US HIS - Ch. 26, Sec 1 & Sec 2

What were the Soviet Union's security concerns after WWII?

- The Soviets wanted to keep Germany weak and make sure that the countries between Germany and the Soviet Union were under Soviet control because SU was invaded twice in less than 30 years. - SU=Communists. They believed that communism was a superior economic system that would eventually replace capitalism and that the Soviet Union should encourage communism in other nations. Soviet leaders also accepted Lenin's theory that capitalist countries eventually would try to destroy communism. This made Soviet leaders suspicious of capitalist nations.

What did the Allies decide at Yalta?

- Unconditional surrender of Germany - Germany to be divided into 4 occupation zones USA, British, French, Russian - Polish eastern border to follow the Curzon Line - Stalin agreed to hold free elections in Poland (but reneged) - USSR to declare war on Japan within 90 days of the defeat of Germany - Germany to be demilitarized and denazified - German war criminals to be put on trial

West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany)

1949, West Germany became an independent country when US, France and Britain gave back each of their zones

Korean War

1950 - 1953: the conflict between Communist North Korea and capitalist South Korea (UN troops)

Warsaw Pact

1955 treaty binding the Soviet Union and countries of eastern Europe in an alliance against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

What is NATO and why was it created?

April 1949: North Atlantic Treaty Organization ; consisted of Canada and western European nations; protected any member who was attacked; created to collect information on Soviet Union

Ernest Bevin & James Byrnes

British foreign minister & American Secretary of state

George Kennan/Long Telegram

February 22, 1946, this diplomat responded with what came to be known as the Long Telegram, a 5,540-word cable message explaining his views of Soviet goals

Potsdam Conference

July-August 1945 meeting between Truman, Churchill, and Stalin to work out a deal on Germany

What was the Marshall Plan?

June 1947: Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposed the European Recovery Program or this to give European nations American aid to rebuild their economies

What was Truman Doctrine?

March 12, 1947: to aid "free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." Greece and Turkey were communist countries.

Dean Acheson

Presidential adviser

Edward Stettinius

Secretary of State

SEATO

Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (Sept, 1954): Alliance of non-Communist Asian nations modeled after NATO. Unlike NATO, it didn't establish a military force.

Vyacheslav Molotov

Soviet Foreign Minister

What crisis occurred in Iran in 1946 and how was it resolved?

Stalin claims that USSR had as much a right to the Black Sea and Iranian oil. Byrnes urges Iranian prime minister to resist soviet influence

Pusan Perimeter/Inchon/Yalu River

The American and South Korean troops were driven back into a small pocket of territory near the port of Pusan. Inside the "Pusan perimeter," as it came to be called, the troops stubbornly resisted the North Korean onslaught, buying time for MacArthur to organize reinforcements. On September 15, MacArthur ordered a daring invasion behind enemy lines at the port of Inchon. MacArthur pushed the North Koreans north to the Yalu River, the border with China.

What was the Chinese Civil War/Revolution and how did it affect US foreign policy in Asia, with especially Japan?

The Chinese Civil War/Revolution was when communism took over. US adapted policies to encourage the rapid recovery Japan's industrial economy.

What was the policy of containment and why was it created?

The policy was to keep communism within its present territory through the use of diplomatic, economic, and military actions. It was created to cooperate with the SU.

How did Truman view the Communist invasion of South Korea and how did this affect US foreign policy?

Truman advised containing Communism and attempted to stop the spread of North Korea to South Korea. After the Korean War began, the United States embarked on a major military buildup in stead of political pressure and economic aid to contain communism.

General Matthew Ridgeway

Truman chose him to replace MacArthur because Truman did not want to expand the war into China or to use the atomic bomb

How did the Potsdam Conference hurt Soviet-American relations?

Truman suggested that the Soviets take reparations from their zone, while the Allies allowed industry to receive in other zones. This caused tension.

What was Truman's attitude toward the Soviet's and why?

Truman was strongly anticommunist and suspicious of Stalin. He believed World War II had begun because Britain had tried to appease Hitler. He was determined not to make the same mistake with Stalin and stand up to Russia.

limited war

a war fought to achieve a limited objective, such as containing communism

Declaration of Liberated Europe

asserted "the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live."

General Douglas MacArthur

commander of UN forces in Korea to fight the Northern Korean Communists

People's Republic of China

communist government of China established and ruled by Mao Zedong

satellite nations

countries dominated by the Soviet Union which installed communist governments; Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Poland

Cold War

era of confrontation & competition b/w US & Soviet Union (1946-1990)

Yalta Conference 1945

in February 1945; Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Chruchill, and Joseph Stalin met at Yalta—a Soviet resort on the Black Sea—to plan the postwar world

Policy of Containment

keeping communism within its present territory through the use of diplomatic, economic, and military actions

Chiang Kai-shek/Nationalists

leader of the Nationalist party who was corrupt and had to retreat to Taiwan

Mao Zedong/Communists

led the Communists in China against the Nationalists - eventually led the People's Republic of China when the Communists won

OAS

organization formed to promote economic, military, and cultural cooperation among its members, which include almost all of the independent states of the Western Hemisphere; main goals are to prevent any outside state's intervention in the Western Hemisphere and to maintain peace between the various states within the hemisphere

iron curtain

term coined by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in a March 1946 speech that referred to the "boundary" that divided Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe from Western European nations not under Soviet domination

General Lucius Clay

the American commander in Germany

Taiwan

the defeated Nationalists then fled the Chinese mainland for the small island of Taiwan (Formosa)

38th parallel

the latitude line running across Korea at approximately the midpoint of the peninsula; American forces did the same south of the parallel

Why did US leaders promote both international trade and free enterprise?

they believed that economic growth through international trade and free enterprise would lead to world peace

What was the Berlin Airlift and what caused it?

where the Allied countries airlifted food and supplies to block off West Berliners - the SU had blocked them off because the Allies wanted to make West Berlin a separate country - for 11 months.