The Truman Years
Cold War Politics and Truman
Harry S Truman
1945–1953
V-E Day, May 8, 1945
• Less than one month
since Roosevelt’s death
• Germany’s military
surrender accepted by
the Allies
• Hitler had committed
suicide on April 30
Potsdam Conference
• July-Aug 1945
• Russia, US, and
Britain
Deliberating the future of Eastern
Europe
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki
• Initial blast at Hiroshima killed 70,000 and 40,000 at Nagasaki
• Estimates of total deaths by the end of 1945 from burns,
radiation and related disease, the effects of which were
aggravated by lack of medical resources, range from 90,000 to
166,000.
“Little Boy”
• 43 seconds to fall from the aircraft to the predetermined
detonation height about 1,900 feet
• the aircraft traveled 11.5 miles away before it felt the shock
waves from the blast.
Area of total destruction to the city of Hiroshima
“Fat Man” bomb, Nagasaki
“Iron Curtain”
• Term coined by Winston Churchill in 1946
• “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron
curtain has descended across the Continent.”
Containment
• The foreign policy of the US to hold in check the power and
influence of the Soviet Union and others espousing
communism.
Containment
• The strategy first articulated
by diplomat George F. Kennan
in 1946-47.
• Kennan believed that Stalin
exaggerated foreign press to
maintain power in his own
country, because it was
increasingly politically and
economically unstable
• Kennan predicted that The
Soviet Union would only
retreat from expansionist
efforts “in the face of superior
force.” [containment]
Truman containment policy had sixpronged defense strategy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Development of atomic weapons
Strengthen traditional military power
Military alliances with other nations
Military and economic aid to friendly nations
An espionage network and secret means to
subvert Soviet expansion
6. a propaganda offensive to win popular
admiration for the US around the world.
NATO
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• Designed to counter Soviet threat in
Western Europe
• For the first time, US pledges to go to
war if an ally is attacked
Dean Acheson
What was the Cold War?
• Cold War: the hostile and tense relationship between the
Soviet Union and the US (and other Western nations) from
1947 until 1989
• “cold” because it stopped short of armed conflict, warded off
by the strategy of Nuclear Deterrence
Truman Doctrine
• Truman’s claim that American security
depended on stopping any Communist
government from taking over any noncommunist government, anywhere in the
world. This approach became the
cornerstone of American foreign policy
during the Cold War.
Marshall Plan
“European Recovery
Plan”, US spent $13
billion to restore the
economies of 16
Western European
nations [which in turn
helped the US economy]
• Soviet Union did not
participate because it
objected to free
enterprise
General George C. Marshall, Secty of State
Deterrence
• the strategy of the US that it would maintain a nuclear arsenal
so substantial that the Soviet Union would refrain from
attacking the US and its allies out of fear that the US would
retaliate in devastating proportions. The Soviets pursued a
similar strategy.
Superpower Rivalry Around the Globe
• “third world” a term referring to about
forty countries which had won
independence but were not in the
Western (first) world, nor the Soviet
(second) world.
• 1949, communists under Mao Zedong
took China, chasing Nationalists under
Chang Kai-shek to Taiwan
• People’s Republic of China under Mao
signed a treaty with Soviets
Rivalry, cont’
• Japan rebuilt with American dollars,
sides with US
• State of Israel established in Palestine,
endorsed by US
Election 1948
The Cold War Becomes Hot:
Korea
• A Military Implementation of
Containment
• First time Americans go to battle for
containment
• A militarization of American foreign
policy
Korean War
Truman v. MacArthur
Costs of the War
• Total civilians killed/wounded: 2.5 million
South Korea: 990,968
• 373,599 killed
• 229,625 wounded
• 387,744 abducted/missing
• North Korea: 1,550,000
• US: 36,000 killed, 100,000 wounded
Second “Red Scare”
• “Red Scare” happens after a war
• After the collapse of the SovietAmerican alliance
• Suspicions of espionage
• “red baiting” = attempts to discredit
people by associating them with
communism
Senator Joseph R. McCarthy
House Un-American Activities
Committee
US and USSR
US and USSR
• Stalin died in 1953
• New Soviet premier is
Nikita Khrushchev
• Eisenhower and
Khrushchev meet in
1955 in Geneva, the
first time leaders from
these two countries
have met since WWII
Nuclear Arms Race
and Space Race
Nuclear Arms Race
• 1957, Soviets tested ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile)
• Fears emerged that the US was lagging behind the Soviets
• Signed the National Defense Act (student loan and
scholarships for math science).
• Civil Defense Administration recommended home bomb
shelters
Space Race
• 1957, Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to circle the earth
• The American first satellite was dubbed “Flopnik” because it
exploded
• 1958, Eisenhower established National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA)
“Brinksmanship” and “MAD”
• Secty of State John Foster Dulles, America’s willingness to go
to the “brink” of war as a threat
• “MAD” Mutually assured destruction = nuclear stand-off
1959 “kitchen debate” Nixon and
Khrushchev
• Nixon: “ to make things
easier for our women.”
• Khrushchev: we do not
have the “capitalist
attitude toward
women.”
Cold War had created a warfare
state
• “military-industrial complex”
• A term coined by Eisenhower in his farewell address
• the power and influence of the military and defense contractors
who now controlled the economy
• nearly one of every three California workers held a defenserelated job.
• one in every ten American jobs depended on defense spending
Consequences of the Cold War
• Shifted priorities of the federal government from
domestic to foreign affairs
• Increased the power of the president
• Defense contracts encouraged economic
population booms in the West and Southwest
• The Nuclear Arms races consumed dollars and
resources, skewed the economy toward
dependence on military projects
• Anti-communist hysteria which stifled debate,
politically or socially