In 1946 President Harry Truman faced the communist threat with a policy of containment. The United States decided that they must apply “Unalterable counterforce at every point where the Soviets show signs of encroaching upon the interests of a peaceful and stable world.”(Davidson 796) Communism was the major threat to the free world, Truman would have to race to rebuild the economies of war torn Europe before these countries would fall to communist influence. The population of Greece and Turkey could possibly consider a more leftist form of government as a solution to their depressed economies. In 1947 this seemed likely to happen, disastrous winter storms worsened conditions in Western Europe and Great Britain announced that it could no longer give aid to Greece and Turkey. Soon later in 1947 President Truman asked congress for $400 million in military and economic aid. The Soviets were asked to join in this aid program and declined due to fears of American economic domination. Blame for dividing Europe fell on the Soviet Union. American foreign policy was very much anticommunist. To many the free world lay in the balance, the United States must step forward and give aid to the “free people” threatened by the Soviet regime.
Western Europe was the next major front in the cold war. It was said that without American aid communists could seize power in West Germany, Italy, and France. If this were to happen the cold war will be lost to the Soviets. Then the scales would tip to their side and soon the “Reds” will be at our doorstep. In June 1947 Secretary of State George C. Marshall created a plan that would ensure the recovery of Europe. Congress approved the plan.
After the Marshall Plan, Joseph Stalin decided to move in on Hungary. His forces replaced the government with a communist regime, next came Czechoslovakia. The Czech foreign minister Jan Masaryk had fallen to his death from a bathroom window. He died under suspicious circumstances; however the official explanation was suicide. Communism was beginning to spread further. In 1948 Western Germany was blockaded by the Soviets. General Lucius Clay bravely proposed to shoot his way through the blockade. Instead the United States began the Berlin airlift campaign that lasted almost a year. By 1949 the Soviet blockade was lifted, Stalin conceded that he could not prevent the creation of a West Germany.
The United States recruited other countries for the cold war effort. In 1949 the United States and Canada joined with Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This was a mutual defense pact against Soviet aggression. The cold war was begging to heat up in 1949 when the Soviets achieved atomic power, ending the monopoly the United States held. The Soviets had far more man power along its European borders numbering over 260 divisions, the Americans had only one. American generals turned to its nuclear arsenal to counter a possible invasion. In 1949 US war plan “Dropshot” targeted 77 Soviet cities with nuclear missiles, sparing only Moscow and Leningrad to surrender.
China would fall to Communist forces in 1950; when troops under Mao Zedong took Beijing. At home anticommunist hysteria led to a “Loyalty Crusade” Russian spies had infiltrated American soil. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R) led the red scare witch hunt searching for anyone with communist ties. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were found guilty of passing atomic secrets to the Soviets; the two would be executed in June 1953. Hollywood used the House Committee of Un-American Activities (HUAC) to investigate communist influences in the movie industry, future president Ronald Regan was interviewed and labeled a friendly. In April 1950 a new policy NSC-68 was developed to increase defense spending to $50 million a year.
Two months later on June 24, 1950 North Korean communist troops crossed the 38th parallel to liberate South Korea. American troops joined the fight against the commies; however the US will never declare war. General MacArthur pushed the North Koreans back over the 38th parallel and pursued them straight into China. The Chinese would not tolerate an American presence on their boarders and attacked with 400,000 troops. Within three weeks UN forces were forced back to the 38th parallel. President Truman lost popularity because of the war and the resignation of General MacArthur, a new President Dwight Eisenhower came into office. On July 27, 1953 the communists and the US signed an armistice ending the “police action” in Korea. Communism was contained, yet hostility remained.
With the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 a new successor Nikita Khrushchev moderated some of the excesses during his predecessors reign. In October 1956 Hungarians rose up against the puppet regime put in place by Stalin and failed when Russian tanks rolled into Budapest. The Arab Alliance was formed by Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser against the new Israeli State, which led to the withdrawal of US aid drove Nasser to seize the British owned Suez Canal Company. Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959. In the sixties the Berlin wall was constructed, President Kennedy approved the Bay of Pigs Invasion with 1400 man army which failed on April 1961. Vietnam started in 1963 and ended in 1973, the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred in October 1962, a point when the human race can the closest to destroying themselves. Tensions between the two superpowers peaked at this time. Both sides lived in fear of a nuclear apocalypse. These volatile years gave way to the space race which on 1969 was won with American mission Apollo 11 landing on the moon.
The cold war cooled down some in the seventies and ended finally in December 1988 when Russian Leader Mikhail Gorbachev spoke in the UN of a new world order. The Berlin wall came down in 1989, and the U.S.S.R. collapsed in 1991. Irreconcilable differences divided the two superpowers. Over 40 years of bitter fighting gave way to a more united world, a world in which media not propaganda educated its citizens. No longer are we taught to resent communists and live in fear of nuclear destruction. Now Russia exports oil and other commodities into US markets, it seems that capitalism prevailed.
