The Second World War and the Cold War

History of the USA · The modern United States. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

Test this topic freeAll History of the USA topics

The idea

The United States helped Britain with Lend-Lease but entered the war only after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. It fought in Europe and the Pacific, and ended the Pacific war with atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. It then helped build the post-war order: the United Nations, the IMF and the World Bank.

Wartime alliance with the Soviet Union gave way to the Cold War. American policy was containment: to stop communism spreading. The Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan and NATO applied it in Europe.

In Asia containment meant war in Korea and Vietnam. In 1962 the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the two superpowers close to nuclear war.

Rules to remember

Common mistake

Do not confuse the Truman Doctrine with the Marshall Plan. The Doctrine (1947) was a political and military promise to resist communism; the Plan (1948) was economic aid for European recovery.

Worked example

The Tet Offensive of 1968 was a military defeat for the communist forces. Why is it still called a turning point against the United States?

  1. American leaders had told the public that the war was being won.
  2. The size of the attacks across South Vietnam showed that the enemy was far from beaten.
  3. Public support in the United States fell, and President Johnson announced he would not stand for re-election.

Answer: Tet was a political and psychological blow: it broke American confidence in the war even though the attackers lost on the battlefield.

Ask about this

Type what you are stuck on. The helper finds the explanation, worked examples and the notes to read, free and instant.

Read the full notes

Keep going

← The 1920s, Great Depression and New DealThe civil rights movement →Take a History of the USA test