Essential Question: What were the principal elements of the foreign policy called containment,
and what major conflicts shaped the Cold War?
I. Creating a National Security State, 1945-1949
A. Onset of the Cold War
1. Many historical interpretations
a. Traditional interpretation blames Soviets and asserts that U.S.
had to take the hardest line possible
b. Revisionists fault US for not working harder to diminish Soviet
security fears
c. Other scholars say assigning blame serves little or no purpose
2. Role of Harry S. Truman was crucial
a. Sharp manner a real contrast to FDR�s conciliatory posture
b. Came to rely on hard-line advisers
3. Atomic bomb was immediate source of Soviet-American friction
a. Baruch Plan, 1946
-Would have required other nations to halt their programs
while allowing US to keep its atomic monopoly until an
international authority could be established
-Soviets refused to go along
B. Containment abroad: The Truman Doctrine, Mar 1947
1. Effort to combat communist insurgency in Greece
a. Congress approved $400 mil. in assistance to Greece and Turkey
2. Tied US security to fate of �free peoples� everywhere
3. Gave voice to policy of �containment�
C. The National Security Act, the Marshall Plan (1947), and the Berlin Crisis
1. National Security Act of 1947 created several new bureaucracies
a. Defense Department, National Security Council, CIA
2. Marshall Plan linked economic policies in West. Europe to containment
a. US funds would be used to rebuild and revitalize West. Europe
3. Key to European recovery was stability in Germany
a. In June 1948, Britain, France, and the United States announced a
plan for currency reform, a first step toward merging their zones
of occupation in Berlin
b. Soviets alarmed at prospect of revitalized Germany so they cut
off highway, rail, and water access to West Berlin
c. Western allies responded with airlift to resupply West Berlin
d. Two Germanys (East and West) and the divided city of Berlin
emerged as symbols of Cold War divisions
II. The Korean War
A. NSC-68 (blueprint for Cold War foreign policy)
1. Predicted global struggle between US and USSR, and urged a
full-scale offensive to enlarge US power for conflict with USSR
2. NSC 68 seemed to be confirmed when communist North Korea
attacked South Korea in June 1950
a. Administration saw it as communist aggression, directed from
Moscow
b. US took case of North�s aggression to UN and won approval for
sending a peacekeeping force to Korea
c. US goals confused from start: push communists back above 38th
parallel or reunify country under South�s leadership?
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Chapter 27: The Age of Containment 1946-1954 (sec 2)
Essential Question: How did the foreign policy of containment affect domestic policy and American life?
III. Korea and containment
A. War focused US policy more narrowly on anticommunism
1. US acquired military bases around world
2. Dramatic increase in military budget
3. General US opposition to all movements that were communist
4. US moved rapidly during this period to stake out a military presence
IV. Containment at Home
A. Anticommunism and the labor movement
1. Labor unrest made unions a large target of anticommunist legislators
a. Truman took hard line against labor strikes, and they subsided
2. Labor-Management Relations (Taft-Hartley) Act, 1947
a. Limited a union�s power to conduct boycotts
b. Prevented unions from calling strikes that president judged
against national interest
c. Required union leaders to swear that they were not members of
the communist party or other �subversive� organizations
B. The �Great Fear�
1. Foreign policy setbacks in 1949 and 1950 renewed fears of spy rings
and communists at work in the US government
2. Spy case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg became symbol of Cold War
a. Convicted of espionage and executed in 1953
3. Courts came to accept argument that the American Communist Party
was the arm of an international conspiracy
4. McCarran Internal Security Act (1950) called for detaining, during
times of national emergency, of all alleged subversives in special camps
C. McCarthyism
1. Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy became biggest critic of Truman
administration on anticommunist question
2. Claimed that hundreds of communists were working in State Depart.
3. Helped to explain foreign policy failures of Truman administration
V. Truman�s Fair Deal
A. Postwar debate about role of government in society
1. Many Americans called for expansive government powers
2. Others denounced big government as an intrusion into private affairs
B. The Employment Act of 1946 and the promise of economic growth
1. Called for �maximum� employment, not �full�
2. Acknowledged that private enterprise, not government, bore primary
responsibility for economic decision making
3. Created the Council of Economic Advisors to help formulate long-term
policy recommendations for economic growth
C. Shaping the Fair Deal
1. Outlined in Truman�s inaugural address in 1949
2. Extension of New Deal programs like Social Security and minimum
wage laws
3. Enactment of civil rights and national health care legislation
4. Federal aid to education
5. Expensive programs (i.e. national health care) failed or were scaled
back