CHOICES FOR THE 21 ST Coming to Terms with CENTURY Power: U.S. Choices afterafter WorldWorld WarWar IIII PUBLIC POLICY DEBATE IN THE CLASSROOM Choices for the 21st Century Education Project A program of the Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies Brown University ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CHOICES for the 21st Century Coming To Terms With Power: U.S. Choices After World War II was developed Education Project by the Choices for the 21st Century staff with the assistance of the research October 1998 staff of the Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies and Director scholars at Brown University. We wish to thank the following researchers Susan Graseck for their invaluable input: Curriculum Developer Mark Garrison, Former Director Mark Malkasian Center for Foreign Policy Development, Watson Institute Coordinator of Abbott Gleason, Professor of History Public Programs Brown University Megan Secatore Program Associates Sergei Khrushchev, Senior Visiting Scholar in Residence Lucy Mueller Center for Foreign Policy Development, Watson Institute Staff Associate Mark Kramer, Research Associate Anne Campau Prout Center for Foreign Policy Development, Watson Institute Office Assistant Cynthia Manzotti Charles Neu, Professor of History Brown University Unit Author Don Bakker Stephen Shenfield, Research Associate Research Associates Center for Foreign Policy Development, Watson Institute Don Bakker Richard Smoke, Research Director Patricia Keenan-Byrne Center for Foreign Policy Development, Watson Institute The Choices for the 21st Century Education Project We extend our thanks to Priscilla Carr, whose research paper for Don develops curricula on Bakker’s Advanced Placement U.S. History class in the spring of 1991 current and historical explored the possibility of using this approach to examine the Cold War. international issues and Special thanks also to Richard Chang, who served as research assistant for offers workshops, institutes, this curriculum unit. and in-service programs for high school teachers. To Mary Lhowe, editorial associate at the Watson Institute, we extend Course materials place additional thanks for editing this unit. special emphasis on the importance of educating Coming To Terms With Power: U.S. Choices After World War II is the first unit students in their participa- in a series that applies the choices approach to critical junctures in history. tory role as citizens. The Choices Education Project also publishes an ongoing series on current foreign policy issues. New units are published each academic year, and units The Choices for the 21st addressing current issues are updated regularly. Finally, we wish to thank Century Education Project is the Ettinger Foundation, Lawson-Valentine Foundation, Topsfield a program of the Thomas J. Foundation, Inc., The Pew Charitable Trusts, and an anonymous member Watson Jr. Institute of the Rockefeller family for their generous support of the work of the Choices for International Studies Education Project. at Brown University. Thomas J. Biersteker Visit us on the World Wide Web — Director http://www.choices.edu CONTENTS Suggested Reading ii U.S.-Soviet Relations during World War II 1 Background Briefings 6 International Politics in the Postwar World 18 Policy Options 22-34 Option 1: Impose a Pax Americana (American Peace) 23 Option 2: Contain Soviet Communism 26 Option 3: Co-Exist and Compromise 29 Option 4: Avoid Foreign Entanglements 32 Focusing Your Thoughts 35 Epilogue: The Truman Doctrine — March 1947 36 Chronology 38 Selected Biographies of 1945-47 Political Figures 39 THE CHOICES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY EDUCATION PROJECT is a program of the Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies at Brown University. CHOICES was established to help citizens think constructively about foreign policy issues, to improve participatory citizenship skills, and to encourage public judgment on policy priorities. THE THOMAS J. WATSON JR. INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES was established at Brown University in 1986 to serve as a forum for students, faculty, visiting scholars, and policy practitioners, who are committed to studying global problems and developing international initiatives to benefit society. © Copyright October 1992. Third edition. Choices for the 21st Century Education Project. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to duplicate and distribute for classroom use with appropriate credit given. Single units (consisting of a student text and a teacher’s resource book) are available for $12 each. Classroom sets (15 or more student texts) may be ordered at $5 per copy. A teacher’s resource book is included free with each classroom set. Orders should be addressed to: Choices Education Project, Watson Institute for International Studies, Box 1948, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912. Please see the order form in the back of this unit. ISBN 1-891306-17-0. Note on pagination: The page numbers displayed in Acrobat Reader do not match the page numbers found in the unit. For reference purposes, please follow the page numbers found in the unit. Coming to Terms with Power: i Watson Institute for International Studies U.S. Choices after World War II Choices Education Project, Brown University Suggested Reading Gaddis, John L. The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941-1947 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1972). 396 pages. Gaddis, John L. Strategies of Containment (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982). 432 pages. Jones, Joseph Marion. The Fifteen Weeks (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1964). 296 pages. Kennan, George F. (Mr. “X”). Foreign Affairs. “The Sources of Soviet Conduct.” (July 1947), pages 566-82. Kennan, George F. Memoirs, (1925-1950) (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1967). 623 pages. Kimball, Warren F. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the World Crisis, 1937-1945 (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath and Company, 1973). 297 pages. Paterson, Thomas G. The Origins of the Cold War (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath and Company, 1974). 126 pages. Ulam, Adam B. The Rivals: American and Russia Since World War II (New York: Penguin Books, 1971). 405 pages. Coming to Terms with Power: ii Watson Institute for International Studies U.S. Choices after World War II Choices Education Project, Brown University U.S.-Soviet Relations during World War II he United States and the Soviet Union became emphasize the cohesion of the anti-Nazi alliance in a T wartime allies on December 11, 1941, when speech delivered in February 1943, several months Nazi Germany declared war on the United States. Ger- after the successful Allied landings in North Africa: many had invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. The In an attempt to ward off the inevitable disaster, the German attack on the Soviet Union had come as a Axis propagandists are trying all of their old tricks in order shock to the Soviet leaders. Two years earlier, the So- to divide the United Nations [the name for the coalition viets had signed a treaty with Germany, the so-called of nations fighting Germany]. They seek to create the idea Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, in which leaders of both that if we win this war, Russia, England, China, and the countries committed themselves to peaceful relations. United States are going to get into a cat-and-dog fight. This For Americans, the U.S. alliance with the Soviet is their final effort to turn one nation against another....To Union raised troubling questions. The United States these panicky attempts to escape the consequences of their had opposed the Soviet system since the communists crimes we say — all the United Nations say — ...”Uncondi- had come to power in 1917. Even after Germany’s in- tional Surrender”....The Nazis must be frantic indeed if they vasion of the Soviet Union, most Americans remained believe that they can devise any propaganda which would wary of helping Moscow. The U.S. entry into World turn the British and American and Chinese governments War II compelled American leaders to put aside their and peoples against Russia — or Russia against the rest of us. differences in the common struggle against Adolf Nonetheless, areas of U.S.-Soviet friction Hitler. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought to emerged. These hidden points of conflict were to NOTE TO STUDENTS The period from 1947 to 1990, generally labeled the “Cold War” by historians, was a time in which U.S. foreign policy, U.S. domestic politics, and international relations were dominated by the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. Frequently, this rivalry took on the appearance of a crusade, with the United States leading the forces of the “free world” against the threat of “international communism” directed by the Soviet Union. An understanding of the critical period from 1945, when the United States and the Soviet Union were still wartime allies, to 1947, when the Cold War had clearly begun, is necessary to grasp the events of the second half of the 20th century. The attitudes formed and the decisions made during this three-year period defined the character of the following four decades. This unit is built around selections from letters, speeches, interviews, and memoranda written while the events you will be studying were happening. These documents, composed by the people who were shaping the decisions, express their values, perceptions, and recommendations. These primary sources are the raw material that historians work with when they write history and they should be read very carefully. Notice not only the ideas expressed, but also the words and phrases chosen to express them. What are the values and perceptions behind these opinions and what are the implications of the recommendations? Major differences of opinion frequently lie behind relatively minor differences in expression. In this unit, you will be taken back to the 1945 to 1947 period. You will participate with those who actually shaped U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union by deciding what strategy the United States should adopt to ensure its security and world peace in the postwar period. You will have available to you much of the information that these decision-makers possessed at the time.