Notable Events
U.S. humanitarian effort to keep the citizens of West Berlin alive during the early years of the cold war.
Berlin Airlift
This policy was enacted by President Harry Truman in response to perceived Soviet aggression shortly after World War II.
Truman Doctrine
U.S. President who took over post-WWII negations after the death of Franklin Roosevelt
Harry Truman
This anti-fascist organization was formed in the 1930s but gained prominence in the early years of the cold war and was a major fixture in the fight against communism.
HUAC: House Un-American Activities Committee
This WWII pledge between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill inspired Ho Chi Minh but was ultimately a disappointment when anti-communism trumped anti-colonialism in U.S. foreign policy.
Atlantic Charter
When French political and military leaders violated the Sainteny agreement resulting in this conflict.
The Franco-Viet Minh War
This piece of U.S. legislation was passed shortly before the United States became a belligerent in World War II and Made it a criminal offense for anyone to teach, advocate, or encourage the overthrow or destruction of government by force. It led to anti-communist prosecutions during the early cold war, intensifying the Red Scare.
Smith Act
British Prime Minister during WWII
Winston Churchill
Established after the proclamation of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan, this pact committed the twelve signatories to treat an attack on one as an attack on all. It played a key role in U.S. containment policy.
NATO: North American Treaty Organization
The Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan and NATO are all examples of this Cold War U.S. policy.
Containment
This Communist-led coup in Czechoslovakia that occurred during the administration of Harry Truman was essential for adoption of the “containment” strategy that would guide Washington’s international conduct for the rest of the cold war.
Czech-coup
A pledge issued by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the early stages of World War II. One of the most potent propaganda tools for the Allies it promised to see self-government restored to people who had been deprived of it, and guaranteed people the right to choose the form of government under which they lived.
Atlantic Charter
Soviet Dictator from 1924-1953
Joseph Stalin
A U.S. strategic policy toward the communist bloc which maintained that if Soviet expansionism were held in check, then contradictions internal to the Soviet system eventually would bring about a communist collapse.
Containment
This humanitarian effort in West Berlin was a diplomatic victory for this U.S. President
Harry Truman
This U.S and United Nations victory in the Korean War was orchestrated by U.S. General Douglas MacArthur. Retaking all territory south of the 38th parallel, the attempt to reunify Korea under non-communist control was ultimately a mistake.
Inchon
This arrangement between Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh and French diplomat Jean Sainteny shortly after the end of World War II agreed that French troops would return to Vietnam, displace the Chinese in the north, and preserve some form of legal relationship between France and Vietnam—on the condition that Paris recognized Vietnam’s independence and unity.
Sainteny Agreement
Communist leader in Vietnam
Ho Chi Minh
This proposed all-European Army which would keep the Soviet Union from overrunning Western Europe and which would involve participation by West Germany which upset many French policy makers.
European Defense Community (EDC)
This international pact singed after the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall plan represented a historic commitment for the U.S but also exacerbated the Cold War
NATO
Meeting of leaders of the “big three” nations of Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union shortly before the end of World War II.
Yalta Conference
This program for European economic recovery was the second landmark of postwar American foreign aid, born out of fears that failure to restore and rebuild European countries savaged by the war would invite political collapse and open the way for Soviet domination of Europe.
Marshall Plan
This U.S. policy maker popularized the term "containment" shorty after WWII
George Kennan
This term was used to describe the unprecedented usurpation of war-making power by the president during the administration of Harry Truman. When the North Korean Army invaded South Korea in 1950, Truman dispatched U.S. air and naval forces, and then many divisions of American ground troops, to assist America’s South Korean allies without consulting Congress.
"Imperial Presidency"
President Truman described these two polices as “two halves of the same walnut” because of their shared objective; the emphasis in Greece and Turkey was military, while initially in Western Europe it was economic, but both were designed to contain communist expansion.
The Truman Doctrine (military) and the Marshall Plan (economic)