Key Events in the Early Cold War

Introduction
At the end of World War II tensions ran high for the world’s new super powers, the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR). Over time the fears and actions of each side would lead to various global conflicts as each side sought to gain a geo-political advantage. These conflicts have come to be known as the Cold War.

Events that Shaped Foreign Policy

Buffer States and Containment
Following the war it was Josef Stalin, the Premier of the Soviet Union’s plan to surround the USSR with buffer countries, such as Poland and Romania. In the event of another invasion these buffer countries would help to protect the Soviet Union. This move to take on buffer states and install communist governments was directly opposed to the democratic ideology that the United States wanted to spread. In 1946, Winston Churchill, called the political and military barrier that separated and isolated the countries of Eastern and Western Europe the “Iron Curtain.”

In response to Stalin’s actions, the United States adopted a policy of containment. In February of 1946 the American diplomat George F. Kennan proposed this policy to prevent the spread of communism to other countries. The policy of containment sought to keep communism in check while encouraging U.S. leaders to take appropriate actions to do so in a firm yet patient manner.

Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan
This policy was first applied on March 12, 1947, when the United States sent $400 million in military supplies and aid to Greece and Turkey to reduce the risk of communist takeover and support governments loyal to the West. In his statement explaining his views, President Truman promised to protect free peoples in their attempts to resist communism. His idea became known as the Truman Doctrine.

The Truman Doctrine was then extended to support the rebuilding of Western Europe. In the years following the war European countries struggled to rebuild their economies and

infrastructure. In June 1947, U.S. State Department officials devised a plan which became known as the Marshall Plan, named after Secretary of State George Marshall. This plan was offered to all European countries however, Eastern European countries and the Soviet Union rejected the offer citing “dollar enslavement.” The plan ended up providing Western Europe with economic aid which helped them to rebuild and prosper. From 1947 – 1951 the U.S. gave over 12 billion dollars in economic and technical assistance as part of the Marshall Plan. As a result, the communist appeal began to decline in Western Europe.

The Berlin Blockade and the Creation of NATO
The division of Germany was another source of conflict between the Western Allies and the Soviets. As the Americans, British, and French merged their occupied zones and formed West Germany, Stalin feared the worst. In an effort to expel Western forces from Berlin in June 1948, Stalin ordered a blockade. This blockade became known as the Berlin Blockade. Access to food, supplies, and gasoline was cut off to 2.5 million people by blocking roads and railways into West Berlin. The West responded with 200,000 airlifts carrying over 2 million tons of food and supplies into West Berlin to thwart the Soviet move and helped to reconcile Germany with the West. The blockade finally ended peacefully in May 1949.

The Berlin blockade led to a formal military alliance between the United States, Canada and Western European countries known as The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Ratified in July 1949, NATO became the first military alliance the United States had ever formed during peace time.

The Korean War
The Korean War had its beginnings in the events at the conclusion of World War II. At the close of the War, Japanese-occupied Korea was divided nerly in half at the 38th Parallel. Soviet troops accepted the surrender of Japanese troops north of this line while the American troops did likewise to the south. A communist government organized in the North while an American-backed government was set up in the South. On June 25, 1950 North Korea invaded the South in hopes of reunifying the country however, the West saw this as communist aggression and went to war in support of the South Koreans and Western interests. Over 36,000 Americans were killed during the course of the war with another 92,000 wounded. North and South Korea had many more casualties.

Domestic Fear of Communism

Loyalty Program and HUAC
The threat of Communism not only shaped American foreign policy, it also influenced daily life in America. Fear of communists among American citizens instigated investigations into people’s political beliefs and questions about their loyalty. In March 1947, Truman organized the Federal Employee Loyalty Program, which was charged with the task of investigating government employees and firing those found disloyal to their country.

Government employees were not the only ones vulnerable to investigation. Hollywood was also scrutinized as it was feared that the film industry was using pro-communism propaganda in their films. In September 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) began their public hearings with the familiar “Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?” Among those called before HUAC were the “Hollywood Ten”, ten directors and screenwriters who refused to “name names” and “pled the Fifth” when asked if they were members of the Communist Party. As a result, they were among the “blacklisted” actors, screenwriters, directors, and anyone else who worked in the movie industry, who was found to be a communist sympathizer and was thus prevented from working.

McCarthyism
In February 1950, Joseph McCarthy, a senator from Wisconsin, began his effort to root out communism from American institutions. Having started with a purported list of 205 Communists and sympathizers, McCarthy ignited a fervor to find anyone that conducted suspicious activities. Hearings were held as part of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 1953 and 1954 which McCarthy chaired. As a result of McCarthy’s tactics the cartoonist Herblock coined the term McCarthyism to negatively characterize the approach McCarthy and others took to accusing and ruining people and groups who they considered to be communist. McCarthy’s downfall eventually came in the spring of 1954, when his harsh methods and attacks on members of the Army were broadcast live on television leaving him in a negative light for many Americans.

Along with the general anti-communist tide, the US Government went to greater lengths to root out spies. Two highly publicized trials were those against Alger Hiss, who was accused of sharing government documents with the Soviets, and Julius and Ethel

Rosenberg, who were tried for providing the Soviet Union with information about the US atomic bomb program. Hiss was found guilty of perjury in 1950 and spent 44 months in jail. The Rosenbergs were found guilty of treason and were executed in1953.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the years immediately following World War II were filled with conflict and tension between the two world super powers as well as within American society. On one side was the US and Allied countries that championed democracy while the Communist USSR, along with other Eastern Bloc countries were in opposition. This rivalry pitted one group of countries against another in an arms race to amass the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons of mass destruction. However, because they built up such stockpiles that assured mutual destruction, the two super powers never engaged in direct conflict with one another. The Cold War would continue until the fall of the USSR in 1991.