Download 36-the-cold-war

Chapter 36 the Cold War
Begins
Post War Depression





High prices as price controls removed
Lots of strikes in 1946 4.6 million workers will strike at one
time another – Steel, automobile, coal strikes
Caused by inflating prices and loss of high wages made
during the war which caused more strikes
GM introduce the contract tied to cost of living
Republicans push through Taft Hartley Act 1947
–
–
Outlawed the closed shop
Permitted employers to sue unions for broken contracts or
damages
– Established a federal mediation service
– 80 day cooling off period in strikes involving national health or
safety
– Union leaders had to take a loyalty oath.
Demobilization




We bring our troops home with too much
haste and create power vacuum which the
Russians fill
No jobs for returning soldiers
GI bill of rights education benefits
Tremendous inflation when price controls
are removed 33% in one year 1945-1946
– Scarce goods
– Heavy savings
Long Economic Boom





War helped to rebuild the depression
plagued economy
Huge military budgets especially in 1950 for
the Korean War
Cheap Energy
American Productivity enhanced by the
rising educational level 1970 – 90% of
school aged children attend school
Shift of the workforce out of farming
because of productivity gains
The Sunbelt

Post war movement -- an average of 30 million
people change residence every year
– Hard on families
– Dr. Spock’s book “The Common Sense Book of Baby and
Child Care”
– Sunbelt from Virginia to Florida, Texas, Arizona, and
California
– Search of Jobs, climate, and lower taxes
– Roosevelt had put a lot of defense money into the South
– Left the “Rustbelt” the Ohio valley.
– Every elected President since 1964 has come from the
Sunbelt
Move to the Suburbs





FHA and VA loans made it more affordable
to by your own home
Tax deductions on interest helps provide
financial incentive
Government built highways gave people to
live in the “burbs” and commute to the city
for their jobs.
Levittown in New York Long Island
White flight
Baby Boom


Adds 50 million babies to the nations
population by the end of the 50s
Strains many aspects of American life
– Education
– Healthcare
– Social Security
Harry Truman










No college education
Fought in WWI
Judge
Senator from Missouri
Vice Pres under Roosevelt
Became a give them hell speaker
Hot tempered and half cocked sometimes
“The buck stops here”
“If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen”
Like Grant he permits old friends to become part of his
administration and is very loyal despite their dishonesty
Yalta Conference Feb.
1945





Final conference of the big three (Roosevelt
dies)
Final plans for smashing Germany
discussed
Stalin agrees that Poland should have a
representative government
Stalin soon to break that pledge
Bulgaria, Romania to have free elections (a
promise also lost)
Yalta Continued








Multi-power conference to be held in San Francisco to Organize the
United Nations
Most controversial decision concerned the Far East
Atomic bomb not yet tested
From Roosevelt’s stand point it was a good idea to have Russia
enter the war in the Pacific to pin down Japanese troops in
Manchuria and Korea
Stalin horse trades
Agreed to attack Japan within 2-3 months after Germany’s fall
Russia to receive southern half of the Sakhalin Island and Japan’s
Kurile Islands
Joint control of the Railroads in Manchuria and special privileges at
port Dairin and Arthur
Russia enters the war at the last minute in order
to claim its prize
Post War World
Soviet Sphere of influence
created in Europe

International Monetary Fund created
– To encourage world trade
– Also founds the World Bank
– US takes the lead in the formation of
these in contrast to the end of WWI
The formation of the UN




Post war world organization was discussed
at all major conference
1945 invitations went out – one of Truman
first acts was to accept the invite
April 25, 1945 the conference assembles in
San Francisco
Took two months to write the charter but
all 50 nations sign
UN organization

Provides a General Assembly where each nation has one vote
– Largely to discuss problems

Security council
– given the power to resolve international disputes
– Consisted of five permanent members US, Britain, France,
Russia, China and six elected members
– Each major power given a veto to protect their vital interests

Other Aspects of the UN
–
Economic and social council 18 members chosen by General
Assembly
– World court of 15 judges
– Secretaries, and trusteeship

Passed by congress
Berlin Airlift 1948






Germany was to be partitioned but the German
Republic was to be treated as an economic whole
(decided at Potsdam)
Berlin had been partitioned into 4 sectors
No provisions for control of land routes
Russians use this when they become upset over
controversies involving 4 power control in 1948
Americans begin and around the clock airlift 4500
tons a day. Planes landing every 3 minutes for
almost 1 year.
Russians back off – brings about 2 Germanys
Reconstruction






US could not afford to see the people of Europe fall
to communism
Helped UN Relief and Rehabilitations Admin.
CARE encouraged private relief Corporation for
American Remittance to Europe
Nuremberg war crimes trial
22 leading Germans tried 19 convicted 12
sentenced to death 7given life
American (allied) policy was to help Germany – to
keep them from the communist camp
Truman doctrine 1947






Truman get tough policy
George F. Kennan -- Containment
Britain could no longer bear financial and
military load of Greece and Turkey to keep
them from communism
We fear the loss of the East Med.
Establishes the policy of containment
Congress appropriates 400 million in
economic and military aid
Marshall Plan 1947-48







Sec of state George Marshall
Encourage a European conference to work out
plans of economic recovery
Conference held July 1947 in Paris
Plan of Marshall’s was to spend billions over 4
years in 16 coop. Countries 12.5 billion
Congress approves after a communist coup in
Czech.
Within a few years most European countries were
exceeding their pre war output
Communism lost ground in important countries like
France and Italy
Dealing with the Soviet
Menace




NATO signed on April 4, 1949 an attack on
one member was as attack on all and the
signatories would then take action they
deemed necessary
12 original signatories later 14 with Greece
and Turkey added.
Congress enacts the first peace time draft
Soviets have the bomb in 1949– we begin
the development of the H-Bomb.
Causes the US military to be
unified under the national
security act of 1947




It creates the Dept. Of Defense-- cabinet
official Sec. of Defense -- Forms the Joint
Chief of Staff – army, navy, air force
National security council formed to advise
the pres on security matters
The CIA formed to organize foreign fact
finding
Voice of America authorize by congress in
1948
Point Four



American money and technological
aid to go to foreign nations to prevent
them from becoming communist
Launched in 1950
Helped Latin American , Africa, Near
East, Far East
Red Scare





Truman loyalty program 1947
Attorney general drew up a list of 90
disloyal organizations
A loyalty review board investigates 3 mill.
Fed. Employees -- 3000 resign or are
dismissed
Individual states create loyalty oaths
The question could be asked: could
freedom of speech exist in the face of
international communism?
Fear Creates a Witch Hunt



Richard Nixon leads the red catching as a chairman of the
House Committee on Un- American Activities – against Alger
Hiss
Feb. 1950 McCarthy charges that there are scores of
communist in the state department and begins a massive
witch hunt
1950 Truman vetoes the McCarran Internal Security Bill but
congress passes the bill over the veto
– authorizes the president to arrest or detain suspicious persons
during an internal security emergency

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg convicted in 1951 of espionage
and were electrocuted in 1953 – only people in American
history to be executed in peace time for espionage .
Election of 1948




Rep. nom. Dewey
Demos. nom. Truman – Southern demos revolt
because of Truman’s stand on civil rights
Southern Demos. nom. Gov. Strom Thurmond
Progressives nom. Henry Wallace, Roosevelt’s
former VP
– Very liberal pro soviet


Democrat attempt to nominate Eisenhower fails
when he refuses
Truman wins
Fair Deal





Sweeping program for unemployment,
housing, higher ed., min. wage, went
further than new deal
only a small portion achieved
Social Security broadened
Public housing progresses
Min. wage increases 40-75 cents
Korean War





Japan surrenders to Russia North of 38
degrees parallel in Korea
Both powers U.S. and Russia said they
wanted a unified Korea
1949 Both had pulled out but Russia had
left North Korea heavily armed
June 25,1950 North Korea invades South
Korea
Push South Korea to Pusan
Truman takes it to the
U.N.






Russia absent because they protested the
non-seating of communist China
U.N. orders assistance to South Korea
Gen. MacArthur was appointed U.N.
commander
16 nations
MacArthur lands at Inchon
Push to Yalu makes Chinese nervous –
China attacks Nov. 1950
MacArthur wants to bomb
bases in Manchuria



Truman says no
MacArthur takes it to the public
Truman fires MacArthur April 11,1951
War drags on for next 2
years

1952 elections Demos.
– Adlie Stevenson
– Rep. Eisenhower Nixon V.P.
– Eisenhower very popular, Nixon did most of campaigning
labeling Democrats as soft communists



Eisenhower goes to Korea
Stalin dies, Soviet Union loses interest in continuing
war
Armistice signed 1953 (July), 54,000 Americans
died