After the war was over, the U.S.

and the Soviet Union

The Cold War: clashed over the issue of Poland.
US and Soviet global
• Truman insisted that the new Polish gov’t have
competition from 1945-1991 representatives sympathetic to Western interests.
• Stalin insisted that because Poland was so close to the
What was the Cold War? Soviet Union, the Soviets must be allowed to have a
• The Cold War was the bitter state of indirect strong influence there.
conflict that existed between the U.S. and the • In essence, Stalin wanted to protect the security of his
Soviet Union for more than four decades after own nation. He could do so by ensuring that Poland
the end of WWII. remain under Soviet influence.

Why did the Cold War start? Meanwhile, the American people renewed their hatred
• Ever since Russia adopted a communist government of communists.
after the Russian Revolution, the relationship between • Americans began to transfer their wartime hatred of
the United States and the Soviet Union was fragile: Nazi Germany to communist Soviet Union.
– After the Russian Revolution in 1917, the • Truman himself declared in 1950 that “there isn’t any
U.S. refused to extend formal diplomatic difference between totalitarian Russian government
relations to the new communist nation and the Hitler government.”
until 1933.
– The U.S. was angered when the Soviets Perceived Similarities between Nazi Germany and
signed a non-aggression pact with Germany Stalinist Russia
in 1939. However, they found themselves on the same • Total control over communications
side when Hitler broke the pact. • Ability to eliminate political opposition
– Additionally, Stalin was angered when the U.S. first • Usage of terror to silence dissidents
entered the war and went to North Africa to help the • Stalin’s labor camps in Siberia were likened to Hitler’s
British, instead of helping out the Soviets on the concentration camps
western front. • “Big Brother” = a mating of Stalin and Hitler

• At the war’s end, there were disputes about The Cold War was never actually “officially” declared.
the futures of Germany and Poland. • However, two speeches mark the onset of the
– Germany was partitioned into four zones (one struggle:
American, one French, one British, and one – In 1946, Stalin made a speech (“Two Worlds”) in
Soviet). which he declared that the Soviet system would
– Poland’s new government would loosely be triumph ultimately.
controlled by the Soviets until free elections. – In that same year, Winston Churchill, made his
• Composition of the United Nations famous “iron curtain” speech.
rendered the Soviets outnumbered.
• Lastly, Stalin was angry that Truman did Containment
not tell him about the A-Bomb (worked • To address the concerns that the Americans had
with Britain, but did not tell Soviets until about the Soviets, they adopted a policy called
bomb completed.) ‘containment.’
– Crafted after George Kennan (a top-ranking diplomat
Plus, the two sides had totally different visions for the stationed in Moscow) wrote an article in “Foreign
postwar world. Affairs” journal (1947)
• Wrote under the alias “Mr. X” (didn’t want it to be an
The American Vision: official govt. statement)
• The U.S. fought in WWII to protect its version of the • Said it was necessary to contain the Soviet threat
American Dream. against any part of the world
• The U.S. hoped to share with the world the essential • Image of Soviets (policy) as a “persistent toy
elements of a democratic life: liberty, equality, and automobile wound up and headed in a given direction,
representative government. stopping only when it meets with some unanswerable
• The U.S. also sought to protect its economic interests force.”
by ensuring a worldwide market for its products (free – Based on this article, the use adopted a policy of
trade). CONTAINMENT (used this article and argument as
justification of the U.S. policy in the Cold War)
The Soviet Vision: • Containment is defined as the need for the United
• Remember that communism predicted that through a States to remove any opportunities for its enemy to
process of class struggle, the workers of the world establish communist governments in other countries.
would eventually triumph.
• When this happened, everyone would join hands and This was accomplished through both persuasion and
sing, as well as then split the resources of the land force.
equally.
• Because the Soviets had suffered such significant How did the U.S. implement their policy of
losses in the war (20 million), they were determined to containment?
rebuild on their own terms. • The Truman Doctrine (1947)
– Pledged support of U.S. to countries that were in
danger of takeover by communist countries.
– Gave $400 million in economic and military aid to • The tension that resulted from the Berlin airlift
Greece and Turkey. convinced Western powers that they needed to form a
• The Marshall Plan (1948) peacetime alliance against the Soviet threat.
– Called for nations of Europe (including communist
countries) to draw up a program for economic recovery • Thus, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was
from the war. The U.S. would then support the plan established. Participating nations pledged that an
with financial aid. (This action would both improve the attack on one was an attack on all.
European economy as well as reward the U.S. with • Participating Nations:
strong trading partners.) – Belgium
– Ultimately gave $17 billion over 4 years to 16 western – Britain
European nations. – Canada
– Denmark
Division of Germany – France
• Problems arose almost immediately after the – Iceland
Potsdam Conference. Truman refused to allow the – Italy
Soviets to use Germany’s industrial plants in – Luxembourg
Western Germany (most of the nation’s industry was – Netherlands
located in the west, the non-Soviet sector.) – Norway
• Concerned with the deteriorating economic situation – Portugal
in the western zones, the U.S. pumped aid through the – United States
Marshall Plan in to Western Germany which got
economic recovery underway. Disturbing Events
• The Russians were ticked off by this whole Marshall 1. In 1949, a Chinese Civil War between the Nationalist
Plan situation, because they felt it was just a way for Party and the Communist Party resulted in a victory for
the U.S. to buy friends in Western Europe. the Communists under
Mao Zedong. The “loss of China” was very
The Berlin Airlift disappointing, and would lead to future efforts to
• Tension then rose when in June 1948, in an attempt prevent more Asian nations from falling to communism.
to rebuild Germany’s economy and stop rampant 2. On September 23rd, 1949, the U.S. learned that the
inflation, the 3 western sectors of Germany changed U.S.S.R. had developed a nuclear bomb. From then on,
their currency to the Deutsch “fear of the bomb” would dictate life in America as well
Mark. The Soviets had not agreed to the currency as diplomatic relations.
reform and in response, they blockaded all ground and
water routes to West Berlin in June of 1948. Adoption of NSC-68
• In response to these events, the National Security
• Truman did not want to risk starting a war with the Council spelled out American policy in a document
Soviet Union by forcing open the trade routes, nor did entitled NSC-68.
he want to give up West Berlin to the Soviets. • This document stated that as the Soviets were not
• So he started what was known as the Berlin Airlift, in able to back up infiltration with intimidation, the
which he moved supplies into West Berlin by plane.
This went on for over a year. U.S. should:
• The airlift was a success for the U.S. in that it publicly – Increase the size of the army
humiliated the Soviets and served to win the hearts of – Form more peacetime alliances
the residents of W. Berlin. – Develop the hydrogen bomb (1000 times more
• By the time the Soviet blockade was ended in May powerful than the atomic bomb!)
1949, the Marshall Plan had succeeded in – Finance military build-up by tripling to quadrupling its
strengthening capitalist nations in Western Europe. defense budget (from $13 billion to $50 billion
annually) in order to meet the security needs of the
The Soviets resisted the reunification efforts of the time. (Increased defense spending was to come from
West out of a fear of a reunited Germany which could increased taxes.)
potentially invade the Soviet Union again.
• In Oct. 1949, the Soviets formed a separate Key People & Terms
government in E. Germany called German Democratic
Republic while the W. was united as the Federal People
Republic of Germany in May 1949.
• Constant stream of E. Germans fleeing to W. ALLEN DULLES
Germany strained E-W relations in the 1950s. > The director of the CIA under Eisenhower, who
The Soviets sealed the borders btw E. and W. Germany advocated extensive use of covert operations. Most
in 1952 but people cont. to flee from E. to W. Berlin. notable among Dulles’s initiatives were U.S.-sponsored
• August 1961 the construction of the Berlin Wall coups in Iran in 1953 and Guatemala in 1954, which
began. The wall ultimately surrounded all of W. Berlin installed pro-American governments in order to curb
cutting it off from the rest of E. Germany. The wall potential expansion of Communism. Although
remained in tact until Nov. 9, Eisenhower favored such covert operations because
1989. they were relatively low-cost and attracted little
attention, the coups in Iran and Guatemala proved
Formation of NATO rather transparent and caused international anger
toward the United States.
JOHN FOSTER DULLES
> Secretary of state under Eisenhower (and brother of DOUGLAS MACARTHUR
Allen Dulles) who helped devise Eisenhower’s New >Five-star American general who commanded Allied
Look foreign policy. Dulles’s policy emphasized massive forces in the Pacific during World War II. After the war,
retaliation with nuclear weapons. In particular, Dulles MacArthur led the American occupation in Japan,
advocated the use of nuclear weapons against Ho Chi helped establish a democratic government there, and
Minh’s Communist forces in Vietnam. in large part rewrote the country’s new constitution
outlawing militarism. He later commanded United
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER Nations forces in Korea, driving North Korean forces
> A World War II hero and former supreme commander back north of the 38th parallel after making the
of NATO who became U.S. president in 1953 after brilliant Inchon landing. He ignored Chinese warnings
easily defeating Democratic opponent Adlai E. not to approach the North Korean–Chinese border at
Stevenson. Eisenhower expanded New Deal–era social the Yalu River, however, and was subsequently driven
welfare programs such as Social Security and passed back down to the 38th parallel by more than a million
the landmark Federal Highway Act to improve national Chinese troops. President Harry S Truman later
transportation. However, he cut back funding to other rejected MacArthur’s request to bomb North Korea and
domestic programs to halt what he China with nuclear weapons. MacArthur’s public
called “creeping socialism.” His New Look at foreign criticism of the president’s decision prompted Truman
policy, meanwhile, emphasized nuclear weapons and to remove him from command in 1951.
the threat of massive retaliation against the Soviet
Union in order to cut costs and deter the USSR from JOSEPH MCCARTHY
spreading Communism abroad. Eisenhower committed >Republican senator from Wisconsin who capitalized on
federal dollars to fighting Communists in Vietnam, Cold War fears of Communism in the early 1950s by
resolved the Suez crisis, and authorized CIA-sponsored accusing hundreds of government employees of being
coups in Iran and Guatemala. Communists and Soviet agents. Although McCarthy
failed to offer any concrete evidence to prove these
HO CHI MINH claims, many Americans fully supported him. He ruined
> The nationalist, Communist leader of the Viet Minh his own reputation in 1954 after humiliating himself
movement, which sought to liberate Vietnam from during the televised Army-McCarthy hearings.
French colonial rule throughout the 1950s. After being Disgraced, he received an official censure from the
rebuffed by the United States, Ho received aid from the Senate and died an alcoholic in 1957.
USSR and won a major victory over French forces
at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. This French defeat forced GAMAL ABDEL NASSER
the Geneva Conference of 1954, which split Vietnam >The nationalist, Communist-leaning president
into Communist-dominated North Vietnam and French- of Egypt who seized the British-controlled Suez
backed South Vietnam. Canal in 1956, after economic aid negotiations among
Egypt, Great Britain, and the United States fell apart.
JOHN F. KENNEDY Nasser’s action precipitated the Suez crisis, in which
>The thirty-fifth U.S. president, who set out to expand Eisenhower uncharacteristically backed the
social welfare spending with his New Frontier program. Communist-leaning Nasser and cut off all oil exports to
Kennedy was elected in 1960, defeating Great Britain and France.
Republican Richard M. Nixon. Feeling that their hands
were tied by Eisenhower’s policy of “massive RICHARD M. NIXON
retaliation,” Kennedy and members of his foreign policy >Republican congressman from California who rose to
staff devised the tactic of “flexible response” to contain national fame as a prominent member of the House
Communism. Kennedy sent “military advisors” to Un-American Activities Committee in the late 1940s
support Ngo Dinh Diem’s corrupt regime in South when he successfully prosecuted Alger Hiss for being a
Vietnam and formed the Alliance for Progress to fight Communist. Nixon later served as vice president
poverty and Communism in Latin America. He also under Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. He
backed the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion, which lost his own bid for the presidency against John F.
ultimately led to the Cuban missile crisis. In 1963, after Kennedy in 1960 but defeated his Democratic
Kennedy had spent roughly 1,000 days in office, he was opponent eight years later and became president
assassinated, and Vice President Lyndon B. in 1969.
Johnson took office.
HARRY S TRUMAN
NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV > The Vice president under Franklin D. Roosevelt who
> The head of the Soviet Communist Party and leader of became president upon Roosevelt’s death in
the USSR from 1958 until the early 1960s. Initially, April 1945 and successfully carried out the remainder
many Americans hoped Khrushchev’s rise to power of World War II. Truman was instrumental in creating a
would lead to a reduction in Cold War tensions. new international political and economic order after
Khrushchev toured the United States in 1959 and the war, helping to form the United Nations, NATO,
visited personally with President Eisenhower at Camp the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.
David, Maryland. The U-2 incident and 1962 Cuban His Marshall Plan also helped Western Europe rebuild
missile crisis, however, ended what little amity existed after the war and surpass its prewar levels of industrial
between the two nations and repolarized the Cold War. production. Determined not to let the Soviet Union
Party leaders, upset with Khrushchev for having backed spread Communism, Truman adopted the idea
down from the Cuban missile crisis, removed him from of containment, announcing his own Truman
power in 1964. Doctrine in 1947. His characterization of the Soviet
Union as a force of “ungodly” evil helped shape the Kennedy ended the blockade. The United States
Cold War of the next four decades. He also led the complied and also agreed to remove from Turkey
nation into the Korean War but eventually fired nuclear missiles aimed at the USSR. The Communist
General Douglas MacArthur for insubordination. Party leadership in the USSR removed Khrushchev from
power in 1964 for having backed down in the standoff.
Terms
DIEN BIEN PHU
ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS >A site in Vietnam where an important French outpost
>Congressional hearings that took place in 1954 as a fell to Ho Chi Minh’s pro-Communist forces in 1954.
result of Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy accusing After this defeat, an international conference in Geneva
ranking U.S. Army officers of being Communists and split Vietnam into two nations—North Vietnam and
Soviet spies. Tens of millions of Americans watched the South Vietnam—with the dividing line at the 17th
televised courtroom proceedings as McCarthy publicly parallel. Ho Chi Minh established a government in the
humiliated himself without offering a shred of city of Hanoi in North Vietnam, while U.S.-backed Ngo
evidence. The hearings earned McCarthy an official Dinh Diem took control of the South Vietnamese
censure from his fellow senators, finished his political government in Saigon.
career, and effectively ended the Red hunts.
DOMINO THEORY
BAY OF PIGS INVASION The belief that if the United States allowed one country
>President John F. Kennedy’s failed plan to invade to fall to Communism, then many more would follow
Cuba and topple revolutionary leader Fidel Castro with suit, like a row of dominoes. Many foreign policy
an army of CIA-trained Cuban exiles in 1961. Although thinkers subscribed to this theory at the height of the
Kennedy had originally intended to use the U.S. Air Cold War, and this led the United States to support
Force to help the exiled Cubans retake the island, he anti-Communist regimes throughout the world,
unexpectedly withdrew support shortly before the whether or not they upheld democratic ideals. The
operation started. As a result, the invasion failed domino theory also provided the primary rationale
utterly, actually consolidated Castro’s power, and behind Lyndon Johnson’s massive escalation of the
pushed Cuba into signing a treaty with the Soviet conflict in Vietnam to full-scale war.
Union.
FLEXIBLE RESPONSE
BERLIN AIRLIFT >A doctrine of containment that provided for a variety
>The dropping of thousands of tons of food and of military and political strategies that the president
medical supplies to starving West Berliners after Joseph could use to stem the spread of Communism. The
Stalin closed off all highway and railway access to the flexible response plan was developed by Defense and
city in mid-1948. Stalin hoped to cut off British, French, State Department officials in the Kennedy
and American access to the conquered German city, administration who felt that Eisenhower’s “massive
but President Harry S Truman, determined not to lose retaliation” doctrine restricted the president’s options
face or the city, ordered American military planes to too much.
drop provisions from the air. The blockade was foiled,
and Stalin finally lifted it in 1949. HOUSE UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE (HUAC)
>A committee established in 1938 by the House of
CONTAINMENT Representatives to investigate individual Americans or
>A U.S. foreign policy doctrine that argued that the organizations who might be linked to the Nazis or the
Soviet Union needed to be “contained” to prevent the Ku Klux Klan. After World War II, as fear of the Soviet
spread of Communism throughout the world. First Union spread, HUAC was used to investigate those
formulated by State Department analyst George suspected of having ties to Communism or of being
Kennan during the Truman administration, it suggested Soviet agents. Congressman Richard M. Nixon played a
that the United States needed to fight Communism key role on the committee and used his power to
abroad and promote democracy (or at least anti- prosecute many, including federal employee Alger
Communist regimes) worldwide. Policy makers tied it Hiss in 1950.
closely with the domino theory. Kennan’s idea
eventually developed into the single most important MARSHALL PLAN
tenet of American foreign policy through the Cold War >A plan devised by President Harry S Truman and
until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Secretary of State George C. Marshall that committed
over $10 billion to rebuilding Western Europe after
CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS World War II. Although the Soviet Union fiercely
>The crisis that occurred when Cuban leader Fidel opposed the plan, Truman knew that rebuilding the
Castro sought economic and military assistance from region would provide stability and prevent another
the Soviet Union after the United States’ world war. The Marshall Plan was highly successful and
failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. The Soviet enabled British, French, Italian, and German factories to
premier, Nikita Khrushchev, capitalized on the failed exceed prewar production levels within just a few
invasion, allied with Castro, and secured from Castro years.
the right to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. Upon
learning of the missiles, President John F. MASSIVE RETALIATION
Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of the island >A primary component of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s New
in 1962 and demanded that Khrushchev remove them. Look foreign policy that threatened massive nuclear
Nuclear war seemed imminent until Khrushchev finally retaliation against the Soviet Union for any Communist
backed down, promising to remove the missiles if aggression abroad. Designed to save the U.S.
government money on defense spending, this policy > The Cold War competition between the United States
effectively tied Eisenhower’s hands because it limited and the Soviet Union for primacy in the exploration of
his options when addressing smaller crises, such as outer space. The space race was prompted by the
the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Kennedy later dropped USSR’s launch of the first orbiting space
the threat of massive retaliation in favor of the doctrine satellite, Sputnik I , in 1957. The Sputnik launch
of “flexible response,” which gave the president more prompted President Eisenhower to form NASA and
options. Kennedy to push for a lunar landing by the end of
the 1960s.
MONTGOMERY G.I. BILL
>A bill passed in 1944 that provided federal grants SPUTNIK I AND SPUTNIK II
for education to returning World War II veterans. Also > The first orbiting space satellites, launched by the
known as the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, the bill Soviet Union beginning in 1957. The launch of these
also awarded federal loans to vets to purchase new satellites astonished the world and scared many
homes, farms, and businesses. Millions of veterans took Americans into believing that the USSR had the
advantage of these grants and loans to go back to capability to attack the United States with long-range
school and purchase new suburban homes, making the nuclear missiles. President Eisenhower responded by
act one of the most significant pieces of postwar forming the National Aeronautics and Space
legislation. Administration (NASA) to coordinate American
endeavors to explore space. Congress also passed
NATIONAL SECURITY ACT the National Defense Education Act, which provided
>An act passed in 1947 that reorganized the U.S. more federal dollars for science and foreign language
military and espionage services in order to better meet instruction in public schools. American and Soviet
the Soviet threat. The act placed the armed forces competition to explore space quickly became known as
under the new secretary of defense and Joint Chiefs of the space race.
Staff and also created the Central Intelligence
Agency and the National Security Council to advise the SUEZ CRISIS
president. > The crisis that erupted after Egypt’s nationalization of
the British-controlled Suez Canal, which took place
NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL MEMORANDUM 68 in 1956 after negotiations over international aid among
(NSC-68) the United States, Great Britain, and Egypt collapsed.
A classified 1950 proposal that the United States Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized
quadruple defense and military spending in order to the canal, which links the Red Sea and the
counter the Soviet threat. NSC-68set a precedent for Mediterranean Sea. Although Eisenhower protested the
increasing defense spending throughout the Cold War, move, he also condemned the joint British, French, and
especially after North Korean forces attacked South Israeli invasion of Egypt to retake the canal. The three
Korea in June 1950. nations eventually halted their attack and withdrew,
under heavy diplomatic and economic pressure from
NEW FRONTIER the United States.
> Kennedy’s collective bundle of domestic policies,
which called for increased social welfare spending to TRUMAN DOCTRINE
tackle the growing poverty rate. Opposition in Congress > A doctrine articulated by President Harry S
from Republicans and southern Democrats, however, Truman that pledged American support for all “free
blocked the passage of most New Frontier legislation. peoples” fighting Communist aggression from foreign
or domestic sources. Truman announced the doctrine
NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO) in 1947, then convinced Congress to grant Greece and
>An organization formed in 1949 that bound the United Turkey $400 million to help fight pro-Soviet insurgents.
States, Canada, most of Western Europe, and later Besides committing the United States to the policy of
Greece and Turkey together in a mutual pact of defense containment, the language of the Truman Doctrine
against the USSR and Eastern bloc countries. The treaty itself help characterize the Cold War as a conflict
had the additional effect of permanently tying between good and evil.
American interests to political and economic stability in U-2 INCIDENT
Europe. >The crisis that arose after the USSR shot down an
American U-2 spy plane flying over the USSR on a
RED HUNTS reconnaissance mission in 1960. President Dwight D.
The wrongful persecutions of thousands of Americans Eisenhower initially denied that the incident occurred
for being Communists or Soviet spies that took place in until Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev presented the
the 1940s and 1950s and were led by the Loyalty captured American pilot. The president’s refusal to
Review Board and the House Un-American Activities apologize or halt future spy missions caused the
Committee. Congressman Richard Nixon, collapse of a joint summit among Great Britain, France,
Senator Joseph McCarthy, and others led these the United States, and the USSR in May 1960.
Communist “witch hunts,” often without any shred of WARSAW PACT
evidence. Liberal playwright Arthur Miller, himself
among the accused Communists, criticized the Red A pact signed by the USSR and Eastern European
hunts and McCarthyism in his critically acclaimed countries under Soviet influence in 1955. By signing the
play The Crucible, which dealt with the Salem witch pact, they pledged mutual defense in response to the
trials in seventeenth-century New England. formation of NATO.

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