Download Chapter 36 - The Cold War Begins

The Cold War Begins
Chapter 36
Post War Economic Anxiety
After war many Americans worried that
economy would slip back into depression.
 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
Republicans controlled Congress for first
time in 14 years.
 Passed the Taft-Hartley Act over
Truman’s veto.
 Labor hated this law. Why?
 Unions attempts to grow into new areas
and industries were frustrated.

 South
was resistant to unions. Why?
 Workers in rapidly growing service sector
were hard to organize. Why?
Early Economic Moves

Sold War factories and other
government installations at
very low prices.
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How does this benefit business?
Employment Act (1946)
creates Council of Economic
advisors. Purpose?
GI Bill: Servicemen’s
Readjustment Act of 1944.


Provisions?
Helps to expand the middle
class and absorb returning GIs
The Long Economic Boom, 1950-1970

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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 population but 40% of the 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.
New World for Women
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Women reaped huge benefits
from the post-war boom.
New employment.
Source of income and
independence to women.
Effect of growth of service sector
Culture glorified women as homemakers and mothers.
Women react against gap
between stereotype and reality
with women’s movement of the
1960s.
Causes of economic expansion
The war itself
 Continued military spending
 Cheap Energy
 Increase in productivity

 Education
 New

Tech
Shift in the nation’s basic economic
structure
The Smiling Sunbelt

For 30 years after the war 30 Mil. people
changed residences every year.
 How
does this change society?
Growth of the Sunbelt—South, Southwest
and California grow at a rate nearly double
that of the old northwest.
 Grow of Sunbelt fueled by federal
spending.

The Rush To The Suburbs


Starting in the 1950s white middleclass fled the cities to the suburbs.
Reasons:


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
Federal loan guarantees made it more
economically attractive to own a home
in the suburbs than to rent in the city.
Tax deductions for mortgage interest,
but not rent.
New highways and car-ownership
made it easier.
Desire for the peace and prosperity of
the new suburbs.
By 1960 one-in-four Americans
lived in the suburbs, by 1990 half
the population lives in suburbs.
Consequences of Growth of Suburbia


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Construction industry
booms—Levitt
brothers/Levitt Town
Changes the pattern of
life
Changes the nature of
commerce.
White
Flight/impoverishment
of inner-cities
The Postwar Baby Boom

Baby Boom is the huge surge in
births in the 15 years after WWII.

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Why it happened.
50 Million new babies over 15 years.
Peaks in 1957
Baby boom has lasting
consequences

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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.
Truman

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Shock of having a new
president.
Truman much different from
FDR.
Compromise VP choice, only
a middling Senator.
FDR had left him largely out
of the loop
Truman bio and personality
Yalta: Bargain Or Betrayal


February, 1945,
Stalin, Churchill and
Roosevelt meet in
Yalta.
Issues:

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
How to finish the war
What to do with
Germany and Japan
How to handle
rebuilding of nations
ravaged by the war.
Yalta Agreements


What is agreed
regarding Eastern
Europe and Poland?
Agree to a multipower summit in San
Francisco to work on
a successor to the
League of Nations
(What becomes the
United Nations)
Far East Agreements

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Problems—Atomic Bomb not yet perfected and
looks like will be a very bloody invasion of
Japan.
US wants Soviet help to pin down Japanese
troops in Manchuria and Korea.
Stalin unwilling
What does Stalin agree to do?
What does he get in return
How does this affect A-bomb decision?
Yalta Assessed
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Yalta has been criticized:
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Sold out Poland and Eastern Europe
Gave the Soviets too much in China.
Russian help not needed in Japan
Soviets would have entered the war anyway
FDR was feeble and therefore was hoodwinked by Stalin.
Response:

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
Yalta was not a treaty—it was a statement of intents and
common purposes.
USSR already had effective control of Eastern Europe and we
couldn’t stop them from entering.
Yalta was an attempt to get all three allied powers on the same
page as the war reached its conclusion.
Reasons for Clash with Soviets
Two preeminent military powers in the
world. Each had half of Europe.
 Each distrusted the other’s system
 Soviets were skeptical of US and GB
 Different visions of the post-war world and
each other
 Soviets and Americans had many
similarities that contributed to clash

Shaping The Postwar World
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Bretton Woods, NH, 1944—International
Monetary Fund.
International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (World Bank)
United Nations Conference, 4/45
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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
The Problem Of Germany

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Nuremberg war-crimes
trials.
Germany divided into four
military occupation zones.

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Berlin itself been divided into
four parts.
Is a debate about what to do
with Germany.

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Soviet proposal.
Americans want German
economically strong. Why?
Germany Divided

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Soviets exert strong political
and economic control over their
section of Germany.
Soviets resist reunification of
Germany.

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What is Soviet motivation and
fear?
American, British and French
zones united to form West
Germany.
Soviet zone becomes East
Germany
Berlin Blockade

Soviets blockade Berlin in 1948
ending all rail and highway
access to West Berlin. Why?
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First show-down between USSR
and US.
US airlift. Lasts for nearly a year.
Airlift important symbol.
Soviets forced to lift the blockade in
1949
1949 the two Governments of
Germany are formally
established.
Crystallizing The Cold War
Iran
 From 1945-47 Communist governments
installed throughout Eastern Europe
 US perception of these moves
 Churchill’s Iron Curtain Speech
 1947—Containment Doctrine—George
Kennan

Cold War Europe
Truman Doctrine
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Truman formally embraces containment in 1947.
Crisis in Greece. Effect if it falls to communism.
Truman goes before a joint session of Congress
and announces the Truman Doctrine. What is
it?
Asks for $400 Mill. in aid to Greece.
Containment/Truman doctrine drive foreign
policy for the next 40 years.
Problem with doctrine as basis for foreign policy
Marshall Plan
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US fears spread of communism
in Western Europe. Why?
US responds with the Marshall
Plan
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US would provide substantial
financial assistance.
Europeans enthusiastically agree.
Eastern Europe is offered aid, too,
but Soviets force them to reject.
Why?
Ends up being 35.3 Billion over 11
years.
Huge Success.
Recognition of Israel

Truman goes against advice of State
Department and recognizes the state of Israel in
1948.
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Truman recognized Israel because:
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Arabs were adamantly against it and threatened to
push Jews into the sea.
Arabs were important to US strategic interests
because of Oil and as bulwark against Soviets.
Lots of Jewish voters in the US
Sympathy for plight of Jews during the holocaust.
Recognition of Israel vastly complicated US
foreign policy.
America Begins To Rearm
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Cold War leads America to arm itself in an
unprecedented fashion for peace time.
US Defense establishment overhauled
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National Security Act (1947)
Pentagon
Sec. of Defense has cabinet status.
Joint Chiefs of Staff
National Security Act established the National
Security Council and CIA.
1948 Draft is reestablished. First peace-time
draft.
National Defense Budget [1940-1964]
NATO
Soviet threat drives Western European
countries together.
 North Atlantic Treaty Organization 1948.
Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands,
Luxembourg and US.

 West
Germany and others join later.
 End to Isolation
 Obligates each country to defend others
 Epochal unification of Europe,.
Reconstructing Japan
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Why is reconstructing
Japan easier?
MacArthur.
War crimes trials as in
Japan.
Japanese cooperate with
US reconstruction to an
astonishing degree. Why?
Japanese Constitution.
Defense of Japan will be
handled by US.

Economic consequence?
China Goes Red
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China was a mess. Weak and
divided
Nationalist led by Chang Ki Cheke
(Jiang Jieshi).
Communists are led by Mao Tsetung.
Chang is corrupt and repressive
and ultimately Mao and
communists take control.
Nationalists flee to Formosa
(Taiwan).
US recognition of “China”.
“Who Lost China?”

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The “loss” of China was a huge blow to
American Psyche.
“Who lost China?”
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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.
Myth of Communist unity.
Bigger Bombs
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Feb. 1949 Soviets explode an Atomic bomb three years sooner than
predicted.
Americans shocked; monopoly gone
America had counted on the bomb to keep Soviets in check for a
few more years.
Truman orders the development of the H-bomb. Beginning of the
arms race.
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H-Bomb is exploded in 1952.
Soviets explode their own H-bomb in 1953.
Ferreting Out Alleged Communists
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Red Scare hit US.
Whiff of truth gives validity to paranoia.
Many believed there were home-grown Soviet
spies in the US government
1947 Truman launched loyalty program.
3000 federal employees dismissed based on
suspicion of disloyalty or communist sympathies.
“communist sympathizer”
Communist Witch Hunts

1938 House Un-American
Activities Committee
formed to investigate
“subversion.”

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Richard M. Nixon goes after
Alger Hiss.
1950 Joe McCarthy chairs
committee and bursts on the
national scene.
Black Lists

McCarren Internal Security
Bill. What does it allow?

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Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Witch-hunts are occurring in
universities and in Hollywood.

Black Lists
Truman Limps into 1948
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Truman popularity low. Reasons
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Economic readjustment after war
Twangy and blunt
Democrats in control for 16 years
Republicans get majority in
Congress in 1946
Most assume he can’t win.
Democrats nominate him after Ike
refuses to be drafted.
Nomination splits the party

Why are southern Democrats so
opposed to him.
Democratic Divisions
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Strom Thurmond.
Dixiecrats
Former Vice President
Henry Wallace runs as a
liberal/progressive.
Republicans nominate
Thomas Dewey, Gov. on
New York
Assumed Truman will lose.
Dewey runs “safe”
campaign.
Give ‘em Hell Harry
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Truman’s whistle-stop tour
throughout the country.
Rails against the “do-nothing
Congress”.
Truman’s program/platform.
Crowds get more and more
enthusiastic.
Dewey still thinks he is
winning. Polling is still not very
good.
Dewey Wins! (or not)

Truman wins handily and
stuns about everyone.
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Democrats win House;
keep it for the next 44
years.
Why did Truman win?.
Truman makes the Fair
Deal the corner-stone of
his second term.

Congress guts most of it.
The Korean Volcano Erupts
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History of Korea after WWII
Acheson sends mixed messages
June 25, 1990, North Korean army rolls over the
S. Korean army. Are pushed back to a narrow
area around Pusan.
Truman sees this as Soviet aggression;
Commits US troops to a UN force to support S.
Korea.

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Does this without consulting Congress or a
declaration of war.
American forces are vast majority of UN forces and
MacArthur is appointed U.N. Commander.
NSC-68
Korean crisis provides excuse for massive
increase in military spending. This
proposal had been set out in National
Security Council 68 (NSC-68).
 NSC-68 was a major turning point in the
Cold War
 Committed America to massive military
spending.
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See-Saw in Korea
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Inchon Landing
Nervous Chinese
MacArthur overconfident
Chinese pour in
MacArthur defies
Truman; MacArthur fired
Nasty stalemate; support
for war erodes.