Section 1-1 The Cold War Begins The United States and the Soviet Union emerged from World War II deeply distrustful of each other and with conflicting.

The Cold War Begins

The United States and the Soviet Union emerged from World War II deeply distrustful of each other and with conflicting visions for the future.

Main Idea

Vocabulary• containment

• cold war

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The Cold War Begins

• the events that led to Soviet domination in Eastern Europe, the Truman Doctrine, and the Marshall Plan.

Read to Find Out . . .

• how ideological differences between the Soviet Union and the United States fueled the cold war.


In evaluating his presidency, Harry S Truman said: “History will remember my term of office as the years when the cold war began to overshadow our lives.”

An Iron Curtain Falls


• At the heart of the Allied alliance stood the United States and the Soviet Union–two nations bound together by a common enemy and mutual distrust of each other. When the war ended, the Soviets and the Americans looked at the world through different eyes.

• The Soviets saw awful destruction. Nothing was more important to them than protecting their nation from a rearmed Germany and rebuilding their shattered economy.

An Iron Curtain Falls (cont.)

• The Americans, on the other hand, saw a booming economy and a thriving democracy. Many Americans felt they had a mission to build a free world, with the United States leading the way.

In Stalin’s view, possession of a ring of pro-Soviet satellite nations such as Poland was “not a question of honor for Russia, but one of life and death.” What may have prompted this comment?

Soviet leaders felt they needed a ring of buffer nations along their western border to protect Russia against future attacks.

Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer.Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer.

Turning Point at Yalta


• Near the end of the war, the Big Three– Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin–met at the Soviet city of Yalta to work out control of the postwar world.

• At Yalta, Stalin agreed to support the United Nations and to join the fight against Japan after Germany surrendered. In exchange, Stalin would receive territories in Asia.

Turning Point at Yalta (cont.)

• When agreement broke down over Germany and Eastern Europe, the three leaders agreed to joint control of Germany until a commission could settle the issue of war payments. With war still raging in the Pacific, Roosevelt and Churchill had little choice but to accept Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe.

• Roosevelt felt confident that he could win Stalin’s trust and convince him to relax his iron grip on Eastern Europe. However, he died before he had a chance to test this belief.

Turning Point at Yalta (cont.)

How did the Soviets take power in Eastern Europe?

Soviet armies occupied Eastern Europe on their march into Germany. With the war still raging in the Pacific, Roosevelt and Churchill had no means of forcing Stalin to give up control of the region.


Truman Comes to Power• Truman, who had little international

experience when he assumed the presidency, stepped forward to support formation of the United Nations and to resolve control of Germany.

Truman Comes to Power (cont.)

• Truman assumed a get-tough attitude at Potsdam that would become a trademark of his cold war diplomacy. Despite this attitude, the leaders worked out an agreement to carve Germany and the capital of Berlin into four zones controlled by France, Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Each occupying nation would take war payments from its zone.



• As Truman’s and Stalin’s mistrust of one another grew, they began to see the world as divided into two camps–one dominated by capitalism, the other by communism.

• In 1946 Stalin declared that capitalism was a danger to world peace. Truman responded by adopting the policy of containment suggested by George Kennan. Churchill added fuel to the fire with his “iron curtain” speech and urged a show of strength against the Soviets.Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.

Do you think Roosevelt could have negotiated more effectively with Stalin had he lived?

Possible answer: Agree–Roosevelt had managed to force compromises out of Stalin in the past. Disagree– Stalin had refused to back down on Germany and Eastern Europe in talks with Roosevelt at Yalta.

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Cold War Is Declared• The start of the cold war marked a long

struggle in which the United States and Soviet Union would try to block each other’s goals around the world, using all tactics short of all-out war.

Cold War Is Declared (cont.)


• The first test of containment came in Greece and Turkey, which Truman believed might soon fall under Communist influence. To prevent Communist takeovers, he proposed a plan to provide military and economic aid to all free people who were “resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures.”

• The so-called Truman Doctrine defined United States foreign policy for the next 20 years. The cold war was not just a struggle for territory but a fight between two opposing world views.


• To prevent the Communists from making gains in war-torn Europe, the United States implemented the Marshall Plan, named after Secretary of State George Marshall. The plan provided massive amounts of financial aid to help European nations rebuild their infrastructures and economies.


• The Soviet Union, which was included in the Marshall Plan, rejected the aid. Because the money had to be spent on American goods, Soviet leaders charged that the aid strengthened United States capitalism at the expense of European freedom.


What economic reasons did the United States have for stopping the spread of communism?


The United States wanted to have free access to the markets of the world.

Main IdeaUse a diagram like the one below to show how differing world views paved the way for a cold war between the United States and Soviet Union.

Vocabulary

__ 1. the United States-Soviet conflict that followed World War II in which the two powers avoided military confrontation but opposed each other’s political and economic goals

__ 2. after Wold War II, the United States policy of securing the peace by trying to contain communism, or keep it from expanding beyond its current borders

a. containment

b. cold war

Match each definition in the left column with the appropriate term in the right column.

b

a

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Checking Facts

What was the toll taken in Russian life and property during World War II? Which six Eastern European nations did Stalin demand control over at Yalta?

More than 20 million died, and 25 million lost their homes and livelihood. Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia were the six nations Stalin demanded control over.


Checking Facts

Describe the commitment of the United States to rebuild Europe as part of the Marshall Plan.


The United States pledged billions of dollars to European reconstruction.

Critical Thinking

Making Comparisons Why did the Soviets prefer Roosevelt’s style of diplomacy to Truman’s?


Truman dealt with the Soviets from a position of distrust. Roosevelt wanted to work with the Soviets.


The Cold War Deepens

Both the Soviets and Chinese Communists tested the United States policy of containment, triggering a dangerous arms race and the Korean War.

Main Idea

Vocabulary• land reform

• arms race

• limited war


The Cold War Deepens

• the causes of the Berlin blockade and the Communist takeover of China and the effect of each event on United States foreign policy.


• how the Korean War strengthened the powers of the presidency and the United States military.

To guard cargo shipments into Berlin, Truman stationed 60 United States B-29s– planes capable of delivering atomic bombs– in England. The President was bluffing; the planes carried no bombs. But at the time, nobody knew for sure–including the Soviets.

Berlin Crisis• Since the end of the war, Soviet and

American plans for Germany had put the two nations on a collision course. Unable to find a common ground, the United States, Great Britain, and France laid the basis for a free West German state with strong economic ties to the rest of Europe.

Berlin Crisis (cont.)

• The introduction of a common currency in the three western zones and West Berlin enraged the Soviets, who demanded that Western leaders scrap their currency plan or accept a Soviet currency in eastern Germany and all of Berlin.

• When Western leaders went ahead with their plan, the Soviets imposed a blockade around Berlin. Taking advantage of a 1945 agreement to keep three air corridors open to Berlin, Truman organized a massive airlift into West Berlin.Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.


• World opinion turned against the Soviet Union for starving innocent people to achieve its ends. The United States, on the other hand, won the goodwill of many West Germans, melting wartime hatreds.

• In 1949, with cold war tensions rising, the United States, Canada, and 10 European nations formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance to prevent Soviet invasion of Western Europe. In 1955 the Soviet Union matched NATO with the Warsaw Pact–a Soviet-Eastern European alliance planted squarely across the iron curtain.



How did United States membership in NATO mark a departure from its traditional pre-World War II foreign policy?

Membership in NATO drew the United States into an “entangling alliance” with Europe.



The Cold War in Asia• World War II caused nations throughout

Asia to seek independence. Stretched thin by the job of rebuilding at home, Great Britain gave in to demands for freedom in India and Pakistan–which later split into Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Dutch did the same in Indonesia.

• Meanwhile, a civil war raged in China between the Nationalist forces of Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek) and the Communist forces of Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung).

The Cold War in Asia (cont.)

• The war grew, in part, out of broken promises by the Nationalists to institute land reforms when they took power in 1910. Only the Japanese invasion during World War II had caused a temporary alliance between the warring armies.


• Late in 1945 Truman sent George Marshall to find a way to end the fighting, but both Mao and Jiang wanted to control China alone. Truman made a decision to back the Nationalists, but the aid came too late. Corruption and refusal to enact land reforms made Jiang’s war-tattered army vulnerable to defeat.


• In December 1949 the Nationalists fled to the island of Taiwan, which seemed in the eyes of many to be a failure of containment. The National Security Council urged the President to support the remaining friendly governments in Asia, including Vietnam.



• Events in Berlin and China unnerved everybody–including Truman. A high-level defense study–National Security Council Report NSC-68–suggested beginning a massive buildup of weapons to stay ahead of the Soviet Union. The nation now embarked on a dangerous arms race.

What was the link between the Communist victory in China and the arms race?

Sample answer: Many American leaders saw the Communists posed for an attempt at world domination and wanted to be prepared.

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• Korea, which had been brutally ruled by Japan since 1910, suffered a fate much like Germany. At the end of the war, it was divided at the 38th parallel, leaving a Communist government in the north and a pro-Western government in the South.

• On June 25, 1950, North Korean troops followed Soviet-made tanks across the 38th parallel. Truman, who saw the assault as a test of containment, ordered air and naval forces to Korea without the approval of Congress. He then sought help from the UN.

Hot War Flares in Korea

Hot War Flares in Korea (cont.)

• With the Soviet delegate absent from the Security Council, the UN backed Truman’s request. UN troops, led by the United States, drove the North Koreans back to the 38th parallel. Smelling victory, MacArthur persuaded Truman to let him attempt to unify Korea.


• With North Korean troops pinned against the Chinese border at the Yula River, MacArthur ignored warnings from Mao to back off and crossed into China. The action drew Chinese troops into the conflict, which pushed UN forces back across the 38th parallel.

• During the ensuing stalemate, MacArthur openly criticized Truman for refusing to use nuclear weapons against North Korea. Truman defended his policy of limited war and fired MacArthur.Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.


• Fighting in Korea dragged on until the next President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, oversaw a ceasefire.


Why do you think Truman jumped so quickly into the Korean conflict?

Sample answer: After China, he did not want to risk another failure at containment in Asia.




• The Korean War settled little. Korea remained divided geographically and politically in much the same way as before the war.

• However, the war had long-lasting effects on the United States. It convinced Americans to back a huge military buildup and to overlook the fact that Truman had never sought a formal declaration of war from Congress–a fact that greatly enhanced the power of the presidency.

The Korean War’s Impact

What precedent did Truman set for the future?

Truman laid the groundwork for Presidents to launch other undeclared wars.


Main IdeaUse a chart like the one below to show Communist challenges to containment and the United States response.

Vocabulary

__ 1. redistribution of property to land-poor peasants

__ 2. beginning in the Truman era, a policy of avoiding global war by confining the fighting to one area and using conventional weapons, not nuclear power

__ 3. competition between the United States and the Soviet Union for greater military strength

a. land reform

b. arms race

c. limited war


a

c

b


Checking Facts

What does the acronym NATO stand for? What was the name of NATO’s Soviet counterpart?

NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Warsaw Pact was the name of NATO’s Soviet counterpart.


Checking Facts

Why did Truman fire General MacArthur?


MacArthur publicly criticized Truman’s policy of limited war.

Critical Thinking

Drawing Conclusions How might a Nationalist victory in the Chinese civil war have affected the outcome of the Korean conflict?


If Chinese Nationalists had won, the United States might have fought an offensive war supporting South Korea instead of a defensive one against North Korea.


Cold War in the Atomic Age

Soviet nuclear tests and the launching of a Soviet satellite made the arms race more deadly–and peace more imperative–than at any time in history.

Main Idea

Vocabulary• massive retaliation

• brinkmanship

• military-industrial complex


Cold War in the Atomic Age

• how the Soviet atomic bomb affected United States society and the arms race.


• reasons for the policy of massive retaliation and how it helped spur the growth of a disarmament movement.

• how Sputnik brought far-reaching changes to the United States.

To prepare for nuclear war, some schools issued military-style dog tags to identify children after an attack.


• The dawn of the atomic age terrified Americans. To help calm the public’s jangled nerves, Truman organized the Federal Civilian Defense Administration to show people they could survive a nuclear war.

• Americans learned how to build bomb shelters, how to keep from panicking, how to cope with radiation injuries, and more.

Living With Fear

• Scary as nuclear bombs were, most Americans thought the best way to prevent nuclear war was to have more and better bombs than the Soviets. After a heated debate, Truman ordered scientists to develop a deadly hydrogen bomb, a superbomb.

Living With Fear (cont.)

“There is only one thing worse than one nation having an atomic bomb,” said one scientist in 1949. “That’s two nations having it.” How does this remark reflect the thinking of Americans in the late 1940s?

With the United States and the Soviet Union both in possession of the bomb, people saw nuclear war as a real possibility.



• Eisenhower walked into the presidency at the height of cold war tensions: China had just fallen, the Korean War dragged on, and the H-bomb heated up the arms race. Yet people trusted that “Ike” would lead the country through dangerous times.

• The death of Stalin and Eisenhower’s bluffs about a nuclear attack led Communist delegates to seek a resolution to the Korean War.

Eisenhower Elected

• Eisenhower found in John Foster Dulles a secretary of state who equaled his own fierce anti-communism and command of world affairs.

Eisenhower Elected (cont.)

What advantages did Eisenhower have over Truman in negotiating with Communists?

Sample answer: Eisenhower was a war-tested general who at first caused many Communist leaders to wonder about how far he might go militarily to support United States goals.



• Instead of depending on costly armies and navies to limit wars as Truman did, Eisenhower relied on cheaper air power and nuclear weapons. Under a program called the New Look, he reduced the manpower of the army and navy, while increasing the number of air force personnel.

A New Strategy

• To put teeth into the scaled-down military, Eisenhower and Dulles pledged to meet aggression with massive retaliation–an instant nuclear attack. To back up this tough stance, they circled the Soviet Union and China with American military bases and allies.

A New Strategy (cont.)

• Critics dubbed the new foreign policy brinkmanship–the art of never backing down from a crisis. It posed two dangers: (1) It gave the United States only two choices–either fight a nuclear battle or do nothing. (2) It also led the Soviets to develop more powerful bombs, creating what Churchill called a “balance of terror.

A New Strategy (cont.)

What did Eisenhower mean when he told Americans his defense plan provided “a bigger bang for the buck.”

Sample answer: He had scaled back the size and expense of the military while beefing up the nation’s nuclear capacity.



• While Eisenhower used the war machine to curb Communist aggression, he also worked for peace. On the one hand he approved the explosion of the biggest H-bomb ever tested; on the other hand he proposed the “atoms for peace” plan to the UN.

Eisenhower Wages Peace

• The radioactive fallout from H-bomb tests led people worldwide to clamor for a halt in the arms race. Eisenhower met with Soviet leaders Nikolay Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss disarmament. Although the conference yielded few results, the two powers were talking again.

Eisenhower Wages Peace (cont.)

Eisenhower Wages Peace (cont.)

How did the arms race become a global issue?

Nuclear testing caused radioactive fallout that knew no borders and drifted worldwide.


• The thaw in relations was short-lived. Two events revived tensions: (1) In 1956 Khrushchev ordered troops to crush an uprising in Hungary. (2) In 1957 the Soviets launched Sputnik, leading the United States to launch the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)–the start of the space race.

The Deep Freeze Returns

The Deep Freeze Returns (cont.)

• Pressure to rein in arms production remained strong. In 1957 a group of business, scientific, and publishing leaders organized SANE–the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy–to lobby for arms reductions. That same year the publication of On the Beach whipped up public support for a halt in H-bomb tests.


• In 1963 the United States and the Soviet Union bowed to a growing world outcry and signed a test-ban treaty prohibiting nuclear testing in the atmosphere. However, the treaty permitted tests underground and in outer space.


• By the end of his presidency, Eisenhower had become deeply concerned about the power of the military-industrial complex–the vast, interwoven military establishment and arms industry.



What threats did the military-industrial complex pose to democracy?

Possible answer: Eisenhower believed the military-industrial complex would have a higher stake in war than in peace.


Main IdeaUse a diagram like the one below to show ways in which the arms race became more deadly during the 1950s.

Vocabulary

__ 1. practice of attempting to keep the peace among nations by letting it be known that one will never back down and is prepared to cross the brink of war

__ 2. the cold war policy of the United States under which aggression against any ally would be met with an immediate all-out nuclear strike

__ 3. the vast, interwoven military establishment and arms industry

a. massive retaliation

b. brinkmanship

c. military-industrial complex


b

a

c


Checking Facts

Why did Eisenhower appoint Dulles as his secretary of state?

Dulles was fiercely anti-Communist and had over 40 years’ experience in foreign relations.


Checking Facts

What steps did the United States take to close the missile gap after the launching of Sputnik?


The United States increased spending for missile development; launched NASA; built more bombers and submarines; installed missiles in Europe; and trained scientists, engineers, and students.

Predicting Consequences In 1961, Eisenhower predicted the rise of a military-industrial complex. What are some possible consequences of an alliance between industry and the military?

Critical Thinking


Some possible consequences of an alliance between industry and the military are economic dependence on military production and temptation to use stockpiled weapons.


A New Battleground

Cold war rivalries led the United States and the Soviet Union to spy on each other and to interfere in the affairs of developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Main Idea

Vocabulary• emerging nation

• convert operation

• nationalization


A New Battleground

• how the United States and Soviet Union competed for the loyalty of emerging nations.


• reasons for United States interest in the Middle East and the policies adopted to protect American influence in the region.

• causes and effects of the Cuban missile crisis.

In the 1970s Senator Frank Church of Idaho chaired a committee that forced the CIA to declassify secret documents. These documents revealed several assassination plots, most of which failed. The most frequent target was Fidel Castro.


• After World War II, emerging nations in Asia, Latin America, and Africa shook off colonial rule and became a cold war battleground.

• The United States depended on developing nations for raw materials and markets. These nations also provided a line of defense, if allied with the United States, against the expansion of communism.

New Worlds to Conquer


• Many emerging nations, however, did not want to exchange domination by a colonial power for domination by a cold war superpower.

• Facing resistance from emerging nations, the United States used many methods to win friends and wage cold war, including massive amounts of foreign aid and covert operations by the CIA.

New Worlds to Conquer (cont.)

How did the cold war affect United States policies toward national self-determination in the emerging world?

Sample answer: The United States tended to see struggles for self-determination as revolutions directed by the Soviet Union.




• In 1947 Congress passed the National Security Act, which streamlined the defense system and created the CIA and the National Security Council (NSC). The two agencies reported to the President.

• With increased power and funding, CIA agents worked behind the scene worldwide to overthrow neutral or pro-Soviet governments and to prop up pro-Western ones. This resource gave the White House virtual control over foreign policy.

The CIA Joins the Fight

The CIA Joins the Fight (cont.)

How did the CIA affect the presidency?

It allowed the President to conduct covert operations without the approval of Congress.



• In 1951 efforts by Iranian prime minister Dr. Mohammad Mossadeg to nationalize British oil fields led the British to organize an international boycott of Iranian oil.

• Eisenhower saw Iran’s economic chaos as a breeding ground for communism. He authorized CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt to engineer Mossadeg’s overthrow, while leaving the young Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in place.

The CIA and the Shah

• After a series of blunders, Iranian agents for the CIA ousted Mossadeg. With the Shah in power, Western oil companies signed an oil agreement with Iran. The deal enriched the Shah, ensured the future of the CIA, and planted the seeds of Iranian hatred of the United States.

The CIA and the Shah (cont.)

What were the short-term and long-term effects of CIA activities in Iran?

The United States secured Western access to Iranian oil fields but earned the hatred of Iranians who saw the Shah as a United States puppet.


• In 1956 the newly independent nation of Egypt seized the Suez Canal–a vital link between oil ports along the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean. Great Britain, which had controlled the canal, invaded Egypt along with France and Israel.

War in Egypt

• Fearing that the action would drive the Middle East into the Soviet camp, Eisenhower called for a UN resolution condemning the invasion. Without United States support, the three American allies pulled out and the canal was turned over to Egypt.

War in Egypt (cont.)

• Afraid of growing Soviet influence in the oil-rich Middle East, Congress approved the so-called Eisenhower Doctrine–a policy that promised economic and military aid to any pro-Western governments in the region.

War in Egypt (cont.)

Senator J. William Fulbright called the Eisenhower Doctrine “a blank grant of power over our funds and armed forces.” What did he mean?

Possible answer: Fulbright felt the doctrine allowed the President to act independently in the Middle East.


• In Latin America nationalists began a struggle to loosen the grip of United States firms on their economics. In 1958 Fidel Castro ousted the pro-United States dictator, Fulgencio Batista. He then seized American businesses and signed a trade agreement with Moscow.

Latin America


• Eisenhower approved a CIA-backed invasion of Cuba, which fell to Kennedy to complete. The Bay of Pigs invasion failed miserably and exposed an American plot to overthrow a neighbor’s government.

• Castro and Khrushchev confronted the United States by installing Soviet nuclear missiles and bombers near Havana. In October 1962 a United States spy plane discovered the installations.

Latin America (cont.)

• The so-called Cuban missile crisis brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of war. Kennedy blocked Cuban shipping lanes and pushed Khrushchev to remove the missiles. After a tense week, Khrushchev stepped back.



• The standoff forced the United States and the Soviet Union to accept each other’s power and to admit the importance of negotiation. The two nations installed a hot line to avert future crises, but neither nation slowed down the arms race.


How did Kennedy’s conduct in the Cuban missile crisis reflect a continuation of Eisenhower’s foreign policy?

Kennedy practiced brinkmanship.


Main IdeaUse a diagram like the one below to show why and how the United States became involved in the affairs of emerging nations.

Vocabulary

__ 1. the process of changing a property or industry from private to government ownership; after World War II Iran’s declaration that its oil fields, with their British-owned factories, were the property of Iranian government

__ 2. a developing country in Asia, Latin America, or Africa

__ 3. a secret or undercover government mission

a. emerging nation

b. covert operation

c. nationalization


c

a

b


Checking Facts

What sparked the controversy between Iran and Great Britain in 1951?


The nationalization of the oil industry in Iran, which affected British refineries there, sparked the controversy between Iran and Great Britain.

Checking Facts

Why did Castro’s revolution threaten United States interests?


Politically, it created a Communist presence close to the United States. Economically, it destroyed American business interests in Cuba.

Predicting Consequences How would the United States benefit if Castro’s revolution failed?

Critical Thinking


If Castro’s revolution failed it would rid the nation of an offshore Communist outpost that threatened to export revolution to the Americas.

Section 1-1 The Cold War Begins The United States and the Soviet Union emerged from World War II deeply distrustful of each other and with conflicting.

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