Unit 5, Part 4

The Problems The Problems

with Peacewith Peace

I.I. International Peace EffortsInternational Peace Effortsa. Organizing the UN

• April 1945; delegate from 50 nations meet in San Francisco to charter the UN

• Charter ratified by Senate July 1945

b. Organization of the UN• General Assembly – major legislative

organization, each member = 1 vote• Security Council; peacekeeping body• Secretary General heads the UN• International Court of Justice

c. Opposition to the UN• “Take the United States out of the UN and the

UN out of the United States• Senator Joseph McCarthy (Wisconsin) saw it as

a resting place for Communist spies

d. WWII Refugees• One million in Europe in refugee camps• Many would be killed if they went “home” others

had no homes to go home to• UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)

established to deal with problem• Mrs. Roosevelt – refugees was a human rights

issue, not a government issue

II. Communist Expansion /Containment in Europe

a. Yalta Conference, Feb. 1945• Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill meet for postwar

agreements• Stalin agreed for postwar elections is Soviet

Bloc countries, but…never happened• Russia enters war three month after V-J Day• Some charge FDR was too sickly to work out a

good deal, but others disagree

b. Potsdam Conference, July-Aug 1945

• Truman meets with Stalin & Churchill• Issued a declaration calling for the

unconditional surrender of Japan…or face utter destruction

• Democratic government set up in Germany• War Crimes trials to begin • Zones of occupation set up in Berlin, Germany

c. Origins of the Cold War• Hostility and tension between the US and USSR,

increasing strategic arms build up, at times, became a shooting war

• Stalin establishes communist regimes in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, threatens the governments of Greece & Turkey

• Containment – US attempts to stop the spread of Communism in Eastern Europe

• Iron Curtain – The ideological wall of separation between NATO and the Warsaw Pact nations

http://www.historywiz.com/originscoldwar.htm

d. The Truman Doctrine• Harry S. Truman concerned about the 13,000

Communist lead guerillas that entered Greece and Turkey

• “I believe it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures” Harry S. Truman

• Asks for $400 billion to help Greece and Turkey• America continues to aid any country resisting

the Communist influence

e. The Berlin Crisis (airlift) 1948-49• Berlin divided into East and West after WWII• Stalin determined to oust the Western

leadership, blockades supply routes into West Berlin

• For almost 1 year, allied forces flew supplies into West Berlin

• Over 2 million tons of food, 100 million miles flown to supply the closed off city

F. NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization (April 4, 1949)

• “Hot War” narrowly averted in Berlin• A pledge of collective support from Western

democracies • US, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland,

Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, UK.

• An attack on one, was an attack on all

g. The Warsaw Pact (1955)• United the Soviet Union with six allies in Eastern

Europe – Poland, East Germany, Bulgaria Czechoslovakia & Hungary, Romania

h. USSR explodes an A-Bomb• September 22, 1949, Truman announces the

Soviets have detonated an A-bomb• Begins widespread build up of arms and US

forces across Europe

I. The Cold War gets “Hot”• North Korea attacks South Korea• Allege an attack from the South• UN (15 nations) and US troops dispatched to

South Korea• Gen. Douglas MacArthur drives into North

Korea, but right into a trap with “Chinese Volunteers”, pushed back into South Korea

• MacArthur drove the North back and wanted to invade China

• But a war with China would leave Europe open for Soviet expansion

j. True Civilian Control of the Military

• Truman decides invading China, not the right move, MacArthur appeals to Congress, also wanted to help nationalist Chiang Kai-shek’s forces retake mainland China

• Truman Fires MacArthur• Truman says we are trying to prevent a third

world war, fighting a limited war• This war still going on, just an armistice, settle

on the 38th Parallel • July 27, 1953, actual peace treaty never signed

The End of Part 4The End of Part 4