US containment in Asia -> Dominoes and NSC-68

Question 1

how much money had been given to Japan by 1949?

Answer 1

$500 million given to Japan as the cost for passive containment

Question 2

What triggered the shift from passive to active containment for the USA (NSC-68)?

Answer 2

• August 1949: Soviets explode first atomic bomb in Kazakhstan
• October 1st 1949: Mao declares the People’s Republic of China - moment of horror for Truman (shift to communism)
• USA’s nuclear monopoly ended
• Sino-Soviet Pact February 1950 introduces a further meltdown

Question 3

What were the problems with the Truman Doctrine?

Answer 3

• Countries did not need to be democratic to receive Marshall Aid or join NATO
• e.g. 1953: fascist Spain given a life aid by Eisenhower
• could be brutal, oppressive, backwards looking, as long as you wanted to fight the Soviets

Question 4

What did Eric Foner quote about the Truman Doctrine setting a precedent for?

Answer 4

“The Truman Doctrine set a precedent for American assistance to anti-communist regimes throughout the world, no matter how undemocratic, and for the creation of set global military alliances directed at the Soviet Union”

Question 5

What was the NSC-68?

Answer 5

• Classified report issued by the United States National Security Council
• Emphasised need for building USA’s political, economic and military power

Question 6

what did Truman say that suggested NSC-68 was a response to China and Soviet Union?

Answer 6

Truman: “to make an overall review and re-assessment of American foreign and defence policy in the light of the loss of China [and] the Soviet mastery of atomic energy”

Question 7

what did Senator Harry Jackson declare NSC-68 to be?

Answer 7

Senator Harry Jackson: “the first comprehensive statement of a national strategy”

Question 8

When was NSC-68 issued?

Answer 8

Issued on 14 April, 1950
- Approved by Truman on 30 September, 1950

Question 9

What did the NSC-68 entail?

Answer 9

• Wanted to increase air, ground and sea strength and atomic capabilities to deter war
• Highlights need for military readiness to deter Soviet aggression
• Act as source of encouragement to nations resisting Soviet threat
• Provide aid to non-Soviet nations that are willing to contribute to US security
• Increase their economic and political stability and their military capability

Question 10

How did Truman and Congress first react to NSC-68 and what changed their mind?

Answer 10

• Dean G. Acheson struggled in persuading Congress and Truman to accept it
• Outbreak of Korean War convinced them

Question 11

What changes did NSC-68 lead to?

Answer 11

• More military emphasis on application of containment
• In 1950, military budget was $60 billion
• Rose to $135 billion in 1951
• 1950-53, Truman administration almost tripled defence spending as a % of GDP from 5 to 14.2%

Question 12

What were the limitations of NSC-68?

Answer 12

It meant tripling the budget, increasing taxes heavily, and imposing various kinds of economic controls
- large funding that Congress and Public were unlikely to concede to

Question 13

what was a turning point in the Cold War?

Answer 13

Events in the far east served to reinforce 1950 as the turning point in the Cold War

Question 14

what did NSC-68 represent?

Answer 14

NSC-68 represented the practical extension of the Truman Doctrine
- shift from passive to active containment
- limited to Europe in its practical application (via MP and NATO)

Question 15

what did NSC-68 provide justification for?

Answer 15

NSC-68 provided justification for America’s assuming the role of world policeman

Question 16

what did Truman need for him to be able to implement NSC-68?

Answer 16

Truman would need to be elected in the upcoming November 1952 general election

Question 17

why can NSC-68 be viewed as electoral suicide?

Answer 17

the demand for more money as well as its suggestion that old policies had failed made it electoral suicide

Question 18

who set up the domino theory and when?

Answer 18

US President Dwight Eisenhower in April 1954

Question 19

what did Eisenhower quote about the domino theory?

Answer 19

“falling domino theory… could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences”
- assuming all bad things had their roots in Moscow

Question 20

where was the domino theory first used?

Answer 20

• In 1947, the domino theory first emerged int he form of the Truman Doctrine on Greece
• Were Greece to fall, Turkey might follow and “Soviet domination might thus extend over the entire Middle East and Asia”

Question 21

how did the domino theory require the reconstruction of West Germany?

Answer 21

Later in 1947, the same theory required the reconstruction of West Germany with the Marshall Plan
- done so that West Germany’s weakness would not create a vacuum of power where communism could enter and spread throughout Western Europe

Question 22

what drove domino analysis?

Answer 22

• The effects of major political upheavals predicted based on their potential to influence the surrounding region
• not just about country’s neighbours but their far flung ones and colonial powers in Asia

Question 23

how did the domino theory impact decisions in China and Asia?

Answer 23

• Led to the official decision in 1949, when the Communists triumphed in China
• to draw a line against any new Communist states in Asia
• explains American intervention in Korea in 1950
• and support for France against Vietnamese national liberation movement

Question 24

how was the domino theory used in SE Asia?

Answer 24

Domino theory to be used more than any other justification for US involvement in SE Asia as the concept embodied key economic and political concepts for American leaders

Question 25

how was domino theory used in Indonesia?

Answer 25

• essential for US that Indonesia didn’t have a pro-Soviet regime
• pro producer of petroleum
• backed up a coup that wiped up to 1.2 million communists

Question 26

how was domino theory used in Malaysia?

Answer 26

• Malaysia was world’s biggest producer of rubber
• colonially ruled by Britain, US’ no.1 ally
• US helping to promote survival of British and French empires
• ongoing Communist insurgency in Malaya against British started in 1948 and only beaten in 1960

Question 27

when was the loss of Indochina formally articulated?

Answer 27

The loss of Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos), the American government formally articulated in June 1952

Question 28

What did the government articulate about the loss of Indochina?

Answer 28

“would probably lead to relatively swift submission to or an alignment with Communism by the remaining states of Southeast Asia…widespread alignment with Communism would endanger the stability and security of Europe”

Question 29

What would be lost if communism was successful?

Answer 29

• Not only would “major sources of certain strategic materials” be lost
• also communication and trade routes
• world’s main source of natural rubber, tin and a producer of petroleum and other strategically important commodities would be lost in Malaysia and Indonesia

Question 30

what would Communist takeover mean for rice exports?

Answer 30

Communist takeover would mean the rice exports to Japan, from Burma and Thailand would be lost

Question 31

How would communist takeover affect trade between Japan and the USA?

Answer 31

• Considering Japan’s large volume of trade with USA and links with its economy
• Japan’s future position crucial in Asia and world economy if it lost access to Southeast Asian raw materials and markets

Question 32

What did Washington voice concerns about Japan?

Answer 32

• With Southeast Asian nations falling to Communism
• and harming Japan’s economy and capacity to trade with the USA
• Washington worried there would be “such economic and political pressures in Japan as to make it extremely difficult to prevent Japan’s eventual accommodation to communism