The term Cold War refers to a state of war that did not involve actual

bloodshed, but an icy rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
After World War II, the U.S. and the
Soviet Union became increasingly
hostile, leading to an era of
confrontation and competition that
lasted from about 1946 to 1991
known as the Cold War.
Soviets were concerned with security and wanted to avoid future attacks from Germany.
• They wanted all countries between Germany and the Soviet Union to be under Soviet
control.
• Soviets believed communism was superior to capitalism.
• They were suspicious of capitalist countries because they felt capitalism would go to war
and eventually destroy communism.
Americans were concerned with
economic problems.
• Roosevelt and his advisers believed
that economic growth would keep the
world peaceful.
• American leaders promoted a
democracy with protections for
individual rights and free
enterprise to create prosperity.
A meeting of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin at Yalta—a Soviet resort on the Black Sea—was
held to plan the postwar world. Although the conference went well, some agreements made
would later become key in causing the Cold War.

The “Big 3” of Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and

Joseph Stalin met at the resort city of Yalta on the Crimean
Peninsula to determine a plan for the rest of World War II.
1. They decided that a defeated Germany would be divided
into 4 zones.
2. The Soviet Union agreed to enter the war against Japan.
At Yalta, Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to recognize the Polish Communist government set up
by the Soviets.
• Stalin agreed that the government would include members from the old Polish government
before the war.
• Stalin agreed that free elections would take place in Poland.
The Declaration of Liberated Europe,
was also announced, which gave
people the right to choose their
form of government.
Germany AND Berlin were divided into four zones, with Great Britain, the U.S., the Soviet
Union, and France each controlling a zone.
• It was also agreed that Germany would pay reparations for damage caused by the war.
• For the next several years, arguments about these reparations and economic policy in
Germany would become one of the major causes of the Cold War.
Tensions rose when the Soviets did not follow agreements made at Yalta,
which caused Soviet-American relations to deteriorate.
Franklin Roosevelt died and Vice President Harry Truman became the next
President.
Harry Truman made it clear he would stand firm against Stalin to keep
promises he made during Yalta.
In July 1945, Truman and Stalin
met at Potsdam near Berlin to
work out a deal regarding
Germany.
• Truman took a stand against
heavy reparations on Germany,
feeling that the reparations
would not allow German
industry to recover.
• Agreements were made
allowing the Soviets to take
reparations from their zone in
Germany and a small amount of
German industrial equipment
from other zones.
Stalin was not pleased with Truman’s proposal.
• Truman then told Stalin of the successfully tested atomic bomb, leading Stalin to think it
was a threaten him to get him to agree to the deal.
• Stalin agreed, but the Potsdam Conference marked the rising of tensions between the
U.S. and the Soviet Union.
So when did things go so wrong between the U.S. and USSR?
Other issues at Potsdam did not end successfully.
• The Declaration of Liberated Europe was not upheld, and the Soviet army’s presence led to
pro-Soviet Communist governments being established in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria,
Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.
These Communist countries of Eastern Europe
became known as satellite nations.
• Although they had their own governments
and were not under direct Soviet control,
they had to remain Communist and follow
Soviet-approved policies.
 Some of the former satellite nations
show their displeasure with the former
Soviet Union by vandalizing statues.

Bulgarians transformed former

Communist statues into superheroes.

A statue of Vladimir Lenin in

the Ukraine was transformed
into Darth Vader.
 The Iron
Curtain

Communism &
Capitalism & Totalitarianism
Democracy

Winston Churchill described the separation of the Communist nations of

Eastern Europe from the West as an iron curtain.
As Americans became
increasingly impatient
with the Soviets, the
State Department asked
the American Embassy in
Moscow to explain Soviet
behavior.
• On February 22, 1946,
diplomat George
Kennan responded with
the Long Telegram, a
5,540-word cable
message explaining his
views of Soviet goals.
In the telegram, Kennan discussed Russian insecurity and fear of the West and argued that
it was impossible to reach an agreement.
• He proposed a long-term containment of Russian expansion.
• This led to Truman’s policy of containment—keeping communism within its present
territory through diplomatic, economic, and military actions.
After World War II, Soviet troops remained in northern Iran, demanding access to Iran’s oil
supplies.
• Soviet troops helped Communists in northern Iran set up a separate government.
• The U.S. sent a U.S. battleship into the eastern Mediterranean and demanded their
withdrawal.
• The Soviets withdrew from Iran.
On March 12, 1947, Truman went
before Congress to request $400 million
to fight Soviet aggression in Greece and
Turkey.
• The policy became known as the
Truman Doctrine.
• Its purpose was to stabilize the
Greek government and ease
Soviet demands in Turkey.
• It became the United States'
pledge to stop communism in
the world.
Postwar Western Europe faced economic
ruin and starving people.
• In June 1947, Secretary of State George C.
Marshall proposed the European
Recovery Program called the Marshall
Plan.
• The plan would give American aid to
rebuild European nations.
• The plan was an effort to fight hunger,
poverty, and chaos.
• The Soviet Union and its satellite nations
in Eastern Europe rejected the offer and
developed their own economic program.
• The Marshall Plan gave billions of
dollars worth of supplies, machinery,
and food to Western Europe,
weakening the appeal of communism
and opening new trade markets.
By early 1948, in response to
the Soviet attempt to harm
Germany’s economy, the
U.S., Great Britain, and
France merged their zones in
Germany and in Berlin,
which became West Berlin,
allowing Germans to have
their own government.
• The new nation became
West Germany with a
separate economy from
the Soviet zone, which
eventually became
known as East Germany.
Meanwhile, back in Berlin…
The Berlin Airlift
In June 1948, Soviet troops stopped all road and rail
traffic to West Berlin, hoping to force Americans to
renegotiate Germany’s status or give up Berlin.
• In response, Truman sent long-range bombers with
atomic weapons to bases in Britain.
• Truman then ordered the Berlin airlift.
• For eleven months, cargo planes supplied Berliners
with food, medicine, and coal.
• Stalin finally lifted the blockade on May 12.

More than 2 million tons of

food, fuel and other supplies
were airlifted into Berlin.
With the threat of war still present, the American public supported a military alliance with
Western Europe.
• By April 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a mutual defense alliance,
was created with initially twelve countries joining.
• The members agreed to come to the aid of any member who was attacked.
Article 5 provides that if a
NATO Ally is the victim of an
armed attack, each and
every other member of the
Alliance take the actions it
deems necessary to assist
the Ally attacked.
• NATO invoked Article 5 of
its charter for the first
time after the September
11 attacks—launching an
invasion of Afghanistan.
Six years later, NATO allowed West Germany to rearm and join its organization.
• Soviet leaders responded with the organization of a military alliance in Eastern Europe
known as the Warsaw Pact.

Able Archer 83, which

was a NATO exercise
that simulated
DEFCON 1 (or
imminent nuclear war)
readiness, scared the
bejeebies out of the
Soviets, possibly
causing them to begin
arming their nuclear
weapons in 1983.
• DEFCON stands for
“defense readiness
condition”
Milk… new
weapon of
Democracy!
 15 Minutes
1. Skim Read
2. Categories (PEDS) (3/2/2 Approach)
3. SFI (Connect as many key terms as you can to as many documents as
possible!)
4. Which three (3) can you easily HIPPO?
5. Thesis time! Although X, Y because of A and B.
Since coming to power in the late 1920s,
Chiang-Kai Shek had used his command of
the Nationalist, or Kuomintang, party to
control China’s central government.
• Chiang Kai-Shek expelled the
Communist Party from the Nationalist
government, and Communists, headed
by Mao Zedong, took upon the Long
The U.S. supported Chiang during WWII
March—a 6,000-mile journey of the
with military support to keep it from being
Chinese Communists escaping
conquered by Japan.
Nationalists in 1934-35.
• At the end of the war, a civil war
• Chiang Kai-Shek’s Blue Shirts executed
resumed between Chiang’s Nationalists
over 18,000 dissidents what became
and the Chinese Communists led by
known as the 2-28 Massacre during his
Mao Zedong.
White Terror campaign.
• Many poor and landless Chinese began
• The U.S. supported Chiang-Kai Shek’s
to support Mao due to runaway
Nationalists because of their
inflation and corruption.
opposition to communism.
George Marshall was sent in 1946
to negotiate an end to the civil war,
but he was unsuccessful.
• Truman was puzzled as to how
to handle the situation and
ruled out an American invasion
to help Chiang.
• Congress voted in 1948 to send
over $400 million in aid to the
Nationalists and Chiang, but
80% fell into communist hands.
 Mao’s China
The U.S. continued to
1956: The Hundred Flowers Campaign—briefly
support Chiang and
allowed freedom of speech; it didn’t last long.
refused to recognize Mao
1957: The Great Leap Forward was supposed to
Zedong’s regime until 30
rapidly industrialize China.
years later in 1979.
• 600,000 backyard furnaces were ordered to be
manned by the civilian population.
• An estimated 45 million people died.
1966: Mao published The Little Red Book (his
beliefs) and launched the Cultural Revolution.
• Mao’s Red Guards purged capitalists and all Mao Zedong said, "All reactionaries
skeptics in an attempt to “purify” the are paper tigers… terrifying, but in
Communist party. reality are not so powerful."

At the end of 1949, all of China was in communist hands. The only refuge for Chiang’s forces
was the former island of Formosa (Taiwan).
• Chiang set up his own government there and claimed to be the only legitimate government
for all of China.
• Republicans blamed Democrats for the “loss of China” to the communists.
 From 1972 onward, however, Taiwan’s
preferred status (especially in relation to
the United States) was threatened by
improving U.S.-China relations.
• In 1979, four years after Chiang died, the
United States broke off diplomatic
relations with Taiwan and established
full relations with the People’s Republic
of China.

China and Taiwan never

signed a peace treaty.

The U.S. was able to keep Communist China out of the United Nations
while allowing Nationalists from Taiwan to retain their seats.
In early 1950, the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union signed
the Sino-Soviet Pact, which was a treaty of friendship and alliance.
Asian Tiger Economies
When the U.S. lost China as its main ally in Asia, it adopted policies to encourage the quick
recovery of Japan’s industrial economy. The U.S. saw Japan as its key in defending Asia.

South Korea, Singapore,

Hong Kong, and the
Philippines all became
known as Asian Tiger
economies—inspired by
Japan’s success!

China and Taiwan never

signed a peace treaty.
 Japan’s Movie Industry
In 1954, inspired by the re-released
“King Kong” and other Hollywood hits
of the early 1950s, film producer
Tomoyuki Tanaka of Toho Studios
decided the time was right for Japan’s
first monster movie.
• The result was a 1954 film about a
mutant creature, spawned from
nuclear weapons testing, that
emerges from the watery depths of
the Pacific and attacks Tokyo, Japan.
• The sea-monster’s name? “Gojira,” a
In a quirky short film of 1969, innocent Disney combination of “gorilla” and
character Bambi faces off against Godzilla with “kujira,” the Japanese word for
predictable results. whale.
• In 2015, Godzilla was made an honorary citizen • Or, as it was later translated into
of Japan after over 60 years of residence there. English, “Godzilla.”
Meanwhile, over in Korea…
In 1950, North Korea
crossed the 38° &
attacked South Korea

The United Nations, led

by the USA, intervened
to help South Korea
But, when the USA
pushed too close to
ByChina,
After
1953,WWII,
a ceasefire
the Koreastopped
Chinese was divided
the fighting
along
&the
theentered
Army 38°
38°with
wasthe
Communists
restored
war as thein the
boundary
North
between
& helped &North
democracy
North
Korea&inSouth
the South
Koreas
 Truman asked the UN to act against the Communist invasion of South Korea.
U.S., UN, and South Korean troops pushed back advancing North Korean troops.

The United Nations, a peacekeeping

organization, was founded in 1949 and based
out of New York City. The forces of the U.N.
were Korean and American, supplemented by
troops from 15 other countries.
 Gen. Douglas MacArthur landed UN soldiers behind
enemy lines at Inchon. The objective was to push North
Korean troops back across the 38th Parallel.
 “Once war is forced upon us, there is no other
alternative than to apply every available
means to bring it to a swift end. War’s very
object is victory—not prolonged indecision. In
war, indeed, there can be no substitute for
victory.”
- General Douglas MacArthur

The Communist Chinese government saw the UN troops as a threat and demanded that they
stop advancing.
• After being ignored, China began a massive attack with hundreds of thousands of Chinese
troops heading across the border, driving UN forces back.
 “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”
And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now
close my military career and just fade away—
an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God
gave him the light to see that duty. Goodbye.
- Gen. Douglas MacArthur

Mao Zedong ordered his troops into Korea in October

1950 to protect his 1-year-old Communist regime.

General MacArthur demanded approval to expand the war against China.

Truman refused MacArthur’s demands. MacArthur was fired after publicly
criticizing the president. Truman was committed to limited war, a war fought
to achieve a limited objective such as containing communism.
“I believe that we must try to limit the war in Korea for these vital
reasons: to make sure that the precious lives of our fighting men are
not wasted; to see that the security of our country and the free
world is not jeopardized; and to prevent a third world war. A number
of events have made it evident that General MacArthur did not agree
with that policy. I have therefore considered it essential to relieve
General MacArthur so that there would be no doubt or confusion as
to the real purpose and aim of our policy. It was with the deepest
personal regret that I found myself compelled to take this action.
General MacArthur is one of our greatest military commanders. But
the cause of world peace is more important than any individual.”
- Harry S. Truman, April 13, 1951
By 1951 UN forces had pushed Chinese and North Koreans back across the
38th parallel. An armistice was signed July 1953.

The Korean War is still technically

being fought… it was never ended!
The Korean War ended with the signing of an armistice in 1953.
• This came after Eisenhower had gone to the brink and threatened to use nuclear
weapons.
• The battle line became the border between North Korea and South Korea.
• Although there was no victory, it had stopped communism from spreading.
Kim il-Sung (1948-1994)
This first leader of Communist North Korea was an
officer in the Soviet Red Army during World War II.

Kim Jong-Il (1994-2011)

Unelected; human rights violations, nuclear
program started.
• Claimed to have been on sacred Paektu
Mountain under a double rainbow
• Claimed to have shot 11 holes-in-one the first
time he played golf.

Kim Jong-Un (2011-Present)

Many threats and nuclear tests.
• He had his brother Kim Jong-nam assassinated
by having women rub a toxic chemical all over
his face. Kim Jong-Un was reportedly dubbed
"Morning Star King" by his mom.
 This treatment turned worse when the
North Koreans realized that crewmen
were secretly giving them "the finger" in
staged propaganda photos.

The Pueblo is the only ship of the

U.S. Navy still on the commissioned
roster currently being held captive.

In 1968, North Korea captured the U.S.S. Pueblo, which was a U.S. Navy intelligence ship.
• 83 U.S. sailors were captured.
• The taking of the Pueblo and the torture of its crew became a major Cold War incident,
raising tensions between the western powers, and the Soviet Union and China.
• The Pueblo is still held by North Korea today.
• Since early 2013, the ship has been held in Pyongyang, and used there as a museum
ship.
In 1976, U.S. servicemen Arthur Bonifas and Mark Barett were beaten to death with an axe by
North Korean soldiers in the DMZ after trying to trim a poplar tree blocking their view.
• The U.S. retaliated with Operation Paul Bunyan, in which helicopters, bombers, and an
offshore aircraft carrier blasted the tree into the stone age.
 In 2016, American student Otto Warmbier was imprisoned for stealing a propaganda sign. He
was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. Shortly after his sentencing, he fell into a coma after a
brain injury—he never recovered and died in 2017.
 Donald Trump and
Kim Jong Un in 2019
The Ryugyong Hotel, also
known as North Korea’s
“Hotel of Doom.”
North Koreans were sad about the death of Kim Il-Sung, who had ruled North
Korea for 46 years.
Inside a North Korean home.
North Koreans are also indoctrinated to hate Americans at an early age.
North Koreans also were sad about the death of Kim Jong-Il in 2011.
The Korean War was an important turning point in the Cold War.
• Instead of just using political pressure and economic aid to contain communism, the
U.S. began a major military buildup.
• The Korean War expanded the Cold War beyond Europe and into Asia.
During the 1950s, rumors and accusations of Communists in the U.S. led to fears that
Communists were attempting to take over the world.
• A new Red Scare began in September 1945, and escalated into a general fear of a
Communist plot—an effort to secretly weaken society and overthrow its government.

Lee Harvey Oswald showing the

clinched fist—a communist gesture.
"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and
the Republic for which it stands,
one nation, indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all."

In 1954, in response to the Communist threat of

the times, President Eisenhower encouraged
Congress to add the words "under God,"
creating the 31-word pledge we say today.
 In early 1947, Truman established the loyalty review program to screen all
federal employees for their loyalty. The program’s aim was to calm Americans.
Instead, it led to the fear that Communists were infiltrating the government.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover went to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to
urge them to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities and those organizations
suspected of having Communist ties.
• Under J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI sent agents to investigate suspected groups and to wiretap
thousands of telephones.

After a name change to the House

Internal Security Committee, HUAC
was abolished in 1975.
 Both Ronald Reagan and Walt Disney testified
before HUAC on the first day of its
“investigation” into communist infiltration of
the film industry. Both were friendly witnesses.

Arthur Miller, author of “The

Crucible," refused to name names
before HUAC and was convicted of
contempt. He appealed and won!
The Taft-Hartley Act was an
anti-union piece of legislation
passed in 1947 over President
Truman's veto.
• It weakened many New Deal
gains for labor by banning
the closed shop and other
strategies that helped unions
organize.
• It also required union
leaders to take a
noncommunist oath, which
took out many of the union
movements most committed
and active organizers.
Congress passed the Internal Security Act or McCarran Act in 1950.
• The act made it illegal to “combine, conspire, or agree with any other person to perform
any act which would substantially contribute to . . . the establishment of a totalitarian
government.”
 In October 1947, 10 members of the Hollywood film
industry publicly denounced the tactics used by
HUAC to investigate communists.

These screenwriters and directors, who became known as the Hollywood

Ten, received jail sentences and were banned from working for the major
Hollywood studios.
 In 1952, film director Elia Kazan gave names before the House Un-American
Activities Committee investigating Communist influences in Hollywood. Many
refused to applaud him when he won an Academy Award in 1999.
In 1948, Time magazine editor Whittaker
Chambers (an ex-communist) testified
before HUAC that several government
officials were also former Communists or
spies.
• The most prominent among these was
lawyer and diplomat Alger Hiss.
• Hiss denied that he had passed on secrets
to Whittaker Chambers, but Chambers
produced the Pumpkin Papers, which
incriminated Hiss.
• The Pumpkin Papers were of 5 strips of
microfilm, several handwritten notes, and Alger Hiss was sentenced to five years
copies of State Department documents. after his 1950 perjury trial, thanks to a
• They are named for the temporary California Representative who had his own
location they were placed in. legal issues in 1974—Richard Nixon.
• Hiss was ultimately convicted of
committing perjury, or lying under oath.
Aug 29, 1949: At a remote test site in Kazakhstan, the USSR successfully
detonated its first atomic bomb, code name "First Lightning."

But how did they get an atomic bomb?

In 1952, the U.S. tested the hydrogen bomb, which was approximately 1,000 times more
powerful than conventional nuclear devices.
• The Soviet Union soon tested its own hydrogen bomb the next year.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, both members of
the Communist Party, were charged with
heading a Soviet spy ring.
• The Rosenbergs were implicated by Ethel’s
brother David Greenglass.
• Greenglass had worked on the
Manhattan Project.
• Greenglass testified that he sent nuclear
secrets to the Soviets through his sister and
brother-in-law.
• Greenglass later served 10 years in
prison.
• Judge Irving Kaufman proclaimed Julius and
Ethel’s crime as being “worse than murder”
after their conviction.
• Although many believed the Rosenbergs
were not guilty, the couple was sent to the
electric chair and executed in June 1953.
Julius Rosenberg was listening to the "Lone
Ranger" radio show when nabbed by the
FBI in 1950; they picked up his wife later.
• In 1951, the Rosenbergs were tried
under the Espionage Act of 1917 and
found guilty
• In 1953, in a final letter to their
sons, the Rosenbergs wrote,
"Always remember that we were
innocent.”
• After their convictions, the
Rosenbergs became the first (and
only) civilians put to death for
espionage in the U.S.
• The Vassiliev Notebooks of information Ethel Rosenberg, mother to two children, became
from Soviet archives show that yes, the first woman executed in the U.S. since Mary
Julius Rosenberg was a spy. Surratt—who helped board John Wilkes Booth
after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
In 1949, with the Soviet Union testing an atomic bomb and China falling to communism,
Americans felt they were losing the Cold War.
• Americans continued to believe that Communists were inside the government.
• Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, in a political speech, stated that he had a list of
57 Communists in the state department.

McCarthy defeated Progressive Senator

Robert LaFollette in 1947.
 McCarthy won the Senate race after accusing
his opponent of being a Communist.
• He accused Democratic Party leaders of
corruption and of protecting Communists.
Others made similar charges, causing
Americans to begin to believe them.

“Today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle

between communistic atheism and Christianity. The
modern champions of communism have selected
this as the time, and ladies and gentlemen, the
chips are down — they are truly down.”
- Joseph McCarthy
Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy became the chairman of the Senate subcommittee on
investigations.
• He searched for disloyalty based on poor evidence, and his investigations turned into a
witch hunt as and fear.
• He ruined reputations without proper evidence. This tactic became known as
McCarthyism.

In all of the hysteria, however, few noticed In 1950, Sen. Margaret Chase Smith
that McCarthy never uncovered a single condemned McCarthy for turning
communist, in or out of the U.S. government. the Senate into a "forum for hate."
In 1954, Americans watched televised Army-McCarthy hearings and saw how McCarthy
attacked witnesses, and his popularity faded.
• Finally, an army lawyer named Joseph Welch stood up to McCarthy.
• Later that year, the Senate passed a vote of censure, or formal disapproval, against
McCarthy.

Attorney Joseph Welch asked McCarthy, "Have

you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? "On
Dec. 2, 1954, at long last, decency prevailed in a In 1957, McCarthy died due to
67-22 Senate vote condemning McCarthy. alcoholism at age 48.
The cartoon shows Senator Joseph McCarthy, portrayed as a witch, and carrying
a broom marked "McCarthy's witch hunt" casting a spell on Eisenhower,
portrayed as a guard dog, turning him into a lamb.
Everybody's worried 'bout the atomic bomb
But nobody's worried about the day my Lord will come
When he’ll hit (great God almighty!) like an atom bomb
When he comes, when he comes

In nineteen hundred and forty-five

The atom bomb became alive
In nineteen hundred and forty-nine
The USA got very wide
We found out a country across the line
Had an atom bomb of the very same kind
People got worried all over the land
Just like folks got in Japan

Well God told Elijah he would send down fire

Send down fire from on high
Lowell Blanchard - "Jesus Hits Like an Atom
He told brother Noah about the rainbow sign Bomb" (1950)
There'll be no water but the fire in the sky
Now don't get worried just bear in mind
Seek in Jesus in you shall find
Peace, happiness and joy divine
With my Jesus in your mind
From: https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/
Let’s nuke Hewitt-Trussville High School!
“Little Boy” – the first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
 “Little Boy” blast radius – zoomed in.

Estimated fatalities:870
Estimated injuries:4,370
HTHS before a hydrogen bomb is dropped on it.
 HTHS after a hydrogen bomb is dropped on it!

Estimated fatalities: 54,050

Estimated injuries: 98,380
 HTHS after a Russian Tsar Bomba is dropped on it!

Estimated fatalities:870
Estimated injuries:4,370
 In 2018, Vladimir Putin of Russia used
videos of nuclear missiles raining on
Florida to help his fourth re-election bid.
Communism and the threat of the atomic bomb dominated life for
Americans and their leaders in the 1950s.
The threat of an atomic attack
against the U.S. forced Americans
to prepare for a surprise attack.
• Although Americans tried to
protect themselves, experts
realized that for every person
killed instantly by a nuclear
blast, four more would later die
from fallout, the radiation left
over after the blast.
• Some families built fallout
shelters in their backyards and
stocked them with canned food.
 The 1950s was a time of great contrasts. Images of the Cold War appeared in
films and popular fiction. Along with these fears of communism and spies, the
country enjoyed postwar prosperity and optimism.
The election of 1952 placed Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson against
Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower, the general who organized
the D-Day invasion, was a national hero. Eisenhower won by a landslide.
Eisenhower felt the way to win the Cold War was through a strong military and a strong
economy.
• Eisenhower felt the U.S. needed a “New Look” in its defense policy.
• Eisenhower believed a conventional war would be too expensive and would hurt the
economy.
• He believed the use of atomic weapons was necessary.
Secretary of State John
Foster Dulles helped shape
Eisenhower’s “new look”
diplomacy.
• Dulles saw Truman’s
containment policy as too
weak and declared that if
the U.S. pushed
Communist powers to the
brink of war, they would
back down because of U.S.
nuclear superiority.
• His ideas became known
as “brinkmanship.” “The ability to get to the verge without getting into war is
the necessary art. If you cannot master it, you will
inevitably go to war… We walked to the brink and we
looked it in the face.”
- John Foster Dulles
 Eisenhower increased America’s
nuclear arsenal from about
1,000 bombs in 1953 to about
18,000 bombs by 1961.

Eisenhower wanted to prevent war from happening in the first place.

• A policy called massive retaliation was used to threaten the use of nuclear weapons on
any Communist state that tried to gain territory through force.
• This resulted in a cut in military spending and an increase in America’s nuclear arsenal.
• In theory, it would save more money (“more bang for the buck”), help balance the federal
budget, and increase pressure on potential enemies.
Dulles advocated placing a greater reliance
on nuclear weapons and air power and
spending less on conventional forces of the
army and navy.
• To some, the policy of massive retaliation
looked more like a policy for “mutually
assured destruction.”
President Eisenhower’s willingness to threaten nuclear war to maintain peace worried some
people.
• Critics argued that brinkmanship, the willingness to go to war to force the other side to
back down, was too dangerous.
New technology brought the B-52 bomber, which could fly across continents and drop
nuclear bombs anywhere in the world.
• Intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarines capable of launching nuclear missiles
were also created.
 After circling the earth some 1,400 times, Sputnik’s remnants
crashed into Manitowoc, Wisconsin in 1962. You can still see a
replica of a hunk of Sputnik in Wisconsin!
Americans discovered that the Soviets had developed their own nuclear missiles.
• On October 4, 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik (Russian for fellow traveler), the first
artificial satellite to orbit the earth.
• The Americans felt they were falling behind in missile technology.
ICBMs could carry a nuclear bomb a long distance by traveling on the missile.
The next year, Congress created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
to research and develop a satellite and for space exploration.
• Congress also passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) which provided federal
funds to improve math and science classes to train a future generation of rocket
scientists—the origins of AP classes!
 Sputniks 5, 6, 9 &
10 also carried
dogs into space,
& most were
recovered alive.

Laika, the first living creature to orbit the Earth, did not live nearly as long as Soviet
officials led the world to believe. The animal, launched on a one-way trip on board Sputnik
2 in November 1957, was said to have died painlessly in orbit about a week after blast-off.
The United States’ much-hyped first attempt at launching a satellite (Vanguard TV3)
into orbit failed miserably on December 6, 1957, ending in an explosion.
However, the SCORE satellite, launched on 18 December 1958 aboard an Atlas
missile, became the first communications satellite.
 Piloting Vostok 6, Valentina
Gagarin declared “Poyekhali!” while Tereshkova became the first
on Vostok 1. Gagarin also reportedly woman in space when she
said, “I looked and looked and looked orbited the Earth 48 times during
but I didn't see God." her trip into space in 1963
In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space & flew three times
faster than anyone else had in a capsule called Vostok 1.
• Gagarin took Vostok 1 for a spin at 9:07 A.M. Moscow time; he had it back by 10:55.
• Gagarin died in 1968 when his MiG fighter plane crashed during a training mission.
 President Barack Obama awarded
John Glenn refused to fly unless Katherine
Johnson the Presidential Medal of
Johnson checked the computer’s work.
Freedom in 2015
Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan were among the African-American
women who calculated rocket trajectories while employed by NASA.
• Johnson performed flight navigation calculations before computers became prevalent.
• Johnson performed the calculations for Project Mercury—the first American human
spaceflight program, which used cone-shaped spacecraft to launch John Glenn and others
into space.
• Johnson also calculated the trajectories for Apollo 11 with the goal of landing on the
Moon.
“Space Rock” later became a fad during the Rock ‘n’ Roll craze of the 1950s.
Brinkmanship would not work in all situations, and it could not prevent Communists from
revolting within countries.
• To prevent this, Eisenhower used covert, or hidden, operations conducted by the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The National Security Act of 1947 created three new agencies.
1. The Department of Defense oversaw all branches of the armed services, combing functions
previously performed by the War and Navy Departments.
2. The National Security Council, would advise the president on foreign and military policy.
3. The Central Intelligence Agency would be responsible for collecting information through
both open and covert methods.
• The CIA would also be authorized to engage secretly in political and military operations
on behalf of the U.S.
Two examples of covert operations that achieved American objectives took
place in Iran and Guatemala in the 1950s.
America was interested in the Middle East
due to its oil reserves. Mohammad
Mossadegh , the nationalism prime minister
began to resist western influences in Iran.
• In Operation Ajax, the CIA & the British
helped to overthrow a government in Iran
that had tried to nationalize the holding of
foreign oil companies (now called BP).
• The overthrow of the elected government
allowed for the elevation of Reza Pahlavi
as shah (monarch) of Iran.
• Pahlavi went from being a token
constitutional monarch to an absolute The Shah of Iran and Walt Disney
ruler.
• The shah then provided the West with
favorable oil prices and made
enormous purchases of American arms.
The CIA operations took place in developing nations, or those nations with mostly
agricultural economies.
• In many of these countries, leaders felt they viewed the expanding influence of American
corporations in their countries as a form of imperialism.
The United Fruit Company was known for its banana production in Central and South America.
President Jacobo Arbenz’s socialist policies such as land redistribution to peasant farmers
proved unacceptable for the United States and the United Fruit Company. At one point, most
of Guatemala’s land was owned by the United Fruit Company.
In the US backed Operation PBSUCCESS, President Jacobo Arbenz was overthrown in
Guatemala with the help of the United Fruit Company.
• The hatred of communism led the U.S. to often support corrupt and ruthless dictators
in Latin America.
• This tendency produced anti-American feelings.

Crowds of angry Venezuelans attacked Vice

President Nixon’s motorcade during a
goodwill tour of South America in 1958.
What is the Suez Canal? Surprising co-owners Britain and
The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean & the Red France, Egyptian president Gamal
Sea. Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal
• Built with the help of the French between 1859 & on July 26, 1956.
1869. • The Suez Canal was nationalized
• Until 1875, the Suez Canal was owned by Egypt and to finance the construction of
France the Aswan High Dam
• Financial problems forced Egypt to sell its shares
to Great Britain—so it was jointly owned by the
British and the French
• An 1888 convention declared the Suez Canal free
and open to all ships at all times -- that lasted
until WWI.
In 1942, the Allies kept German forces from the Suez
Canal.
• Egypt sought help to construct the Aswan High Dam
when the U.S. decided to stop funding it.
In the 1950s, Egypt’s Gen. Gamal
Abdel Nasser began to develop a
trade relationship with the Soviet
Union.
• In 1956, John Foster Dulles
punished Egypt by withdrawing
U.S. assistance in building the
Aswan Dam across the Nile.
• In response, Egypt received
limited funding from Russia.
Egypt caused further panic when
it seized the Suez Canal, which
was owned by Britain and France,
in order to finance the Aswan
Dam.
• Loss of the canal threatened The Suez Crisis began when Israel launched Operation
Western Europe’s supply line to Kadesh and invaded Egypt, giving Britain and France
Middle Eastern oil. the pretext to intervene to protect their own interests
British and French troops responded by invading the Suez Canal.
• Soviets threatened rocket attacks on Britain and France.
• Dulles and Eisenhower feared that the Suez crisis would drive the Arab states toward
the Soviet Union and create a new world war.
• Eisenhower put American nuclear forces on alert, and through strong American and UN,
pressure the British and French accepted a U.N. ceasefire and called off their invasion.
In a policy pronouncement
later known as the
Eisenhower Doctrine, the U.S.
pledged economic and
military aid to any Middle
Eastern country threatened
by communism.
• This was first applied to
Lebanon when the U.S.
sent 14,000 marines to
prevent the outbreak of a
civil war between
Christians and Muslims.
Why Intervene in Egypt?
1. Eisenhower administration did not like European
colonialism.
2. The possibility that the Soviets would intervene to help
Egypt.
Other Notable Interventions
1962: During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the United States
and the Soviet Union engaged in a stand-off that nearly
resulted in nuclear war after the Soviets placed nuclear
missiles in Cuba; the US maintained an economically
harmful embargo of Cuba for decades.

1963-73: The United States directly engaged in the Vietnam

War out of fear that a communist takeover of South
Vietnam would have a “domino effect” on other countries
in the region; the Soviet Union gave secretive and direct
support to the North Vietnamese.

1979: The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to prop up a

communist government; the United States backed anti-
Soviet forces and the conflict resulted in Afghanistan
becoming a failed-stated and a haven for religious
extremists and international terrorists.
Eisenhower did call for a slowdown in the arms race and presented an atoms for peace
plan to the U.N.
• The plan dealt with using atomic energy to promote peace rather than war.
• The Soviets also showed signs of wanting to reduce Cold War tensions by removing
troops from Austria and by creating peace with Greece and Turkey.
Eisenhower and Soviet premier
Nikolai Bulganin met in Geneva,
Switzerland in 1955 to improve
relations.
• At the Geneva Conference,
the powers agreed to “open
skies” over each other’s
territory—open to aerial
photography—in order to
eliminate the chance of a
surprise attack.
• The Soviets rejected this
proposal, but it was the first
sign of a thaw in the Cold
War.
Who was Nikita Khrushchev?
Succeeded Stalin as First Secretary of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
• Denied entry into Disneyland when he
visited Los Angeles—they couldn’t
provide enough security.
• Known for banging his shoe against a
desk during the 902nd Plenary Meeting
of the United Nations General Assembly
held in New York in 1960.
• During the session, Khrushchev,,
banged his shoe on his delegate-desk
in protest at a speech that criticized Khrushchev once said: "About the capitalist
the Soviet Union by Philippine states, it doesn't depend on you whether or
delegate Lorenzo Sumulong. not we exist. If you don't like us, don't accept
• The speech prompted the envoys our invitations, and don't invite us to come
from twelve NATO nations and Israel to see you. Whether you like it or not,
to leave the room. history is on our side. We will bury you.”
Covert operations did not always
work. After Stalin died, Nikita
Khrushchev led the Soviet Union in
1956.
• Khrushchev delivered a secret
speech to Soviet leaders, which the
CIA broadcast to Eastern Europe.
• Eastern Europeans, frustrated
by Communist rule, staged
riots, and a full-scale uprising
took place in Hungary in 1956.
• Students controlled
Hungary’s government for Khrushchev criticized Joseph Stalin's ruthlessness in
days, but Soviet tanks the "On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences"
entered Hungary, and speech or "The Secret Speech.” As a result, the CIA
stopped the rebellion. made sure to broadcast it all over Europe. Khrushchev
• The U.S. decided to not intervene denounced the crimes of Joseph Stalin and supported
further in Hungarian affairs. a “peaceful coexistence” with the West.
In 1958, the Soviets
pushed the Berlin issue
by giving the West six
months to pull its troops
out of West Berlin before
turning over the city to
the East Germans.
• The U.S. refused and
invited Khrushchev to
visit the U.S. in 1959.
Both leaders agreed to
put off the crisis and
scheduled another
conference in Paris for
1960.
One of the most awkward moments in Cold War history happened when the USSR shot down a
U.S. U-2 spy plane over Russia. The pilot’s name was Francis Gary Powers.
Eisenhower and Khrushchev agreed to a
summit in Paris in order to improve
relations.
• Two days before the meeting, the
Soviets announced that they had shot
down an American U-2 Spyplane over
Russia.
• Eisenhower denied the accusation—
saying that it was a weather balloon.
Khrushchev then produced evidence that
the pilot—named Frances Gary Powers--
was alive and being held captive in the
Soviet Union.
• Khrushchev denounced Eisenhower
and stopped the summit.
• Eisenhower took full responsibility for
the incident—after it was exposed by
the Soviets.
 On February 10, 1962, Francis Gary Powers was released by the Soviets in
exchange for Soviet Colonel Rudolf Abel, a senior KGB spy who was caught in
the United States five years earlier.
On August 4, 1945, a delegation from the Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union
presented the bugged carving to U.S.
• Ambassador W. Averell Harriman, as a "gesture of friendship" to the USSR's World
War II ally.
• The existence of the bug was accidentally discovered by a British radio operator who
overheard American conversations on an open radio channel as the Russians were
beaming radio waves at the ambassador's office.
 The U.S. ambassador showed off the bugging device in the Great Seal to
illustrate that spying incidents between the two nations were mutual and to
allege that Nikita Khrushchev had magnified this particular incident under
discussion out of all proportion as a pretext to abort the 1960 Paris Summit.
In his farewell address, Eisenhower warned Americans
to be on guard against the influence of a military-
industrial complex in a democracy.
• To some Americans in the 1960s, the U.S. was in
danger of going down the path of ancient
republicans and like, Rome, turning into a military,
or imperial, state.