AP United States History
Mr. M. Pecot
Bailey, Chapter 39: The Cold War Begins, 1945-1951
I. Post-War Anxieties and the Road to Prosperity
a) Post-war economic slowdown
1. 1946-47 GNP drops
2. Inflation up 33%
3. Labor troubles
§ strikes in major industries (involve 4.6 million workers in 1946 alone)
§ Taft-Hartley Act 1947
- outlaws closed shops
- required union leaders to take non-communist oaths
§ CIO's "Operation Dixie" fails to unionize southern industries (e.g, textile, tobacco)
b) Gov't efforts to forestall another recession
1. Employment Act (1946)
§ states that it is the governments job to encourage employment, assist purchasing power
2. Serviceman's Readjustment Act (1944) -- a.k.a. The GI Bill, or the GI Bill of Rights
§ prompted by fear that economy would be unable to absorb 15 million returning soldiers
§ allows for federal gov't to pay cost of education
- 6 million vets go to technical or vocational school
- 2 million go to colleges and universities
- $14.5 billion paid
§ Veterans Administration to guarantee home, farm, and small biz loans
§ The GI Bill raises educational levels and fuels construction of new homes, major factors which fueled the general prosperity of 1950-1970
II. American Prosperity, 1950-1970
a) The shape of American prosperity
1. Rising national income
§ National income nearly doubles in 1950s,and again in the 1960s
§ The US has 6% of the world's population, but 40% of the world's wealth
2. Growing middle class
§ 60% of Americans are "middle class" by 1950
§ 90% of Ams own TVs
§ 60% own homes (most of these are new construction, built in growing suburbs)
§ most Americans own cars, washing machines
3. Women in the Workforce
§ service sector outpaces growth in industry and manufacturing
§ 1/4 of workforce at end of WWII are women; by 1990s = 1/2
§ despite more women working, popular culture still glorifies traditional roles of woman as mother and housewife
b) Reasons for American prosperity
1. WWII
§ America physically untouched by ravages of war; emerges as the world power
2. Military expenditures
§ "permanent war economy" brought on by the Cold War, Korea, and Vietnam
- Defense spending will = 10% of the GNP by 1960
- "NSC-68", R and D
- military-industrial complex (e.g., Rand Corporation, Boeing)
3. Cheap Energy
§ US and European allies dominate int'l oil biz, keep prices low
§ promise of cheap fuel prompts highway construction, development of electric grids, increased productive capacity, air-conditioning in homes, businesses
4. Productivity Increases
§ in 1950s, workers produce 2x as much per hour
- a result of better educational levels
- in farming, increased mechanization means more grown on less land: 1 farmer produces food for 50 people by 1990 (up from 1:15 in 1940)
c) Social effects of American prosperity
1. Increased mobility
§ 1945-1975: 30 million Americans change residences each year
§ Families divided by distance are more common
- Dr. Benjamin Spock's The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1945) illustrates new emphasis on childrearing, but also the reality that grandmothers, aunts, and other extended family members aren't necessarily there to assist
2. Growth of the Sunbelt
§ 15 states in the South and West grow at 2x the rate of industrial zones of northeast
- jobs, climate, low taxes
- California - electronics; Fl - aerospace
§ California accounts of 1/5 of the entire nations population growth in the 1950s; will replace NY as the most populous state in 1963
§ results in the lessening of the Northern grip on American political life
- every elected President since 1964 has been from the Sunbelt
3. Suburbanization
§ a factor of rising middle class & the baby boom
§ FHA and VA loans
§ by 1960, 1 in 4 Americans live in suburbia
- construction boom/"tract developments"
- "Levittown, N.J." - standardized plans, mass construction
§ contributes to "white flight" from central city
- tax dollars and business follow middle class whites to the suburbs
- downtown shops give way to suburban shopping malls
- leaves downtown areas depressed and segregated
4. Baby Boom
§ 1945-1955: record marriages
§ 50 million babies born by end of 1950s; crests in 1957 (followed by a "birth dearth")
§ massive effects
- swell effect in business and education
- schools in 1960s-70s packed, more teachers hired, buildings constructed -- but close in the 1980s
III. Truman and the Cold War
a) Truman
1. Character
§ the average man's average man
§ not college educated
§ seen as a bit overwhelmed, but possesses down-home authenticity, few pretensions, rock-solid integrity, and moxie.
- "Give 'em Hell, Harry…"; "the buck stops here."
b) US-Soviet Relations
1. Yalta Conference, Feb. 1945
§ Big Three -- FDR, Churchill and Stalin
§ Conference at Black Sea resort to finalize plans for defeating Germany
§ Agreements
- Stalin agrees to free elections in Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania (he later reneges on this)
- Agree to meet again at San Fransisco to establish the UN
- Calls for Germany's unconditional surrender and division of Germany into 4 occupation zones
- USSR will enter the war v. Japan three weeks after Germany is defeated in return for
- southern half of Sakhalin Island, Kurile Islands, joint control over Manchuria's railroads, and the ports of Darien and Port Arthur
- US needs the USSR to enter v. Japan in order to minimize American losses in a land invasion -- the A-bomb has not yet been tested
2. Souring Relations with the Soviets
§ Communism v. Capitalism
- intrinsically hostile to each other
- both believe in "universal applicability" of their doctrines
§ Soviet "sore spots"
- US failure to recognize USSR's government until 1933
- Soviet losses to Nazis while US and Britain dragged their feet on opening a second front in the west
- USSR excluded from Manhattan Project
- abrupt termination of Lend-Lease to USSR in 1945
- rejection of Soviet request of a $6 billion Reconstruction loan (the US approves a similar loan to Britain)
§ Differing visions of the post-war Europe
- Stalin: wants Soviet "spheres of influence" -- friendly governments on western border to protect the USSR
- FDR/Churchill - want a democratized, demilitarized, decolonized "open system"
IV. Shaping the Post-War World
a) Internationalist efforts
1. Bretton Woods Agreement (1944)
§ meeting at Bretton Woods, NH
§ establishes the Int'l Monetary Fund (IMF) - encourage world trade via regulated currency exchange rates
§ establishes the World Bank to promote economic growth in war ravages and underdeveloped countries
2. UN Conference, April 1945
§ meeting in San Francisco
§ reps from 50 nations, draft charter resembling the League of Nations
- Security Council: Big 5 (US, Britain, USSR, France, China) with veto power
- Assembly
§ UN Charter easily ratified by the US Senate
§ WHO, UNESCO, and other programs grant relief
3. Baruch Plan 1946
§ Bernard Baruch, US Delegate to the UN
§ calls for establishment of a UN agency to inspect nuclear facilities to prevent the manufacture of new atomic weapons
§ rejected by the Soviets
4. Other international efforts (see V. Foreign Policy Under Truman)
§ Marshall Plan, 1947
§ NATO, 1949
b) Germany
1. Nuremburg Trials 1945-1946
§ "war crimes" trials of 22 top German officials
§ 12 executed (+ 1 suicide -- Hermann Goering); 7 jailed
2. Division of Germany
§ 4 occupation zones (Fr., Brit., US, USSR) in Germany; Berlin likewise divided into 4 zones
§ Allies talk of reunification; USSR wants to exact reparations in its zone…tightens grip
- Berlin Airlift 1948
- Berlin lies deep in the Soviet sector
- USSR shuts down access to Berlin in protest of Allied creation of a unified West Germany
- 321 day standoff -- US airlifts supplies to the Allied sectors 272,000 flights into West Berlin
- USSR lifts blockade in May 1949
§ Germany divided in W/E
- East Germany is a Soviet "satellite state"
c) Japan
1. Democratized under Gen. Douglass MacArthur
2. Trials of Japanese war criminals (much like Nuremburg)
V. Foreign Policy under Truman
a) "Getting tough with Russia"
1. "Containment Policy"
§ espoused by George F. Kennan
§ calls for a "firm and vigilant containment" policy to halt Soviet expansionism
2. Truman Doctrine, March 1947
§ "it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures"
§ put into effect when $400 million in aid is granted to bolster Greece and Turkey against communist pressures
§ critics note the divisive nature of the TD -- divides the world into pro-American/pro-Soviet camps
§ supporters argue that Truman had to play up the Soviet threat to offset isolationist tendencies at home
b) Uniting Western Europe against Communism
1. Marshall Plan, 1947
§ Promoted by Sec. State George C. Marshall
§ Calls for Europe to develop a joint plan for recovery, to be heavily financed by the US government
- Paris 1947 - nations convene (USSR leaves conference)
- $12.5 billion granted to 16 nations
§ Prosperity is a bolster against communism
2. Voice of America, 1948
§ radio broadcasts sent "behind the Iron Curtain"
3. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), 1949
§ mutual defense treaty
c) Military preparedness
1. National Security Act, 1947
§ establishes the Department of Defense
- Sec. of Defense (cabinet) advised by Joint Chiefs of Staff (Army, Navy, and AF)
§ establishes the National Security Council (to advise President) and the CIA (for foreign fact-gathering)
2. Nuclear Arms Race
§ Sept. 1949 - USSR explodes its first atomic bomb
§ 1952 - US explodes first H-Bomb
§ 1953 - USSR explodes its first H-Bomb
d) Recognition of the Israeli State, 1948
1. UN creates the Israeli State out of the British mandate of Palestine
2. US recognizes over protests of oil producing Arab nations
e) Problems in China
1. Civil War in China
§ Nationalist leader Jiang Jieshi v. Communist Mao Zedong
§ 1949, Jieshi flees…China goes "red"
VI. Anti-Communist Hysteria at Home
a) Routing out communists in government
1. Truman's "loyalty program" established in 1947
§ Loyalty Review Board investigates over 3 million government employees
2. House Committee on Un-American Activities
§ est. in 1938 to rout out subversion
- famous for attacks on WPA Arts projects, especially in theater
§ 1948 - Richard M. Nixon & the Alger Hiss Case
- Whitaker Chambers, a former Communist appears before the HUAC and accuses of Alger Hiss, a Harvard-educated lawyer and former State Department official of being a Communist spy
- produces microfilm Chambers claims Hiss hid in a pumpkin outside his house.
- statute of limitations on espionage had expired; Hiss convicted of perjury - 5 years in jail
3. Rosenberg Trial, 1951
§ Julius and Ethel Rosenberg accused of spying for the USSR
§ Trial begins with arrest of Klaus Fuchs, a British scientist who admitted to spying for the USSR while working on the Manhattan Project
§ the Rosenbergs were implicated as go-betweens in a spy-ring
§ Convicted in 1951, executed in 1953
VII. Election of 1948
a) Candidates
1. GOP: Thomas E. Dewey
2. Democrats: Truman
§ Party is split - strong "dump Truman sentiments"
- Dixiecrats -- oppose Truman's stand on Civil Rights, form the State's Rights Party
- Liberals -- form the New Progressive Party, nominate leftward leaning Henry A. Wallace
b) Results
1. Election is expected to go the GOP -- "Dewey Beats Truman' headline in Chicago Tribune, but Truman wins handily
VIII. The Korean Conflict
a) A divided Korea
1. When Japan surrenders, Soviet forces occupy Korea N of the 38th parallel; American forces occupy Korea S of the 38th parallel
2. 1949, both US and USSR withdraw, leaving armed factions in N and S Korea
b) North Korean aggression
1. June 1950: North Korea invades South Korea…pushes SK Army back to Pusan
c) US involvement
1. UN (with USSR absent) condemns the N. Korean action, calls for UN nations to support
2. Truman sends air, naval, and army units under Gen. Douglass MacArthur
§ Nov. 1950: MacArthur lands at Inchon, begins pushing Koreans beyond the 38th parallel
§ Nov. 1950: Chinese "volunteers" enter the war…repulse MacArthur back to the 38th
3. US refuses to escalate the conflict v. China
§ "wrong war, wrong time, wrong place, wrong enemy"
§ prompts public criticisms of Truman and the US Gov't by MacArthur
- MacArthur removed from command
d) Peace negotiatons, 1951-1953