The Cold War

The United States

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Vs.

Can you explain…

• When the cold war began• Why Stalin wanted to expand• Where did Stalin expand (name the countries)• What happened at the end of WWII• What was the iron curtain• What was containment• Who was “X”

When did the Cold War begin?• 1917 with birth of USSR?• Tehran? (1943)

– First meeting and discussion of 2nd front led FDR to placate Stalin

• Yalta? (Feb 1945)– Stalin promised free elections and reneged– FDR gave in to Stalin’s demands for

territory near China

• End of war?– Soviets annexed parts of Poland, Estonia,

Latvia, Lithuania, Latvia and Romania….Formed the “Eastern Bloc” Hence…the U.S.S.R.

Historians do not agree

Who is to “blame” for the start of the Cold War?

Soviets led by a paranoid dictator trying to dominate the globe?

Or….Truman and American economic imperialists

who adopted an unnecessary belligerent stance and aggressive foreign policy?

The theory of communism

End of War brought on tensions

• USSR had pushed all the way back into Germany and made it to Berlin before the Allies could. – In effect, they laid claim to the land

Germany May, 1945

What should Truman have done?

• Gone on to fight the Soviets and demand they withdraw?– We had to worry about Japan

• If you are Stalin, what are you thinking?– Churchill and FDR had been working together with

A-Bomb. Stalin suspected intrigue between the 2.– Truman 1941: “If we see that Germany is winning

against Russia, we should help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany”

Country Population1939

Militarydeaths

Civiliandeaths

Totaldeaths

% of pop killed

WWI Deaths

 Soviet Union1939 Borders 168,524,000 10,700,000 14,154,000 23,954,000 14 3,310,000

 France 41,700,000 217,600 267,000 567,600 1.35 1,697,000

 United Kingdom 47,760,000 382,700 67,100 449,800 0.94 994,000

 United States] 131,028,000 416,800 1,700 418,500 0.32 117,465

Germany 1937 Borders 69,623,000 4,456,000 1,940,000 6,556,000 7.8

to 9.4 2,476,897

You think this was a consideration?

Communism spread after the War

• Eastern Bloc• Poland• Yugoslavia• Hungary

Truman lost his patience

• Jan 5 1946…“I do not think we should play compromise any longer…I am tired of babying the Soviets.”

• March 1946…Churchill made his way to Missouri…

• Then came the policy from “X”

• March 1947…Truman Doctrine as a result of fears about the Mediterranean

Now is when it really begins

• We send $400 million in Economic aid to Greece and Turkey…and begin to send US military personnel to train soldiers.

• Europe struggles mightily in 1947– Coal shortages in London left only enough fuel to heat and

light homes for a few hours each day.– People were starving to death in Berlin– Transportation systems (bridges, canals, etc.) destroyed– Commie forces in France and Italy were flourishing

In comes the General…• The “great one of the

age” according to Truman• Replaced Byrnes as Sec.

of State.• Devised a plan to save

Europe…Marshall Plan

The Marshall Plan helped rebuild EuropeHamburg Germany in 1945

Same town in 1950

                                                     

The Marshall Plan was a complex undertaking that is not easily described. The following are a few examples of how the program worked:(1) Pays freight subsidies for 16.8 million private voluntary relief packages to Europe.(2) Funds building of a new wharf in North Borneo to help that British colony export vitally needed rubber.(3) Assists building railroads and water systems in French North Africa(4) $50 million for medicine to combat tuberculosis.(5) Technical assistance program: over 3,000 Europeans make six-month visits to various U.S. industries to learn new techniques; there was a similar program in agriculture.(6) The Ford Motor Co. in Britain receives funds to replace machine tools needed to produce cars, trucks, and tractors for export, thereby earning valuable foreign exchange credits.(7) The Otis Elevator Company (U.S.) helps to modernize British factories, and its investment is guaranteed by ECA insurance.(8) ECA money enables Portugal to purchase key equipment and materials to build a new hospital-tender ship for its cod-fishing fleet.(9) The French aircraft industry in able to purchase propellers for the aircraft it is producing.(10) An alcohol-producing plant in Scotland is granted $6.5 million, thereby reducing British imports and facilitating plastic, pharmaceutical, and rayon production. 

COUNTRY Total Grants Loans

Total for all countries $13,325.8 $11,820.7 $1,505.1

       

Austria 677.8 677.8 --

Belgium-Luxembourg 559.3 491.3 68.0a

Denmark 273.0 239.7 33.3

France 2,713.6 2,488.0 225.6

Germany, Federal Republic of 1,390.6 1,173.7 216.9b

Greece 706.7 706.7 --

Iceland 29.3 24.0 5.3

Ireland 147.5 19.3 128.2

Italy (including Trieste) 1,508.8 1,413.2 95.6

Netherlands (*East Indies)c 1,083.5 916.8 166.7

Norway 255.3 216.1 39.2

Portugal 51.2 15.1 36.1

Sweden 107.3 86.9 20.4

Turkey 225.1 140.1 85.0

United Kingdom 3,189.8 2,805.0 384.8

Total Expenditures for the Marshall Plan (in millions) 1948-1952

•Attempted to close off Berlin…closed all access•First real confrontation

•what to do?•Truman had nothing of it•Berlin Airlift of 1948

Soviets Resented the Marshall Plan… “imperialist

scheme”

NATO

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization-1949• “Contain” the blob…keep it out of Europe!• Canada, US, Brit, France, Belgium, Neth, Lux,

Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, eventually Germany, Spain, etc.

China was “lost” 1949

• We were supporting the nationalists…Chiang Kai-Shek

• They split to Formosa

• Russians also detonated a bomb in 1949! Resulted in NSC-68.

Draw the line in Korea!

First time the U.N. has been put into action!•Peninsula was under control of Japanese then divided along the 38th parallel between Soviet control and American control•The North invaded the South 1950•Armistice signed in 1953.•Nearly 37,000 American Deaths!•Nukes?

Containment at home

• Removing the commies• HUAC (Nixon makes a

name for himself)– Alger Hiss 1950

• McCarthyism• “Blacklists”• Smith Act-1940- used to

arrest people– ACLU founder!– Other acts as well…McCarran

Was he right?

• Information out of the Former Soviet Union in the 90’s revealed that there was some truth!

• CPUSA members bankrolled by the Commies

“McCarthyism did more damage to the constitution than the American Communist Party ever did”

Ellen Schrecker

Ike vs. Khruschev

• Started off good…détente

• Then Brinkmanship• Then…October 4, 1957

U-2 Incident-1960

• “A plane went missing due to oxygen failure”

• No wait, it was a weather plane

• No, we weren’t spying• OOPPPS!

Cuba

• Batista removed and in comes Castro and Che

• Bay of Pigs• Then THE Crisis

Vietnam

• French power?• Dien Bien Phu• Ngo Dinh Diem• Gulf of Tonkin• Escalation-bombing• Tet offensive• Vietnamization• Fall of Saigon

FAIL!

• Nato• China• The Bomb• Korea• McCarthy• Ike, Middle East, Cuba, Vietnam, 1989• Iran-Operation Ajax