Section 2: The Cold War Abroad and at Home

 Objectives:  Explain how the Marshall Plan, Berlin airlift, and the creation of NATO helped achieve American goals in postwar Europe  Assess the impact of Communist advances on American foreign policy  Summarize the effects of the cold war on American life  Main Idea:  As the cold war intensified, American policy focused on rebuilding and unifying Western Europe. At home, emotionally charged spy cases raised fears of Communist infiltration into American society and government

 Marshall Plan (European Recovery Program) called for European nations to draw up a plan for economic recovery, the U.S would supply the financing  Unveiled in 1947, this plan responded to concerns of growing Communist power (Containment)  Reflected the American idea of creating strong democracies and opening new markets

 Soviet Union was invited to participate, but refused and pressured satellite nations to refuse  Soviets attacked the plan as a way of the U.S. “buying” its way into European affairs  Seventeen Western European countries joined: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and West Germany  1948 Marshall Plan was approved, over four years $13 billion dollars in grants and loans were given to Western Europe

 By 1948 it was evident that the Soviet Union was not interested in reunifying Germany  The West responded by preparing to unify their three occupation zones (Federal Republic of Germany)  The Soviets in turn created the (German Democratic Republic)  West Berlin however, was a part of German Democratic Republic)  Hundreds of thousands Eastern Europeans fled from Communist dominated nations to East Berlin, making their way to West Berlin and into the U.S., Canada, or Western Europe

 In 1948 Stalin decided to close off escape routes into West Berlin, the blockade threatened many citizens with starvation  Truman did not want to give up West Berlin, resulting in the Berlin airlift, moving supplies into Berlin by plane  This lasted for 15 months, over 200,000 flights, and 13,000lbs of supplies a day  Blockage ended in 1949; Berlin and Germany however remain a focal point of East-West conflict

 Thought the U.N. would/could protect nations and maintain peace.  Soviets’ veto many policies since they are on U.N. security council.  Created new international council (NATO)  Canada, U.S., Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal all become members  Ensures mutual military assistance, “Collective Security”  1955 Soviet Union does the same with the Warsaw Pact, aligning itself with satellite nations

 2 Events  Russian testing of an atomic bomb and Communist forces take China  Russian Testing of Atomic Bomb  Set U.S. in a panic  U.S. response; test Hydrogen bomb  Organizes the Federal Civil Defense Administration

 As WWII came to close; Communist and government forces increase fighting  Slowly Communists take control, force Jiang to Taiwan  Continued as Republic of China on the island of Taiwan  The situation remains the same until this day