Important! Make up mid-term will be this afternoon at 3:30 Meet at my office, Wilson This will be the only opportunity for a make-up midterm!

World War III ( ) Usually called the Cold War, but this falsely suggests there were no military battles: In fact, many millions will die in armed confrontations in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and dozens of other “hot wars” around the globe American, Soviet, Chinese and other soldiers will often directly participate In other cases, will provide the rationale and the funds for wars BUT: A “cold war” in the sense that the U.S. and USSR never directly went to war Sadly for many Third World Nations, their lands became the devastated battlefields of the two “super” powers But thankfully did (narrowly) avoid a Nuclear Third World War

The Big Questions: Could the Cold War have been avoided? Which side bears the greatest responsibility for the war? Was the price paid—in lives and money—worth the results? How did the international conflict influence domestic American politics and culture, and vice-versa? Were McCarthyism and the Red Scare mainly a result of cynical political manipulations? Did the post-war permanent war-time economy need some sort of enemy, whether real or invented?

The Roots of World War III

A Soviet poster memorializing (and romanticizing) the first anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution

Vladimir Lenin speaking to the masses in 1918, recruiting soldiers for the Red Army to fight in the Russian Civil War

Lenin believes revolution must spread to industrialized nations if the USSR is to survive; Creates COMINTERN to spur global revolution

Poster suggesting the early Soviet dream of a global communist revolution

The ruthless dictator and mass murderer, Joseph Stalin, iron-fisted ruler of the USSR from The ruthless dictator and mass murderer, Joseph Stalin, iron-fisted ruler of the USSR from A man Karl Marx would likely have despisedA man Karl Marx would likely have despised More interested in preserving and consolidating his own power than in spreading communist revolutionsMore interested in preserving and consolidating his own power than in spreading communist revolutions

Poster celebrating rapid Soviet industrialization

Churchill, Roosevelt, and their good buddy Stalin, 1945

The Soviet Red Army takes Berlin, April 1945

George Kennan, one of the architects of containment and believer in “realpolitik”

Soviet domination of Eastern Europe: Inevitable “realpolitik” or a cowardly failure of western resolve?

The Big Three plan the shape of post- war Europe at the Yalta Conference, a resort on the Crimean Sea, February 1945

Truman after his upset victory in 1948

“Dangerous period” created by the atomic bomb, editorial cartoon from 1948

George Kennan’s Containment Soviet Union NOT a serious military threat Stalin primarily defensive and only opportunistically expansionist Soviet domination of Eastern Europe is regrettable, but also understandable and probably inevitable However, USSR is a real political and ideological threat Often attractive to recently liberated (or would-be liberated) western colonial nations like Vietnam and China Must isolate USSR, resist spread of Soviet communism, primarily through economic and diplomatic means Use military force only as a last resort However, Truman mistakenly equated USSR with Nazi Germany and adopted a more simple-minded and militaristic approach to containment Who was right? How great was the Soviet threat?

Soldiers in Greek Civil War, c. 1947

Text of speech laying out the “Truman Doctrine,” March 12, 1947

Divided Germany and Berlin

Berlin Airlift (June ‘48-May ’49)

NATO as a symbol of a recovering world North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1949) Means to militarily resist the numerically superior Red Army Great Britain, Canada, Iceland, Finland, Norway, France, Italy, Portulgal, Netherlands, and later West Germany and Turkey Russians understandably viewed as provocatively aggressive

Walter Lippmann on the cover of Time magazine Argued Stalin/USSR primarily protective rather than expansionist Warned America’s blind support of anti-communist regimes would result in alliances with anti- democratic dictators

The Cold War Mentality: At least in part because of Truman’s fear mongering, many Americans mistakenly believed: Soviet Union was absolutely bent on world domination, not internal security from a hostile and largely capitalist world All communist revolutions around the globe could ultimately be traced back to Soviet agitators and Soviet support All communist revolutions were identically anti- democratic and repressive, and thus by definition could never be a reflection of the democratic will of the indigenous people

Mao Tse- tung and his Little Red Book

The Chinese nationalist, Chiang Kai-shek

Mao and Stalin deeply distrusted each other and had very different ideas of the meaning and global future of Communism Important Point: To the dispassionate, non-ideological observer, it became clear by late 1940s that there was no monolithic world communism Variety of nationalist leaders borrowed parts of communist doctrines they found useful, or invented their own versions such as “Maoism” To the narrow-minded ideologue, though, all communism was the same and ultimately linked back to Moscow

Korea Divided: Soviets create a pro- Communist regime in the North under Kim Il Sung The Americans create a pro-western, capitalist regime in the South under Syngman Rhee

Propaganda poster of Kim Il Sung in a worshipful North Korea

Syngman Rhee, the American-backed leader of South Korea Notoriously right wing and resistant to democratic elections

Map of the Korean War in 1950

General Douglas MacArthur with his iconic corn-cob pipe

Map of the Korean War in 1950

American soldiers in Korea; one of the first integrated U.S. armies

Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy who calls Truman “a son of bitch” and suggests the President is soft on communism The Second Red Scare

The Hollywood Ten and some supporters

Leading Hollywood stars like Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart protesting HUAC’s corrosive censorship of the film industry, though many later backed down

McCarthy meets with the Wheeling, WVa, Republican Women’s Club, February 1950

Start of a telegram from McCarthy to Truman repeating claims of significant and dangerous communist infiltration into the federal government

Klaus Fuchs Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Alger Hiss Some Real Spies—none of them identified by Joseph McCarthy

Total number of previously unknown communist party members, sympathizers, cheerleaders, water- boys, pastry chefs, etc., uncovered by McCarthy’s witch hunts? 0

Wisconsin citizens mesmerized by McCarthy’s dire warnings of communist infiltration

The Appeal of McCarthyism Suggested US foreign policy failures (“Who Lost China?”) were not the fault of wrongheaded policies, but rather because of spies in the State Department Allowed Americans to ignore the reality that many former colonial nations did not trust the US or Europe (or capitalism), and thus were tempted by the promises of Communism To understand this reality, Americans would have had to grapple with the uncomfortable truth that their nation had not always stood on the side of freedom, democracy and self-determination Appealed to the Manichean, simple-minded view of the world as a struggle between good and evil, lightness and darkness Opposite of the complex geopolitical and historically grounded understanding and approach Kennan argued for

America’s Permanent Global Military Responding to charges of being soft on communism, Republican attacks, and his own ideology, Truman begins massive permanent military build up Army increased by 50%, air groups doubled Defense spending quadruples: $95 million in 1948 to $408 million in 1952 In part because of Korean War But remains at more than $300 million throughout the decade Begins constructing American military bases around the globe: Rearm Western Germany and station US troops Japanese allowed defensive rearmament Secure new bases in exchange for economic support in nations of suspect democratic credentials: Morocco, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and fascist Spain Increase aid to other western powers supposedly fighting communism around the globe: Most notably, support French attempts to reassert colonial power in Indochina— better know today as Vietnam

First hydrogen bomb explosion, Marshall Islands, November 1, 1952: at 10.4 megatons, 525 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb The Age of Anxiety

Questions?