The Cold War: Crash Course US History #37 — Transcript

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1. 0:00Hi I’m John Green; this is Crash Course U.S. history and today we’re gonna talk
2. 0:04about the Cold War. The Cold War is called “Cold” because
3. 0:07it supposedly never heated up into actual armed conflict, which means, you know, that
4. 0:11it wasn’t a war. Mr. Green, Mr. Green, but if the War on Christmas
5. 0:14is a war and the War on Drugs is a war… You’re not going to hear me say this often
6. 0:17in your life, Me from the Past, but that was a good point. At least the Cold War was not
7. 0:21an attempt to make war on a noun, which almost never works, because nouns are so resilient.
8. 0:27And to be fair, the Cold War did involve quite a lot of actual war, from Korea to Afghanistan,
9. 0:32as the world’s two superpowers, the United States and the U.S.S.R., sought ideological
10. 0:36and strategic influence throughout the world. So perhaps it’s best to think of the Cold
11. 0:40War as an era, lasting roughly from 1945 to 1990.
12. 0:44Discussions of the Cold War tend to center on international and political history and
13. 0:48those are very important, which is why we’ve talked about them in the past. This, however,
14. 0:51is United States history, so let us heroically gaze--as Americans so often do--at our own
15. 0:57navel. (Libertage.)
16. 0:59Stan, why did you turn the globe to the Green Parts of Not-America? I mean, I guess to be
17. 1:06fair, we were a little bit obsessed with this guy.
18. 1:08So, the Cold War gave us great spy novels, independence movements, an arms race, cool
19. 1:12movies like Dr. Strangelove and War Games, one of the most evil mustaches in history.
20. 1:18But it also gave us a growing awareness that the greatest existential threat to human beings
21. 1:22is ourselves. It changed the way we imagine the world and humanity’s role in it.
22. 1:27In his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, William Faulkner famously said, “Our tragedy today
23. 1:31is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear
24. 1:36it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be
25. 1:42blown up?” So, today we’re gonna look at how that came
26. 1:44to be the dominant question of human existence, and whether we can ever get past it.
27. 1:53intro So after WWII the U.S. and the USSR were the
28. 2:00only two nations with any power left. The United States was a lot stronger – we had
29. 2:04atomic weapons, for starters, and also the Soviets had lost 20 million people in the
30. 2:08war and they were led by a sociopathic mustachioed Joseph Stalin.
31. 2:12But the U.S. still had worries: we needed a strong, free-market-oriented Europe (and
32. 2:16to a lesser extent Asia) so that all the goods we were making could find happy homes.
33. 2:21The Soviets, meanwhile, were concerned with something more immediate, a powerful Germany
34. 2:24invading them. Again. Germany--and please do not take this personally, Germans--was
35. 2:29very, very slow to learn the central lesson of world history: Do not invade Russia. Unless
36. 2:36you’re the Mongols. (Mongoltage.)
37. 2:38So at the end of World War II, the USSR “encouraged” the creation of pro-communist governments
38. 2:43in Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland--which was a relatively easy thing to encourage, because
39. 2:48those nations were occupied by Soviet troops. The idea for the Soviets was to create a communist
40. 2:52buffer between them and Germany, but to the U.S. it looked like communism might just keep
41. 2:57expanding, and that would be really bad for us, because who would buy all of our sweet,
42. 3:01sweet industrial goods? So America responded with the policy of containment,
43. 3:05as introduced in diplomat George F. Kennan’s famous Long Telegram. Communism could stay
44. 3:09where it was, but it would not be allowed to spread.
45. 3:12And ultimately this is why we fought very real wars in both Korea and Vietnam.
46. 3:16As a government report from 1950 put it the goals of containment were:
47. 3:201. Block further expansion of Soviet power 2. Expose the falsities of soviet pretensions
48. 3:253. Induce a retraction of the Kremlin’s control and influence, and
49. 3:304. In general, foster the seeds of destruction within the Soviet system.
50. 3:34Harry Truman, who as you’ll recall, became President in 1945 after Franklin Delano Prez
51. 3:394 Life Roosevelt died, was a big fan of containment, and the first real test of it came in Greece
52. 3:44and Turkey in 1947. This was a very strategically valuable region
53. 3:48because it was near the Middle East, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but
54. 3:51the United States has been just, like, a smidge interested in the Middle East the last several
55. 3:55decades because of oil glorious oil. Right, so Truman announced the so-called Truman
56. 4:00Doctrine, because you know why not name a doctrine after yourself, in which he pledged
57. 4:03to support “freedom-loving peoples” against communist threats, which is all fine and good.
58. 4:09But who will protect us against “peoples,” the pluralization of an already plural noun?
59. 4:14Anyway, we eventually sent $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey, and we were off
60. 4:18to the Cold War races. The Truman Doctrine created the language through
61. 4:21which Americans would view the world with America as free and communists as tyrannical.
62. 4:26According to our old friend Eric Foner, “The speech set a precedent for American assistance
63. 4:31to anticommunist regimes throughout the world, no matter how undemocratic, and for the creation
64. 4:36of a set of global military alliances directed against the Soviet Union.”[1]
65. 4:40It also led to the creation of a new security apparatus – the National Security Council,
66. 4:44the Central Intelligence Agency, the Atomic Energy Commission, all of which were somewhat
67. 4:49immune from government oversight and definitely not democratically elected.
68. 4:53And the containment policy and the Truman Doctrine also laid the foundations for a military
69. 4:57build-up – an arms race – which would become a key feature of the Cold War.
70. 5:01But it wasn’t all about the military, at least at first. Like, the Marshall Plan was
71. 5:04first introduced at Harvard’s Commencement address in June 1947 by, get this, George
72. 5:09Marshall, in what turned out to be, like, the second most important commencement address
73. 5:13in all of American history. Yes, yes, Stan, okay. It was a great speech, thank you for
74. 5:18noticing. Alright, let’s go to the Thought Bubble.
75. 5:19The Marshall Plan was a response to economic chaos in Europe brought on by a particularly
76. 5:23harsh winter that strengthened support for communism in France and Italy.
77. 5:27The plan sought to use US Aid to combat the economic instability that provided fertile
78. 5:32fields for communism. As Marshall said “ our policy is not directed against any country
79. 5:37or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos.” [2] Basically it
80. 5:42was a New Deal for Europe, and it worked; Western Europe was rebuilt so that by 1950
81. 5:47production levels in industry had eclipsed pre-war levels and Europe was on its way to
82. 5:51becoming a U.S. style-capitalist-mass-consumer society. Which it still is, kind of.
83. 5:57Japan, although not technically part of the Marshall Plan, was also rebuilt. General Douglas
84. 6:01MacArthur was basically the dictator there, forcing Japan to adopt a new constitution,
85. 6:05giving women the vote, and pledging that Japan would foreswear war, in exchange for which
86. 6:10the United States effectively became Japan’s defense force. This allowed Japan to spend
87. 6:14its money on other things, like industry, which worked out really well for them.
88. 6:18Meanwhile Germany was experiencing the first Berlin crisis. At the end of the war, Germany
89. 6:22was divided into East and West, and even though the capital, Berlin, was entirely in the east,
90. 6:27it was also divided into east and west. This meant that West Berlin was dependent on shipments
91. 6:31of goods from West Germany through East Germany. And then, in 1948, Stalin cut off the roads
92. 6:38to West Berlin. So, the Americans responded with an 11-month-long airlift of supplies
93. 6:42that eventually led to Stalin lifting the blockade in 1948 and building the Berlin Wall,
94. 6:48which stood until 1991, when Kool Aid Guy--no, wait, wait, wait, wait, that wasn’t when
95. 6:52the Berlin Wall was built. That was in 1961. I just wanted to give Thought Bubble the opportunity
96. 6:56to make that joke. Thanks, Thought Bubble. So right, the Wall
97. 6:59wasn’t built until 1961, but 1949 did see Germany officially split into two nations,
98. 7:03and also the Soviets detonated their first atomic bomb, and NATO was established, AND
99. 7:08the Chinese Revolution ended in communist victory.
100. 7:11So, by the end of 1950, the contours of the Cold War had been established, West versus
101. 7:15East, Capitalist Freedom versus Communist totalitarianism.
102. 7:19At least from where I’m sitting. Although now apparently I’m going to change where
103. 7:21I’m sitting because it’s time for the Mystery Document. The rules here are simple.
104. 7:27I guess the author of the Mystery Document and about 55% of the time I get shocked by
105. 7:31the shock pen. “We must organize and enlist the energies
106. 7:34and resources of the free world in a positive program for peace which will frustrate the
107. 7:38Kremlin design for world domination by creating a situation in the free world to which the
108. 7:43Kremlin will be compelled to adjust. Without such a cooperative effort, led by the United
109. 7:47States, we will have to make gradual withdrawals under pressure until we discover one day that
110. 7:52we have sacrificed positions of vital interest. It is imperative that this trend be reversed
111. 7:56by a much more rapid and concerted build-up of the actual strength of both the United
112. 8:01States and the other nations of the free world.” I mean all I can say about it is that it sounds
113. 8:05American and, like, it was written in, like, 1951 and it seems kind of like a policy paper
114. 8:10or something really boring so I...I mean... Yeah, I’m just going to have to take the
115. 8:18shock. AH! National Security Council report NSC-68? Are
116. 8:22you kidding me, Stan? Not-not 64? Or 81? 68? This is ridiculous! I call injustice.
117. 8:27Anyway, as the apparently wildly famous NSC-68 shows, the U.S. government cast the Cold War
118. 8:33as a rather epic struggle between freedom and tyranny, and that led to remarkable political
119. 8:38consensus--both democrats and republicans supported most aspects of cold war policy,
120. 8:42especially the military build-up part. Now, of course, there were some critics, like
121. 8:46Walter Lippmann who worried that casting foreign policy in such stark ideological terms would
122. 8:51result in the U.S. getting on the wrong side of many conflicts, especially as former colonies
123. 8:56sought to remove the bonds of empire and become independent nations. But yeah, no, nothing
124. 9:00like that ever happened. Yeah, I mean, it’s not like that happened
125. 9:02in Iran or Nicaragua or Argentina or Brazil or Guatemala or Stan are you really going
126. 9:08to make me list all of them? Fine. Or Haiti or Paraguay or the Philippines or Chile or
127. 9:13Iraq or Indonesia or Zaire or, I’m sorry, THERE WERE A LOT OF THEM, OKAY?
128. 9:16But these interventions were viewed as necessary to prevent the spread of communism, which
129. 9:20was genuinely terrifying to people and it’s important to understand that.
130. 9:24Like, national security agencies pushed Hollywood to produce anticommunist movies like “The
131. 9:28Red Menace,” which scared people. And the CIA funded magazines, news broadcasts, concerts,
132. 9:34art exhibitions, that gave examples of American freedom. It even supported painters like Jackson
133. 9:39Pollack and the Museum of Modern Art in New York because American expressionism was the
134. 9:43vanguard of artistic freedom and the exact opposite of Soviet socialist realism.
135. 9:48I mean, have you seen Soviet paintings? Look at the hearty ankles on these socialist comrade
136. 9:53peasants. Also because the Soviets were atheists, at
137. 9:55least in theory, Congress in 1954 added the words “under God” to the pledge of allegiance
138. 10:00as a sign of America’s resistance to communism. The Cold War also shaped domestic policy--anti-communist
139. 10:06sentiment, for instance, prevented Truman from extending the social policies of the
140. 10:09New Deal. The program that he dubbed the Fair Deal would
141. 10:12have increased the minimum wage, extended national health insurance and increased public
142. 10:17housing, Social Security and aid to education. But the American Medical Association lobbied
143. 10:21against Truman’s plan for national health insurance by calling it “socialized” medicine,
144. 10:26and Congress was in no mood to pay money for socialized anything.
145. 10:29That problem goes away. But the government did make some domestic
146. 10:33investments as a result of the Cold War--in the name of national security the government
147. 10:37spent money on education, research in science, technology like computers, and transportation
148. 10:42infrastructure. In fact we largely have the Cold War to thank for our marvelous interstate
149. 10:47highway system, although part of the reason Congress approved it was to set up speedy
150. 10:51evacuation routes in the event of nuclear war.
151. 10:53And, speaking of nuclear war, it’s worth noting that a big part of the reason the Soviets
152. 10:56were able to develop nuclear weapons so quickly was thanks to espionage, like for instance
153. 11:01by physicist and spy Klaus Fuchs. I think I’m pronouncing that right.
154. 11:05Fuchs worked on the Manhattan Project and leaked information to the Soviets and then
155. 11:08later helped the Chinese to build their first bomb. Julius Rosenberg also gave atomic secrets
156. 11:13to the Soviets, and was eventually executed--as was his less-clearly-guilty wife, Ethel.
157. 11:17And it’s important to remember all that when thinking about the United States’s
158. 11:21obsessive fear that there were communists in our midst. This began in 1947 with Truman’s
159. 11:26Loyalty Review System, which required government employees to prove their patriotism when accused
160. 11:31of disloyalty. How do you prove your loyalty? Rat out your
161. 11:33co-workers as communists. No seriously though, that program never found any communists.
162. 11:37This all culminated of course with the Red Scare and the rise of Wisconsin senator Joseph
163. 11:42McCarthy, an inveterate liar who became enormously powerful after announcing in February 1950
164. 11:48that he had a list of 205 communists who worked in the state department
165. 11:51In fact, he had no such thing, and McCarthy never identified a single disloyal American,
166. 11:56but the fear of communism continued. In 1951’s Dennis v. United States, the Supreme Court
167. 12:02upheld the notion that being a communist leader itself was a crime.
168. 12:06In this climate of fear, any criticism of the government and its policies or the U.S.
169. 12:11in general was seen as disloyalty. There was only one question--when will I be blown up--and
170. 12:17it encouraged loyalty, because only the government could prevent the spread of communism and
171. 12:21keep us from being blown up. We’ve talked a lot about different ways
172. 12:24that Americans have imagined freedom this year, but this was a new definition of freedom--the
173. 12:29government exists in part to keep us free from massive destruction.
174. 12:33So, the Cold War changed America profoundly: The U.S. has remained a leader on the world
175. 12:37stage and continued to build a large, powerful, and expensive national state. But it also
176. 12:42changed the way we imagine what it means to be free, and what it means to be safe. Thanks
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183. 13:10forget to be awesome...Wait, wait, wait, Stan, is that music copyrighted?
184. 13:16All right! It's not! Woo! That saved us a thousand dollars.