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Cold War Study Guide 1945-1960

Events/Terms/Foreign Policy:

• Cold War: The name for the relationship that developed between the USA and the USSR after WWII. The cold war was not an actual war but a series of political moves through

other countries enforcing the beliefs of the major powers. The United States wasconnected to South Vietnam while North Vietnam was supplied by Russia andcommunist China.

• Containment: The United States policy using military, economic and diplomaticstrategies to prevent the spread of communism. This policy came around after the USSR began to expand communist influence into eastern Europe, China, Korea and Vietnam

• Truman Doctrine: Harry Truman called for immediate economic aid to Greece andTurkey both of which were threatened by communism. Congress appointed $400 millionin aid to the two countries after Truman’s push.

• Marshall Plan: The United States offered up to $20 billion for relief -- but only if theEuropean nations could get together and draw up a rational plan for using the aid. For thefirst time, they would have to act as a single economic unit; they would have to cooperatewith each other. Marshall also offered aid to the Soviet Union and its allies in EasternEurope, but Stalin denounced the program as a trick and refused to participate.

• Sputnik: The name given to the rocket that the Soviets launched into space in October of 1957.

• Berlin Airlift: The name given to the plan that entailed the United States sending foodand supplies into West Berlin which was being occupied by the Soviets.

• NATO: an organization formed in Washington, D.C. (1949), comprising of the 12 nationsof the Atlantic Pact together with Greece, turkey, and the Federal Republic of Germany,for the purpose of collective defense against aggression.

• 1949: During this year the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed and troopswere sent into Western Europe where they would be stationed for the next 20 years which

lead to the Russians retaliating with the Warsaw Pact.• Warsaw Pact: Military alliance of the Soviet Union, Albania (until 1968), Bulgaria,

Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, formed in 1955 inresponse to West Germany's entry into NATO Its terms included a unified militarycommand and the stationing of Soviet troops in the other member states. Warsaw Pacttroops were called into action to suppress uprisings in Poland (1956), Hungary (1956),and Czechoslovakia (1968). The alliance was dissolved in 1991 after the collapse of theSoviet bloc, and Soviet troops departed. Several Warsaw Pact members later joinedNATO

• ICBM: Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles which are a missile with a range greater than5500 km the use of any ICBM would result in chaos for any nations involved.

• Brinksmanship: The practice, especially in international politics, of seeking advantage bycreating the impression that one is willing and able to push a highly dangerous situationto the limit rather than concede.

• The fall of China: Nationalists in China had been fighting the government for control for decades. The U.S. government under Roosevelt and Truman had backed the Nationalistswith money and small arms shipments but overall had little influence on the war. Mao’srevolutionaries, however, finally managed to defeat government forces in 1949 and took control of mainland China.

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• Inchon Landing Korean War: an amphibious operation during the Korean War led byGen. Douglas MacArthur which led to the securing of Seoul on September 28. Despitelogistical challenges and hastily organized troops, a Marine battalion landed on nearbyWolmi-do Island and was followed by two Marine regiment landings against Inchonitself. With a five-to-one strength disadvantage, the 2, 200 North Korean troops at Inchonwere easily defeated. The march to Seoul began the following day.

• Diem Bein Phu Vietnam: This battle was the ultimate split of Vietnam. It separated thecountry into North and South. This action inspired the US to enter into affairs in theregion

• Hungarian Uprising 1956: following a speech by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev inwhich he attacked the period of Joseph Stalin’s rule. Encouraged by the new freedom of debate and criticism, a rising tide of unrest and discontent in Hungary broke out intoactive fighting in October 1956. Rebels won the first phase of the revolution, and ImreNagy became premier, agreeing to establish a multiparty system. On Nov. 1, 1956, hedeclared Hungarian neutrality and appealed to the United Nations for support, butWestern powers were reluctant to risk a global confrontation. On Nov. 4, 1956, the Soviet Union invaded Hungary to stop the revolution, and Nagy was executed for treason in1958

People/Foreign Policy:

• Truman: Vice president under Franklin D. Roosevelt who became president upon

Roosevelt’s death in April 1945 and successfully carried out the remainder of World War 

II. Truman was instrumental in creating a new international political and economic order 

after the war, helping to form the United Nations, NATO, the World Bank, and the

International Monetary Fund. His Marshall Plan also helped Western Europe rebuild after 

the war and surpass its prewar levels of industrial production. Determined not to let the

Soviet Union spread Communism, Truman adopted the idea of containment, announcing

his own Truman Doctrine in 1947. His characterization of the Soviet Union as a force of “ungodly” evil helped shape the Cold War of the next four decades. He also led the

nation into the Korean War but eventually fired General Douglas MacArthur for 

insubordination.

• Ike: A World War II hero and former supreme commander of NATO who became U.S.

president in 1953 after easily defeating Democratic opponent Adlai E. Stevenson.

Eisenhower expanded New Deal–era social welfare programs such as Social Security and

passed the landmark Federal Highway Act to improve national transportation. However,

he cut back funding to other domestic programs to halt what he called

“creeping socialism.” His New Look at foreign policy, meanwhile, emphasized nuclear weapons and the threat of massive retaliation against the Soviet Union in order to cut

costs and deter the USSR from spreading Communism abroad. Eisenhower committed

federal dollars to fighting Communists in Vietnam, resolved the Suez crisis, and

authorized CIA-sponsored coups in Iran and Guatemala.

• Stalin: Stalin sought to expand Communist rule, Soviet influence, and his own control in

those places and under circumstances where it was possible. Unlike Adolf Hitler, 

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however, he was not driven to advance where it was inexpedient, much less to court or 

initiate war. This was true of even the most apparent exception—the Korean War .

Archival documents released in the 1990s showed that the principal impetus for a North

Korean military attack on South Korea came from Kim Il Sung, although Stalin (and

Chinese leader Mao Zedong) was led to approve and provide support for the attack and

thus bear responsibility. Initially, however, Stalin refused to approve Kim's plans, and did

so only when he mistakenly concluded that the United States would not intervene. The

Korean attack was neither Stalin's test of Western resolve nor precursor to a possible

Soviet attack in Western Europe, as was widely feared at the time.

• Khruschev: The head of the Soviet Communist Party and leader of the USSR from 1958

until the early 1960s. Initially, many Americans hoped Khrushchev’s rise to power would

lead to a reduction in Cold War tensions. Khrushchev toured the United States in 1959

and visited personally with President Eisenhower at Camp David, Maryland. The U-2

incident and 1962 Cuban missile crisis, however, ended what little amity existed between

the two nations and depolarized the Cold War. Party leaders, upset with Khrushchev for 

having backed down from the Cuban missile crisis, removed him from power in 1964.

• Chiang Kai-Shek: With Soviet help he consolidated KMT control over southern China

and led the Northern Campaign (1926-7). This involved the defeat of Chinese

communists and hence a break with the USSR. Making himself effective head of the

KMT in 1928, he captured Beijing. There followed the extensive military operations

known as the five Bandit Suppression Campaigns (December 1930-September 1934),

directed against the communists in southern China. Only the last of these was reasonably

successful, driving Mao Tse-tung on the Long March. The threat of Japanese invasion,

which became actual in July 1937, forced him to ally with the communists. Chiang wasunable to hold the Japanese advances until after the USA entered the war in 1941.

• George Kennan: His concept of containment was presented in a highly influential article,signed "X," that appeared in Foreign Affairs magazine in July 1947. Kennan questionedthe wisdom of conciliatory U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union, which he consideredappeasement, and advocated instead U.S. counter pressure wherever the Sovietsthreatened to expand; this approach became the basis of U.S. policy toward the SovietUnion during the first decades of the Cold War 

• Ho Chi Min: The nationalist, Communist leader of the Viet Minh movement, whichsought to liberate Vietnam from French colonial rule throughout the 1950s. After beingrebuffed by the United States, Ho received aid from the USSR and won a major victory

over French forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. This French defeat forced the GenevaConference of 1954, which split Vietnam into Communist-dominated North Vietnam andFrench-backed South Vietnam.

• Mao Tse Tung: (Chairman Mao) Mao is credited with commanding the Long March andleading the Communist Party of China (CPC) to victory against Chiang Kai-shek'sKuomintang (KMT) in the Chinese Civil War , defeating an assortment of powerfulregional warlords, and helping repel a Japanese invasion. Mao also enacted sweepingland reform, by overthrowing the feudal landlords and seizing their large estates, before

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dividing the land up among the people who worked it.[1] Later, through his policies, helaid the economic, technological and cultural foundations of modern China, transformingthe country from an underdeveloped peasant-based agrarian society into a major industrialized world power . However, he remains a controversial figure to this day, with acontentious legacy that is subject to continuing revision and fierce debate.

• Latin American Relations: The Cold War led to a revival of the Monroe Doctrine and the

Roosevelt Corollary (and the effective end of the Good Neighbor Policy). The US usedthe Monroe Doctrine as a justification for resisting Soviet influence in Latin America --and relied on the Roosevelt Corollary to justify intervention designed to prevent thespread of communism in the region. The Cold War also found the US supporting LatinAmerican dictatorships with economic and military aid as part of their attempts tocontains Soviet (and, after 1959, Cuban) influence

• Douglas MacArthur: Five-star American general who commanded Allied forces in the

Pacific during World War II. After the war, MacArthur led the American occupation in

Japan, helped establish a democratic government there, and in large part rewrote the

country’s new constitution outlawing militarism. He later commanded United Nations

forces in Korea, driving North Korean forces back north of the 38th parallel after makingthe brilliant Inchon landing. He ignored Chinese warnings not to approach the North

Korean–Chinese border at the Yalu River, however, and was subsequently driven back 

down to the 38th parallel by more than a million Chinese troops. President Harry S

Truman later rejected MacArthur’s request to bomb North Korea and China with nuclear 

weapons. MacArthur’s public criticism of the president’s decision prompted Truman to

remove him from command in 1951.

• Fidel Castro: The crisis that occurred when Cuban leader Fidel Castro sought economic

and military assistance from the Soviet Union after the United States’ failed 1961 Bay of 

Pigs invasion. The Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev, capitalized on the failed invasion,allied with Castro, and secured from Castro the right to place nuclear missiles in Cuba.

Upon learning of the missiles, President John F. Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of the

island in 1962 and demanded that Khrushchev remove them. Nuclear war seemed

imminent until Khrushchev finally backed down, promising to remove the missiles if 

Kennedy ended the blockade. The United States complied and also agreed to remove

from Turkey nuclear missiles aimed at the USSR. The Communist Party leadership in the

USSR removed Khrushchev from power in 1964 for having backed down in the standoff.

• Francis Gray Powers/U2: The crisis that arose after the USSR shot down an American U-

2 spy plane flying over the USSR on a reconnaissance mission in 1960. President Dwight

D. Eisenhower initially denied that the incident occurred until Soviet premier Nikita

Khrushchev presented the captured American pilot. The president’s refusal to apologize

or halt future spy missions caused the collapse of a joint summit among Great Britain,

France, the United States, and the USSR in May 1960.

• John Foster Dulles: Secretary of state under Eisenhower (and brother of Allen Dulles)

who helped devise Eisenhower’s New Look foreign policy. Dulles’s policy emphasized

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massive retaliation with nuclear weapons. In particular, Dulles advocated the use of 

nuclear weapons against Ho Chi Minh’s Communist forces in Vietnam.

• Suez Canal Crisis: The crisis that erupted after Egypt’s nationalization of the British-

controlled Suez Canal, which took place in 1956 after negotiations over international aid

among the United States, Great Britain, and Egypt collapsed. Egyptian president GamalAbdel Nasser nationalized the canal, which links the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.

Although Eisenhower protested the move, he also condemned the joint British, French,

and Israeli invasion of Egypt to retake the canal. The three nations eventually halted their 

attack and withdrew, under heavy diplomatic and economic pressure from the United

States.

Events/Domestic Policy:

• G.I. Bill: bill passed in 1944 that provided federal grants for education to returning World

War II veterans. Also known as the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, the bill also

awarded federal loans to vets to purchase new homes, farms, and businesses. Millions of 

veterans took advantage of these grants and loans to go back to school and purchase new

suburban homes, making the act one of the most significant pieces of postwar legislation.

• Interstate Highway: A federally funded American highway system resulting from theHighway Revenue Act of 1956. By the 1940s, heightened use of automobiles and successof smaller highways made it clear that the road system needed to be improved andexpanded by a network of national roads. The interstate highway system was firstapproved by Congress in 1944, but because of World War II it was delayed until 1956. Alarge-scale construction project, the highway system has had a profound impact on theeconomy, national defense, and lifestyle of Americans. The Act's expiration date of 1972has been extended many times by Congress (EISENHOWER)

• Brown V. Board of education: U.S. Supreme Court case in which the court ruledunanimously that racial segregation in public schools violated the 14th Amendment to theU.S. Constitution

• McCarthyism: The intense and popular fear that communists were in America hiding inour government and our neighborhoods. McCarthy is credited with the “Red Scare”

• Military Desegregation: In 1948 Truman officially declared that the armed forces couldnot longer be segregated and everyone must be integrated

• Plessey Vs. Ferguson: Supreme Court decision that established the legality of racialsegregation so long as facilities were "separate but equal." The case involved a challengeto Louisiana laws requiring separate railcars for African Americans and whites. Thoughthe laws were upheld by a majority of 8 to 1, a famous dissent by John Marshall Harlan 

advanced the idea that the U.S. Constitution is "color-blind." The Plessey decision wasoverturned in 1954 by Brown v. Board of Education.

• 80th Congress policies: The 80th Congress was nicknamed the "Do Nothing Congress" byPresident Harry Truman. The Congress opposed many of the bills passed during theFranklin Roosevelt administration. They also opposed most of Truman's Fair Deal bills.Yet they passed many pro-business bills. During the 1948 election Truman campaignedas much against the "Do Nothing Congress" as against his formal opponent, ThomasDewey.

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• De facto Segregation: Racial segregation, especially in public schools, that happens “byfact” rather than by legal requirement. For example, often the concentration of African-Americans in certain neighborhoods produces neighborhood schools that arepredominantly black, or segregated in fact (de facto), although not by law (de jure).

• Military Industrial Complex: military contractors hire retired military officers militarybases in congressional districts have a great political influence in keeping the arms racegoing.

• Elections of 1948 1952 1956: Truman was the major upset in the 48 election when hedecided not to run for office again it was IKE who took the country by storm and won thenext elections.

• Truman’s Fair Deal: the 21-point program that he presented to Congress on September 5,1945, to convert the economy from wartime to peacetime status. The message toCongress emphasized passage of the Full Employment Act to provide jobs for U.S.servicemen and servicewomen

• Taft-Hartley Act: federal law protecting public welfare during labor disputes by allowingpresident power of injunction to halt certain strikes

• Polio Cure: Invented by Jonas Salk the polio vaccine was a simple cure to a horrifyingdisease which shockingly has still not been eradicated today. The cure prevented thedeadly paralyzing disease

People/Domestic Policy:

• Jackie Robinson: The first black major league baseball player 

• Elvis Presley: A musical icon in the time period Elvis was the object of every young girlsdesire and many of his songs were bestsellers

• The Rosenberg’s: American communists who were executed for acts of espionage duringwar time.

• Algeir Hiss: A successful lawyer in his time Hiss was accused of being a soviet spy andconvicted of perjury in 1950

• Baby boom: 78.3 million births that took place after WWII was enough to be considereda boom.

• Martin L. King: A civil rights activist King was a leader of black people everywhere inthe North and South. His peaceful approach to the matter was considered revolutionary inthe south.

• Rosa Parks: A little old woman who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus inMontgomery Alabama.

• William Levitt: A credited developer he was credited as being the father of modernsuburbia.

• Adlai Stevenson: The Illinois democrat who ran against Ike in the 1952 election

• Checkers Speech: A speech given by Richard Nixon denying that he accepted gifts fromsupporters of “special interests” he claimed he did nothing wrong other than acceptingthe family dog checkers

• Jack Kerouac: A novelist during the time period he wrote novels such as On the Roadwhich detailed his life which was full of alcohol and women (subjects previouslyconsidered taboo to write about)

• Joseph McCarthy: Republican senator from Wisconsin who capitalized on Cold War fears of Communism in the early 1950s by accusing hundreds of government employees

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of being Communists and Soviet agents. Although McCarthy failed to offer any concreteevidence to prove these claims, many Americans fully supported him. He ruined his ownreputation in 1954 after humiliating himself during the televised Army-McCarthyhearings. Disgraced, he received an official censure from the Senate and died analcoholic in 1957.

• Little Rock Nine: Nine black students who were the first step towards desegregation in

the south these nine students faced massive amounts of adversity when attempting toenroll in Central High School

• Teenage Girls Job: Many teenage girls in the era chose to babysit for a little extra cash.The baby boomers provided plenty of opportunity.