6. USA as a Cold War Warrior

Question 1

How well did the U.S. come out of WW2?

Answer 1

• War time, good times
• Total U.S. casualties represent the equivalent of 2% of USSR losses
• U.S. prosperity
• GDP doubles between 1941-1945
• President Truman – “we have emerged as the most powerful nation in the world”
• Have to rethink their pre-war foreign policy of neo-isolation
• Pearl Harbor comparison to 9/11 – psychological effect on Americans, foreign policy needs a shake up

Question 2

How did this impact the U.S.A’s use of Alfred T. Mahan’s naval theories?

Answer 2

• Undermines his two navies theory
• Defence lies outside the homeland – the U.S. needs allies
• U.S. strength must be involved in the new world order = occupation of former Axis countries, maintaining a presence in the Pacific, influence over atomic weapons, peace treaties

Question 3

After 1945 what heightened America’s percieved threat of communism?

Answer 3

• U.S. and USSR = two superpowers
• Cold War 1945-1989/91
• ‘Iron Curtain’ – USSR guaranteed the East, U.S. Latin American, Japan and the Pacific and the UK Southern Europe
• Soviet Expansionism – Stalin’s disregard of the Yalta agreement, Soviet regime in Eastern Europe
• Containment

Question 4

In what ways was the U.S. similar to the Soviet Union at this time?

Answer 4

• Containment = trying to aid U.S. economic markets?
• Post-WW2 world modelled in the U.S.A’s image – is the U.S. any different from the USSR
• Soviet acting in response to U.S. capitalism/ aid/intervention?

Question 5

When was the Hydrogen Bomb developed and what impact did it have on US/USSR relations?

Answer 5

• 1952
• Makes tension with the Soviet Union worse
• Arms Race

Question 6

How did the U.S. public view Truman’s foreign policies at this time?

Answer 6

• Accused of being weak
• They want policies that stand up to Stalin
• Truman seen as ‘soft’ on Communism

Question 7

Why did the USSR want communist allies?

Answer 7

• Must spread their ideology
• Think of themselves as being similar to a colonial Europe – expansionist aims
• USSR had been invaded multiple times, feared another attack, felt insecure, taking reasonable steps to secure its borders
• 1946, Stalin declares the USSR will protect itself from the inevitable war with capitalist countries

Question 8

How did Asia change at the beginning of the Cold War?

Answer 8

• Main arena for conflict
• U.S. now the most prominent western power in Asia
• 1949 = People’s Republic of China
• Want to ‘influence’ Asian countries = tutelage
  Moderate nationalists in colonies = U.S. fears people will turn to communism in order to overthrow colonialism
• U.S.A’s main allies are colonial powers e.g. France, UK which still have colonies in Asia and Africa
• UK beginning to decolonise, poor financial position, but France tries to hold on to their empire

Question 9

Which notable countries had revolutions or were decolonised in Asia between 1945 and 1949?

Answer 9

• Chinese Civil War 1945-9 = defeat of Chiang Shek who the U.S. supported (U.S. had wanted China as a buffer from the USSR)
• 1946 Vietnam, Vo Nguyen Giap and Viet Minh
• 1946 Philippines
• 1947 India
• 1948 Burma
• Cold War shapes revolution but is not necessarily responsible for it
• In some cases de-colonisation is peaceful e.g. India, UK

Question 10

What happened in the Philippines between 1945 and 1946?

Answer 10

• Communist insurgency post-WW2
• Peasant discontent, landlords taking land, peasants left in debt, industrialisation
• Form agricultural unions which turns into a communist party
• Militia that fought the Japanese (Hukbalahap) now fight Americans
• U.S. give the Philippine independence in 1946
  Philippine dissatisfaction – limits on their sovereignty (trade, exchange rates etc.)

Question 11

What triggered the Huk Rebellion and why did it fail?

Answer 11

• New Philippine Congress formed, communist party members elected = Congress refuses to give them seats
• Huk leadership thought the U.S. were too busy with Cold War conflict to intervene = misread their own peasantry
• Raman Magsaysay (U.S. backed nationalist) captures the Huk leadership and starts land reforms

Question 12

How did the Filipino elites impact the Huk Rebellion?

Answer 12

• Indigenous elites crush revolutionaries in the 1950s
• Revolutionary failure, U.S.A successful
• The elites often sided with foreign occupants e.g. Spain, U.S. and Japan

Question 13

What relationship did Ho Chi Minh initially hope to establish between Vietnam and the U.S.?

Answer 13

• Ho Chi Minh first looked to the U.S. as an ally
• Based the Vietnam Constitution of the U.S. Declaration of Independence
• U.S. can’t differ between nationalism and communism