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Chapter 28 |
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Postwar antagonism gradually led the United States and the Soviet Union into the Cold War. The contrasts between the countries were dramatically represented in their leaders—Truman, who believed in the innate goodness of America, and Stalin, the hard-headed realist who was determined to protect Russia’s wartime conquests.
The Cold War Begins
The two countries split over three issues: control of Europe, postwar economic aid, and the control of atomic weapons.
The Division of Europe
The Allies first disagreed over the division of Europe, with each side intent on imposing its values in the areas liberated by its military. The division of Germany between West (where the U.S., Britain, and France exercised authority) and the East (under the Soviets) was most crucial. Had the West regarded Stalin simply as a cautious leader who was trying to protect Russia rather than an aggressive dictator leading a communist drive for world domination, the tension between the two sides might not have escalated into the Cold War.
Withholding Economic Aid
Though the United States knew of the enormous damage done to Russia during the war, Truman and Congress ended lend-lease aid and ignored a Soviet request for a loan that would help them rebuild. This American refusal to provide aid convinced Stalin of Western hostility and contributed to a growing antagonism between the Soviet Union and the United States.
The Atomic Dilemma
The United States proposed only a gradual abolition of nuclear arms in the Baruch Plan, thus preserving America’s atomic monopoly, while the Soviets proposed immediate nuclear disarmament. Because both proposals were based on each nation’s self-interest, attempts to agree on mutual reduction of atomic weapons failed.
Containment
U.S. foreign policy leaders initiated a major departure in American foreign affairs from the traditional policy of isolationism to one of containment, arguing that only strong and sustained resistance could halt Soviet expansionism.
The Truman Doctrine
In 1947 President Truman asked Congress for economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey to prevent possible communist revolutions. In providing this aid, the United States assumed what had been Great Britain’s role—that of leading Western power in the eastern Mediterranean—and established that the United States would support any nation that was resisting communist takeover. This, the issuance of the Truman Doctrine, marked the beginning of the Cold War.
The Marshall Plan
The American government also decided to contain Soviet influence by financing postwar European recovery as a check on communist power. Through the Marshall Plan, the United States paid for the industrial revival in Western Europe and ended the threat that all Europe might drift into the communist orbit because of economic desperation.
The Western Military Alliance
In 1949, the United States entered into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a pact for collective self-defense, with ten European nations and Canada. The move represented an overreaction to Soviet aggression, and tensions between the former allies escalated as NATO intensified Russian fears of the West.
The Berlin Blockade
When the Russians blockaded the western access to Berlin, the Truman government responded with an airlift, which maintained the American position in that German city and contributed to Truman’s surprising reelection victory in 1948. The Berlin crisis signaled the end of the initial phase of the Cold War—Europe was divided and the rivalry between the Soviets and Americans was about to spread to the rest of the world.
The Cold War Expands
In the late 1940s and the early 1950s, the Cold War expanded. Both sides built up their military might, and diplomatic competition spread from Europe to Asia.
The Military Dimension
Committed to winning the growing conflict with Russia, the American government unified its armed services and initiated a massive military buildup, especially in its air force. The National Security Act created the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. A new national defense policy—NSC-68—took form that was based on the premise that the Soviet Union sought “to impose its absolute authority over the rest of the world” thereby “mortally challenging the United States.”
The Cold War in Asia
In Asia, the United States consolidated its Pacific sphere, but failed to avert the Chinese civil war in which Mao Tse-tung and the Communists drove Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists from the mainland to Formosa (renamed Taiwan). The United States refused to recognize the legitimacy of the communist government of China and turned its focus to Japan as its main ally in Asia.
The Korean War
The showdown of the Cold War in Asia came in June 1950 when the North Koreans invaded South Korea, perhaps without Soviet approval, leading to war. The United States secured UN support for a police action to defend South Korea. An attempt to drive the Communists out of North Korea failed, however, and the war settled into a stalemate near the 38th parallel. The most significant result of the war might have been the massive rearming of America and the implementation of NSC-68.
The Cold War at Home
President Truman tried, for the most part unsuccessfully, to revive the New Deal reform tradition after World War II. The Cold War controlled American attention, and the Republicans used dissatisfaction with the postwar economy and fear of communism in the United States to revive its political fortunes.
Truman’s Troubles
Truman’s apparent lack of political vision and his fondness for appointing cronies to high office were major weaknesses. Also, the postwar mood of the country was not conducive to further reform. As the economy settled into postwar normality, Truman found himself caught in the middle between union demands for higher wages and the public demand that consumer prices be kept down.
Truman Vindicated
Facing pressure from within his own party (Southern Democrats bolted over a proposed civil rights measure to form the Dixiecrat Party) as well as Republican attacks on his domestic policies, Truman’s reelection hopes in 1948 seemed dubious. The president benefited, however, from Thomas Dewey’s passive campaign and the indecisiveness of the Republican Congress. Reminding the voters of the past successes of the New Deal and of his aggressiveness in the Cold War, Truman confounded the pollsters by winning a decisive victory.
The Loyalty Issue
Fear of Communists led to a government loyalty program and unrelenting investigations by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Former State Department official Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury after allegations of espionage. Thousands of government workers were dismissed by the Loyalty Review Board for dubious loyalty, and following Soviet detonation of an atomic bomb, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for conspiring with the Soviets.
McCarthyism in Action
Playing on heightened American fears, Senator Joseph McCarthy engaged in tireless pursuits of communist conspirators. He received great support among the American populace because he offered a simple solution to the complicated problems of the Cold War. McCarthy directed his accusations everywhere, from the State Department to the U.S. Army, and would-be critics, fearful of arousing suspicion, remained quiet.
The Republicans in Power
Promising to clean up corruption and to bring the Korean War to an honorable end, Republican Dwight Eisenhower won election as president in 1952. In 1953 Eisenhower succeeded in reaching an agreement with the North Koreans for an armistice. McCarthy eventually overreached himself when he accused the upper echelons of the Army of communist ties, leading to his public humiliation and censure following Senate hearings in 1954.
Eisenhower Wages the Cold War
Together with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, President Eisenhower tried to bring the Cold War under control. In particular, Eisenhower was motivated by outrageous defense expenditures and the sober realization of the destructive possibilities of nuclear warfare.
Entanglement in Indochina
Having provided aid to the French in the maintenance of their colony in Indochina against communist guerillas led by Ho Chi Minh since 1950, Eisenhower refused to provide increased American assistance in 1954 when the French were on the brink of defeat. Following an international conference dividing Vietnam at the 17th parallel with the provision for a general election by 1956, the United States gradually took over from the French support of the anti-communist government of Ngo Dinh Diem in Saigon.
Containing China
While Senate Republicans blamed Truman’s Democratic administration for the “loss” of China, Eisenhower signed a security treaty with Chiang Kai-shek’s government in Formosa and hinted at the use of nuclear retaliation to forestall Chinese attacks on the islands of Quemoy and Matsu. Eisenhower’s policies were aimed at driving a wedge between the Russians and the Chinese by convincing the Chinese that the Soviet Union could not protect them from the United States should they overstep their boundaries.
Turmoil in the Middle East
When Egyptian leader Gamal Nasser seized control of the Suez Canal in 1956, England and France retaliated with an invasion of Egypt. Both the United States and the Soviet Union supported a UN resolution calling for their withdrawal, establishing the United States as the main western influence in the region and setting up yet another Cold War battleground with the Soviets. In 1958, the United States intervened temporarily in Lebanon to secure establishment of a stable government.
Covert Actions
During the 1950s, the Unites States used the CIA to work behind the scenes on many fronts: to place the Shah of Iran in control of that country, to overthrow a leftist regime in Guatemala, and to oppose the Castro regime in Cuba. The corrupting belief that the ends justify the means would later come back to haunt the United States.
Waging Peace
Eisenhower’s repeated efforts to end the nuclear arms race failed although a temporary suspension of testing did occur for the remainder of his presidency. The Soviet launching of Sputnik, however, contributed to an intensification of Americans’ fears. In 1960 Nikita Khrushchev, Stalin’s successor, agreed to a summit conference with Eisenhower, but later refused to attend after an American spy plane was shot down over Soviet territory.
Conclusion: The Continuing Cold War
Disappointed with the breakup of the Paris summit, Eisenhower made one last attempt to moderate the Cold War when he warned Americans of the unwarranted influence of a growing military-industrial complex.
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