Cold War at Home & Abroad - University of Florida



Cold War at Home & Abroad

1. US Foreign Policy

Collective Security

Containment

Korea

3. Anti-Communism at home

McCarthyism

The US & WW2

Economic Prosperity & Growth

Need to secure postwar markets

World Bank & International Monetary Fund, 1944

Collective Security

United Nations, 1945

Organization of American States, 1948

North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1949

The Russian “Problem”

Wartime allies to peacetime foes

Yalta & Potsdam Conferences, 1945

Tacitly recognise “spheres of influence”

Tensions:

US fear of spread of Communism; democratic creeed

need for open markets

Soviet security interests

ideology vs realpolitik

Atomic Diplomacy

US A-Bomb, 1945

US H-Bomb, 1952

“Arrogance of Power”

Soviet A-Bomb, 1949

Soviet H-Bomb, 1953

Nuclear Arms Race

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

Dr. Strangelove

(dir: Stanley Kubrick, 1963)

The Birth of “Containment”

The Truman Doctrine, 1947

Greek civil war

Containment: US pledges to confront the spread of communism by all necessary economic, diplomatic and military means…

National Security Act, 1947

CIA & Nat. Sec. Council

NSC-68, 1950

Containment extended: “foster seeds of destruction” in USSR

Cold War in Asia

The “fall” of China, 1949

Triumph of Mao Zedong’s communists

Sino-Soviet Pact, 1950

increased fears of international communist conspiracy

“Loss” of China = huge psychological blow to US

intensifies search for communist infiltration in US

increases pressure on Truman to adopt hardline approach to communist “expansion” (NSC-68)

Also helps explain commitment of troops in Korean War…

Korea, 1950-3

Domino Theory

US supports Syngman Rhee in S. Korea.

USSR & China support Kim Il Sung in N. Korea, who wants a unified Korea.

June 1950 invasion of S. Korea. Repelled by US/UN troops

From Containment to Rollback

Gen. MacArthur invades N. Korea; China joins to protect N. Korea. Stalemate…

US govt. debates using nuclear weapons…idea rejected

The Domestic Cold War, 1

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

Truman’s Executive Order 9835, 1947 (Fed. Employees Loyalty & Security Program)

Internal Security Act, 1950

(McCarran Act)

The Spy Cases

Alger Hiss

Robert Oppenheimer

Klaus Fuchs

Ethel & Julius Rosenberg

executed, July 1953

The Domestic Cold War, 2

Targets of McCarthy’s Red-baiting:

State Dept. Democrats

(Millard Tydings)

civil rights groups (NAACP)

unions (CIO)

liberals (Henry Wallace)

Hollywood (“Hollywood Ten” )

educators (Johns Cttee, Fl)

gays (Johns Cttee, too: ironic: J. Edgar Hoover)

army (seeds of McC’s downfall in 1954; Eisenhower objects)

Chilling effect on all dissent, protest & non-conformity

Talking John Birch Blues, Bob Dylan, 1963, 1

….The Communists was a-coming round, They was in the air, they was in the ground. They was all over.

So I run down most hurriedly, & joined the John Birch Society (Ultra-Conservative anti-communist group).

I was looking every place for those God-darned Reds…Looked up my chimney hole, even deep down inside my toilet bowl. They got away.....

I heard some footsteps by the front porch door. So I grabbed my shotgun from the floor. Snuck around the house with a huff and a hiss, Saying “Hands up you Communist!” It was the mailman...He punched me out.

…I quit my job, so I could work alone. Got a magnifying glass like Sherlock Holmes. Found some clues in my detective bag I discovered...Red stripes in the American flag! Betsy Ross!

Talking John Birch Blues, Bob Dylan, 1963, 2

Now Eisenhower, he’s a Russian spy,

Lincoln and Jefferson and that Roosevelt guy.

To my knowledge there’s just one man

That’s really and truly an American guy,

And that’s George Lincoln Rockwell (US Nazi Leader) .

I know for a fact that he hates the Commies

Because he picketed the movie Exodus.

  I finally started thinking straight

When I ran out of things to investigate.

Couldn’t imagine nothing else,

So now I’m home alone investigating myself.

Hope I don’t find out too much…

Conclusions

1. US recognized the need for formal alliances &

collective action in the post-WW2 era to secure its

economic & security goals.

2. US saw itself as the guardian of the free democratic

world against communist oppression, aggression, subversion &

resolved to “contain” that threat wherever it appeared

(though refrained from nuclear option).

3. Frustration at inability to make the world conform to its

democratic & capitalist ideals despite power led to a search for

scapegoats – notably domestic anti-communism.

4. Anti-communist paranoia ruined & ended lives, stifled

creativity & suppressed meaningful debate on important

domestic issues & foreign policy for decades.

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