THE COLD WAR AND THE POST-WAR YEARS 1945-1960

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THE COLD WAR AND THE POST-WAR YEARS 1945-1960
2
THE ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR THE TWO POWERS

• The USA emerged from WWII as by far the worlds
  greatest power.
• It accounted for half the worlds 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 ever-increasing living
  standards.
• Organizations such as the UN and World Bank were
  created to promote these goals.

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ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR THE TWO POWERS

• American leaders also believed that the nations
  security depended on the security of Europe and
  Asia, and that American prosperity required
  global economic reconstruction.

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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.

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THE ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR THE TWO POWERS

• Having lost 25 million dead and suffered vast
  devastation during WWII, Stalins 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.

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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 GBs 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.

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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.

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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.

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THE ROOTS OF CONTAINMENT

• Kennans 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.

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THE ROOTS OF CONTAINMENT

• Shortly afterwards, in a speech at Fulton,
  Missouri, GBs former Prime Minister Winston
  Churchill declared that a iron curtain had
  descended across Europe, partitioning the free
  West from the communist East.

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THE ROOTS OF CONTAINMENT

• Churchills 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.

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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.

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THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE

• The immediate occasion for Trumans 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 communist-led
  rebellio
• Turkey from which the Soviets were demanding
  joint control.

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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.

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THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE
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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.

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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.

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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.

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CONGRESS REACTS TO THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE

• Congress responded to Trumans 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.

20
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.

21
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.

22
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.

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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.

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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.

25
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.

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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)
  Japans economic recovery was in full swing.

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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.

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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.

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THE BERLIN AIRLIFT
30
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.

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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.

32
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.

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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.

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THE WARSAW PACT

• The Soviets formalized their own eastern European
  alliance, the Warsaw Pact in 1955.

35
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.

36
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.

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THE KOREAN WAR
38
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.

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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.

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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.

41
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 Trumans choice.
• Invoking NSC-68, Truman ordered American troops
  into action 4/5 of UN forces.

42
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.

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THE KOREAN WAR

• Truman now hoped to unite Korea under a pro-US
  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.

44
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.

45
THE KOREAN WAR

• When MacArthur went public with his criticism of
  the president, Truman removed him from command.

46
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.

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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.

48
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.

49
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.

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COLD WAR CRITICS

• George Kennan, who inspired the policy of
  containment, observed that such language made it
  impossible to view international crises on a
  case-by-case basis, or to determine which
  genuinely involved either freedom or American
  interests.

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COLD WAR CRITICS

• Walter Lippmann, an prominent journalist, leveled
  a penetrating critique of Trumans Cold War
  policies.
• He objected to turning foreign policy into an
  ideological crusade.

52
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.

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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.

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EISENHOWER AND THE COLD WAR
55
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.

56
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.

57
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.

58
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.

59
EISENHOWER AND THE COLD WAR

• Critics called the doctrine brinkmanship,
  warning of the danger of Dulless 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.

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EISENHOWER AND THE COLD WAR
61
EISENHOWER AND THE COLD WAR
62
EISENHOWER AND THE USSR
63
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.

64
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
  Stalins crimes, including purges of political
  opponents numbering in the millions.

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EISENHOWER AND THE USSR

• Khrushchevs revelations created a crisis of
  belief among communists throughout the world.
• In the USA, three-quarters of the Communist Party
  membership abandoned the party.

66
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.

67
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.

68
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.

69
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.

70
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.

71
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.

72
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.

73
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.

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THE COLD WAR AND THE THIRD WORLD

• Arbenz embarked on a sweeping land-reform policy
  that threatened the domination of Guatelmas
  economy controlled by the American owned United
  Fruit Company.

75
THE COLD WAR AND THE THIRD WORLD

• Mossadegh nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil
  Company, whose refinery in Iran was Britains
  largest remaining overseas asset.

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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
  self-defense.

77
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.

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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
  regions oil fields.

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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.

80
THE COLD WAR AND THE THIRD WORLD

• 1958 Eisenhower dispatched 5,000 troops to
  Lebanon to protect a govt., dominated by
  pro-Western Christians against Nassers efforts
  to bring all Arab states into a single regime
  under his rule.

81
ORIGINS OF THE VIETNAM WAR
82
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 Minhs
  nationalist forces.

83
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 NSAs advice to use nuclear
  weapons.

84
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.

85
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.

86
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 Minhs communists.

87
THE ORIGINS OF THE VIETNAM WAR

• Diems 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.

88
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 full-scale guerrilla revolt
  by the communist National Liberation Front.