Week 11-Chapter 27 Cold War

“Our objective was not relief, but to revive agriculture, industry, and trade so that stricken countries might be self-supporting. The countries of our immediate concern were those of the free world. The free areas of Europe and Asia could not function vigorously and healthily unless Germany and Japan could play a strong, productive role. General Marshall had concluded after weeks in Moscow and European recovery could not await ‘compromise through exhaustion’ and must proceed without four-power agreement.”

-Source: Dean Acheson, former Secretary of State, Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department, 1969

Which of the following statements best describes the major change in United States foreign policy after World War II?

• It focused on protecting the Western Hemisphere from colonization.

• It centered on aiding war-torn states in their recovery.

• It reduced its peacetime alliances to return to isolationism.

• It concentrated on securing its borders from potential invaders.

“The war produced a redistribution of power more sweeping than in any previous period of history. Among the leading nations in the multipolar prewar international system, Japan, Italy, and Germany were defeated and occupied. Exhausted and nearly bankrupt, once-dominant Britain was reduced to a second-rank power. Defeated at the outset of the war and liberated by its allies. France suffered even greater loss of status and power. The Eurocentric world largely through a process of self-destruction came to an inglorious end. A new bipolar system replaced the old. Only the United States and the Soviet Union emerged from the war capable of wielding significant influence beyond their borders.”

-Source: George C. Herring, historian, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776, 2008

Which of the following events could best be used as evidence to support the argument in the excerpt?

• the Manhattan Project

• the invasion of Normandy

• the Potsdam conference

• the Fourteen Points

“Given the extraordinarily favorable economic and strategical position which the United States thus occupied, its post-1945 outward thrust could come as no surprise to those familiar with the history of international politics. With the traditional Great Powers fading away, it steadily moved into the vacuum which their going created; having become number one, it could no longer contain itself within its own shores, or even its own hemisphere. To be sure, the war itself had been the primary cause of this projection outward of American power and influence. . .”

-Source: Paul Kennedy, historian, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000, 1987

Which of the following most directly contributed to “the traditional Great Powers fading away” referenced in the excerpt?*

• crop failures and starvation in Europe following a devastating infestation

• failure of the US dollar and the Euro following the Great Depression

• physical devastation and loss of life following World War II

• political unrest following the assassination of major world leaders

Excerpt 1:

“It would be an unspeakable tragedy if these countries, which have struggled so long against overwhelming odds, should lose that victory for which they sacrificed so much. Collapse of free institutions and loss of independence would be disastrous not only for them but for the world. . . . “In addition to funds, I ask the Congress to authorize the detail of American civilian and military personnel to Greece and Turkey, at the request of those countries, to assist in the tasks of reconstruction, and for the purpose of supervising the use of such financial and material assistance as may be furnished.”

-Source: Harry Truman, Special Message to the Congress on Greece and Turkey, 1947

Excerpt 2:

“As we meet here today, we stand on the threshold of a new era of peace in the world. . . . This past year saw far-reaching results from our new policies for peace. By continuing to revitalize our traditional friendships, and by our missions to Peking and to Moscow, we were able to establish the base for a new and more durable pattern of relationships among the nations of the world. . . . Let us continue to bring down the walls of hostility which have divided the world for too long, and to build in their place bridges of understanding — so that despite profound differences between systems of government, the people of the world can be friends. Let us build a structure of peace in the world.”

-Source: Richard Nixon, Second Inaugural Address, 1973

A historian would most likely use these passages to illustrate which of the following?

• how the Cold War changed the United States status as a world power

• how different administrations strategized during the Cold War

• how the Cold War launched an arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union

• how the presidency expanded in power during the Cold War

“One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions; representative government; free elections; guarantees of individual liberty; freedom of speech and religion; and freedom from political oppression. “The second way of life is based upon the will of a minority forcibly imposed on the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression; a controlled press; framed elections; and the suppression of personal freedom. “I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”

-Source: President Harry Truman, in an address before a Joint Session of Congress, 1947

Arguments similar to those expressed in the excerpt were later employed to justify which of the following?

• creating the House Un-American Activities Committee

• passing legislation that ended quotas and opened immigration

• acquiring territories for the United States to grow as a world power

• offering aid to free and democratic governments who refused the Soviet Union

“We must formulate and put forward for other nations a much more positive and constructive picture of the sort of world we would like to see than we have put forward in past. It is not enough to urge people to develop political processes similar to our own. Many foreign peoples, in Europe at least, are tired and frightened by experiences of past, and are less interested in abstract freedom than in security . . . We should be better able than Russians to give them this. And unless we do, Russians certainly will.”

-Source: George Kennan, State Department telegram, 1946

The excerpt best reflects a growing belief after 1946 that the United States needed to:

• support war-torn countries against the influence of the Soviet Union.

• return to isolationism and rebuild its economy after the Great Depression.

• maintain a weak peacetime military presence to prevent Soviet aggression.

• investigate government agencies for the presence of Soviet spies.

“The head pin was China. It is down already. The two pins in the second row are Burma and Indochina. If they go, the three pins in the next row, Siam, Malaya, and Indonesia, are pretty sure to topple in their turn. And if all the rest of Asia goes, the resulting psychological, political, and economic magnetism will almost certainly drag down the four pins of the fourth row, India, Pakistan, Japan, and the Philippines.”

-Source: Stewart Alsop, “We Are Losing Asia Fast,” Saturday Evening Post, 1950

The ideas about Asia expressed in the excerpt are most consistent with which of the following?

• the compact theory

• the social Darwinism theory

• the positive good theory

• the domino theory

“This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent – or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities . . . We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world. But we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear. He merely exploited it, and rather successfully.”

Source: Edward R. Murrow, news anchor, in a “See It Now” broadcast, 1954

The excerpt is best understood as a response to which of the following historical developments?

• the emergence of the civil rights movement

• the rise in anti-communist sentiment

• the beginning of the arms race

• the deployment of troops to North Korea

“The struggle against the totalitarian forces of Stalinism is not merely of a military character. It is political and ideological in nature as well. We stand opposed to the doctrines which enslave men, reduce men to mere automatons. We believe in the inherent dignity and worth of man, that man is an end in himself, that only in a genuinely free society can man attain his true nature. We believe that given equality of opportunity, each individual, irrespective of color, religion, national origin, or race, can realize his true self.”

-Source: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, State of the Union Address, 1953

Which of the following issues of the period was Eisenhower most likely concerned with in this excerpt?

• the decolonization of Latin America

• the influence of the Soviet Union

• the emergence of détente

• The threat of nuclear warfare

Truman's prospects in the 1948 election looked __________.

• very promising because he had successfully kept inflation down after World War II

• promising because he unified Democrats and even some GOP leaders in his support

• promising because he remained wildly popular with the public throughout his term

• bleak because Democratic support had been split among several candidates