Cold War (1947-1953)

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The Cold War (1947-1953) discusses the period within the Cold War from the establishment of the Truman Doctrine in 1947 to the Korean War in 1953.

[edit] Containment

[edit] The Truman Doctrine

Main article: Truman Doctrine

President Truman signing a proclamation declaring a national emergency that initiates U.S. involvement in the Korean War.

The immediate post-1945 period may have been the historical high point for the popularity of communist ideology. The burdens the Red Army and USSR endured had earned it massive respect which, had it been fully exploited by Stalin, had a good chance of resulting in a communist Europe. Communist parties won sizeable shares of the vote in free elections in countries such as Belgium, France, Italy, Czechoslovakia, and Finland and won significant popular support in Asia (in Vietnam, India, and Japan) and throughout Latin America. In addition, Communist parties achieved a significant popularity in such nations as China, Greece, and Iran.

Britain and the United States were concerned that electoral victories by Communist parties in any of these countries could lead to sweeping economic and political change in Western Europe. Both East and West regarded Greece as a nation well within the sphere of influence of Britain. Stalin had respected his agreement with Churchill to not intervene, but Yugoslavia, under Tito who defied the USSR's advice sent supplies during the Greek Civil War to the partisan forces of the Communist Party of Greece, the ELAS (National Popular Liberation Army). Startlingly, the UK had given aid to the royalist Greek forces, and ELAS leaders who, failing to realize that there would be no Soviet aid and having boycotted the elections, were at a disadvantaged position. However, by 1947, the near-bankrupt British government could no longer maintain its massive overseas commitments. In addition to granting India independence and handing back the Palestinian Mandate to the United Nations, the British government decided to withdraw from both Greece and nearby Turkey. This would have left the two nations, in particular Greece, on the brink of a communist-led revolution.

Notified that British aid to Greece and Turkey would end in less than six weeks, the U.S. government, already hostile towards and suspicious of Soviet intentions, decided that action was necessary. With Congress solidly in Republican hands, and with isolationist sentiment strong among the U.S. public, Truman adopted an ideological approach. In a meeting with congressional leaders, the argument of "apples in a barrel infected by one rotten one" was used to convince them of the significance in supporting Greece and Turkey. It was to become the "domino theory." On the morning of March 12, 1947, Truman appeared before Congress to ask for $400 million of aid to Greece and Turkey. Calling on congressional approval for the United States to "support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures," or in short a policy of "containment," Truman articulated a presentation of the ideological struggle that became known as the "Truman Doctrine." Although based on a simplistic analysis of internal strife in Greece and Turkey, it was to be the single dominating influence over U.S. thinking until at least the Vietnam War.

Truman's speech had a tremendous effect. The anti-communist feelings that had just begun to hatch in the U.S. were given a great boost, and a silenced Congress voted overwhelmingly in approval of aid. The United States would not withdraw back to the Western Hemisphere as it had after World War I. From then on, the U.S. would actively engage any communist threats anywhere in the globe under the ostensible causes of "freedom", "democracy" and "human rights." The U.S. brandished its role as the leader of the "free world." Meanwhile, the Soviet Union brandished its position as the leader of the "progressive" and "anti-imperialist" camp.

In view of increased concerns by General Lucius D. Clay and the Joint Chief of Staff over growing communist influence in Germany, as well as of the failure of the rest of the European economy to recover without the German industrial base on which it previously had been dependent, in the summer of 1947, Secretary of State General George Marshall, citing "national security grounds" was finally able to convince President Harry S. Truman to rescind the punitive U.S. occupation directive JCS 1067, and replace it with JCS 1779. In July 1947 JCS 1067, which had directed the U.S. forces of occupation in Germany to "…take no steps looking toward the economic rehabilitation of Germany," was thus replaced by JCS 1779 which instead stressed that "An orderly, prosperous Europe requires the economic contributions of a stable and productive Germany." JCS 1067 had then been in effect for over two years.

In 1947, the Marshall Plan began and was designed to give billions of dollars to assist the recovery of Europe. The Soviets, however, refused to accept any Marshall aid, as did their allies in Eastern Europe.

[edit] The Berlin Blockade

Main article: Berlin Blockade

Stalin responded by blocking access to Berlin, which was deep within the Soviet zone although subject to four-power control. The Soviets cut off all rail and road routes to West Berlin. No trucks or trains were allowed entry into the city during the Berlin Blockade. Truman embarked on a highly visible move that would humiliate the Soviets internationally: flying supplies in over the blockade during 1948-1949. Military confrontation loomed while Truman flew supplies through East Germany into West Berlin during the 1948-1949 blockade. This costly aerial supplying of West Berlin became known as the Berlin Airlift.

[edit] NATO

Main article: North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NATO v. the Warsaw Pact

Truman joined eleven other nations in 1949 to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), America's first "entangling" European alliance in 170 years. Stalin retaliated against these steps by integrating the economies of Eastern Europe in his version of the Marshall Plan, exploding the first Soviet atomic device in 1949, signing an alliance with People's Republic of China in February 1950, and forming the Warsaw Pact, Eastern Europe's counterpart to NATO, in 1955.

[edit] NSC-68

Main article: NSC-68

U.S. officials quickly moved to escalate and expand "containment." In a secret 1950 document, NSC-68, they proposed to strengthen their alliance systems, quadruple defense spending, and embark on an elaborate propaganda campaign to convince the U.S. public to fight this costly cold war. Truman ordered the development of a hydrogen bomb; and, in early 1950, came the first U.S. effort to opposing communist forces in Vietnam, plans to form a West German army, and proposals for a peace treaty with Japan that would guarantee long-term U.S. military bases there.

[edit] Communist China

Main article: Chinese Civil War

Shortly after World War II, an all out civil war resumed in China between the Communist Party of China led by Mao Zedong and the Kuomintang (KMT) led by Chiang Kai-shek (see Chinese Civil War). The USSR had signed a Treaty of Friendship with the Kuomintang in 1945 and disavowed support for the Chinese Communists. The outcome was closely fought, with the Communists finally prevailing with superior military tactics. Although the Nationalists had an advantage in numbers of men and weapons, initially controlled a much larger territory and population than their adversaries, and enjoyed considerable international support, they were exhausted by the long war with Japan and the attendant internal responsibilities. In addition, the Chinese Communists were able to fill the political vacuum left in Manchuria after Soviet forces withdrew from the area and thus gained China's prime industrial base. The Chinese Communists were able to fight their way from the North and Northeast and virtually all of mainland China was taken by the end of 1949. On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China. Chiang Kai-shek and 600,000 Nationalist troops and 2 million refugees, predominantly from the government and business community, fled from the mainland to the island of Taiwan. In December 1949, Chiang proclaimed Taipei the temporary capital of the Republic of China and continued to assert his government as the sole legitimate authority in China.

The continued hostility between the Communists on the mainland and the Nationalists on Taiwan would continue throughout the Cold War. Though the United States refused to aide Chiang Kai-shek in his hope to "recover the mainland," it continued supporting the Republic of China with military supplies and expertise to prevent Taiwan from falling into Communist hands. Through the support of the Western bloc (most Western countries continued to recognize the ROC as the sole legitimate government of China), the Republic of China on Taiwan retained China's seat in the United Nations until 1971.

[edit] The Korean War

Main article: Korean War

In early 1950 came the first U.S. commitment to form a peace treaty with Japan that would guarantee long-term U.S. military bases. Some observers (including George Kennan) believed that the Japanese treaty led Stalin to approve a plan to invade U.S.-supported South Korea on June 25, 1950. Korea had been divided at the end of World War II along the 38th parallel into Soviet (Northern) and American (Southern) occupation zones, in which a communist government was installed in the North by the Soviets and a capitalist government in the South came to power after UN-supervised elections in 1948. Fearing that a united communist Korea could neutralize U.S. power in Japan and encourage communist movements world-wide, Truman committed U.S. forces and obtained help from the United Nations to drive back the North Koreans. In a historic diplomatic blunder, the Soviets boycotted the UN Security Council and thus lacked its power to veto Truman's action in the UN, because the UN would not admit the People's Republic of China and continued to recognize the Republic of China on Taiwan as the sole legitimate Chinese government.

However, Truman would offset this with his own monumental, historic error: allowing his forces to go to the Chinese-Korean border. Communist China responded with massive attack in November 1950 that decimated U.S.-led forces as well as their own. Fighting stabilized along the 38th parallel, which had separated the Koreas, but Truman now faced a hostile China, a Sino-Soviet partnership, and a bloated defense budget that had quadrupled in eighteen months.

[edit] Hydrogen Bomb

The hydrogen bomb- which produced nuclear fusion instead of nuclear fission- was what also helped the US stay ahead in the Soviet-US arms race after it was deployed in 1952.

[edit] Culture and media

The title screen from Duck and Cover.

Fear of a nuclear war saw the production of public safety films by the United States federal government's Civil Defense branch that demonstrated ways on protecting oneself from a Soviet nuclear attack. The 1951 children's film Duck and Cover is a prime example.

[edit] Significant documents

• Potsdam Declaration: July 26, 1945. A informal statement issued by Harry S. Truman (U.S.), Winston Churchill (Britain), and Chiang Kai-Shek (the Republic of China) which outlined the terms for a Japanese surrender.
• Baruch Plan: 1946. A proposal by the U.S. to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission (UNAEC) to a) extend between all nations the exchange of basic scientific information for peaceful ends; b) implement control of atomic energy to the extent necessary to ensure its use only for peaceful purposes; c) eliminate from national armaments atomic weapons and all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction; and d) establish effective safeguards by way of inspection and other means to protect complying States against the hazards of violations and evasions. When the Soviet Union was the only member State who refused to sign, the U.S. embarked on a massive nuclear weapons testing, development, and deployment program.
• George F. Kennan: 1946/1947. The Long Telegram and The X Article, formally titled "The Sources of Soviet Conduct. The article describes the concepts that would become the bedrock of American Cold War policy and was published in Foreign Affairs in 1947. The article was an expansion of a well-circulated top secret State Department cable called the X Article and became famous for setting forth the doctrine of containment. Though the article was signed pseudonymously by "X," it was well known at the time that the true author was Kennan, the deputy chief of mission of the United States to the Soviet Union from 1944 to 1946, under ambassador W. Averell Harriman.
• Paul Nitze April 14, 1950: NSC-68 was a classified report written by and issued by the United States National Security Council. The report outlined the National Security Strategy of the United States for that time and provided a comprehensive analysis of the capabilities of the Soviet Union and of the United States from military, economic, political, and psychological standpoints. NSC-68's principal thesis was that the Soviet Union intended to become the single dominant world power. The report argued that the Soviet Union had a systematic strategy aimed at the spread of Communism across the entire world, and it recommended that the United States government adopt a policy of containment to stop the further spread of Communism. NSC-68 outlined a drastic foreign policy shift from defensive to active containment and advocated aggressive military preparedness. NSC-68 would shape government actions in the Cold War for the next 20 years and has subsequently been labeled the "blueprint" for the Cold War.
• Speech by James F. Byrnes, United States Secretary of State "Restatement of Policy on Germany" Stuttgart September 6, 1946. Also known as the "Speech of hope" it set the tone of future U.S. policy as it repudiated the Morgenthau Plan economic policies and gave the Germans hope for the future. The Western powers worst fear by now was that the poverty and hunger would drive the Germans to Communism. General Lucius Clay stated "There is no choice between being a communist on 1,500 calories a day and a believer in democracy on a thousand". The speech was also seen as a stand against the Soviet Union as it stated the firm intention of the United States to maintain a military presence in Europe indefinitely. But the heart of the message was as Byrnes stated a month later "The nub of our program was to win the German people . . . it was a battle between us and Russia over minds. . . ."

[edit] See also

• History of the Soviet Union (1927-1953)
• History of the United States (1945-1964)
• Timeline of Events in the Cold War

[edit] References