4) The Cold War and containment in Europe and Asia

• Cold War


  Conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States and their respective allies, characterized by mutual distrust and hostility but avoiding direct military confrontation
• Containment


  A foreign policy strategy to stop the expansion of communism
• Several significant landmarks signalled the development of the Soviet-American Cold War

  1986
• Stalin made a speech on the inevitable Communist-capitalist conflict (February)
• There were fierce Soviet-American disagreements over Germany (the Soviets made their zone Communist while democracy was developed in the three Western areas)
• The Truman administration gave a sympathetic hearing to US diplomat George Kennan's Long Telegram which urged US containment of Soviet expansionism
• Truman Doctrine


  A policy announced by U.S. President Harry S. Truman in 1947 to provide economic and military aid to countries threatened by Soviet communism
• Marshall Plan


  A U.S. program providing economic assistance to Western Europe to aid its recovery after World War II
• In a March 1947 speech to Congress, Truman requested $400 million to assist Greece and Turkey because they were threatened by Communism. Truman said America should give economic and financial aid to those feeling threatened. Congress agreed.
• Truman Doctrine


  • Was a virtual American declaration of Cold War
  • Aroused minimal criticism, although some considered it too simplistic because it failed to ask whether a threatened state was worth supporting and whether America had the capacity to support it
  • Demonstrated that gaining public support often required excessive simplicity in US foreign policy
  • Affected and dominated US foreign policy for nearly 50 years
• Truman and Secretary of State George Marshall considered war-devastated Western Europe vulnerable to Communist insurgency or Soviet attack. Under the Marshall Plan (June 1947) $13 billion aid was given to America's important trading partners and potential allies in Western Europe.
• Berlin Blockade


  In June 1948, Stalin blocked Western access to Berlin. Truman airlifted vast quantities of supplies into West Berlin and in May 1949 Stalin conceded defeat and ended the blockade.
• Berlin Blockade


  • Was a triumph for Truman and hastened the establishment of an American-led Western defensive military alliance (NATO) in April 1949 and of a West German state in May 1949
• Truman's policies had contained the Soviets in Europe, but that continent was divided and tense
• In autumn 1949, China became a Communist nation under Mao Zedong. Republican claimed Truman and the Democrats had "lost" China because they had given insufficient aid to Mao's opponent, the Chinese Nationalist Chiang Kai-shek. This encouraged Truman to extend his containment policy to Asia.
• In 1950, Truman offered the French financial aid in their fight against Communist insurgents in Vietnam.
• The US atomic bomb was tested during Potsdam. This showed the Truman administration that the United States did not need Soviet aid to defeat Japan as Roosevelt had once thought. Stalin recognised that the bomb had dramatically changed the world balance of power in America's favour. He grew more hostile, and so did Truman.
• As yet, there were no post-war peace treaties as there had been after the First World War. The Council of Foreign Ministers (American, Soviet, British and French) met in September 1945 (London), December 1945 (Moscow), June 1946 (Paris), and March 1947 (Moscow). They could not agree on a peace treaty for defeated Germany because of the developing Cold War between the USA and the USSR.