Lecture 9 – The Cold War, 1945-1960

Cold War: Defined

• The Cold War was the political conflict, economic competition, actual warfare, and military conflict between the Soviet Union and western powers, particularly the United States
• Included the “hot” (actual battle) Korean War, the race to produce space technology, the nuclear arms race and even rivalry in sporting events
• Began after WWII and lasted until the 1980s

Communism Defined

• Classic definition of communism: a theory of social organization based on the holding of common property, where the government or the whole state has actual ownership
• Aims for a classless society
• Ends wage labor and private property ownership

The Beginning of the Cold War

• US emerges from WWII as the greatest power in the world
• Had most powerful army and navy and accounted for ½ the world’s manufacturing power
• Only power that rivaled the US was the Soviet Union: armies occupied most of Eastern Europe
• Soviets and the United States both looked to a world modeled after their government style
• Bred a fierce spirit of competition between the two nations
• Do not share common interests, values of history
• Wartime alliance unravels once WWII ends

The Iron Curtain

• In a speech in Missouri, Britain’s former wartime prime minister, Winston Churchill, declares that an “iron curtain” fell across Europe, meaning the free democratic West was separate from the communist East
• There was no physical wall, but a figurative separation of political, social, and economic core ideas and values

Idea of “containment”

• US believes it has the power to stop the Soviets from spreading communism throughout the world
• The US believes it must “contain” communism, though it recognized eastern Europe was already dominated by this system of government

The Truman Doctrine

• Truman becomes President after FDR’s death in 1945
• Came up with foreign policy that was supposed to “guide” the United States towards preventing the spread of communism
  • This doctrine was called the Truman Doctrine
  • He is determined to put the policy of containment in place
  • Provides military aid to Greece and Turkey so that they will become democratic rather than communist countries, hence stopping the spread of communism

The Marshall Plan

• Secretary of State George Marshall spells out another plan:
  • Pledges that the US will contribute billions of dollars to finance the economic recovery of Europe
  • Combats the idea that capitalism is in decline and that communism is the wave of the future
  • Like a New Deal for Europe
  • Slogan of the plan: “Prosperity Makes You Free”

The Marshall Plan

The Growth of National Security

• During Truman’s presidency, a new strategy for containing communism was created:
  • Developing atomic weapons
  • Strengthening military power
  • Forming military alliances
  • Sending financial aid to other countries to prevent the spread of communism
  • Creating a spy network and secret means to prevent Communist expansion
  • Propaganda offensive to win support for the United States around the world

The Hydrogen Bomb

• In Jan. 1950, Truman approved the development of the hydrogen bomb
• More powerful than 500 atomic bombs
• US develops this super bomb by 1954 to gain an edge in the arms race with the Soviets
• Only one year later, the Soviets develop their own hydrogen bomb

NATO

• The US, Canada, and 10 western European nations establish the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• Pledge mutual defense against any future Soviet attack
• West Germany becomes a bulwark of this idea: it is seen as a place to work to fight against the spread of communism
• The Soviets form their own alliance, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955

The Division of Berlin

• At the end of WWII, each of the four victors (France, England, Russia and the US) occupy a part of Germany and split the capital city of Berlin
• West Germany: capitalistic
• East Germany: communistic
• Even Berlin itself is partitioned

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

• The CIA was created  to create intelligence, or find information, about the Soviet Union
• Cold War includes serious espionage
• Engaged in covert activities at the request of the President
• It was expanded to investigate subversive communist orgs. and
• Engaged in subversive acts itself

Rivalries for World Power

• The US and other Western European powers aim to stop the spread of Communism throughout the world, including Asia, Africa, and the Middle East
• The US cannot prevent the spread of Communism to China
• The US supports the creation of a Jewish State, Israel, in part to create a barrier against Soviet influence in the Middle East

McCarthyism

• During the late 1940s and 1950s,  individuals in government positions and other American institutions (like universities) were accused of disloyalty, subversion or treason without proper evidence
• Driven by fears of communist infiltration in the United States
• Led by Senator Joseph McCarthy
• Many thousands of Americans were accused of being Communists or sympathizers and were the subjects of very aggressive and often unfair investigations
• If a person was simply suspected of being a communist, he or she could have lost his of her job or even faced jail time

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg

• This American communist couple was executed in 1953 for conspiracy to commit espionage
• They were found guilty of passing secrets to the Soviets about nuclear weapons
• First Americans to be executed for spying
• Evidence about Ethel’s involvement is still sketchy
• This decision was, and still is, controversial as seen perhaps as a result of American fears during the Cold War

The Loyalty Program

• Truman issues Executive Order 9835 in March 1947 which allows reviews board to investigate the loyalty of every federal employee to the united States government
• More than 2000 civil service people lost their jobs and another 10,000 resigned because they did not believe they should be forced to take a loyalty oath

The Cold War Gets HOT

• After WWII, Korea had been divided between the Soviets and the Americans
• Two government evolved: Communist North Korea and the undemocratic but US-aligned, South Korea
• June 1950 – North Korean army invades South Korea to reunify the country under communist control

The Korean War: Causes of the Korean War

• US believes its mission is to contain communism, so they act as the police of this spread in Korea
• American troops do the bulk of fighting against North Korea

Korean War Ends

• The war ends in an armistice
• Essentially, there is a stalemate and both sides basically agree to stop fighting without a victory for either side
• To this day, North and South Korea are divided along ideological lines and South Korea remains more allegiant to the United States, while North Korea is increasingly perceived as a threat

The Election of 1952

• Took place when Cold War tensions were very high
• Previous president Harry Truman (Dem.) was very popular and decided not to run
• Democrats chose Adelai Stevenson to run against Dwight D. Eisenhower (Rep.)
• Eisenhower was a popular war hero and he won by a landslide

Nuclear Arms Race with the Soviets

• The United States engages in a nuclear arms race with the Soviets, where scientific research is geared towards creating weapons that can massively destroy the enemy
• Leads to an arms race and the development of technology that threatens civilization if a nuclear war were ever to be sparked

Sputnik and the “Space Race”

• The United States and the Soviets engaged in a race to create space technology
• The Sputnik program was a series of programs run by the Soviets and the Sputnik 1 was the first human made object to be launched into Space and orbit the earth
• The US and the Soviets have intense rivalry to get to the moon first and spend excessive amounts of money to create new technology

Cold War Era Lingers

• The Cold War would define American politics for decades
• Shifted the federal governments priorities away from domestic problems to foreign issues
• Military spending grew dramatically and defense contracts with businesses developed in the American West and Southwest (Orange County included!)

Costs of the Cold War

• Loss of lives in the Korean War, with long-lasting damage done to the US-North Korean relationship
• Would eventually lead to the war in Vietnam
• Anti-Communist hysteria swept the nation and resulted in narrowing the range of ideas that were considered acceptable for American to explore and/or believe