LISTEN TO OUR NEW PODCAST: NSC-68 (1948-1950) HERE
Cold War Studies is excited to bring you our most recent podcast, the fourth in a series based on AMERICA, RUSSIA, AND THE COLD WAR by Walter LaFeber.
Our last podcast ended with Truman arguing that the Marshall Plan was not enough to prevent Europe from sliding into the Soviet camp. Nevertheless, the Americans were continuing to emphasize that the prosperity of Western Europe depended on German industrial recovery. The Soviets, meanwhile, were confronting the prospect of a revitalized West Berlin deep inside the Soviet zone.
The US was worried about Stalin’s response to unfolding events, and Truman was insistent that Europe had to have more protection against internal and external aggression. In this podcast, we move on from here.
The podcast ends with the recommendations of NSC-68, a secret document that became the American blueprint for waging the Cold War.
Truman and Acheson were no longer satisfied with containment. They wanted Soviet withdrawal and absolute victory. But the American people were in no mood to pay the associated costs. So, luckily for the President and the Secretary of State, on June 25, 1950, Korea came along and saved them. We’ll talk about that next time.
A PDF of the podcast is provided. You can access the text of NSC 68 (1948-1950) here.
There is also a no downloadable Glossary of Terms for this podcast.
Here are the links to the first three podcasts:
