Transcript The Cold War Begins

The Cold War Begins
1945 – 1952
Return to Peacetime Economy
• Despite some fears the U.S. economy
continued to grow after WWII
• People began to buy!
Inflations and Strikes
• Increased spending led to inflation – rising
prices
• Strikes in the steel, electrical, automobile &
mining industries
Republican Victory
• In 1946, Republicans won control of Congress
• Taft-Hartley Act – designed to cut the power
of organized labor
• Outlawed closed shops – forcing businesses to hire
only union members
• Prohibited featherbedding – the limiting of work
output to create more jobs
The GI Bill
• The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, or GI
Bill, helped returning soldiers
• Attend college
• Set up businesses
• Buy homes
The Sunbelt
The Affluent Society
• By 1958, America was considered to have
created an “economy of abundance”
• Improved technology
had created a standard
of living never
believed possible in
the past
Growth of Advertising
• Rise in luxury products led to the growth of
more sophisticated advertising
• Advertising industry became fastest-growing
industry in the U.S.
The Suburbs
• Levittown, New York – one
of the country’s earliest
suburbs, was a massproduced residential
community spearheaded by
Bill Levitt
• During the 50s many
suburban communities were
built all over the U.S.
• Symbol of the American
Dream
The Baby Boom
• The American family grew
larger and women entered the
workforce
• Baby Boom – period
between 1945 to 1961, in
which more than 65 million
children were born in the
U.S.
Truman’s Domestic Program
• Truman tried to continue FDR’s New Deal
programs
• Expansion of Social Security
• Minimum wage from 40¢/hr to 75¢/hr
• Public housing
• Environmental and public works
• National health insurance
• Civil Rights Bill
• Most rejected by Congress
Truman on Civil Rights
• Truman’s civil rights
bill was not passed, but
he did:
• Make it illegal to
discriminate in federal
employment
• End segregation in the
armed forces
Origins of the Cold War
• Instead of a more peaceful world after WWII a
perilous new era called the Cold War began.
• Was an uneasy era of confrontation and
competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union
that lasted from about 1946 to 1990.
• Nuclear age
• Space Race
• Wars
Soviet Security Concerns
• Soviets wanted to keep
Germany weak
• Germany had invaded twice in
less than 30 years
• Wanted a buffer zone between
Germany and the Soviet Union
• Wanted to spread Communism
• Suspicious of Capitalist
countries
Communism vs. Capitalism
• Communism – government in which
all economic and social activity is
controlled by the state
• All property held in common—equality
• Very little civil liberties—no freedoms
• Capitalism – an economic system
based on private ownership of wealth
• Rewards individuality, hard work, &
entrepreneurship
• Free enterprise
American Economic Concerns
• Americans believed that the Depression caused
the war
• Trade and economic growth would promote peace
• Also wanted to promote democracy and free
enterprise
United Nations
• United Nations created to
prevent further wars
• 50 member countries
• General Assembly created
• Each member has 1 vote
• Security Council had veto
power
• U.S., Britain, France, China,
U.S.S.R.
Shaping the Postwar World
• International Monetary Fund (IMF) –
encouraged trade by regulating currency rates
• United Nations
• Israel
• UNSECO – U.N. Educational, Scientific &
Cultural Organization
• FAO – Food & Agricultural Organization
• WHO – World Health Organization
Nuremburg Trials
• At the Nuremburg
Trials an International
Military Tribunal was
created to punish German
& Japanese leaders for
war crimes
YALTA (in the USSR)
Date: Feb 1945
Present: Churchill,
Roosevelt and Stalin
Yalta Conference
• Feb. 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill & Stalin met at
the Soviet resort of Yalta. They discussed:
• Poland – Democracy or Communism? Free
elections would be allowed
Yalta - Continued
• Declaration of Liberated Europe – “the right of all
people to choose the form of government under
which they will live”
• America encourages free elections
• Dividing Germany – between Soviet Union, U.S.,
England & France
• Germany has to pay reparations
Tensions Begin to Rise
• Soviets appoint a Communist government in
Romania
• Communists take power in Poland
• Roosevelt dies
Truman Takes Control
• Truman was strongly
anticommunist
• Did not want to appease
Stalin
• Demanded Poland be
allowed to hold free
elections
POTSDAM (Germany)
Date: July 1945
Present: Churchill,
Truman and Stalin
Potsdam Conference
• Potsdam Conference:
• Allies would help Germany to recover in their
zones
• Soviets would take reparation from their zone
• However, it was mostly agricultural
• Compromise: Allies would give Soviets a small amount
of industrial equipment in return for food shipments
• Truman tells Stalin about the bomb…
The Iron Curtain
• The Soviets set up proSoviet Communist
governments in Eastern
Europe. They became
known as satellite
nations.
• Iron Curtain –the
political and military
barrier isolating Sovietcontrolled countries of
Eastern Europe
Iron Curtain –
A term used by
Winston Churchill
to describe the
separating of
Those communist
lands of East
Europe from the
West.
Containing Communism
• America’s policy toward Soviet aggression
became known as containment – keeping
communism within its present territory through
the use of diplomatic, economic and military
actions
• Drafted by Soviet specialist George F. Kennan
Truman Doctrine
• The Truman Doctrine
in March 1947 promised
that the USA “would
support free peoples
who are resisting”
communism
• Greece & Turkey
Marshall Plan
• Sec. of State, George C.
Marshall’s plan to provide
aid to European nations to
help them rebuild their
economies AND to keep
them from turning
communist.
• Truman saw the Marshall
plan and the Truman
Doctrine as “two halves of
the same walnut,” both
essential for containment
West Germany
• In 1948, England, France and U.S. merge their
3 zones to create an independent West
Germany
• In response, Stalin sealed off Berlin from the
allies
Berlin Airlift
• Allies attempted to keep
West Berlin alive
without going to war
with the Soviets
• Berlin Airlift – For 11
month, cargo planes
dropped Berliners with
food, medicine, and coal
• Stalin finally lifted the
blockade
National Security Act (1947)
• Created the Department of Defense
• In Pentagon
• Headed by Sec. of Defense (Army, Navy & Air)
• Formed the National Security Council (NSC)
• Advise President
• CIA formed
NATO - North Atlantic Treaty
Organization
• NATO –a mutual defense alliance between 12
countries including (U.S., England, France, and
Canada)
• They would aid any member that was attacked
Warsaw Pact
• The Soviets responded by organizing their own
military alliance in Eastern Europe known as
the Warsaw Pact
China Turns to Communism
• After WWII, China was
engaged in a Civil War between
the Nationalist party and the
Communist, led by Mao
Zedong
• Communists won
• America made sure that Japan
did not do the same by helping
to aid its economy & writing its
constitution
• Douglas MacArthur
The Bomb
• Sept. 1949 – Soviets explode their own atomic
bomb
• 1952 – U.S. explodes a hydrogen bomb
Facing the Bomb
• Americans prepare for the
possibility of a nuclear
attack
• “Duck-and-cover” drills
• Fallout – radiation from
the blast
• Families built fallout
shelters
A New Red Scare
• During the 1950s there
was a intense fear of
Communist subversion –
an effort to weaken a
society and overthrow its
government
• People feared Soviet spies
• Igor Gouzenko case,
Canada
• Soviets wanted the bomb
Government Screening
• Loyalty Review Program – all
Federal employees had to be
screened to determine if they
were Communist sympathizers
• HUAC – (House of UnAmerican Activities
Committee), headed by FBI
Director J. Edgar Hoover, tried
to identify members of the
Communist party
Alger Hiss
• Whittaker Chambers, a
Time magazine editor,
testified to HUAC that
several government
officials were former
Communists or spies
• Including Alger Hiss, who
served under Roosevelt
• Hiss denied it
• Later found guilty of
perjury, or lying under oath
The Rosenbergs
• Soviets developed the atomic
bomb in 1949
• Most believed American
communists sold them the
secrets
• Julius & Ethel Rosenberg
were accused of heading a
Soviet spy ring
• They denied the charges
• Sentenced to death
Election of 1948
• Appeared Truman would lose 1948 election
• Made over 350 speeches
• Criticized a “Do-Nothing Congress” –
because it had not enacted any of his legislative
proposals
th
80
Congress
• The 80th Congress did some good things:
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Truman Doctrine
Marshall Plan
Department of Defense
CIA
Joint Chief of Staff
Truman Wins!
• Truman narrowly won the election & the
Democrats made a comeback in Congress
The Fair Deal
• Fair Deal – Truman’s
domestic agenda
• 81st Congress:
• Raised minimum wage
• Improved Social Security
• National Housing Act of 1949
• Did not pass national health
care or civil rights legislation
“Every segment of our
population and every
individual has a right to
expect from …
government a fair deal.”
Korean War
• Korea was divided in two at the
38th parallel after WWII.
Soviets controlled the North.
America the South.
• Talks to reunify the country
broke down
• In 1950, North Korea invaded
South Korea
Korean War
• U.S. responds. General MacArthur is able to
push the North Koreans beyond the 38th
parallel
• China sends huge amounts of troops across its
border to push the Americans back
• MacArthur wants to expand the war
• Attack China
• Blockade its ports
• Use atomic bombs
Truman Fires MacArthur
• Truman refused to expand the
war into China
• MacArthur publicly criticizes
him
• “There is no substitute for
victory.”
• To show who was boss, Truman
fires General MacArthur
• Truman was committed to limited
war