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The End of World War II in Europe. Michael S. Neiberg [email protected]. The Horrors of Europe: Is Europe Still a Model for the USA?. “I never dreamed that such cruelty, bestiality, and savagery could really exist in this world” – Eisenhower to his wife, Mamie - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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The Horrors of Europe:Is Europe Still a Model for the USA?
• “I never dreamed that such cruelty, bestiality, and savagery could really exist in this world” – Eisenhower to his wife, Mamie
• Ike urged Marshall to bring the entire US Congress to see the camps for themselves.
Eisenhower and other senior American officers tour a liberated concentration camp
Domestic Problems
• Racial tensions and Riots across the nation
• Economic concerns: will the Depression return
• “Reconversion” of US industry and the integration of 12,000,000 young men
Racial violence in Detroit, 1945
Other Major International Problems
• Rebuilding of Japan• Civil War in China• Resettlement of Jews in
Palestine• Colonial issues in India,
Vietnam, and Malaya
George Marshall in China, 1946
US Strategic Choices:Mass Demobilization
• Europe “has degenerated into a state worse than that of animals” – a US soldier after seeing the Buchenwald concentration camp.
US Strategic Choices:Stay Mobilized
• "Let's keep our boots polished, bayonets sharpened, and present a picture of force and strength to the Red Army. This is the only language they understand and respect” – George Patton.
US Strategic Choices:Constructive Engagement
• “What Rome was to the ancient world, what Great Britain has been to the modern world, America is to the world of tomorrow” – two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Walter Lippman.
The New World
• No peace conference like 1919
• European states devastated– Agriculture, transport,
and industry all destroyed
• US and USSR now in charge and their goals in conflict
Potsdam Conference17 July to 2 August 1945
• Unconditional Surrender for Japan
• “The freely expressed will of the Japanese people” will determine its government
• Each power to take reparations from its sector of Germany
• Germany to be “denazified”• Surrender of Japanese
forces in Korea and Vietnam agreed.
Clement Atlee, Harry Truman, and Josef Stalin at Potsdam.
What to do with Germany?
• Morgenthau Plan• British desires to rebuild
Germany• USSR wants to
devastate it• USA wanted Germany in
a new alliance• Partition Starving children reaching for food in
Germany, 1946
Unresolved Questions
• Can the USA trust Stalin?
• Will the Germans try again?
• When will America’s allies be ready to help?
• Is a Cold War inevitable?
The New Secretary of StateJanuary 21, 1947
• First general to serve in that role
• Non-partisan image (GOP controlled Congress)
• Had no interest in elected office
Can America Meet Its New Challenges?
• “I found the problems to be almost identical with those of the war years. There was the same problem between East and West; the same limitations as to our capability; the same pressures at home and abroad.”
The First Phase, 1947-1953• George Kennan’s “Long
Telegram” and the policy of containment
• “Lessons” of World War II• Truman Doctrine• Creation of NATO and
Warsaw Pact• Korean War, 1950-1953
US and Soviet soldiers meet onthe Elbe, April, 1945
New US Defense Policies• 1950: NSC 68
recommended tripling defense budget
• 1952: US introduced peacetime conscription
• 1953: US builds first H-bomb
• 1950-1953: US sends more military personnel to Europe than to Asia
• 1955: (West) Germany rearmed
The King gets drafted, 1958
Phase Two: 1953-1979
• USSR and USA want to avoid nuclear war
• So they fight “proxy” wars in the Third World
• Connections to wars of anticolonialism
• Few direct confrontations
Soviet advisors in Vietnam, 1966
Final Phase, 1980-1991• Reagan and “evil empire”
rhetoric• SDI and massive US military
spending• Alliances with Saudi Arabia
to reduce USSR oil values, bring Arab states into US alliances
• Defeat USSR with economic effort, not direct military confrontation Building tight US – Saudi links seemed
like a good idea at the time
Soviet Initiatives• Perestroika (restructuring)
and Glasnost (openness)• USSR spending 50% of its
GDP on defense• Sign bipartisan
disarmament agreements• Seek to use the US as a
partner not an enemy• Dismantle Warsaw Pact,
remove troops from Eastern Europe
“I was talking about another time and another era” – Reagan when asked about his “evil empire” statement of 1982