The Cold War Heats Up
Marshall Plan

 Program of American
economic assistance to
Western Europe
 Begun in 1947
 Developed by Sec of State
George Marshall
 Wanted to develop strong
democracies rather than
struggling nations that
might turn to
Communism
 Invested $13 billion in
Western Europe
Berlin Blockade

 1948- Allies announce
plans to unite Western
zones in Germany
 Created West Germany
 Soviets respond by
creating East Germany
 People in east escaped
through West Berlin
 So Stalin closed West
Berlin
 Willing to let them
starve if U.S. did not
abandon West Berlin
Berlin Airlift

 Moving supplies into
West Berlin by
American and British
planes during the
Soviet blockade in 19481949
 13,000 tons of supplied
delivered daily
 Soviets gave up, but
Berlin remained a
source of conflict
How did Berlin’s location
make it difficult to supply?

 It’s about 100 miles
deep in Soviet
controlled East
Germany
 Difficult for Western
Allies to get to
What was the
importance of the airlift?

 Allowed West Berlin to
remain free from
Communist domination
 Allowed President
Truman to avoid
military force
 Show European allies
that the U.S. would
honor its commitments
in Europe
North Atlantic Treaty
Organization

 NATO
 1949 alliance of nations
that agreed to band
together in the event of a
war and to support and
protect each nation
involved
 Led by a U.S. general
 Large commitment of
American troops
 An attack on one was
seen as an attack on all
Collective Security

 The principle of mutual
military assistance
among nations
Warsaw Pact

 Military alliance
between the Soviet
Union and the nations
of Eastern Europe
 Soviet response to
NATO
 Formed in 1955
 Stalin dead by then
Soviet Atomic Threat

 Soviets successfully
detonate an atomic bomb
in 1949
 In response, Truman
wants to move ahead to
develop a new weapon
 Hydrogen bomb-more
powerful than atomic
bomb
 Have one by 1952
 So do the Soviets
China Falls to
Communists

 1949
 Communists lead by Mao
Zedong take over in China
 Assumed to be a failure of
Containment and the
Truman Doctrine
 Anticommunist forces under
Chiang Kai-shek have to flee
to Taiwan
 Claimed to be the
legitimate government of
China
 Represented China in UN
House Un-American
Activities Committee

 Established in 1938
 Investigated disloyalty
in the U.S.
Hollywood 10

 Group of people in the
film industry who were
jailed for refusing to
answer Congressional
questions regarding
Communist influence
in Hollywood
Blacklist

 List that circulated
among employers
 Began in 1947
 Contained the names of
persons who should
not be hired
 Usually because of a
connection to
Communism
 Real or imagined
McCarran-Walter Act

 Passed by Congress in
1952
 Reaffirmed the quota
system
 Discriminated against
potential immigrants
from Asia, Southern,
and Central Europe
 Vetoed by President
 Overridden and
passed by Congress
What did the HUAC hearings
and the McCarran-Walter Act
show about American
attitudes?

 They demonstrated the
paranoia and distrust
on the part of
Americans toward
Communism
Spies in the U.S.

 Alger Hiss
 Former state department
employee
 FDR advisor at Yalta
 Truman administration
defended Hiss for 2 years
 Eventually proven to be a
spy by a young lawyer
named Richard Nixon
Spies in the U.S.

 Julius and Ethel
Rosenberg
 Members of the
Communist Party
 Accused of helping the
Soviets obtain the atomic
bomb
 Executed
 Both Hiss and the
Rosenbergs were proven
to be guilty years later