Download Second Half of HIST 1302 - The University of Texas at Arlington

Lecture 23
The New Deal, 1933-1940
I.
A New President, A New Deal
A. Bank Holiday
1.
As Roosevelt’s inauguration approached, the nation faced a severe
banking crisis for several reasons.
a.
Unable to collect debts owed and drained by too many
investments in the sinking stock market, many banks had
gone out of business since the crash, which had left
depositors penniless.
b.
In 1932, 1,456 banks failed and the entire banking system
seemed ready to collapse by March 1933.
c.
The public’s dwindling confidence in banks caused a
growing number of runs on banks as depositors demanded
their money, and since most banks did not have this money,
they were forced to close their doors.
2.
On March 6, Roosevelt announced a Bank Holiday that closed all
the country’s banks, and he called a special session of Congress to
pass an Emergency Banking Bill.
a.
Democrats and Republicans responded almost immediately
and drafted the Emergency Banking Act, which allowed
the Federal Reserve to examine banks and certify those
that were sound.
b.
The act also allowed the Federal Reserve and the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation to support the
nation’s banks by providing funds and buying stocks of
preferred banks.
3.
In the first of his Fireside Chats on March 12, Roosevelt told
Americans that they had nothing to fear and that the federal
government was solving the banking crisis.
a.
When banks in the twelve Federal Reserve cities reopened
the next day, customers appeared to deposit rather than
withdraw money.
4.
The Banking Act of 1933 reorganized the banking and financial
system, gave new powers and responsibilities to the Federal
Reserve System, and created the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC).
5.
The Federal Security Act created the Securities and Exchange
Commission, which regulated stock market activities, including
the setting of margin rates.
6.
The Twenty-First Amendment repealed Prohibition, and the
Beer and Wine Act provided a small amount of revenue but
greatly boosted public morale.
1
B.
C.
Seeking Agricultural Recovery
1.
The plight of farmers appeared near disaster as Roosevelt assumed
office, and politically, the president was aware that a successful
farm program would help tie the Farm Bloc to him and the
Democratic Party.
a.
The goal was to raise farm prices through national planning
to a point of parity with prices received prior to World War
I, and reducing rural poverty would be a by-product.
2.
The Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) contained the
Domestic Allotment Plan, which encouraged farmers to reduce
production by paying them not to plant.
a.
Although large amounts of land were removed from
production, in many cases production did not drop since
farmers took their least productive land out of cultivation.
b.
The Commodity Credit Corporation provided money to
farmers participating in the domestic allocation program
based on the price of their crop.
c.
By 1935, recovery in the agricultural sector had clearly
started.
d.
Butler v. United States declared the AAA unconstitutional;
since the federal government could not set production
quotas and the special tax on food processing was illegal.
3.
Congress approved a second AAA that reestablished the principle
of federally set commodity quotas, acreage reductions, and parity
payments.
a.
The combination of drought and governmental policies
took sizable amounts of land out of production, stabilized
farm prices, and saved farms.
Seeking Industrial Recovery
1.
The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) offered
something for everyone and quickly earned widespread support
from business, labor, the unemployed, and community leaders.
a.
The Public Works Administration (PWA) put people to
work immediately, while the National Recovery
Administration (NRA) provided programs to restart the
nation’s industrial engine and create permanent jobs.
b.
Business supported the NRA because it allowed price
fixing, which raised prices and profits, while labor was
attracted by codes that gave workers the right to organize
and bargain collectively, outlawed child labor, and
established minimum wages and maximum hours of
work.
c.
Schechter Poultry Corporation v. United States declared
the NRA unconstitutional because the government was not
2
II.
permitted to set national codes or set wages and hours in
local plants.
D. TVA and REA
1.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) showcased federally
directed regional planning and development of a rural and
impoverished region.
a.
The project brought seasonal flooding more under control
and made hundreds of miles of rivers and lakes more
navigable.
b.
The TVA’s electrification program became a precedent for
a nationwide effort.
2.
The Rural Electrification Administration (REA) had brought
electricity to 45 percent of rural homes and farms by 1945 and had
increased that to 90 percent by 1951.
E.
Remembering the "Forgotten Man"
1.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established army-style
camps to house and provide a healthy, moral environment for
unemployed urban males aged eighteen to twenty-five.
2.
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), along
with the PWA, provided a wider range of relief programs for the
"forgotten man."
3.
The Civil Works Administration (CWA) provided nearly four
million immediate jobs, especially during the winter of 1933 - 34.
4.
The Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) permitted
homeowners to refinance their mortgages at lower interest rates
through the federal government, and the Federal Housing
Administration (FHA) provided federally backed loans for home
mortgages and repair.
The Second Hundred Days
A. Populist Voices
1.
Supported by congressional Democrats and public opinion through
1934, Roosevelt continued to add to the New Deal and became less
willing to cooperate with conservatives and business.
2.
Unexpected grassroots criticism that the New Deal was not doing
enough to help the "forgotten man" was led by three outspoken
critics.
a.
Senator Huey Long of Louisiana advocated a Share the
Wealth plan, which called for the federal government to
provide every American family with an annual check for
$2,000, a home, a car, a radio, and a college education for
each child.
b.
Dr. Francis Townsend, a public health doctor, advocated a
federal old-age pension plan.
3.
The growing popularity of Coughlin, Long, and Townsend
reflected the frustration of a large segment of the American
3
III.
population who believed that the government was still doing too
little to help them.
B.
A Shift in Focus
1.
Responding to the growing pressures to modify the New Deal and
showing his irritation with business leaders, Roosevelt focused
more on people than on business beginning in 1935 and targeted
under-consumption rather than low production.
a.
Congress allocated nearly $5 billion for relief to be divided
among the CCC, PWA, FERA, and newly created Works
Progress Administration (WPA).
b.
Most WPA workers did manual labor, but it also employed
professional and white-collar workers.
c.
The WPA also made special efforts to help women,
minorities, students, and young adults.
2.
The National Youth Administration (NYA) provided aid for
college and high school students and programs for young people
not in school.
3.
The Social Security Act established a federal old-age and survivor
insurance program that was to be a permanent modification of the
government’s role in society.
4.
The National Labor Relations Act, or Wagner Act, strengthened
the union movement by putting the power of government behind
the workers’ right to organize and to bargain with employers for
wages and benefits.
5.
The Resettlement Administration (RA) and the Farm Mortgage
Moratorium Act helped small farmers, sharecroppers, and tenant
farmers.
The New Deal and Society
A. The New Deal and Urban America
1.
In most cities, relief programs were among those targeted for
elimination or reduction.
2.
Public works projects improved the existing infrastructure by
constructing roads, bridges, hospitals, schools, and other public
buildings.
B.
Popular Culture
1.
Movies and radio, the most popular form of entertainment
throughout the thirties, provided a break from the worries of
Depression life.
a.
Radio was even more popular than the silver screen, with
nearly 90 percent of American households having at least
one radio.
2.
While movies and radio rarely criticized American politics and
society, many novelists intended their works as social criticism.
3.
Although many feared that the Depression would add to the ranks
of those who rejected American social, economic, and political
4
IV.
values, the main thrust of the popular culture was to affirm
traditional American values.
C. A New Deal for Minorities and Women
1.
Perhaps even more than the president, Eleanor Roosevelt was
sensitive to the needs of average Americans, especially minorities
and women.
a.
Rarely able to provide any direct assistance, her message
emphasized hope and explained changes being made by the
New Deal.
b.
She publicly and privately worked to reduce discrimination
in the government and throughout the country.
2.
Most black leaders perceived that the existing patterns of
prejudice, discrimination, and segregation remained untouched by
the New Deal.
a.
Nonetheless, the New Deal and the Roosevelt’s brought
about some positive changes in favor of racial equality,
including the appointment of African-Americans to
government positions and an unofficial Black Cabinet.
b.
By 1938, New Deal programs were providing nearly 30
percent of the African American population with some
federal relief, often over the opposition of local authorities.
3.
Mexican Americans benefited from the New Deal in much the
same way as African Americans - indirectly.
4.
American Indians, however, benefited from the Indian
Reorganization Act.
The New Deal Winds Down
A. Roosevelt and the Supreme Court
1.
To alter the political philosophy of the Court and to protect
programs that had already been passed, Roosevelt wanted to
appoint enough new justices to ensure a pro-New Deal majority.
a.
Roosevelt made a major political miscalculation with his
Court-packing plan, and he lost the loyalty of many
Democrats who now sided with the Republicans.
b.
Roosevelt eventually admitted defeat and dropped the
issue, but not until he had squandered a great deal of his
political assets.
B.
Resurgence of Labor
1.
Labor strife also dampened enthusiasm for the New Deal,
especially as the CIO continued to organize workers and call for
political support.
2.
The first major sit-down strikes in the U.S. called for recognition
of the union in the rubber industry and higher wages.
a.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) conducted a sit-down
strike against General Motors and helped labor make gains
against employers.
5
3.
C.
D.
As strikes spread and violent incidents multiplied, unions did not
fare well in public opinion.
The End of New Deal Legislation
1.
By 1937, Roosevelt and New Deal legislation faced an
increasingly hostile political environment as a growing number of
moderates joined conservatives in viewing Roosevelt as too radical
and anti-business.
2.
The Fair Labor Standards Act, which established an initial
maximum workweek of forty-four hours, set a minimum wage of
twenty-five cents an hour, and outlawed child labor under age
sixteen, was the last piece of New Deal legislation.
The New Deal’s Impact
1.
New Deal programs had in fact failed to achieve recovery, largely
because Roosevelt never spent enough money to generate rapid
economic growth, and it was World War II spending that propelled
the economy toward recovery.
2.
Evaluations of the New Deal are numerous and generally reflect
attitudes about the proper role of government in society.
3.
Whether viewed as good or bad, during the New Deal the federal
government became almost a literal Uncle Sam by assuming new
and expanded responsibilities and practices.
Lecture 24: America's Rise to World Leadership, 1933-1945
I.
Roosevelt and Foreign Policy
A. The Good Neighbor Policy
1.
In Latin America, Roosevelt built on the improving relations
already begun by Hoover by stressing his support of international
rather than unilateral actions.
a.
FDR promised that the United States would be the "good
neighbor" and would respect Latin American views and
interests and not interfere in Latin American affairs.
b.
His views were soon tested in Cuba when the nation
erupted into civil war, but the situation calmed when
General Fulgencio Batista became the nation’s leader and
remained in power until 1958.
c.
The United States recognized the new government and
signed a favorable trade agreement.
2.
Roosevelt’s commitment to nonintervention was tested in 1938
when Mexico’s president Cárdenas nationalized foreign-owned
oil properties and U.S. oil companies quickly demanded that
their property and profits be protected.
a.
Eventually, the United States recognized Mexico’s right to
control its own oil, and in 1941 the two nations agreed on
monetary compensation.
6
b.
II.
By the end of his first administration, Roosevelt had vastly
improved the United States’ image and position of
leadership throughout Latin America.
B.
Roosevelt and Isolationism
1.
Tensions were increasing, however, in Europe and Asia.
a.
In Germany, Hitler had ruthlessly instituted a dictatorship
by 1935, and the Japanese had conquered Manchuria and
were speaking of establishing the "Greater East Asian
Co-prosperity Sphere."
b.
Although the United States granted recognition of the
Soviet Union in November 1933, the Soviets had too little
credit to buy American goods, and the United States was
unwilling to provide it; the nations still distrusted one
another.
2.
By 1934, isolationists were in full cry, even repudiating the United
States entry into World War I, especially after the Nye Committee
concluded that profits and British propaganda had caused
America’s entry into the first conflict.
3.
By 1935, tensions in Asia and Europe combined with American
isolationism to generate neutrality laws that many hoped
would prevent American involvement in future foreign wars.
a.
The Neutrality Act of 1935 prohibited the sale of arms and
munitions to any nation at war.
b.
The 1937 Neutrality Act established "cash-and-carry": it
required warring nations to pay cash for all "nonwar"
goods and to carry them on their own ships.
The Road to War
A. Roosevelt and American Neutrality
1.
As Europe rushed into war, in the United States there was little
desire to come to the aid of Poland, Britain, or France, and
public isolationism remained strong.
a.
Roosevelt had a different view because he was determined
to do everything possible, short of war, to help those
nations opposing Hitler.
b.
When Germany invaded Poland, FDR proclaimed the
nation neutral but emphasized that he could not ask
Americans to be neutral in their thoughts.
2.
The Third Neutrality Act of 1939 allowed any nation to buy
weapons from the United States, but Roosevelt knew that the
British navy would deny the Germans access.
a.
As Roosevelt shaped American neutrality, Hitler mopped
up Polish resistance, and quietly readied his army for an
attack on the west in the spring.
b.
Not so secretly, the Soviets continued their expansion by
incorporating the Baltic Republics.
7
c.
B.
C.
D.
Germany and Italy, called the Axis powers, controlled
almost all of western and central Europe, leaving Britain to
face the seemingly invincible German army and air force
alone.
d.
Britain’s new Prime Minister, Winston Churchill,
however, was already turning to Roosevelt for aid;
Roosevelt responded favorably to his requests.
e.
The election results in 1940 demonstrated solid personal
support for Roosevelt but not for the Democratic party,
which lost three Senate seats.
The Battle for the Atlantic
1.
By December 1940, Churchill had asked Roosevelt for loans to
pay for supplies and for help to protect merchant ships from
German submarines, and Roosevelt agreed.
a.
Roosevelt presented Congress with the Lend-Lease Bill,
which would allow the president to lend, lease, or in any
way dispose of war materials to any country considered
vital to American security.
2.
With the Battle for the Atlantic reaching a turning point, Roosevelt
and Churchill met secretly in August 1941, and, for the first time,
both leaders sensed some room for optimism.
a.
Churchill and Roosevelt produced the Atlantic Charter,
which set forth the Wilsonian goals of self-determination,
freedom of trade and the seas, no territorial gains, and the
establishment of a "permanent system of general
security" in the form of a new world organization.
Facing Japan
1.
Throughout 1941, FDR had to balance Britain’s desperate needs
with those of his own military, which pressed him for more
equipment to strengthen the nation’s position in the Pacific.
a.
In July 1940, Roosevelt acted on public sentiment and
placed some restrictions on Japanese-American trade,
forbidding the sale and shipment of aviation fuel and scrap
iron.
b.
Americans prepared for war, but Japan moved first.
Pearl Harbor
1.
The Japanese planned to attack the American fleet anchored at
Pearl Harbor.
a.
Seven battleships were destroyed or badly damaged and 11
others were hit, nearly 200 aircraft were destroyed, and
2,500 Americans died.
b.
Fortunately, the U.S. aircraft carriers were on maneuvers in
the Pacific and not at Pearl Harbor and the repair shops, dry
docks, and oil storage tanks incurred only light damage.
2.
On December 8, the United States declared war on Japan, and
Germany and Italy soon declared war on the United States
8
III.
IV.
America Responds to War
A. Japanese American Internment
1.
The feelings against Japanese Americans were a product of longstanding racist attitudes and an immediate reaction to the war.
a.
Although some doubted the reality of any threat from the
Japanese-American community, no one came forward to
protest its treatment.
b.
In 1942, FDR signed Executive Order 9066, which
allowed the military to remove anyone deemed a threat
from official military areas; the entire West Coast was
declared a military area.
c.
By the summer of 1942, over 110,000 Nisei and Issei had
been transported to ten internment camps.
d.
Aware of rapidly growing anti-Japanese public opinion,
Roosevelt waited until after the 1943 elections to allow
internees who passed a loyalty review to go home; a year
later the camps were empty.
B.
Mobilizing the Nation for War
1.
President Roosevelt called on Americans to produce the goods
necessary for victory, and any antibusiness attitude disappeared.
C.
A People at Work and War
1.
One sure sign that there was a war on was that people were moving
and taking new jobs as never before.
a.
To fill the gaps in the work force, employers
increasingly turned to those excluded prior to the war:
women and minorities.
b.
With their expanding populations, war industrial cities
experienced massive problems providing homes, water,
electricity, and sanitation.
c.
Contributing to the old problem of prostitution was the
new problem posed by many unsupervised teenage
children.
Waging World War
A. Halting the Japanese Advance
1.
In the Pacific theater, the victory at Midway in mid-1942 gave
American forces naval and air superiority over Japan and allowed
the use of carrier task forces to begin tightening the noose around
Japan.
B.
The Tide Turns in Europe
1.
In Europe, too, the Allies began to meet with some success,
although at great cost.
a.
While the British and Americans advanced across France,
Allied bombers and fighter-bombers were doing what they
had been doing since the spring of 1942, bombing Germanheld Europe night and day.
9
b.
C.
D.
E.
Vital industries and transportation systems were destroyed
by what at times seemed to be around-the-clock bombing.
2.
At the Tehran Conference, the Big Three agreed to coordinate a
Soviet offensive with Allied landings at Normandy.
a.
Operation Overlord was the greatest amphibious assault
ever assembled.
Stresses within the Grand Alliance
1.
In February 1945, the Big Three met at Yalta amid growing
apprehension about Soviet territorial and political goals in Eastern
Europe.
a.
First and foremost, Roosevelt needed a Soviet declaration
of war on Japan and support for the new United Nations,
since both were necessary to usher in peace and
international stability.
b.
Roosevelt permitted Stalin to keep what he already had, or
could easily take, to ensure Soviet cooperation.
Hitler’s Defeat
1.
The Battle of the Bulge cost Germany valuable reserves and
equipment, and ultimately it merely hastened the end of the war.
a.
At the end of April, Hitler committed suicide, since he was
unwilling to be captured.
b.
Roosevelt died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage a few
weeks before.
2.
Hitler’s Holocaust was responsible for the killing of six million
civilian Jews.
Entering the Nuclear Age
1.
The A-bomb was the product of years of British-American
research and development - the Manhattan Project.
2.
The Potsdam Declaration called upon Japan to surrender by
August 1945 or face total destruction, and after August 3 Truman
ordered the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
a.
World War II was over, but much of the world lay in ruins.
Lecture 25: Truman and Cold War America, 1945-1952
I.
The Cold War Begins
A. Truman and the Soviets
1.
Truman and other American leaders identified two overlapping
paths to peace: international cooperation and deterrence based on
military strength.
a.
Not all nations accepted the American vision for peace and
stability.
b.
The Soviets advanced opposing goals in Eastern Europe
and were unwilling to allow an open political and economic
system.
10
c.
B.
C.
Truman confronted the Soviets for not fulfilling its Yalta
promises and was less compromising with the Soviets than
Roosevelt had been.
d.
By early 1946, Truman was "tired of babying the Soviets."
2.
The United States adopted the containment policy to meet the
Soviet threat head-on.
a.
The fear of Soviet expansion quickly became a bipartisan
issue.
b.
Churchill warned of the Soviet threat in his "iron curtain"
speech in 1946.
c.
Ideology and geography determined postwar credits and
loans to Europe.
The Division of Europe
1.
Events in Europe assumed first priority for the United States as
Communist forces pressured Greece and Turkey.
a.
The Truman Doctrine offered help to those nations
opposing Communism.
b.
The Marshall Plan expanded the Truman Doctrine to all
of Europe.
c.
The Soviets were unwilling to participate and tightened
their control over Eastern Europe.
2.
The Soviets engineered a coup in Czechoslovakia in 1948 and
installed a Communist government.
3.
The Berlin Blockade of June 1948 heightened Cold War tensions
between the United States and the USSR.
a.
The Soviet goal was to force Western abandonment of
West Germany or face losing Berlin.
b.
The Berlin Airlift, which flew in supplies to support West
Berlin, was a tremendous victory for the United States over
the Soviets.
c.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was
created in May 1949 to defend Western Europe from
Communist forces.
A Global Presence
1.
Asia, however, provided severe disappointments to U.S. foreign
policy.
a.
In China, a civil war led to Communist rule by 1949.
b.
The Nationalist government fled to Formosa (Taiwan).
c.
Many Americans complained that the Truman
administration was "too soft" on Communism.
2.
The Soviet Union detonated its own atomic bomb in August 1949.
a.
NSC 68 called for global containment and a massive
military buildup so that the United States could adequately
defend itself against the growing Soviet threat.
11
b.
II.
Truman hesitated to implement the report’s
recommendations, but North Korea’s invasion of South
Korea helped change his mind on the issue.
The Korean War
A. The UN Responds to Communist Aggression
1.
Although U.S. public opinion supported intervention in Korea,
there was no World War II - like rush to arms.
a.
By 1950, North Korean forces occupied most of South
Korea.
B.
Seeking to Liberate North Korea
1.
According to Truman and MacArthur, restoring prevailing
conditions prior to the invasion was no longer enough for the
United States
a.
They now wanted to unify the peninsula under South
Korea, and an invasion seemed safe.
b.
An overconfident MacArthur, however, violated his
commander-in-chief’s orders.
c.
MacArthur moved forces to within a few miles of Yalu.
d.
Within three weeks, the Communists had shoved UN forces
back to the thirty-eighth parallel dividing North and
South Korea.
2.
Truman abandoned his goal of a unified Korea and sought a
negotiated settlement that would leave two Koreas.
a.
Truman’s decision was not popular with the American
public because they wanted victory.
b.
Truman replaced MacArthur with General Ridgway in
April 1951.
3.
The Korean conflict had far-reaching military and diplomatic
results for the United States.
a.
It resulted in the expansion of U.S. military spending and
the rearming of West Germany and Italy.
b.
George F. Kennan’s containment theory was formally
and financially incorporated throughout the world.
C. Truman and Liberalism
1.
Emphasizing his roots, Truman expanded some New Deal
programs.
a.
He continued governmental controls over the economy.
b.
Truman also renewed the Fair Practices Employment
Commission (FPEC).
c.
This expanded New Deal, however, never fully developed.
d.
Republicans, conservative Democrats, business leaders, and
other conservatives were determined to prevent it.
2.
Critics warned that Truman’s program involved too much
government.
a.
They believed it threatened to destroy private enterprise.
12
Some critics thought Truman’s program endangered
existing class and social relations.
3.
As prices rose, most workers’ incomes fell.
a.
"Right-to-work" laws banned compulsory union
membership.
b.
In some cases, legal and police protection was provided for
"scabs."
c.
Even Truman squared off against railroad and coal miners’
unions.
d.
Strikes, soaring inflation rates, and divisions within the
Democratic ranks resulted in Republican party victories in
Congress in 1946.
4.
Truman’s position on civil rights was cautious but generally
supportive.
a.
The To Secure These Rights(1947) report stressed racial
inequalities in American society and called upon
government to take steps to correct the imbalance.
D. The 1948 Election
1.
Republicans had high expectations in this election as a result of
1946 congressional victories and Truman’s low approval rating.
a.
They nominated New York governor Thomas E. Dewey.
2.
The Dixiecrats were southern Democrats who were unhappy with
their party but unwilling to support a Republican.
a.
They nominated South Carolina’s governor J. Strom
Thurmond.
b.
The Progressive party nominated liberal and foreign policy
critic Henry A. Wallace.
3.
Confounding pollsters, Truman defeated Dewey.
a.
With Congress again Democratic, Truman launched the
Fair Deal.
b.
He called for increases in Social Security, public housing,
and the minimum wage.
c.
In addition, he proposed the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act
and proposed the institution of a national health
program.
d.
Truman gave civil rights and federal aid to education a
place on the national agenda.
Cold War Politics
A. Congress
1.
Congress responded favorably to well-established New Deal
continuation programs.
a.
It did not, however, support new proposals going beyond
the scope of the New Deal.
2.
The Federal Employee Loyalty Program was established in
March 1947.
b.
III.
13
a.
B.
After a hearing, a federal employee could be fired if
"reasonable grounds" existed for believing he or she was
disloyal.
b.
In almost every case, the rights of the accused were
restricted and he or she had no right to confront accusers or
to refute evidence.
c.
Few of those forced to leave government service were
Communists.
The Second Red Scare
1.
Joseph McCarthy headed the House Un-American Activities
Committee (HUAC).
a.
He announced his intention to root out Communism within
government and society and worked with FBI director J.
Edgar Hoover.
b.
He targeted State Department officials, New Dealers, labor
activists, entertainers, writers, educators, and those with
known liberal philosophies.
c.
McCarthy made his first Cold War splash with his
investigation of Hollywood.
2.
Anti-Communism was in vogue and proved to be a weapon for a
variety of causes.
a.
Alger Hiss was the perfect target for HUAC but he was
found guilty only of perjury and sentenced to five years in
prison.
3.
Communist victory in China and the Soviet explosion of an atomic
bomb only heightened American fears, since some thought only
American traitors could have made these
a.
The outbreak of the Korean War and the reversals at the
hands of the Chinese only increased the senator’s
popularity.
EXAM III HERE
Lecture 26: Quest for Consensus, 1952-1960
I.
The Best of Times
A. Suburban and Consumer Culture
1.
People wanted to live in the suburbs, and all levels of government
made it possible.
a.
The Federal Highway Act of 1956 provided $32 billion
over thirteen years to build a national highway system.
b.
Shopping centers lured stores and businesses away to areas
where parking was not a problem.
c.
As Americans sought the pleasant life in suburbia, the
urban core deteriorated at an accelerating rate.
14
2.
II.
The suburban market was a result of expanding purchasing power
made possible by higher wages and readily expanding credit.
a.
The Diner’s Club credit card made its debut, and American
Express soon followed.
b.
Credit purchases leaped from $8.4 billion in 1946 to over
$44 billion in 1958.
c.
To enjoy the "good life," Americans were buying not only
necessities but luxury items such as record players, records,
and recreational equipment.
d.
Many of these nonessential items, and even some of the
basic goods, incorporated a new dimension of marketing planned obsolescence, in which a product is designed to be
discarded and replaced by a newer model within a short
period of time.
B.
Family Culture
1.
With or without Madison Avenue (Mall) ads, many Americans
were sure that they were living in the best of all possible times.
a.
At the center of those feelings lay the economy, the home,
the family, and the church.
b.
Religion, with an emphasis on family life, enjoyed a new
popularity in the 1950s, reflecting Eisenhower’s view that
"everybody should have a religious faith."
2.
After the disruptions of depression and war, family took on a
renewed importance: the divorce rate slowed and the number of
marriages and births climbed as the baby boom continued.
a.
The home was the center of "togetherness" and was
reinforced by the portrayal of happy families in popular
television shows.
b.
Reality, however, rarely matched television’s images.
C. Another View of Suburbia
1.
Unlike the wives shown on television, more and more women were
working, many even though they had young children.
a.
Some desired careers, but the majority worked to ensure
their families’ existing standard of living.
2.
Not all homemakers were happy, and men also showed signs of
being less than satisfied with the popular role of suburban dad.
Politics of Consensus
A. The Middle Path
1.
Eisenhower called himself a modern Republican and labeled his
approach "dynamic conservatism: conservative when it comes
to money and liberal when it comes to human beings."
2.
By July 1953, Eisenhower’s atomic diplomacy had worked in
ending the Korean conflict and left the Asian nation divided by a
demilitarized zone (DMZ). This allowed the president to cut the
military budget.
15
3.
III.
This "middle path" produced budget cuts and reduced federal
involvement.
4.
Following the launching of the Soviet space satellite Sputnik I
(1957), Eisenhower quoted national security needs to support
spending more federal money on education.
Seeking Civil Rights
A. The BrownDecision
1.
In 1954, the Supreme Court accepted NAACP lawyer
Thurgood Marshall’s argument that "separate but equal" was
inherently unequal in Brown v. Board of Education,Topeka,
Kansas.
a.
He stressed that segregated educational facilities, even if
physically similar, could never yield equal products.
b.
This decision raised a loud cry of protest from white
southerners, who vowed to resist segregation by using all
means possible, including violence.
2.
While both political parties were carefully dancing around civil
rights, blacks made it increasingly difficult for politicians to avoid
the issue.
a.
Eisenhower was forced to face the issue in the effort to
integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
b.
Ike nationalized the Arkansas National Guard and
dispatched one thousand troops to uphold the law and
restore order.
3.
But, in many communities, meaningful integration was still
years away as many white students fled the integrated public
schools to attend private ones that were beyond the reach of
federal courts.
B.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
1.
In 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus so that
a white man could sit and was arrested.
a.
African-American community leaders, including Martin
Luther King, Jr., called for a boycott of the buses to begin
on the day of her court appearance.
2.
The boycott was 90 percent effective and stretched into days,
weeks, and months.
a.
Even in the face of personal attack and growing white
hostility, King remained calm, reminding supporters to
avoid violence and maintain the boycott.
b.
A pattern of nonviolent resistance had been initiated, and a
new civil rights organization, the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, was formed.
C. Ike and Civil Rights
1.
Personally, Eisenhower believed that the government, especially
the executive branch, had little role in integration.
16
2.
D.
The Civil Rights Act of 1957 provided for the formation of a Civil
Rights Commission and opened the possibility of using federal
suits to ensure voter rights.
a.
In 1960, Congress passed a voting rights act that mandated
the use of the courts to guarantee enforcement.
The Soviets and Cold War Politics
1.
Eisenhower feared and opposed the spread of Communist
influence throughout the world but realized that deterrence was
only one tactic to limit Soviet power and avoid nuclear
confrontation.
a.
A second way to improve Soviet-American relations was to
reduce the expanding arms race and limit points of conflict.
2.
After the Soviet takeover of Hungary in 1956, however, the spirit
of cooperation between the two superpowers faded.
3.
On May 1, 1960, an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over
the Soviet Union, and its pilot was captured.
a.
Eisenhower took full responsibility but refused to
apologize.
b.
Khrushchev withdrew from the Five Power Summit and
Eisenhower canceled his trip to the Soviet Union.
4.
In 1960, turning the Republicans’ own tactics of 1952 against
them, Democrats cheerfully accused their opponents of
endangering the United States by being too soft on Communism.
Lecture 27: Great Promises, Bitter Disappointments, 1960-1975
I.
JFK and the New Frontier
A. The New Frontier
1.
At his inauguration, John F. Kennedy spoke in idealistic terms and
avoided any mention of specific programs, but promised to march
against "the common enemies of man, tyranny, poverty, disease,
and war itself."
a.
He asked all Americans to participate, exhorting them to
"ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you
can do for your country."
b.
Despite his call for public involvement, Kennedy believed
that experts would solve most national problems, with little
need of public support.
2.
Kennedy’s staff and cabinet were dubbed the "best and the
brightest."
a.
Recruiting from business and universities, Kennedy
appointed men and women who were called the "best and
the brightest"; they included Rhodes scholars and Harvard
professors.
b.
JFK and his staff wanted to be activists, leading the nation
along new paths of liberalism, but Congress was likely to
17
B.
be an obstacle, so Kennedy decided to focus on legislation
within the "vital center."
Civil Rights and the Kennedy’s
1.
Civil rights advocates were far from satisfied with Kennedy’s
actions in this area, even though he did appoint several blacks to
high office and district courts.
a.
Critics noted that several of JFK’s judicial appointments
went to recognized segregationists and he did not ban
segregation in federal housing until 1962.
2.
Even as Kennedy assumed office, a new wave of black activism
was striking at segregation in the South in the form of sit-ins and
boycotts.
a.
The sit-ins remained largely a student movement supported
by the more established civil rights groups, especially the
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and King’s
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
b.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC) was formed in April 1961 to coordinate the
dramatically increasing number of sit-ins and boycotts.
c.
Sharing the headlines with those "sitting-in" were the
freedom riders, who chose to force integration on southern
bus lines and stations.
d.
As some predicted, violence forced the federal government
to respond, and state and local protection was obtained for
the riders through Alabama.
e.
Finally, in September 1961, the Interstate Commerce
Commission declared that it would uphold the Supreme
Court’s decision prohibiting segregation, and, as a result,
most state and local authorities grudgingly accepted
desegregation.
3.
In 1962, James Meredith integrated the University of Mississippi
with the protection of federal forces and became its first AfricanAmerican graduate.
4.
Martin Luther King, Jr., and the SCLC focused their attention on
overturning segregation in Birmingham, Alabama.
a.
"Letter from a Birmingham Jail" called for immediate
and continuous peaceful civil disobedience, since freedom
was "never given voluntarily by the oppressor."
b.
Events in Birmingham helped Kennedy conclude that the
time had come to fulfill his campaign promise to make civil
rights a priority, and he spoke to the nation in June 1963
about making civil rights an immediate moral issue.
c.
King’s August 28 March on Washington exceeded all
expectations in its attempt to pressure Congress to act on
civil rights legislation, and King enthralled his audience
and the nation with his "I Have a Dream" speech.
18
II.
III.
d.
In the South, however, violence and bigotry continued.
Flexible Response
A. Confronting the Soviets
1.
Flexible response included economic and military strategies.
2.
Despite the "Bay of Pigs" disaster, Kennedy vowed to continue
the "relentless struggle" against Castro and Communism, including
the use of covert and special operations.
3.
The building of the Berlin Wall challenged Western ideals of
freedom but not its presence in West Berlin.
4.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a far more serious threat to U.S.
security.
5.
The Limited Test Ban Treaty forbade signatory nations to
conduct nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in space, and under the
seas.
B.
Vietnam
1.
South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem was losing control of
his nation, and the Viet Cong, the South Vietnamese Communist
rebels, controlled a large portion of both land and people and had
brought Diem’s troops to a standstill.
a.
While military advisers argued that the use of American
troops was necessary to turn the tide, Kennedy was more
cautious.
b.
Protesting Diem’s rule, on June 10, 1963, a Buddhist monk
set himself on fire, and other self-immolations followed.
c.
Diem and his inner circle had become liabilities to the U.S.,
and the Kennedy administration secretly informed several
Vietnamese generals that it would approve a change in
government; the army killed Diem.
C. Death in Dallas
1.
In late 1963, with his civil rights bill and tax cut in limbo in
Congress, a growing military commitment in Vietnam, and a
sluggish economy, Kennedy began to prepare for the 1964
presidential race.
a.
Watching his popularity drop to under 60 percent, JFK
decided to visit Texas in November to try to heal divisions
within the Texas Democratic party.
b.
There he was assassinated on November 22, 1963.
c.
Kennedy’s assassination traumatized the nation, and many
people, in their anguish, soon canonized the fallen
president.
2.
Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president as he flew back to
Washington on the plane carrying Kennedy’s body.
Beyond the New Frontier
A. Conservative Response
19
According to some conservatives, Johnson’s programs were
destroying the traditional American values of localism, self-help,
and individualism.
The 1964 Election
1.
Johnson’s Great Society offered a tempting political target to the
Republicans and Barry Goldwater, the Republican presidential
nominee in 1964.
Shaping the Great Society
1.
Having trounced Goldwater in the 1964 presidential campaign,
Johnson pushed forward legislation to enact his Great Society.
a.
The Great Society yielded over sixty programs, most
seeking to provide better economic and social opportunities
by removing social and economic barriers thrown up by
health, education, region, and race.
2.
Reflecting Johnson’s own desires and responding to AfricanAmerican and liberal desires, early in the new administration
(1965), the president advanced the issue of civil rights.
a.
LBJ signed an executive order that required government
contractors to ensure nondiscrimination in jobs.
b.
The president appointed the first African-American cabinet
member, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Robert Weaver; the first African-American woman
federal justice, Constance Baker Motley; and the first
black on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall.
3.
Hoping to pull the federal government behind their efforts to
expand black political and social rights, civil rights leaders targeted
Alabama and Mississippi.
a.
The result was "the Freedom Summer of 1964," led by
the SNCC’s Bob Moses, in which whites and blacks went
to Mississippi to open "Freedom Schools" and to
encourage African Americans to vote.
b.
The Freedom Schools taught basic literacy and black
history and stressed black pride and achievements.
c.
Civil rights violence in Mississippi occurred almost daily
from June through August of 1964, but the crusade
registered nearly 60,000 new voters.
4.
Although the 1964 Civil Rights Act had made discrimination
illegal, clearly it was still practiced throughout much of the South,
and civil rights leaders were just as clearly determined to eliminate
it.
a.
As expected, Sheriff Jim Clark confronted protesters and
arrested nearly two thousand of them before King called for
a freedom march from Selma to Montgomery to increase
the pressure.
1.
B.
C.
20
b.
D.
Television coverage of the onslaught of local authorities
stirred nationwide condemnation of Clark’s tactics and
support for King and the marchers.
5.
Johnson also used the violence in Selma to pressure Congress to
pass the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which banned a variety of
methods states used to deny blacks the right to vote, including
Mississippi’s literacy test.
6.
At the top of Johnson’s priorities were health and education, and
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965) was the
first general educational funding act by the federal government.
7.
Johnson’s Medical Care Act (1965) established Medicare, which
helped the elderly cover their medical costs, and Medicaid, which
provided funds to states to provide free health care for those on
welfare.
8.
Despite the flood of legislation, by the end of 1965, many Great
Society programs were underfunded and diminishing in popularity.
a.
An expanding war in Vietnam, white backlash to urban
riots, and partisan politics were forcing reductions in the
budget of the War on Poverty.
New Voices
1.
The Watts Riot
a.
What started as a simple arrest soon mushroomed into a
major riot as a crowd of onlookers gathered and scuffling
began.
b.
When firemen and police arrived to restore order and put
out the flames, they had to dodge snipers’ bullets and
Molotov cocktails.
c.
The Watts riot shattered the complacency of many northern
whites who had supported civil rights in the South while
ignoring the plight of the inner cities, and it demonstrated a
gap between the attitudes of northern blacks and many civil
rights leaders.
2.
More deadly urban riots followed, and a new, militant approach to
racial and economic injustices erupted: the Black Power
movement.
a.
New voices called on blacks to seek power through
solidarity, independence, and if necessary violence, since
blacks needed to use the same means as whites.
Stokely Carmichael "I am not going to beg the white man for anything I deserve.
I'm going to take it."
b.
" Among those more receptive to the militant approach
were the Black Muslims, including Malcolm X, who
proclaimed the ideals of black nationalism and separation
and rejected integration with white society.
21
c.
IV.
As the 1968 presidential campaign began, law and order
replaced the Great Society as the main issue.
E.
The Challenge of Youth
1.
Nearly as alarming to many Americans were the changes
taking place among the nation’s youth.
a.
Although the majority of young adults maintained the
typical quest for a traditional American life.
b.
Campus activists denounced course requirements and
restrictions on dress, behavior, and living arrangements.
c.
The counterculture had a lasting impact on American
society - on dress, sexual attitudes, music, and even
personal values - but it did not reshape America in its
image.
Expanding the American Dream
A. The Women’s Rights Movement
1.
As the 1960s began, more women were entering the work force,
having fewer children, and getting divorced.
a.
Compared to white men, women worked for less pay, were
more likely to be fired or laid off, and had little success in
reaching top career positions.
b.
Throughout the country divorce, credit, and property laws
generally favored men.
c.
Betty Friedan concluded in her 1963 book, The Feminine
Mystique,that the chores of the housewife amounted to a
form of servitude that prevented women from achieving
their full potential.
d.
Feminists successfully worked to ensure that Title VII of
the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination on the
basis of sex as well as race, religion, creed, and national
origin.
2.
The most prominent women’s organization to emerge was the
National Organization for Women (NOW), which launched an
aggressive campaign to draw attention to sex discrimination and to
redress wrongs.
a.
NOW also demanded an Equal Rights Amendment to
ensure gender equality and pushed for easier access to
birth control devices and the right to abortions.
B.
The Emergence of Chicano Power
1.
Beginning in the 1960s, Mexican Americans, who were near
society’s lowest levels of income and education, also organized to
assert their social and political rights.
a.
Across South Texas, Mexican Americans banded together
to form El Partido Raza Unida to spread the political
"revolution" throughout Texas. Under José Angel
Gutierrez. Professor of political Science UT Arlington.
22
b.
2.
I.
The Mexican-American movement was a local one, born of
poverty and oppressive segregation; reflective of this
grassroots character was the important role that youths
played in the movement.
Before and during the 1960s, nearly one-third of all Mexican
Americans worked at stoop labor in the fields and were not
covered under minimum wage or labor laws.
a.
Finally, in 1962, Cesar Chavez created the National
Farm Workers Association (NFWA) to seek higher
wages, better working and living conditions, and dignity for
migrant workers.
b.
When Chavez called for a strike against the grape growers
of central California, it lasted five years until most of the
major growers accepted unionization and improved
wages and working conditions.
c.
But, even today, the majority of Mexican Americans
have not achieved social or economic equality in the
United States.
Nixon and the Balance of Power
A. Vietnamization
1.
While the Soviets were an important agenda item in foreign affairs,
Nixon and his adviser Henry Kissinger also knew that Vietnam
was the most immediate problem.
a.
It dominated and shaped nearly all other issues: the budget,
public and congressional opinion, foreign policy, and
domestic stability.
b.
Nixon’s solution was Vietnamization, reducing the total
American role while enhancing South Vietnam’s military
capability; it began in the spring of 1969.
2.
Adding to the public disillusionment about Vietnam was the
publication of the Pentagon Papers, a collection of official
documents gathered by former Defense Department researcher
Daniel Ellsberg that showed that government officials had
deceived the American public about conditions in Vietnam from
the 1950s.
3.
In 1970, Nixon ordered American troops to cross the border into
Cambodia and destroy North Vietnamese and Viet Cong
headquarters and supply areas.
a.
The Cambodian invasion generated loud protests across the
United States, especially on college campuses, including
Kent State, where four protesters were killed and eleven
were wounded.
b.
Outraged students responded to these killings as well as
those at Jackson State University by shutting down over
23
II.
one hundred campuses as thousands of antiwar
demonstrators marched through Washington.
c.
However, as Nixon had predicted, with American soldiers
returning home, opposition to the war shrank and more
Americans supported the administration’s quest for an
honorable peace.
4.
The cease-fire established in 1973 soon collapsed, and Congress
cut aid to South Vietnam.
a.
Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, fell to the Viet Cong
in March 1975, and the war ended as it had begun - with
Vietnamese fighting Vietnamese.
B.
Modifying the Cold War
1.
As part of his push for an "era of negotiation," Nixon pursued
détente, a policy that reduced tensions with the two Communist
superpowers.
a.
China was the key to this strategy since Nixon hoped - and
correctly so - that American friendship with the Chinese
would encourage the Soviets to improve their relations with
the United States
b.
Soviet leader Brezhnev increased trade with the West, and
the superpowers announced a Strategic Arms Limitation
Agreement (SALT I) that restricted antimissile sites and
established a maximum number of ICBMs and SCLBMs.
Nixon and Politics
A. Pragmatic Conservatism
1.
Nixon believed that Republicans needed to emphasize
conservatism that did not automatically reject social responsibility
and executive activism.
2.
Nixon’s battle with inflation during his administration was a losing
one, in part because of economic events over which he had no
control.
B.
Law and Order and Southern Politics
1.
As a part of the ongoing "southern strategy" to garner the region’s
votes, the administration opposed busing to achieve school
integration, worked to slow down integration in other areas, and
sought to put a southerner on the Supreme Court.
C. An Embattled President
1.
Nixon was convinced he was surrounded by enemies and used the
FBI, the IRS, and other government organizations to intimidate
and punish his opposition.
a.
Seeking inside information on the opposition, the
Committee to Reelect the President (CREEP) approved
sending burglars into the Democratic National
Headquarters office in the Watergate building to copy
documents and tap phones.
24
b.
c.
d.
A security guard notified police, but the Watergate break-in
had little apparent effect on the public or the 1972 election.
The cover-up of these activities, however, proved to be
Nixon’s undoing and led to calls for his impeachment or
resignation.
Nixon resigned the nation’s highest political office on
August 9, 1974
25