Transcript The Cold War Begins

The Cold War Begins
Postwar Economic Anxieties
• Americans celebrate
WWII but still very
fearful
• 1. Fearful of another
depression
• 2. Relations with
major ally Soviet
Union quickly
deteriorate
Postwar Economic Anxieties
• Many worry that returning GI’s would now be
stepping into the unemployment line
• At first these predictions seemed to be coming true
– GNP dropped in ‘46 and ’47
– Prices rose by 33% in ’46-47.
– Strikes swept key industries.
• In retrospect, these were simply rebound effects
Taft-Hartley Act
• Growing strength of labor movement bothers
conservatives
• 1947- Reps control congress for first time in 14 years
• Strike back against gains made by labor unions under
the new deal
• Taft-Hartley Act ( passed over Truman’s veto)- which
outlawed “closed” shops (closed to non-union
members), made unions liable for damages that
resulted from jurisdictional disputes among
themselves, and required that union leaders take noncommunist oaths. Opposite of the Wagner Act of the
New Deal, this new act was a strike against labor
unions.
Labor Unions in the South…yea no
• CIO- Operation Dixiehoped to Unionize southern
textile and steel workers in
1948- Failure
• Why– 1. Fearful of racial mixing
– 2. Service Sector- mainly
women- only worked part
time, thus much harder to
organize in comparison to
the North
Stopping downturn before it starts
• Democratic administration
sold war factories and other
government installations to
private businesses cheaply
• Employment Act of 1946which made it government
policy to “promote
maximum employment,
production, and purchasing
power,” and created the
Council of Economic
Advisors to provide the
president with data to make
that policy a reality.
GI Bill
• Servicemen’s Readjustment
Act of 1944
• Passed to prevent problems
of returning GI’s
– 1. Soldiers get college
education at very cheap
prices (Cost = 14.5 billion)
– 2. Veterans
Administration(VA)- 16
billion in loans for Vets to
buy houses, farms, and small
businesses
• Huge positive impact on
post-war US
Economic Boom 1950-1970
• The Economic Boom between 1950 and 1970 was the longest and
biggest in the nations history.
• It transformed the country.
• National income doubled in the 1950s and doubled again in the
1960s.
• Americans 6% of the world population but 40% of its wealth.
• Size of the middle class rose to 60%-double that prior to the
depression.
• Americans became consume-aholics. Owning a car became
standard, and two was better.
• Is like the roaring 20s, but tinged with optimism.
• Huge for women, service sector out grows industrial and
manufacturing sectors
• While women’s role expands, popular culture still glorifies
traditional woman roles
Roots of Postwar Prosperity
• 1. WW II- American factories produced more than ever
imagined
• 2. Huge military projects (Critics complain of “permanent
war economy)
– Projects for Korean War
– US pumps money in aerospace, plastics and electronics
– Science
• 3.Cheap NRG – US and Europe controls petroleum from
Middle East, kept prices low
– AC in homes, Highway construction, expansion of electrical grid
• 4. Industrial output grows at about 3% a year (GI Bill)
Productivity is the key to prosperity
• 5. Changes in basic econ structure- agribusiness takes off,
the family farm is dead (Mechanization, new fertilizers,
govt. subsidies, price supports)
Shifting populations
• For 30 years after the war
30 Mil. people changed
residences every year.
• Results
– 1. Families become more
separated
– 2. Child rearing books
become popular- Benjamin
Spock’s The Common Sense
Book of Baby and Child
Care
– 3.Mobility can lead to
isolation and loneliness
Smiling Sunbelt
• Growth of the Sunbelt—
South, Southwest and
California grow at a rate
nearly double that of the
old northwest (Frost belt).
• Why- Jobs, climate, cheap
taxes
• Federal spending huge in
the South, 444 billion
dollars more sent to south
than Midwest and North
east
• “The North shall rise
again”
Rush to the Suburbs
• White flight
• Government encouraged
– Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and VA
1.Federal loan guarantees made it more economically attractive to
own a home in the suburbs than to rent in the city.
2.Tax deductions for mortgage interest, but not rent.
•
•
•
•
Levittown
Construction industry revolutionized with new tech
NE and MW cities, are “black, brown, and broke”
Affluent businesses move out of down town, to suburban
shopping malls
• Govt encourages racial separation- FHA it is a “risk”
making loans to blacks and other unharmonious racial or
nationality groups
Post-war Baby Boom
• Baby Boom is the huge surge
in births in the 15 years after
WWII. Peaks in 1957
• Baby boom has lasting
consequences
– Created a secondary baby-boom.
– One of the prime targets of
advertisers; thus impact on
popular culture.
– Many of those in the rebellious
generations in the 60s and 1970s
were baby-boomers.
– Population issues of the 1990’s
(social security)
Harry Truman
• “The Average Man’s
President”
• No college education,
small farmer, WW I vet
• Had a “Missouri Gang”
• Has to prove his power to
strength to skeptical
public
• Sometimes would stick
with wrong decisions just
to show skeptics his
power and decisiveness
Yalta Conference
• 1945- Big three meet to discuss postwar plans
• 1. Poland should have a representative government with free elections,
as would Bulgaria and Romania. But, Stalin broke those promises.
• 2. Soviet Union had agreed to attack Japan three months after the fall
of Germany, but by the time the Soviets entered the Pacific war, the
U.S. was about to win anyway, and now, it seemed that the U.S.S.R.
had entered for the sake of taking spoils.
• 3. The Soviet Union was also granted control of the Manchurian
railroads and received special privileges to Dairen and Port Arthur.
• Critics- FDR sold Chaing Kai Shek down the river
• Supporters- Soviets could have conquered much more of China, Yalta
Conference set limits on Stalin’s ambitions
• Yalta Conference- not drafting a peace settlement, sketching general
intentions, testing each others reactions
US and USSR
• Communism vs Capitalism
• Where it started
• 1. US didn’t recognize
Bolshevik govt until 1933 ( at
that time 16 years old)
• 2. US and England delays in
opening 2nd front against Nazis
• 3.US and England keep Stalin
out of a project in developing
atomic bomb
• 4. US ends lend lease with
USSR in 1945 ( asked for 6
billion) while giving England
3.75 billion dollar loan in 1946
US and USSR
• Different Postwar visions
• USSR- beaten down after
world wars- wants friendly
borders on western front,
AKA eastern Europe should
be a buffer zone
• US- USSR’s sphere of
influence looks like empire
building.
• US- “open world”
decolonized, demilitarized,
democratized, with a strong
international organization to
keep peace
US and USSR
• Similarities
• Both isolationist prior to
WWII
• Both practice missionary
diplomacy- spreading your
ideas to the rest of the world,
as if they are the best
• Results in the cold warpolitical tensions between the
USSR and US
• Cold war overshadows the
entire postwar international
order
• Cold war- impacts everybody
on the globe
Shaping the Postwar World
• Bretton Woods, NH,
1944—International
Monetary Fund-to
encourage world trade by
regulating the currency
exchange rates.
• International Bank for
Reconstruction and
Development (World
Bank)
United Nations
• FDR starts pushing for
international organization before
war’s end (different than WW)
• San Fran, 1945
• United Nations Conference, 4/45
– UN Charter signed by 50
nations.
– Security Council dominated
by the Big Five (US, USSR,
China, GB, France). Each
had veto power over any
resolution.
– Assembly made up of all
countries.
– US Senate overwhelmingly
ratifies US participation
UN vs LofN
• League no veto power
• During establishment, L of N presumes great
power conflict, UN presumes great power
cooperation
• UN has general assembly, for smaller countries
to be represented
• Senate happily ratified the UN
UN Pros and Cons
• Pros
• Cons
• The U.N. kept peace in
• However, when U.S. delegate
Kashmir and other trouble
Bernard Baruch called in 1946 for
spots, created the new Jewish
a U.N. agency free from the great
state of Israel, formed such
power veto that could investigate
groups as UNESCO (U.N.
all nuclear facilities and weapons,
Educational, Scientific, and
the U.S.S.R. rejected the proposal,
Cultural Organization), FAO
since it didn’t want to give up its
(Food and Agricultural
veto power and was opposed to
Organization), and WHO
“capitalist spies” snooping around
(World Health Organization),
in the Soviet Union. The small
bringing benefits to people all
window of regulating nuclear
over the globe.
weapons was lost.
The Problem of Germany
• Nuremberg War
Crimes Trial- severely
punished 22 top
culprits of the
Holocaust.
• Punishing the Nazi’s is
about the only thing
the US and USSR can
agree on
The Problem of Germany
• At first, US wants to de
industrialize Germany
• Soviets wants huge war
reparations from
Germany
• A healthy German is the
key to Europe’s recovery,
US realizes this, Soviets
resist
• Germany and Austria is
divided into 4 zones
The Problem of Germany
• Allies want reunification
of Germany, don’t want
USSR to get reparations
• USSR tightens grip on
East Germany
• Country is split
• West Germany (allies)
democratic and capitalism
• East Germany (Soviets)
communism
The Problem of Germany
• Eastern Euro countries
like Poland and
Hungary became
“satellite” states,
independent, but
bound to USSR
• Iron Curtain
Berlin Airlift
• 1948 Berlin (also split)USSR cuts off rail and
highway access to West
Berlin
• Moscow vs. Washington
• US responds by
airdropping tons of
supplies to W. Berlin
• Berlin finally lifts block in
1949
• Both E and W Germany
governments established
and recognized 1949
The Cold War Continues
• Iran Crisis of 1946Soviets don’t want to
back out of Iran (Oil),
used troops to aid
rebel groups, US
protests, Stalin backs
out
Containment and Truman Doctrine
• Containment Doctrine- George F Kennan- Allow
communism where it exists, but do not allow it to
spread
• England, running out of money to support Greece, if
Greece falls to Soviets, then Turkey, then the
Mediterranean (Domino Theory)
• Truman Doctrine- 400 million dollars in aid to Turkey
and Greece- “it must be the policy of the US to support
free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by
armed minorities or by outside pressures
Containment and Truman Doctrine
• Critics of TD
• 1. US now has to give
money to any tiny despot
who claims to be fighting
against commies
• 2.Polarized the world into
Pro US or Pro Soviets
• 3. Made Soviets out to be
a primary threat militarily
speaking
Marshall Plan
• Western Euro still starving, US
worried they could fall to
Communism from within
• Marshall Plan- Sect. Of State
George C. Marshall
– 1. US would provide substantial
financial assistance.
– 2.Europeans enthusiastically
agree.
– 3. Offered to USSR as well, but
they reject it
• At first congress didn’t accept
plan- too much money, specially
since we already gave 2 billion
through UNRRA
Marshall Plan
• Soviet Sponsored coup in
Czechoslovakia opens
congresses eyes
• Approved plan in 1948
• 12.5 billion dollars, over
4 years, for 16 countries
• Huge success, most of
Western Euro has
economic booms
• Italy and France don’t
fall to domestic
communist forces
Marshall Plan
• Middle East = rich with oilthey adamantly protest
against creation of Israel
• Most of Europe, state
department, and defense
department against
recognizing Israel- but HT
recognized it May 14 1948
• Why- Holocaust, stop
Soviet influence in Israel,
retain Jewish American
vote
• Leads to huge problems in
US foreign policies
American Begins to Re-Arm
• Cold war- US starts to re
arm itself at massive rates
• 1947- National Security
Act- creates Dept. of
Defense, housed at
Pentagon, headed by new
Cabinet member Sect. Of
Defense
• NSA- also creates the
National Security Council
(NSC) and the CIA
• 1948- Draft is
reestablished. First peacetime draft.
America Begins to Re-Arm
• 1948- “Voice of America”
radio broadcasts sent to
those behind iron curtain
• 1948- Treaty of Brussels –
US asked to join
• US hesitate to join
• But decides to join-
– 1. Help contain Soviets
– 2.Help framework for
bringing in Germany into
Euro
– 3.Reassure Euro that US
(normally isolationists) isn’t
going to leave Europe behind
while Soviet Bear is creeping
• North Atlantic Treaty
Organization 1948.
Britain, France,
Belgium, the
Netherlands,
Luxembourg and US.
NATO
– West Germany and
others join later.
– End to Isolation
– Obligates each country
to defend others
– Epochal unification of
Europe
Reconstruction in Japan
• General Douglas
MacArthur leads way in
democratization of Japan
• War criminals are tried in
Tokyo
• MacArthur dictated
constitution formed in 1946
– 1. Renounced militarism
– 2. =lity for women
– 3. Introduced western style
democracy
China Goes Red
• China was a mess. Weak
and divided
• Nationalist led by Chang
Ki Cheke (Jiang Jieshi).
• Communists are led by
Mao Tse-tung.
• Chang is corrupt and
repressive and ultimately
Mao and communists take
control.
• Nationalists flee to
Formosa (Taiwan).
• US recognition of “China”.
China Goes Red
• The “loss” of China was a
huge blow to American
Psyche.
• “Who lost China?”
– Many Republicans blame
Truman.
– Allege that the State
Department is riddled with
secret Communists.
– Fuels the growing Red
Scare.
• America now sees two
largest countries aligned
against the US.
Nuclear Arms Race
• 1949- soviets explode A
bomb- US is shocked,
monopoly is gone
• Truman now wants Hbomb developed- much
stronger than A- bombs
• Development led by
Einstein and J Robert
Oppenheimer (Manhattan
Project)
• 1952- US 1st H bomb test
• 1953- Soviets do the same
nd
2
Red Scare
• 1947 Loyalty program
• Loyalty Review Board, which
investigated more than 3 million
federal employees.
• States adopt their own loyalty pledges
(especially teachers)
• In 1949, 11 communists were brought
to a New York jury for violating the
Smith Act of 1940, which had been the
first peacetime anti-sedition law since
1798.
• They were convicted, sent to prison,
and their conviction was upheld by the
1951 case Dennis v. United States.
nd
2
Red Scare
• HUAC- House Un-American Activities Committeeinvestigate subversion
• Richard Nixon- catches Alger Hiss
• Joseph McCarthy- McCarthyism
2nd Red Scare
• HT and American people
worried its turning into
witch-hunt- HT vetoes
McCarran Internal Security
Bill
• They are some soviet spies
• Julius and Ethel Rosenbergonly people in US history to
be executed in peacetime for
espionage
• Sensationalized trial and
orphan children begin to
slow down red witch hunt
Democratic Division in 48
• Reps take control of congress in 1946- presidential candidate
Thomas E. Dewey
• Demo “dump Truman campaign” foiled when Ike Eisenhower
refused to run
• Southern Demos hate HT- (civil rights, deseg military)
• South Demos- form Dixiecrat party- Strom Thurmond as candidate
• Former VP Henry Wallace – runs for progressive party- wants better
relations with Russia
• Reps think win is just around the corner
• Truman- “Give them hell speeches”- lashed against Taft Hartley
slave labor law and do nothing republican congress
• Truman surprise victory, and Demos re gain control of congress
• Farmers, workers and blacks vote for Truman, also admire his guts
Harry Truman and Point 4
• Fair deal
• Improved housing, full
employment, better farm
price supports, new TVA’s,
and extension of social
security
• Southern Demos, and Reps
gut the bill
• Successes
– 1.Raised minimum wage
– 2.Public Housing Act of
1949
– 3.Social Security Act 1950
Korea
• When Russian and American forces
withdrew from Korea, they had left
the place full of weapons and with
rival regimes (communist North and
democratic South).
• Then, on June 25, 1950, North
Korean forces suddenly invaded
South Korean, taking the South
Koreans by surprise and pushing
them dangerously south toward
Pusan.
• Truman sprang to action,
remembering that the League of
Nations had failed from inactivity,
and ordered U.S. military spending
to be quadrupled, as desired by the
National Security Council
Memorandum Number 68, or NSC68.
• NSC-68 huge
Korea
– Militarization of US foreign policy
– Shows US cockiness
• Truman also used a Soviet absence
from the U.N. to label North Korea
as an aggressor and send U.N. troops
to fight against the aggressors.
• HT- without approval of congress,
sends units to support South Korea
• MacArthur name UN commandereven though he takes orders for DC,
not UN sec. council
Seesawing in Korea
• Mac surprise attack at
Inchon- pushes North
Koreans back
• China starts to send warnings,
Mac tells Truman not to
worry
• China sends thousands of
volunteers, now pushed back
S. Korea
• Stalemate ensues
• Mac starts making big plans
– 1. Blockade China
– 2.Bombard China
– 3.Nuke em
Seesawing in Korea
• Mac starts criticizing
Truman and his
limited war policy
• HT fires Mac for
insubordination
• Mac returns to US a
hero, public calls HT a
Juda, and appeaser of
communism