Transcript The American Pageant: Chapter 37

The Cold War Begins
 During
the 1930s the suicide rate rose and
the marriage rate dropped.
 The population growth was also declining
as couples had economic troubles.
 In the initial postwar years, the economy
struggled;
• prices elevated 33% from 1946-1947 after the
wartime price controls were removed.
• An epidemic of strikes swept over the country in
1946.
 Passed
over Truman’s Veto
 Outlawed the “closed” shop
 Union leaders must take anti communist
oath
 AKA
GI Bill
 Sent former soldiers to school
 Raised education levels and expanded
construction industry
 20
year period of economic growth
• Appropriations for the Korean War
• Cheap energy
• Gains in productivity
 Americans
= 40% of world’s wealth
 Middle class doubled – (60% of pop)
 Increase in service sector
 Population
doubled in 30 years after
WWII
 California – 1/5 of the population
 Federal $ given to Sunbelt to expand area
 “White flight”
• Higher classes moved to suburbs
• Left inner cities poor
• FHA denied loans to blacks
 U.S. funded
International Money Fund
(IMF) and world bank
• Economic development
• Soviets did not participate
• Strict and conditional loaning
 Security
Council
• U.S., Britain, the U.S.S.R., France, and China
• Veto Power
 Assembly
 Beneficial
Organizations
• UNESCO, FAO, and WHO
 Move
towards agency in charge of
nuclear regulation
• U.S. and U.S.S.R declined and it fell apart
 U.S. terminated
aid and refused future aid
to USSR
 Soviet goal to have Soviet sphere of
influence
• Wanted to be world’s leading Communist
country
 FDR’s
post war plan
• 3d’s – decolonized, demilitarized, and
democratized
 Nazi
leaders charged with war crimes
• Nuremberg Trials
 After WWII
put into 4 zones
 Seeing Soviet influence Allies wanted a
reunited Germany
 Communist
influence over U.S.S.R.’s
eastern region
 West Germany independent from
Western World
 Russia tried to starve Allies out
 1949 – East and West Germany
Established
 George
4
Kennan
points
• Soviets at war with capitalism
• Spread of Communism
• Expansion a result of paranoia
• No accurate reality
 Aid
any country resisting communist
aggression
 Geared toward Greece and Turkey
 Political and economic plan
 European
Recovery Program
• Russia offered but refused
• Eliminated tariff trade barriers
4
year program
 $13 Billion
 National
Security Act (1947)
• Department of Defense
 Secretary of defense created
• National Security Council
 Advise president on security issues
• CIA
 U.S.A
participation strengthened
containment of the Soviet Union
 Provided a framework for the
reintegration of Germany.
 The pact pledged each signed nation to
regard an attack on one as an attack on
all. The Senate passed the treaty on July
21, 1949.
 September
1949: the Soviet Union
exploded its first atomic bomb
 Truman ordered the development of the
H-bomb (Hydrogen Bomb).
• The first H-bomb was exploded in 1952.
 The
Soviets exploded their first H-bomb
in 1953.

Loyalty Review Board (1947)
• investigate the possibility of communist spies in the
government.

Smith Act of 1940 – Sedition Act
• The ruling was upheld in Dennis v. United States (1951).
1938: Committee on Un-American Activities
(HUAC) to investigate "subversion."
 Richard M. Nixon led the hunt for Alger Hiss, a
distinguished member of the "eastern
establishment."
 Americans began to join in on the hunt for
communist spies of who were thought to riddle
America.

 McCarran Internal Security Bill
• Vetoed by Truman 1950
• authorized the president to arrest and detain
suspicious people
• Congress overrode Truman's veto and passed
the bill.
 In
1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were
convicted and sentenced to death for
stealing American atomic bomb plans
and selling them to the Soviet Union.
• They were the only people in history to be
sentenced to death for espionage.
 Republicans: Thomas
E. Dewey
• Liberal faction of Republican party
 Eisenhower
chose not to run
 Democrats chose Truman
• Civil rights platform
 Southern
democrats chose Thurmond
 Progressive
• Opposed Cold War policies of Truman (Marshall
Plan and Truman Doctrine)
• Henry Wallace
 Fired as Secretary of Commerce under Truman
 1949
 Raised
the minimum age
 Housing Act of 1949 – public housing
 Social Security Act 1950 – extended
Social Security
 When
Japan
collapsed in 1945,
Korea had been
divided up into two
sections:
• the Soviets controlled
the north above the
38th parallel
• United States
controlled south of that
line.
 Blue
print for the Cold War
 Made case for U.S. military buildup
 Kennan’s containment policy
 Peaceful military spending
• Up to $50 million per year
 On
June 25, 1950, President Truman
obtained from the United Nations
Security Council a unanimous
condemnation of North Korea as an
aggressor.
• (The Soviet Union was not present at the
meeting.)
 Without
Congress's approval, Truman
ordered American air and naval units to
be sent to support South Korea.
 On
September 15, 1950, General
MacArthur succeeded in pushing the
North Koreans past the 38th parallel.
 On November 1950, though, hordes of
communist Chinese "volunteers"
attacked the U.N. forces, pushing them
back to the 38th parallel.
 In July 1951, truce discussions dragged
out over the issue of prisoner exchange.
 Due
to General
MacArthur's
insubordination he
was removed from
command on April
11, 1951.
letters to
representatives
Ultimatum to China