Unit 10 part I the cold war

After World War II, tensions quickly developed between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Western powers feared Soviet expansion and the spread of communism. Growing conflicts between the Western powers and the Soviet Union soon led to a cold war. This is a war in which there is no fighting, but where each side uses means short of military action to expand its influences. As a result of the cold war an “iron curtain” was put up between the Eastern Europe and the West.

In June 1947, Secretary of State George Marshall set forth a plan to help restore Europe's economy and stop the spread of communism. It was known as the Marshall Plan, or European Recovery Program. It offered aid to all European countries, including the Soviet Union. Under the plan, $17 billion would be spent over four years. The plan went into effect in 1948. The Soviet Union refused to take part in the Marshall Plan declaring this scheme as “a plan for interference in the home affairs of other countries”. They formed their own plan to help the Eastern European countries.

The chief struggle between the Western powers and the Soviet Union came over Germany. Matters came to a head on June 7, 1948. The Western powers stated that they were going to set up a new government in West Germany, but the Soviet Union said that this went against the 1945 agreement made at Potsdam. On June 24, they began a tight blockade of all land and water routes into Berlin. To avoid this blockade, the Western powers organized an airlift—a system of bringing in supplies by airplane. In May 1949, the Soviet Union lifted the blockade. In the same year, two separate governments were set up in Germany. West Germany became the German Federal Republic with its capital in Bonn. East Germany became the German Democratic Republic.

The Berlin blockade alarmed Western leaders. In April 1949, the United States and 11 other countries signed a treaty setting up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). NATO's first members, besides the United States, were Canada, Great Britain, France, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy, and Portugal. Greece, Turkey, and West Germany joined later.

East-West relations grew even worse over events in Korea. Before World War II Korea had been ruled by Japan. When Japan surrendered in 1945, the north of Korea was occupied by Soviet forces and the south by Americans. The boundary between the two areas was the 38^th parallel of latitude. In 1948 the occupation ended, the Soviet army left behind a communist government in the north and the Americans set up a government friendly to themselves in the south. Both these governments claimed the right to rule all of the country. On June 25, 1950, the North Korean army attacked South Korea. President Truman ordered American naval and air forces to support South Korea. He also persuaded the UN to support his action. The Soviet Union which could have vetoed any action was boycotting the UN to protest a decision not to admit the People’s Republic of China. About 15 countries, along with the United States and the Republic of Korea, sent soldiers. However, Americans made up about 48 percent and South Koreans about 43 percent of the fighting force. It was led by General Douglas MacArthur. For a time, it seemed that the North Koreans would overrun the South. By September they had conquered most of South Korea and took its capital Seoul. The UN forces were confined to a small area around Pusan on the southeastern coast. But then General MacArthur launched an amphibious landing at Inchon in central Korea. Seoul was quickly recaptured, and UN forces drove the North Koreans back across the 38th parallel.

Victory seemed at hand when 250,000 Chinese troops entered the fighting on the side of North Korea. Korea has a long border with China, where only a year earlier communists led by Mao Zedong had won a long struggle to rule China. They quickly drove the advancing UN forces back south of the 38th parallel. A new and fiercer war began in Korea. It was between the US and China although neither country officially admitted it. The Korean War dragged for another two and a half years and ended in July 1953 with neither side having a prospect of victory. The final settlement left Korea still divided.

Cold War struggles also occurred in the Middle East. Much of the Middle East was controlled by Great Britain and France until after World War II. Weakened by the war, both countries gave up most of their power there. The United States and the Soviet Union took great interest in the area. Both needed the area's oil. The Soviet Union also hoped to gain a naval base on the Mediterranean Sea.

The struggle against communism lasted through the Eisenhower years. When Dwight D. Eisenhower won the election of 1952, it marked the return of the Republican Party to the White House after twenty years. The United States was prosperous. Eisenhower was a popular figure, and the American mood was positive. At the same time, there was much tension about the Cold War. Americans feared communism not only abroad but also at home. They saw the communist victory in China and the testing of the Soviet Union’s first atomic bomb. President Eisenhower believed that it was necessary to stop the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. Following the Geneva talks, the United States supported the idea of an alliance like NATO for Southeast Asia. In September 1954, the United States, Great Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines formed the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). These countries promised to aid each other in case of attack.

The United States was also interested in Latin America in the 1950's. When a government favoring communism came to power in Guatemala, the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) took action and backed an anti-Communist group which gained control of Guatemala in 1954.

In the late 1950's fighting also broke out in Cuba over control of the government. In January 1959 Fidel Castro seized power to set up a Communist government and began building close ties with the Soviet Union. In February 1960 Castro signed a trade agreement with the Soviet Union that allowed them to get Cuban sugar at a low price. The United States then said that it would no longer import Cuban sugar. Many Cuban businesses owned by American companies were taken over by the Cuban government. Relations grew worse, and the United States became more alarmed at the Communist-controlled government in the Western Hemisphere. As one of his last acts before leaving office, Eisenhower ended diplomatic relations with Cuba.

By the late 1950s tensions eased between the United States and the Soviet Union. This change came about after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953. Soviet leaders who took over after him were more willing to work with Western leaders. In 1959, the new Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev, visited the United States. He believed that the two nations had to try to live peacefully and suggested “peaceful co-existence.” Shortly after this visit, plans were made for a second summit conference in Paris in May 1960.

On May 1, 1960, a special American spy plane, called a U-2, was shot down by a Soviet missile. It had flown 1,200 miles (1,880 kilometers) inside the Soviet Union. The plane had been photographing Soviet military bases. At the Paris meeting on May 16, 1960, Khrushchev spoke out against the spying. He demanded that the United States stop such flights. He angrily accused Eisenhower of planning for war while talking peace. Khrushchev also called for an apology from Eisenhower and a postponement of the meeting, which then broke up. The end of the summit meeting showed that tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union were not over.

DISCUSSION

1. What is a cold war?

2. What did the “iron curtain” separate?

3. What was the objective of the Marshall Plan?

4. What was the result of struggle over Germany?

5. When was NATO established?

6. What countries became its members?

7. Why did the war in Korea break out?

8. How did China influence the result of the war?

9. Which side won the war between South and North Korea in 1953?

10. Why were both the United States and the Soviet Union interested in the Middle East?

11. Was Eisenhower popular as president? Which political party did he represent?

12. What is SEATO?

13. Why did Americans end diplomatic relations with Cuba?

14. How did American-Soviet relations change after the death of Joseph Stalin?

15. When did Nikita Khrushchev visit the USA?