Transcript Chapter 26 - Bakersfield College

Chapter Twenty-Six
The Cold War,
1945—1952
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/
". . . We have about 50% of the world's wealth, but only 6.3% of its
population. . . In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of
envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to
devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain
this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national
security. To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality
and day-dreaming, and our attention will have to be concentrated
everywhere on our immediate national objective. We need not
deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism
and world-benefaction. . . We should cease to talk about vague
and -- for the Far East -- unreal objectives such as human rights,
the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is
not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power
concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans,
the better."
George Kennan Head of the State Dept planning staff in the early
post-World War II period (This was a top secret internal
document written in 1948.)
There's an interesting set of essays on Marx, celebrating the 150th
anniversary of the Communist Manifesto, in a publication called NEW
POLITICS, which you are sure not to be able to get at your corner newsstand.
I think Marx's greatest contribution was his critique of capitalism, and if you
make your way through the jungle of Marxist economic theory (three volumes
of Das Kapital, plus a fat book which he wrote as preface to Das Kapital,
called der Grundrisse, and a couple of heavy volumes on Theories of Surplus
Value), or, better still, fly above the jungle in a helicopter, you can find a
powerful analysis, still valid today: the tendency of capitalism to create larger
and larger conglomerates, its tendency to create poles of wealth and poverty,
a fundamental conflict between the private profit central to capitalist
accumulation and the increasingly social nature, both internally and
internationally, of economic relations. You don't need to know the intricacies of
the theory of surplus value to see its basic truth: that the tendency of
capitalism is to drive wages down to the means of subsistence, and to keep all
the rest; and that this is helped by maintaining a large group of unemployed,
"reserve army of labor". Marx and Engels (don't forget that guy) saw economic
crisis as inevitably getting worse and worse, and Marxist economists, in the
depression of 1929 saw the fulfillment of this prophecy, but after the war, when
the expected capitalist depression didn't occur, Paul Sweezy and Paul Baran,
in their book MONOPOLY CAPITAL, analyzed the ways in which a capitalism
unforeseen by Marx and Engels, was able to stave off depression by military
spending and other devices.
[continued]
When you get to the issue of what happens after capitalism, and the
"dictatorship of the proletariat", Marx is not really clear. The idea is that in the
post-capitalism transition period there will be a need for a strong state, a state
of "the majority", the working class. As we know, that supposed dictatorship of
the "majority", in the Soviet Union, quickly became a dictatorship of a party, a
Central Committee, one man. Bakunin and other anarchists argued that the
state would not wither away by itself, that it must be demolished immediately.
The closest we can get to a description of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" in
Marx is where he writes about the Paris Commune of 1871, indeed a
remarkable example of grass-roots democratic involvement, and says "If you
want to know what I mean by 'dictatorship of the proletariat' take a look at the
Paris Commune." Marx and Engels thought the apparatus of the state -- police,
army, all coercive instruments--- would become less and less necessary as
society became more and more classless. But they did not foresee the
complicated developments of the 20th century, the overthrow of capitalism in
semi-developed countries like Russia and China, the rise of bureaucratic police
states calling themselves "socialist" and "Marxist".
Howard Zinn on Marxism
Chronology
1941
1944
Henry Luce forecasts the dawn of "the American Century"
GI Bill of Rights authorizes educational + benefits for WW II veterans
International Monetary Fund and World Bank founded at Bretton Woods
1945
Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office; Harry Truman becomes president
United Nations charter signed; World War II ends; Strike wave begins
Truman proposes program of economic reforms
Employment Act creates Council of Economic Advisers
Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech
Atomic Energy Act establishes Atomic Energy Commission
Republicans win control of Congress
Benjamin Spock publishes Baby And Child Care
Americans for Democratic Action founded
Truman Doctrine; Congress appropriates $400 million for Greece/Turkey
Federal Employees Loyalty and Security Program established and
attorney general's list of subversive organizations authorized
Taft-Harley Act restricts union activities
National Security Act establishes Department of Defense, the National
Security Council, and the Central Intelligence Agency
House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in Hollywood
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
State of Israel founded; Berlin blockade begins
Henry Wallace nominated for president on Progressive Party ticket
Truman’s peacetime draft; desegregates armed forces + civil service
Truman wins election; Democrats sweep both houses of Congress
Truman’s Fair Deal; North Atlantic Treaty Organization created
Communists led by Mao Zedong win in China; Berlin blockade ends
Soviet Union explodes atomic bomb
Alger Hiss convicted of perjury
Senator Joseph McCarthy begins anticommunist crusade
Republic of China sign an alliance
Adoption of NSC-68 consolidates presidential war powers
Korean War begins
Internal Security (McCarran) Act requires registration of communist
organizations and arrest of communist during national emergencies
Truman dismisses General Douglas MacArthur
Armistice talks begin in Korea
Immigration and Nationality Act retains quota system, lifts ban on
immigration of Asian peoples, bans "subversives" + homosexuals
US explodes first hydrogen bomb; Eisenhower presidency; Nixon VP
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed for atomic espionage
Armistice ends fighting in Korea
Army-McCarthy hearings end
Warsaw Pact created
Chapter Focus Questions
• What were the prospects for world peace at the end
of World War II?
• What as the diplomatic policy during the Cold
War?
• What characterized the Truman presidency?
• What led to Anti-communism and McCarthyism?
• What characterized Cold War culture and
society?
• What were the causes, battles, and results of the
Korean War?
George C. Marshall [1880-1959], Secretary of State 1947 – 1949 – in March
1947 Truman asked Congress for $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey to
“support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed
minorities or by outside pressures.”
George F. Kennan [b. 1904] architect of “containment” policy
David ben-Gurion [Israel’s first prime minister] proclaims Israel’s independence,
May 15, 1948. Truman acted quickly to recognize Israel.
Berliners watch Berlin Airlift C-54 in flight – began July 1948 and lasted until
May 1949 – 12,000 tons of food, fuel, and others supplies daily at the height.
NY Governor Thomas Dewey [1902-1971] campaigning for the presidency in
1948. [His vice president was Bakersfield’s Earl Warren.]
Strom Thurmond [b. 1902] was nominated by Dixiecrats in 1948 challenging
Truman’s tentative moves to assist African Americans.
Liberal Henry Wallace ran as a Progressive for president in 1948. Truman had
fired him as Secretary of Commerce due to a critical speech about Truman’s
diplomacy with Russia.
Margaret, Bess, and Harry Truman
George Democratic Senator Herman Talmadge, leader of the opposition to
Truman’s programs
President Truman signing NATO treaty on August 24, 1949.
Free US tank on way to France - part of NATO’s Mutual Defense Assistance
Program.
Nationalist Chinese soldiers retreating from communist forces near Shanghai,
May 1949.
Mao Zedong [Mao Tse-Tung, 1893-1976] proclaiming the People’s Republic of
China in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on October 1, 1949
Ho Chi Minh [1890-1969] with French president Georges Bidault in 1946. At the
end of WW II, Ho proclaimed Vietnam’s independence from France and the
establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. [At the Potsdam
Conference, the Allied nations divided Vietnam at the 16th parallel giving the north
part to Nationalist China and the south part to Britain who withdrew in favor of the
French. When France wouldn’t accept the Republic in the south, war erupted.]
Emperor Bao Dai [Nguyen Vinh Thuy in center] and Premier Huu Tran Van.
During WW II he had cooperated with the Japanese – in 1945 he had been
forced to abdicate by the Viet Minh.
Secretary of State Dean Acheson – “present at the creation.”
Truman presiding over a meeting of the National Security Council in 1948.
NSC 68 was issued in April of 1950 proposing “an immediate and large-scale
buildup of our military” to deal with the Soviet threat.
Korean map showing the southernmost advance of the North Korean forces, the
northernmost advance of the UN troops and the July 1953 truce line.
The UN Security Council voted 9-0 [Russia was absent] to condemn North Korea
for its June 25, 1950 invasion of South Korea. [Kim Il-Sung probably invaded for
nationalistic and internal political reasons.]
The Inchon invasion of September 1950 by General Douglas MacArthur.
General Douglas MacArthur, commander-in-chief of the UN command with
General Omar Bradley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff on Wake Island.
A Navy AD-3 bomber pulling out of a dive after dropping a 2,000 pound bomb
on the Korean bridge on the Yalu River next to Manchuria, Nov. 15, 1950.
A Mobile Army Surgical Hospital [M.A.S.H.] 20 miles from the front line in August
1952. The UN lost 120,000 men [33,000 were Americans] – more than 2 million
civilians died and perhaps 1.5 million Korean and Chinese soldiers also died.
[There was a fictional MASH TV show in the 1970s.]
An armistice, not a peace treaty, was signed on July 27, 1953 leading to US
civilian disillusionment with a “non-victory” ending.
Alger Hiss served in the State Department from 1936-1947. In 1948, Whittaker
Chambers confessed to being a courier for Hiss to pass confidential documents to
the Russians. Hiss was guilty of “perjury” and sentenced to 5 years in prison.
A famous Hollywood union leader testifying before the House of
Representatives’ Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947. A “red scare”
lasted until the mid-1950s against 1930s Hollywood filmmakers and scriptwriters.
Nixon was a member of HUAC who rose to prominence.
1957 photo of J. Edgar Hoover [1895-1972], FBI director who set up loyalty
boards in federal agencies and authorized the attorney general to draw up a list
of subversive organizations.
President Truman honoring first CIA director Admiral Sidney Souers – the CIA was
established in 1949.
Communists Ethel and Julius Rosenberg who were electrocuted on July 19,
1953 after refusing leniency if they would have confessed. [Klaus Fuchs revealed
to Scotland Yard that he passed atomic information to the Soviets.]
Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin [1909-1957] who began
“red-baiting” in February 1950 by using unsubstantiated charges, guilt by
association, lies, and documentation taken out of context in public forums.
Troops observing a Fall 1951 nuclear explosion in a joint Atomic Energy
Commission-Department of Defense test.
First test of an H-bomb in the Fall of 1952 in the Marshall Islands. This photo of
the 40,000 foot mushroom cloud was taken from a distance of 50 miles at
12,000 feet 2 minutes following the explosion.
Dwight David Eisenhower with Richard M. Nixon at the end of the Chicago
Convention in July, 1952. [Ike promised to go to Korea to resolve the stalemate.]
Former director of the Women’s Army Corps, Oveta Culp Hobby became the first
HEW secretary and served from 1953 to 1955.
The hearing room on the last day of the Army/McCarthy hearings. McCarthy’s
charges that highly-placed officers were shielding communists at lower levels
[while apparently inebriated] led to a Senate censure in December 1954. Two
years later he died from alcoholism.
Ike with CA Governor Earl Warren on July 13th, 1953 who replaced Chief
Justice Fred Vinson. “The stupidest thing I ever did was to appoint. . .” Ike.
Part I:
Introduction
This chapter covers the beginnings of the Cold War under the Truman
presidency as it affected both foreign and domestic policies.
Peace after World War II was marred by a return to the 1917 rivalry of the
United States and the Soviet Union.
Truman and his advisors introduced the basic Cold War policies of
containment in the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan and the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization.
With the victory of the communists in Asia as well, the Cold War prompted
the U.S. to rebuild its World War II enemies of Germany and Japan as
counterweights to the Soviets.
At home, Americans wanted to return to normal by bringing the troops back
home, spending for consumer goods and re-establishing family life but
many changing social patterns brought anxieties.
A second Red Scare was caused by the Cold War rhetoric of a bipartisan
foreign policy and Truman’s loyalty program but Senator Joseph McCarthy’s
tactics symbolized the era.
Defense spending increased and the American economy became
dependent on it to maintain recovery.
Truman tried to extend elements of the New Deal in his Fair Deal but with
minimal success.
Sources
David McCullough, Truman [1992]
Walter LeFeber, America, Russia, and the Cold War,
1945 – 1980 [1993]
Noam Chomsky, Towards a New Cold War [1973]
John Lewis Gaddis, The United States and the Origins
of the Cold War [1972]
Louis J. Halle, The Cold War as History [1991]
Concepts
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“To err is Truman”
George Kennan’s “containment” policy, implosion
Loyalty act
Richard Hofstader, consensus historian
Death of a Salesman; Catcher in the Rye
UFOs
M*A*S*H – screenwriter Ring Lardner, Jr.
K1C2 – Korea, communism, corruption
Adlai Stevenson [Bakersfield’s Walter Stiern]
Nixon’s "Checkers speech"
Part II:
American
Communities
Un. of Washington, Seattle
• In 1948 philosophy professor Melvin Rader was falsely accused
of being a Communist conspirator.
• During the cold war era, the federal government was providing
substantial support for higher education through the GI Bill.
• The student population at the University of Washington grew
rapidly and a strong sense of community among the students
grew, led by older, former soldiers.
• The Cold War put a damper on this community.
• Wild charges of communist subversion led several states to
require state employees to take loyalty oaths.
• In this repressed atmosphere, faculty were dismissed, students
dropped out of school, and the free speech was restrained on the
campuses.
Part III:
Global Insecurities at
War’s End
Financing the Future
• During WWII, the United States and Soviet Union
had temporarily put aside their differences in a
common fight.
• Divergent interests made a continued alliance
unlikely.
• Fears of the return of depression led the United
States to take a much more active international
stance.
• The Soviet Union interpreted the aggressive
American economic moves as a threat.
The Division of Europe
• FDR’s realism allowed him to recognize that some
kinds of spheres of influence were inevitable for the
winning powers. [Division of Poland and Europe at
Yalta with link to Churchill’s proposals]
Part IV:
The Policy of
Containment
The Truman Doctrine
• While FDR favored diplomacy and compromise,
Truman was committed to a get-tough policy with the
Soviets.
• When civil war threatened the governments in Turkey
and Greece, the United States warned of a
communist coup and provided $400 million to defeat
the rebels.
• The Truman Doctrine committed the United States to
a policy of trying to contain Communism.
The Marshall Plan and the
Berlin Crisis
• The Marshall Plan provided $13 billion to rebuild
Europe.
• The plan had the long-term impact of revitalizing the
European capitalist economy and driving a further
wedge between the West and Soviet Union.
• The gap widened when the western zones of
Germany merged.
• When the Soviets cut off land access to West Berlin,
the United States airlifted supplies to the city.
NATO and Atomic Diplomacy
• The United States also created an alliance of antiSoviet nations, NATO, and the Soviets responded
with the Warsaw Pact.
• The East/West split seemed permanent.
• The American policy of containing Communism
rested on the ability to stop its expansion by
military means.
• After the Soviets developed nuclear weapons, both
sides amassed lethal stockpiles. The U.S. and
Soviets could not come up with a plan to control
them. Within a few years both sides had a stockpile
of hydrogen bombs.
Part V:
Cold War
Liberalism
“To Err is Truman”
• The early years of the Truman presidency were
plagued by protests by Americans tired of war-time
sacrifices.
• An inability to bring troops home quickly or end
rationing hurt Truman’s popularity. Inflation spread
and strikes paralyzed the nation.
• Congress blocked Truman's plans for reconversion.
• In 1946, Republicans gained control of Congress
and started to undo the New Deal. Over Truman’s
veto, Republicans passed the Taft-Hartley bill that
curtailed the power of labor.
The 1948 Election
• Going into the 1948 election the liberal community was
divided.
• Liberals feuded with Truman over how to extend the New Deal
and the extent of the Soviet threat.
• Henry Wallace challenged Truman by running on the
Progressive ticket, a campaign effectively quashed by redbaiting.
• Truman repositioned himself to the left by warning voters that
Republicans would make the United States “an economic
colony of Wall Street.”
• He also offered a liberal legislative package that Congress
defeated.
• The Democrats split again over civil rights when
segregationists ran Strom Thurmond for president.
Truman’s Victory
• Truman managed to hold on to the New Deal
coalition and won re-election.
The Fair Deal
• In 1949 he proposed a package of reforms, the Fair
Deal.
• Truman won some gains in public housing,
minimum wage and Social Security increases,
but little else.
• Truman helped to define Cold War liberalism as
promoting economic growth through expanded
foreign trade and federal expenditures, chiefly
defense.
Part VI:
The Cold War at Home
The National Security Act of
1947
• A climate of fear developed after the war that the United
States was the target of or had already fallen prey to
subversive influences.
• The Cold War triggered a massive reordering of
governmental power.
• Established under the National Security Act of 1947, the
Defense Department became a huge and powerful
bureaucracy.
• The Department of Defense and the National Science
Foundation pursued scientific research, especially related to
physics.
• New agencies like the CIA fed off the fear of communism.
The Loyalty-Security Program
• Allegedly to combat subversive influences,
Truman promoted a loyalty program.
• The Attorney General published a list of
potentially subversive organizations.
• Many groups disbanded and prior
membership in them destroyed individuals’
careers. A wide range of restrictions on
alleged subversives passed Congress.
The Red Scare in Hollywood
• The House Un-American Activities Committee
(HUAC) launched investigations into
Communist influence in Hollywood.
• A parade of friendly witnesses denounced
Communists.
• Many people gave names of suspect former friends
so that they themselves would be cleared and able
to work again.
• A few witnesses (many blacklisted later) attacked
HUAC and a handful went to prison for contempt of
Congress.
Spy Cases
• Public anxieties were heightened when former
State Department advisor Alger Hiss was
accused of being a Communist spy.
• Richard Nixon pursued the charges.
• Hiss went to jail for perjury.
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed
despite worldwide protests.
McCarthyism
• Sen. Joseph McCarthy caused a sensation when he
charged that 200 Communists worked for the State
Department.
• His lack of evidence did not stop him from striking a chord
with many Americans.
• He played into fears that Communism was a demonic force
and that eastern elites had successfully manipulated the
public.
• McCarthyism attacked Jews, blacks, women’s
organizations, and homosexuals. Effective use of the media
made McCarthyism seem credible.
• McCarthy’s crusade was destroyed when he went on
national TV and appeared deranged, making wild charges of
Communist infiltration of the army.
Part VII:
Cold War Culture
An Anxious Mood
• After World War II, millions of Americans
achieved middle-class status.
• But prosperity did not dispel American
anxiety over nuclear war and economic
depression.
• Movies and plays reflected cold war
anxieties and alienation as well as anticommunism.
The Family as Bulwark
• The move to the suburbs, high levels of
consumption, and even the rush towards marriage
and parenthood illustrated these fears.
• The baby boom and high consumer spending
changed the middle-class family.
Income and Consumer Spending
• To sustain support of larger families and high
rates of consumer spending, a growing number of
married, middle-class women sought
employment.
The Family
• Commentators bemoaned the destruction of the
traditional family that they linked to the threat of
Communism.
• High-profile experts weighed in with popular
books and articles about the dangers of women
who abandoned their housewife roles.
• The conservative trend was also evident in
declining numbers of woman college graduates.
Military-Industrial
Communities in the West
• The Cold War impacted the West more than
other regions.
• New military-industrial communities arose,
especially in California, and older communities also
benefited form federal spending.
• To accommodate the burgeoning population, new
highway systems were built that created housing
sprawl, traffic congestion, air pollution and strains on
local water supplies.
Zeal for Democracy
• The revitalization of patriotism during World War II
continued after the return of peace.
• The American Way became a popular theme of
public celebrations and patriotic messages spread
through public education.
• Voices of protest arose but had little impact.
Part VIII:
End of the Democratic
Era
The “Loss” of China
• In Asia, American foreign policy yielded mixed results.
• The United States achieved its greatest Asian
success in Japan where a host of reforms brought an
unprecedented degree of democracy and where they
received valuable military bases.
• In China, Mao Zedong’s Communist revolution
overthrew the corrupt, pro-American regime of Jiang
Jeishi.
• The Truman Administration was saddled with the
blame for having “lost” China.
The Geography of the Korean
War
The Korean War
• When North Koreans attempted a forced reunification of the
peninsula, Truman called it an act of Soviet aggression.
• Smarting from McCarthyite attacks, Truman felt compelled to act.
• With the Soviets boycotting the UN, the Security Council
authorized sending in troops.
• American forces, commanded by Douglas MacArthur, first pushed
North Koreans back to their side of the dividing line and then
went further north.
• Chinese troops pushed the UN forces back until a costly stalemate
settled in.
The Price of National Security
• Criticized for bypassing Congress, Truman
explained that his authority came from NSC-68, a
National Security Council position paper that:
– consolidated decision making
– advocated a massive buildup of military power
• The war left Korea devastated and greatly expanded
the containment principle far beyond Europe.
• The military stalemate left many Americans
disillusioned with the promise of easy victories.
The Election of 1952
• The Korean War also effectively ruined Truman’s presidency,
particularly after he fired General MacArthur.
• After Truman said he would not run for re-election, the Democratic
Party turned to Adlai Stevenson who offered no solutions to the
key problems.
• Dwight Eisenhower was the Republican candidate and ran a
moderate campaign short on specifics.
• His running mate, Richard Nixon, waged a relentless attack on
Stevenson.
• Eisenhower effectively used the peace issue, pledging to go to
Korea to settle the war.
• Republicans won control of the White House and Congress.
Rules of George Bernard Shaw
Diet (no steak, coffee, or tea)
Avoid all vain and unkind criticism of others
Keep financial log
Devote one evening a week for mediation and
examination of conscience
Abstain from alcohol
Practice some self-denial each day
1/2 hour per day for poetry, spiritual book, writing
1 1/2 hours per week to refresh learning
Don't make promises you can't keep
Some music for contemplation
1/2 hour yoga or exercise each day