Containment and a Divided Global Order
Origins of the Cold War
Post War Power Vacuum
- England and France are weak
- USSR and US are strong
Yalta - USSR promises to help fight Japan and hold fair elections in E. Europe
UN - Replaces League of Nations, UN Security Council (US, USSR, England, France, China)
Potsdam - Truman replaces FDR, sets up communist rule of E. Europe
- Churchill says an iron curtain has fallen in Europe
- Germany → East and West
The Containment Strategy
Containment - counter USSR by containing the spread of communism
- George Kennan writes the Long Telegram, described the containment strategy
US over England
- England’s power and control decreases
- Specifically in Asia (ie. India)
Truman Doctrine - US will fight communism using military and economic aid
Marshall Plan - US is scared of another Great Depression and rise of totalitarianism, so they send $13 billion to Europe
- Makes the US look good and gives them trading partners
Berlin Blockade - US flies supplies to West Berlin because Stalin stopped all travel to West Berlin
Symbol of resistance of communism
NATO is backed by the US
Warsaw Pact is backed by USSR
Yugoslavia is communist, but not part of the USSR block
Nuclear Weapons
USSR Nukes
- First atomic bomb detonated in September of 1949
- Truman establishes the National Security Council (NSC)
NSC-68 was released by the National Security Council and advocated for militarization
- US builds hydrogen bomb
Containment in Asia
US makes a constitution in Japan
- Still has the emperor
- US military will protect Japan
Civil War in China
- Mao (communist) vs Jiang Jieshi (capitalist)
- Mao wins, China is a communist nation
- China allies with the USSR for protection from the US
Korean War (aka the Forgotten War)
- North Korea invades South Korea
- General MacArthur lead the UN and S. Korea to invade N. Korea
- China is drawn into the war
- Border ends up near the 38th parallel
Munich Analogy
- Resist the USSR as much as possible because of appeasement of the Nazis in 1938