Answer:
What series of events and ideological conflicts prompted the cold war?
Ideological conflicts
Soviet Union already didn't like us before the end of the war
-- Didn't give them atomic bomb
-- We helped them out a year later
Further divided
-- George Kennan: established the "containment" policy
-- Truman Doctrine: we help out non-comm. govts, even if they are led by dictators
-- Marshall Plan: rebuild Europe; further solidified divide
Events
Middle East
-- Soviets in N. Iran, withdrew
-- Soviets set up puppet comm. govts in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria
Military aid sent to combat comm.
-- Greece and Turkey (for OIL!!)
We supported anyone who claimed to be non-communist and built up others
-- Chile, Iran
-- Greece, Spain
Marshall Plan
-- Rebuild Western Europe
1948-49 Berlin blockade
1949 Soviets test first atomic bomb
1949 NATO
-- Creating treaties to stop the spread of communism
1949 China falls to communism
1949 Warsaw Pact in response to NATO
1950 National Security Council
-- Increase in defense spending
1950 GATT
-- Western nations got together to encourage trade between our nations so we could be economically stable and not communists!!!
1950-1953
- 1950 Inchon - MacArthur pushes democratic forces up, China pushes them down again, end up BACK at the 38th Parallel
-- "Proxy war"
how did the cold war reshape ideas of american freedom?
Government agencies like the CIA secretly funded the arts. The Soviets did the same so the U.S. wanted to keep it quiet. This is an example of soft power.
what major domestic policy initiatives did truman undertake?
The Fair Deal asked Congress to do New Deal-ish things like expand public housing, social security.
what effects did the anticommunism of the cold war have on american politics and culture?
Southern Democrats want states' rights to keep certain people to stay suppressed.