The Cold War Begins

“We have arrived at the point…where there is just no real alternative to peace.”Dwight D. Eisenhower

What was the cold war?

To put it simply, it was the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to fill the power vacuum left with Germany, Japan, and Great Britain in ruins after WW II.

How was it fought?

Despite the name, “cold war,” the “competition” between the two nations was primarily waged on political and economic fronts.

The threat of all out war was always present.

Proxy Wars

When the Cold War turned hot, it was in proxy wars in which the U.S. backed one side and the communists backed the other. With the exception of the Chinese intervention in the Korean War, seldom did U.S. and Chinese or Soviet forces enter into direct conflict.

Proxy Wars

Examples of some of the proxy wars are:Korean WarVietnam WarWar in Afghanistan (Soviet conflict –

said to be the Soviet’s Vietnam)

German Frustration

Many high ranking German officers could not understand why the Allies fought with the Soviets against Nazi Germany during WW II. They understood the practical reason of defeating the Nazi regime, but they could not reconcile the political differences between the democracies of the U.S. and Great Britain and the reality of Soviet style communism which the Germans both hated, feared, and had seen first hand what it was capable of.

German Frustration

Many high ranking German generals, when captured told their captors that they would be allies as soon as the war was over.

In the minds of these German officers, the “hot war” would simply change from that of the Allies against the Nazis to that of the Allies against the Soviets.

They were almost right

While the “hot war” many German officers predicted did not break out, the Cold War came right on the heels of the end of the war in Europe.

Many German officers who had managed to be captured on the Western Front who had fought on the Eastern Front, were glad to tell what they knew about the Soviets.

Distrust

Stalin was both envious and distrustful of the United States and its industrial might.

The United States was appalled at the Soviet style communism and feared Soviet expansionism.

The distrust created immediately following WW II fueled the Cold War to the point that it would last nearly 50 years.

Soviet Expansionism

Claiming to need a buffer zone against Western invasion, the Soviet Union either annexed nations it had conquered from German occupation or installed puppet governments that were pro-Soviet.

All of these countries were ruled for the benefit of the Soviet Union.

East Germany had 40% of its industrial equipment removed and relocated to the Soviet Union.

All of these eastern European nations came to be known as satellite nations.

World War III

In February of 1946 Stalin gave his infamous speech in which he declared that “capitalism and communism could never coexist.”

The speech came to be known as the Declaration of World War III.

Containment

This doctrine became the basis of the U.S. approach to dealing with Soviet communism.

It was established by State Department official George Keenan.

Simply put, the U.S. would work to stop the spread of communism to any other nations.

The Baruch Plan

Bernard Baruch called for the creation of a UN agency with the authority to inspect any nation’s atomic-energy installations.

If any nation was found developing atomic weapons, severe penalties would be imposed.

Until that plan was in place though, Baruch stated the U.S. would not reveal any of its atomic secrets, thus preserving its nuclear superiority.

Red Scare

There were two distinct periods known as the Red Scare. The first lasted from 1917-1920.

The second Red Scare lasted from 1948 until the mid-1950s.

The Red Scare

Responding to charges that he was soft on Communism at home, Truman cracked down on American communists.

The Loyalty Review Board was formed in 1947 to investigate all federal employees.

By 1951, 2,000 employees had resigned and 300 had been fired as security risks.

The Causes

The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg for espionage.

The Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe. Joe One The Chinese Communist Revolution The start of the Korean War. There was a widespread belief that all

communists worked for the fall of the United States and all democracies.

The Proof

Anti-communists used as evidence of the threat and evil of communism the mass murder of millions.The Soviet Gulag systemsThe Great Purges of StalinDeportation of the Poles to SiberiaThe Eastern BlocThe murder of hundreds of thousands

in China.

The Reaction

Congress passed the Smith Act in 1947 making membership in a subversive organization a crime.

Truman created the Federal Employees Loyalty Program – it investigated Federal employees for loyalty. Those who were found to be disloyal were terminated from employment.

HUACThe House Committee on UN-American Activities.

This committee was formed, along with Senator Joseph McCarthy’s committee, investigated Americans suspected of being communists.

Propaganda films like Red Nightmare further spread the fear of communism.

House Committee on Un-American Activities This committee and been founded in 1938

to investigate fascism in the U.S. In 1947 they investigated Hollywood, which

was rumored to be rife with communists. Ten film directors and screen writers

refused to testify before the House. They were arrested and blacklisted, never

to work in the film industry again. They were known as the Hollywood Ten.

Hollywood Ten

Alvah Bessie, screenwriter Herbert Biberman, screenwriter and

director Lester Cole, screenwriter Edward Dmytryk, director Ring Lardner, Jr., Journalist and

screenwriter.

The Hollywood Ten

John Howard Lawson, writer Albert Maltz, author and screenwriter Samuel Ornitz, screenwriter Adrian Scott, screenwriter and film

producer Dalton Trumbo, screenwriter and

novelist

Joe One: Russia Gets The Bomb The American monopoly on the

atomic bomb ended in during the latter part of the summer in 1949.

Stunned by the discovery, the Truman administration took three weeks to decide to tell the American people.

The bomb was titled “Joe One” – for Joseph Stalin – by the American Military.

What to do?

Believing in the power of the bomb to serve as a deterrent to Soviet military aggression, the United States had drawn down the military, believing it could rely on its nuclear capacity to avert war.

1950

In 1950, after ignoring its wartime agreements with the Allies, the Soviet Union had maintained its huge military while occupying Eastern Europe.

The Soviets held the following numerical military advantages:

Military aircraft: 3 to 1 superiorityCombat troops: 4 to 1 superiorityTank divisions: 30 to 1 superiority

Telling The American People After three weeks of confusion and

deliberation, the Truman White House decided the bad news had to be broken the American Public.

White House Press Secretary Charles Ross was given the unpleasant task.

On September 3, 1949, he locked the doors to the White House Press Room.

The Drama

Ross turned and informed the correspondents, “Nobody is leaving here until everyone has this statement.”

Ross then handed out a mimeographed press release.

One reporter whistled, the rest remained silent.

Ross then opened the doors and the reporters hustled off to file their stories.

The Public’s Reaction

The American people were stunned and terrified.

The Department of Defense announces that if the Soviets decide to use the bomb, millions of Americans would die in a single day.

Given the aggressive behavior of the communists, many Americans felt certain nuclear holocaust was certain.

The H Bomb

The Truman Administration, faced with the need to respond to the Soviet acquisition of the A-Bomb, decide to develop the “Superbomb,” a fusion bomb using Hydrogen.

In the face of skepticism from American physicists, the Hungarian born physicist, Edward Teller, convinced the Truman Administration and the Department of Defense he could build the H-Bomb.

The Race For The H-Bomb

The Department of Defense feels the United States has no choice.

The Soviet Union cannot be allowed to obtain the H-bomb first.

Rear Admiral Sidney W. Souers of the National Security Council informed Truman, “It’s either we make it or wait until the Russians drop one on us without warning.

Why Race?

The Department of Defense catches spies.

British physicist, Dr. Klaus Fuchs, who had worked at Los Alamos, disclosed he had given some of the United States atomic secrets to the Soviets from 1942-1949.

Rosenburgs

In 1951, the two American citizens, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted for selling American atomic secrets to the Soviets during WW II.

They were executed in June of 1953.

Internal Security Act

This anti-communist law was passed in 1950.

It required communist party members and organizations to register with the government.

It also imposed strict controls on immigrants who were believed to be communists.

Zionism

The movement for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

David Ben-Gurion, a Russian, the leader of the Zionist movement.

In 1948 the modern nation of Israel was formed.

The Israelis won a brutal war with surrounding Arab nations to secure their nation’s existence and most of Palestine.

Communism In Asia

Under Truman China fell to communism. Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces fell to

Mao Zedong’s communists forces. The Korean war broke out in 1950. The

communist North Koreans invaded democratic South Korea.

Two days after the start of fighting, Truman promised the help South Korea in order to stop the spread of communism.

Communism In Asia

With a history of centuries of fighting for independence, marked by periods of foreign conquest followed by successful insurgency wars, the Vietnamese, under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, were fighting for their independence from the French.

In 1954 the French-Indochina war concluded with Vietnam getting its independence and being partitioned into North and South Vietnam. The South was “a democracy” and the North was communist.

Truman Doctrine

The Truman Doctrine came about in response to Soviet aggression in Europe and the Middle East as exemplified in communist activity in Iran, Turkey and Greece.

Truman Doctrine

As an extension of the Containment Doctrine, Truman stated, “the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.

The doctrine became, in effect law, on March 12, 1947, when Congress appropriated $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece.

The Domino Theory

The motivation for the Truman Doctrine was not just the Containment Doctrine, but also the Domino Theory.

This theory stated that if one free nation fell to communism, then those around it would as well.

This theory and the Truman Doctrine lead to the early beginnings of American involvement in the Vietnam Conflict.

Marshall Plan

U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall.

Marshall outlined his plan in a speech on June 5, 1947 at Harvard.

His speech had no specifics, but called for the European nations to develop their own plan for rebuilding and the United States would fund it.

Destined to be unpopular with Americans Knowing full well the plan would be

intensely unpopular with Americans, no members of the American media were invited to hear the speech.

Truman called a press conference to draw the American press to Washington.

The European press was invited to attend.

The European Response

The Western Allies were excited and were eager to take advantage of the offer.

Stalin was curious, but decided, correctly, that the Marshall Plan was designed to limit his influence over Eastern Europe.

Stalin’s Response

While all European nations were invited, including the Soviet Union, Stalin prevented the Eastern Bloc nations from attending.

Fearing a loss of control and power, Stalin made it clear what would happen if anyone participated.

Stalin formed the Molotov Plan, and later the COMECON.

The Molotov Plan/COMECON Publicly stated to be the communist

response to the Marshall Plan. Instead it served as a method for the

Soviet Union to siphon off the industrial and economic resources of the occupied nations of the Eastern Bloc.

Promoting the Plan

One of the posters used to promote the Marshall Plan.

It was also promoting Western Democracy versus the Eastern Bloc and Soviet Communism.

The Effects of the Plan

The economic effects helped speed the economic recovery that was already taking place in Western Europe.

The political effects of the plan caused the communist parties in Western Europe to rapidly lose popularity.

The non-participation of the Eastern Bloc nations was a strong indicator that the continent was politically divided.

The plan ended in 1951.

Post-war Division of Germany Based on the

agreement reached in the Potsdam Agreement, defeated Germany was divided into four occupation zones.

Not only was Germany divided into four occupation zones, but so was the city of Berlin, deep within the Soviet occupation zone.

Tensions Mount

Stalin demanded that reparations be made from West Germany in the form of German industrial plants being transferred to the Soviets.

Truman refused. Stalin responded by making the

Soviet zone a independent, communist nation, known as East Germany.

The Democracies Respond

On June 18, 1948, the U.S., British, and French occupied sectors introduced the Deutsche Mark as a replacement for the occupation currency.

This was done to apply pressure on Stalin to re-unify Germany and to spur German reconstruction.

Stalin Objects

Having been invaded by Germany twice in three decades, Stalin wanted Germany demilitarized.

Stalin also viewed the economic pressure as a breach of the Potsdam Agreement which stated Germany would be treated as one economic unit.

Stalin Acts

On June 24, 1948, Stalin responded by cutting all rail and road access to the Western occupied zones in Berlin.

Stalin also cut off the power grid to West Berlin, denying the inhabitants of West Berlin domestic and industrial electricity.

Truman’s Response

General Lucius Clay wanted to take an armored column down the autobahn to West Berlin to demonstrate the U.S. right to travel to West Berlin. If impeded, Clay intended for his armored unit to fight.

Truman did not want to provoke a war.

Truman’s Response

Truman instead listened to the advice of the Air Force. General Curtis LeMay was advised by General Wedemeyer, who had overseen the airlift over the “hump” from India to China during WW II, felt an airlift could be done.

The operation would be placed under the command of General William Turner.

The Berlin Airlift

The order for the airlift was given by Clay on June 25.

The airlift would last for 324 days. The first U.S. plane flew on June 26th. The first British plane flew on June

28th.

The Berlin Airlift

At the peek of the airlift, April 16, 1949, an allied aircraft landed in Berlin every minute, delivering 12,840 tons of freight.

A total of 278,228 flights were made and 2,326,406 tons of food and supplies were delivered to Berlin.

NATONorth Atlantic Treaty Organization

Signed on April 4, 1949, the National Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was signed.

The treaty declared that an attack on any one member nation would be considered an attack against them all.

This was done in answer to what was viewed as a direct threat from the Soviet Union.

Berlin Airlift

This photograph shows milk being loaded on a plane bound for West Berlin.

The Berlin Airlift Monument

Located in Berlin-Tempelhof, the monument displays the names of the 39 British and 31 U.S. pilots who lost their lives during the airlift.