Cold War
• 1946-1990
Events that led to the Cold War
Disagreement over Germany
Soviets’ refusal to honor Declaration of Liberated Europe (Yalta
Conference)
Soviet actions in Poland: no intention of holding free elections
Potsdam Conference: Soviets reluctant to accept US demands; felt bullied by successful a-bomb testing
Communist victory in China
Soviet Views vs. American Views
SECURITY
1. Concerned about
being invaded twice
in less than 30 years
by the Germans =
keep Germany weak
and create buffer
states (
satellite
nations
)
2. Communist
ECONOMIC
1. Capitalist
2. Concerned about
economic problems
3. Promote Democracy
+ free enterprise =
promote economic
growth by increasing
world trade
Activity: Document Response
How did American foreign policy
interests and goals change between
American Foreign Policy During
the Cold War
• Yesterday, you reviewed documents that
outlined how American foreign policy
interests and goals changed in response
to the Cold War.
Containment
• To keep something from spreading
Containment
Gave basis for providing
military and
economic
support
to nations
threatened by
communism
Used in
Greece and
Turkey
Provided aid in terms of
money, supplies,
and machinery
to
Western European
countries trying to
rebuild their
economy and resist
communism
TRUMAN DOCTRINE
MARSHALL PLAN
=
And happy people
Containment
Stalin blockaded Berlin after allied zones merged in Germany
Airlift supplies for 11 months until Stalin lifts the
blockade =
determination to
promote freedom and resist communism
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Mutual defense pact with US, Canada, and W.
Europe = demonstration of combined military
strength to Stalin forms Warsaw Pact
with Communist nations
Containment
C
Li
1946
Cracked Soviet spy
code = read
messages between
Moscow & US
confirmed existence
of extensive Soviet
spying
Strategies for
Containing
Communism
Strong
Economy
Nuclear
weapons
for
massive
retaliation
brinkmanship
Covert
Economy
• The US had to show the world that free
enterprise could produce a better more
prosperous society than communism
Massive Retaliation
• Threaten to use nuclear weapons if
Communists tried to seize a territory by
force
Success of Massive Retaliation
• Military spending was cut from $50 billion to $34
billion.
• Cut army personnel
Brinkmanship
• The willingness to go to the brink of nuclear
war to force the other side to back down
– Korean War: hinted to China = armistice
– Taiwan Crisis: any attempts by China to invade Taiwan would be resisted by the US… HINT, HINT… we have nuclear weapons!
Covert Action
• Hidden operations
conducted by the CIA
(Central Intelligence
Agency)
– Developing nations to
overthrow
anti-American leaders and
replace them with
Read: Butter Battle Book
• The Butter Battle Book is a political
allegory written by Dr. Seuss about the
Cold War.
• As you listen to the story answer the
questions.
The New Red Scare
- Feared
Communists
Causes of the New Red Scare
(1) Gouzenko Case: Sept., 1945
- Implication: spies already in our government
- Search for spies leads to general fear of
Communist
subversion
- effort to secretly
Two Immediate Effects
•
Loyalty Review Program: Truman, 1947
– All federal employees to be screened for loyalty to US
•
HUAC: FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, 1947
– Went before House Un-American Committee
• Loyalty Review Program not enough….
House Un-American Activities
Committee (HUAC)
• The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having Communist ties.
• Through its power to subpoena witness and hold people in contempt of Congress, HUAC often pressured
witnesses to surrender names and other information that could lead to the apprehension of Communists and
Communist sympathizers.
• Its most famous investigation revealed that Alger Hiss, a former State Department official, had lied to them
Causes of the New Red Scare
(2) Alger Hiss Trial: 1948
– Alger Hiss accused of being a Communist spy
– “Pumpkin Papers"—several prints of State Department documents from the 1930s.
– The pumpkin papers were introduced against Hiss in a perjury trial, at which he was accused of lying about having passed State Department papers to Chambers.
Causes of the New Red Scare
(3)
The Rosenbergs
– Americans: Soviets couldn’t have produced
atomic bomb in ‘49 without help…let’s look for
the spies
– 1950: Clues from Albert Fuchs, British
scientist, led FBI to
Ethel & Julius Rosenberg
• Accused of passing info to Soviets on building plutonium bomb
The Rosenberg’s Sentencing
Excerpts
I believe your conduct in putting into the hands of the Russians the A-bomb years before our best scientists predicted Russia would perfect the bomb has already caused, in my opinion, the Communist aggression in Korea, with the resultant casualties exceeding 50,000 and who knows but that millions more of innocent people may pay the price of your treason. Indeed, by your betrayal you undoubtedly have altered the course of history to the disadvantage of our country.
Causes of the New Red Scare
(4)
The Hydrogen Bomb
Effect
Effect
1. Schools set aside areas as bomb shelters
• “duck-and-cover drills”- bomb drills where kids hid under desks, covering head with hands
2. Fallout shelters: built in backyards, under homes
Causes of the New Red Scare
Effect
• Space race
• Advancement in science and
technology.
• A new emphasis on science
and technology in American
schools
The Red Scare Spreads
• Joseph R. McCarthy begins witch-hunt for suspected
Communists
• McCarthyism: buzz word for damaging reputations with
unfounded charges, based on flimsy
McCarthyism
• Public accusation that more than two hundred “card-carrying” communists had infiltrated the United States government.
• The House Un-American Activities Committee had been formed in 1938 as an anti-Communist organ.
• The paranoid hunt for infiltrators was notoriously difficult on writers and entertainers, many of whom were labeled communist
sympathizers and were unable to continue working.
• The trials often destroy a career with a single unsubstantiated accusation.
• In all, three hundred and twenty artists were blacklisted including, Arthur Miller, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and Charlie
Effect
•
The McCarran Internal Security Act
– Now illegal to do anything that would
“substantially contribute to establishment of a
totalitarian government
• Communist organizations must register with US attorney general & publish their records
• Restricted Communist Party members
• Allowed arrest, detention of Communists &
sympathizers... Truman vetoed bill, but Congress overrides in 1950
• Later, Supreme Court rulings made sure McCarran
Army-McCarthy Hearings
• Over the course of the hearings, it was
discovered that McCarthy had asked for
special favors for his aide, had doctored
“Sense of Decency"
In late 1954, McCarthy was formally
McCarthy’s Legacy
• The McCarthy era is now remembered as
one in which attack by innuendo was
common and where, during the
Cause and Effect of the Cold
War
1. Soviet Union controls Eastern Europe after World War II
2. Chinese Communists win control of
mainland China
3. US and Soviet Union explode atomic bombs
1. Marshall Plan provides aid to W. Europe and Japan
2. W. nations form NATO; Communist nations = Warsaw Pact
3. Korean War erupts 4. American and Soviet
arms race
5. Red Scare leads to hunt for Communists in the US
CAUSES
