The Cold War Korea and 1950s Culture Immediate Post WWII Though FDR passed away during WWII he established what our diplomacy looked like after the war with the atomic bomb Even before his death he transitioned us from isolationist to international cooperation He wanted to use diplomacy to influence the world The US Great Britain and Russia were allies during the war but came out of the war wanting totally different things Great Britain wanted to keep their colonies Russia who spent 20 million and lost millions of people wanted to protect themselves and their borders from Germany by spreading communism to neighboring countries The US wanted to spread capitalism and stop the spread of communism The only thing all these countries agreed on was to establish the United Nations They met at the Yalta Conference where they created the UN and a world bank to help prevent another depression They all agreed to jointly share Germany and the capital city of Berlin Our use of the atomic bomb essentially started the Cold War which was not an actual war but a group of conflicts created out of fear of communism Though the US saw the use of the atomic bomb as a way to win the war Russia saw it as the US showing off its military powers Stalin didn t trust the US at all and though our goal was to control the world Containment Doctrine On February 9 1944 Stalin gave a speech in Moscow where he stated that communism and capitalism are incompatible and that a future war was inevitable until communism took over as the world economic organization Long Telegram after Stalin s speech a US diplomat from Moscow sent an 8 000 word telegram to the State Department outlining the speech and saying that he believed Russians were a threat to the US Because Russia was deeply suspicious of the US he stated that Russia could not foresee any peaceful coexistence with us and would make every effort to weaken our influence on colonized nations and that their next targets would likely be Iran and Turkey He then urged the US to rely on military and economic control rather than diplomacy Domino Theory the belief that after one country turns to communism the surrounding countries will also become communist Truman Doctrine Truman was pressured to respond to Stalin s speech He responds by giving a speech to Congress saying that the world exists in two spheres freedom and slavery either your country is capitalist and you are free or your country is communist and you are a slave He stated that the US would come to the aid of any nation threatened by communism At the time he asked Congress to send money to Greece and Turkey who were both under the threat of communism o Marshall Plan devised by Secretary of State George Marshall this said that we would give 13 billion to countries in Europe who were struggling after the war specifically Greece and Turkey At the time Greece was fighting a Civil War and was having financial troubles so we sent them money to prevent Russia from convincing them to go communist Berlin Blockade June 1948 May 1948 After Germany was divided the US Great Britain France and Russia each got a piece of Berlin The US Great Britain and France decided to merge their three zones together making Russia very angry as they see this as a threat In response Russia sets up a blockade that prevents anyone from traveling to or from Russia s portion of the city keeping people food and supplies from coming in and out The Allies end up having to airlift supplies into Russia s part of Berlin To resolve the problem the countries decide to just split Germany down the middle West Germany is then called the Federal Republic of Germany and the eastern side is called the German Democratic Republic 1949 North Atlantic Treaty Organization NATO in response to Russia creating a blockade throughout Berlin the other three major countries create NATO In order to join NATO a country must be committed to fighting communism In response to this Russia forms the Warsaw Pact Soviet Nuclear Power Russia successfully tests their own atomic bomb Fall of China in 1949 a civil war was happening in China Mao Tse tung was a communist leader who successfully led forces against Chiang Kai Shek China officially becomes a communist nation The Korean War 1950 1953 After WWII Korea was divided essentially in half at the 38th parallel North Korea becomes communist and South Korea doesn t though they re not democratic either On June 24 1950 North Korea invades South Korea The US decided to send troops to South Korea and successfully push the North Koreans back to the 38th parallel Truman decided not to use the atomic bomb in North Korea and also decides not to run for reelection Dwight Eisenhower takes over as President Stalin dies in the March of 1953 and Nikita Khrushev takes office in Russia Khrushev is much more diplomatic than Stalin and doesn t push communism as much There is a stalemate and ceasefire in Korea at the line in July of 1953 This was the first war that resulted purely because of the Cold War US Economy Fair Deal Truman s Policies the Fair Deal follows similar policies as the New Deal but on a smaller scale Truman raises the minimum wage expands Social Security and increased spending on public education and public housing He was the first president to promote universal healthcare though it doesn t pass Congress Truman and Congress didn t agree on a lot of things particularly labor After the war five million Americans were involved in labor strikes and Congress feared union radicals and any connections to socialist ideas Taft Hartley Act 1947 monitored activities of labor unions sought to demobilize the labor movement prohibited radicals from taking leadership roles in labor unions and put limits on laborers abilities to strike Truman vetoed this policy but Congress passed it anyways Consumerism the 1950s is known as an affluent society Much like the 1920s there was a huge boom in consumerism Advertising again aimed at women in the domestic sphere The focus was on what a women s role was and there was a shift back to traditional values from flapper culture and the working women of WWII The ads were sought to reinforce the importance of women quitting their jobs and returning to their homes the idea of the home sphere and the importance of marriage children and family life There was a movement away from sexual deviancy all because we tied flapper culture and the like to communism Not everyone stuck to traditional values and the 50s