The USA 1945-70 : A Divided Union?
Key Topic 1: The impact of the cold war
The ideological clash behind the cold war:
The soviet union was a communist state in which the government owned and controlled the economy- it had a non democratic government.
The USA was a capitalist country where it had a democratic government. The economy was not state owned.
The opposition between these two super powers became known as the cold war
After the second world war the usa watched the spread of communism over the countries of eastern europe. To help stop this truman announced his doctrine which included him saying that he wanted to contain the spread of communism. The marshall plan was also announced, this consisted of the capitalist USA helping any european countries suffering badly after the war to keep them from communism. The SU saw this as an attempt to bribe these countries into staying capitalist
Cold war fears continues to drive us policy abroad and at home for many years as many people were scared of the possibility of a nuclear war and the US was desperate to keep the secret of making the atomic bomb outside the soviet hands
How cold war fear affected US foreign policy:
The first clash of the cold war was in berlin. Britain America France and the Soviet union all held parts in uniting germany. However the SU encouraged the people of Berlin to vote to become communist in the ‘free’ elections and as a result of this, they closed ll transport links out of the communist side of berlin cutting off supplies to the British, American and French sector. As a result of this ,the soviet union hoped that this would make these sectors starved into voting communism. However, the western powers flew in supplies into these sectors and the berlin blockade was stopped resulting in germany being permanently divided.
Another clash involved korea. Korea was like germany, with the USA and the SU disagreeing to reunify. The north of korea