Transcript Chapters 25 and 26 (PowerPoint)

Chapters 25 and 26, Henretta
1945-1963 THE COLD WAR
Little Boxes, sung by Pete Seeger:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlSpc87Jfr0
With slightly better visuals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUwUp-D_VV0
Important strands in Chapter 25
1. “Containment”
Immediately after World War Two, with the globe divided
between a Capitalist-Democratic bloc (the “First World”), a
Communist bloc (the “Second World”) and developing
countries (the “Third World”), U.S. leaders begin thinking of
world affairs as a long, slow struggle between the Capitalism
and Communism. Their strategy (dubbed “containment”):
Don’t let the Communist world expand beyond where it
already is. Some milestones:
o Russian atomic bomb, the “loss” of China, and the Berlin
airlift (1949)
o Korean War (1950-53)
o Bay of Pigs invasion, Berlin Wall (1961)
o Cuban Missile Crisis (1963)
o Vietnam War (1950s-1975)
Important strands in Chapter 25
2. Key Program: The Marshall Plan (1948)
Worried that a war-ravaged, impoverished Europe would be
vulnerable to Communist ideas, the United States committed
$17 billion in aid to Europe. It was good for Europe and good
for the United States, in several ways. For instance, much of
the money financed loans to Europeans to buy American
goods.
George C. Marshall, army general (WWII) and
Secretary of State under Truman (1947-49)
Important strands in Chapter 25
The Mouse That Roared, 1959 movie satirizing The Marshall Plan
Important strands in Chapter 25
3. Key Issue: Proxy Wars
The period from 1947 to 1989 is dubbed the “Cold War”
because there was no actual (“hot”) combat … between U.S.
and Soviet or Chinese troops. Instead, the battles (often very
hot) were fought in developing countries between “clients”
supported by the U.S. and “clients” supported by Communists.
Few countries could remain neutral even if they wanted to be.
4. Key Issue: The Military-Industrial Complex
After previous U.S. wars, defense budgets and the armed
forces rapidly shrank to pre-war levels. Not so this time: We
were now on a permanent wartime footing. This allowed
defense industries, the military, the Congress and the new
security agencies (like the CIA) to control (and profit from) an
enormous part of the federal budget.
Important strands in Chapter 25
5. Key Issue: Conformity and Witch Hunts
The Cold War twisted U.S. society. Everyone was expected to
rally behind the country’s political center, as they would in
wartime. Thus, Republicans and Democrats agreed on both
containment and a post-New Deal liberalism. Ordinary citizens
too were expected to follow
the right path in everything from
political opinions to gender roles.
Politicians like “Tail Gunner Joe”
McCarthy exploited the fear that
people who were different or too
liberal or original in their
thinking were aiding the
Communists – either as dupes
or intentionally.
Important strands in Chapter 26
1. Prosperity and Its Sources
The United States jumped right into a period of unparalleled
prosperity after World War II. It had three major sources:
o The Last Country Standing: As the only major industrial
economy that hadn’t been destroyed by war, the U.S.
designed the postwar economic system and was able to sell
its goods around the world without much competition.
o The Military Industrial Complex: The federal government
continued to run deficits and spend huge amounts of money
on defense, providing jobs and stimulating the economy.
o The GI Bill: The Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1948 put
hundreds of thousands of ex-soldiers through college and
helped them buy homes. This didn’t only pump money into
the economy, it also produced the best-educated work force
in the world.
Important strands in Chapter 26
2. Suburbia
Americans set to work building a consumption-based lifestyle
based on nuclear families, suburban homes, cars, televisions
and other signs of consumerism. At least on the surface – and
at least in white America –
it was a new cookie-cutter
world of conventional work
and gender roles, and
equally conventional
religious and political beliefs.
Important strands in Chapter 26
2. Suburbia
Americans set to work building a consumption-based lifestyle
based on nuclear families, suburban homes, cars, televisions
and other signs of material consumption. At least on the
surface, it was a new cookie-cutter world of conventional
work, religious and gender roles.
Important strands in Chapter 26
2. Suburbia
My favorite quote, from President Dwight D. Eisenhower:
“Our form of
government [makes]
no sense unless it is
founded on a
deeply-felt religious
faith, and I don’t care
what it is.”
Important strands in Chapter 26
3. Some important specifics
o Interstate Highway System
o Whites move to suburbs; people of color move to cities
o Women’s work-force participation, and people’s sexual
activity, belie the stereotypes of nuclear families
o The invention of the teenager
4. An age of anomalies
There was nothing normal about the 1950s and 1960s. They
were built on unrepeatable and accidental phenomena: the
privileged U.S. position at the end of World War II, the baby
boom generation, the fear of Communism suppressing normal
disagreements and trends. This period of middle-class
prosperity and conformity is probably the most un-normal
period in U.S. history.