Download Chapter 35 (Unabridged)

Unit 6: Making Modern America
1945-present
NOTE: These dates a different
than what is listed in your
course syllabus.
• Chapter 35: The Cold War Begins, 1945-1952
• Chapter 36: American Zenith, 1952-1963
• Chapter 37: The Stormy Sixties, 1963-1973
• DBQ Exam: Chapters 35-37, Friday, April 7th
• Chapter 38: Challenges to the Postwar Order, 1973-1980
• Chapter 39: The Resurgence of Conservatism, 1980-1992
• Long Essay Exam: Chapters 38-39, Friday April 21st
• Chapter 40: America Confronts the Post-Cold War Era, 1992-2000
• Chapter 41: The American People Face a New Century, 2001-2014
• DBQ Exam: Chapters 40-41, Friday April 28th (if necessary)
• AP Exam: Friday, May 5th
Chapter 35
The Cold War Begins, 19451952
“The United States stand at this moment at the summit of the world.”
Winston Churchill, 1945
II. Yalta: Bargain or Betrayal?
• The Yalta Conference (February 1945)
• Stalin, Churchill, FDR met for the last time.
• Yalta Plan:
• Defeat Germany and establish occupation zones
• Eastern Europe: Re-establish Poland, establish
representative governments in Bulgaria, Romania
• United Nations announced
• East Asia presented a great problem.
• Stalin was pushed to enter war against Japan.
• By 1949, Chiang Kai-shek slowly lost control of China to
communist Mao Zedong.
The Big Three
III. The United States and the Soviet Union
• Communism and capitalism were historically hostile
social philosophies.
• The United States did not officially recognize the USSR until
1933.
• Soviets were upset by how long it took the Allies to open a
second front against Germany.
• Soviets had been excluded from development of nuclear
weapons.
• U.S. ended lend-lease in 1945.
• Different visions of the postwar world:
• Stalin focused on security of Soviet Union by focusing on
Eastern and Central Europe.
• Stalin’s “sphere of influence” went against FDR and
Wilson’s self-determination principles.
• All of this led to the Cold War, through which the U.S.
would be led by an unknown – Harry S. Truman.
I. Truman: The “Gutty” Man from Missouri
• Rose from a Missouri judgeship to the
U.S. Senate as part of the political
machine
• Truman began with humility, but
gradually gained experience.
• He was stubbornly loyal to the “Missouri
Gang”
• Had trouble in his public appearances
• He had down-home authenticity
Harry S. Truman
33rd President of the United States
IV. Shaping the Postwar World
• U.S. led ventures:
• IMF: encourage world trade by regulating currency exchange
rates.
• World Bank: aid economic growth in war-ravaged and
underdeveloped areas.
• United Nations (1945) differed in many ways from the
LON.
• The U.N. realistically provided that no member of the
Security Council, dominated by the Big Five (USA, GB, France,
USSR, China) could have action taken against it without its
consent.
• The U.N. also features the General Assembly in which all
member nations have a voice.
• Early UN Success: Iran, Kashmir, Israel.
• UN failed on early regulation of nuclear weapons.
VI. Cold War Deepens
• Truman’s response to various Soviet challenges:
• Containment doctrine: the flow of Soviet power could be
contained by “firm and vigilant containment”
• Truman Doctrine (1947): United States would support
those who were resisting “Communist aggression” –
Greece, Turkey
• Marshall Plan
• France, Italy, and Germany seemed in danger of being taken
over from the inside by Communist parties.
• In 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall invited the
Europeans to get together and work out a joint plan for
economic recovery.
• If they did, the United States would provide substantial financial
assistance.
• Oil in the Middle East
• In 1948, Truman antagonized Arab nations by recognizing
the existence of Israel.
• Stalin was always there to support the other side.
The Marshall Plan Turns Enemies into
Friends
V. The Problem of Germany
• Allies agreed that Nazism had to be destroyed –
Nuremberg war crimes trial 1945-1946
• 12 accused Nazis hanged, 7 were sentenced to long jail terms
• Beyond the Nazis, Europe needed a strong German
economy to aid in economic recovery.
• Along with Austria, Germany was divided into four military
occupation zones – one to each Ally (USA, France, GB, USSR).
• East and West split along Communist-Capitalist line.
• Berlin was also split four ways.
• In 1948 after controversies over German currency reform and
four-power control, Soviets cut off all rail and highway
access.
• The Americans organized the gigantic Berlin airlift to supply
West Berliners.
• Soviets ended the blockade in May, 1949.
Postwar Partition of Germany
VII. America Begins to Rearm
• Cold War demanded WWII-era military spending.
• National Security Act of 1947
• Created the Department & Secretary of Defense
• The heads of each service were brought together as the Joint
Chiefs of Staff.
• Established the National Security Council (NSC) to advise the
president on security matters.
• The Central Intelligences Agency (CIA) to coordinate the
government’s foreign fact gathering.
• The Draft: Congress brought back the military draft for men age
19 to 25.
• Truman decided to join NATO (North Atlantic Treaty
Organization) in 1949.
•
•
•
•
If one NATO member is attacked, all must defend.
No more isolationism.
Europe became more unified.
Scared the Soviet Union.
Above: NATO’s flag
Below: NATO & the Warsaw Pact
VIII. Reconstruction and Revolution in Asia
• Reconstruction in Japan was led by General
MacArthur.
• Top Japanese “war criminals” were tried in Tokyo from 1946
to 1948.
• The Japanese cooperated to an astonishing degree.
• A MacArthur-dictated constitution was adopted in 1946.
• Renounced militarism
• Provided for women’s equality
• Introduced Western-style democratic government
• Reconstruction in China was marred by Civil War
• Communist Mao Zedong defeated Chiang Kai-shek (1949)
• This happened about the same time that the Soviets
exploded their first atomic bomb, so Truman ordered
development of the H-Bomb.
General Douglas MacArthur and Japanese
Emperor Hirohito
IX. The Korean Volcano Erupts
• Korea brought actual shooting to the Cold War in
June 1950.
• Korea after WWII:
• Soviet troops took north of the 38th parallel.
• American troops took south of the 38th.
• By 1949, both sides had withdrawn their forces.
• Korean War (1950-1953)
• North Korean invaded South Korea.
• Truman saw the incident as a violation of the
“containment doctrine”.
• National Security Council Memorandum Number 68
(NSC-68) recommended that the United States
quadruple defense spending – which Truman did.
A grief stricken American infantryman
whose buddy has been killed in action is
comforted by another soldier. In the
background a corpsman methodically fills
out casualty tags, Haktong-ni area, Korea.
August 28, 1950.
X. The Military Seesaw in Korea
• On June 25, 1950, Truman obtained a unanimous
condemnation of North Korea as an aggressor.
• UN called for aid to South Korea, and the U.S. took the lead under
General MacArthur.
• MacArthur landed behind the enemy’s line at Inchon on September
15, 1950 and pushed North Koreans back.
• Communist China then entered the war.
• Chinese involvement.
• China was concerned about its border with North Korea.
• In November 1950, Chinese pushed the overextended lines of
MacArthur south.
• MacArthur was forced to fight, what he called, a “limited war”.
• He was eventually replaced for openly criticizing President Truman.
• The war would drag on until an armistice was signed in 1953 –
no treaty was ever signed.
• Today, the border between the Koreas is the most heavily militarized
border on Earth.
XI. The Cold War Home Front
• Second Red Scare
• In 1947 Truman launched a massive “loyalty” program – Loyalty
Review Board.
• Loyalty oaths were demanded of employees, especially teachers.
• The House of Representatives in 1938 had established the
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
• In 1948 Richard M. Nixon, committee member, led the chase after
Alger Hiss.
• Hiss denied everything but was caught lying.
• He was convicted of perjury in 1950, and sentenced to five years in
prison.
• In 1950 Truman vetoed the McCarran Internal Security Bill.
• Authorized the president to arrest and detain suspicious people
during an “internal security emergency”.
• Congress enacted the bill over Truman’s veto.
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg allegedly “leaked” atomic data to
Moscow & were executed in 1953.
Alger Hiss prepares to testify.
Top: Alger Hiss
Left: The Rosenbergs
Red Hunters: Nixon
& McCarthy
XII. Postwar Economic Anxieties
• Fear: would the Depression return post-WWII?
• Labor was attacked following WWII.
• Taft-Hartley Act was passed over President
Truman’s veto (1947) to outlaw closed-shop,
required non-communist oath.
• The CIO’s Operation Dixie failed at unionizing
southern textile workers and steel workers – due to
racial fears.
• Union membership peaked in the 1950s, then
began a steady decline.
• Truman’s administration tried to avert another
depression.
• It sold war factories and government installations
to private business at very low prices.
• Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill)
sent veterans to college and helped them buy
homes.
• Employment Act of 1946: made government policy
“to promote maximum employment.”
Going to College on the GI Bill
Financed by the federal government, thousands of
World War II veterans crowded into college classrooms
in the late 1940s. Universities struggled to house these
older students, many of whom already had families.
Pennsylvania State College resorted to setting up
hundreds of trailers.
XIII. Democratic Divisions in 1948
• Elections of 1948
• Republicans nominated Thomas E. Dewey.
• Democrats chose Truman over southern objections.
• Truman’s nomination split the party.
• Southerners nominated Governor J. Strom Thurmond of
South Carolina on a States’ Rights party ticket - Dixiecrats
• Vice president Henry A. Wallace threw his hat in with the
new Progressive Party.
• With the Democrats split, Dewey’s victory seemed assured.
• Truman shocked everyone by winning.
• Thurmond took 39 electoral votes in the South.
• Truman won 303 electoral votes, primarily from the South,
Midwest, and West.
• Dewey’s 189 electoral votes principally from the east.
The Harried Piano Player, 1948
XIII. Divisions in 1948 (cont.)
• Truman’s “Point Four”:
• lend money to underprivileged nations now to stop
them from becoming Communists later.
• Fair Deal (1949)
• Program presented to Congress in 1949 called for:
improved housing, full employment , a higher
minimum wage, better farm price supports, new
TVAs, extension of Social Security
• Only major successes:
• Raising the minimum wage
• Providing for public housing in the Housing Act of 1949
• Extending old-age insurance to many more beneficiaries
in the Social Security Act of 1950
Whoops
XIV. The Long Economic Boom, 1950–1970
• National income nearly doubled in the 1950s,
then again in the 1960s.
• Americans, 6% of world’s population, were
enjoying about 40% of the planet’s wealth.
• Allowed for even more social mobility and funded
new welfare programs (Medicare).
• Gave the U.S. more international confidence.
• 60% of Americans now owned their own homes
in 1960, compared to 40% in the 1920s.
• Women reaped the greatest rewards as service
sector workers while the “cult of domesticity”
was still prominent.
XV. The Roots of Postwar Prosperity
• World War II benefitted factories,
aerospace, plastics, electronics, etc.
• Cheap energy was key.
• Americans and Europeans controlled the
petroleum of the Middle East and kept
prices low.
• Workers were more productive and
more educated.
• The work force was moving away from
agriculture.
• Consolidation produced giant
agribusinesses able to employ costly
machines and new fertilizers.
• By the end of World War II, farmers made
up 2% of working Americans–yet fed much
of the world.
XVI. The Smiling Sunbelt
• World War II migrations continued after the
war.
• Families were separated which changed the
nature of family.
• Popularity of advice books on child-rearing
showed the separation between parents and
grandparents.
• Example: Dr. Benjamin Spock’s The Common Sense
Book of Baby and Child Care
• The growth of the Sunbelt vs. the Frostbelt
& Rustbelt
• Sunbelt: fifteen-state area stretching from
Virginia through Florida, Texas, Arizona and
California that was doubling its population.
• Frostbelt: northern Midwest and New England
• Rustbelt: old industrial centers of central U.S.
Distribution of Population Increase, 1950–2008
XVII. The Rush to the Suburbs
• Post-WWII, there was even more migration from
cities to suburbs.
• Government policies encouraged movement away from
urban centers.
• Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Veterans
Administration (VA) helped families with mortgages.
• Government-built highways supported this migration.
• The home construction industry boomed in the
1950s and 1960s.
• “Cookie-cutter” homes and malls became the norm.
• “White flight” to the suburbs left the inner cities to
minorities.
• Cities were broke and minorities had a difficult time
securing loans.
XVIII. The Postwar Baby Boom
• Baby Boom: huge leap in the birthrate
1945-1960
• Reached its height in 1957, then dropped
through the 1970s
• Population moves like a wave through time.
• Whatever the baby boomers wanted, that’s
what the economy gave them.