Chapter 28: the Cold War and American Globalism, 1945 1961 1

Chapter 28: The Cold War and American Globalism, 1945–1961 1

CHAPTER 28

The Cold War and American Globalism, 1945–1961

Chapter Summary

Chapter 28 surveys the history from 1945 to 1961 of the bipolar contest for international power between the United States and the Soviet Union, a contest known as the Cold War.

We first examine the Cold War as the outgrowth of a complex set of factors. At the end of the Second World War, international relations remained unstable because of: (1) world economic problems, (2) power vacuums caused by the defeat of Germany and Japan, (3) civil wars within nations, (4) the birth of nations resulting from the disintegration of empires, and (5) air power, which made all nations more vulnerable to attack. This unsettled environment encouraged competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, the two most powerful nations at the war’s end.

Furthermore, both the United States and the Soviet Union believed in the rightness of their own political, economic, and social systems, and each feared the other’s system. Their decisions and actions, based on the way each perceived the world, confirmed rather than alleviated these fears. For example, the American resolution to avoid appeasement and hold the line against communism, the American feeling of vulnerability in the air age, and American determination to prevent an economic depression led to an activist foreign policy characterized by the containment doctrine, economic expansionism, and globalist diplomacy. These factors, along with Truman’s anti-Soviet views and his brash personality, intensified Soviet fears of a hostile West. When the Soviets acted on the basis of this feeling, American worries that the Soviet Union was bent on world domination intensified.

Despite the fact that the Soviet Union had emerged from the Second World War as a regional power rather than a global menace, United States officials were distrustful of the Soviet Union and reacted to counter what they perceived to be a Soviet threat. They did so because of: (1) their belief in a monolithic communist enemy bent on world revolution, (2) fear that unstable world conditions made United States interests vulnerable to Soviet subversion, and (3) the desire of the United States to use its postwar position of strength to its advantage. When the actions of the United States brought criticism, the United States perceived this as further proof that the Soviets were determined to dominate the world.

The interplay of these factors provides the thread running through the examination of American-Soviet relations from 1945 to 1961. The action-reaction theme is evident throughout the chapter, and the events discussed serve as evidence to support the authors’ interpretation of the sources of the Cold War. For example, in the discussion of the origins of the Korean War, we find that Truman acted out of the belief that the Soviets were the masterminds behind North Korea’s attack against South Korea. However, closer analysis of the situation shows the strong likelihood that North Korea started the war for its own nationalistic purposes and secured the support of a reluctant Joseph Stalin only after receiving the support of Mao Zedong. We examine the conduct of the war, Truman’s problems with General Douglas MacArthur, America’s use of atomic diplomacy, and the war’s domestic political impact. In the war’s aftermath, the globalist foreign policy used to justify it became entrenched in U.S. policy. This, in turn, led to an increase in foreign commitments and military appropriations and solidified the idea of a worldwide Soviet threat.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, accepted this view of a worldwide communist threat. During Eisenhower’s administration, this belief and the fear of domestic subversives that accompanied it led to the removal of talented Asian specialists from the Foreign Service, an action that would have dire consequences later on. Meanwhile, a new jargon invigorated the containment doctrine, and the U.S. undertook propaganda efforts to foster discontent in the Communist regimes of eastern Europe. Despite Eisenhower’s doubts about the arms race, the president continued the activist foreign policy furthered during the Truman years and oversaw the acceleration of the nuclear arms race. Therefore, during the Eisenhower-Dulles years, the action-reaction relationship between the superpowers continued. Each action by one side caused a corresponding defensive reaction by the other in a seemingly endless spiral of fear and distrust. As a result, problems continued in eastern Europe, Berlin, and Asia.

The process of decolonization begun during the First World War accelerated in the aftermath of the Second World War. As scores of new nations were born, the Cold-War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union began. Both superpowers began to compete for friends among the newly emerging nations of the Third World; however, both the United States and the Soviet Union encountered obstacles in finding allies among these nations. The factors that created obstacles for the United States in its search for Third World friends included:

1.America’s negative view toward the neutralist movement among Third World nations,

2.the way in which the United States characterized Third World peoples,

3.embarrassing incidents in the United States in which official representatives of the Third World were subjected to racist practices and prejudices,

4.America’s intolerance of the disorder caused by revolutionary nationalism, and

5.America’s great wealth.

To counter nationalism, radical doctrines, and neutralism in the Third World, the United States undertook development projects and, through the United States Information Agency, engaged in propaganda campaigns. In addition, during the Eisenhower administration the United States began increasingly to rely on the covert actions of the Central Intelligence Agency, as demonstrated in the Guatemalan and Iranian examples. Moreover, the attitude of the United States toward neutralism and toward the disruptions caused by revolutionary nationalism may be seen in the discussion of America’s deepening involvement in Vietnam and in the Eisenhower administration’s reaction to the events surrounding the 1956 Suez Crisis. In the aftermath of that crisis, fear of a weakened position in the Middle East led to the issuance of the Eisenhower Doctrine, which in turn was used to justify American military intervention in Lebanon in 1958, thus expanding the nation’s “global watch” approach to the containment of Communism.

Learning Objectives

1.Examine and explain the sources of the Cold War.

2.Examine the reasons for the activist, expansionist, globalist diplomacy undertaken by the United States in the aftermath of the Second World War.

3.Discuss the similarities and differences between American and Soviet perceptions of major international problems and events from 1945 to 1961.

4.Explain the rationale behind the containment doctrine; examine the evolution of the doctrine from its inception in 1947 to the end of the Eisenhower administration in 1961; discuss the history, extent, and nature of criticisms of the doctrine; and evaluate the doctrine as the cornerstone of American foreign policy from 1947 to 1961.

5.Examine the nature and extent of the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1961.

6.Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Truman administration.

7.Discuss the reconstruction of Japan after that country’s defeat in the Second World War, and discuss relations between the United States and Japan from 1945 to 1961.

8.Discuss the nature and outcome of the Chinese Civil War, and examine United States policy toward the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to 1961.

9.Examine and evaluate the events and decisions that led to deepening United States involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1961, and discuss the course of the war from 1950 to 1961.

10.Discuss the origins of the Korean War; explain its outcome; and examine its impact on domestic politics and United States foreign policy.

11.Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Eisenhower administration.

12.Discuss the rise of the Third World and explain the challenge the Third World posed to the United States from 1945 to 1961.

13.Explain the U.S. view of the Third World and the obstacles to United States influence in the Third World.

14.Discuss the various ways in which the United States attempted to counter nationalism, radical doctrines, and neutralism in the Third World.

15.Examine the role of the CIA as an instrument of United States policy in the Third World during the 1950s.

Chapter Outline

I.Introduction

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a protracted bipolar contest for power called the Cold War. During the era of the Cold War, U.S. leaders often interpreted anticolonialism and political instability in Third World nations as having been inspired by the Soviet Union. To counter the perceived Soviet threat, U.S. leaders engaged in a globalist, interventionist foreign policy and engendered an atmosphere within the nation in which dissenters of the Cold War consensus were discredited and debate over foreign policy was stifled.

II.From Allies to Adversaries

A.Decolonization

Economic dislocation and the disintegration of empires destabilized the international system and characterized the world after World War II.

B.Stalin’s Aims

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Stalin’s primary aim was to secure his nation against the possibility of another invasion.

C.U.S. Economic and Strategic Needs

Having emerged from the Second World War as the world’s most powerful nation, the United States wanted a quick reconstruction of nations and a world economy based on free trade.

The Soviets refused to join the World Bank and International Monetary Fund because both institutions were dominated by the United States.

D.Stalin and Truman

Stalin’s approach to world affairs was influenced by a “them” versus “us” mentality that bordered on paranoia.

Truman liked to see the world in simple either/or terms and had a brash and impatient style not suited to diplomacy.

E.The Beginning of the Cold War

Suspicions that led to the Cold War date back as far as the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the United States protested Soviet actions in eastern Europe. At the same time the Soviet Union protested U.S. meddling in eastern Europe and what it perceived to be the revival of its traditional enemy, Germany.

F.Atomic Diplomacy

The United States pursued a policy of using the atomic monopoly for leverage.

Truman supported the Baruch Plan by which the U.S. would abandon its atomic monopoly only after the world’s fissionable material was brought under the authority of an international agency. The Soviets rejected the plan, and a nuclear arms race began.

G.Warnings from Kennan and Churchill

George F. Kennan doubted that Soviets could be trusted, and Winston Churchill’s “iron curtain” speech solidified many Americans’ fears.

H.Truman Doctrine

In response to a British request for American aid against leftist insurgents in Greece and Turkey, Truman announced his commitment to stopping communism.

I.Inevitable Cold War?

For a variety of reasons, it seems that a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union was destined to occur. It is less clear that the conflict had to result in a Cold War.

III.Containment in Action

A.The “Mr. X” Article

George Kennan wrote an influential article that argued that the United States should contain Soviet expansion.

B.Lippmann’s Critique

Walter Lippmann worried that containment would drain America’s resources and would hurt diplomatic efforts.

To put the containment doctrine into practice, the U.S. began building an international economic and defensive network.

C.Marshall Plan

In 1947, the United States initiated the Marshall Plan, funneling billions of dollars into Western Europe.

D.National Security Act

The National Security Act of 1947 created the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the United States Information Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency.

In response to the Marshall Plan and the National Security Act, Stalin formed the Cominform and tightened his grip on eastern Europe.

E.Berlin Blockade and Airlift

In response to the Allied decision to unite their sections of Germany, the Soviets denied them access to Berlin. Truman responded with a massive airlift.

The Berlin crisis convinced the western nations to sign the North Atlantic Treaty Organization collective security accord.

F.Twin Shocks

In September 1949, the Soviet Union detonated an atomic bomb, thus ending the U.S. monopoly on atomic power. In addition, the communists were victorious in China.

The United States responded to Soviet detonation of an atomic bomb by producing the hydrogen bomb.

In April 1950, the National Security Council issued NSC-68, a secret document asking for increased military expenditures to counter worldwide communist expansion and calling for a publicity campaign to gain public support for the expenditures.

IV.The Cold War in Asia

A.Reconstruction of Japan

The United States reconstructed Japan after World War II by providing it with a democratic constitution, by revitalizing its economy, and by destroying its weapons. When U.S. occupation of Japan ended in 1951, the two nations signed a Mutual Security Treaty.

B.Chinese Civil War

Despite Jiang Jieshi’s corruption and recalcitrance, the United States continued to back him against Mao Zedong.

Mao defeated Jiang and established the People’s Republic of China. Truman did not recognize the new republic.

C.Vietnam’s Quest for Independence

The Vietnamese resisted colonialism, and when French authority collapsed during World War II, the Vietminh declared independence in 1945. The Cold War gave the United States several reasons to reject Vietnamese autonomy.

The United States bore most of the financial costs of the French war against the Vietminh.

V.The Korean War

A.Stalin’s Doubts

The Korean War began as a civil war. The leaders of both North and South Korea sought reunification. Although Truman claimed that the Soviets had masterminded the North Korean attack, Kim II Sung actually had to persuade a reluctant Stalin to approve the June 1950 invasion against South Korea.

B.U.S. Forces Intervene

The United Nations’ Security Council voted to aid South Korea and Truman ordered American troops into the region without seeking congressional approval.

MacArthur staged a brilliant amphibious landing behind enemy lines that forced the North Koreans to retreat.

C.Chinese Entry into the War

When the Chinese sent thousands of troops into North Korea, MacArthur demanded full-scale bombing of China.

D.Truman’s Firing of General MacArthur

MacArthur denounced Truman’s actions regarding China, leading the President to fire him.

E.Peace Agreement

Thousands of North Korean and Chinese prisoners did not want to go home; the United States did not return them.

In July 1953, an armistice was signed. The boundary between North and South Korea was established near the 38th parallel and a demilitarized zone was established between the two.

F.Consequences of the War

More than 4 million people died in this limited war. The powers of the presidency grew during the war, and the stalemated war helped elect Eisenhower.

Worldwide military containment became entrenched as U.S. policy causing an escalation in defense spending and an arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union.

VI.Unrelenting Cold War

A.Eisenhower and Dulles

Eisenhower and Dulles sustained Truman’s Cold War policies.

Dulles purged the State Department of many specialists, among them Asian experts whose absence adversely affected the American role in Vietnam.

B.“Massive Retaliation”

“Liberation,” “massive retaliation,” and the “New Look” military became bywords of American foreign policy. Backed by increasing stockpiles of nuclear weapons, the United States practiced “brinkmanship.” Eisenhower popularized the “domino theory.”

C.CIA as Foreign Policy Instrument

The CIA put foreign leaders on its payroll, subsidized foreign labor unions, and engaged in “disinformation” campaigns. The CIA also launched covert operations to subvert governments in the Third World.

D.Nuclear Buildup

American production of the incredibly powerful hydrogen bomb increased Soviet-American tensions.

Following Soviet advances in missile technology, made obvious in the firing of the world’s first ICBM and the propelling of Sputnik into orbit, the United States stepped up its missile research and created NASA in 1958.

Eisenhower preferred using propaganda to fight the Soviets, as seen in the “People-to-People” campaign, cultural exchanges, and participation in trade fairs.