Reference no: EM133590583

Questions: Cold War I

1. How did Truman ultimately respond to appeals for nuclear restraint and constructive relations with Soviet Russia from FDR's New Deal administration, including Henry Wallace?

2. Identify and discuss Permanent War Mobilization and Permanent War Economy. To what do these post war developments refer, what kind of influences and realities produced them, and how did/do they impact the nation?

3. Why did Senator Arthur Vandenberg tell Truman that he needed to "scare the hell out of the country" and what Truman commence scaring the American people with?

4. Identify and discuss the Truman Doctrine and Containment- what did these policy doctrines commit the nation to? How did they function? Who benefitted? How was the nation impacted?

5. Permanent War Mobilization and the creation of a National Security State required an enemy, or perceived enemy. The Truman Doctrine identified this enemy as "communism" and then committed the nation to making war on "communism." The origins of the National Security State, however, predate the end of World War II, however. Use the following prompts to discuss its origins and the nature and ambitions of those who advanced its creation:1. The National Security League2. Pendelton Herring3. The "economic royalists"

6. The National Security Act created the National Security State, including the National Security Council, National Security Advisor, Joint Chiefs, and CIA. Beyond these facts, what is the nature and function of the National Security State, as described by Andrew Bacevich, Charlmers Johnson and the slides? Is it compatible with the ideal of a democratic republic?

7. The US has been engaged in military interventions and warfare almost perpetually since the advent of the National Security State. When was the last time that its government followed appropriate constitutional procedures and declared war?

8. The Deep State is not synonymous with the National Security State, though it might be said that the National Security State is a part of the Deep State. According to Peter Dale Scott, what is the Deep State?

9. The CIA was established by the National Security Act. It quickly developed two branches. What were/are these two branches?

10. The CIA evolved, most directly, from Word War II'sOSS... & by analyzing the OSS, we can learn some important things about the nature and function of the CIA (especially, its second branch). Discuss the class background of the OSS agents and how many of them pursued their class interests in the context of WWII and its aftermath.

11. Identify and discuss the men who organized, headed and shaped the CIA during its formative decades, including William Donavan and Allan Dulles (do you see a pattern?)

12. Identify and discuss the relationship that the CIA forged with Nazis under Operation Paperclip and Operation Sunrise. What did the relationship entail and what did the National Security State gain, or hope to gain from these relationships?

13. Identify and discuss the relationship that the CIA forged with Ukrainian Ultra-Nationalist Nazi collaborators under such operations as AERODYNAMIC, Nightingale and Rod Socks? Be sure to include the Pressure Cooker Theory.

14. Reinhard Gehlen- who was he? Why did the National Security State use men such as him? And what could possibly go wrong (Blowback? Can you trust a Nazi?)

15. How was understandings of freedom begin to change in the context of the "war on communism" and the permanent war economy and National Security State which this "war" made possible?

16. The war on "communism" abroad was almost always a war upon the poorest and most oppressed and exploited people in the world. The war on communism also constituted a war upon the American home-front. Use the following prompts to discuss the scale and nature of its impact:a. Taft Hartley and the Labor Movement

b. Executive Order 9835 and the nature of government and public institutions, including education:

c. The Smith Act and basic Constitutional liberties:

d. Employment (public and private spheres)

e. COINTELPRO and social movements (struggle for freedom)

f. Film, television, and popular culture (Hollywood 10 and Congress on Cultural Freedom)

g. News, information and general perceptions of reality (Operation Mockingbird)h. Post-War Liberalism (where did the money go needed for social programs and investment in the public good, like college education?)

17. The new Red Scare became self-perpetuating, largely because so many elements in American society found a way to use it to advance their interests or, otherwise, benefit from it. Beyond those who profited from war mobilization under the pretext of a communist threat, and those for whom decolonization efforts and progressive politicians abroad undermined profits, who benefitted from the "war on communism" and a belief in a Red Menace?

18. Identify and discuss General Douglas MacArthur's take on the new Red Scare:

19. How did Truman come to privately view the Red Scare and anti-communist hysteria he set in motion?

20. Ultimately, how can we account for the transformations which took place in the United States, including the rise of the National Security State, Truman Doctrine, Permanent War Economy/Mobilization, and systemic suppression of essential human freedoms?