Topic 12: The Cold War

 Topic 12: The Cold War

1. Postwar reconstruction: The Bretton Woods conference
2. Causal Theories of the Cold War: traditional; revisionist; post-revisionist
3. Formation of the Cold War state
4. Containment and NSC68
5. Decolonization and the formation of the Third World
6. Why did the cold war become “hot” in the Third World?
7. Cold War domestic culture: containment as a metaphor
8. Liberal consensus; LBJ and the “Great Society”

Hegemonic Power - most dominant power in a political sense

-what was the Bretton Woods Agreement?  What concerns shaped the planners of the postwar globe at this time?

Build this global order based on free trade

1. Fear of another world war, return of global depression

2. Postwar global vision based upon an open market system

3. Features of the "Bretton Woods System:

This would reverse protectionist policies, firm commitment to international trade, create a stable money exchange & peg it on the US money exchange. 

Establishment of INF & World Bank. - there to help reconstruct the war-torn countries

-Describe features of the "Cold War State". 

What was the foreign policy of  'containment' and what are some of its assumptions?  

- Truman Doctrine - 

- Marshall Plan -

- "Containment" - Gorge Kennet, developed the policy - realization that we needed to contain the spread of socialism

      - believed that Soviet Communism is inherently expansionist. Going to cause a domino effect & we had to create a response. embargos     

- NSC-68 (Rather than the strategy of 'detente') - Nitzy - The US will adopt containment of soviet aggression where ever they see it. (1949 civil war in China)

-explain why the 3rd world was where the Cold War become "hot"? (discuss proxy wars; patron-client relations)

These are former colonies of the European empire

These 3rd world nations become their own nations

Proxy Wars - in 3rd war nations there is a war between US and Russia. US and Russia are trying to convince these 3rd war nations to come to their side.

-Winning the hearts and minds - convince these nations through ideology to take democracy over communism. (Viet Nam)

- "Patron-Client" Regimes - regimes promised to back the US and join the 1st world war. But these countries were often dictatorships and very cruel to their people. (How we set up our relationships with these countries)

• Philippines
• Chile - Pino Che
• Iran - Shaw of Iran

-what are some theories relating to the cause of the Cold War?

Iron Curtain - barrier countries serve as a buffer zone

-in what way can "containment" be used to describe American domestic society during the Cold War?

Historical terms (also found in American Yawp):

'winning the hearts and minds" - convince these nations through ideology to take democracy over communism. (Viet Nam)

mutually-assured destruction (MAD) - nuclear annihilation by both sides 

Truman Doctrine - Truman, on March 12, 1947, announced $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey, where “terrorist activities . . . led by Communists” jeopardized “democratic” governance. With Britain “reducing or liquidating its commitments in several parts of the world, including Greece,” it fell on the United States, Truman said, “to support free peoples . . . resisting attempted subjugation by . . . outside pressures.” The so-called Truman Doctrine became a cornerstone of the American policy of containment designed to stop Soviet expansion anywhere in the world.

Marshall Plan - The European Recovery Program (ERP), popularly known as the Marshall Plan, pumped enormous sums of capital into Western Europe. From 1948 to 1952 the United States invested $13 billion toward reconstruction while simultaneously loosening trade barriers. To avoid the postwar chaos that had followed in the wake World War I, the Marshall Plan was designed to rebuild Western Europe, open markets, and win European support for capitalist democracies. The Soviets countered with their rival Molotov Plan, a symbolic pledge of aid to Eastern Europe. Polish leader Józef Cyrankiewicz was rewarded with a five-year, $450 million trade agreement from Russia for boycotting the Marshall Plan. Stalin was jealous of Eastern Europe. When Czechoslovakia received $200 million in American assistance, Stalin summoned Czech foreign minister Jan Masaryk to Moscow. Masaryk later recounted that he “went to Moscow as the foreign minister of an independent sovereign state” but “returned as a lackey of the Soviet Government.” Stalin exercised ever tighter control over Soviet “satellite” countries in central and Eastern Europe.

Truman's Fair Deal -

GI Bill - Signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 22, 1944, this act, also known as the G.I. Bill, provided World War II veterans with funds for college education, unemployment insurance, and housing. It put higher education within the reach of millions of veterans of WWII and later military conflicts.

restrictive covenants -

Housing Act - FHA guarantees loans for the purchase of homes

McCarthyism - anti-communism, claims has a list of communists that are working in the government. Caused hysteria that lead to witchhunts

House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) - an organization that accused several people in our country of communism. More famous for causing the Hollywood ten. 

baby-boomer generation - 1945-1964 high reproduction rates

Return of domestic ideology - trying to contain certain forces that will be disruptive to the traditional roles of Gender and family. To stave off socialism in the country. Women return to the home and men go back to their jobs. Many feared women would not want to stop working. Promoted ideology of gender roles and this notion of the family. 

the formation of suburbia - idea of going back home after the war and building families

National Security Act - now becomes foreign policy, CIA, National Security Council.