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Hi I’m John Green; this is Crash Course
U.S. history and today we’re gonna talk
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about the Cold War.
The Cold War is called “Cold” because
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it supposedly never heated up into actual
armed conflict, which means, you know, that
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it wasn’t a war.
Mr. Green, Mr. Green, but if the War on Christmas
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is a war and the War on Drugs is a war…
You’re not going to hear me say this often
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in your life, Me from the Past, but that was
a good point. At least the Cold War was not
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an attempt to make war on a noun, which almost
never works, because nouns are so resilient.
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And to be fair, the Cold War did involve quite
a lot of actual war, from Korea to Afghanistan,
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as the world’s two superpowers, the United
States and the U.S.S.R., sought ideological
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and strategic influence throughout the world.
So perhaps it’s best to think of the Cold
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War as an era, lasting roughly from 1945 to
1990.
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Discussions of the Cold War tend to center
on international and political history and
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those are very important, which is why we’ve
talked about them in the past. This, however,
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is United States history, so let us heroically
gaze--as Americans so often do--at our own
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navel.
(Libertage.)
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Stan, why did you turn the globe to the Green
Parts of Not-America? I mean, I guess to be
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fair, we were a little bit obsessed with this
guy.
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So, the Cold War gave us great spy novels,
independence movements, an arms race, cool
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movies like Dr. Strangelove and War Games,
one of the most evil mustaches in history.
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But it also gave us a growing awareness that
the greatest existential threat to human beings
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is ourselves. It changed the way we imagine
the world and humanity’s role in it.
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In his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, William
Faulkner famously said, “Our tragedy today
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is a general and universal physical fear so
long sustained by now that we can even bear
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it. There are no longer problems of the spirit.
There is only the question: When will I be
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blown up?”
So, today we’re gonna look at how that came
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to be the dominant question of human existence,
and whether we can ever get past it.
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intro
So after WWII the U.S. and the USSR were the
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only two nations with any power left. The
United States was a lot stronger – we had
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atomic weapons, for starters, and also the
Soviets had lost 20 million people in the
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war and they were led by a sociopathic mustachioed
Joseph Stalin.
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But the U.S. still had worries: we needed
a strong, free-market-oriented Europe (and
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to a lesser extent Asia) so that all the goods
we were making could find happy homes.
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The Soviets, meanwhile, were concerned with
something more immediate, a powerful Germany
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invading them. Again. Germany--and please
do not take this personally, Germans--was
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very, very slow to learn the central lesson
of world history: Do not invade Russia. Unless
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you’re the Mongols.
(Mongoltage.)
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So at the end of World War II, the USSR “encouraged”
the creation of pro-communist governments
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in Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland--which was
a relatively easy thing to encourage, because
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those nations were occupied by Soviet troops.
The idea for the Soviets was to create a communist
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buffer between them and Germany, but to the
U.S. it looked like communism might just keep
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expanding, and that would be really bad for
us, because who would buy all of our sweet,
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sweet industrial goods?
So America responded with the policy of containment,
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as introduced in diplomat George F. Kennan’s
famous Long Telegram. Communism could stay
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where it was, but it would not be allowed
to spread.
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And ultimately this is why we fought very
real wars in both Korea and Vietnam.
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As a government report from 1950 put it the
goals of containment were:
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1. Block further expansion of Soviet power
2. Expose the falsities of soviet pretensions
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3. Induce a retraction of the Kremlin’s
control and influence, and
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4. In general, foster the seeds of destruction
within the Soviet system.
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Harry Truman, who as you’ll recall, became
President in 1945 after Franklin Delano Prez
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4 Life Roosevelt died, was a big fan of containment,
and the first real test of it came in Greece
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and Turkey in 1947.
This was a very strategically valuable region
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because it was near the Middle East, and I
don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but
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the United States has been just, like, a smidge
interested in the Middle East the last several
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decades because of oil glorious oil.
Right, so Truman announced the so-called Truman
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Doctrine, because you know why not name a
doctrine after yourself, in which he pledged
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to support “freedom-loving peoples” against
communist threats, which is all fine and good.
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But who will protect us against “peoples,”
the pluralization of an already plural noun?
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Anyway, we eventually sent $400 million in
aid to Greece and Turkey, and we were off
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to the Cold War races.
The Truman Doctrine created the language through
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which Americans would view the world with
America as free and communists as tyrannical.
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According to our old friend Eric Foner, “The
speech set a precedent for American assistance
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to anticommunist regimes throughout the world,
no matter how undemocratic, and for the creation
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of a set of global military alliances directed
against the Soviet Union.”[1]
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It also led to the creation of a new security
apparatus – the National Security Council,
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the Central Intelligence Agency, the Atomic
Energy Commission, all of which were somewhat
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immune from government oversight and definitely
not democratically elected.
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And the containment policy and the Truman
Doctrine also laid the foundations for a military
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build-up – an arms race – which would
become a key feature of the Cold War.
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But it wasn’t all about the military, at
least at first. Like, the Marshall Plan was
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first introduced at Harvard’s Commencement
address in June 1947 by, get this, George
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Marshall, in what turned out to be, like,
the second most important commencement address
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in all of American history. Yes, yes, Stan,
okay. It was a great speech, thank you for
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noticing. Alright, let’s go to the Thought
Bubble.
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The Marshall Plan was a response to economic
chaos in Europe brought on by a particularly
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harsh winter that strengthened support for
communism in France and Italy.
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The plan sought to use US Aid to combat the
economic instability that provided fertile
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fields for communism. As Marshall said “ our
policy is not directed against any country
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or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty,
desperation and chaos.” [2] Basically it
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was a New Deal for Europe, and it worked;
Western Europe was rebuilt so that by 1950
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production levels in industry had eclipsed
pre-war levels and Europe was on its way to
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becoming a U.S. style-capitalist-mass-consumer
society. Which it still is, kind of.
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Japan, although not technically part of the
Marshall Plan, was also rebuilt. General Douglas
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MacArthur was basically the dictator there,
forcing Japan to adopt a new constitution,
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giving women the vote, and pledging that Japan
would foreswear war, in exchange for which
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the United States effectively became Japan’s
defense force. This allowed Japan to spend
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its money on other things, like industry,
which worked out really well for them.
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Meanwhile Germany was experiencing the first
Berlin crisis. At the end of the war, Germany
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was divided into East and West, and even though
the capital, Berlin, was entirely in the east,
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it was also divided into east and west. This
meant that West Berlin was dependent on shipments
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of goods from West Germany through East Germany.
And then, in 1948, Stalin cut off the roads
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to West Berlin. So, the Americans responded
with an 11-month-long airlift of supplies
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that eventually led to Stalin lifting the
blockade in 1948 and building the Berlin Wall,
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which stood until 1991, when Kool Aid Guy--no,
wait, wait, wait, wait, that wasn’t when
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the Berlin Wall was built. That was in 1961.
I just wanted to give Thought Bubble the opportunity
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to make that joke.
Thanks, Thought Bubble. So right, the Wall
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wasn’t built until 1961, but 1949 did see
Germany officially split into two nations,
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and also the Soviets detonated their first
atomic bomb, and NATO was established, AND
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the Chinese Revolution ended in communist
victory.
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So, by the end of 1950, the contours of the
Cold War had been established, West versus
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East, Capitalist Freedom versus Communist
totalitarianism.
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At least from where I’m sitting. Although
now apparently I’m going to change where
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I’m sitting because it’s time for the
Mystery Document. The rules here are simple.
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I guess the author of the Mystery Document
and about 55% of the time I get shocked by
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the shock pen.
“We must organize and enlist the energies
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and resources of the free world in a positive
program for peace which will frustrate the
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Kremlin design for world domination by creating
a situation in the free world to which the
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Kremlin will be compelled to adjust. Without
such a cooperative effort, led by the United
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States, we will have to make gradual withdrawals
under pressure until we discover one day that
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we have sacrificed positions of vital interest.
It is imperative that this trend be reversed
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by a much more rapid and concerted build-up
of the actual strength of both the United
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States and the other nations of the free world.”
I mean all I can say about it is that it sounds
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American and, like, it was written in, like,
1951 and it seems kind of like a policy paper
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or something really boring so I...I mean...
Yeah, I’m just going to have to take the
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shock. AH!
National Security Council report NSC-68? Are
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you kidding me, Stan? Not-not 64? Or 81? 68?
This is ridiculous! I call injustice.
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Anyway, as the apparently wildly famous NSC-68
shows, the U.S. government cast the Cold War
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as a rather epic struggle between freedom
and tyranny, and that led to remarkable political
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consensus--both democrats and republicans
supported most aspects of cold war policy,
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especially the military build-up part.
Now, of course, there were some critics, like
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Walter Lippmann who worried that casting foreign
policy in such stark ideological terms would
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result in the U.S. getting on the wrong side
of many conflicts, especially as former colonies
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sought to remove the bonds of empire and become
independent nations. But yeah, no, nothing
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like that ever happened.
Yeah, I mean, it’s not like that happened
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in Iran or Nicaragua or Argentina or Brazil
or Guatemala or Stan are you really going
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to make me list all of them? Fine. Or Haiti
or Paraguay or the Philippines or Chile or
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Iraq or Indonesia or Zaire or, I’m sorry,
THERE WERE A LOT OF THEM, OKAY?
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But these interventions were viewed as necessary
to prevent the spread of communism, which
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was genuinely terrifying to people and it’s
important to understand that.
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Like, national security agencies pushed Hollywood
to produce anticommunist movies like “The
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Red Menace,” which scared people. And the
CIA funded magazines, news broadcasts, concerts,
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art exhibitions, that gave examples of American
freedom. It even supported painters like Jackson
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Pollack and the Museum of Modern Art in New
York because American expressionism was the
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vanguard of artistic freedom and the exact
opposite of Soviet socialist realism.
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I mean, have you seen Soviet paintings? Look
at the hearty ankles on these socialist comrade
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peasants.
Also because the Soviets were atheists, at
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least in theory, Congress in 1954 added the
words “under God” to the pledge of allegiance
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as a sign of America’s resistance to communism.
The Cold War also shaped domestic policy--anti-communist
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sentiment, for instance, prevented Truman
from extending the social policies of the
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New Deal.
The program that he dubbed the Fair Deal would
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have increased the minimum wage, extended
national health insurance and increased public
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housing, Social Security and aid to education.
But the American Medical Association lobbied
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against Truman’s plan for national health
insurance by calling it “socialized” medicine,
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and Congress was in no mood to pay money for
socialized anything.
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That problem goes away.
But the government did make some domestic
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investments as a result of the Cold War--in
the name of national security the government
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spent money on education, research in science,
technology like computers, and transportation
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infrastructure. In fact we largely have the
Cold War to thank for our marvelous interstate
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highway system, although part of the reason
Congress approved it was to set up speedy
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evacuation routes in the event of nuclear
war.
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And, speaking of nuclear war, it’s worth
noting that a big part of the reason the Soviets
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were able to develop nuclear weapons so quickly
was thanks to espionage, like for instance
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by physicist and spy Klaus Fuchs. I think
I’m pronouncing that right.
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Fuchs worked on the Manhattan Project and
leaked information to the Soviets and then
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later helped the Chinese to build their first
bomb. Julius Rosenberg also gave atomic secrets
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to the Soviets, and was eventually executed--as
was his less-clearly-guilty wife, Ethel.
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And it’s important to remember all that
when thinking about the United States’s
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obsessive fear that there were communists
in our midst. This began in 1947 with Truman’s
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Loyalty Review System, which required government
employees to prove their patriotism when accused
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of disloyalty.
How do you prove your loyalty? Rat out your
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co-workers as communists. No seriously though,
that program never found any communists.
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This all culminated of course with the Red
Scare and the rise of Wisconsin senator Joseph
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McCarthy, an inveterate liar who became enormously
powerful after announcing in February 1950
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that he had a list of 205 communists who worked
in the state department
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In fact, he had no such thing, and McCarthy
never identified a single disloyal American,
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but the fear of communism continued. In 1951’s
Dennis v. United States, the Supreme Court
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upheld the notion that being a communist leader
itself was a crime.
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In this climate of fear, any criticism of
the government and its policies or the U.S.
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in general was seen as disloyalty. There was
only one question--when will I be blown up--and
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it encouraged loyalty, because only the government
could prevent the spread of communism and
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keep us from being blown up.
We’ve talked a lot about different ways
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that Americans have imagined freedom this
year, but this was a new definition of freedom--the
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government exists in part to keep us free
from massive destruction.
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So, the Cold War changed America profoundly:
The U.S. has remained a leader on the world
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stage and continued to build a large, powerful,
and expensive national state. But it also
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changed the way we imagine what it means to
be free, and what it means to be safe. Thanks
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for watching. I’ll see you next week.
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forget to be awesome...Wait, wait, wait,
Stan, is that music copyrighted?
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All right! It's not! Woo!
That saved us a thousand dollars.
