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3. • Truman was left with many options
in ending war with Japan
• Attack on Japanese mainland would
produce thousands of casualties
• Japanese flatly rejected Potsdam
Declaration

4. The “Big Three”
meet to discuss
postwar Europe

6. Nuremburg Trials
From Left to Right:
Sir Norman Birkett & Sir Geoffrey
Lawrence – Britain’s Main and
Alternate Judges

7. SOVIET – U.S. RELATIONS
• Alliance during war was of
convenience – not mutual
trust
• Soviet takeover of Eastern
Europe worried liberal
democracies
• Many compared Russian
government to Hitler's
regime

8. SATELLITE STATES IN EASTERN EUROPE
 Soviets sought to
fortify western flank
from attack
 Communist dictators
came to power in
Poland, Romania,
Bulgaria, Albania,
Hungary, and
Czechoslovakia
 U.S. and British
governments were
deeply alarmed
 Troublesome Polish
question persisted

9. Containment Policyin its current borders
- U.S. aimed to contain Communism
- Avoid the domino effect of Communist takeover
- Doctrine was expanded to cover the world
- George Kennan’s “Long Telegram”

10. • Britain removed forces in
Greece and Turkey
• Western Allies feared
Communist victory in
Greek Civil War would
jeopardize the political
stability of Turkey
• March 1947: Truman
asked for $400 million in
military and economic aid
to Greece and Turkey
against totalitarian

11. Occupation Zones of Germany
• Temporary Soviet
occupation zones became
new communist states
• Soviets wanted a weaker
German nation
• U.S. and G.B. viewed
recovery of Germany as
significant to Central
Europe

12. • Idea born at Dumbarton Oaks
Conference, formulated and negotiated at
Yalta Conference
• Intended to promote international
security and prevent future global conflicts
• Charter drafted in April 1945 at UNCIO in
San Francisco
• U.S., G.B., France, China, and USSR
made up Security Council
• Atomic Energy Commission created after
U.S. proposal and Soviet agreement

14. Marshall Plan
It is logical that the United States
should do whatever it is able to do
to assist in the return of normal
economic health in the world,
without which there can be no
political stability and no assured
peace. Our policy is directed not
against any country or doctrine but
against hunger, poverty,
desperation, and chaos. Its
purpose should be the revival of a
working economy in the world so
as to permit the emergence of
political and social conditions in
which free institutions can exist.
Source: George Marshall, April 1948

15.  June 1948: Soviets cut
off all land access to
Berlin
 Truman responds with
air supply drop offs

16. “To promote the national
security by providing for
a Secretary of Defense;
for a National Military
Establishment; for a
Department of the Army,
a Department of the
Navy, and a Department
of the Air Force; and for
the coordination of
activities of the National
Military Establishment
with other departments
and agencies of the
Government concerned
with the national
security.”
Source: National Security Act, November 4, 1952

17. If war should begin in 1950, the United States and
If war should begin in 1950, the United States and
its allies will have the military capability of
its allies will have the military capability of
conducting defensive operations to provide a
conducting defensive operations to provide a
reasonable measure of protection to the Western
reasonable measure of protection to the Western
Hemisphere, bases in the Western Pacific, and
Hemisphere, bases in the Western Pacific, and
essential military lines of communication; and an
essential military lines of communication; and an
inadequate measure of protection to vital military
inadequate measure of protection to vital military
bases in the United Kingdom and in the Near and
bases in the United Kingdom and in the Near and
Middle East. We will have the capability of
Middle East. We will have the capability of
conducting powerful offensive air operations
conducting powerful offensive air operations
against vital elements of the Soviet war-making
against vital elements of the Soviet war-making
capacity.
capacity. Source: National Council Report 68, April 14,
1950

21. Postwar Japan
 MacArthur took firm
control of Japanese
reconstruction
 Hirohito kept as
ceremonial head
 U.S. – Japanese
Security Treaty

22.  George Marshall sent to
negotiate end to Chinese civil
war
 Nationalist Chinese
government was given
$400 million
 Much of which
ended up in Communist
hands

23. The Ris e o f Co m m unis t
China
• Chiang and Nationalists
took refuge in Formosa
• U.S. refused to recognize
Zedong
• Republicans alarmed by
loss of China

24. North Korean Surprise Attack
 June 25, 1950: North Korean Army invaded
South Korea
 U.S. did not hesitate with a response

25. Inchon Invasion
 MacArthur reversed the
war with an amphibious
attack at Inchon
 Advanced as far as the
southern Chinese border

26. Chinese Intervention
- November 1950: Chinese troops
launch surprise attack and decimate
MacArthur’s troops in North Korea
- Made Korean Conflict "an entirely
new war.”
- PRC aimed to preserve North Korean
Communist State

27. MACARTHUR VS. TRUMAN
•MacArthur called for an expanded
war
•Truman cautioned MacArthur
from speaking out against policy
•MacArthur recalled for
insubordination

28. Armistice
• War ended in stalemate at 38th
parallel
• 54,000 Americans died in
Korea
• Critics saw Truman as “soft on
communism”