Yalta was the next-to-last of the wartime allied conferences It dealt mainly with the settlement of issues anticipated in post-war Europe FDR.

Yalta was the next-to-last of the wartime allied conferences

It dealt mainly with the settlement of issues anticipated in post-war Europe

FDR was too ill to withstand Stalin’s demands to control the Eastern European countries the USSR had “liberated” from Nazism

Roosevelt died April 12, 1945

After the German surrender, a new “Big 3” met in Potsdam, Germany

Clement Atlee

Harry Truman

Josef Stalin

Harry S Truman, now US president, took a “hard line” with Stalin

Clement Atlee, now British PM, was not a strong negotiator

Conference was a failure The Allies divided Germany into four

sectors, for administration and rehabilitation (US, France, Britain, USSR)

Berlin was also divided into four sectors although it was entirely within the Soviet sector

Each of the “Big 4” was charged with “rehabilitating” its quarter

GOALS: each Allied nation would Help reconstitute a “de-Nazified” civil

government See to needs of refugees Hold trials of Nazi war criminals

Berlin was near the crossroads of the four sectors

It was in the East German (Soviet) territory

But it was supposed to be jointly run, and was itself divided into four sectors

Signs posted at checkpoint station marking the end of each occupation zone.

In June 1948, USSR closed off “its” sector of Germany (later “East Germany”)

Refused to allow rail, water and Autobahn traffic across the Soviet sector, in and out of West Berlin (administered by US, Britain, France)

USA began an airlift of supplies into Berlin, in defiance of USSR

Supplied all the needs of West Berlin by air for almost a year – “The Berlin Airlift”

The USSR did not believe the Allies could keep this up

Eventually, the USSR relented and traffic into West Berlin was restored in May 1949

The US and Great Britain had delivered a total of 2,326,406 tons of supplies by air, in 278,228 flights

The Australians delivered another 7,968 tons

The airplanes flew a total of 92 million miles

Most of the flights involved C-47s and C-54s

The cost of the operation was estimated at $224 million

101 fatalities were recordedThe Soviets had been prevented

from taking over all of BerlinBut the “Cold War” had begun

Communist revolutionaries under Mao Zedong overthrew Pres. Chiang Kai-Shek in China, 1949

US suspected USSR had aided the communists

Chiang fled to island of TaiwanMao controlled Chinese mainlandUS official recognition remained

with Taiwan, not “Red” China

United Nations founded in San Francisco in 1946

Similar to old League of Nations, but with more power

Founded by “The Big 4”, who controlled UN’s powerful Security Council

USSR membership in UN was seen as a threat by many in USA

The United Nations Security Council wields virtually all the real power in the UN

The “permanent” members of the UN Security Council are the USA, Great Britain, France, China and the USSR

Any one nation can exercise a vetoThus all major decisions must be

unanimous

Many points of tension:USSR’s intent to spread communism

into the countries of Eastern Europe formerly controlled by the Nazis

USSR was known to have atomic weapons by fall 1949

New threat of Communism spreading from China to other areas in Asia

Truman’s goal: stop spread of CommunismThe Truman Doctrine in March 1947:

The USA “would support free peoples who are resisting subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures”

It signalled the end of our “isolationst” policies

The bitter lesson of the Treaty of Versailles may have been learned

Retired General George Marshall administered a plan . . . To rebuild Europe To provide a successful alternative to

communism To bring democracy to countries once

controlled by Nazism

American dollars enabled a revitalization of Western Europe

Germany experienced an “Economic Miracle”

Meanwhile, Soviet dictatorship worked to establish communist “satellites” in the East

Senator Joe McCarthy dominated US politics for several years 1948-53

He was a staunch anti-communist

Convinced Congress, the President, and society that USSR influence sought to overthrow the USA

Claimed “Reds in high positions in government, industry, and entertainment”

General paranoia in US about “Red” influence

There was pressure on Truman to “contain” (limit) spread of communism from N. Korea to S. Korea

This led to Korean War (1950-52)Congressional hearings regarding

communist influence in the Pentagon, State Department, and even in Hollywood

Alger Hiss was one of those targeted by the “red scare”

Hiss had been an official in the US State Department

He was instrumental in the founding of the United Nations in 1945-1949

He was Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on International Organization

In 1948, he was accused of being a secret Communist and an agent of the USSR

He denied it all, but was ultimately convicted of perjury (the statute of limitations had run out on espionage)

Hiss served a term in prison, and continued to deny his guilt for the rest of his life

Whether or not Hiss was a communist remains uncertain even today.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were accused of passing information to the USSR about the Manhattan Project (atomic bomb), 1949-52

They were arrested, tried and convicted

The Rosenbergs were executed 1952 Were they victims of paranoia, or guilty

of spying? Many insisted they were innocent Information released from the Soviet

archives after the breakup of the USSR in 1970s show that Julius was in fact a courier for the Soviets

Ethel’s level of involvement remains uncertain

Serviceman’s Readjustment Act (“GI BILL of RIGHTS”) provided funds for vets for home and business loans, and college tuition

Truman ordered de-segregation of military 1948

Suggested national health insurancePlan failed: too “communistic”

Truman squeaked to re-election victory in 1948 over Thomas Dewey

Regardless of what the papers said, Truman won

Truman could have run again in 1952 The 22nd Amendment was ratified in

1951 It prohibited anyone from serving more

than two terms as president But did not apply to Truman because It specifically excluded “any person who

may be holding the office of President, or acting as president” when the Amendment was proposed/ratified

But Truman chose not to run again anyway

The Democrats nominated Adlai Stevenson

Stevenson lost badly o Republican Dwight Eisenhower in 1952

”Ike” was a 5-star General, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, hero of WWII

Ike campaigned on anti-communism

Running mate: Richard Nixon