Chapter 36: The Cold War Begins (1945-1952)

 

Postwar Economic Anxieties (Aaron)

 

• After the War the Real National Product lowered by 33%

 

• The Taft Hartley Act was condemned by labor leaders

 

• Gov't. tried to slow the economic downturn by selling war factories and other government installments to private businesses at fire-sale prices

 

• Employment Act - promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power.

 

• Gi Bill of Rights- sent the GI back to school and paid for it.

 

• GI Bill of Rights also enabled the Veteran Administration. Which gave veterans money for loans, help buy homes, farms, and small businesses

 

• The GI Bill nurtured the long-lived economic expansion and shaped the post-war era.

 

 

 

 

 

The Long Economic Boom, 1950-1970 (Carlson)

 

 

•  paved way for Civil rights movement
• funded new welfare programs
• female employment on the rise

 

 

 

 

The Roots of Postwar Prosperity (Carlson)

 

• Korean War
• high technology-aerospace, plastic, electronics
• cheap energy
• productivity increased immensly
• education was on the rise
• family farms were disappearing, but big farms were increasing

 

 

 

 

 

The Smiling Sunbelt(Brittan)

• average of 30 million people changed residences every year
• popular child rearing book by Dr. Benjamin Spock called The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care published in 1945 instructing parents
• "Sunbelt" a fifteen state area stretching in a crescent from Virginia trhough Florida and Texas to Arizona and California
• Sunbelt increased at double the rate of old industrial zones or the Northeast or "Frostbelt"
• in the 1950's California accounted for 1/5th of entire nation's population growth
• One out of Americans lived in California

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Rush to the Suburbs (Laura)

 

• Federal Housing Administration and VA gave loans to build homes

 

• new highway system allowed people to work in the suburbs and drive to jobs in town

 

• In 1960 1/4th Americans lived in suburbs

 

• "Levittown" in Long Island began the new trend of mass producing suburban homes

 

• the "white flight" left the inner cities full of poverty because taxpaying businesses followed customers to the suburbs

 

• gov. policies often refused blacks mortgages driving many into public housing projects

 

 

 

The Postwar Baby Boom  (Hill)

the huge leap in the birthrate in the decade and a half after 1945 is called the "baby boom"

 

• added more than 50 million babies to the population in the 1950s
• A lot more elementary school enrollments
• huge marketing for baby products in 1940s and 50s
• huge marketing for teens in the 60s
• more competition on for social mobility
• strains social security now!

 

 Truman: The “Gutty” Man from Missouri  (Dan)

• Truman fell into the role as President when FDR died while vacationing in Warm Springs, GA.
• Truman was one of few Presidents without a college education. He farmed and served in the armed forces
• He had political experience as he rose to the U.S. Senate.
• He is known for the famous sign on his desk that read, "The buck stops here."

 

 

 

Yalta: Bargain or Betrayal? (Dan)

•  The Yalta Conference can be described as a meeting between the "Big Three" (Stalin, FDR and Churchill) in Feb. 1945.
• They came up with plans to smash the remaining German lines and assigning occupation zones in Germany.
• Stalin agreed that Poland should be representitive gov't based on free elections. He later broke this agreement.
• The Big Three agreed to set up a organization to keep world wide peace-- the U.N. (United Nations).

 

 

 The United States and the Soviet Union(Jordan)

• Soviets needed money for reconstruction.
• The two superpowers had to different ideas Stalin wanted to windsweap all of Eastern Europe and the U.S. wanted a free Europe.
• The two powers also resembled each other through the way they did diplomacy.

 

 

 

Shaping the Postwar World (Bryce)

 

 -1944 Western Allies met at Bretton Woods and established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to encourage world trade by regulation currency exchage rates.

-Founded International Bank for Reconstruction and Development(World Bank)  to help economic growth in war-ravaged and undeveloped areas.

April 25, 1945 United Nationas Conference was held and made the United Nations charter. It included the Security Council, which was led by the Big Five powers of U.S., Britain, S.U., France, and China.

- The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Food and Ag. Organization, World Health Organization, and United Nations benefitted people around the world.

-1946 Bernard Baruch wanted to get rid of atomic weapons, but Truman didn't want to unitl he knew that every country did. So arms race escalated.

 

 

 

 

The Problem of Germany (Bryce)

 From 1945-1946 Nazi leaders tried and punished for war crimes at Nuremberg, Germany.

-End of war Austria and Germany was split into 4 military occupation zones each given to either France, Britain, U.S., and S.U.

-West Germany became indpendent country and East Germany became the bound to S.U. as an independent state that was cut off from the Western world by the Soviets.

-1948 S.U. tried to take over Berlin by cuuting off all railroads and highways to the city. In retaliation during May 1949, U.S. flew supplies to people in Berlin. S.U. lifted the blockade.

-1949 East and West Germany each set up their own gov't.

 

 

 

The Cold War Congeals (Brittany)

 

• Truman's responses to various Soviet challenges took on intellectual coherence in 1947, with the formation of the "containment doctrine."
• Truman went before congress on March 12, 1947, and requested support for Greece and Turkey
• This became known as the Truman Doctrine
•  Truman declared that "it must be a policy of the U.S. to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures"
• Truman found a supporter in Reinhold Neibuhr, an influential liberal Protestant clergyman.
• The democratic nations of Europe rose to create the Marshall Plan
• The Marshall Plan called for spending $12.5 billion over four years in 16 cooperating countries to keep out communists

 

 

 

 

America Begins to Rearm(brittan)

• Soviet menace contributed to unification of armed services
• Congress passed the National Security Act in 1947 creating the Department of Defense
•  Department of Defense housed in the Pentagon
• Secretary of Navy, Army, and Air Force
• National security Act also created the National Security Council (NSC) to advise the president on security matters 
• Created the Central Intelligence Agency to coordinate the government's foreign fact-gathering
• Millitary draft returned for 19 to 25 year old men
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO on April 4, 1949 saying that an atack on one was an attack on all 

 

 

 

 

Reconstruction and Revolution in Asia(Hill)

• MacArthur in charge of reconstruction in Japan
• set up democratic govt
• McArthur constitution called for renounced militarism, provided for women's equality, and introduced democratic govt
• Japan reconstruction success! China is opposite(nationalists vs. communists)
• Nationalism collapsed because of communist armies (blamed on Truman)
• U.S. vs. Soviets for nuclear weapons
• H-bomb developed by Oppenheimer (1,000x A-bomb)
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Ferreting Out Alleged Communists (Chad)

• In 1947, President Truman launched the Loyalty Review Board to investigate the possibility of communist spies in the government.

• In 1949, 11 communists were sent to prison for violating the Smith Act of 1940 in advocating the overthrow of the American government.  The ruling was upheld in Dennis v. United States (1951).

• In 1938, the House of Representatives established the Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) to investigate "subversion."  In 1948, Congressman Richard M. Nixon led the hunt for and eventual conviction of Alger Hiss, a prominent ex-New Dealer and a distinguished member of the "eastern establishment."  Americans began to join in on the hunt for communist spies of who were thought to riddle America.

• In 1950, Truman vetoed the McCarran Internal Security Bill, which authorized the president to arrest and detain suspicious people during an "internal security emergency."  Congress overrode Truman's veto and passed the bill.

• In 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted and sentenced to death for stealing American atomic bomb plans and selling them to the Soviet Union.  They were the only people in history to be sentenced to death for espionage.

 

 

 

 Democratic Divisions in 1948(Jordan)

 

 

• Truman ran for reelection.  Former Vice President Wallace decided to run.  The Republicans nominated Thomas Dewey.  The Dixiecrats nominated Governor Thurmond of South Carolina.
• Truman won with 303 electoral votes and Dewey recieved 189 elecetoral votes.  Thurmond recieved 39 electoral votes.
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The Korean Volcano Erupts (1950) (Chad)

• When Japan collapsed in 1945, Korea was divided up into two sections:  the Soviets controlled north of the 38^th parallel and the United States controlled south.

• On June 25, 1950, the North Korean army invaded South Korea.  President Truman's National Security Council called for the quadrupling of the United States' defense spending.  Truman ordered a massive military buildup that was a lot more than what was needed for the Korean war.

• On June 25, 1950, President Truman obtained a unanimous decision of North Korea from the United Nations Security Council as an aggressor.  (The Soviet Union was not present at the meeting.)  Without Congress's approval, Truman ordered air and naval units to be sent to support South Korea.

 

The Military Seesaw in Korea(Brittan)

•  MacArthur launched plan landing behind enemy lines at Inchon
• September 15,1950 succeeded in North Korea
• South Koreans crossed the 38th parallel
• November 1950 tens of thousands of Chinese came down into North Korea
• Truman had to remove MacArthur from command on April 11, 1951
• Truman was condemned as a "pig" and "imbecile"