In Class Notes Pt. 2: Flashcards
Containing Communism becomes a policy?
-Truman Doctrine
The policy of “containment,” aimed at preventing the spread of communism, became a cornerstone of US foreign policy during the Cold War, particularly after the Truman Doctrine in 1947, which pledged US support to nations resisting communist influence.
- The Truman Doctrine was a foreign policy established by President Harry S. Truman in 1947. It committed the United States to support democratic nations against authoritarian threats. The Truman Doctrine was a key part of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War.
The Korean War:
The Korean War, which took place from 1950 to 1953, was a conflict where communist North Korea invaded South Korea, prompting the United States to lead a United Nations coalition in defense of South Korea, resulting in a bloody stalemate that left the Korean peninsula divided along the 38th parallel, with the war ending in an armistice and no clear victor; considered a major early Cold War conflict between the US and the Soviet Union-backed North Korea.
Eisenhower’s Cold War Policies:
- Massive retaliation
—–> Brinkmanship
—–> New military technology
-Brinkmanship was the US being in a state that was ready to ‘go to the brink of war’ and confront any Soviet threat. Dulles also backed the use of covert undercover CIA operations in the Soviet Bloc countries to try to stir up anti-communist sentiment.
- Scientific-technological elite
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades. In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly.
A New Red Scare:
—->McCarthyism
—-> His downfall
McCarthyism, also known as the Second Red Scare, was the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage in the United States during the late 1940s through the 1950s.
-While the official outcome of the hearings was inconclusive, this exposure of McCarthy to the American public resulted in a sharp decline in his popularity. In less than a year, McCarthy was censured by the Senate, and his position as a prominent force in anti-communism was essentially ended.
- McCarthy rocketed to public attention in 1950 with his allegations that hundreds of Communists had infiltrated the State Department and other federal agencies. These charges struck a particularly responsive note at a time of deepening national anxiety about the spread of world communism.
The Atomic Age and Space Race:
-The Atomic Age, marked by the development and fear of nuclear weapons, overlapped with the Space Race, a Cold War competition between the US and USSR to achieve space dominance, with both stemming from the arms race and technological advancements of the era.
- The launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 was a defining moment of the Cold War and the start of the Space Age. It ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments.
JFK, Khrushchev, and the Cuban Missile Crisis:
- During the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, President John F. Kennedy (JFK) and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev faced a nuclear standoff when the Soviet Union secretly deployed missiles in Cuba, prompting Kennedy to order a naval blockade and demand their removal.
