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The Cold War at Home
US History
No. Few
communists were
actually found.
Key Concepts
• Effects of the Cold War on America’s Home life
• McCarthyism
Fear of Communist Influence• At the height of WWII ~80,000
Americans claimed membership in the Communist party
• Loyalty Review Board– Led by anti-Communist Republicans– Accused Truman of being soft– March 1947 – Truman set up the
Fed. Loyalty Program• Loyalty Review Board
– Listed 91 “subversive” organizations– Investigated 3.2 million fed.
Employees• Dismissed 212• 2,900 resigned• Not allowed to see evidence against
them
HUAC• House Un-American Activities
Committee
– Started by investigating movie industry
– Led by Richard Nixon– Friendly vs. unfriendly witnesses– Hollywood Ten
• McCarran Act– 1950 - Passed by Congress– Unlawful to plan action that
might led to totalitarianism– Vetoed by Truman– Overridden by Congress
Spy Cases Stun the Nation• Alger Hiss
– High level U.S. State Department official educated at Harvard University
– Accused of espionage [spying] by Whittaker Chambers – former Communist Spy
– Richard Nixon gained fame for pursuing Hiss with H.U.A.C.
– Hiss went to prison for perjury since too much time had passed to be convicted of espionage [statute of limitation].
– 1990s – Soviet cables released by the N.S.A. proved Hiss’s guilt.
Spy Cases Stun the Nation
• The Rosenbergs– Sept. 3, 1949
• USSR exploded an Atomic Bomb
– Klaus Fuchs, a nuclear physicist, admitted giving nuclear secrets to Soviets
• Implicated Ethel & Julius Rosenberg – minor activists for Communist Party
– The Rosenbergs professed their innocence
– They were convicted [found guilty] of treason on relatively weak and circumstantial evidence.
– Executed via Electric Chair for Espionage in June 1953 leaving behind young children.
McCarthy Launches His “Witch Hunt”• Joseph McCarthy
– Senator From Wisconsin– Became well known for making random
unsupported accusations of communist affiliation.
– “Name calling” in Senate was permitted due to congressional immunity from slander.
– The mere accusations of communist affiliation ruined lives.
• Downfall– Accused several U.S. Army officials of
communist affiliation– Televised hearings exposed the baseless
and “cruelty” of his accusations – The nation became to realize that
McCarthy was bully and “reckless”– Censured by Senate and died of liver
disease
Anti-Communist Measures
• States passed laws making it illegal to advocate overthrow of government– Many civil rights groups
believed such laws were a violation of constitutional rights [1st Amendment]
• Loyalty oaths• Law enforcement
interrogation of Union leaders, librarians, newspaper reporters, & scientists
• Nobody was immune to investigation.
Effects of McCarthyism
2 Nations Live on the Edge
US History
Brinkmanship
• 1949 – Soviets explode A-Bomb
• Race for the H-Bomb– 67 times more powerful
than Hiroshima
– Nov. 1, 1952 – US 1st to explode H-Bomb
– Aug. 1953 – USSR explodes an H-Bomb
– Thermonuclear weapon
Brinkmanship• New Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower• Sec. Of State John Foster Dulles
– Very anti-communist– Promise to use all US force agnst
communist nations to prevent spread– Promise to go to edge of all out war
– Brinkmanship– Trimmed army & navy – Expanded air force– Buildup of nuclear arsenal– USSR followed suit
• School children practiced air-raid procedures, families built fall out shelters
• Next 30 yrs – fear of nuclear war
Brinkmanship• Sec. of State- John Foster Dulles, helped to shape US
foreign policy; he had been critical of Truman’s “Containment” policy which did not challenge the communist.
• Brinkmanship- Dulles proposed brinkmanship to discourage aggression by threatening to use all US force (the Bomb) against aggressor nations.
• Massive Retaliation- Dulles wanted to increase funding for Nuclear weapons, and cut back spending on conventional forces.
• In 1953, the US developed the Hydrogen bomb
Fallout Shelters were highly advertised in magazines and
newspapers
Cold War Spreads Around the World
• Formation of CIA– Used spies
• Middle East & Latin America– Iran
• Nationalization of oil
• US backed Shah
• 1953 Shah returned to power – oil back in western hands
Warsaw Pact
• 1953 – Stalin Died• USSR recognized West
Germany• 1955 – WG allowed to rearm
& join NATO• Made Soviets fearful so…
– Formation of Warsaw Pact– Defensive alliance against
NATO
• Geneva Summit– Ike offered “open skies”
proposal– Soviets rejected it
Warsaw Pact
• The Warsaw Pact, was an alliance set up under a mutual defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, in 1955.
• The organization was the Soviet response to the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Warsaw Pact
• Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union.
• The 1989 collapse of the Communist governments in Eastern Europe ended the pact.
The Suez War• 1955• GB & US agreed to help
Egypt finance construction of Aswan Dam
• Egyptian Pres. Gamal Abdel-Nasser– Tried to pit US vs. USSR– After find’g out about Nasser’s
deals w/ Soviets• Dulles w/d US offer
• Nasser nationalized the Canal• Fr. & Brits outraged (they
owned it)
The Suez War
• Affected Israel– Did not allow ships bound
for or coming from Israel thru canal
• Israel sent in troops• GB & Fr. Sent in troops
– Seized Med. End of Canal
• UN stepped in & ended fighting
• Fr., GB, & Israel w/d, but Egypt kept canal
Eisenhower Doctrine
• Jan 1957• US would defend the
Middle East agnst attack by any communist country
Hungarian Uprising
• Led by Imre Nagy• Demanded Soviets leave
Hungary• Used Molotov cocktails• Soviets response was harsh
– Nov. 1956– Tanks rolled into Hungary &
killed ~30,000 Hungarians– Nagy – executed – ~200,000 Hungarians fled to
west– US did nothing to help– UN could do nothing due to
Soviet veto
Cold War in the Skies
• After Stalin – new Soviet leader was Nikita Khrushchev– Favored policy of peaceful
coexistence
• Space Race– Oct 4, 1957– Sputnik– US shocked & poured $$$
into space program– Creation of NASA– Jan. 31, 1958 – 1st US
satellite in space
Cold War in the Skies• U-2 Incident
– CIA began secret high altitude flights over USSR
– Used U-2 plane– 1960 US nervous about U-2
program• Why?
– Nobody knew about it– Soviets knew about them in ’58
– Eisenhower wanted flights ended– Dulles authorized 1 last flight
• May 1, 1960• Pilot Gary Powers• Shot down by Soviet planes• Parachuted into Soviet lands
– Caught & jailed for 2 yrs
Renewed Confrontation
• Khrushchev demanded apology & promise to stop flights
• Eisenhower agreed to stop flights but did not apologize
• Khrushchev called off May 16 summit
• B/C of U-2 incident the 60s opened w/ tension as great as ever