Increasing Cold War Tensions

Question 1

Who were the Rosenbergs?

Answer 1

The Rosenbergs were convicted of passing American nuclear secrets to the USSR. Both were convicted and executed. At their appeal, their lawyer Arthur King commented on the judge: ‘Jerome Frank, as a leading liberal judge, was terrorised himself and frightened by the atmosphere of fear in the country. If he as a liberal judge would do something to save Julius and Ethel Rosenberg’s lives, he would be charged as a commie.’

Question 2

Why were the USA under pressure from the perceived threat of communism?

Answer 2

By 1950, the USA was under pressure from the perceived threat of communism. The USSR had successfully tested atomic technology in 1949, the same year that China became a communist state. In 1950, China formed an alliance with the USSR, and the spectre of a monolithic communist enemy loomed large in US thinking. NSC-68 warned that the Cold War was ‘a real war in which the survival of the free world [was] at stake’ and therefore Americans must show their ‘ingenuity, sacrifice and unity’

Question 3

What was the Alger Hiss affair?

Answer 3

Hiss had been a prominent member of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s pre-war and wartime governments. In 1948, he was accused by a journalist, Whittaker Chambers, himself a communist, of being a member of the Communist Party. When Hiss was finally convicted of perjury, his friend Dean G. Acheson still publically offered him his support. This only served to heighten belief in the notion that the USA’s leaders were somehow tainted with communism.

Question 4

What was The House of Un-American Activities Committee?

Answer 4

Founded in 1938, this special committee of the US government became permanent from 1945. Its purpose was to investigate communist infiltration. People came to believe that communist infiltration into the very core of US society existed, and therefore feared it. Those brought before the committee were often perfectly innocent but served as sacrificial victims that fed the popular paranoia. The film industry became a particular target. In January 1950, Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury as he had lied about passing on information to the USSR while working for the US State Department during 1937–38. This revelation sparked a wave of criticism of President Harry S. Truman’s foreign policy. He was accused of being too ‘soft’ on communism and being responsible for the ‘loss’ of China. The prime mover in this movement was Senator Joseph McCarthy

Question 5

McCarthyism in the USA

Answer 5

There was a growing mood of anti-communism among the general US public after the war, although it really came to a head by 1950. There was already a committee in place that had carried out extensive investigations on the patriotism and political affiliations of Hollywood filmmakers. This was called the House of Un-American Activities Committee and it had investigated a large number of high profile movie figures

Question 6

Who was Joseph McCarthy?

Answer 6

was a Republican senator for Wisconsin. He ruthlessly exploited, and fermented, the anti-communist anxieties of the time. Finally in 1954, having accused the US Army of being soft on communism, he was discredited. His ‘reign of terror’ never resulted in even one government worker being uncovered as a communist

Question 7

What was McCarthy’s orchestrated pressure on Truman’s administration was designed to do?

Answer 7

McCarthy’s orchestrated pressure on Truman’s administration was designed to tighten the government’s attitude towards the notion of a communist global plot that threatened the USA. McCarthy promoted the idea, in the context of the Alger Hiss affair, that there was an army of communist conspirators working within the US government, influencing its policies

Question 8

Who were McCarthy’s targets?

Answer 8

McCarthy had many targets during his anti-communist witch hunts, not only in the State Department but also in the film industry, the Democratic Party and universities

Question 9

How did McCarthyism come to an end in 1954?

Answer 9

Finally, in 1954, McCarthy made the incredible claim that ‘Reds’ had infiltrated the US Army. A skilful legal defence by army counsel Joseph N. Welch finally destroyed McCarthy. In a televised confrontation, Welch said, ‘Senator … you have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last have you left no sense of decency?’ In December 1954, the US Senate voted in favour of McCarthy being guilty of having brought that body into disrepute. This finished McCarthy and all those who had joined his anti-communist bandwagon

Question 10

What did McCarthyism emphasise?

Answer 10

McCarthyism emphasised the urgency of moving US policy away from a Eurocentric focus and towards policies with a more determined ‘Asia first’ viewpoint. He took the view that containment had consolidated the West’s position in Europe against the threat of aggressively expansionist communism, but Asia was much less secure. This prioritisation was particularly urgent in view of the creation of a new communist monolithic state in China in 1949, and the alliance of mutual cooperation formed between China and the USSR. McCarthy feared that Truman’s apparent indifference to the spread of communism in Asia may become an element of the USA’s Asia policy

Question 11

What was Britain’s concern regarding the US in the 1950’s?

Answer 11

By the 1950s, Britain was becoming increasingly concerned about what it saw as the USA’s more aggressive Cold War thinking. Britain was concerned, for example, that the USA’s aggressive stance over Korea might lead to the USSR destabilising Europe while the international community was focused on Asia. The USA’s growing ‘Asia first’ thinking was dangerous as far as Britain was concerned. It also necessitated increased defence spending by Britain at a time of continuing austerity

Question 12

How did the conflict in Korea appear to the British?

Answer 12

The conflict in Korea appeared, in the eyes of the British, to place in jeopardy the stability and territorial status quo that the creation of NATO had established

Question 13

What was Britain’s primary concern?

Answer 13

The globalisation of the USA’s role was not what Britain saw as being in its interests. However, Britain’s primary concern was to remain a close ally of the USA and it was this that assumed an overriding priority. As such, Britain made a significant military contribution to the allied war effort in Korea

Question 14

When did the UN formally come into being?

Answer 14

October 1945

Question 15

What was the impact of the absence of newly colonised states in the UN?

Answer 15

the absence of newly colonised states removed any possibility of them functioning as non-aligned or pro-Soviet states in the United Nations. This served to protect the USA’s dominance in the United Nations

Question 16

Who were the only Eastern European state that joined the UN in 1945?

Answer 16

Poland

This became one of the few allies the USSR had in the UN. Clearly the composition of the membership was profoundly weighted in favour of pro-Western, capitalist, and therefore US, interests.

Question 17

What was the Security Council?

Answer 17

The executive decision-making arm of the United Nations

Question 18

Who were the 5 permanent members of the security council?

Answer 18

the USA, Britain, France, China and the USSR

Question 19

How did the US view the UN?

Answer 19

The USA saw an opportunity to use the UN as a vehicle for intervention on a global scale, in order to enhance its own foreign policy aims, particularly in a Cold War context. However, the primary route to act as a ‘global policeman’ was not so much through the UN as through US-influenced regional alliance systems of the kind favoured by Dwight D. Eisenhower. The use of the veto weakened US influence in the UN most of the time although there were notable exceptions to this, such as the US-led UN intervention in Korea in 1950. The notion that communism was a global threat, and therefore needed a global response, became central to US thinking

Question 20

What was the impact of the USA insisting that mainland China could not take China’s seat in the UN?

Answer 20

This dominance was further enhanced when the USA insisted that mainland China, a communist state from 1949, could not take China’s seat in the United Nations. That was to remain occupied by the nationalist regime based in Taiwan. Therefore, a potential challenge to US dominance was excluded on the grounds that it had been an aggressor during the Chinese Civil War and the ruling regime had used force to establish itself. This disqualified it from UN membership

Question 21

What was the power of veto?

Answer 21

The power of veto in the UN Security Council meant that permanent members could vote against UN intervention and that ended the possibility of such intervention

Question 22

What was the most alarming element of the alliance between China and the USSR for the USA?

Answer 22

For the USA, the most alarming element of the alliance was the commitment to mutual security guarantees to combat any aggression from Japan ‘or any other state that may collaborate in any way with Japan in acts of aggression’. This alliance appeared to consolidate communist political and military power in the region and as such, it reinforced the USA’s need to develop its own power base in that part of the world. Therefore Japan formed a crucial element of the USA’s strategy for the Far East.