APUSH Cold War & Vietnam

The Middle East

- *Israel*: May 1948, proclaimed independence. Truman recognized new Jewish homeland the next day. Created some issues; Palestinian Arabs, unwilling to accept being displaced from what they considered their own country, joined with Israel's Arab neighbors and fought determinedly against the new state in 1948 -- the first of several Arab-Israeli wars. - *Egypt*: Nationalistic gov't under leadership of General Gamal Abdel Nasser. Nasser began to develop a trade relationship with the USSR in the early 1950s. - *Suez Crisis*: In 1956, to punish Nasser for his friendliness toward the communists, Dulles withdrew American offers to assist in building the great Aswan Dam across the Nile. A week later, Nasser retaliated by seizing control of the Suez Canal from the British, saying that he would use the income from it to build the dam himself. In October 2956, Israeli forces attacked Egypt. The next day the British and French landed troops in the Suez to drive the Egyptians from the canal. Dulles and Eisenhower feared that the Suez crisis would drive the Arab states toward the USSR and precipitate a new world war. The U.S. helped pressure the French and British to withdraw and helped persuade Israel to agree to a truce with Egypt.

Guatemala

- *Jacobo Arbenz*: In 1954, the Eisenhower administration ordered the CIA to help topple the new, leftist gov't of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala, a regime that Dulles (responding to the entreaties of the United Fruit Company, a major investor in Guatemala fearful of Arbenz) argued was potentially communist.

China

- *Mao Zedong*: In control of 1/4 of China's population by 1945 - *Chiang Kai-Shek*: Generally friendly to the U.S., but his government was corrupt and incompetent with feeble popular support. Lived in almost complete isolation, unable or unwilling to face the problems threatening China. Since 1927, his nationalistic government had become engaged in a prolonger and bitter rivalry with the communist armies of Mao Zedong. Truman decided he had no choice but to reluctantly support Chiang. As the struggle between the nationalists and communists erupted into a full-scale war, the U.S. continued pumping money and weapons to Chiang, even as it became clear that the cause was lost.. Truman began considering an alternative to China: Japan.

1968

- *McCarthy*: Nominated by Democrats for 1968 primaries. A brilliantly orchestrated campaign by young volunteers in the NH primary produced a startling showing by McCarthy in March; he nearly defeated the president (LBJ). - *Kennedy*: Robert Kennedy turned down Democrat nomination in 1968 primaries. After McCarthy's success in NH primary, Kennedy entered the campaign. Brought his own substantial strength among blacks, poor people, and workers to the antiwar cause. After LBJ withdrew from presidential contest, Kennedy quickly established himself as the champion of the Democratic primaries, winning one election after another. - *Johnson*: Polls showed LBJ trailing badly in the next scheduled primary, in Wisconsin. March 1968, LBJ went on television to announce a limited halt in the bombing of North Vietnam -- his first major concession to the antiwar forces -- and, much more surprising, his withdrawal from the presidential contest. Many turbulent events: MLK Jr. and Robert Kennedy assassinated in April and June, respectively. In August, demonstrators and police clashed in a bloody riot in the streets of Chicago -- hundreds of protesters injured.

Indochina

- France: Ever since 1945, France had been attempting to restore its authority over Vietnam, its one-time colony, which it had been forced to abandon to the Japanese toward the end of the WWII. Opposite the French were the powerful nationalist forces of Hi Chi Minh, determined to win independence for their nation

Truman Doctrine

1947, President Truman's policy of providing economic and military aid to any country threatened by communism or totalitarian ideology. Mainly helped Greece and Turkey -- helped ease Soviet pressure on Turkey and helped the Greek gov't defeat the communist insurgents. - *Greece & Turkey*: In Greece, communist forces were threatening the pro-Western government; the British had announced they could no longer provide assistance. In Turkey, Stalin was trying to win control over the vital sea lanes to the Mediterranean. These challenges resulted in Truman's decision to create the Truman Doctrine.

Pentagon Papers

A 7,000-page top-secret United States government report on the history of the internal planning and policy-making process within the government itself concerning the Vietnam War. Leaked to the press by formed Defense official Daniel Ellsberg. Confirmed what many had long believed: the gov't had been dishonest, both in reporting the military progress of the war and in explaining its own motives for American involvement. The administration went to court to suppress the documents, but the Supreme Court ruled that the press had the right to publish them.

NSC-68

A National Security Council report issued in 1950 which outlined a shift in the American position for foreign policy. Argued that the U.S. could no longer rely on other nations to take the initiative in resisting communism. It must itself establish firm and active leadership of the noncommunist world. And it must move to stop communist expansion virtually anywhere it occurred, regardless of the intrinsic strategic or economic value of the lands in question. Also called for a major expansion of American military power, with a defense budget almost 4x the previously projected figure.

Totalitarian

A form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator (not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition etc.)

Ho Chi Minh Trail

A network of paths used as a military route by North Vietnam to send supplies to the Vietcong in South Vietnam.

"Peace with Honor"

A phrase U.S. President Richard M. Nixon used in a speech , to describe the Paris Peace Accord to end the Vietnam War. Nixon's policy of withdrawing from Vietnam, but with honor

"Iron Curtain"

A political barrier that isolated the peoples of Eastern Europe after WWII, restricting their ability to travel outside the region

"Domino Theory"

A theory that if one nation comes under Communist control, then neighboring nations will also come under Communist control.

AID, Peace Corps

AID = Agency for International Development, inaugurated by Kennedy to coordinate foreign aid. Kennedy already established the Peace Corps, which sent young American volunteers abroad to work in developing areas.

National Liberation Front (NLF)

Aka Viet Cong -- an organization closely allied with the North Vietnamese gov't. In 1960, under orders from Hanoi, and with both material and manpower support from North Vietnam, the NLF began military operations in the south. This marked the beginning of the Second Indochina War. By 1961, NLF had established effective control over many areas of the countryside.

Cuba

American corporations controlled almost all the island's natural resources and cornered over half the vital sugar crop. American organized-crime syndicates controlled much of Havana's lucrative hotel and nightlife businesses. - *Batista*: Ruled Cuba as a military dictator since 1952, when with American assistance he had toppled a more moderate gov't. - *Castro*: In 1957, a popular movement of resistance to the Batista regime began to gather strength under the leadership of Fidel Castro. In Jan. 1959, with Batista having fled to exile in Spain, Castro marched into Havana and established a new gov't. Castro soon began implementing drastic policies of land reform and expropriating foreign-owned businesses and resources. Cuban-American relations deteriorated rapidly as a result. When Castro began accepted assistance from the USSR in 1960, the U.S. cut back the "quota" by which Cuba could export sugar to America t a favored price. Early in 1961, as one of its last acts, the Eisenhower administration severed diplomatic relations with Castro. Isolated by the U.S., Castro soon cemented an alliance with the USSR.

McCarran Security Act of 1950

Among other restrictions on "subversive activity," required that all communist organizations register with the gov't and publish their records. Truman vetoed the bill but Congress overrode it.

Bay of Pigs

April 17, 1961: 2,000 armed exiles (of small army of anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Central America trained by CIA beginning in the Eisenhower administration) landed at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, expecting first American air support and then a spontaneous uprising by the Cuban people on their behalf. They received neither, At the last minute as it became clear that things were going badly, Kennedy withdrew the air support, fearful of involving the U.S. too directly in the invasion. The expected uprising did not occur. Instead, well-armed Castro forces easily crushed the invaders, and within two days the entire mission had collapsed.

Douglas MacArthur

Argued US was really fighting China and should really attack Chinese; if not through an actual invasion, then by bombing communist forces massing north of the Chinese border. Indicated his unhappiness in a public letter to House Republican leader Joseph W. Martin. His position had wide popular support. Truman relieved MacArthur of his command. 69% of the American people supported MacArthur, much public critcism of Truman

Election of 1968

At the end of a difficult year, the presidential election of 1968 was held. Republican candidate Richard Nixon appealed to a nation tired of violence and unrest as the "law and order" candidate. Nixon vowed he would end the Vietnam War and win "peace with honor." Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey, Johnson's vice president, seemed a continuation of the old politics. George Wallace third party candidate. In the end, Richard Nixon won.

Gulf of Tonkin

August 1964, LBJ announced that American destroyers on patrol in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin had been attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats. Later information raised serious doubts as to whether to administration reported the attacks accurately. At the time, however, virtually no one questioned Johnson's portrayal of the incident as a serious act of aggression or his insistence that the U.S. must respond. Congress hurriedly passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - *Resolution "attrition"*: authorized the president to "take all necessary measures" to protect American forces and "prevent further aggression" in Southeast Asia. The resolution became an open-ended legal authorization for escalation of the conflict. Attrition = premised on the belief that U.S. could inflict more damage on the enemy than the enemy could absorb. Attrition strategy ultimately failed because the North Vietnamese were willing to commit many more soldiers and resources to the conflict than the U.S. had expected.

Berlin Wall

August, 1961; East German gov't, complying with directives from Moscow, constructed a wall between East and West Berlin. Guards fired on those who continued to try to escape. For nearly 30 years, the Berlin Wall served as the most potent physical symbol of the conflict between the communist and noncommunist worlds.

HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee)

Beginning in 1948, held widely publicized investigations to prove that, under Democratic rule, the gov't had tolerated (if not actually encourageD) communist subversion. Committee first turned to the movie industry, arguing that communists had infiltrated Hollywood and tainted American films with propoganda. - *Alger Hiss*: former high-ranking member of the State Department. - *Whittaker Chambers*: self-avowed former communist agent, now a conservative editor at Time magazine, told the committee that Hiss had passed classified State Department documents to him in 1938 and 1938. When Hiss sued him for slander, Chambers produced microfilms of the documents (called the "pumpkin papers," because Chambers had kept them hidden in a pumpkin in his vegetable garden). Hiss could not be tried for espionage because of the statute of limitations (which protects individuals from prosecution for most crimes after 7 years have passed). - *Richard Nixon*: freshman Republican congressman from California and member of HUAC. Because of him, Hiss convicted of perjury and served several years in prison.

Anti-War Movement

By end of 1967, American students opposed to the war had become a significant political force. Enormous peace marches in NY, DC, and other cities drew broad public attention to the antiwar movement. A growing number of journalists, particularly reporters who had spent time in Vietnam, helped sustain the movement with their frank revelations about the brutality and apparent futility of the war. - *Fulbright*: Senator Fulbright, chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, turned against the war and in January 1966 began to stage highly publicized and occasionally televised congressional hearings to air criticisms of it. Other members of Congress joined Fulbright in opposing Johnson's policies.

Cambodia

By the end of 1969, Nixon and Kissinger decided the most effective way to tip the military balance in America's favor was to destroy the bases in Cambodia and Laos from which the American military believed the North Vietnamese were launching many of their attacks. Nixon ordered the air force to begin bombing Cambodian and Laotian territory to destroy the enemy sanctuaries. In spring of 1970, conservative military leaders overthrew the neutral gov't of Cambodia and established a new, pro-American regime under General Lon Nol. Lon Nol gave his approval to American incursions into his territory & Nixon went on television to announce that he was ordering American troops across the border into Cambodia to clean out the bases that the enemy had been using for its attacks on South Vietnam. - *Kent State*: four college students were killed and nine others injured after members of the National Guard opened fire on antiwar demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio.

Ho Chi Minh

Determined to win independence for Vietnam. Had hoped for American support in 1945, on the basis of the anticolonial rhetoric of the Atlantic Charter and Franklin Roosevelt's speeches, and also because he had received support from American intelligence forces during WWII while he was fighting the Japanese. But he was then, as he had been for many years, not only a committed nationalist but a committed communist. The Truman administration ignored him and supported the French, one of America's most important Cold War allies. By 1954, Ho was receiving aid from communist China and the USSR.

Marshall Plan

Developed by Secretary of State George C. Marshall. Plan for providing economic assistance to all European nations (including the Soviet Union) that would join in drafting a program for recovery. Although Russia and its Eastern satellites quickly and predictably rejected the plan, 16 Western European nations eagerly participated. In April, Congress approved the creation of the Economic Cooperation Administration, the agency that would administer the Marshall Plan. The plan channeled over $12 billion of American aid into Europe, helping spark a substantial economic revival. By the end of 1950, European industrial production had risen 64%, communist strength in the member nations had declined, and opportunities for American trade had revived.

Kennedy's Policy

Didn't want to lose Vietnam to communism because it would strengthen China and USSR. Pressured Diem to reform his government, but gave no significant concessions. Gave his tacit approval to a plot by a group of South Vietnamese generals to topple Diem. The generals staged a coup and assassinated Diem and his brother.

Cuban Missile Crisis

During summer of 1962, American intelligence agencies had become aware of the arrival of a new wave of Soviet technicians and equipment in Cuba and of military construction in progress. On Oct. 14, aerial reconnaissance photos produced clear evidence that the Soviets were constructing sites on the island for offensive nuclear weapons. To the Soviets, placing missiles in Cuba probably seemed a reasonable -- and relatively inexpensive -- way to counter the presence of American missiles in Turkey (and a way to deter any future American invasion of Cuba). But to Kennedy and most other Americans, the missile sites represented an act of aggression by the Soviets toward the United States. Kennedy decided the weapons could not be allowed to remain. On Oct. 22, he ordered a naval and air blockade around Cuba, a "quarantine" against all offensive weapons. Preparations were under way for an American air attack on the missile sites when, late in the evening of Oct. 26, Kennedy received a message from Khrushchev implying that the Soviet Union would remove the missile bases in exchange for an American pledge not to invade Cuba. Kennedy agreed & the crisis was over.

Dien Bien Phu

Early in 1954, 12,000 French troops became surrounded in a disastrous siege at the village of Dien Bien Phu. Only American intervention, it was clear, could prevent the total collapse of the French military effort. Yet despite the urgings of Secretary of State Dulles, Vice President Nixon, and others, Eisenhower refused to permit direct American military intervention in Vietnam, claiming that neither Congress nor America's other allies would support such action. Without American aid, the French defense of Dien Bien Phu finally collapsed on May 7, 1954, and France quickly agreed to a settlement of the conflict in Geneva. The Geneva accords on Vietnam established a supposedly temporary division of Vietnam along the 17th parallel. The north would be governed by Ho Chi Minh, the south by a pro-Western regime. Democratic elections would be the basis for uniting the nation in 1956. The agreement marked the end of the French commitment to Vietnam and the beginning of an expanded American presence there. The U.S. helped establish a pro-American gov't in the south.

John Foster Dulles

Eisenhower's secretary of state & dominant figure in the nation's foreign policy in the 1950s. Aristocratic corporate lawyer with stern moral revulsion to communism. Entered office denouncing the containment policies of the Truman years as excessively passive, arguing that the U.S. should pursue an active program of "liberation," which would lead to a "rollback" of communist expansion. - *"massive retaliation"*: policy created by Dulles that was announced early in 1954. Dulles explained U.S. would respond to communist threats to its allies not by using conventional forces in local conflicts (a policy that had led to so much frustration in Korea) but by relying on "the deterrent of massive retaliatory power" (by which he clearly meant nuclear weapons). Reflected Dulles's inclination for tense confrontations, an approach he once defined as "brinksmanship." Real force behind policy was economics; with pressure growing both in and out of gov't for a reduction in American military expenditures, an increasing reliance on atomic weapons seemed to promise, as some advocates put it, "more bang for the buck." - *"brinkmanship"*: pushing the Soviet Union to the brink of war in order to exact concessions.

Sources of the Soviet-American Tensions

Envisioned the postwar world differently, U.S. wanted nations to govern relations democratically and through self-determination. USSR was uneasy with this idea; wanted postwar structure where great powers would control areas of strategic interest to them (something vaguely similar to the traditional European balance of power)

Poland

FDR and Churchill willing to agree to a movement of the Soviet border westward, allowing Stalin to annex some historically Polish territory. However, FDR and Churchill supported the claims of the Polish government-in-exile that had been functioning in London since 1940; Stalin wished to install another, pro-communist exiled government that had spent the war in Lublin, in the Soviet Union. The Three leaders ended the Teheran Conference with the issue unresolved. - *"Lublin"*: pro-Communist - *"London"*: pro-Western

Yalta

February 1945, FDR, Churchill, and Stalin met in Soviet city of Yalta for a peace conference. In return for Stalin's renewed promise to enter the Pacific war, FDR agreed that the USSR should receive some of the territory in the Pacific that Russia had lost in the 1904 Russo-Japanese War. Also agreed for a new international organization: the new UN would contain a General Assembly, in which every member would be represented, and a Security Council, with permanent representatives of the 5 major powers (US, Britain, France, USSR, and China), each of which would have veto power. The Security Council would also have temporary delegates from several other nations. These agreements became the basis of the United Nations charter. On other issues, Yalta Conference produced no real accord. Stalin, whose armies now occupied Poland, had already installed a government composed of the pro-communist "Lublin" Poles. FDR and Churchill insisted that the pro-Western "London" Poles must be allowed a place in the Warsaw regime. Stalin agreed for an unspecified number of pro-Western Poles to be granted a place in the government. He reluctantly consented to hold "free and unfettered elections" in Poland on an unspecified future date (aka 40 years later). FDR wanted a reconstructed and reunited Germany, while Stalin wanted to impose heavy reparations on Germany and to ensure its permanent dismemberment. Final agreement very vague and unstable; US, GB, France, and USSR would each control its own "zone of occupation" in Germany -- the zones to be determined by the position of troops at the end of the war. Berlin divided into 4 sectors.

FBI

Federal Bureau of Investigation. Director J. Edgar Hoover investigated and harassed alleged radicals as a part of the employee loyalty program.

Henry Kissinger

Harvard professor whom Nixon appointed as his special assistant for national security affairs. Kissinger quickly established dominance over Secretary of State William Rogers and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, who were both more experienced in public life. Together, Nixon and Kissinger set out to find an acceptable solution to the stalemate in Vietnam.

Hungary 1956

Hungarian revolution: Hungarian dissidents launched a popular uprising in Nov. to demand democratic reforms. Before the month was out, Soviet tanks and troops entered Budapest to crush the uprising and restore an orthodox, pro-Soviet regime. The Eisenhower administration refused to intervene.

Paris Accords

Immediate cease-fire. North Vietnamese would release several hundred American prisoners of war, whose fate had become an emotional issue of great importance within the U.S. The Thieu regime would survive for the moment, but North Vietnamese forces already in the south would remain there. An undefined committee would work out a permanent settlement. - *Le Duc Tho*

Berlin Airlift

In 1948, Stalin imposed a tight blockade around the western sectors of Berlin (as a result of the US, Britain, and France planning to merge the 3 western zones into a new West German republic). Unwilling to risk war through a military challenge to the blockade, Truman ordered a massive airlift to supply the city with food, fuel, and other needed goods. Lasted for 10 months, transforming West Berlin into a symbol of the West's resolve to resist communist expansion. In 1949, Stalin lifted the blockade. And in October, the division of Germany into two nations -- the Federal Republic in the west and the Democratic Republic in the East -- became official.

Buddhist Monks

In 1963, the Diem regime precipitated a major crisis by trying to discipline and repress the South Vietnamese Buddhists in an effort to make Catholicism the dominant religion of the country. The Buddhists began to stage enormous antigovernment demonstrations, during which several monks doused themselves with gasoline, sat cross-legged in the streets of downtown Saigon, and set themselves on fire -- in view of photographers and television cameras.

China 1949

In last months of 1949, Chiang Kai-Shek's nationalistic government in China collapsed. Chiang fled with his political allies and the remnants of his army to the offshore island of Taiwan, and the entire Chinese mainland came under the control of a communist gov't that many Americans believed to be an extension of the Soviet Union. The U.S. refused to recognize the new communist regime, and instead devoted increased attention to the revitalization of Japan as a buffer against Asian communism, ending the American occupation in 1952.

Dominican Republic

International rebellion; 1961 assassination toppled the repressive dictatorship of General Rafael Trujillo, and for the next 4 years various factions in the country struggled for dominance. In spring of 1965, a conservative military regime began to collapse in the face of a revolt by a broad range of groups on behalf of the left-wing nationalist Juan Bosch, Arguing (w/out any evidence) that Bosch planned to establish a pro-Castro, communist regime, Johnson dispatched 30,000 American troops to quell the disorder. Only after a conservative candidate defeated Bosch in a 1966 election were the forces withdrawn.

Tet Offensive

Jan. 1968, Vietnamese New Year (Tet), communist forces launched an enormous, concerted attack on American strongholds throughout South Vietnam. A few cities fell temporarily to the communists, Others suffered major disruptions. Most shocking part to Americans was sight of communist forces setting off bombs, shooting down South Vietnamese officials and troops, and holding down fortified areas. The Tet offensive also suggested to the American public something of the brutality of the fighting in Vietnam (much of it being televised). American forces soon dislodged the Viet Cong from most of the positions they had seized, and the Tet offensive inflicted enormous casualties on the communists; the Tet defeats permanently depleted the ranks of the NLF and forced North Vietnamese troops to take on a much larger share of the subsequent fighting. Tet may have been a military victory for the U.S., but was a political defeat for the administration.

Potsdam

July, 1945 - Allied leaders Truman, Stalin and Churchill met in Germany to set up zones of control and to inform the Japanese that if they refused to surrender at once, they would face total destruction. Truman reluctantly accepted the adjustments of the Polish-German border that Stalin had long demanded; he refused to permit the Russians to claim any reparations from the American, French, and British zones of Germany. This stance effectively confirmed that Germany would remain divided, with the western zones united into one nation, friendly to the U.S., and the Russian zone surviving as another nation, with a pro-Soviet, communist government.

Limited Mobilization

Korea only produced limited American military commitment & created limited economic mobilization at home. Government tried to control the wartime economy in several important ways: Truman set up the Office of Defense Mobilization to fight inflation by holding down prices and discouraging high union wage demands. When these cautious regulatory effects failed, Truman took more drastic action, ordering the government to seize control of the railroads and steel mills, citing his powers as commander in chief. But the Supreme Court ruled that Truman exceeded his authority and was forced to relent. The war gave a significant boost to economic growth by pumping new government funds into the economy at a point when many believed it was about to decline.

My Lai

Massacre of more than 100 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in 1968 near the village of My Lai. Lieutenant William Calley charged for overseeing it. Attracted wide public attention to the dehumanizing impact of the war on those who fought it -- and to the terrible consequences that dehumanization imposed on the Vietnamese people.

Ngo Dinh Diem

Nationalist leader of South Vietnam. With help of American CIA, Diem waged an effective campaign against some of the powerful religious sects and the South Vietnamese mafia, which had challenged the authority of the central gov't. Received great amount of support from U.S., as U.S. viewed Diem as a better alternative to communist Ho Chi Minh.

Rosenbergs

New York couple Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were members of the Communist Party. The gov't claimed the Rosenbergs had received secret information from Ethel's brother, a machinist on the Manhattan Project in New Mexico, and had passed it on to the Soviet Union through other agents. The Rosenbergs were convicted and sentenced to death.

NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization; an alliance made to defend one another if they were attacked by any other country; US, England, France, Canada, Western European countries. The NATO countries would maintain a standing military force in Europe to defend against what many believed was the threat of a Soviet invasion. The formation of NATO causes the Soviet Union to create the Warsaw Pact, an alliance of its own with communist gov'ts in Eastern Europe.

Teheran

November 1943, Tehran Conference. Roosevelt and Churchill met with Stalin in Tehran. FDR and Stalin established a cordial personal relationship, as Stalin agreed to an American request that the USSR enter the war in the Pacific soon after the end of the hostilities in Europe. FDR in turn promised that an Anglo-American second front would be established within 6 months.

Conscientious Objectors

Person who refuses to enter the military or bear arms due to moral or religious reasons

Vietnamization

President Richard Nixons strategy for ending U.S involvement in the Vietnam war. Training and equipping the South Vietnamese military and replacing American forces with them. Increased withdrawals of American troops in Vietnam. Helped quiet domestic opposition to the war for a time. It did nothing, however, to break the stalemate in the negotiations with the North Vietnamese in Paris.

"Pacification"

Program whose purpose was to push the Viet Cong from particular regions and then "pacify" those regions by winning the "hearts and minds" of the people. Routing the Viet Cong was often possible, but the subsequent pacification was more difficult. Gradually, the pacification program gave way to the more heavy-handed relocation strategy, through which American troops uprooted villagers from their homes, sent them fleeing to refugee camps or into the cities, and then destroying the vacated villages and surrounding countryside.

McCarthyism

Republican senator from Wisconsin who suddenly bursted into national prominent in Feb. 1950. He claimed to have a list of 205 known communists currently working in the American State Department. No person of comparable stature had ever made so bold a charge against the federal gov't; in the weeks to come, McCarthy repeated and expanded on his accusations, emerging as the nation's most prominent leader of the crusade against domestic subversion. Within weeks, McCarthy was leveling accusations at other agencies. After 1952, with the Republicans in control of the Senate and McCarthy the chairman of a special sub-committee, he conducted highly publicized investigations of alleged subversion in many areas on the government. McCarthy never produced conclusive evidennce that any federal employee was a communist. But a growing constituency adored him for his coarse, "fearless" assaults on a gov't establishment. McCarthy provided his followers with an issue into which they could channel a wide range of resentments: fear of communism, animosity toward the country's "eastern establishment," and frustrated partisan ambitions.

National Security Act of 1947

Reshaped the nation's major military and diplomatic institutions. A new Department of Defense would oversee all branches of the armed services, combining functions previously performed separately by the War and Navy departments. A National Security Council (NSC), operating out of the White House, would govern foreign and military policy. A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) would replace the wartime Office of Strategic Services and would be responsible for collecting information through both open and covert methods; as the Cold War continued, the CIA would also engage secretly in political and military operations on behalf of American goals. In short, the National Security Act gave the president expanded powers with which to pursue the nation's international goals.

Vyacheslav Molotov

Soviet Foreign Minister

End of the War

Stalemate. Negotiations began at Panmunjom in July 1951

Election of 1952

Stevenson (D) v. Eisenhower (R) with VP Nixon. Eisenhower won. Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress. - *"Checkers" speech*: speech made by Nixon in which he effectively neutralized early accusations of financial improprieties

SDS

Students for a Democratic Society -- an anti-establishment New Left group, founded in 1960, this group charged that corporations and large government institutions had taken over America; they called for a restoration of "participatory democracy" and greater individual freedom

17th Parallel

The Geneva accords on Vietnam established a supposedly temporary division of Vietnam along the 17th parallel. The north would be governed by Ho Chi Minh, the south by a pro-Western regime. Democratic elections would be the basis for uniting the nation in 1956. The U.S. helped establish a pro-American gov't in the south.

Korean War

The relative weakness of the south offered a strong temptation to nationalists in the North Korean government who wanted to reunite the country. The temptation grew stronger when the American gov't implied that it did not consider South Korea within its own "defense perimeter." USSR supported North Korean offense. In June 1950, Truman ordered limited American military assistance to South Korea, and on the same day he appealed to the United Nations to intervene. As a result, the UN offered assistance to the Rhee government. The US ordered its own ground forces into Korea, and Truman appointed General Douglas MacArthur to command the UN operations there. After a surprise American invasion at Inchon in Sept. had routed the North Korean forces from the south and sent them fleeing back across the 38th parallel, Truman gave MacArthur permission to pursue the communists into their own territory. In Oct., Pyongyang fell to the UN. Victory seemed near until the Chinese gov't, alarmed by the movement of American forces toward its border, intervened. By Nov., 8 divisions of the Chinese army entered the war. The UN offensive stalled and collapsed. Within weeks, communist forces pushed the Americans back below the 38th parallel and recaptured Seoul. By March, the UN armies had managed to regain much of the territory they had recently lost, taking back Seoul and pushing the communists north of the 38th parallel for the second time. The war degenerated into a protracted stalemate. - *Syngman Rhee*: When US left Korea, handed control to the pro-Western gov't on Syngman Rhee, who was anticommunist but only nominally democratic. He had a relatively small military, which he used primarily to suppress internal opposition.

Army-McCarthy Hearings

The trials in which Senator McCarthey accused the U.S. Army of harboring possible communists.These trials were one of the first televised trials in America, and helped show America Senator McCarthey's irresponsibility and meanness.

Election of 1948

Truman, Dewey, Thurman, and Walts. Truman and his advisors placed their hopes in an appeal to enduring Democratic loyalties. Problem of Truman's personal unpopularity, deep divisions within Democratic Party Newspaper predicts wrong winner, Dewey. Truman wins.

Trung Sisters

Two Vietnamese sisters who launched a major revolt against the Chinese presence in Vietnam in 39 C.E.; the rebellion was crushed and the sisters committed suicide, but they remained symbols of Vietnamese resistance to China for centuries.

Containment Policy

US policy to stop expansion of Soviet Union and Communism

U-2 Crisis

USSR announced it had shot down an American U-2, a high-altitude spy plane, over Russian territory. Its pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was in captivity. Nikita Khrushchev lashed out angrily at the American incursion into Soviet air space, breaking up the Paris summit (to resolve division of Berlin) almost before it could begin and withdrawing his invitation to Eisenhower to visit the USSR.

38th Parallel

When WWII ended, both the U.S. and the USSR had troops in Korea fighting the Japanese; neither army was willing to leave. Instead, they divided the nation, supposedly temporarily, along the 38th parallel. The Russians finally left in 1949, leaving behind a communist government inn the north with a strong, Soviet-equipped army. The Americans left a few months later

Loyalty Program

Widely publicized program that reviewed the "loyalty" of federal employees created by Truman administration. Created partly to protect itself against Republican attacks and partly to encourage support for Truman's foreign policy initiatives. Became a signal throughout the executive branch to launch a major assault on subversion. Attorney general established a widely cited list of supposedly subversive organizations.

Hollywood 10

Writers and producers in Hollywood, some former communists who were called to testify by the HUAC that refused to answer questions about their own political beliefs and those of their colleagues. As a result, sent to jail for contempt. Others barred from employment in the industry when Hollywood, attempting to protect its public image, adopted a "blacklist" of those of "suspicious loyalty."