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Chapter 36
The Cold War Begins, 1945–1952
CHAPTER THEMES
Theme: America emerged from World War II as the world’s strongest economic power, and commenced a postwar
economic boom that lasted for two decades. A bulging population migrated to the suburbs and Sunbelt, leaving the cities
increasingly to minorities and the poor.
Theme: The end of World War II left the United States and the Soviet Union as the two dominant world powers, and they
soon became locked in a Cold War confrontation. The Cold War spread from Europe to become a global ideological
conflict between democracy and communism. Among its effects were a nasty hot war in Korea and a domestic crusade
against “disloyalty.”
CHAPTER SUMMARY
In the immediate postwar years there were widespread fears of a return to depression. But fueled by cheap energy,
increased worker productivity, and government programs like the GI Bill of Rights, the economy began a spectacular
expansion that lasted from 1950 to 1970. This burst of affluence transformed American industry and society, and
particularly drew more women into the workforce.
Footloose Americans migrated to the Sunbelts of the South and West, and to the growing suburbs, leaving the
northeastern cities with poorer populations. Families grew rapidly, as the “baby boom” created a population bulge that
would last for decades.
The Yalta agreement near the end of World War II left major issues undecided and created controversy over postwar
relations with the Soviet Union. With feisty Truman in the White House, the two new superpowers soon found themselves
at odds over Eastern Europe, Germany, and the Middle East.
The Truman Doctrine announced military aid and an ideological crusade against international communism. The Marshall
Plan provided economic assistance to starving and communist-threatened Europe, which soon joined the United States in
the NATO military alliance.
The Cold War and revelations of spying aroused deep fears of communist subversion at home that culminated in
McCarthy’s witch-hunting. Fear of communist advances abroad and social change at home generated national and local
assaults on many people perceived to be “different.” Issues of the Cold War and civil rights fractured the Democratic
Party three ways in 1948, but a gutsy Truman campaign overcame the divisions to win a triumphant underdog victory.
The Communist Chinese won a civil war against the Nationalists. North Korea invaded South Korea, and the Americans
and Chinese joined in fighting the seesaw war to a bloody stalemate. MacArthur’s insubordination and threats to expand
the war to China led Truman to fire him.
1. Taft-Hartley Act
2. Employment Act
3. Servicemen’s
Readjustment Act of 1944
4. GI Bill of Rights
5. R and D
6. Productivity
7. Dr. Benjamin Spock’s
8. Sunbelt
9. FHA & VA Loans
10. Levittown”
11. White flight
12. baby boom
13. secondary boom
14. Suburbanization
15. feminists
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
Yalta
United Nations
Superpowers
Bretton Woods
IMF
World Bank
Security Council
The Assembly
Nuremburg
Occupation zones
Iron Curtain
Berlin Airlift
containment doctrine
George F. Kennan
Greece & Turkey
Reinhold Niebuhr
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
Truman Doctrine
British mandate
Israel
National Security Act
Department of Defense
National Security Council
Central Intelligence
Agency
Voice of America
Selective Service System
NAOT
Douglas MacArthur
Jiand Jieshi
Mao Zedong
H-bomb
J. Robert Oppenheimer
47.
48.
49.
50.
Albert Einstein
Loyalty Review Board
Smith Act of 1940
Committee on UnAmerican Activities
51. Alger Hiss
52. Senator Joseph McCarthy
53. Julius and Ethel
Rosenberg
54. Thomas E. Dewey
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
Dixiecrats
Fair Deal
Korean War
NSC 68
limited war
Chapter 36 Study Guide
Postwar Economic Anxieties
Describe the downs and ups of the economy in the years following WWII.
Assess the results of the GI Bill
The Long Economic Boom, 1950-1970
How did women benefit from the economic boom?
Evaluate the results of the postwar economic boom
The Roots of Postwar Prosperity
Analyze the reasons for the postwar economic book?
What evidence can you cite that shows the years 1950-1970 were good years economically?
The Smiling Sunbelt
How did the population shift in the years after the war?
The Rush to the Suburbs
Was the shift to the suburbs good for America? Explain.
The Postwar Baby Boom
How did the bulge in population caused by the Baby Boom change American life over the decades?
Makers of America: The Suburbanites
How did suburbs revolutionize life in America?
Truman: the "Gutty" Man from Missouri
What kind of a man was Harry S Truman?
Yalta: Bargain or Betrayal?
Why was the Yalta conference controversial in the decade following it?
The United States and the Soviet Union
How did similarities and differences both cause the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. to have difficulties dealing with each other?
Shaping the Postwar World
For what problems were international organizations established after WWII?
The Problem of Germany
What problems did Germany cause between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.?
A Cold War Congeals
Describe the policies followed by Truman in relation to the Soviets.
America Begins to Rearm
List and define the organizations set up to deal with the Soviet Union.
Reconstruction and Revolution in Asia
Our WWII ally China gave us more trouble in the post war years than our enemy Japan. Explain.
Ferreting Out Alleged Communists
Did the U.S. government go too far trying to prevent communist infiltration?
Democratic Divisions in 1948
How successful was Truman in passing his domestic program?
The Korean Volcano Erupts (1950)
What was the impact of the Korean War on the Cold War?
The Military Seesaw in Korea
Why did Truman fire MacArthur?
Varying Viewpoints: Who Was to Blame for the Cold War?
What is the current opinion of most historians on the above question?
EXPANDING THE “VARYING VIEWPOINTS”

Walter LaFeber, America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945–1984 (1985).
A view of the United States as primarily responsible for the Cold War:
“Having failed to budge the Russians in face-to-face negotiations, even when backed by atomic bombs, the State
Department next tried to buckle Stalin’s iron fence with economic pressures.…More important, it made American
officials ponder the awful possibility that Stalin’s ambitions included not only strategic positions in Eastern Europe,
but the imposition of Communist regimes upon Asia and the Middle East. Stating the Soviet dictator’s alternatives in
this way no doubt badly distorts his true policies.…Stalin’s thrusts after 1944 were rooted more in the Soviets’
desire to secure certain specific strategic bases, raw materials, and above all, to break up what Stalin considered to
be the growing Western encirclement of Russia.…However, American officials saw little reason to worry about such
distinctions.”

John Lewis Gaddis, The United States and the Origins of the Cold War (1972).
A view of the Cold War as caused primarily by Soviet aggression:
“If one must assign responsibility for the Cold War, the most meaningful way to proceed is to ask which side had the
greater opportunity to accommodate itself, at least in part, to the other’s position, given the range of alternatives as
they appeared at the time. Revisionists have argued that American policy-makers possessed greater freedom of
action, but their view ignores the constraints imposed by domestic policies.…The Russian dictator was immune
from pressures of Congress, public opinion, or the press.…This is not to say that Stalin wanted a Cold War.…But
his absolute powers did give him more chances to surmount the internal restraints on his policy than were available
to his democratic counterparts in the West.”
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE “VARYING VIEWPOINTS”
How does each of these historians see American and Soviet motives in the Cold War?
On what basis does each assign primary responsibility for initiating Cold War conflicts?
How would each of these historians likely interpret the confrontation over Greece and the Truman Doctrine?
Analysis Questions
“I may as well let the cat out of the bag as far as my opinion goes and say that strictness or permissiveness is not the real
issue. Good-hearted parents who aren’t afraid to be firm when necessary can get good results with either strictness or
moderate permissiveness.” Benjamin Spock (1903–1998) (Baby and Child Care, 1946)
“The Republicans work for the benefit of the few bloodsuckers who have offices in Wall Street. This is a crusade of the
people against the special interests, a crusade to keep the country from going to the dogs. You back me up and we’ll win
that crusade.” Harry S Truman (1884–1972) (Campaign speech, 1948)
“There is nothing—I repeat nothing—in the history of the Soviet regime which could justify us in assuming that the men
who are now in power in Russia, or even those who have chances of assuming power within the foreseeable future, would
hesitate for a moment to apply this power against us if by so doing they thought it would materially improve their power
position in the world.” George Kennan (1904– ) (Telegram to Washington, 1945)
“I do not know about the accommodations at the White House for the family.…There is of course no rush about it.”
Thomas Dewey (1902–1971) (Letter, fall 1948)
1.
Which development caused the greatest change in American society in the immediate postwar years: increased
affluence, the migration to the suburbs, the entry of women into the workforce, or the “baby boom”?
2.
Was the primary threat from the Soviet Union military or ideological—that is, was the danger that the Soviet army
would invade Western Europe or that more and more people in Europe and elsewhere would be attracted to
communist ideas?
3.
Were there any legitimate concerns behind the “red-hunting” anticommunism of the late 1940s and early 1950s?
How were McCarthy and others able to turn the search for spies and subversives into an assault on freethinkers,
adulterers, homosexuals, and others deemed “different” in some way?
4.
Was Truman right to fire MacArthur when and how he did? What would have happened if MacArthur had gotten his
way and expanded the conflict with the Chinese?
5. Discuss the changing attitudes of historians towards the origins of the Cold War. (72)
6. Between 1776 and 1823 a young and weak United States achieved considerable success in foreign policy when
confronted with the two principal European powers, Great Britain and France. Between 1914 and 1950, however, a far
more powerful United States was less successful in achieving its foreign policy objectives in Europe. Discuss by
comparing United States foreign policy in Europe during the period 1776 to 1823, with United States policy in Europe
during ONE of the following periods:
1914 – 1932 OR 1933 -1950. (77)
7. Harry S. Truman was a realistic, pragmatic President who skillfully led the American people against the menace
posed by the Soviet Union. Assess the validity of this generalization for President Truman’s foreign policy. (84)
8. The size, character, and effectiveness of the organized labor movement changed significantly during the late
nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. Apply this statement to TWO of the periods:
1870 -1915
1915 - 1935 1935 - 1950 (85)
9. Compare and contrast United States foreign policy after the First World War and after The Second World War.
Consider the periods 1919 –1928 and 1945 –1950. (02)
10. Presidential elections between 1928 and 1948 revealed major shifts in political party loyalties. Analyze both the
reason for these changes and their consequences during this period.
(08)
HISTORIC NOTES

At the end of WWII, the US economy suffers from a variety of maladies, but once the economy rebounds, the nation
experiences an economic boom that will last until the early 1970s.

A major housing shortage is eased as suburban communities are developed. The fastest growing region in the
Sunbelt, stretching from FL to CA. Drawn by jobs, a temporal climate, and lower taxes, many Americans relocate
from the industrial Northeast.

Tensions between the US and the USSR intensify after the war as the former allies now eye each other with growing
(and dangerous) mistrust, which turns into the Cold War.

The Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine are put into place to contain communism in Eastern Europe.

When the USSR tests their first nuclear weapon in 1949, the US loses it atomic monopoly. The Cold War spreads to
China, Korea, and other areas of Asia.

Believing that the communist sympathizers are imbedded in American public and private institutions, HUAC
launches an investigation designed to find them.

Historians debate the causes and responsibility for starting the Cold War. Some claim that hostility and tension were
prevalent even before WWII was over.

Historians also debate the use of Atomic Weapons in Japan. Some contend that Truman’s decision in the long run
saved both American and Japanese lives. Critics contend that dropping the bombs was the first act of the Cold War,
one designed to intimidate the USSR, and that given Japan’s willingness to surrender, using the bombs was not
necessary.

In 1948 the USSR blocked access roads into West Berlin in an effort to absorb it into communist East Berlin and
therefore the Soviet sphere of influence. President Truman thwarted the move by ordering that supplies be airlifted
to the city. The Berlin airlift lasted for a year.

Suburban development meant that middle and lower middle class Americans could have the American Dream of
owning a home removed from the congestion and problems associated with urban life. Critics complained that
suburban communities were off limits to blacks, bred conformity, and exacted a high ecological toll in the form of
lost farms and developed land.
Advanced Placement United States History Topic Outline
23. The United States and the Early Cold War
A. Origins of the Cold War
B. Truman and containment
C. The Cold War in Asia: China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan
D. Diplomatic strategies and policies of the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations
E. The Red Scare and McCarthyism
F. Impact of the Cold War on American society
25. The Turbulent 1960s
A. From the New Frontier to the Great Society
B. Expanding movements for civil rights
C. Cold War confrontations: Asia, Latin America, and Europe
D. Beginning of Détente
E. The antiwar movement and the counterculture