-
Cracks in the partnership became fissures during 1946
-
A second phase now began (1947-1950) in which the Cold War became consolidated and incorporated into the institutions of both superpowers. In the United States
-
One example of such linkage was the Marshall Plan, proposed in 1947 and passed by Congress in 1948
-
The year 1948 brought crisis and testing of the new machinery
-
. Its first notable success was the achievement of a Soviet atomic bomb in 1949
-
. In the summer of 1949 the United States recognized the new "state" of West Germany and led in the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), pledging itself to help defend western Europe against any attack.
-
The same mind-set brought about a search for suspected "Reds" in government that peaked early in the 1950s with the witch-hunts of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy.
-
That struggle erupted in Asia on June 25, 1950,
-
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization to parallel NATO and encouraged the CIA to plot the destabilization and overthrow of allegedly Communist regimes in Iran (1953)
-
1953
In his final State of the Union address before Congress, President Harry S. Truman tells the world that that the United States has developed -
This led the United States to expedite work on developing the more powerful hydrogen bomb, first tested in 1954