Yalta Conference
February, 1945; FDR, Churchill and Stalin; the Black sea resort of Yalta; plan the postwar reconstruction
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Atomic bomb were dropped by the U.S.; August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima; three days later in Nagasaki; lead to Japanese surrender on August 14
Eastern European Governments set up under Soviets – List names and dates of est. of Soviet-influenced state in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia Poland: The People’s Republic of Poland 1944
Romania: The Socialist Republic of Romania 1947
Yugoslavia: Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1943
Hungary: People’s Republic of Hungary 1949
Czechoslovakia: Czechoslovak Socialist Republic 1948
Bulgaria: The People’s Republic of Poland 1946
East German: The German Democratic Republic 1949
Albania: The People’s Socialist Republic of Albania 1943
Iron Curtain speech
Delivered by Winston Churchill; Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946; emphasized the tension between Communist
George F. Kennan, Containment Policy
A career diplomat and expert on Russia; wrote a comprehensive rationale for hard-line foreign policy; predicted that containment would eventually end in “either the breakup or the gradual mellowing of Soviet power”
Respond Soviet with “unalterable counterforce”
Truman Doctrine
The United States would not only resist Soviet military power but also “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”
Marshall Plan
The European Recovery Program; proposed by Secretary of State George C. Marshall; approved in March 1948; $13 billion to restore the economies of sixteen Western European nations
Berlin Airlift
After the Soviet Union Blockaded land routes into West Berlin in June 1948, the Western allies used airplanes to deliver food, fuel, and other necessities to Germans living there; confirmed the wisdom of containment; when challenged, the Russians backed down
NATO established
North Atlantic Treaty Organization; the U.S. joined in 1949; designed to counter a Soviet threat to Western Europe; first time the U.S. pledged to go to war if one of its allies was attacked
Communist takeover of China under Mao Zedong
October 1st, 1949, Mao established the People’s Republic of China; for Republican: Truman and “pro-Communists in the State Department” had “lost” China; for Democrats: who resolved never again to be vulnerable to charges of being soft on communism
Soviet Union has bomb
Nuclear test on 29 August 1949, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR;
1950s
Army-McCarthy hearings – US communist “witch hunt”
1950—1954; February 9, 1950, claiming he had a list of 205 communists living in the U.S.; investigation of the underground agitators; investigate for over two years; arising fear; falling since October of 1953
Korean War
1950—1953; General Douglas MacArthur; supported South Korea; fear the spread of Communism
KGB and CIA rise in power
Central Intelligence Agency; created by the National Security Act of 1947; gather information and perform any activities “related to intelligence affecting the national security” that NSC might authorize.
NSC 68
A top-secret report on the U.S.’s military strength; created by NSC; raising the budget problem in the military buildup & defense force
US sponsors overthrow of Iranian government and Guatemalan government
Iranian govt.: nationalized oil fields and refineries in 1951; the Shah of Iran; committed to nationalism and democracy; CIA agents instigated a coup by bribing army officers and financing demonstrations against the government; 1953
Guatemalan govt.: Jacobo Arvenz; nationalized the program after American company turned them down; CIA organized and supported an opposition army; 1953
Warsaw Pact formed
A mutual defense treaty between eight communist states of Central and Eastern Europe; May 14, 1955; Soviet military reaction to the integration of West Germany into NATO