|
Back to Classroom-tested Lesson Plans and Handouts
Origins of the
Cold War
Soviet-American Confrontation
From Stettin on the Baltic
to Trieste on the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across
the continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient
states of central and eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague,
Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, and Sofia, all these famous
cities and the populations around them lie in the Soviet sphere
and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet
influence but to a very high and increasing measure of control
from Moscow....Police governments are prevailing in nearly every
case, and so far, except in Czechoslovakia, there is no true
democracy.
Winston S. Churchill
One cannot forget the following
fact: the Germans carried out an invasion of the U.S.S.R. through
Finland, Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Hungary....One can ask,
therefore, what can be surprising in the fact that the Soviet
Union, in a desire to ensure its security for the future, tries
to achieve that these countries should have governments whose
relations to the Soviet Union are loyal?
Joseph Stalin
How do American actions since
V-J Day appear to other nations? I mean by actions the concrete
things like $13 billion for the War and Navy Departments, the
Bikini tests of the atomic bomb and continued production of bombs,
the plan to arm Latin America with out weapons, production of
B-29's and planned production of B-36's, and the effort to secure
air bases spread over half the globe....
How would it look to us if
Russia had the atomic bomb and we did not, if Russia had 10,000
bombers and air bases within a thousand miles of our coast lines
and we did not?....Most of us are firmly convinced of the soundness
of our position when we suggest the internationalization and
defortification of the Danube or of the Dardanelles, but we would
be horrified and angered by any Russian counter-proposal that
would involve the internationalizing and disarming of Suez or
Panama. We must recognize that to the Russians these seem to
be identical situations.
Henry A. Wallace
Today the ruling circles of
the U.S.A. and Great Britain head one international grouping,
which has as its aim the consolidation of capitalism and the
achievement of the dominations of these countries over other
peoples. The countries are headed by imperialist and anti-democratic
forces in international affairs, with the active participation
of certain Socialist leaders in several European states.
V.M. Molotov
Whether it be the control of
atomic energy, aggression against small nations, the German or
the Austrian peace settlements, or any of the other questions,
the majority of nations concerned have found a common basis for
action. But in every case the majority agreement has been rejected,
denounced, and openly attacked by the Soviet Union and her satellites
whose policy she controls....What the world needs in order to
regain a sense of security is an end to Soviet obstruction and
aggression.
President Harry Truman
1. What
were the post-war goals of the United States and Soviet Union?
2. Was post-war
conflict between the United States and Soviet Union inevitable?
3. What
was the underlying source of international tension--an aggressive
and intransigent Soviet Union or an overwhelmingly strong and
uncompromising America?
The Containment Policy
Soviet power...bears within
itself the seeds of its own decay, and the sprouting of these
seeds is well advanced...[If] anything were ever to disrupt the
unity and efficacy of the Party as a political instrument, Soviet
Russia might be changed overnight from one of the strongest to
one of the weakest and most pitiable of national societies....This
would...warrant the United States entering with reasonable confidence
upon a policy of firm containment, designed to confront the Russians
with unalterable counter-force at every point where they show
signs of encroaching upon the interests of a peaceful and stable
world.
George Kennan
At the present moment in world
history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways
of life. The choice is too often not a free one. One way of life
is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished
by free institutions, representative government, free elections,
guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion,
and freedom from political oppression. The second way of life
is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed upon the
majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled
press and radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of personal
freedoms.
I believe that it must be the
policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting
attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
Truman Doctrine, 1947
The truth of the matter is
that Europe's requirements for the next three or four years of
foreign food and other essential products--principally from America--are
so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must
have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and
political deterioration of a very grave character....
Our policy is directed not
against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty,
desperation, and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of
a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence
of political and social conditions in which free institutions
can exist.
The Marshall Plan, 1947
Article 5 The parties agree
that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or
North America shall be considered an attack against them all;
and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs,
each of them...[will take] such action as it deems necessary,
including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the
security of the North Atlantic area.
The North Atlantic Treaty,
1949
Why, by inter-weaving our destiny
with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and property
in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humour,
or caprice? It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent
alliances with any portion of the foreign world.
George Washington, 1796
The security of the United
States would again be seriously endangered if the entire European
continent were once more to come under the domination of a power
or an association of powers antagonistic to the United States....Today,
the weakened condition in which the nations of Europe find themselves
as a result of the destruction and privation of war has afforded
a golden opportunity for a new aggressor....It is believed essential
to the security of the United States, therefore, that it consolidate
the friendship and support which it now enjoys from free and
friendly nations.
State Department
The pact destroys the chances
of European recovery. A permanently militarized Europe is doomed
to living on an American dole. The pact is not an instrument
of defense but a military alliance designed for aggression. It
bypasses the United Nations and violates its Charter in a most
flagrant manner. It divides the world permanently into two armed
camps. And it provocatively establishes military bases on the
borders of the Soviet Union.
Henry Wallace
1. Describe
the containment policy. What was its goal?
2. Why did
the United States decide to broaden its overseas commitments?
Did the Soviet threat justify this expansion of America's commitments?
3. Was the
containment policy essentially offensive or defensive?
The Korean War
In Korea the Government forces,
which were armed to prevent border raids and to preserve internal
security, were attacked by invading forces from North Korea....The
attack upon Korea makes it plain beyond all doubt that communism
has passed beyond the use of subversion to conquer independent
nations and will now use armed invasion and war.
President Harry Truman
Once war is forced upon us,
there is no other alternative than to apply every available means
to bring it to a swift end. War's very object is victory--not
prolonged indecision. In war, indeed, there can be no substitute
for victory.
General Douglas MacArthur
It seems strangely difficult
for some to realize that here in Asia is where the Communist
conspirators have elected to make their play for global conquest,
and that we have joined the issue thus raised on the battlefield;
that here we fight Europe's war with arms while the diplomats
there still fight it with words; that if we lose the war to communism
in Asia the fall of Europe is inevitable, win it and Europe most
probably would avoid war and yet preserve freedom.
General Douglas MacArthur
We do not want to see the conflict
in Korea extended. We are trying to prevent a world war--not
to start one....But you may ask why can't we take other steps
to punish the aggressor. Why don't we bomb Manchuria and China
itself? Why don't we assist Chinese Nationalist troops to land
on the mainland of China? If we were to do these things we would
be running a very grave risk of starting a general war....If
we were to do these things, we would become entangled in a vast
conflict on the continent of Asia and our task would become immeasurably
more difficult all over the world.
I believe that we must try
to limit the war to Korea for these vital reasons: To make sure
that the precious lives of our fighting men are not wasted, to
see that the security of our country and the free world is not
needlessly jeopardized and to prevent a third world war. A number
of events have made it evident that General MacArthur did not
agree with that policy. I have, therefore, considered it essential
to relieve General MacArthur so that there would be no doubt
or confusion as to the real purpose and aim of our policy.
President Harry Truman
General MacArthur...would have
us, on our own initiative, carry the conflict beyond Korea against
the mainland of Communist China, both from the sea and from the
air. He would have us accept the risk of involvement not only
in an extension of the war with Red China, but in an all-out
war with the Soviet Union. He would have us do this even at the
expense of losing our allies and wrecking the coalition of free
peoples throughout the world. He would do this even though the
effect of such action might expose Western Europe to attack by
the millions of Soviet troops poised in Middle and Eastern Europe.
George Marshall
1. What
was America's mission in Korea?
2. How far
should the United States go in accomplishing that mission?
3. Did President
Truman improperly interfere in military operations in Korea?
Anti-Communism at Home
Sec. 2: (a) It shall be unlawful
for any person--
(1) to knowingly or willfully advocate, abet, advise, or teach
the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing
or destroying any government in the United States by force or
violence, or by the assassination of any officer of such government;
(2) with the intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of
any government in the United States, to print, publish, edit,
issue, circulate, sell, distribute, or publicly display any written
or printed matter advocating, advising, or teaching the duty,
necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying
any government in the United States by force or violence;
(3) to organize or help to organize any society, group, or assembly
of persons who teach, advocate, or encourage the overthrow or
destruction of any government in the United States by force or
violence; or to be or become a member of, or affiliate with,
any such society, group or assembly of persons, knowing the purposes
thereof.
The Smith Act, 1940
Part I.
1. There shall be a loyalty investigation of every person entering
the civilian employment of any department or agency of the executive
branch of the federal government.
Part II.
2. The head of each department and agency shall appoint one or
more loyalty boards...for the purpose of hearing loyalty cases....
Part V.
1. The standard for the refusal of employment or the removal
from employment in an executive department or agency on grounds
relating to loyalty shall be that, on all the evidence, reasonable
grounds exist for belief that the person involved is disloyal
to the government of the United States.
2. Activities and associations of an applicant or employee which
may be considered in connection with the determination of disloyalty
may include one or more of the following:
a. Sabotage, espionage, or attempts or preparations therefore,
or knowingly associating with spies or saboteurs;
b. Treason or sedition or advocacy thereof;
c. Advocacy of revolution or force or violence to alter the constitutional
form of government of the United States;
d. Intentional, unauthorized disclosure to any person, under
circumstances which may indicate disloyalty to the United States,
of documents or information of a confidential or nonpublic character
obtained by the person making the disclosure as a result of his
employment by the government of the United States.
f. Membership in, affiliation with or sympathetic association
with any foreign or domestic organization, association, movement,
group or combination of persons, designated by the attorney general
as totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive, or as having
adopted a policy of advocating or approving the commission of
acts of force or violence to deny other persons their rights
under the Constitution of the United States, or as seeking to
alter the form of government of the United States by unconstitutional
means.
Executive Order 9835, 1947
(1) There exists a world Communist
movement, which, in its origins, its development, and its present
practice, is a world-wide revolutionary movement whose purpose
it is, by treachery, deceit, infiltration into other groups (governmental
and otherwise), espionage, sabotage, terrorism, and any other
means deemed necessary, to establish a Communist totalitarian
dictatorship in the countries through the medium of a world-wide
Communist organization.
(15) The Communist movement
in the United States is an organization numbering thousands of
adherents, rigidly and ruthlessly disciplined. Awaiting and seeking
to advance a moment when the United States may be so far extended
by foreign engagements, so far divided in counsel, or so far
in industrial or financial straits, that overthrow of the Government
of the United States by force and violence may seem possible
of achievement, it seeks converts far and wide by an extensive
system of schooling and indoctrination.
Sec. 8 (a) Any individual who
is or becomes a member of any [communist] organization...[shall]
register with the Attorney General as a member of such organization.
The McCarran Act
Sec. 2 The Congress hereby
finds and declares that the Communist Party of the United States,
although purportedly a political party, is in fact an instrumentality
of a conspiracy to overthrow the Government of the United States.
It constitutes an authoritarian dictatorship within a republic,
demanding for itself the rights and privileges accorded to political
parties, but denying to all others the liberties guaranteed by
the Constitution. Unlike political parties, which evolve their
policies and programs through public means, by the reconciliation
of a wide variety of individual views, and submit those policies
and programs to the electorate at large for approval or disapproval,
the policies and programs of the Communist Party are secretly
prescribed for it by the foreign leaders of the world Communist
movement....Therefore the Communist Party should be outlawed.
Communist Control Act of 1954
Six years ago this summer America stood at what Churchill described
as the "highest pinnacle of her power and fame."...What
do we find in the summer of 1951? The writs of Moscow run to
lands which, with its own, number upward of 900 millions of people--a
good 40 percent of all men living....
During all this time the administration preaches a gospel of
fear and [Secretaries of State] Acheson and Marshall expound
a foreign policy in the East based upon craven, whimpering appeasement....
How can we account for our present situation unless we believe
that men high in this government are concerting to deliver us
to disaster? This must be the product of a great conspiracy,
a conspiracy on a scale so immense to dwarf any previous such
venture in the history of man....What can be made of this unbroken
series of decisions and acts contributing to the strategy of
defeat? This cannot be attributed to incompetence.
Senator Joseph McCarthy, 1951
1. Why were
many post-war Americans concerned about the domestic threat posed
by communism? Was fear of communism a response to legitimate
threats to national security or an irrational response to other
tensions within American society?
2. Were
the federal government loyalty programs intelligent and constitutional
methods of preserving American values?
3. Can the
government legitimately require employees to take loyalty oaths?
4. What,
if anything, can society do about people who hold opinions that
the majority finds abhorrent?
Postwar Society
|
United States in
1947 |
|
Proportion of world's manufacturing |
50 % |
|
Proportion of world's steel production |
57 % |
|
Proportion of world's electricity
usage |
43 % |
|
Proportion of world's oil production |
62 % |
|
Proportion of world's automobiles |
75 % |
|
Proportion of world's automobiles
manufactured |
80 % |
1. What
factors contributed to American industrial preeminence in l947?
2. In your
view, is it realistic to think that the U.S. could have maintained
this preeminence in subsequent years?
|
Geographic Distribution
of the U.S. Population |
|
|
1950 |
1960 |
1970 |
|
Central Cities |
32.3 |
32.6 |
31.4 |
|
Suburbs |
23.8 |
30.7 |
37.6 |
|
Rural Areas |
43.9 |
36.7 |
31.0 |
1. How did
the geographic distribution of the U.S. population change after
1950?
2. What
factors encouraged this shift?
Weekly Earnings of Manufacturing
Workers, 1940-1960
(1967=100) |
|
|
Index of Weekly Earnings |
Index of Real Weekly Earnings
(adjusted for inflation) |
|
1940 |
21.9 |
53.1 |
|
1945 |
38.6 |
72.8 |
|
1950 |
51.6 |
72.8 |
|
1955 |
66.4 |
84.3 |
|
1960 |
78.1 |
89.5 |
1. Describe
the changes that took place in earnings after the war?
2. How would
you explain this increase?
|
