• US & USSR major powers left standing after WWII

• Both were isolationist before the war

• Both felt their ideologies should be for the rest of the world & practiced "missionary diplomacy" to spread the word

• Four and a half decade standoff

Manifested as Trumans "get tough with Russia" policy in 1947

Crafted by George F. Keenan - Soviet specialist

Russians were relentless expansionary, but the belief was that this could be stemmed by "firm and vigilant containment"

•  March 12, 1947

•  Asked for Congress for $400 million to bolster Greece and Turkey

•  Congress quickly granted

•  Declared that “it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures”

• Fear of Italy, France & Germany going communist

• George C. Marshall - Secretary of State

• Joint plan for economic recovery US to spend $12.5 Billion over 16 years

•  July 1947 meeting

• Offered deal to Soviets, who rejected

Berlin situation - Attitude

America - Rebuilding of Germany necessary for healthy European post-war recover

Russia - Fear of another Blitzkreig; also wanted heavy reparations to help pay for war losses

Berlin situation - How it came about

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Germany divided into four occupation zones (France, US, Britain, USSR)

Berlin (occupied by all four powers) was deep in USSR held zone (most of Eastern parts of Germany)

When:  1948

Controversies:  German currency reform and four-power control

Soviet response:  abruptly choked off all rail and highway access to Berlin.

Goal:  starve Allies out

Allies (US) Response To Soviet Blockade

Lasted one year

Daily supplies to Berlin

Soviets "gave up" on blockade in May 1949 and ended blockade

That year, separate countries of East and West Germany were formally established

1948 Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, Invited US

April 4, 1949 - Washington Signed.  July 21, 1949 - Congress ratified

Attack on one was attack on all

Promised armed response if necessary

Original 12 countries → 15 in 1955 (W Germany)

Reconstruction was one man show - Douglas MacArthur

Little Resistance From Japanese

MacArthur dictated Constitution in 1949 - renounced militarism and introduced Western style democracy

Paved way for phenomenal economic recovery

US - Truman, MacArthur

South Korea - Rhee Syngman

North Korea - Kim Il Sung

China - Mao Zedong

USSR - Stalin

June 25, 1950 - North Koreans in Soviet tanks pressed south of 38th parallel

Truman got UN comdenation and resolution to restore peace

Sent armed air and land troops without consulting Congress; also sent MacArthur & his troops from Japan

Within two weeks pushed North back to 38th Parallel and was pushing beyond

November 1950 - Hordes of Chinese "volunteers" push Southern troops and a surprised MacArthur back to 38th Parallel

Stalemate at this location

Argued that “there is no substitute for victory”

MacArthur wanted retaliation for the Chinese surprise

Wanted to blockade Chinese and bomb bases in Manchuria

Because of Soviet situation, Truman did not.  When MacArthur began to take issue publicly, Truman relieved him of his duties.

MacArthur returned home a hero.  Truman was viewed by the public as soft and a communist sympathizer

Ideology behind Eisenhower's plan for a Strategic Air Command (SAC)

Superbomber fleet with nuclear weapons

Offer scary reponse to Chinese or Soviets

Thought it would save money as oppsed to spending on armies and navies, but he found it wasn't cheap

Sputnik I - October 4, 1957 - 184 pound orbiting payload

Sputnik II - 1 month later - dog in space - 1,120 payload

US - Military implications concerning

Space race, "Rocket Fever" - NASA was formed, school subjects became more formalized (math, science)

Within a decade, we had our own satellites and ICBM's (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles)

Existed from the 1950s to the 1980s. It was promoted by US and speculated that if one state in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect. Was used by successive United States administrations during the Cold War to justify the need for American intervention around the world.

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Attended by the Big Four - President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the United States, Prime Minister Anthony Eden of Britain, Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin of the Soviet Union, and Prime Minister Edgar Faure of France

Krushchev rejected Eisenhower's proposals for peace

However, general thawing of relations.

Russians agreed to end occupation of Austria (May 1955) - "Spirit of Geneva"

"Spirit" ended in 1956 with Hungarian uprising for indendence.

Spy plane shot down over USSR May 1, 1960, two weeks before summit meeting in Paris

US lied saying it was a weather research flight

Didn't know that pilot Francis Gary Powers was alive and captured and confessed.

Soviets also had wreckage and photos taken by flight.

Wrecked any concilliatory offers that Krushchev had made.  US - USSR relations got worse.  (He previously made positive gestures after visiting the US - Camp David)

Fight for freedom by nationalists from French colonial rule.

Even in 1919, Ho Chi Minh appead to Wilson for help

Ho Chi Minh was becoming increasingly communist

So US was helping to pay the French -- By 1954 financed 80% -- $1 Billion / year

March 1954 a key French garrison was trapped hopelessly in the fortress of Dienbienphu -- VP Nixon & Secretary of State Dulles & Joint Chief of Staff wanted to intervene militarily, but Eisenhower did not

Conference in Geneva split Vietnam at 17th Parallel

Ho Chi Minh (communist) in North

Pro-Western govenment under Ngo Dinh Diem in South

Ho Chi Minh promised free elections which never came

Eisenhower promised Diem economic support which came slowly

Allowed for North to build up guerilla war against South

Fulgencia Batista - Dictator - supported US investments in Cuba,  given support in return

Castro - Revolution 1959 - renounced US imperialism - expropriated US properties

US responded by stopping imports of sugar from Cuba

Castro went further with confisaction of US properties and made Cuba economic and military satellite of Moscow

Many people who fled Cuba ended up in Florida

Strongly supported Castro (friends)

Said that "Monroe Doctrine was dead."

Threatened to shower US with missiles if we attacked Castro

The U.S. president and Congress proclaimed the Eisenhower Doctrine in 1957, pledging U.S. military and economic aid to Middle Eastern nations threatened by communist aggression.

The real threat to U.S. interests in the Middle East, however, was not communism but nationalism,.

Arabs wanted the money that the West was making off their oil

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran joined with Venezuela in 1960 to form the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Created stanglehold on the west for next two decades

Supposedly influenced by the Kremlin

Began resisting Western powers that controlled petroleum

1953 CIA engineered a coup

Installed a young Shah -- Mohammed Reza Pahlevi as dictator

Iranians got revenge against us two decades later

June 1961 - Kennedy met Krushchev in Vienna

Belligerent - threatened to cut Berlin off to West

Kennedy focused on Western Europe

Marshall Plan countries and Common Market countries

Common Market = free trade zone - later to become European Union

Got Trade Expansion Act of 1962 passed - reduced tariffs up to 50% for goods from  Common Market countries

Charles de Gaulle of France = obstacle

Vetoed British application for Common Market in 1963

Also nixed multi-national nuclear arm idea in NATO

Kennedy & Secretary of Defense McNamara

To develop array of "military options" to precisely match gravity of situation at hand

Increased spending on conventional military

E.g. Green Berets - Precision killers 

April 17, 1961

1200 Cuban exiles trained by CIA landed at Bay of Pigs

Kennedy did not want direct intervention by US

Out manned & powered, exiles surrendered.

Rotted in Cuban prisons.  US paid $62 Million of drugs & supplies for ransom

Kennedy accepted responsibility for this failure

October 1962 - Spy planes - Soviets installing nuclear tipped missiles in Cuba

October 22, 1962 - Kennedy - Naval Quarantine of Cuba

October 28, 1962 - Krushchev flinched - withdrew missiles

US agreed to end quarantine, not attack Cuba and pull out some warheads in Turkey aimed at USSR

Beginning of end of Krushchev's career

Soviet hardliners upset - resulted in massive arms buildup

Kennedy pushed harder for test-ban treaty with Soviets

1963 both agreed to stop above ground tests

August 1963 - establishment of Moscow-Washington "hotline" in event of an incident

French for Relaxation

Change in policy towards Soviets

Speech by Kennedy at American University June 1963

Russians weren't so much evil, fanatics.  We just have to deal with the world as it is.

Laid down foundation for realistic policy of peaceful co-existence with them

Late 1961, Kennedy ordered increase in "military advisers" (troops) in South Vietnam

Diem govnment was corrupt and eventually Kennedy administration supported its overthrow

US getting more entangled

15,000 troops sent to Vietnam by the time of Kennedy's death (November 22, 1963)

Mentioned in discussion of Election of 1968

Nixon Vs. Humphrey vs. Wallace

Nixon and Humphrey both wanted to see US winning the war in Vietnam

Both wanted an "honorable peace," which implied an American victory

January 1968

Tet = Vietnamese New Year

Viet Cong supposedly licking their wounds - suddenlyand simultaneously mounted savage attacks on twenty-seven key South Vietnamese cities, including the capital, Saigon.

Eventually beaten off with heavy losses, they demonstrated victory could not be gained by Johnson’s strategy of gradual escalation.

Military Loss - Political Victory for Viet Cong

August 1964

August 2, 4 - Americans cooperating with South Vietnamese gunboats provoked fire from North Vietnamese

Two destroyers drew fire from North Vietnamese

Johnson ordered "limited" retaliatory air raid North Vietnamese bases

Johnson got Gulf of Tonkin Resolution from Congress - handed blank check to take any military action he wanted in Southeast Asia 

Started by Kennedy

An army of idealistic and mostly youthful volunteers to bring American skills to underdeveloped countries.

Nixon wanted to quiet the public uproar over Vietnam war at home.

Would gradually reduce the 540,000 troops in Vietnam

Southern Vietnamese would ultimately take over the war themselves

"Nixon Doctrine" - US would honor existing defense commitments, but foreign countries would have to fight their own wars

Recall - Nixon wanted "Peace with Honor,"  i.e. a US Victory

In 1968, American troops slaughtered innocent women and children in the village of My Lai.  

Revelation came out in 1970

Deepened American disgust in Vietnam War

Looking for a quick way to end war, Nixon decided to expand it by ordering attack on Cambodia

Cambodia was technically neutral, but was being used as a launch pad by the North Vietnamese

Leaked by former Pentagon official, Daniel Ellsburg

Published by New York Times in June 1971

Revealed blunders and deceptions of Kennedy and Johnson, including the provocation of the North Vietnamese in the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Incident

Examples:  Revelation of Pentagon Papers, Massacre of My Lai

Nixon claimed that they were misleading the American public

If the President extends or expands the presence of US troops to a foreign country, he must inform Congress within 48 hours

Congress must approve, otherwise, it must end within sixty days, unless Congress authorizes it for another thirty days

Revelations that US had been bombing Viet Cong installations in Cambodia since 1970, ignoring its neutrality

Nixon continued his bombing campaign of the North Vietnamese in Cambodia, to help its rightist government, after the Vietnam cease-fire in January 1973

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution took away war making powers from Congress

Nixon attacked Cambodia without informing Congress 

April 29, 1970 - Nixon ordered US forces to join with South Vietnamese to clear out enemy sanctuaries in neighboring Cambodia - This was done suddenly and without consulting Congress

Resulted in riots and arson through country

Kent State University - four students killed by National Guard; Jackson State University Mississippi - two black students killed by highway patrol

June 29, 1970 - Nixon withdrew troops from Cambodia, Senate (not house) withdrew Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Henry Kissinger - meeting with North Vietnamese in Paris

Path to Nixon meeting with China & Russia

1972 - Nixon went to China & Russia

Several treaties and set stage for US to exit Vietnam War

Grain Deal of 1972 - US would sell USSR $750 million of grain over three years

ABM - Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty - Limited both countries to two clusters of defensive missiles

SALT - Strategic Arms Limitation Talks - Froze number of long range nuclear missiles for five years.  Didn't really stop nuclear proliferation though (6,000+ warheads by end of 1980's)

Nixon ordered heavy bombing of North Vietnam - heaviest attack of war - resulted in massive loss of B52's

January 23, 1973 - North Vietnamese - cease-fire

US to withdraw remaining 27,000 troops, 560 POW's

South Vietnamese could get aids, but not soldiers

North could keep 145,000 sodiers in South

Eventually an election to be held

1975 - Hard drive by North to South - South fell, remaining Americans had to be evacuated by helicopter, including 145,000 South Vietnamese refugees.

Policy calling for more openess and transparency of govenerment in USSR started by Gorbachev

Part of goals to decrease corruption and abuses by the central government

Political movement associated with Gorbachev.

Allowed for more independent actions of ministries and open market reforms.

Also argued to be the causes of dissolution of USSR, revolutions of Eastern Europe in 1989 and the end of the Cold War