1. The “Iron Curtain”
• 1945, Stalin disallows
free and open elections in
Poland and left a pro-
Soviet, communist
government in charge
– Satellite nations
• Countries dependant upon
and dominated by the
Soviet Union
– Mainly in Eastern
Europe
– 1946, Winston Churchill,
“Iron Curtain” speech
» p. 609

2. The Cold War Begins
• Truman Doctrine
– Containment
• Devised by George F. Kennan
• Effort to block the Soviets’ attempts to spread their influence
– Contain communism and disallow its spread to new territories
– 1947
• Asked for $400 million dollars in economic and military aid for Greece and Turkey to
stop Communist takeovers
• Marshall Plan
– Western Europe in economic chaos
– June 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall
• U.S. program for reconstruction of post-WWII Europe through massive aid to former
enemy and allied nations
– Nations that accepted aid had to remove trade barriers
– Attempt to avoid depression (WWI) and communist takeovers
– 1952, Western Europe was recovering ($17 billion)
– Chart p. 610
• Cold War
– State of hostility short of direct military confrontation that developed between the
U.S. and Soviet Union between 1945-1989

3. Reunification Attempts in Germany
• 1948
– U.S., U.K., and France decided to unify three
western zones (including western zones of Berlin)
• Soviets cut off western Berlin from West Germany
– Berlin Airlift
» May, 1949 blockade lifted
• April 4, 1949
– North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
• Defensive military alliance
• Ten Western European nations and U.S.
– Belgium, Denmark, France, U.K., Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal

5. Buildup to Korean War
• National Security Act, 1947
– Created
• Department of Defense
• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
• Permanent peacetime draft, 1948
• National Security Council
– NSC-68, 1949
» Detailed Soviet’s plans for worldwide domination and encouraged buildup of
nation’s military
• China fell to communism, 1949
– Mao Tse-Tung and Joseph Stalin sign a pact linking the two nations into
one communist bloc, 1950
• Korea
– Had been Japanese colony until end of WWII (1945)
– Japanese troops north of the 38th parallel surrendered to Soviets
– Japanese troops south of the 38th parallel surrendered to Americans
– Two governments established (1948, Soviets & Americans left)

6. The Korean War– “The Forgotten War”
• June 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea
– Supplied by Soviets and Chinese
• Truman sought United Nations Security Council help
– Security Council & U.S. Congress authorized “police action” of military
force to liberate South Korea (war not officially declared)
• General Douglas MacArthur
– Commanded U.S., U.N., and South Korean troops
– Counterattack pushed North Koreans past 38th parallel, September 1950
– Chinese push MacArthur back across 38th parallel, November 1950
• MacArthur wanted reinforcements and to extend the war into China
– MacArthur vs. Truman
» MacArthur removed, April 1951
• July 1953, armistice
– Demilitarized Zone established

8. •
Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower, president 1953-1961
– Appointed Earl Warren (former governor of CA) as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court,
1953
• Warren Court turned out to be one of the most liberal in history
– Civil Rights Issues
• Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
– Thurgood Marshall (NAACP lawyer, first AA on Supreme Court)
– 14th Amendment
– Overturned Plessy v. Ferguson
– “Separate facilities were inherently unequal”
• Rosa Parks, 1955
– Bus boycott, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1956
– Little Rock 9, 1957
– Foreign Policy
• John Foster Dulles (SOS)
• Brinkmanship  U.S. would force aggressor nations to the brink of nuclear war and thus force them
to back down in wake of U.S. superiority
– “massive retaliation,” arms race, & MAD
• Middle East
– U.S. support for Israel
– Eisenhower Doctrine  U.S. would defend Middle East against any attack by a communist country
– Postwar Economic Boom
• Consumer spending more than the 1920’s
• Middle class, suburbs, and Interstate Highway Act
• Baby Boom

9. JFK
• John F. Kennedy, president 1961-1963
– All four presidential debates televised (first time)
– Cuba
• Fidel Castro, 1959
• Bay of Pigs, April 1961
– CIA operatives and Cuban exiles captured immediately
» Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, Berlin Wall 1961
• Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962
– Castro and Khrushchev formed alliance
– U.S. spy plane found Soviet medium and long-range nuclear missiles in Cuba
– Naval blockade of Cuba
» “We are eyeball to eyeball and the other fellow just blinked”
» Khrushchev offered to remove missiles in exchange for U.S. promise never to invade Cuba and U.S.
removal of missiles from Turkey
– New Frontier
• Domestic policy promising equality, employment, and aid to the poor
• Race to the Moon
– Feb. 20, 1962 John Glenn orbited the earth three times
– July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong became first person to set foot on moon
– Assassination
• November 22, 1963
• Dallas, Texas
• Lee Harvey Oswald
– Killed by Jack Ruby
• Warren Commission  Oswald acted on his own