Vocabulary
A formal face-to-face meeting of leaders from different countries to discuss important issues.
What is a summit?
Located near Berlin, it's where Truman and Stalin met to work out a deal on Germany.
What is Potsdam?
After weeks of the televised Army-McCarthy hearings, army lawyer Joseph Welch got so tired of McCarthy accusing everyone (including a lawyer in his firm) of being a communist, he uttered this quote.
What is:
"Have you no sense of decency sir?"
The Korean Armistice Agreement created this boundary separating North and South Korea.
What is the DMZ (De-militarized Zone)
This policy's goal was to "aid free peoples who were resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures". Long term, it was used to fight communism world-wide.
What is the Truman Doctrine?
A 5,540-word message sent by diplomat George Kennan to the U.S. that explained his views on Soviet goals. In it, he stated, "Russian insecurity and fear of the West" (along with the Communist ideas of Stalin and Lenin) "made the Soviets believe they were in a long term struggle against capitalism, and therefore it was impossible for the U.S. to reach any permanent settlement with them." It lead to the U.S. policy of containment.
What is the Long Telegram?
Policy of keeping communism within its present territory and halting its expansion through the use of diplomatic, economic and military actions.
What is containment?
This New York couple who were members of the Communist party, were accused of heading a Soviet spy ring in the U.S. They were later tried and executed.
Who are Julius and Ethel Rosenberg?
Name two things that led to McCarthy's downfall.
What are:
1) The exposure of McCarthy (and his bullying nature) to the American public resulted in a sharp decline in his popularity.
2) He started accusing almost everyone of being a Communist.
3) He accused the President's Office and the U.S. Army of harboring Communists.
4) He was caught doctoring evidence. (Even the original list of 205 suspect names produced by McCarthy, was proven to be in fact just a random sheet of paper picked from his briefcase on the spur of the moment. And McCarthy showed a photo of an American general, apparently, meeting foreign officials independently but the picture had been ‘cropped’ and the general was actually part of an official U.S. delegation to a Communist state.)
Name two reasons why the Korean War is called "The Forgotten War".
Possible answers:
What are:
1) the lack of public attention it received both during and after the war, relative to the global scale of World War II, which preceded it, and the subsequent angst of the Vietnam War, which succeeded it.
2) Classified as a "police action".
3) Media coverage lower than WW2 or Vietnam.
4) Country just got out of WW2.
This U.S. policy promoted economic
aid to struggling countries so
that their markets could remain
strong for American goods and
promote strong democracies.
What is the Marshall Plan?
The first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
What is Sputnik?
The willingness to go to the edge or verge of war to force the other side to back down.
What is brinkmanship?
President of South Korea, dedicated anti-communist
Who is Syngman Rhee?
What were 3 effects of McCarthyism?
What are:
1) Millions of Americans were forced to take loyalty oaths.
2) Activism and labor unions go into decline.
3) People were afraid to speak out on public issues. (First Amendment strained)
4) Many people were blacklisted and lost their jobs when they were accused of being Communist.
5) Increase in deportations
6) Created a climate of fear and mistrust.
The reason(s) why Truman fired General MacArthur.
•Many American’s wanted to push for unconditional surrender as was achieved with Germany and Japan after WWII.
•Truman worried about widening the war with Soviet Union and its allies and the threat of nuclear weapons being used.
•Mac Arthur wanted to bomb China, block aid the Chinese coast, and unleash the anti-communist Chinese forces from Taiwan.
•Mac Arthur publicized his criticism of Truman which led to his firing in 1951.
1) After the Berlin airlift crisis, the U.S. was convinced the Soviets were bent on conquest, so they formed this military alliance with Western Europe.
2) The Soviets respond by organizing this military alliance of their own in Eastern Europe.
What are:
1) NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
2) Warsaw Pact
With your group, explain the U-2 spy plane event and its results.
•While Khrushchev originally supported a “peaceful coexistence” with capitalism, after the Hungary incident and after the launch of Sputnik he declared, “We will bury capitalism… your grandchildren will live under communism.”
•He demanded U.S., Great Britain, and France withdraw from West Berlin. Of course, they refuse. NATO would respond, “if need be, they’d defend by military force”.
•Eisenhower invited Khrushchev to a summit, or a formal face-to face meeting of leaders from different countries to discuss important issues.
•But before the summit began, the Soviet Union shot down an American U-2 spy plane (piloted by Francis Gary Powers) over the Soviet Union border.
•Eisenhower claimed it was a weather plane that “strayed off course”. But then Khruschev produced the pilot.
•Eisenhower refused to apologize as the flights protected American security.
•Khruschev cancelled the summit. Powers was convicted of espionage and sentenced to three years of imprisonment plus seven years of hard labour; he was released two years later, in February 1962, in a prisoner exchange for Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel.
Hidden operations conducted by the C.I.A.
What are covert operations?
British Prime minister who, in response to the Soviet quest for domination in and beyond Eastern Europe, exclaimed, " an iron curtain has descended across the continent".
Who is Winston Churchill?
Name 4 tactics/methods McCarthy used to elicit confessions from suspected Communists.
What are:
1) Used bullying manner
2) Make false allegations/accusations
3) Doctored photographs
4) Use innuendo
5) Falsified evidence
MacArthur's daring invasion behind enemy lines which took the North Koreans by surprise and pushed the North Koreans past the 38th parallel.
What is the Inchon invasion?
Name 4 reasons why (by the end of 1952)many Americans felt Truman's foreign policy wasn't working.
•Under Truman’s watch:
•a) The Soviets had acquired the atomic bomb.
•b) The Soviets consolidated its hold on Eastern Europe.
•c) China fell to communism.
•d) American troops were involved in the Korean War.
•Tired of criticism and convinced he could not win, Truman doesn’t run for reelection.
Deadly radiation left over after a nuclear blast.
What is fallout?
A systematic attempt to overthrow a government by using persons working secretly from within.
What is subversion?
With your group explain the Suez Canal Crisis.
•Trouble in the Suez
•Eisenhower’s goal was to prevent Arab nations from aligning with Soviet Union.
•To build support among Arabs, the U.S. offered to help Egypt finance the construction of a dam on the Nile River. Egyptians accept.
•But Egypt bought weapons from Communist Czechoslovakia. U.S. withdraws offer.
•Egyptians seize control of Suez Canal from Anglo-French company that controlled it. The Egyptians were going to use profits from canal to pay for the dam.
•British and French troops invade Egypt in October 1956.
•Eisenhower was furious at British and French in their impulsive action, which made a “mess and a botch if things”
•Soviets threatened rocket attacks on Britain and France. Under American pressure, the British and French called off their invasion. Soviets won diplomatic victory.
Name 4 things that contributed to the Red Scare of the 1950's and helped fuel Joe McCarthy's anti-communist campaign.
Possible answers:
What are:
1) Russia develops its own atomic bomb in 1949
2) Communism was spreading into more countries after World War 2. (Eastern Europe, China, Korea)
3) Rosenbergs convicted of espionage and passing atomic secrets to Soviets.
4) Alger Hiss Spy Trial
5) McCarthy came across as a patriotic American at first, aggressively attacking communism for the safety of the nation.
6) Many Americans feared Communism would replace democracy in America.
Name 5 adversities surgeons in MASH units had to face during the Korean War,
Possible Answers:
What are:
1) They often had to move if the fighting got to close to their camp.
2) They often faced a wide array of shortages. (food, wood, supplies, surgical supplies, gloves, etc.)
3) The enemy would often cut off their supply line.
4) They often had to operate in stressful conditions. (bombs blowing up nearby)
5) Adverse weather conditions.
6) Lived away from family for long periods of time.
7) Worked long hours with very little sleep.
8) Constantly exposed to patients with horrific injuries, leading to PTSD.
Name 4 strategies/policies that Eisenhower used to fight communism and the Cold War.
What are:
1) •Eisenhower believed that the key to winning the Cold War was a strong economy. The United States had to show the world that free enterprise could produce a more prosperous society than communism. Economic prosperity would also prevent Communists from gaining support in the United States and protect us from subversion within our own country. Large scale war costs money and would exhaust the economy.
2) •"More Bang For the Buck". Instead of maintaining or building up a large-scale army, he cut military spending from $50 billion to $34 billion by cutting back the army and instead spending the money on its nuclear arsenal.
3) Brinkmanship or a willingness to go to the brink of war to force the other side to back down. He'd threaten to use nuclear weapons if communists didn't meet his demands.
4) •Convinced the United States was indeed falling behind in scientific research, Congress created the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) and the National Defense Education Act which provided funds for education and training in science, math and foreign languages.
5) Fought Communism Covertly: Used C.I.A to stage covert operations to overthrow anti-American leaders and replace them with Pro-American leaders.
6) Another way to prevent developing nations from allying themselves with Communism was to provide them with financial aid.
Name 5 Causes of the Cold War.
Possible Answers:
1) IDEOLOGICAL CONFLICT (CAPITALISM VS. COMMUNISM)
2) NUCLEAR ARMS RACE
3) SPREAD OF COMMUNISM
4) The Rebuilding of Europe after WWII/Division of Germany.
5) Berlin Blockade and Airlift
6) Espionage