It’s Cold in Here!

The story of what caused the Cold War

Reluctant Friends

• During WWII the Allies, including the United States, Great Britain, and France were reluctant teammates with the Soviet Union.

• They didn’t like Stalin because he was a Totalitarian jerk, not to mention his country was communist.

• Communism is the exact opposite of capitalism, which countries like the U.S., Great Britain, and France had as their economic system.

East and West Germany

• Remember how Germany was divided into four parts?

• The parts that were controlled by the U.S., Great Britain and France later became West Germany.

• The part that was controlled by the Soviet Union became East Germany.

• You did not want to be unlucky enough to be living in what turned into East Germany!

How did this “war” get its name?

• The Cold War was a competition that developed between the United States and the Soviet Union for power and influence in the world.

• The Cold War was characterized by political and economic conflict and military tensions.

• The rivalry stopped just short of a “hot war” of direct military fighting between the two.

• The U.S. did however, engage in combat in other nations in an effort to stop the spread of Soviet Communism.

Containment

• George Kennan studied the Soviet Union for a long time and concluded that the Soviet Union did not plan to try to get along with the capitalist west.

• He also believed that one or two military victories by the west (U.S.) would not stop them from trying to win.

• Finally, he believed the only way to stop them was to hope to contain them.

What is Containment?

• Containment is what the Cold War became defined by.

• It meant there would not be an actual war between the two countries.

• Instead, U.S. policy was that Eastern Europe was already lost to the Soviets.

• The U.S. would focus on not letting Communism spread to other parts of the world.

America…World Police!

• After WWII the Soviet Union had it’s eye on Turkey because they wanted access to the Black Sea.

• Greece was in the middle of a civil war, Communists were trying to overthrow the government.

• Great Britain was broke after the war and could not continue to help either country.

• The British suggested the The United States take over responsibility for defending the region.

The Truman Doctrine

• The British had “handed the job of world leadership, with all its burdens and all its glory, to the United States.” –Dean Acheson

• The State Department developed a plan to protect Turkey and Greece.

• In March 1947 Truman called on the United States to take a leadership role in the world.

• His statement of principles became known as the Truman Doctrine and would guide American actions in the Cold War.

Principles of the Truman Doctrine

• President Harry S. Truman established that the United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces. (Communists)

• The Truman Doctrine shifted U.S. foreign policy, away from its usual stance of neutrality, to one of possible intervention in far away conflicts.

The Marshall Plan: “You’re welcome Europe!”

• After World War II:– 21 million Europeans were homeless.– 20% of the Polish population had died!– 20% of homes in France and Belgium had been

destroyed.– In France alone, damage equaled three times the

nation’s annual income.• The U.S. did not want a repeat of what happened

after World War I, when the war torn countries had a hard time getting back on their feet.

Marshall Plan Bails Out Europe

• This time the U.S. looked to restore these battered countries so they could create stable democracies and achieve economic recovery.

• Along with the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan was a complete shift in the way the U.S. dealt with the rest of the world.

• The Marshall Plan, which called for the nations of Europe to figure out a program of economic recovery, would be funded by the U.S.

What does it really mean though?• The Marshall Plan was a response to American

concerns that Communist parties were growing stronger in Europe, and the Soviet Union might want to help and support these communist movements.

• Over the next four years (1948-1952) the United States gave out around 13 billion dollars in grants and loans to 17 Western European nations.

• The region’s economies were quickly restored and the United States gained strong trade partners in the region.

East (Totalitarian/Communist) and West (Democracy/Capitalist) is

formed.• By 1948, America, Britain, and France realized

that Stalin was not going to allow the reunification of Germany.

• So, they merged their 3 occupation zones into the country of West Germany.

• The Soviets responded by making a communist East Germany out of their zone.

• The city of Berlin was a symbol of this tension and it was divided into eastern and western Berlin.

The Berlin Airlift• The city of West Berlin was actually located

within East Germany.• Stalin decided to block Allied access to West

Berlin.• The blockade threatened to create severe

shortages of food and other supplies needed by the 2.5 million people in West Berlin.

• Truman decided instead of a war, to drop supplies and food from a plane.

• The Soviets finally gave up the blockade.

Berlin Airlift

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/airlift/

German kids get some grub!

NATO

• The United Nations, which was formed after WWII, could not help the countries of Western Europe because the Soviet Union kept using a veto.

• In an effort to defend Western Europe against potential Soviet aggression, the U.S., Canada, and 10 other Western European countries formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO.

The Warsaw Pact

• Using the idea of collective security, each country in NATO agreed that “an attack against one or more of them…shall be considered an attack against them all.”

• The Soviet Union responded by making the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance with its satellite nations in Eastern Europe.

Communist Advances• In 1949, President Truman announced the

terrifying news that the Soviet Union had successfully tested an atomic bomb.

• This meant New York, Los Angeles and other American cities were in danger of suffering the same horrible fate of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

• Truman’s response was to develop an even more powerful Hydrogen, or Thermonuclear bomb that was many times more powerful than the atomic bomb!

China Falls to the Communists• During World War II the Chinese Communists

and the Chinese Nationalists had stopped fighting each other in order to try defeat the Japanese.

• After the war was over, they began fighting each other again.

• Unfortunately, for the U.S. and democracies around the world, the Communists won this civil war.

• This meant that communism might spread throughout Asia.

The Cold War at Home

• The Loyalty Program in 1947, was an example of the fear of communist people within the United States.

• All new employees hired by the federal government were to be investigated.

• In addition, the FBI checked its files for evidence of current government employees who might be engaged in suspicious activities.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

• Those accused of disloyalty were brought before a Loyalty Review Board.

• Those accused of disloyalty to their country often had little chance to defend themselves.

• Although several million employees were examined, only a few hundred were actually removed from their jobs.

• Those accused found it difficult to clear their names.

HUAC• Congress created its own loyalty program called the

House Un-American Activities Committee or HUAC.• For some reason, they began to focus on the

Hollywood movie industry.• HUAC claimed that numerous Hollywood figures had

Communist leanings that affected their filmmaking.• In fact, some Hollywood personalities were, or had

been members of the Communist Party.

HUAC goes after Hollywood

• In 1947, HUAC called in a number of Hollywood writers, directors, actors, and producers to testify.

• Witnesses against them were first called in and gave testimony based on rumors or flimsy evidence

• “Are you now or have you every been a member of the Communist Party?”

• The accused were not allowed to make a statement to the HUAC.

The Hollywood Ten

• Ten of the Hollywood people brought before Congress used their 5th amendment right and refused to answer any questions.

• They were cited for contempt of Congress and served jail terms ranging from six months to a year.

• The HUAC had a big impact on the movie making business, studio executives began compiling a blacklist of people who would not be hired.

The McCarthy Era

• Joseph McCarthy, a little known Wisconsin Senator, needed something to spark interest in him.

• He decided to focus on the fear of Communism.• In 1950, he piled baseless accusations on top of

unprovable charges and took it to the floor of the Senate.

• His smear campaign became known as McCarthyism.

Most People Were Afraid of McCarthy

• Merely being accused by McCarthy caused people to lose their jobs and their reputation.

• McCarthy even went after former Secretary of State George Marshall, a national hero!

• Even other Senators were afraid to speak out against him because they didn’t want to be called Communist sympathizers.

• In 1950, one Senator named Margaret Chase Smith did denounce McCarthy’s tactics in her “Declaration of Conscience.”

Declaration of Conscience

• Link to Declaration of Conscience

McCarthy’s Fall

• In 1954, when one of McCarthy’s aids was drafted, he accused the Army of being Communist!

• Congress held a hearing called the Army-McCarthy hearings and broadcast it on TV so the American public could see McCarthy for what he was.

• Most Americans were horrified by his bullying tactics and baseless allegations.

• The second “Red Scare”, like the one that followed WWI subsided, but the country was damaged by the era’s suppression of free speech and open, honest debate.

The Arms Race

• During the 1950s, the United States and the Soviet Union waged an intense struggle for world leadership.

• This competition reared its ugly head in the form of an arms race, the struggle to gain weapons superiority.

• The United States tried to make as many nuclear weapons as they could.

• Deterrence is the policy of making the military power of the United States and its allies so strong that no enemy would dare attack out of fear of retaliation.