America after WWII
The 1946 through the 1950’s
Remembering WWII
The United Nations
 In 1944 President
Roosevelt began to think
about what the world
would be like after WWII
 He especially wanted to be
sure that there would be
no other wars involving so
many countries and such a
loss of life
 In 1944, delegates from 39
countries met to discuss
the United Nations or the
UN
 The delegates agreed that the
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UN would have a General
Assembly.
Every member nation in the
world would have one vote
There would also be a Security
Council with 11 members
The Security Council would be
responsible for international
peace and security.
They were in charge of solving
disputes between countries and
asking for military force from
its members to uphold a UN
resolution.
More on the UN
 On April 25th, 1945 the
UN’s charter, or
constitution was written.
 The General Assembly
was given the power to
vote on resolutions, to
choose the non-permanent
members of the Security
Council and to vote on the
budget.
 Five members were made
permanent members of the
Security Council: USA,
China, Soviet Union,
 The 5 permanent members
had veto power.
 The UN would become
one of the most powerful
organizations in the world
and has been called upon
many times to intervene in
international situations.
Origins of the Cold War
 After World War II, an intense rivalry developed
between the United States and the Soviet Union.
 These were both superpowers with very different
political and economic systems
 The rivalry became known as The Cold War
 It led to a fear of Communism in the United States
and a massive buildup of military weapons on
both sides.
 The Cold War
The Soviet Union
 The first issue between the Soviet Union and the
USA was over security
 Germany had invaded Russia twice in less than 30
years
 The Soviet Union wanted to be sure that this
didn’t happen again by making Germany weak
and by placing the countries between Germany
and the Soviet Union under Soviet control.
 The second issue was that Soviets were considered
Communists.
Communism
 Communism is defined as a theory or system of
social organization based on the holding of all
property in common, actual ownership being
ascribed to the community as a whole or to the
state.
 The Soviets believed that Communism was the
best economic system and that it would eventually
replace Capitalism.
 Also, the Soviets felt strongly that all Capitalist
countries would try to replace/ destroy Communist
countries.
Capitalism
 The United States and many other Western
countries practice Capitalism.
 Capitalism is defined as an economic system in
which investment in and ownership of the means
of production, distribution, and exchange of
wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private
individuals or corporations, esp. as contrasted to
cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.
 The United States felt threatened by the Soviets in
regards to Capitalism and they did not want
Communism to spread.
The American Economy
 After WWII American leaders began to think about the
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economy.
Many believed that it was the Depression that caused
WWII and the rise of Hitler.
They did not want something like this to occur again
Many were convinced that economic prosperity was the
key to world peace.
On that note, they believed that democratic government
with protections for people’s rights made countries more
stable and peaceful.
“They also thought that the free enterprise system, with
private property rights and limited government
intervention in the economy was the best route to
prosperity”
Enter the Yalta Conference
 The Yalta Conference
 In February 1945
President Roosevelt,
Joseph Stalin and Winston
Churchill met at Yalta on
the Black Sea.
 The purpose of the
conference was to plan the
post-war world.
 There were several issues
discussed that would lead
to tension between the
“Big Three”
 The first issue discussed
was what to do about
Poland
 Because of the war there
were now two Polish
governments, one
communist and one noncommunist
 Roosevelt and Churchill
stated that the Poles
should be allowed to
choose their own form of
government, arguing that
was the reason they had
Yalta Continued
 Stalin believed that the
Poles needed to be
friendly towards the
Soviets.
 Eventually they
compromised: Roosevelt
and Churchill agreed to
recognize Polish
governments set up by the
Soviets.
 Stalin stated that the
government would include
members from the pre-war
government and that free
 Next the three decided to
issue the “Declaration of
Liberal Europe”
 This would state, “the
right of all people to
choose the form of
government under which
they shall live.”
 Thus free elections would
occur for the people to
choose what democratic
government they wanted.
Germany Divided
 Germany was to be divided into 4 zones following
the Yalta conference: France, Great Britain, The
USA and The Soviet Union
 These 4 countries also divided the city of Berlin
 Germany was also required to pay reparations for
the war which meant that Germany would pay the
countries with goods and products instead of cash.
 All the countries knew that Germany did not have
the cash to pay back the other countries
 This decision also led to the Cold War as there
were many arguments over the reparations and the
German economy in general
Tensions on the Rise
 After the decisions at
 Unfortunately, President
Yalta more issues arose
between the Soviets and
USA
 For example, the Soviets
didn’t appear to be
allowing free elections
 Also, they refused to
allow more than 3 noncommunist Poles to serve
in the Polish government
 The Soviets also pressured
the King of Romania to
have a Communist gov.
Roosevelt died and left the
country in the hands of
President Truman
 He was clear about his
intentions telling his Sec.
Of state “We must stand
up to the Russians” the
day after taking office.
 This led to Potsdam
The Potsdam Conference
 Potsdam Conference
 Truman asked Stalin to
meet in Berlin to discuss
the issues with Germany
 Truman believed that
German industry needed
to recover or else people
would be tempted to allow
Communism
 Stalin believed as strongly
in the need for German
reparations.
 Truman proposed that
Stalin take reparations
from their zone which
Stalin did not like because
he felt that his zone was
mostly agriculture
 Stalin had no choice but to
take the proposal.
 He had learned of the
Atom Bomb and he knew
that the other areas were
occupied with Britain and
France.
 Still TENSIONS ROSE
The Iron Curtain
 Truman had difficulty
 These satellite nations
keeping the Soviets to the
idea of a Declaration of
Liberated Europe
 Truman knew that it was
likely that Poland,
Romania, Bulgaria,
Hungary and
Czechoslovakia would
become pro-Communist
countries.
 The communist countries
of Eastern Europe came to
be called Satellite
were not under Soviet
control but they remained
Communist and friendly
with the Soviets
 This lead to Winston
Churchills’ Iron Curtain
Speech in which he coined
the phrase “Iron Curtain”
as separating the
Communist nations of
Eastern Europe from the
West.
 Iron Curtain Speech
Faltering Relationship
 The Soviets continued to
refuse to hold free
elections in Eastern
Europe.
 It became obvious that the
relationship between the
Soviets and United States
was deteriorating.
 In response, George
Kennan wrote what
became known as the
“Long Telegram” in which
he gave his views on
Communism
 The Long Telegram
 He firmly believed that it
was not possible to make
an agreement with the
Soviets.
 This telegram gave rise to
the idea of Containment:
keeping communism
within it’s present territory
through the use of
diplomatic, economic and
military reactions.
Iran
 During WWII the USA had placed troops in
Southern Iran while the Soviets had put troops in
Northern Iran to keep supplies going through the
Persian Gulf
 After the war the Soviets refused to withdraw their
troops and Stalin wanted access to the Iranian oil
supply.
 Stalin pushed local Communists to set up a
separate government in Northern Iraq.
The Truman Doctrine
 With issues in Iran, Stalin
looked to Turkey and the
route from Soviet Black
Sea ports to the
Mediterranean.
 The Black Sea
 In August of 1946, Stalin
demanded joint control
along with Turkey.
 Dean Acheson, the
Presidential advisor, saw
this as a step in Soviet
control of the Middle East.
 Truman was thus pressed to
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to show force.
He sent ships the Franklin
D. Roosevelt and the
Missouri to protect Turkey.
At the same time Great
Britain was trying to help
Greece.
Greek Communists tried to
start a war against the Greek
Government.
In February 1947, Great
Britain could no longer assist
in Greece because of the toll
on her own countrymen.
Continued
 On March 12th, Truman went before
Congress to ask for $400 million to fight the
Communists in Greece and Turkey.
 His speech became known as the Truman
Doctrine
 The goal was to assist people in countries
with minority groups fighting against them
The Marshall Plan
 Truman and Marshall
 Postwar Western Europe
was in shambles, people
were staving, the economy
was suffering and the
winter of 1946 was
terrible.
 In June 1947 George
Marshall, Secretary of
State, came up with the
idea of The Marshall Plan
also known as the
European Recovery
Program.
 The idea was that the USA
would give European
nations money and aid to
help them to repair their
economies
 The Soviet Union and it’s
satellite nations rejected
the offer
 Why?
 Instead they developed
their own economic
programs which further
pushed the two ideologies
apart.
The Crisis in Berlin
 In 1948 in became obvious that the Soviets
weren’t going to uphold their end of the bargain
 France, Great Britain and the USA decided to
merge their areas in Germany and Berlin allowing
the Germans to have their own government called
the Federal Republic of Germany or West
Germany
 West Germany was completely different than East
Germany. They had no military but was more
independent.
 This angered the Soviets and led to the Airlift
The Berlin Airlift
 Convinced that they would never receive reparations
from Germany, the Soviets cut off all road and rail
traffic to West Berlin
 President Truman then sent long-range bombers with
atomic weapons to bases in Britain.
 He refused to allow the Soviets to break down Berlin,
fearful that it would lead to a Communist take over in
Europe
 Truman was dedicated to keeping West Berlin alive so
for 11 months he sent planes over West Berlin with
food and supplies: medicine, coal, etc…2 million
pound total
 This forced Stalin to lift his blockade in May of 1949.
NATO: North Atlantic Treaty
Organization
 After the blockade people saw that the Soviets meant
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business
Americans decided that a military alliance with Western
Europe would be necessary
This became known as NATO and was a mutual defense
alliance. It was formed in April of 1949.
There were 12 original members. This was the first time
that the USA became committed to to maintaining peace in
Europe.
Later Western Germany was admitted and allowed to have
an army
This worried the Soviets and they decided to create the
Warsaw Pact.
The Warsaw Pact
 The Warsaw Pact is the name commonly given to the treaty between
Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland,
Romania, and the Soviet Union.
 It was signed in Poland in 1955 and was officially called 'The Treaty
of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance
 It was established to protect these countries from military attack and to
assure them that if there was an attack they would come to the aid of
the other pact members.
 Though it was stressed by all that the Warsaw Treaty was based on
total equality of each nation and mutual non-interference in one
another's internal affairs, the Pact quickly became a powerful political
tool for the Soviet Union to hold sway over its allies and harness the
powers of their combined military.
Issues in China leading to War
 From the 1920’s on
communists in China led
by Mao Zedong had been
struggling against a
Nationalist government.
 After WWII, the fighting
broke out again
 To stop a Communist
takeover, the USA sent $2
billion in aid but to no
avail, the planning of the
Nationalists was poor and
the money wasted
allowing the Communists
 The Communists established
The People’s Republic of
China in October 1949.
 In 1950 the Soviets had
already announced that they
had tested nuclear weaponry
and then they signed a treaty
of friendship and alliance
with China
 The USA refused to allow
the Communists into the UN
keeping the Chinese
Nationalists in their seats.
 This also lead to a new
idea about Japan
Japan and the USA
 After WWII General Douglas MacArthur was sent
to Japan to take charge of the United States
occupation there.
 His duty was to introduce democracy there and to
keep Japan from threatening war again. Also, the
USA was hopeful that the economy in Japan
would recover quickly.
 The USA viewed Japan as the key in Asia to
keeping Communism contained.
The Korean War
 Part One
 part 2
 At the end of WWII, the USA and the Soviets
entered Korea to get rid of the Japanese forces
there.
 Korea was divided at the 38th parallel of latitude:
Soviets controlled the North while the USA
controlled the South.
 As the Cold War started there were major issues
brewing in Korea. The USA claimed control over
all of Korea and so did the Soviets.
Towards War
 The Soviet Union sent a
 He also asked for the UN
lot of aid to the North
Koreans helping them to
build up a large army.
 On June 25th, 1950 the
North Korean’s invaded
the South driving back the
poorly equipped army of
the South
 President Truman saw the
invasion as a breech of
containment and sent
troops and ships to South
Korea.
to help which was passed
because the Soviets were
boycotting the UN as a
result of the Chinese
Nationalist
Representative.
 Truman then ordered
MacArthur to send troops
from Japan to Korea.
 MacArthur was able to get
enough troops together to
push the N. Koreans back
to the 38th line.
More
 After they were pushed
 China issue a major attack
back to the 38th parallel,
Truman ordered that the
American/UN/South
Korean troops continue to
push the Northerners back.
 They were successful at
this forcing them back to
the border of China.
 China saw the UN troops
as a threat and warned
them to stop the advance.
 The warnings were
completely ignored.
and pushed the
American/UN.South
Korean troops back over
the 38th parallel.
 MacArthur was furious
about this and wanted to
counter attack. Truman
refused because he didn’t
want to go to war with
China or have to use an
atomic bomb again.
 MacArthur refused to
listen
MacArthur is fired
 Truman was angered by MacArthur’s
unwillingness to listen.
 Thus he fired MacArthur who returned home to a
hero’s welcome and who gave a speech as well.
 MacArthur's Speech to Congress
 Perhaps his most famous line was, “old soldiers
never die; they just fade away”
 He was more than likely very right as he is still
remembered here today.
The end of the War
 Truman replaced MacArthur with General
Matthew Ridgway.
 He was committed to a limited war, a war fought
to achieve a limited objective
 By mid-1951 the UN forces had pushed the
Chinese and North Korean forces back to the 38th
parallel.
 In November 1951 peace negotiations began but
there was no armistice until July of 1953.
 More than 33, 600 American soldiers died in the
Korean war.
A new attitude
 After the Korean War the USA attitude had
changed.
 1) the United States started to embark upon a
major military buildup
 2) the United States became more involved in
military issues in Asia
 3) defense agreements were signed with Japan,
South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and
Australia
 4) Americans gave aid to French troops fighting
Communists in Vietnam