The Cold War at Home

US History

No. Few

communists were

actually found.

Key Concepts

• Effects of the Cold War on America’s Home life

• McCarthyism

Fear of Communist Influence• At the height of WWII ~80,000

Americans claimed membership in the Communist party

• Loyalty Review Board– Led by anti-Communist Republicans– Accused Truman of being soft– March 1947 – Truman set up the

Fed. Loyalty Program• Loyalty Review Board

– Listed 91 “subversive” organizations– Investigated 3.2 million fed.

Employees• Dismissed 212• 2,900 resigned• Not allowed to see evidence against

them

HUAC• House Un-American Activities

Committee

– Started by investigating movie industry

– Led by Richard Nixon– Friendly vs. unfriendly witnesses– Hollywood Ten

• McCarran Act– 1950 - Passed by Congress– Unlawful to plan action that

might led to totalitarianism– Vetoed by Truman– Overridden by Congress

Spy Cases Stun the Nation• Alger Hiss

– High level U.S. State Department official educated at Harvard University

– Accused of espionage [spying] by Whittaker Chambers – former Communist Spy

– Richard Nixon gained fame for pursuing Hiss with H.U.A.C.

– Hiss went to prison for perjury since too much time had passed to be convicted of espionage [statute of limitation].

– 1990s – Soviet cables released by the N.S.A. proved Hiss’s guilt.

Spy Cases Stun the Nation

• The Rosenbergs– Sept. 3, 1949

• USSR exploded an Atomic Bomb

– Klaus Fuchs, a nuclear physicist, admitted giving nuclear secrets to Soviets

• Implicated Ethel & Julius Rosenberg – minor activists for Communist Party

– The Rosenbergs professed their innocence

– They were convicted [found guilty] of treason on relatively weak and circumstantial evidence.

– Executed via Electric Chair for Espionage in June 1953 leaving behind young children.

McCarthy Launches His “Witch Hunt”• Joseph McCarthy

– Senator From Wisconsin– Became well known for making random

unsupported accusations of communist affiliation.

– “Name calling” in Senate was permitted due to congressional immunity from slander.

– The mere accusations of communist affiliation ruined lives.

• Downfall– Accused several U.S. Army officials of

communist affiliation– Televised hearings exposed the baseless

and “cruelty” of his accusations – The nation became to realize that

McCarthy was bully and “reckless”– Censured by Senate and died of liver

disease

Anti-Communist Measures

• States passed laws making it illegal to advocate overthrow of government– Many civil rights groups

believed such laws were a violation of constitutional rights [1st Amendment]

• Loyalty oaths• Law enforcement

interrogation of Union leaders, librarians, newspaper reporters, & scientists

• Nobody was immune to investigation.

Effects of McCarthyism

2 Nations Live on the Edge

US History

Brinkmanship

• 1949 – Soviets explode A-Bomb

• Race for the H-Bomb– 67 times more powerful

than Hiroshima

– Nov. 1, 1952 – US 1st to explode H-Bomb

– Aug. 1953 – USSR explodes an H-Bomb

– Thermonuclear weapon

Brinkmanship• New Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower• Sec. Of State John Foster Dulles

– Very anti-communist– Promise to use all US force agnst

communist nations to prevent spread– Promise to go to edge of all out war

– Brinkmanship– Trimmed army & navy – Expanded air force– Buildup of nuclear arsenal– USSR followed suit

• School children practiced air-raid procedures, families built fall out shelters

• Next 30 yrs – fear of nuclear war

Brinkmanship• Sec. of State- John Foster Dulles, helped to shape US

foreign policy; he had been critical of Truman’s “Containment” policy which did not challenge the communist.

• Brinkmanship- Dulles proposed brinkmanship to discourage aggression by threatening to use all US force (the Bomb) against aggressor nations.

• Massive Retaliation- Dulles wanted to increase funding for Nuclear weapons, and cut back spending on conventional forces.

• In 1953, the US developed the Hydrogen bomb

Fallout Shelters were highly advertised in magazines and

newspapers

Cold War Spreads Around the World

• Formation of CIA– Used spies

• Middle East & Latin America– Iran

• Nationalization of oil

• US backed Shah

• 1953 Shah returned to power – oil back in western hands

Warsaw Pact

• 1953 – Stalin Died• USSR recognized West

Germany• 1955 – WG allowed to rearm

& join NATO• Made Soviets fearful so…

– Formation of Warsaw Pact– Defensive alliance against

NATO

• Geneva Summit– Ike offered “open skies”

proposal– Soviets rejected it

Warsaw Pact

• The Warsaw Pact, was an alliance set up under a mutual defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, in 1955.

• The organization was the Soviet response to the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Warsaw Pact

• Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union.

• The 1989 collapse of the Communist governments in Eastern Europe ended the pact.

The Suez War• 1955• GB & US agreed to help

Egypt finance construction of Aswan Dam

• Egyptian Pres. Gamal Abdel-Nasser– Tried to pit US vs. USSR– After find’g out about Nasser’s

deals w/ Soviets• Dulles w/d US offer

• Nasser nationalized the Canal• Fr. & Brits outraged (they

owned it)

                                    

      

The Suez War

• Affected Israel– Did not allow ships bound

for or coming from Israel thru canal

• Israel sent in troops• GB & Fr. Sent in troops

– Seized Med. End of Canal

• UN stepped in & ended fighting

• Fr., GB, & Israel w/d, but Egypt kept canal

Eisenhower Doctrine

• Jan 1957• US would defend the

Middle East agnst attack by any communist country

Hungarian Uprising

• Led by Imre Nagy• Demanded Soviets leave

Hungary• Used Molotov cocktails• Soviets response was harsh

– Nov. 1956– Tanks rolled into Hungary &

killed ~30,000 Hungarians– Nagy – executed – ~200,000 Hungarians fled to

west– US did nothing to help– UN could do nothing due to

Soviet veto

Cold War in the Skies

• After Stalin – new Soviet leader was Nikita Khrushchev– Favored policy of peaceful

coexistence

• Space Race– Oct 4, 1957– Sputnik– US shocked & poured $$$

into space program– Creation of NASA– Jan. 31, 1958 – 1st US

satellite in space

Cold War in the Skies• U-2 Incident

– CIA began secret high altitude flights over USSR

– Used U-2 plane– 1960 US nervous about U-2

program• Why?

– Nobody knew about it– Soviets knew about them in ’58

– Eisenhower wanted flights ended– Dulles authorized 1 last flight

• May 1, 1960• Pilot Gary Powers• Shot down by Soviet planes• Parachuted into Soviet lands

– Caught & jailed for 2 yrs

Renewed Confrontation

• Khrushchev demanded apology & promise to stop flights

• Eisenhower agreed to stop flights but did not apologize

• Khrushchev called off May 16 summit

• B/C of U-2 incident the 60s opened w/ tension as great as ever