Origins of the Cold War 2

How did the U.S. implement their policy of containment? • 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 Greece and Turkey. • The Marshall Plan (1948) – Called for nations of Europe (including communist countries) to draw up a program for economic recovery from the war. The U.S. would then support the plan with financial aid. (This action would both improve the European economy as well as reward the U.S. with strong trading partners.) – Ultimately gave $17 billion over 4 years to 16 western European nations. Division of Germany • Problems arose almost immediately after the Potsdam Conference. Truman refused to allow the Soviets to use Germany’s industrial plants in Western Germany (most of the nation’s industry was located in the west, the non-Soviet sector.) • Concerned with the deteriorating economic situation in the western zones, the U.S. pumped aid through the Marshall Plan in to Western Germany which got economic recovery underway. • The Russians were ticked off by this whole Marshall Plan situation, because they felt it was just a way for the U.S. to buy friends in Western Europe. The Berlin Airlift • Tension then rose when in June 1948, in an attempt to rebuild Germany’s economy and stop rampant inflation, the 3 western sectors of Germany changed their currency to the Deutsch Mark. The Soviets had not agreed to the currency reform and in response, they blockaded all ground and water routes to West Berlin in June of 1948. • Truman did not want to risk starting a war with the Soviet Union by forcing open the trade routes, nor did he want to give up West Berlin to the Soviets. • So he started what was known as the Berlin Airlift, in which he moved supplies into West Berlin by plane. This went on for over a year. • The airlift was a success for the U.S. in that it publicly humiliated the Soviets and served to win the hearts of the residents of W. Berlin. • By the time the Soviet blockade was ended in May 1949, the Marshall Plan had succeeded in strengthening capitalist nations in Western Europe. • The Soviets resisted the reunification efforts of the West out of a fear of a reunited Germany which could potentially invade the Soviet Union again. • In Oct. 1949, the Soviets formed a separate government in E. Germany called German Democratic Republic while the W. was united as the Federal Republic of Germany in May 1949. • Constant stream of E. Germans fleeing to W. Germany strained E-W relations in the 1950s. The Soviets sealed the borders btw E. and W. Germany in 1952 but people cont. to flee from E. to W. Berlin. • August 1961 the construction of the Berlin Wall began. The wall ultimately surrounded all of W. Berlin cutting it off from the rest of E. Germany. The wall remained in tact until Nov. 9, 1989. Formation of NATO • The tension that resulted from the Berlin airlift convinced Western powers that they needed to form a peacetime alliance against the Soviet threat. • Thus, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was established. Participating nations pledged that an attack on one was an attack on all. • Participating Nations: – Belgium – Britain – Canada – Denmark – France – Iceland – Italy – Luxembourg – Netherlands – Norway – Portugal – United States Disturbing Events 1. In 1949, a Chinese Civil War between the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party resulted in a victory for the Communists under Mao Zedong. The “loss of China” was very disappointing, and would lead to future efforts to prevent more Asian nations from falling to communism. 2. On September 23rd, 1949, the U.S. learned that the U.S.S.R. had developed a nuclear bomb. From then on, “fear of the bomb” would dictate life in America as well as diplomatic relations. Adoption of NSC-68 • In response to these events, the National Security Council spelled out American policy in a document entitled NSC-68. • This document stated that as the Soviets were not able to back up infiltration with intimidation, the U.S. should: – Increase the size of the army – Form more peacetime alliances – Develop the hydrogen bomb (1000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb!) – Finance military build-up by tripling to quadrupling its defense budget (from $13 billion to $50 billion annually) in order to meet the security needs of the time. (Increased defense spending was to come from increased taxes.) “Forces of good and evil are massed and armed and opposed as rarely before in history. Freedom is pitted against slavery, lightness against dark.” --Eisenhower’s inaugural address THE END (of the Power Point, not the Cold War!)