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Containment
- Truman called for containing the spread of communism so that it didn't escape Eastern Europe.
- He also called for the U.S. to not be discouraged by Soviet victories but instead focus on long-range plans, which basically meant continuously fighting communism.
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Truman Doctrine
This declared that the U.S. was one of the leaders in the world and therefore had an obligation to provide assistance to countries living under oppression. This gave the U.S. leeway to get involved and help countries where communist parties were attempting to take over. -
HUAC
HUAC was established in 1938 to find disloyalty in WWII, and it came back again to root out communist infiltration in the U.S. It specifically targeted the Hollywood industry, which led to a lot of falsely accused actors, producers, writers, etc. They fed into the paranoia of communism. -
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was implemented by President Truman, calling for European countries in debt from WWII to make a plan for financial recovery which would be funded by the U.S. 17 European countries joined, and the U.S. lent out $13 billion. This plan was to help ensure the countries remained capitalist. -
Berlin Airlift
Truman, along with French and British leaders, converged their parts in Berlin, which lay inside Easy Germany, and called it West Berlin. The Soviets blocked trade ships from entering West Berlin so that people didn't have supplies, so Truman delivered goods by plane -this was him deliberately not getting into a war, but instead getting what he wanted through more peaceful means. -
NATO
The U.S. joined other democratic nations to create the North Atlantic Treaty Organization [otherwise known as NATO]. It was formed to help nations suffering an invasion or destabilization from other nations. -
Korean War
America provided air and naval support for South Koreans, and also supplied most of the UN troops that took to the ground. However, Truman refused to allow any invasion of China. Helping showed how he wanted to keep communism at bay, but in the most peaceful way possible. -
McCarren-Walter Act
The Act put a quote on how many people were allowed to migrate from certain countries, and also discriminated against people from Asia and Central Europe. It was put in place because Senator Pat McCarran believed that communist infiltration came from mainly immigrants. This all helped to spread even more communist paranoia. -
Korean War
An armistice was signed to end the combative war. -
Domino Theory
Eisenhower gave his domino theory speech, in which he believed that if one country fell to communism, others would soon follow, as a row of dominoes falling would. -
Eisenhower Doctrine
It stated that if any Middle Eastern country needed aid against communism, the United States would use force to protect them from falling. -
Space Race
NASA was created in response to the Soviet Union launching its first satellite, Sputnik, into space. -
Vietnam War - Kennedy
President Kennedy’s goal was to contain communism and prevent it from spreading at all cost. This meant strengthening and protecting the South Vietnamese government created by the United States. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Soviet Union was disturbed by the Bay of Pigs invasion and agreed to back Castro’s government. This led to the making of Soviet missiles bases on Cuban soil. -
Vietnam War -Johnson
The Vietnam War occurred between South Vietnam and the United States on one side, fighting against North Vietnam and its communist allies. -
Detente
Relaxation of tension between the Soviet Union, China, and the United States, sworn enemies, was achieved by Nixon and Kissinger. Nixon was trying to contain communism through peace instead of brinkmanship. -
Vietnamization
Since the American public was against the Vietnam War, Nixon switched out American troops with South Vietnamese troops. But he still worked to suppress communism and supplied the South Viet troops with American supplies secretly. -
Moon Landing
The moon landing gave the U.S. a great leap forward in the space race between the United States and Soviet Union. -
SALT I
First Strategic Arms Limitation, included a 5 year agreement to freeze creation of offensive nuclear missiles.This was to prevent a nuclear war from breaking out between the Soviet Union and the United States -
China
President Nixon recognized China as a country, and went to visit Mao Zedong in China. This was the start of a peace between China and the U.S. Nixon was trying to make peace of China so if war breaks out with Soviet Union, China would remain neutral. -
Watergate
A scam was attempted to help President Nixon win his second re-election, involving a break-in in the Democratic National Comittee (DNC). President Nixon resigned after this event occurred. -
Helsinki Accords
The USSR, U.S., Canada, and roughly 30 European countries pledged to work together economically, respect nation’s boundaries, and promoting human rights.This was promoting peace with countries, including Soviet Union, hoping to relieve tensions between the United States and Soviet Union. -
SALT II
SALT II was more complicated than SALT I. It limited each side to a certain amount of missiles and nuclear weapons to possess. The U.S. didn’t want the Soviets to have missiles to attack them. -
Iran Hostage Crisis
U.S. supported former shah (king) of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (who wanted to keep Iran from becoming communist) and harboured him. Iran took U.S. diplomats hostage in response to the support and President Carter tried saving them but failed.