SSUSH20 The student will analyze
the domestic and international
impact of the Cold War on the
United States.
a. Describe the creation of the Marshall Plan, U.S. commitment to Europe, the
Truman Doctrine, and the origins and implications of the containment policy.
b. Explain the impact of the new communist regime in China and the outbreak of the
Korean War and how these events contributed to the rise of Senator Joseph
McCarthy.
c. Describe the Cuban Revolution, the Bay of Pigs, and the Cuban missile crisis.
d. Describe the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive, and growing opposition to the war.
e. Explain the role of geography on the U.S. containment policy, the Korean War, the
Bay of Pigs, the Cuban missile crisis, and the Vietnam War.
Introduction
• In the aftermath of WWII, the balance of powers that had shaped
Europe for 150 years was shattered. The United States and the
Soviet Union had emerged from the conflict as the two dominant
“superpowers”, and even before the war was over, tensions
between the wartime allies had begun to rise over the post-war
order.
• After the fighting of WWII stopped, that tension festered and an
ideological and geo-political standoff ensued that lasted for more
than four decades. This era, from 1945-1991 is known as the Cold
War, which describes both the frosty relationship between the US
and USSR, and the fact that the conflict was not a “hot” war.
• Both sides were reticent to engage in a direct conflict, and so the
Cold War became a proxy war- the US and USSR engaged indirectly,
attempting to carve out and align spheres of influence around the
globe. Capitalist democracy was pitted against communism in a
struggle that had major implications for the future of the world.
20.a- Describe the creation of the Marshall Plan, U.S.
commitment to Europe, the Truman Doctrine, and the origins
and implications of the containment policy.
• Following the war, the stability of Europe was of special concern to the
United States. Having spent so much treasure and so many lives liberating
the continent from the Nazis, the US had a strong interest in reestablishing
the socio-economic order there.
• To promote the re-capitalization of Europe, the United States offered a
massive infusion of cash known as the Marshall Plan. Named for the
Secretary of State, George C. Marshall, the idea was to help prop up
European economies devastated by years of war. This would serve to
reestablish free markets and democracy, and to resist the potential lure of
communism in the post-war chaos.
• The Marshall Plan aid was offered to all European nations affected by the
war, but the areas of Eastern Europe occupied by the Soviets remained
aligned with USSR and refused the aid. Despite promises from Stalin and
the Soviets to allow free elections in eastern Europe after the war, the
reality was that an “Iron Curtain” had descended across Europe. Capitalist
and democratic Western Europe was aligned with the US, while eastern
Europe came under the control of the communist Soviets.
20.a- Describe the creation of the Marshall Plan, U.S.
commitment to Europe, the Truman Doctrine, and the origins
and implications of the containment policy.
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The reality of the Iron Curtain and the prospect that the one time allies of WWII
might face off for WWIII led the US to develop a diplomatic doctrine and foreign
policy that would attempt to limit the spread of communist/Soviet influence
without directly challenging or threatening the Soviets.
Inspired by events unfolding in Greece in 1947, the premise of the Truman
Doctrine was that the US would offer economic, political and military assistance to
any democratic nation attempting to resist an internal or external threat of an
authoritarian (communist) takeover.
Containment policy was an idea closely related to the Truman Doctrine. It became
the central concept of US foreign policy throughout most of the Cold War. The
basic idea was that the US would actively resist the spread of communism, without
directly challenging it where it already existed. In other words, the US would act to
“contain” communism within its present limits.
Containment was criticized by some as setting too low of a threshold for
intervention- committing the US to intervene anywhere facing a communist threat
might lead the US into a strategically nominal or unnecessary conflict. Proponents
of containment countered with the “domino theory”- the idea that any expansion
of communism could cause the destabilization of an entire region. They feared
that if one nation “fell” to communism, neighboring nations would also be
susceptible and might also fall, like dominoes.
20.b Explain the impact of the new communist regime in
China and the outbreak of the Korean War and how these events
contributed to the rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
• Proponents of the domino theory of containment seemed to be proven
correct as events unfolded in China and Korea in 1949-1953.
• A communist movement had been active in China since the 1920s. Led by
Mao Zedong, the communist attempts to overthrow the Nationalist
government in China were sidelined by the Japanese invasions of the
1930s and WWII. But following the war, Mao reinvigorated the communist
insurgency, and despite US assistance, successfully took control of China in
1949.
• The following year, a Korean communist movement, with Chinese support,
began an active military campaign to overtake the peninsula and draw
Korea into the communist sphere. Guided by its containment policy, the
US sent a large force to support the republican resistance in Korea. The
conflict lasted three years and eventually an agreement was reached to
stop the fighting and create a DMZ (de-militarized) zone at the 38th
parallel. Then, as now, Korea was divided into a communist north and
republican south.
20.b Explain the impact of the new communist regime in China and
the outbreak of the Korean War and how these events contributed to
the rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
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The “fall” of China in 1949 and the only partial success of US efforts in Korea led to widespread fear in the
US that we were “losing” the Cold War by failing to contain the spread of communism. China was
especially troublesome because of its enormous population and thus, military potential.
Because of the globalist rhetoric associated with communist ideologies, many Americans tended to view
communism as monolithic and the thought of a unified Sino-Soviet communist alliance terrified US policy
makers and consequently, the public at-large. Although historians now understand that the ChineseSoviet relationship was never fully aligned, at the time, the fall of China seemed like an imminent and
even existential threat to American security and interests. The Soviet acquisition of atomic weapons
confirmed in 1949 only added to the fear and doomsday prognosis.
This “Second Red Scare” manifested in many ways. The thrust to root out any and all communist
influences led to the promotion of hyper-patriotic and capitalist ideals and the vilification of anything that
could be seen as connected to socialist or communist ideologies. For example, the entertainment
industry began maintaining a “blacklist” of actors, writers, producers, etc. that any communist affiliations.
A few high profile cases of espionage (the Rosenberg case, the Alger Hiss case) served to fan the flames of
paranoia, and led some politicians to use the fear of communism to attract publicity, support, and voters.
The most notorious of these was Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy’s antics began when he accused
over 80 State Department officials of various communist affiliations and disloyal actions. When he
realized that this sort of witch-hunt fear-mongering was resounding with many Americans fearful of
communist infiltration of our government he expanded his accusations. He became so associated with
red-baiting his very name is lent to the anti-communist surge of the era- “McCarthyism”.
McCarthy finally went too far in 1954, when he opened an investigation into the communist infiltration of
the US Army. Evidence emerged that he had falsely accused a number of high profile figures, and
ultimately the hearings exposed McCarthy as a fraud. By the end of the Army hearings, he had been
largely disgraced as a shameless political opportunist.
20.c- Describe the Cuban Revolution, the Bay of Pigs, and the
Cuban missile crisis.
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In the late 1950s and early 1960s containment was put to the ultimate test by
events that transpired in Cuba. Only 90 miles from the US, the rise of a Sovietsupported communist regime in Cuba was an obvious problem for the US.
The trouble began in 1959, when a communist revolution led by Fidel Castro
successfully overthrew the Cuban government.
In 1961, the US trained and led a group of Cuban exiles in an attempt to retake
the. Believing the people of Cuba would welcome the force as liberators, the force
landed at the Bay of Pigs, but were quickly and completely defeated. The Bay of
Pigs debacle was a major setback for the US.
Tensions over Cuba reached fever pitch the following year, when it was discovered
that the Soviets were actively establishing a nuclear missile site. What unfolded
then was the most intense moment of the Cold War. The US demanded removal of
the missiles, but the Soviets refused, and promised retaliation if the US attempted
to invade Cuba again. Ultimately the US decided to impose a naval blockade to
prevent the Soviets from completing the missile installation. With Soviet ships en
route to confront the blockade, armed confrontation seemed imminent, but the
Soviets turned their ships around at the very last moment.
Fidel Castro
Che Guevara
20.d- Describe the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive, and
growing opposition to the war.
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Another example of US efforts to contain communism came with the Vietnam War,
which raged through the late 1960s and early 1970s and result was even less
successful than the Korean campaign.
The US first became involved in Vietnam in the 1950s, as the French colonial
regime of Indochina collapsed, leaving the southeast Asian nation vulnerable to a
long simmering communist movement led by Ho Chi Minh.
Initially the US offered only economic supports and advisory assistance, but by
1964 Ho Chi Minh’s “Vietcong” forces were gaining strength and the Congress
authorized the US to use military force following an event known as the Gulf of
Tonkin Incident.
A massive air campaign (operation Rolling Thunder) ensued, but by 1967 it was
clear that substantial ground forces would be needed to quell the Vietcong. At its
height in 1968, over half a million US troops were deployed to the sweaty jungles
of Vietnam. Even as American casualties mounted, (nearly 60,000 American deaths
by the end of the war), the Johnson administration was assuring the public that
victory was at hand. The so-called Tet Offensive in early 1968 seemed to belie the
administration’s prognostication, as well as marking an important turning point for
domestic support of the war.
20.d- Describe the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive, and
growing opposition to the war.
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Named for the Vietnamese New Year holiday, The Tet Offensive was a coordinated
attack against US and south Vietnamese forces, demonstrating that the Vietcong
was not only still intact, but could muster a dangerous offensive that required the
commitment of even more US troops to the region.
The Tet Offensive also helped to galvanize the anti-war movement in the US.
Protests against the war had been increasing as US involvement increased, but
were initially associated with the “counter-culture” of mostly young “hippies” that
viewed the war as unnecessary and antithetical to their “peace and love”
philosophies. While most Americans rejected the “drop out, tune in” ethos of the
drugged-out counter-culture, following the Tet Offensive, many Americans began
to reconsider the wisdom of spending American treasure and lives in such a
strategically dubious corner of the world, so remote and foreign from America
itself. The nightly television news casualty reports (Vietnam was the first such
major war to be so broadcasted) left many Americans questioning whether it was
all worth it.
Johnson did not seek another term in 1968, and Richard Nixon swept into office on
a platform of reducing American involvement in Vietnam. Nixon did draw down US
troops over the next several years, and the US finally abandoned the cause in its
entirety by 1975.
In the end, the inability of US forces to effectively halt the communist forces, and
the growing opposition to the war at home, forced a major reassessment of
containment and a political and military wariness of potential quagmires that
resonated through the present age.