May 29 Handout

I. Legacy of War

1. FDR’s Choices (East Asia or Europe; Marshall, Eisenhower, MacArthur, and role of military; international issues: conception of victory—unconditional surrender; tenuous nature of alliances—US and potential conflicts with UK, USSR, and Nationalist China: colonialism, “friendly states,” role of communists in postwar states, Katyn, North African campaign, Japan, atomic bomb)

2. Defining the Postwar World (Four Freedoms or Four Policemen?; domestic surge of internationalism—B₂H₂ resolution, Willkie’s One World; deference to military authorities—internment, postwar structure—Teheran, Cairo, Casablanca Conferences; progress of war; FDR leadership style; creation of UN and compromises with Wilsonianism—Security Council, Article 51; other alternatives: internationalism, regionalism, cooperation)

II. European and Asian Power Vacuums

1. The World the War Created (Europe: devastation Germany and Italy; Red Army Liberation EE; boundary adjustments and “ethnic cleansing”—from minorities treaties to homogeneous states; French and British economic devastation; Potsdam and continuing difficulties over Germany East Asia: pressure for decolonization—SE Asia, Vietnam, Indonesia, India; Chinese Civil War; Latin America: redeem wartime promises?; nuclear weapons—Acheson-Lilienthal proposal, Soviet disinterest, espionage and its effects)

2. 1946: Crisis & Consequences (Iranian crisis, Churchill speech, Soviet consolidation in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Wallace attack on HST, emergence of Republican hard right: marrying of domestic and international agenda—role of “Asia First” lobby; midterm elections and their effects)

3. International Affairs and the Rationale for the Cold War (Greece, Turkey, and path toward Truman Doctrine—role of Bevin and Attlee; economic difficulties and road to Marshall Plan—role of Monnet; role of U.S. official class—Lovett, McCloy, Harriman, etc.; push and pull metaphor)

4. Domestic Politics and the Rationale for the Cold War (role of Congress: Democratic divisions and importance of Republicans; Vandenberg, Smith, HC Lodge—provide ideological justification; military and structural Change: National Security Act—creation of Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, CIA, NSC; establishment of national security state; contrasting visions of American role in world affairs)

5. 1948 (international events: Czech coup, Berlin airlift, recognition of Israel, collapse of KMT; domestic: Wallace implosion, election of Truman and Democratic Congress)

Russell Buhite, The Origins of the Cold War in East Asia

John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment

Michael Hogan, Cross of Iron

Michael Schaller, The American Occupation of Japan

Thomas Schwartz, America’s Germany