THE AMERICAN JOURNEY A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES Brief Sixth Edition Chapter 27 The Cold War at Home and Abroad 1946-1952
The Cold War at Home and Abroad 1946-1952 Launching the Great Boom Truman, Republicans, and the Fair Deal Confronting the Soviet Union Cold War and Hot War The Second Red Scare Conclusion
Learning Objectives What was the catalyst for the economic boom that began in 1947? How was Harry Truman able to win the 1948 presidential election? What were the origins of the Cold War? How did the Korean War shape American domestic politics?
Learning Objectives (cont'd) Why did fear of Communism escalate in the years following World War II?
Introduction Triggered by the Soviet Union s imposition of communist regimes throughout Eastern Europe, the Cold War grew into a global contest in which the U.S. would try to counter Soviet influence around the world. The Cold War would shape the U.S. and the world for another generation.
Introduction (cont'd) Cold War - The political and economic confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States that dominated world affairs from 1946 to 1989.
As international tensions rose with the onset of the Cold War, Americans wondered how to prepare for a possible nuclear war.
Launching the Great Boom
Reconversion Chaos The surrender of Japan took the United States by surprise. Plans for gradual reconversion were scrapped. The Pentagon cancelled $15 billion in war contracts two days after the Japanese surrender. Discharge of the 12 million military personnel took a year.
Reconversion Chaos (cont'd) Veterans returned home to shortages of food and other consumer goods that ultimately led to inflation. Inflation squeezed workers, triggering strikes that made retooling of factories for civilian production difficult.
Economic Policy The economic turmoil of 1946 resulted in contradictory legislation. The Employment Act of 1946 was a liberal effort that proposed economic growth and high employment as national goals. It also established the Council of Economic Advisers.
Economic Policy (cont d) The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 barred the closed shop and blocked secondary boycotts. It also allowed the federal government to postpone a strike by imposing a cooling-off period.
Economic Policy (cont d) Council of Economic Advisers - Board of three professional economists established in 1946 to advise the president on economic policy. Taft-Hartley Act - Federal legislation of 1947 that substantially limited the tools available to labor unions in labor management disputes.
The GI Bill The Servicemen s Adjustment Act of 1944, or GI Bill, was one of the federal government s most successful public assistance programs. It guaranteed loans for buying a house, farm, or starting a business.
The GI Bill (cont d) It provided money for college tuition, books, and a monthly stipend. In 1947, veterans made up half the of all college students. GI Bill of Rights - Legislation in June 1944 that eased the return of veterans into American society by providing educational and employment benefits.
On this Rhode Island campus, war surplus Quonset huts made do as housing for married students.
Assembly-Line Neighborhoods A severe housing shortage was met by government and private action. The Veterans Administration mortgage program allowed veterans to get private loans for houses without a down payment. Builders created huge suburban housing developments of similar homes that were built in assembly line fashion in brief periods of time.
Assembly-Line Neighborhoods (cont'd) Levittown - Innovative housing project for veterans developed on suburban Long Island, New York, which boomed to more than 17,000 homes between 1947 and 1951. Redlining - Restricting mortgage credit and insurance to properties in neighborhoods defined as being high risk.
FIGURE 27 1 The Suburbanizing Nation
Isolation and Discrimination The vast new housing tracts tended to isolate women and children from traditional community life. African Americans were excluded from the new housing tracts and segregated in deteriorating urban ghettos.
Steps toward Civil Rights The issue of housing stimulated civil rights activism among African Americans. The NAACP and other groups campaigned for racial justice. The Truman administration ordered the integration of the armed forces in 1948. Jackie Robinson integrated baseball s major leagues in 1947.
Jackie Robinson, the first black player in modern major league baseball
Consumer Boom and Baby Boom Pent-up demand and a postwar family boom stimulated the housing boom. Marriage rates rose and many women opted to marry younger. The new marriages and older ones that had delayed starting families led to a baby boom.
Consumer Boom and Baby Boom (cont d) The fast-growing families also fueled a consumer boom as they bought household goods.
FIGURE 27 2 The Postwar Baby Boom: The U.S. Birthrate, 1930 2000
Goldfield Abbott Argersinger DeJohn Anderson Streamlined Barney Weir Argersinger kitchens
Truman, Republicans, and the Fair Deal
Truman, Republicans, and the Fair Deal Truman pursued a moderate political strategy aimed at the vital center. The package linked anticommunism in foreign policy with efforts to enact inclusive social and economic policies to extend freedom abroad and at home.
Advertisement for 1950 Studebaker.
Truman s Opposition In 1948, Truman faced opposition from Republicans, the leftist Progressive Party, and the racist Dixiecrats. Truman campaigned against what he called the do-nothing Republican Congress to attract voters.
Truman s Opposition (cont'd) Dixiecrats - Southern Democrats who broke from the party in 1948 over the issue of civil rights and ran a presidential tickets as the States Rights Democrats. Dollar diplomacy: The U.S. policy of using private investment in other nations to promote American diplomatic goals and business interests.
Harry Truman greets supporters and railroad workers in Pittsburgh
Whistle-Stopping across America The 1948 party conventions were broadcast on television for the first time. Truman crisscrossed the nation stressing character and issues. Truman won the 1948 presidential election.
MAP 27 1 The Election of 1948
Truman s Fair Deal Hoping to build on the gains of the New Deal, Truman called for a Fair Deal for all Americans. Congress responded by expanding existing programs but rejecting new ones. The Housing Acts of 1949 established the goal of decent housing for all Americans but provided little means to meet that ideal.
Truman s Fair Deal (cont d) In 1950, Congress revitalized social security. Congress rejected a fair employment bill that fought racial discrimination and blocked a proposal for national health insurance.
Confronting the Soviet Union
The End of the Grand Alliance The end of the war had placed the Soviet Union as the dominant power in Eastern Europe and the Americans and British as the major forces in Western Europe. The United States tried to involve the Soviets and Eastern Europe in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and in a plan to control atomic energy.
The End of the Grand Alliance (cont'd) In 1946, George Kennan s long telegram raised the issue of Soviet expansion driven by communist ideology. Churchill proclaimed an iron curtain was descending over Eastern Europe. American leaders worried that the eastern hemisphere might fall under Soviet control. Soviet acts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe seemed to justify American fears.
The End of the Grand Alliance (cont'd) International Monetary Fund (IMF) - International organization established in 1945 to assist nations in maintaining stable currencies. World Bank - Officially the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, an international organization established in 1945 that assists governments around the world in economic development efforts.
The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan Fears of a communist takeover in Greece led to the Truman Doctrine. Truman pledged to use U.S. economic power to help free nations resist internal subversion or aggression.
The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan (cont d) As Europe slid toward chaos, the U.S. government responded with the European Recovery or Marshall Plan that eventually provided $13.5 billion in aid. The Soviets set up their own program in eastern Europe.
The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan (cont d) In Japan, the U.S. occupation facilitated the development of a democratic government, social reform, and demilitarization. Kennan called U.S. policy containment.
The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan (cont d) Truman Doctrine - President Harry Truman s statement in 1947 that the United States should assist other nations that were facing external pressure or internal revolution; an important step in the escalation of the Cold War.
The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan (cont d) Marshall Plan - The European Recovery Program (1949), which provided U.S. economic assistance to European nations; named for Secretary of State George Marshall. Containment - The policy of resisting further expansion of the Soviet bloc through diplomacy and, if necessary, military action, developed in 1947 48.
Soviet Reactions The Soviets strengthened their hold on Eastern Europe and divided Berlin imposing a blockade of the city that was broken by airlifts. Berlin blockade - Three-hundred-day Soviet blockade of land access to United States, British, and French occupation zones in Berlin, 1948 1949.
Berlin was still a devastated city in 1948
American Rearmament In 1948, Congress re-instituted the military draft and increased defense spending. The modernization and centralization of the national security apparatus was facilitated by the National Security Act of 1947 that created the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council.
American Rearmament (cont'd) In 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded as a mutual defense pact. The Soviet Union responded by creating the Warsaw Pact. The ANZUS Pact was signed with Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines in 1951.
American Rearmament (cont'd) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) - Agency that coordinates the gathering and evaluation of military and economic information on other nations, established in 1947. National Security Council (NSC) - The formal policymaking body for national defense and foreign relations, created in 1947 and consisting of the president, the secretary of defense, the secretary of state, and others appointed by the president.
American Rearmament (cont'd) North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) - Military alliance of the United States, Canada, and European nations created in 1949 to protect Europe against possible Soviet aggression. Warsaw Pact - Military alliance of the Soviet Union and Communist nations of Eastern Europe from 1955 to 1989.
MAP 27 2 Cold War in Europe
Cold War and Hot War
The Nuclear Shadow In 1949, the Soviets exploded an atomic bomb and the Communists took over China. The Atomic Energy Commission was established in 1946 to oversee research on atomic power and weapons testing. In 1952, the United States exploded a hydrogen bomb.
The Nuclear Shadow (cont'd) In the early 1950s, nuclear weapons proliferated. Great Britain became the third nuclear world power. The nuclear arms race and the fear of nuclear war raised the fears of the Cold War.
MAP 27 3 The Landscape of Nuclear Weapons
The Cold War in Asia Americans had noted that the collapse of Jiang Jieshi s regime in China was inevitable but conservatives attacked Truman for doing too little.
NSC-68 and Aggressive Containment The upheaval of 1949 led the State department to issue National Security Council Paper 68 that saw the world divided between freedom and slavery. The Soviet Union was painted as aggressive and motivated by a desire for territory and a fanatic faith in Communism. It advised the United States to use as much force as possible to resist communist expansion.
NSC-68 and Aggressive Containment (cont'd) National Security Council Paper 68 (NSC- 68) - Policy statement that committed the United States to a military approach to the Cold War.
War in Korea, 1950 1953 Korea was important politically as the only point of direct confrontation with the Soviet Union in Asia but was not considered important militarily. In 1950, North Korea attacked South Korea. The South Korean Army collapsed leading Truman to commit American troops for Japan.
War in Korea, 1950 1953 (cont d) With the Soviet Union boycotting the United Nations, the Security Council asked United Nations members to help South Korea making the war officially a UN action.
War in Korea, 1950 1953 (cont d) Korean War - War between North Korea and South Korea (1950 1953) in which the People s Republic of China fought on the side of North Korea and the United States and other nations fought on the side of South Korea under teh auspices of the United Nations.
MAP 27 4 The Korean War
United Nation forces in Korea fought the weather as well as Communist North Koreans and Chinese.
The Politics of War The military conflict seesawed as first North Korea pushed American troops to a small toehold and then American troops pushed North Korean troops toward the Chinese border. China entered the war and eventually the conflict stalled near the original borders of North and South Korea.
The Politics of War (cont'd) The stabilizing of the Korean front initiated two years of negotiations. None of the key players wanted a wider war. The war was a major factor in the Republican victory in the 1952 elections. An armistice was signed in June 1953.
The Politics of War (cont'd) The Korean War was a preview of the Vietnam War. It helped to legitimize the United Nations, confirmed the ideas on Soviet expansion, and stimulated rearmament.
The Second Red Scare
The Communist Party and the Loyalty Program After World War II, the Communist Party in the United States declined rapidly. Republicans used red-baiting as a campaign technique in 1944 and 1946. Truman responded by initiating a loyalty program for federal employees. Federal employees worked under a cloud of fear.
The Communist Party and the Loyalty Program (cont'd) The Loyalty program resulted in 1,210 firings and 6,000 resignations.
Naming Names to Congress The House Committee on Un-American Activities was formed in 1945 to replace a special committee of the same name. HUAC launched an investigation of Hollywood and communist influence in the entertainment industry. Ten Hollywood figures refused to testify and went to jail in 1950.
Naming Names to Congress (cont'd) HUAC changed the politics of Hollywood from left leaning to more conservative tendencies. In 1952, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee targeted diplomats, union leaders, professors, and teachers hoping to gather names of subversives. State legislatures conducted similar hearings.
Naming Names to Congress (cont'd) House Committee of Un-American Activities - Congressional Committee (1938 1975) that investigated suspected Nazi and Communist sympathizers.
The Second Red Scare
Subversion Trials In 1948, the Justice Department indicted the leaders of the American Communist Party of consisting to overthrow the U.S. government.
Subversion Trials (cont'd) Alger Hiss had held important State department positions and was accused by former Communist Whittaker Chambers of being a Communist. Congressman Richard Nixon became involved and eventually Hiss was convicted of perjury. Evidence indicates Hiss did pass information to the Soviets from the mid- 1930s to 1945.
Subversion Trials (cont'd) Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were tried for espionage and executed.
Richard Nixon (right) and the chief investigator for the House Committee on Un-American Activities inspect microfilm of the pumpkin papers.
Senator McCarthy on Stage On February 9, 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin said he had a list of 205 Communists in the State Department. In subsequent days, the number changed. Over the next few years, McCarthy continued making charges that went unsubstantiated.
Senator McCarthy on Stage (cont'd) In 1954, he attacked the U.S. Army and in Senate hearings that were televised. The hearings were seen by the American public as a fraud. His popularity plummeted.
Senator Joe McCarthy
Understanding McCarthyism The subversive campaign called McCarthyism lingered. Legislation provided tools of repression and fears of Communist subversion reached deep into American society.
Understanding McCarthyism (cont'd) Four factors contributed to American fears: (1) the legitimate but exaggerated concern about atomic spies; (2) an undercurrent of anti-semitism and nativism; (3) Southern and Western resentment of the eastern Ivy League elite; and (4) a widespread fear of a world spinning out of control.
Understanding McCarthyism (cont'd) McCarthyism - Anticommunist attitudes and actions associated with Senator Joe McCarthy in the early 1950s, including smear tactics and innuendo.
Conclusion
Conclusion The Cold War stayed cool because each side achieved its essential goals. The Soviet Union controlled Eastern Europe while the United States built strong ties with NATO nations and Japan. One of the most important changes in American history was the shift to postwar internationalism.
Conclusion (cont'd) Despite the turmoil and injustice of the Truman years, the nation emerged prosperous and more secure from international threats than most appreciated.