The Korean War

The Military Implementation of Containment

The Korean War was the first militarized instance of containment, as U.S. and South Korea
fought against communist North Korea.

Containment and the Korean War

Containment was the major Cold War policy of the United States and its allies to prevent the
spread of communism abroad. This policy was a response to a series of moves by the Soviet
Union to enlarge communist influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea, Africa, and Vietnam.
Containment represented a middle-ground position between detente (the easing of strained
political relations) and rollback (forcing change in the major policies of a state, usually by
replacing its ruling regime). It lets the opponent choose the place and time of any confrontation.
During the Cold War it meant intervening to prevent the spread of Communism to new countries
but not attacking nations that were already Communist.

In line with this policy, the U.S. attempted to curb Soviet influence on the Korean Peninsula by
occupying the southern part of that area. The area occupied by the U.S. became South Korea,
while the other part became North Korea. North Korea soon passed into the control of the
Communist Party.

In May 1949, fighting between North and South Korean troops broke out near the border
between the two nations. In an attempt to add South Korea to the Communist World, North
Korea invaded South Korea in 1950. The People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union lent
their support to North Korea, while the United States did the same to South Korea. On June 25,
1950, a large military force moved across the 38th parallel in the Republic of Korea.

On Saturday, June 24, 1950, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson informed President Truman
by telephone, “Mr. President, I have very serious news. The North Koreans have invaded South
Korea.” Truman and Acheson discussed a U.S. invasion response with defense department
principals, who agreed that the United States was obligated to repel military aggression. They
likened the situation to Adolf Hitler’s aggressions in the 1930s, and said that the mistake of
appeasement must not be repeated. In his autobiography, President Truman acknowledged that
fighting the invasion was essential to the American goal of the global containment of
communism as outlined in the National Security Council Report 68 (NSC-68). The Korean War
was the first militarized instance of containment, as U.S. and South Korea fought against
communist North Korea.

On June 27, 1950, the United Nations Security Council first adopted a ceasefire resolution.
When the UN Security Council voted to aid South Korea in stopping North Korean aggression,
the U.S. agreed to send troops to the Korean Peninsula. General Douglas MacArthur was given
the command of UN troops in Korea. The U.S. agreed to send troops over on June 30 along
with increasing aid to the French fight against Communists rebels in Indochina. MacArthur was
placed in command on July 8. At the beginning the U.S. troops lacked training and were out of
shape. In the first few weeks of fighting, the U.S. troops were pushed back to a defensive
perimeter at Pusan.

As a counter-offensive, MacArther launched the Inchon Landing, a decisive victory and strategic
reversal in favor of the United Nations. The success of the Inchon landing inspired the U.S. and
the United Nations to adopt a rollback strategy to overthrow the Communist North Korean
regime, thus allowing nationwide elections under U.N. auspices. General Douglas MacArthur
then advanced across the 38th parallel into North Korea. The Chinese sent in a large army and
defeated the U.N. forces, pushing them below the 38th parallel. Although the Chinese had been
planning to intervene for months, this action was interpreted by Truman’s supporters as a
response to U.S. forces crossing the 38th parallel. This allowed the episode to be used to
confirm the wisdom of containment doctrine as opposed to rollback. The Communists were later
pushed back to around the original border. Truman blamed MacArthur’s focus on victory and
adopted a “limited war” policy. His focus shifted to negotiating a settlement, which was finally
reached in 1953. For his part, MacArthur denounced Truman’s “no-win policy.”

While not directly committing forces to the conflict, the Soviet Union provided material aid to
both the North Korean and Chinese armies. The fighting ended on July 27, 1953, when the
armistice agreement was signed. The agreement restored the border between the Koreas near
the 38th Parallel and created the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a 2.5-mile-wide fortified
buffer zone between the two Korean nations. Minor incidents still continue today.

The Korean War

The Korean War was one of the most significant events of the Cold War, caused largely by the
broader tensions between America and the Soviet Union.

Overview

The Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950. The United Nations,
with the United States as the principal force, came to the aid of South Korea. China, with
assistance from the Soviet Union, came to the aid of North Korea. The war arose from the
division of Korea at the end of World War II and from the global tensions of the Cold War that
developed immediately afterwards.

Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the closing days of World War II. In August 1945, the
Soviet Union declared war on Japan as a result of an agreement with the United States and
liberated Korea north of the 38th parallel. U.S. forces subsequently moved into the south. By
1948, as a product of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, Korea was
split in to two separate governments. Both claimed to be the legitimate government of Korea,
and neither side accepted the border as permanent. The civil war escalated into open warfare
when North Korean forces—supported by the Soviet Union and China—moved to the south to
unite the country on June 25, 1950. On that day, the United Nations Security Council
recognized this North Korean act as invasion and called for an immediate ceasefire. Twenty-one
countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the defense of South Korea, with the
United States providing 88% of the UN’s military personnel. On the North Korean side, Joseph
Stalin “planned, prepared, and initiated” the invasion, creating “detailed [war] plans” that were
communicated to the North Koreans.
After the first two months of the conflict, South Korean forces were on the point of defeat, forced
back to the Pusan Perimeter. In September 1950, an amphibious UN counter-offensive was
launched at Inchon and cut off many of the North Korean attackers. Those that escaped
envelopment and capture were rapidly forced back north all the way to the border with China at
the Yalu River, or into the mountainous interior. At this point, in October 1950, Chinese forces
crossed the Yalu and entered the war. Chinese intervention triggered a retreat of UN forces that
continued until mid-1951. After these dramatic reversals of fortune, which saw Seoul change
hands four times, the last two years of conflict became a war of attrition, with the front line close
to the 38th parallel. The war in the air, however, was never a stalemate. North Korea was
subject to a massive bombing campaign. Jet fighters confronted each other in air-to-air combat
for the first time in history, and Soviet pilots covertly flew in defense of their Communist allies.

As a result of early Chinese tactical successes, General Douglas MacArthur, who was in
command of U.N. forces in Korea, argued in favor of using nuclear weapons against China
and/or the North Korean interior in order to disrupt Chinese supply lines and force negotiations.
MacArthur attempted to orchestrate public support for bombing China and assisting an invasion
of the mainland by KMT forces led by Chiang Kai-shek. MacArthur’s stance contributed to his
controversial dismissal by President Truman. In April 1951, Truman relieved MacArthur of his
duties and replaced him with Ridgway.

The fighting ended on July 27, 1953, when an armistice was signed. The agreement created the
Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea and allowed the return of
prisoners. However, no peace treaty has been signed, and the two Koreas are technically still at
war. Periodic clashes, many deadly, have continued to the present.

U.S. Intervention

The Truman administration was unprepared for the invasion. Korea was not included in the
strategic Asian Defense Perimeter outlined by Secretary of State Dean Acheson. Military
strategists were more concerned with the security of Europe against the Soviet Union than East
Asia. At the same time, the Administration was worried that a war in Korea could quickly widen
into another world war should the Chinese or Soviets decide to get involved.

A major consideration was the possible Soviet reaction in the event of U.S. intervention. The
Truman administration was fretful that a war in Korea was a diversionary assault that would
escalate to a general war in Europe once the United States committed in Korea. At the same
time, “[t]here was no suggestion from anyone that the United Nations or the United States could
back away from [the conflict].” Truman believed if aggression went unchecked, a chain reaction
would be initiated that would marginalize the United Nations and encourage Communist
aggression elsewhere. The Truman administration was still uncertain if the attack was a ploy by
the Soviet Union or just a test of U.S. resolve. The decision to commit ground troops became
viable when a communiqué was received on June 27 indicating the Soviet Union would not
move against U.S. forces in Korea. The Truman administration now believed it could intervene
in Korea without undermining its commitments elsewhere.
Casualties

According to the data from the U.S. Department of Defense, the United States suffered 33,686
battle deaths and 2,830 non-battle deaths during the Korean War. U.S. battle deaths were 8,516
before its first engagement with the Chinese on November 1, 1950. South Korea reported
373,599 civilian and 137,899 military deaths. Western sources estimate the PVA suffered about
400,000 killed and 486,000 wounded, while the KPA suffered 215,000 killed and 303,000
wounded.

Data from official Chinese sources, on the other hand, reported that the PVA had suffered
114,000 battle deaths, 34,000 non-battle deaths, 340,000 wounded, 7,600 missing, and 21,400
captured during the war. Among those captured, about 14,000 defected to Taiwan, while the
other 7,110 were repatriated to China. Chinese sources also reported that North Korea suffered
290,000 casualties, 90,000 captured and a “large” number of civilian deaths.

Recent scholarship has put the full battle death toll on all sides at just over 1.2 million.

Aftermath

Postwar recovery was different in the two Koreas. South Korea stagnated in the first postwar
decade. In 1953, South Korea and the United States concluded a Mutual Defense Treaty. In
1960, the April Revolution occurred and students joined an anti-Syngman Rhee demonstration;
142 were killed by police, leading Rhee to resign and flee to the United States.

From 1965 to 1973, South Korea dispatched troops to Vietnam and received $235,560,000
allowance and military procurement from the U.S. GNP increased five-fold during the Vietnam
War. South Korea industrialized and modernized. Contemporary North Korea remains
underdeveloped. South Korea had one of the world’s fastest-growing economies from the early
1960s to the late 1990s.

Following extensive USAF bombing, North Korea “had been virtually destroyed as an industrial
society.” After the armistice, Kim Il-Sung requested Soviet economic and industrial assistance.
In September 1953, the Soviet government agreed to “cancel or postpone repayment for all…
outstanding debts,” and promised to grant North Korea one billion rubles in monetary aid,
industrial equipment, and consumer goods. Eastern European members of the Soviet Bloc also
contributed with “logistical support, technical aid, [and] medical supplies.” China cancelled North
Korea’s war debts, provided 800 million yuan, promised trade cooperation, and sent in
thousands of troops to rebuild damaged infrastructure.

Postwar, about 100,000 North Koreans were executed in purges. According to Rummel, forced
labor and concentration camps were responsible for over one million deaths in North Korea from
1945 to 1987; others have estimated 400,000 deaths in concentration camps alone. Estimates
based on the most recent North Korean census suggest that 240,000 to 420,000 people died as
a result of the 1990s North Korean famine and that there were 600,000 to 850,000 unnatural
deaths in North Korea from 1993 to 2008. The North Korean government has been accused of
“crimes against humanity” for its alleged culpability in creating and prolonging the 1990s famine.

South Korean anti-Americanism after the war was fueled by the presence and behavior of
American military personnel (USFK) and U.S. support for the authoritarian regime, a fact still
evident during the country’s democratic transition in the 1980s. However, anti-Americanism has
declined significantly in South Korea in recent years, from 46% favorable in 2003 to 74%
favorable in 2011, making South Korea one of the most pro-American countries in the world.

The Armistice

An armistice ceasefire in 1953 ended fighting in Korea and established a buffer zone between
North and South Korea, but tensions remain.

The 38th Parallel

The 38th parallel north—which divides the Korean Peninsula roughly in half—was the original
boundary between the United States and Soviet Union’s brief administration areas of Korea at
the end of World War II. Upon the creation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
(DPRK, informally North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (ROK, informally South Korea) in
1948, it became a de facto international border and one of the most tense fronts in the Cold
War.

Both the North and the South remained dependent on their sponsor states from 1948 to the
outbreak of the Korean War. That conflict, which claimed more than three million lives and
divided the Korean Peninsula along ideological lines, commenced on June 25, 1950, with a full-
front DPRK invasion across the 38th parallel. It ended in 1953 after international intervention
pushed the front of the war back to near the 38th parallel.

Stalemate in Korea

After North Korean forces invaded South Korea in 1950, it only took two months for the South
Korean and UN forces to be pushed back to a small area in the south. A rapid U.N. counter-
offensive then drove the North Koreans past the 38th Parallel and almost to the Yalu River, when
China entered the war on the side of North Korea. Chinese intervention forced the Southern-
allied forces to retreat behind the 38th Parallel.

Armistice and the DMZ

The changes in territory stopped there, with both sides in their original positions near the
38th Parallel. For the rest of the war, both sides were dug in trenches and no side appeared to
be winning. Almost as many bombs as were dropped on Germany during the whole of World
War II were dropped on the cities in North Korea. The need for an armistice agreement in Korea
was informed by this territorial stalemate established by July 1951, the heavy destruction
inflicted during the war, and the increasing U.S. desire to extract itself from the conflict. Peace
negotiations started on July 10, 1950, but a ceasefire was not reached until 1953.

The fighting ended on July 27, 1953, when the armistice agreement was signed, restoring the
border between the Koreas near the 38th Parallel. It was agreed that a buffer zone, called the
Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ), would be built between North and South Korea, running from
the northeast of the 38th parallel to the southwest. It still stands as the most heavily defended
border in the world, defended by South Korean/U.S. troops on one side and North Korean
troops on the other. No peace treaty was signed between North and South—just a ceasefire—
so technically they are still in a state of war.

Owing to this theoretical stalemate, and genuine hostility between the North and the South,
large numbers of troops are still stationed along both sides of the line, each side guarding
against potential aggression from the other side. The armistice agreement explains exactly how
many military personnel and what kind of weapons are allowed in the DMZ. Soldiers from both
sides may patrol inside the DMZ, but they may not cross the MDL; ROK soldiers, however
heavily armed, patrol as military police and have memorized each line of the armistice. Sporadic
outbreaks of violence have killed more than 500 South Korean soldiers, 50 U.S. soldiers, and
250 soldiers from DPRK along the DMZ between 1953 and 1999.

Results of the War

The U.S. lost about 54,000 troops in the conflict and another 7,000 U.N. troops were killed. The
casualty figures were even higher for the Chinese/North Koreans—an estimated 2 million to 4
million were killed or wounded. Millions more Korean civilians died.

The Korean war was the first time the Truman Doctrine, the containment of the spread of
communism, was put into action. It was also the first ever time that the U.N. undertook a military
operation. The war had mixed effects—it sent a clear message that the West would not tolerate
any threat to its allies or sphere of influence no matter how far away they were on the map, and
was prepared to defend it using force if necessary. However, engaging in the Korean War also
resulted in the U.S. making even more enemies (this time with China and North Korea), and
doomed already strained relations with the Soviet Union.

McCarthyism

“McCarthyism” is a term arising from the paranoia of the Second Red Scare in the United States
from 1950-54, which was fed by Joseph McCarthy, a U.S. senator from Wisconsin.

Origins of McCarthyism

The historical period that came to be known as the McCarthy era began well before Joseph
McCarthy’s involvement. Many factors contributed to McCarthyism, some extending back to the
years of the First Red Scare (1917–20), inspired by Communism ‘s emergence as a recognized
political force. Thanks in part to its success in organizing labor unions and its early opposition to
fascism, the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) increased its membership through
the 1930s, reaching a peak of about 75,000 members in 1940-41. While the United States was
engaged in World War II and allied with the Soviet Union, the issue of anti-communism was
largely muted. With the end of World War II, the Cold War began almost immediately, as the
Soviet Union installed Communist puppet régimes across Central and Eastern Europe while the
United States backed anti-communist forces in Greece and China.

Events in 1949 and 1950 sharply increased the sense of threat from Communism in the United
States. The Soviet Union tested an atomic bomb in 1949, earlier than many analysts had
expected. That same year, Mao Zedong ‘s Communist army gained control of mainland China
despite heavy American financial support of the opposing Kuomintang. In 1950, the Korean War
began, pitting U.S., U.N., and South Korean forces against Communists from North Korea and
China. The following year saw several significant developments in Soviet Cold War espionage
activities.

More subtle forces also encouraged the rise of McCarthyism. It was long a practice of
conservative politicians to refer to progressive reforms such as child labor laws and women’s
suffrage as “Communist” or “Red plots.” This tendency increased in the 1930s in reaction to the
New Deal policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Many conservatives equated the New
Deal with socialism or Communism, and saw its policies as evidence that the government had
been heavily influenced by Communist policy-makers in the Roosevelt administration. In
general, the vaguely defined danger of “Communist influence” was a more common theme in
the rhetoric of anti-Communist politicians than espionage or any other specific activity.

McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare

McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without

proper evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the
Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from 1950 to 1956 and characterized by heightened fears of
communist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents. Originally coined
to criticize the anti-communist pursuits of Republican U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of
Wisconsin, “McCarthyism” soon took on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar
efforts. The term is now used more generally to describe reckless, unsubstantiated accusations,
demagogic attacks on the character, or patriotism of political adversaries.

While Communism was expanding across Europe and Asia, the United States entered an era of
paranoia known as the Red Scare. Joseph McCarthy, Republican senator from Wisconsin,
gained sudden prominence for his dramatic accusations of Communist espionage and influence
inside the U.S. government. Beginning with a dramatic speech in 1950 from Wheeling, West
Virginia, McCarthy used his position to make often sensational accusations of Communist
infiltration into the State Department, the Democratic administration of President Harry S.
Truman, and the United States Army. During that speech, he produced a piece of paper which
he claimed contained a list of known Communists working for the State Department. McCarthy
is usually quoted as saying: “I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were
made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who
nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.” This speech resulted
in a flood of press attention to McCarthy and established the path that made him one of the
most recognized politicians in the United States.

During the McCarthy era, thousands of Americans were accused of being Communists or
Communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning
before government or private-industry panels, committees, and agencies. The primary targets of
such suspicions were government employees, homosexuals, those in the entertainment
industry, educators, and union activists. Suspicions were often given credence despite
inconclusive or questionable evidence, and the level of threat posed by a person’s real or
supposed leftist associations or beliefs was often greatly exaggerated. Many people suffered
loss of employment and/or destruction of their careers; some even suffered imprisonment.
Most of these punishments came about through trial verdicts later overturned, laws that would
be declared unconstitutional, dismissals for reasons later declared illegal or actionable, or extra-
legal procedures that would come into general disrepute.

The most famous examples of McCarthyism include the speeches, investigations, and hearings
of Senator McCarthy himself; the Hollywood blacklist, associated with hearings conducted by
the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC); and the various anti-communist activities
of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under Director J. Edgar Hoover. McCarthyism was
a widespread social and cultural phenomenon that affected all levels of society and was the
source of a great deal of debate and conflict in the United States.

Victims of McCarthyism

It is difficult to estimate the number of victims of McCarthy. The number imprisoned is in the
hundreds, and some 10,000 to 12,000 lost their jobs. In many cases, simply being subpoenaed
by HUAC or one of the other committees was sufficient cause to be fired. Many who were
imprisoned, lost their jobs, or were questioned by committees did in fact have a past or present
connection with the Communist Party. But for the vast majority, both the potential for them to
harm the nation and the nature of their communist affiliation were tenuous. After the extremely
damaging “Cambridge Five” spy scandal (Burgess, Maclean, Philby, Blunt, et al.), suspected
homosexuality was also a common cause for being targeted by McCarthyism. The hunt for
“sexual perverts,” presumed to be subversive by nature, resulted in thousands being harassed
and denied employment. Many have termed this aspect of McCarthyism the “Lavender Scare.”

In the film industry, more than 300 actors, authors, and directors were denied work in the U.S.
through the unofficial Hollywood blacklist. Blacklists were at work throughout the entertainment
industry, in universities and schools at all levels, in the legal profession, and in many other
fields. A port security program initiated by the Coast Guard shortly after the start of the Korean
War required a review of every maritime worker who loaded or worked aboard any American
ship, regardless of cargo or destination. As with other loyalty-security reviews of McCarthyism,
the identities of accusers and even the nature of accusations were typically kept secret from the
accused. Nearly 3,000 seamen and longshoremen lost their jobs due to this program alone.

The End of McCarthyism

McCarthyism began to lose its potency as the perceived threat of Communism receded during
the latter half of the 1950s, even as McCarthy and others overreached politically. Arguably, the
movement’s most dramatic loss of credibility came when Senator McCarthy attempted to
accuse the U.S. Army of anti-U.S. leanings. In televised hearings, Army lawyer Joseph Welch
accused the Senator of being shameless and dishonorable as spectators applauded.

In 1957, the Supreme Court ruled on the case of Watkins v. United States, curtailing the power
of HUAC to punish uncooperative witnesses by finding them in contempt of Congress. Justice
Warren wrote in the decision: “The mere summoning of a witness and compelling him to testify,
against his will, about his beliefs, expressions or associations is a measure of governmental
interference. And when those forced revelations concern matters that are unorthodox,
unpopular, or even hateful to the general public, the reaction in the life of the witness may be
disastrous.”
Korea, Communism, and the 1952 Election

The 1952 Presidential election hinged on the issues of Korea, Communism, and corruption.

Election of 1952

The United States presidential election of 1952 was the 42 nd presidential election. Cold War
tension between the United States and the Soviet Union was at its peak. In the United States
Senate, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin had become a national figure after
chairing congressional investigations into the issue of Communist spies within the U.S.
government. McCarthy’s so-called “witch hunt,” combined with national tension and weariness
after two years of bloody stalemate in the Korean War, the Communist Revolution in China, the
1949 Soviet acquisition of nuclear weapons, and the early-1950s economic recession, set the
stage for a hotly contested presidential race.

Nominees

Incumbent President Harry S. Truman, who as early as 1950 had decided not to run, decided to
back current Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson. As in 1948, President Truman reached out to
General Dwight D. Eisenhower to see if he had interest in heading the Democratic ticket.
Eisenhower demurred at the time and then wound up heading the Republican ticket. The
Democratic Party instead nominated Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois. Stevenson had
gained a reputation in Illinois as an intellectual and eloquent orator, but had vacillated a great
deal on whether he even wanted to run for the presidency. President Truman had several
meetings with Stevenson about the his desire for Stevenson to become the standard bearer for
the party. Truman became very frustrated with Stevenson and his indecision before committing
to run. 

The Republican Party saw a contest between the internationalist and isolationist perspectives.
Senator Robert A. Taft said that isolationism was dead, but saw little role for the United States
in the Cold War. Eisenhower, the NATO commander and war hero, narrowly defeated Taft, then
crusaded against the Truman policies he blasted as “Korea, Communism and Corruption.” Ike,
as they called him, did well in all major demographic and regional groups outside the Deep
South. Eisenhower won in a landslide, ending 20 consecutive years of Democratic control of the
White House.

Campaigns

The Eisenhower campaign was one of the first presidential campaigns to make a major,
concerted effort to win the female vote. Many of his radio and television commercials discussed
topics such as education, inflation, ending the war in Korea, and other issues thought to appeal
to women. The Eisenhower campaign made extensive use of female campaign workers who
made phone calls to likely Eisenhower voters, distributed “Ike” buttons and leaflets, and gave
parties to build support for the GOP ticket in their neighborhoods. On election day, Eisenhower
won a solid majority of the female vote.
Eisenhower campaigned by attacking “Korea, Communism, and Corruption”—that is, what the
Republicans regarded as the failures of the outgoing Truman administration to deal with these
issues. The campaign accused the administration of neglecting Latin America and thus leading
them into the arms of wily Communist agents waiting to exploit local misery and capitalize on
any opening to communize America. Charges that Soviet spies had infiltrated the government
plagued the Truman Administration and became a major campaign issue for Eisenhower. The
Republicans blamed the Democrats for the military’s failure to be fully prepared to fight in Korea,
accused the Democrats of “harboring” Communist spies within the federal government, and
blasted the Truman Administration for the numbers of officials who had been accused of various
crimes.

In return, the Democrats criticized Senator Joseph McCarthy and other Republican
conservatives as “fearmongers” who were recklessly trampling on the civil liberties of
government employees.

Many Democrats were particularly upset when Eisenhower, on a scheduled campaign swing
through Wisconsin, decided not to give a speech he had written criticizing McCarthy’s methods,
then allowed himself to be photographed shaking hands with McCarthy as if he supported him.
Truman, formerly friends with Eisenhower, never forgot what he saw as a betrayal; he
previously thought Eisenhower would make a good president, but said, “he has betrayed almost
everything I thought he stood for.”

Despite these mishaps, Eisenhower retained his enormous personal popularity from his leading
role in World War II, and huge crowds turned out to see him around the nation. His campaign
slogan, “I Like Ike,” was one of the most popular in American history. Stevenson concentrated
on giving a series of thoughtful speeches around the nation; he too drew large crowds. Although
his style thrilled intellectuals and academics, some political experts wondered if he were
speaking “over the heads” of most of his listeners and dubbed him an “egghead,” based on his
baldness and intellectual demeanor. Eisenhower maintained a comfortable lead in the polls
throughout most of the campaign.

Results

On election day, Eisenhower won a decisive victory, receiving more than 55% of the popular
vote and carrying 39 of the 48 states. He took three Southern states that the Republicans had
won only once since Reconstruction: Virginia, Florida, and Texas. This election was the first in
which a computer (the UNIVAC I) was used to predict the results.
Conclusion: Truman and the Beginning of the Cold War

Conclusion: Truman and the Beginning of the Cold War

With President Truman adopting an explicit attitude of anti-Soviet policy with his Truman Plan,
historic tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union erupted into what is known as
the Cold War.

Overview

The Cold War was a state of political and military tension after World War II between powers in
the Western Bloc (the United States, its NATO allies, and others) and powers in the Eastern
Bloc (the Soviet Union and its satellite states ). Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a
common time frame is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine (a U.S. policy
pledging to aid nations threatened by Soviet expansionism) was announced, and 1991, the year
the Soviet Union collapsed.

Origins of the Cold War date to events preceding the Second World War and even the Russian
Revolution of 1917, which led to pre-World War II tensions between the Soviet Union, western
European countries, and the United States. A series of events during and after World War II
exacerbated tensions, including the Soviet- German pact during the first two years of the war
leading to subsequent invasions, the perceived delay of an amphibious invasion of German-
occupied Europe, the western allies’ support of the Atlantic Charter, disagreement in wartime
conferences over the fate of Eastern Europe, the Soviets’ creation of an Eastern Bloc of Soviet
satellite states, western allies scrapping the Morgenthau Plan to support the rebuilding of
German industry, and the Marshall Plan.

The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World
War in 1945. The USSR consolidated its control over the states of the Eastern Bloc, while the
United States began a strategy of global containment to challenge Soviet power, extending
military and financial aid to the countries of Western Europe (for example, supporting the anti-
communist side in the Greek Civil War) and creating the NATO alliance. The Berlin Blockade
(1948–49) was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in
the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War (1950–53), the conflict expanded.
The USSR and U.S. competed for influence in Latin America and the decolonizing states of
Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets. The
expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis (1956), the Berlin Crisis
of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

President Truman and the Cold War

As a Wilsonian internationalist, President Harry S. Truman strongly supported the creation of

the United Nations and included Eleanor Roosevelt on the delegation to the UN’s first General
Assembly. With the Soviet Union expanding its sphere of influence through Eastern Europe,
Truman and his foreign policy advisors took a hard line against the USSR. In this, he matched
American public opinion, which quickly came to view the Soviets as intent upon world
domination.

Although he claimed no personal expertise on foreign matters, Truman won bipartisan support
for both the Truman Doctrine, which formalized a policy of Soviet containment, and the Marshall
Plan, which aimed to help rebuild postwar Europe. To get Congress to spend the vast sums
necessary to restart the moribund European economy, Truman used an ideological argument,
arguing that Communism flourishes in economically deprived areas. 

Truman announced his “Truman Plan” to Congress on March 12, 1947, and further developed it
on July 12, 1948, when he pledged to contain Soviet threats to Greece and Turkey. American
military force was usually not involved, but Congress appropriated free gifts of financial aid to
support the economies and the military of Greece and Turkey. More generally, the Truman
Doctrine implied American support for other nations threatened by Soviet communism. This
became the foundation of American foreign policy, and led to the 1949 formation of NATO, a
military alliance that is still in effect. Historians often use Truman’s speech to date the start of
the Cold War.

The Truman Doctrine was informally extended to become the basis of American Cold War
policy throughout Europe and around the world. It shifted American foreign policy toward the
Soviet Union from détente (a relaxation of tension) to a containment of Soviet expansion as
advocated by diplomat George Kennan. It was distinguished from rollback by implicitly tolerating
the previous Soviet takeovers in Eastern Europe.

As part of the U.S. Cold War strategy, Truman also signed the National Security Act of 1947
and reorganized military forces by merging the Department of War and the Department of the
Navy into the National Military Establishment (later the Department of Defense) and creating the
U.S. Air Force. The act also created the CIA and the National Security Council. In 1952, Truman
secretly consolidated and empowered the cryptologic elements of the United States by creating
the National Security Agency (NSA).

Berlin Airlift

On June 24, 1948, the Soviet Union blocked access to the three Western-held sectors of Berlin.
The Allies had never negotiated a deal to guarantee supply of the sectors deep within the
Soviet-occupied zone. The commander of the American occupation zone in Germany, General
Lucius D. Clay, proposed sending a large armored column across the Soviet zone to West
Berlin with instructions to defend itself if it were stopped or attacked. Truman believed this would
entail an unacceptable risk of war. He approved Ernest Bevin’s plan to supply the blockaded city
by air. On June 25, the Allies initiated the Berlin Airlift, a campaign that delivered food and other
supplies, such as coal, using military aircraft on a massive scale. Nothing like it had ever been
attempted before, and no single nation had the capability, either logistically or materially, to
have accomplished it. The airlift worked; ground access was again granted on May 11, 1949.
Nevertheless, the airlift continued for several months after that. The Berlin Airlift was one of
Truman’s great foreign policy successes; it significantly aided his election campaign in 1948.
However, it increased tensions with the Soviet Union.
Korean War

One of the most significant impacts of containment was the outbreak of the Korean War. In June
1950, Kim Il-sung’s North Korean People’s Army invaded South Korea. Joseph Stalin “planned,
prepared, and initiated” the invasion, creating “detailed [war] plans” that were communicated to
the North Koreans. To Stalin’s surprise, the UN Security Council backed the defense of South
Korea, though the Soviets were then boycotting meetings in protest that Taiwan and not
Communist China held a permanent seat on the Council. A UN force of personnel from South
Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Canada, Colombia, Australia, France,
South Africa, the Philippines, the Netherlands, Belgium, New Zealand, and other countries
joined to stop the invasion.

Among other effects, the Korean War galvanized NATO to develop a military structure. Public
opinion in countries involved, such as Great Britain, was divided for and against the war. Many
feared an escalation into a general war with Communist China or even nuclear war. The strong
opposition to the war often strained Anglo-American relations. For these reasons, British
officials sought a speedy end to the conflict, hoping to unite Korea under United Nations
auspices and withdrawal of all foreign forces.

Even though the Chinese and North Koreans were exhausted by the war and prepared to end it
by late 1952, Stalin insisted that they continue fighting, and the Armistice was approved only in
July 1953 after Stalin’s death.

Conclusion

Tensions between the Communist Soviet Union and the Capitalist United States date back as
far as the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and developed throughout the first half the 20th century.
Although the two nations were allies against Nazi Germany and the Axis powers during WWII,
conflicting viewpoints about post-war reconstruction reignited the antagonism between the
Soviets and Americans to a place where resolution seemed impossible. Europe became split
between the Soviet “Eastern Bloc” and the “Western Bloc.” With President Truman adopting an
explicit attitude of anti-Soviet policy with his Truman Plan and the American government’s
choice to send supplies to East Berlin against the Soviet Blockade, these tensions erupted into
what is known as the Cold War, “cold” because it never saw direct military conflict between the
Soviet Union and American armies. However, because of the American policy of containment,
the Cold War saw several “proxy wars,” such as the Korean War and the Vietnam War.