Transcript The American Pageant Chapter 36, The Cold War

The American
Pageant
Chapter 36,
The Cold War
Begins, 1945-1952
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Postwar Economic Anxieties
• Americans cheered the end of WWII in 1945
– worried -- with the war over, the U.S.
would sink back into another Great
Depression.
– When war ended:
• inflation shot up with the release of price
controls
• gross national product sank
• labor strikes swept the nation.
Postwar Economic Anxieties
• Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act
– outlawed “closed” shops (closed to nonunion members)
– Made unions liable for damages that
resulted from jurisdictional disputes
among themselves
– required that union leaders take noncommunist oaths
– Opposite of the Wagner Act of the New
Deal
– act was a strike against labor unions.
Postwar Economic Anxieties
• Truman’s Administration in response:
– sold war factories and other government
installations to private businesses cheaply
• Congress passed the Employment Act of
1946
– 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
The Long Economic Boom, 1950-1970
• late 1940s and into the 1960s:
– the economy began to boom tremendously
– People who had lived during the Great
Depression now wanted to bathe in the
new prosperity
– middle class doubles
– wanted two cars in every garage
– over 90% of American families owned a TV
• Even though this new affluence did not touch
everyone, it did touch many.
The Roots of Postwar Prosperity
• Why was there postwar prosperity? was
– the war itself that forced America to
produce more than it’d ever imagined
– much of the prosperity of the 50s & 60s
rested on colossal military projects
• Korean War
• defense spending, industries like:
–aerospace, plastics, and electronics,
and research and development
• R and D, research and development, became
an entirely new industry.
The Roots of Postwar Prosperity
• Workers upped their productivity
tremendously
• Farmers did well, too
– due to new technology in fertilizers, etc.
• In fact, the farming population shrank
while production soared.
The Smiling Sunbelt (15 states
grow)
• Dr. Benjamin Spock’s The Common Sense Book
of Baby and Child Care.
– Became the leading advice book on childcare
• Immigration also led to the growth of a fifteenstate region:
– Sunbelt:
• the southern ½ of the U.S. dramatically
increased in population
– In fact, in the 1950s, California overtook
New York as the most populous state.
The Smiling Sunbelt (15 states
grow)
• Immigrants came to the Sunbelt for more
opportunities…like
– CA’s electronics industry
– aerospace complexes of TX & FL
• Federal $ poured into Sunbelt (some $125 million)
• political power grew there too
– ever since 1964, every U.S. president has come from
that region (except Obama).
• Sunbelters were redrawing the political map, taking the
economic & political power out of the North and
Northeast.
The Rush to the Suburbs
• Why did whites in cities flee to the suburbs?
– encouraged by federal agencies such as the Federal
Housing Authority & the Veteran’s Administration
• loan guarantees made it cheaper to live in suburbs
than in cramped city apartments
– By 1960, 1: 4 Americans lived in the suburbs
• Innovators like the Levitt brothers
– Created cheap housing plans
– built 1000s of houses in projects like Levittown,
• “White flight” left cities full of the poor & the Afr.-Am.
• Federal agencies aggravated this
– often refused to make loans to Blacks due to the “risk
factor” involved with this.
The Postwar Baby Boom
• After the war, many soldiers returned home & married,
then had babies
– Created a “Baby Boom” that would be felt for
generations.
• As the children grew up collectively, they put strains on
respective markets
– manufacturers of baby products in 1940s
and 50s
– teenage clothing designers in the 60s
– the job market in the 70s & 80s.
• By around 2020, they will place enormous strains on the
Social Security system.
Truman: the “Gutty” Man from Missouri
• 1st president in a long time without a college
education
• at first approached his burdens with humility,
gradually evolved into a confident, politician.
– cabinet was made up of the old “Missouri gang,”
• Truman’s friends from when he was a senator
in Missouri.
– Often, Truman would stick to a wrong decision
just to prove his decisiveness & power of
command.
• However, even if he was small on the small things,
he was big on the big things, taking responsibility
very seriously and working very hard.
Yalta: Bargain or Betrayal?
• Yalta Conference (February 1945)
– final conference of the Big Three
– Stalin pledged that Poland should have a representative
govt with free elections, as would Bulgaria & Romania
• Stalin broke those promises.
• Soviet Union agreed to attack Japan 3 months after the fall
of Germany
– by the time the Soviets entered the Pacific war, U.S. was
about to win anyway
– it seemed that the U.S.S.R. had entered for the sake of
taking spoils
– Soviet Union was granted control of the Manchurian
railroads & received special privileges to Dairen & Port
Arthur
The United States & the Soviet Union
• With the U.S.A. & the U.S.S.R. = only world superpowers
after WWII trouble seemed imminent, why???
– U S. had waited until 1933, to recognize the U.S.S.R.
– U.S. & Britain delayed to open up a 2nd front during
WWII
– U.S. & Britain had frozen the Soviets out of
developing nuclear arms
– U.S. had withdrawn its vital lend-lease program from
the U.S.S.R. in 1945
– U.S. spurned Moscow’s plea for a $6 billion
reconstructive loan
• approved a similar $3.75 billion loan to Berlin
The United States & the Soviet Union
• Stalin wanted a protective sphere around western
Russian, why???
– 2X earlier in the century Russia had been attacked
from that direction
– meant taking nations like Poland under its control.
• NOTE:
– U.S. & U.S.S.R. = newcomers to the world stage
– were very advanced
– had been isolationist before the 20th century,
– now found themselves in a political stare-down that
would turn into the Cold War and last for four and a
half decades.
Shaping the Postwar World
• U.S. did managed to establish structures that were part of
FDR’s open world.
– Bretton Woods, New Hampshire (1944)
• Western Allies established the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) to encourage world trade by regulating the
currency exchange rates.
• The United Nations opened on April 25, 1945.
– charter = similar to the old League of Nations
– formed a Security Council
• headed by five permanent powers (China, U.S.S.R.,
Britain, France, and U.S.A.)
• had total veto powers
– headquartered in New York City.
– The Senate overwhelmingly approved the U.N. by a
vote of 89 to 2.
Shaping the Postwar World
• U.N.
– kept peace in Kashmir & other trouble
spots
– created the new Jewish state of Israel
– formed such groups as:
• UNESCO (U.N. Educational, Scientific,
and Cultural Organization)
• FAO (Food & Agricultural Organization)
• WHO (World Health Organization)
Shaping the Postwar World
• Baruch Plan (to deal w/ international
cooperation in the control of Atomic weapons)
• Submitted to the UN in 1946
• US proposed a system of international control
• relied on mandatory inspection & supervision
• preserved American nuclear monopoly
• Failed to maintain a U.S. monopoly on nuclear arms
while preventing their development by other nations
• signaled the beginning of a frenzied nuclear arms
race between the two superpowers — the U.S. & the
Soviet Union.
The Problem of Germany
• Nuremberg Trials (1945-46)
– severely punished 22 top culprits of the Holocaust.
• Economically healthy Germany = important to the recovery
of all of Europe,
• Soviets feared another blitzkrieg, wanted huge reparations
from Germany
• Germany, like Austria, was divided into 4 occupational zones
controlled by the Allied Powers (minus China)
– the U.S. began proposing the idea of a united Germany
– Western nations prevented Stalin from getting his
reparations from their parts of Germany
– became obvious that Germany would remain indefinitely
divided.
The Problem of Germany
• 1948--U.S.S.R. stopped all air & railway
access to Berlin
– ***Berlin is located deep in East Germany,
– Believed this would starve the Allies out,
• Berlin itself was divided into four
zones as well
• Allies organized the massive Berlin Airlift to
feed the people of Berlin
• May 1949--Soviets stopped their blockade of
Berlin
Germany Divided
• 1945: Germany had been
divided into four zones
controlled by:
– Great Britain
– France
– United States
– USSR
Berlin Blockade
• Soviet blockade West Berlin
• Two million Berliners
depended on the Western
Allies for all their food, fuel
and other needs
Berlin Airlift
• 4000 tons of supplies were
needed every day
• Airplanes surpassed goal and
landed every 3 minutes at West
Berlin’s 2 airports.
• At the peak of the airlift 13,000
tons landed in one day
continued for 11 months
• Success finally forced the
Soviets to lift the blockade in
May 1949
• West Berlin a symbol of
resistance to communism
Berlin Air Lift--German children watching American planes bring food, 1948
Berlin Air Lift--German children watching American planes bring food, 1948
German children watching an American plane in "Operation Vittles" bring food and
supplies to their beleaguered city. The airlift kept a city of 2 million people alive for
nearly a year and made West Berlin a symbol of the West's resolve to contain the
spread of Soviet communism. ((c) Bettmann/Corbis)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Berlin Airlift: Outcome
• Western Allies formed
independent West
German state
• Created a constitution
• West Germany =
Federal Republic of
Germany
– Capital = Bonn
• East Germany =
German Democratic
Republic
– Capital = Berlin
The Cold War Congeals
• 1946--Stalin used his troops to aid
a rebel movement in Iran
– Truman protested, Soviets
backed down.
• Truman soon adopted the
“containment policy”
– crafted by Soviet specialist
George F. Kennan
– Dubbed the term containment
in the “Long Telegram”
– firm containment of Soviet
expansion would halt
Communist power.
The Cold War Congeals
• March 12, 1947: Truman requested that the
containment policy be put into action in what would
come to be called the Truman Doctrine:
– $400 million to help Greece and Turkey from
falling into communist power.
– basically, the doctrine said:
• U.S. would aid any power fighting Communist
aggression
• later criticized because the U.S. would often
give money to dictators “fighting communism.”
The Truman Doctrine & Containment
• “I believe that it must be
the policy of the United
States to support free
peoples who are resisting
attempted subjugation by
armed minorities or by
outside pressures…[We]
must assist free peoples
to work out their own
destiny in their own way.”
The Cold War Congeals
• In Western Europe, France,
Italy, & Germany were still in
terrible shape
• Truman, with the help of
Secretary of State George C.
Marshall, implemented the
Marshall Plan,
– a miraculous recovery effort
that had Western Europe up
& prosperous in no time.
– Not only to help recovery, but
to prevent communism taking
hold.
The Cold War Congeals
• Marshall Plan in action:
– helped in the forming of the European Community
(EC).
– sent $12.5 billion over 4 years to 16 cooperating
nations to aid in recovery
– at first, Congress didn’t want to comply
• especially when this sum = $2 billion
• U.S. was already giving to European relief as part
of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation
Administration (UNRRA)
• Then there was a Soviet-sponsored coup that
toppled the government of Czechoslovakia
• Congressmen realized it was important and they
passed the plan.
The Cold War Congeals
• Truman also recognized Israel on its birthday,
May 14, 1948
– despite heavy Arab opposition
– despite the fact that those same Arabs
controlled the oil supplies in the Middle
East.
America Begins to Rearm
• National Security Act (1947)
– created the Department of Defense
• housed in the Pentagon
• headed by a new cabinet position, the
Secretary of Defense
– under which served civilian secretaries of
the army, navy, & air force.
– also formed the National Security Council (NSC)
• advise the president on security matters
– Also formed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
• coordinate the government’s foreign factgathering (spying).
America Begins to Rearm
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is
formed in 1948
– U.S. joined Britain, France, Belgium, the
Netherlands, and Luxembourg to form an alliance
– an attack on one NATO member an attack on all
– despite the U.S.’s policy of traditionally not
involving itself in entangling alliances.
• In response, the U.S.S.R. formed the Warsaw Pact,
its own alliance system.
• NATO’s membership grew to 14 with the 1952
admissions of Greece & Turkey, and then to 15 when
West Germany joined in 1955.
New Alliances
• NATO: North
Atlantic Treaty
Organization is
formed in 1948
• Warsaw Pact
(1955): formed by
Soviets in response
to NATO
Reconstruction and Revolution in Asia
• General Douglas MacArthur = head of
reconstruction in Japan
– tried the top Japanese war criminals
– dictated a constitution that was adopted in
1946
• democratized Japan.
Reconstruction and Revolution in Asia
• China (1949)
– communist forces, led by Mao
Zedong, defeated the nationalist
forces, led by Chiang Kai-shek, who
then fled
to the island of Formosa (Taiwan)
– Now 1/4 of the world population
(500,000,000 people) = Communist
– Critics of Truman
• Said he did not support the
nationalists enough
• but Chiang Kai-shek never had
the support of the people to begin
with.
Reconstruction and Revolution in Asia
• September of 1949
– Truman announced that the Soviets had
exploded their first atomic bomb
• = 3 years before experts thought it was
possible
• Eliminated U.S. monopoly on nuclear
weapons
• NSC-68
– A National Security Council report that
recommended the development of the HBomb
• U.S. exploded the hydrogen bomb in 1952,
– Soviets did too a year later
• The dangerous arms race of the Cold War
began
The image above shows the
Soviet press release
photograph of their first
atomic bomb (1949).
Ferreting Out Alleged Communists
• Loyalty Review Board:
– Led an anti-red chase
– investigated more than 3 million federal
employees.
• The attorney general also made a list of 90
organizations that were potentially not loyal
to the U.S.
– none was given the opportunity to defend
itself
Ferreting Out Alleged Communists
• 1949: 11 communists were brought to a New
York jury for violating the Smith Act of 1940,
– = the first peacetime anti-sedition law
since 1798
• were convicted, sent to prison
• their conviction was upheld by the 1951
case Dennis v. United States.
Ferreting Out Alleged Communists
• HUAC:
– House of Representatives established the Committee on UnAmerican Activities (“HUAC”) 1938 to investigate
“subversion,” and in 1948
– committee member Richard M. Nixon prosecuted Alger Hiss
• Early 1950--State Department official, was convicted of
perjury for lying about his Communist affiliations
• his trial & conviction lent credibility to the paranoia about
a Communist conspiracy
• contributed to the rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy
• case was prosecuted by Richard Nixon
• Recently released evidence from Soviet archives has
helped harden the case against Hiss, the question of his
guilt continues to be a contentious one among historians
& journalists
Ferreting Out Alleged Communists
• February 1950: Joseph R. McCarthy burst
upon the scene, charging that there were
scores of unknown communists in the State
Department.
– He couldn’t prove it
– many American began to fear that this red
chase was going too far
• how could there be freedom of speech if
saying communist ideas got one
arrested?
Ferreting Out Alleged Communists
• Hiss’s conviction
• led to the rise of Senator
Joseph McCarthy
• McCarthy’s accusations:
• “I have here in my hand a list
of the names of 205 men that
were known to the Secretary
of State as being members of
the Communist Party and who
nevertheless are still working
and shaping the policy of the
State Department.”
• He later reduced his list to 57,
then to one “policy risk.”
Ferreting Out Alleged Communists
• An embarrassment to the Democrats
• McCarthy’s accusations of subversion in the govt were
meant to embarrass the Democrats
• critics who disagreed with him were charged with
being “soft” on communism.
• Fall of McCarthy
• McCarthy’s support declined with the end of the
Korean War, the death of Stalin, & when his hearings
as he investigated subversion in the U.S. Army were
televised revealing his smear tactics to the public.
• The Senate voted 67 to 22 to censure McCarthy for
unbecoming conduct…
• He died 3 years later of alcohol-related illness
Ferreting Out Alleged Communists
• Soviet success of developing nuclear bombs
so easily was
probably due to spies
– 1951, Julius & Ethel Rosenberg were
brought to trial, convicted, & executed for
selling nuclear secrets to the Russians.
– Their sensational trial, electrocution, and
sympathy for their two children began to
sober America zeal in red hunting.
• McCarthy failed to identify a single
Communist in government, but cases like
Hiss’s & the 1951 espionage trial of Julius &
Ethel Rosenberg lent weight to McCarthy’s
allegations.
Democratic Divisions in 1948
• 1946: Republicans win control of the House
• Election of 1948
– Republicans nominate Thomas E. Dewey to
– Democrats choose Truman again when war-hero
Dwight D. Eisenhower refused to be chosen
• Truman’s nomination split the Democratic Party
– Southern Democrats (“Dixiecrats”)
nominated Governor J. Strom Thurmond of
South Carolina on a State’s Rights Party
ticket.
Democratic Divisions in 1948
Democratic Divisions in 1948
• At home, Truman outlined a sweeping “Fair
Deal” program
– called for improved housing
– full employment
– Higher minimum wage
– better farm price supports
– a new Tennessee Valley Authority
– an extension of Social Security.
Democratic Divisions in 1948
• Interest group opposition
• activities of certain interest groups blocked helped to block
support for the Fair Deal’s plan for enlarged federal
responsibility for economic & social welfare.
• Southern conservatives
• the American Medical Association (socialized medicine)
• & business lobbyists
• The Korean War took funding away from social welfare programs
• only successes came
– raising the minimum wage
– providing for public housing in the Housing Act of 1949
– Extending old-age insurance to more beneficiaries with the
Social Security Act of
1950.
The Korean Volcano Erupts (1950)
• Background:
– When Russian & American forces withdrew from Korea, they left
the Korea full of weapons and with rival regimes (communist
North and democratic South)
• 38th Parallel
• Korea was divided at the thirty-eighth parallel into competing
spheres of influence.
• The Soviets supported a Communist government, led by Kim Il
Sung, in North Korea
• U.S. backed a Korean nationalist, Syngman Rhee, in South Korea.
• Then, on June 25, 1950, North Korean forces suddenly invaded
South Korea
– Surprised South Korea and pushing them dangerously south
toward Pusan
The Korean Volcano Erupts (1950)
• Truman sprang to action
– remembering that the League of Nations had failed from
inactivity
– ordered U.S. military spending to be 4X as desired by the
National Security Council Memorandum Number 68, or NSC-68.
– 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
• Truman asked the United Nations Security Council to authorize a
“police action” against the invaders.
• A military action, undertaken without a formal declaration of
war, by regular armed forces agst. perceived violators of
international peace. This term was applied to the
participation of UN authorized troops in the Korean War agst
communist North Korea
– ordered General MacArthur’s Japan-based troops to Korea.
The Korean Volcano Erupts (1950)
The Military Seesaw in Korea
• General MacArthur landed a brilliant invasion
behind enemy forces at Inchon on September
15, 1950
– drove the North Koreans back across the 38th
parallel, towards China & the Yalu River.
– overconfident he boasted that he’d “have the
boys home by Christmas,”
• but in November 1950, Chinese
“volunteers” flooded across the border &
pushed the South Koreans back to the 38th
parallel.
The Military Seesaw in Korea
• MacArthur = humiliated
– wanted to blockade China & bomb Manchuria,
– Truman didn’t want to enlarge the war beyond necessity
– MacArthur began to publicly criticize President Truman and
spoke of using atomic weapons
– had no choice but to remove him from command on grounds
of insubordination.
– MacArthur returned to cheers while Truman was scorned as
a “pig,” an “imbecile,” an appeaser to communist Russia and
China, and a “Judas.”
• In July 1951, truce discussions began but immediately snagged
over the issue of prisoner exchange.
– Talks dragged on for 2 more years as men continued to die.
Churchill and Truman, "Iron Curtain Speech," March 5, 1946
Churchill and Truman, "Iron Curtain
Speech," March 5, 1946
On March 5, 1946, former British prime
minister Winston S. Churchill (1874–
1965) delivered a speech, which he
intended for a worldwide audience, at
Westminster College in Fulton,
Missouri. President Harry S. Truman
(right) had encouraged Churchill
(seated) to speak on two themes: the
need to block Soviet expansion and the
need to form the Anglo-American
partnership. Always eloquent and
provocative, Churchill denounced the
Soviets for drawing an "iron curtain"
across eastern Europe. This speech
became one of the landmark statements
of the Cold War. (Harry S. Truman
Library)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Couple looking at house
Couple looking at house
In postwar America, millions of families shopped for new houses in the country's burgeoning suburbs. In the
first decade after the Second World War, 4.3 million veterans used GI Bill loan provisions to purchase singlefamily residences. Many of these men and women were members of what Tom Brokaw, NBC's news anchor,
has called "the greatest generation." They survived the Great Depression, served in the war, and became
parents of America's baby boomers. (H. Armstrong Roberts)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Girl in front of dome atomic bomb shelter
Girl in front of dome atomic bomb shelter
As the Cold War intensified and the Soviets became a nuclear power, the government
began to consider methods to survive a nuclear war. One "solution" was to encourage
people to build backyard bomb shelters. Pictured here is one family's atomic bomb
shelter that slept six. The cost was $1,250 in 1951. (Corbis-Bettmann)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was one of ebb and
flow, advances and retreats--the
movement of troops up and down the
rugged Korean peninsula. Here,
American troops advance while Korean
women and children march in the
opposite direction hoping to avoid the
destruction of war. Over 33,000
Americans lost their lives in Korea
during the conflict. (Corbis-Bettmann)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
MacDonald, Weizmann, and Ben-Gurion
MacDonald, Weizmann, and Ben-Gurion
America's first ambassador to Israel, James G. MacDonald (1886-1964) (left) meets in 1948
with Israel's President Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952) (right). The historian Michelle Mart has
written that "Jews in the postwar world first symbolized a complete lack of masculinity for
their role as victims and then masculine resurgence in their survival and construction of a new
state"--a change in the image that conditioned American leaders to respect the new Israeli
leaders. (National Archives)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Marshall Plan poster of ship
Marshall Plan poster of ship
The goal of the Marshall Plan was to
provide American economic support for
the rebuilding of Europe's economy. By
the time the plan ended, the United
States had provided over $12.5 billion
dollars to those European nations
participating in the European Recovery
Program. This poster demonstrated that
with cooperation, Europe would soon be
moving forward again. (Courtesy of
George C. Marshall Foundation)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
New West: Wing production on the Boeing B-52 assembly line, Seattle, 1950s
New West: Wing production on the Boeing B-52 assembly line, Seattle, 1950s
Symbolic of the defense spending and investment that helped the West's economy
flourish, Seattle's Boeing plant in 1951 began production of the first of the B-52
Stratofortress heavy bombers. They would continue rolling off the Boeing assembly
line until the end of the decade. (Courtesy Boeing Defense & Space Group)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Soldiers of 11th Airborne Division watch atomic bomb explosion, 1951 tests in Nevada
Soldiers of 11th Airborne Division watch atomic bomb explosion, 1951 tests
in Nevada
Soldiers of the 11th Airborne Division watch as an atomic explosion mushrooms
into the sky during 1951 testing maneuvers in Nevada. ((c) Bettmann/Corbis)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Truman with "Dewey Defeats Truman" headlines, 1948
Truman with "Dewey Defeats Truman" headlines, 1948
So few pollsters predicted that President Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) would win
the 1948 presidential election that the Chicago Tribune announced his defeat before
all the returns were in. Here a victorious Truman pokes fun at the newspaper for its
premature headline. (Corbis-Bettmann)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Communist hysteria in the media: Red Menace poster
Communist hysteria in the media: Red Menace poster
Although Hollywood generally avoided overtly political films, it released a few dozen
explicitly anticommunist films in the postwar era. Depicting American communists as vicious
hypocrites, if not hardened criminals, Hollywood's Cold War movies, like its blacklist, were an
effort to protect its imperiled public image after HUAC's widely publicized investigation of the
movie industry. (The Michael Barson Collection/Past Perfect)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.