Cold War and Post WWII Navy

Cold War Overview

Learning Objectives

• Build overall situational awareness of important events occurring during the Cold War.

• Understand why ideological influence was pursued by the United States and USSR.

• Outline the transition of prominent leaders in multiple countries.

• Consider the question: Why do we care?

Cold War: ~1945-1990

• What gave the Cold War its name?

• Objectives of both powers.

• USSR & United States looking to spread ideological influence.

Establishing a New World Order

• USSR put in charge of enforcing free elections—this does not work.

• Britain and USSR occupy Iran.

• UN pressures USSR to leave.

• Marshall Plan 1948.

• NATO formed in 1949.

• “Formal” declaration of the Cold War.

Berlin Divided

• Split into Western and Eastern regions.

• Soviets try to push out Allies through blockades.

• Berlin Airlift 1948-1949.

• Capitalists bring supplies directly into Berlin.

• 277,804 flights.

• Huge success for the Allies.

• “Berlin Candy Bomber”.

Events in China

• 1927 Chinese Civil War begins.

• Chinese Communists (Mao Zedong) push Nationalists into Taiwan.

• Russia and China sign a Mutual Defense Treaty.

Events in Korea

• Korea divided along the 38th parallel post-WW2.

• Communist regime North.

  • Kim Il-Sung.

• Anti-Communist regime South.

  • Syngman Rhee.

• June 25th 1950: North Korea takes Seoul.

• GEN Douglas MacArthur strategies.

Evolving Leadership

• UNITED STATES

  • Election of 1952

• SOVIET UNION

  • Death of Stalin 1953

  • Nikita Khrushchev

Election of 1960 & West Berlin

• JFK

• Evident economic disparities between West and East Berlin.

• “Democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put up a wall to keep our people in”.

Spread of Communism

• Communism in Cuba 1959-Fidel Castro.

• Bay of Pigs invasion 1961.

• Cuban Missile Crisis.

  • U2 planes see missiles 14OCT1962.

  • Negotiation.

• Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty 1963.

• MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction).

Evolving Leadership

• Assassination of Kennedy

• Leonid Brezhnev replaced Khrushchev

Vietnam

• Northern Vietnam National Liberation Front “Vietcong”.

• LBJ 1965.

• Domino Effect.

• OPERATION Rolling Thunder.

• Johnson faces severe backlash from actions in Vietnam.

• “Hearts and minds”.

• Agent Orange.

• Civilian indiscrimination.

• US involvement ends 1973.

Period of Detente

• Nixon visits Moscow & China

• Ping-pong diplomacy

Late Cold War

• Olympic boycotts

• Election of 1980

• Space Defense Initiative

• Mikhail Gorbachev

  • Real game changer for the Soviet Union

• INF Treaty of 1987

Collapse of the Berlin Wall

• November 19, 1989

• Eastern block dissolved, free elections

• Velvet Revolution

• Romanian Revolution

• Restoration for the Soviet Union?

Learning Objectives (Repeated)

• Build overall situational awareness of important events occurring during the Cold War.

• Understand why ideological influence was pursued by the United States and USSR.

• Outline the transition of prominent leaders in multiple countries.

• Consider the question: Why do we care?

Cold War Begins

Today’s Objectives:

• Post war US Navy and Demobilization

• Revolt of the Admirals

• Cold War Strategy

• National Security Act of 1947

• Truman Doctrine

• Marshall Plan

• Social Reforms in the Navy

• US-Soviet Union Relations

• NATO

State of the Navy after WWII

• US becomes the dominant Naval Power after WWII Powerful 2 ocean navy

• US being one of the victors of WWII arguably has the strongest militaries As well as a booming economy compared to before the war

• ADM King believed that the navy should always be on the ready for potential conflict Fleet has to be actively maintained to be effective Military focuses heavily on its nuclear triad

  • Nuclear capabilities being:

    • Land based missiles (ICBM’s)

    • Aircraft aircraft with nuclear bombs

    • Nuclear missile armed submarines

Nuclear Triad

• Includes Ohio Class, Columbia Class, B-2/ALCM B-21/LRSO, and MINUTEMAN 3-GBSD.

US Economic Boom After WWII

• GDP in Billions of Dollars.

• Gross Domestic Product of the United States 1945-1960.

• GDP increased from approximately $220 Billion$ in 1945 to over $500 Billion$ in 1960.

Demobilization of the Navy

• Despite calls for a storing military presence in the world, citizens and service members were tired of war.

  • People wanted to return to civilian life despite the US’s strategic position in the world.

• Navy and Marine Corps experience budget cuts up until 1950

  • Truman Administration

  • Post war drawdown

• The air force and nuclear weapons programs got the majority of military expenditure.

  • Interservice rivalries

Demobilization 1945-1950

• Navy personnel

  • 1945- $3,400,000$

  • 1950- $380,000$

• Marine Corps personnel

  • 1945- $475,000$

  • 1950- $75,000$

• Major Warships

  • 1945- 1200+ ships

  • 1950- 237 ships

Revolt of the Admirals

• Demobilization led to the cancellation of the USS United states

  • Was designed to be the first US supercarrier

  • Canceled just 5 days after the laying of its keel

  • Cancelation was unilaterally ordered by Sec. Def. Louis Johnson

• Cancelation of the USS United States led to the Revolt of the Admirals

  • 1949

  • Many high ranking officers including Nimitz and Halsey protested the imbalance allocation of funds

  • Led to an investigation by the House Committee on Armed Services

    • Carl Vinson

  • Ultimately the Truman administration won the dispute

  • Shortcomings of Truman’s defense policy were evident during the Korean War

    • Conventional forces still needed, not just nukes

Cold War Strategy

• US switches is focus to the Soviet Union (USSR)

  • Both countries want to spread their influence to the world

• Clash between different ideologies

  • US- capitalism, democracy

  • USSR- communism, dictatorship

• US adopts strategy of containment

  • Contain communism, not necessarily eradicate it

  • Fear of the domino effect

National Security Act of 1947

• September 18, 1947

• Created to protect the country from the growing Soviet/ communism threat

  • National Security was now central to US foreign policy

• Created the:

  • Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

  • National Security Council (NSC)

  • Joint Chiefs of Staff

  • Department of Defense

  • Secretary of Defense

    • First Sec. Def. James V. Forrestal

  • Department of the Air Force

Truman Doctrine

• March 12, 1947

• Inspired by George Kennan

  • Reiterated the policy of containment for communism

• Actively restrict the spread of communism

• US agrees to back up any country that says its anti-communist

  • US wanted to be proactive in stopping communism

  • Not just containment but also moving countries towards democracy and capitalism

  • Hope of a “reverse domino effect” that can influence other countries to align with the US

  • Mainly through economic means

Marshall Plan

• April 3, 1948

• Also known as the European Recovery Program (ERP)

• US initiative to give foreign aid to Western Europe after the war

• US gave over $13 billion$ in aid

  • About $115 billion$ in today’s money

• Goals:

  • Rebuild war-torn areas

  • Remove trade barriers

  • Modernize industry

  • Improve European quality of life

  • Bring other countries to align with the US and its ideologies

Social Progress in the Navy

• Navy makes significant changes in social reforms

  • Opening up of more jobs and ships that blacks can be assigned to in the Navy

  • The number of blacks in the military had doubled over the course of WWII

• Truman’s Executive Order 9981

  • July 1948

  • Truman vows to end segregation in the armed forces

  • Navy had to find programs to recruit more black officers

  • Appoints committee to report on the military’s social progress

Social Progress in the Navy Cont.

• Women also made similar progress in the Navy

  • Women in US Naval Reserve

  • Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) program created in July 1942

    • Implied that women were only allowed during times of “emergency” then left after war

• Women's Armed Services Integration Act, June 1948

  • Made women’s service in the Navy permanent

  • Opened both enlisted and officer ranks to women

Samuel Lee Gravely Jr.

• Born in Richmond, Virginia

• Commissioned in 1944 as a line officer, reserve in 1946, back to active duty in 1949.

• Was one of the earliest black commissioned officers in the Navy

• First black man to reach the rank of Captain and Rear Admiral

• First black man to command a surface warship in the Navy: USS Theodore E. Chandler (DD-717)

Question

• Why was is the Cold War considered "cold" and not “hot”?

US-Soviet Union Tensions

• Soviet Union and the United States compete for influence around the globe

  • Both victors of WWII and very powerful

  • Both had their own ideologies

  • Both competed for to spread their views throughout the world

• Stalin didn’t want US/ NATO bases close to Soviet-Union’s borders

  • Soviets wanted a buffer between it and NATO states and so it decided to occupy Eastern Germany

  • Led to the Berlin Wall between West Germany (NATO) and East Germany (USSR)

    • Powerful symbol

    • 87 miles long, 116 watchtowers

    • People must be kept captive

    • Used to keep people in so that people in East Germany couldn’t escape to West Germany.

US-Soviet Union Tensions Cont.

• US and USSR never fought against each other: only proxy wars

  • Korea

  • Vietnam

• Both sides eventually had nuclear capabilities, led to MAD

• Kennedy misled the “missile gap” crisis for election

• Combined the world had around 70,000 nuclear warheads at its peak

Founding of NATO

• Formed in 1949

• Not every nation wanted to join

• 12 members: US, UK, Portugal, Norway, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Iceland, France, Denmark, Canada, Belgium

• Europe was split down the middle

  • NATO vs. Warsaw Pact

• Main goal: provide allied security against the Soviet Union and the spread of communist states

• Iron Curtain- Winston Churchill

Key Nuclear Events

• First nuclear detonation- 1945

• First Soviet nuclear test detonation- 1949

• First H-bomb test- 1952 (Ivy Mike)

  • Nuclear Fusion explosion from hydrogen

  • USSR- 1955

• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 1968 (signed), 1970 (enacted)

  • USSR and US both agreed (among others)

  • Prevent the spread of nuclear weapons

  • Goal to eventually reach nuclear disarmament

  • Allowed civilian use of nuclear technology for energy

Overview of Learning Objectives

• Post war US Navy and Demobilization

• Revolt of the Admirals

• Cold War Strategy

• National Security Act 1947

• Truman Doctrine

• Marshall Plan

• Social Reforms in the Navy

• US-Soviet Union Relations

• NATO

Timeline

• National Security Act of 1947- September 18, 1947

• Truman Doctrine- March 12, 1947

• Marshall Plan- April 3, 1948

• Women's Armed Services Integration Act, June 12, 1948

• Truman’s executive order 9981- July 26, 1948

• Creation of NATO- April 4, 1949

• Cancelation of the USS United States- April 23, 1949

• Revolt of the Admirals- 1949