Warm-up

Harry S. Truman’s use of the A-bomb to end the war

with Japan has been studied for many years. Explain why you support

his decision or not.

What other alternatives did he have?

WARM UP• Who was present at the Yalta

Conference? What was the result?

• What two things did Russia promise the US at the conference?

• What was the policy of the US toward communism after WWII?

The Cold War

Superpowers and the specter of nuclear war

The Yalta Conference• February, 1945• Big Three meet to

discuss postwar Germany and other issues regarding the post World War II world.

• Tensions between allies becoming apparent.

Allied Occupation of Postwar Germany

Tensions between Allies

• Churchill concerned with Stalin and Soviet establishment of Soviet-style communist regimes in Eastern European nations liberated by the Red Army

POLAND• After liberating the

Poles from Nazi control, the Soviet Red Army occupied Poland.

• FDR & Churchill wanted the Poles to have free democratic elections.

• Stalin promised to hold unfettered democratic elections in Poland.

Roosevelt & Pacific War• At Yalta, FDR’s

health was seriously in decline.

• FDR seeks to get help from Soviet Union in the war against Japan

• Stalin promises that the USSR would declare war on Japan three months after war against Germany ends.

The United Nations

• The Allies agreed to establish an international peace keeping organization following World War II.

• This was to replace the defunct League of Nations.

• It would be based on the principles of the Atlantic Charter. The United Nations would be the fulfillment of Woodrow Wilson’s dream.

The Potsdam Conference

• A new ‘Big Three’– Churchill, President Harry

S. Truman, and Stalin.• Churchill would be

replaced by Clement Atlee.

• Germany defeated.• Soviet Union promise to

enter war against Japan.– Worry that the USSR

would do in Asia what had been done in Eastern Europe

– Free elections in Poland had not been held.

Superpowers

S U P E R P O W E R S

The United States•Leader of the Western Powers•Democracy, Representative government•Capitalism, free-market economy, private ownership•Social freedom

The Soviet Union•Leader of the Eastern Bloc•Communism, socialistic government•Government ownership of industry and property•High degree of government control of society

S T A L I N ‘ s Declaration

• In a speech to the Communist Party convention in February of 1946, Stalin outlined plans to expand communism around the world which was viewed as a threat to the Western democratic countries.

CONTAINMENT

C O N T A I N M E N T

War in Turkey and

Greece• In postwar Europe, civil conflicts break out between communist and nationalist forces in Greece and Turkey for control of government

The Truman Doctrine• “I believe it must

be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”

Truman Doctrine• Communism and

ideological threat that must be confronted anywhere in the world

• Promoted the use of American military and economic assistance to forces fighting against communism

• Immediately lead to $400 million dollars in aid to Greece and Turkey

“I R O N C U R T A I N”“From Stettin in the Baltic to

Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.” Former British Prime

Minister Winston Churchill’s speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.

The Marshall Plan• European Economic

Recovery Plan• Its purpose was to rebuild

European nations economically and prevent the spread of communism.

• Open to all European nations which would allow for free democratic elections.

• USSR and its satellite nations did not participate.

• 16 nations participated receiving approximately $12.5 billion dollars in economic assistance.

United States Secretary of State George C. Marshall.

Soviet Takeover in Czechoslovakia

National Defense Act

Berlin Crisis

19491 9 4 9

Berlin Airlift Continues

Stalin finally lifts the blockade

G E R M A N Y - two separate nations

German Democratic Republic

Federal Republic of Germany

N A T O• North Atlantic Treaty

Organization established.

• Created out of increased fear of Soviet aggression in Europe and fear of possible World War III.

• Defensive Military Alliance.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

• All member countries promised to defend each other.– An attack on any one country

was an attack on all NATO nations.

• Western European members of NATO.– Belgium, Denmark, France,

Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal

• North American members of NATO.– The United States and

Canada.General Dwight Eisenhower of the United States named as first Supreme NATO Commander

CHINESE CIVIL WAR continues

Chinese Nationalists v Communists

•

Lead by Chiang Kai-Shek Lead by Mao Zedong

Communist Chinese victorious in 1949

The People’s Republic of ChinaCommunist (Red)

American Policy of CONTAINMENT had failed.

Joe-1, Soviet Atomic Bomb-

August 29, 1949

The Korean Division

North Korean Invasion

Truman invokes United Nations Action

The Red Scare

The 2nd Red Scare Terrifies America

• Cold War fears intensify American paranoia of Communism in the United States– During World War II

years, 80,000 Americans claimed membership in the American Communist Party.

1930s American Communist & Socialist

party membership

Federal Employee Loyalty Program

• Loyalty Oaths & Loyalty Review Board.

• Investigate government employees.

• Between 1947 and 1951, 3.2 million employees investigated, 212 dismissed as security risks, 2,900 resigned because they refused to be investigated.

House UnAmerican Activities Committee

HUAC investigates Hollywood

Was Hollywood sneaking Communist propaganda into movies?

The Hollywood Ten

The ‘unfriendly ten’ were those of the 43 witnesses from the film industry who refused to testify. They were eventually sent to prison for their lack of cooperation.

The BLACKLIST• Hollywood executive

created a ‘blacklist’ of actors, writers, producers, directors who were said to have communist ties or leaning, and these individuals were banned from work in the American film industry.

McCarran Internal Security Act• Made it illegal to

play any action that might lead to the establishment of a totalitarian dictatorship in the United States.

• Vetoed by President Truman

• Overridden by Congress.

The Alger Hiss Case• Alger Hiss served as a State

Department official in the 1930s.

• Known communist spy Whitaker Chambers accused Alger Hiss of being a Soviet Spy

• Congressman Richard Nixon (R-Ca) lead the prosecution of Hiss.

• Microfilm recovered from a pumpkin patch was produced as evidence against Hiss.

• Hiss maintained his innocence, but was convicted of perjury

The Rosenbergs

• Ethel & Julius Rosenberg were implicated by Klaus Fuchs for passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union which allowed the Soviet Union to create an atomic bomb.

• The Rosenbergs were minor activist in the American Communist Party.

• Found guilty for espionage and sentenced to death

The Rise of Joe McCarthy• McCarthy was the junior U.S.

Senator from Wisconsin.• He had had a

undistinguished tenure in the United States Senate.

• In 1950, his seat in the Senate was up for re-election.

• McCarthy needed to distinguish himself in order to be re-elected.

• McCarthy would seize the public’s fear of communism.

McCarthyism• Senator McCarthy

used unfounded accusations, bullying tactics of witnesses and sensational stories to the press.

• He claimed that there were Communists in the United States State Department and had a list of their names.

McCarthy & Eisenhower• 1952 presidential

election, Republicans, including Eisenhower refused to contradict McCarthy.

Election of 1952

The Downfall of McCarthy• Accusations that

Communists had infiltrated the United States Army.

• President Eisenhower and Republican party turned on McCarthy.

• Public opinion turned against McCarthy as they witnessed his harassing tactics, obnoxious behavior, and mean-spiritedness during hearings on TELEVISION

Korean War Truce Signed

Death of Joseph Stalin, 1953

United States detonates first Hydrogen bomb

Soviet Union detonates first hydrogen bomb one year later

Geneva Conference, 1954

French defeat in Indochina

French forces overwhelmed and surrender at Dien Bien Phu

1954 Geneva Accords

and Indochi

na

Establishment of

the WARSAW

PACT