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Cold War - Coggle Diagram
Cold War
Containment
Had a lot of hot wars when communism would arise we would go and shut it down, these were basically proxy wars for Russia.
Truman Doctrine: People "prepared to self-govern" with Democracy. This somewhat conflicts with the idea of Containment. If the people democratically elect a dictator, the US should leave it alone.. but the US was the one who determined what was a democracy (we were obligated to spread democracy)
An concerted effort to limit the spread of Communism. Before/During the war: Russia was the only communist nation. After the war: Russia, China and practically all of East Europe is now communist. (Truman nervous about rate of spread)
This is when the CIA was set up, it's like the FBI but overseas. Also NATO was set up, which was a self defense pact against Russia. After NATO Russia made their own pact against Eastern Europe,Warsaw Pact.
Marshall Plan
With the Marshall plan we were giving aid to not only Europe but also to our former enemies. (Germany & Italy)
We helped not only out allies because we didn't want Russia to help them and communism spreading, and also helped our economy.
A multimillion dollar plan to provide non-military aid: food, shelter, infrastructure, etc to all of Europe. (Largest food distribution project ever)
Red Scare
HUAAC
Designed to uncover Communists spies within the government, work unions, and other social/liberal groups (anything that hinted at communism). Quickly turned into a "Witch Hunt". No lawyer given to the accused and didn't know who accused them.
If people didn't want to give names they would either go to prison or become blacklisted. It was a secret list passed around the industry and no one would hire you.
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Joseph McCarthy
McCarthy, a corrupt politician, created an Anti-Communist movement to distract from his massive tax evasion.
McCarthy accused Jorge Marshall and Eisenhower of being a communist and the army didn't take it so good and took McCarthy to court for it. At the trial McCarthy turned into jello
McCarthy was a junior senator of Wisconsin. Was an alcoholic, man whore and a pathological liar.
McCarthy was voted against, however, his support within America held steadily at 50% (insanely popular)
Effects
Increases paranoia of being accused of being a communist. After being accused people were blacklisted and some killed them selves because of it.
As far as HUAAC/McCarthy and civilian effects, there were no convictions... ultimately was a wasted effort that only hurt Americans
Overall, people who used to critize the government learned to keep quiet :(
Conferences
Potsdam
What do we do about Germany? We don't want them to pay reparations because that's pretty much how WW2 started, with Germany in debt. We decide to section off parts of Germany. #East vs West
At Potsdam question was raised of what to do with Japan. Truman commented that if Japan doesn't surrender they will be annihilated.
Roosevelt was a very good with words and also a people person, energetic. While Truman was very blunt, straight to the point, he wasn't very good with negotiating.
Yalta
The big question: "What do we do with Eastern Europe?" Basically, Russia is the main force remaining in E. Europe after German surrender.
Churchill trades Greece for Eastern Europe, promises to leave them alone in Eastern Europe if they leave Greece alone. Also promises free election in Russia (never happened) and to keep Poland.
Big 3 US (Roosevelt), Britain (Churchill), Russia (Stallin)