over
the future of freedom.
THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE

Convinced that Stalin
could not be trusted and
that the USA had a
responsibility to provide
leadership to a world he
tended to view in stark
black and white terms,
Truman was determined
to put the policy of
containment into effect.
THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE

The immediate occasion
for Truman’s decision
came in early 1947 when
GB informed the USA
that because of its
economy had been
shattered by WWII, it
could no longer afford its
traditional international
role.

GB had no choice but to
end military and financial
aid to two crucial govts.:


Greece – a monarchy
threatened by a communistled rebellio
Turkey – from which the
Soviets were demanding
joint control.
THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE



The USSR had little to
do with the internal
problems of Greece
and Turkey.
Their problems were
largely homegrown.
Neither had held truly
free elections.

But they occupied
strategically important
sites at the gateway to
southeastern Europe
and the oil-rich Middle
east.
THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE
TENENTS OF THE TRUMAN
DOCTRINE


1. It is the policy of the USA to support free
peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation
by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
2. Truman asked Congress for $400 million to
support democracy in Turkey and Greece since
GB was no longer able.
THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE


The language of the
Doctrine suggested that
the USA had assumed a
permanent global
responsibility.
It set a precedent for
American assistance to
anticommunist regimes
throughout the world.
THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE



These nations could expect US
aid no matter how
undemocratic.
It also set a precedent for the
creation of a set of global
military alliances directed
against the USSR.
It would be the guiding spirit
of American foreign policy.
CONGRESS REACTS TO THE
TRUMAN DOCTRINE

Congress responded to
Truman’s call:

National Security Act of
1947:



Created the Department of
Defense.
Created the National
Security Council (NSA)
Created the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA)



1948: The first peacetime
draft was enacted.
“Voice of America” was
authorized by Congress to
beam US broadcasts behind
the iron curtain.
Atomic Energy Commission
established civilian control
over nuclear development and
gave the president sole
authority over the use of
atomic weapons.
THE MARSHALL PLAN

The rhetoric of the Truman Doctrine alarmed
many Americans.

But the threat of American military action
overseas formed only one pillar of the policy of
containment.
THE MARSHALL PLAN


Sec. of State George C.
Marshall spelled out the
other in a speech at
Harvard Univ., in June
1947.
Marshall pledged the USA
to contribute billions of
dollars to finance the
economic recovery of
Europe.
THE MARSHALL PLAN



Two years after the war,
much of Europe still lay
in ruins.
Food shortages were
widespread, and inflation
was rampant.
These conditions
strengthened the
communist parties of
France and Italy.
THE MARSHALL PLAN




The Plan allocated $12.5
billion over four years in 16
cooperating countries.
The Plan would be one of the
most successful foreign aid
programs in history.
Communism lost ground in
France and Italy.
1950: western European
production exceeded pre-war
levels.
THE MARSHALL PLAN

Since the USSR refused
to participate, fearing
American control over the
economies of eastern
Europe, the Marshall Plan
further solidified the
division of the continent.
THE REBUILDING OF JAPAN


Under the guidance of
Gen. Douglass
MacArthur, the USA
began the economic
reconstruction of Japan.
Japan adopted a new
democratic constitution
and eliminated absentee
landlordism so that most
farmers could become
landowners.
THE REBUILDING OF JAPAN

By the 1950s, thanks to
American economic
assistance, the adoption of
new technologies, and
low spending on the
military (the new
constitution barred it from
possessing an army)
Japan’s economic
recovery was in full
swing.
THE BERLIN AIRLIFT


Despite the Marshall Plan,
the Cold War intensified
and became more
militaristic.
At the end of WWII, the
Allies assumed control of
a section of occupied
Germany, and of, Berlin.
THE BERLIN AIRLIFT

6/1948: The USA, GB
and FR introduced a
separate currency in their
zones, a prelude to the
creation of a new West
German govt. that would
be aligned with them.


In response, the Soviets cut off
road and rail traffic from the
American, British, and French
zones of occupied Germany
and Berlin.
Stalin kept open supply routes
from the east since the Soviets
occupied that part of the
divided country and city.
THE BERLIN AIRLIFT
THE BERLIN AIRLIFT



An 11 month airlift
followed, with Western
planes supplying fuel and
food to their zones of the
city.
5/1949: Stalin lifted the
blockade.
The Truman Admin., won
a major Cold War victory.
THE BERLIN AIRLIFT



Soon, two nations
emerged, West and east
Germany, each allied with
a side in the Cold war.
Berlin itself remained
divided until 1991.
West Berlin survived as
an isolated democratic
enclave within East
Germany.
THE CREATION OF NATO



1949: A crucial year in the
Cold War.
The USSR tested its first
atomic bomb, ending the
American monopoly of the
weapon.
Also, the USA, Canada and 10
Western European nations
established NATO – pledging
mutual defense against any
future attack.
THE CREATION OF NATO



Many Europeans feared
German rearmament.
West Germany became a
crucial part of NATO
France saw NATO as a
“double containment” in which
West Germany would serve as
a bulwark against the Soviets
while integration into the
Western alliance tamed and
“civilized” the German people.
THE WARSAW PACT

The Soviets formalized
their own eastern
European alliance, the
Warsaw Pact in 1955.
THE CHINESE REVOLUTION



10/1949: Communists led by
Mao Zedong emerged
victorious in the long Chinese
civil war – a serious setback
for the policy of containment.
Republicans assailed the
Truman Admin., for “losing
China.”
The Truman Admin., refused
to recognize the new govt and
blocked its membership in the
UN.
NSC-68

In the wake of all these
events, the NSC approved
a call for a permanent
military build-up to
enable to the USA to
pursue a global crusade
against communism.



The memo described the Cold
War as an epic struggle
between freedom and
communism.
At stake was the survival of
the free world.
It helped spur a dramatic
increases in American military
spending.
THE KOREAN WAR
THE KOREAN WAR



Initially, American
postwar policy focused on
Europe.
But it was in Asia that the
Cold War suddenly turned
hot.
1945: Korea had been
divided into Soviet and
American zones = two
different govts.
THE KOREAN WAR


6/1950: The No. Korean
army with Soviet-made
tanks invaded So. Korea
and took nearly all the
country.
Goal: Reunify the country
under communist control.
THE KOREAN WAR


Viewing Korea as a clear test
of the policy of containment,
the Truman Admin., persuaded
the UN Security Council to
authorize the use of force to
repel the invasion.
The Soviets, who could have
blocked the vote, were
boycotting the meetings to
protest the refusal to seat
Communist China.
THE KOREAN WAR



The UN Security Council
voted 9-0 to repel the invasion
and restore peace.
It created a UN force under the
command of Gen. Douglas
MacArthur – Truman’s choice.
Invoking NSC-68, Truman
ordered American troops into
action = 4/5 of UN forces.
THE KOREAN WAR



American troops did the bulk
of the fighting of this first
battlefield of the Cold War.
9/1950: MacArthur launched a
daring counterattack at Inchon,
behind No. Korean lines.
No. Korea forces retreated
northward, UN forces soon
occupied most of No. Korea.
THE KOREAN WAR


Truman now hoped to
unite Korea under a proUS govt.
10/1950: When UN forces
neared the China border,
hundreds of thousands of
Chinese troops intervened
driving the UN troops
back in bloody fighting.
THE KOREAN WAR



MacArthur demanded the
right to push north again
and possibly invade
China.
Truman refused fearing an
all-out war on the Asian
mainland.
MacArthur did not fully
accept civilian control of
the military.
THE KOREAN WAR

When MacArthur went
public with his criticism
of the president, Truman
removed him from
command.
THE KOREAN WAR



The war then settled into a
stalemate around the 38th
parallel, the original border
between the two Koreas.
1953: An armistice was agreed
to, essentially restoring the
pre-war status quo.
There has never been a formal
peace treaty ending the Korean
War.
COSTS OF THE KOREAN WAR



36, 940 American troops were
killed.
415,000 So. Korean troops and
520,000 No. Korean troops
were killed.
2 million civilians (So.& No.)
– many from starvation after
American bombing destroyed
irrigation systems essential to
rice cultivation.


Hundreds of thousands
of Chinese troops were
killed.
The Korean War made
clear that the Cold War,
which began in Europe,
had become a global
conflict.
COLD WAR CRITICS


Stalin had consolidated a
brutal dictatorship that
jailed and murdered
millions of Soviet
citizens.
His total control of life in
the USSR presented a
stark opposite of
democracy and free
enterprise.
COLD WAR CRITICS

As a number of contemporary critics, few of them
sympathetic to Soviet communism, pointed out,
however, casting the Cold War in terms of a
worldwide battle freedom and slavery had
unfortunate consequences.
COLD WAR CRITICS

George Kennan, who inspired
the policy of containment,
observed that such language
made it impossible to view
international crises on a caseby-case basis, or to determine
which genuinely involved
either freedom or American
interests.
COLD WAR CRITICS


Walter Lippmann, an
prominent journalist,
leveled a penetrating
critique of Truman’s Cold
War policies.
He objected to turning
foreign policy into an
“ideological crusade.”
COLD WAR CRITICS


To view every challenge to the
status quo as a contest with the
USSR, he argued, would
require the USA to recruit and
subsidize an “array of
satellites, clients, dependents,
and puppets.”
The USA would have to
intervene continuously in the
affairs of nations whose
problems did not arise from
the USSR.
COLD WAR CRITICS



World War II, he argued, had shaken the foundations of
European empires.
In a tide of revolutionary nationalism, communists were
certain to an important role.
It would be a serious mistake for the USA to align itself
against the movement for colonial independence in the
name of anti-communism.
EISENHOWER AND THE COLD
WAR
EISENHOWER AND THE COLD
WAR



Soon after entering office,
Eisenhower approved an
armistice that ended the
Korean War.
But this failed to ease
international tensions.
Ike took office when the Cold
War had entered an extremely
dangerous phase.



1952: The USA had exploded
the first hydrogen bomb – a
weapon far more powerful
than those dropped on Japan.
1953: The Soviets matched
this achievement.
Both sides feverishly
developed long-range bombers
capable of delivering weapons
of mass destruction around the
world.
EISENHOWER AND THE COLD
WAR


1954: Sec. of State John Foster
Dulles announced an updated
version of the policy of
containment.
“Massive retaliation”, as it was
called, declared that any Soviet
attack on an American ally
would be countered by a
nuclear assault on the USSR
itself.
EISENHOWERAND THE COLD
WAR


In some ways, this
reliance on the nuclear
threat was a way for the
budget-conscious Ike to
reduce spending on
conventional military
forces.
During his presidency, the
size of the armed forces
fell by nearly half.
EISENHOWER AND TEHE COLD
WAR
*But the number of
American warheads rose
from 1,000 in 1953 to
18,000 in 1960.
*Massive retaliation ran the
risk that any small
conflict, or even a
miscalculation, could
escalate into a war that
would destroy the USA
and USSR.
EISENHOWER AND THE COLD
WAR


Critics called the doctrine
“brinkmanship,” warning of
the danger of Dulles’s apparent
willingness to bring the world
to the brink of war.
The reality that all-out war
would result in mutual
assured destruction” (MAD)
did succeed in making both
sides cautious in their dealings
with each other.


It also inspired widespread fear
of impending nuclear war.
Govt., programs encouraging
Americans to build bomb
shelters in their backyards and
school drills that to train
children to hide under their
desks in the event of an atomic
attacked convinced Americans
that nuclear attack was
survivable.
EISENHOWER AND THE COLD
WAR
EISENHOWER AND THE COLD
WAR
EISENHOWER AND THE USSR
EISENHOWER AND THE USSR


In his inaugural address, Eisenhower repeated the
familiar Cold War formula “Freedom is pitted
against slavery; lightness against dark.”
But with the end of the Korean War and the death
of Stalin, Eisenhower was convinced that rather
than being blind zealots, the Soviets were
reasonable and could be dealt with in
conventional diplomatic terms.
EISENHOWER AND THE USSR


1955: Eisenhower met with
Nikita Khrushchev, the new
Soviet leader, at the first
“summit” conference since
Potsdam.
1956: Khrushchev delivered a
speech to the Communist Party
Congress in Moscow that
detailed Stalin’s crimes,
including purges of political
opponents numbering in the
millions.
EISENHOWER AND THE USSR


Khrushchev’s revelations
created a crisis of belief
among communists
throughout the world.
In the USA, three-quarters
of the Communist Party
membership abandoned
the party.
EISENHOWER AND THE USSR



Khrushchev also called for “peaceful
coexistence” with the USA.
This raised the possibility of easing Cold War
tensions.
But the “thaw” was abruptly shaken that fall when
Soviet troops put down an anticommunist
uprising in Hungary.
EISENHOWER AND THE USSR


Many conservatives
Republicans had urged
Europeans to resist
communist rule.
Dulles had declared
“liberation” rather than
containment to be the goal
of American policy.
EISENHOWER AND THE USSR


But Eisenhower refused to
extend aid to the
Hungarian rebels.
This was an indication
that he believed it
impossible to “roll back”
Soviet domination of
eastern Europe.
EISENHOWER AND THE USSR



1958: The USA and
USSR agreed to a halt to
the testing of nuclear
weapons.
This lasted until 1961.
It had been demanded by
the National Committee
for a Sane Nuclear Policy.
*It had published a study
which highlighted the
dangers to public health
posed by radioactive fall
out from nuclear tests.
*1959: Khrushchev toured
the USA and had a
friendly meeting with
Eisenhower at Camp
David.
EISENHOWER AND THE USSR


But the spirit of
cooperation ended
abruptly in 1960, when
the Soviets shot down an
American U-2 spy plane
over their territory.
Eisenhower first denied
that the plane had been
involved in espionage.
EISENHOWER AND THE USSR


Eisenhower refused to
apologize even after the
Soviets produced the
captured pilot – Francis
Gary Powers.
The incident torpedoed
another summit meeting.
THE COLD WAR AND THE
THIRD WORLD



The Cold War became the determining factor in
American relations with the Third World.
The policy of containment easily slid over into
opposition to any government, whether
communist or not, that seemed to threaten
American strategic or economic interests.
This played out in Guatemala, Iran, the Middle
East and Vietnam.
THE COLD WAR AND THE
THIRD WORLD


Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in Guatemala and
Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran were elected,
homegrown nationalists, not agents of the Soviet
Union.
But they were determined to reduce foreign
corporations’ control over their countries
economies.
THE COLD WAR AND THE
THIRD WORLD

Arbenz embarked on a
sweeping land-reform
policy that threatened the
domination of Guatelma’s
economy controlled by
the American owned
United Fruit Company.
THE COLD WAR AND THE
THIRD WORLD

Mossadegh nationalized
the Anglo-Iranian Oil
Company, whose refinery
in Iran was Britain’s
largest remaining
overseas asset.
THE COLD WAR AND THE
THIRD WORLD


Their foes quickly branded them as communists.
In 1953 and 1954, the CIA organized the ouster of
both governments – a clear violation of the UN
Charter, which barred a member state from taking
military action against another except in selfdefense.
THE COLD WAR AND THE
THIRD WORLD

1956: Israel, France, and
Great Britain, without
prior consultation with the
USA, invaded Egypt after
their country nationalist
leader Gamal Nasser,
nationalized the Suez
Canal, jointly owned by
GB and FR.
THE COLD WAR AND THE
THIRD WORLD



A furious Eisenhower forced
them to abandon the invasion.
The USA moved to replace GB
as the dominant Western power
in the Middle East.
American companies
increasingly dominated the
region’s oil fields.
THE COLD WAR AND THE
THIRD WORLD


1957: Eisenhower
extended the policy of
containment to the Middle
East.
The Eisenhower Doctrine
pledged the USA to
defend Middle East
govts., threatened by
communism or Arab
nationalism.
THE COLD WAR AND THE
THIRD WORLD

1958: Eisenhower
dispatched 5,000 troops to
Lebanon to protect a
govt., dominated by proWestern Christians
against Nasser’s efforts to
bring all Arab states into a
single regime under his
rule.
ORIGINS OF THE VIETNAM WAR
THE ORIGINS OF THE VIETNAM
WAR


In Vietnam, the expulsion
of Japan in 1945 led not
to independence but to a
French military effort to
preserve their Asian
empire. (19th century)
The Vietnamese were led
by Ho Chi Minh’s
nationalist forces.
THE ORIGINS OF THE VIETNAM
WAR


Anticommunism led the
USA into deeper and
deeper involvement .
Following a policy
initiated by Truman,
Eisenhower funneled
billions of dollars in aid to
bolster the French effort.



By the early 1950s, the USA
was paying four-fifths of the
cost of the war.
Wary of becoming bogged
down in another land war in
Asia, Eisenhower refused to
send in American troops when
the French requested them to
avert defeat in 1954.
He also rejected the NSA’s
advice to use nuclear weapons.
THE ORIGINS OF THE VIETNAM
WAR

1954: At the Battle of Dien
Bien Phu, the Vietnamese
defeated the French.

The French had to concede
Vietnamese independence.

The issue of Vietnamese
independence was debated at
the Geneva Conference of
1954.
THE ORIGINS OF THE VIETNAM
WAR



The Geneva Conference
produced the Geneva
Accords.
Vietnam was divided at
the 17th parallel = South
Vietnam and North
Vietnam.
Unification elections were
scheduled for 1956.
THE ORIGINS OF THE VIETNAM
WAR

But staunchly
anticommunist So. VN
leader Ngo Dinh Diem,
urged on by the USA,
refused to hold elections,
which would have
resulted in victory for Ho
Chi Minh’s communists.
THE ORIGINS OF THE VIETNAM
WAR

Diem’s close ties to
wealthy Catholic families,
in Buddhist So. VN, and
to landlords in a society
dominated by small
farmers who had been
promised land by Ho Chi
Minh alienated an
increasing number of his
subjects.
THE ORIGINS OF THE VIETNAM
WAR


American aid poured into
SVN in order to bolster
the Diem regime.
By the time Eisenhower
left office (1961), Diem
nevertheless faced a fullscale guerrilla revolt by
the communist National
Liberation Front.