3. THE AMERICAN ECONOMY
The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944
[AKA GI Bill of Rights] provided economic
and educational benefits to WWII veterans
Lack of consumer goods and rise in income
in WWII led to purchasing goods on impulse,
causing rapid inflation
Rapid inflation caused labor unrest
Veterans began taking back jobs of women
and those of racial minority
4. THE FAIR DEAL
Proposed by Truman for:
Government provision of atomic research
Fair employment practices and raising minimum wage
Public housing and slum clearance
Environmental and public works programming
Shot down my conservatives, being
compared to New Deal reform
81st Congress, after Truman’s election
Raised minimum wage, created low-income housing,
expanded financial benefits
Failed to aid any other Fair Deal points
5. 1948 ELECTION
A new Progressive Party emerged, Henry A.
Wallace
Republicans headed by Thomas E. Dewey,
who had enormous popularity over Truman
Southern conservatives left the Democratic
Party to create the States’ Rights [or
Dixiecrat] Party
After 32,000 miles of campaigning, Truman
still managed to win the election
6.
7. THE EFFECTS OF THE NUCLEAR AGE
Film Noir
Radios tested emergency systems, and schools
and office buildings constantly practiced air raid
drills
Fallout shelters were built in both public
buildings and private homes
A poll in 1948 showed that two-thirds of
Americans believed that nuclear technology
would eventually be only beneficial
Nuclear power plants were rapidly created
9. SOVIET IDEOLOGY
Accepted by the Soviet Union and its Eastern
European states
Goal: to spread communism throughout the
globe
Command economy
Having sole control of particular areas of
strategic interest
10. AMERICAN IDEOLOGY
Accepted by the US and other “Western”
Democratic nations
Goal: to contain communism and eventually
destroy it
Capitalist economy
Abandoning traditional military alliances and
spheres of influence
Reestablishing international relations through
democratic processes (an international
organization)
11. METHODS OF ‘FIGHTING’ THE COLD WAR
USA USSR
Espionage CIA KGB
Nuclear Escalation
Arms Race Beating That
Space Exploration
Communism and
Democracy and
Proxy War Command
Capitalism
Economy
12. ORIGINS OF TENSIONS
“The Big Three”: FDR, Churchill, Stalin
Wartime
Atlantic Charter of 1941
Halting Western front on Germany
Post-WWII [Yalta Conference of 1941]
Poland [and eventually all Soviet states] Pro-Western or
Pro-Communist?
Result: agreed on balance, but Stalin tended to put
Communist gov’t officials in charge without election
Germany: Reconstruction or Reparation?
Result: Four-war division of Germany and of Berlin
13.
14. THE CHINA DILEMMA
Mao Zedong’s communist
forces vs. Chiang Kai-Shek’s
nationalist government
American public favored a third
force to dominate both of these
groups
When civil war broke, the US
sent money and supplies to
Chiang
Mao became the victory,
establishing China as a
Communist nation
15. THE CONTAINMENT POLICY
US and its allies to contain further Soviet
expansion rather than create an international
democratic compromise
Stalin attempted to gain control of Turkey
and Greece, but his efforts were defeated by
the $400 million aid provided by Congress to
support the free peoples
Foundation for the Truman Doctrine
16. THE MARSHALL PLAN
Drafted by Secretary of State George C.
Marshall in June 1947
For the welfare of Europeans
To remove dependency on the US
To expand the European market for American goods
To prevent Western European gov’ts from falling into
Communism
Signed by 16 European nations, rejected by
USSR and its satellite states
Created the Economic Cooperation
Administration, which channeled $12 billion of
17. MOBILIZATION AT HOME
Atomic Energy Commission established in
1946, in charge of testing and researching
nuclear warfare
National Security Act of 1947 enacted,
reforming major military and diplomatic
institutions, and creating a new Department of
Defense
Selective Service System revived in 1948 in
case of war
CIA created to collect information and eventually
engage secretly in political and military
18. BERLIN AIRLIFT
US, UK, and France agreed to merge the three
western zones of German occupation into the
West German Republic
On June 24, 1948, Stalin placed a blockade on
western Berlin, implying that Germany’s split
meant that Western controllers should lose its
outpost in Soviet Territory
Unwilling to risk war, Truman’s airlift sent
supplies, food, and 2.5 million tons of other
materials to Berlin to keep the 2 million people
there alive
19.
20. NATO
[National Atlantic Treaty Organization]
Consolidated 12 nations on April 4, 1949,
stating that any attack on one member was
an attack against all members
Initially designed as a defense against
possible Soviet invasion
Influenced the Soviet Union to create their
own alliance of Communist nations under the
Warsaw Pact of 1955
22. NSC-68
[National Security Council report, number 68]
UK refused to continue aiding Germany
during the Berlin Airlift
Report states that the US cannot rely on
other nations to contain communism, and
must rather take its own leadership
Expanded military power, quadrupling the
American defense budget
24. INSTIGATION
Both USSR and US sent troops to Korea,
unwilling to leave
Nation agreed on temporary boundary on
38th parallel
USA stated that did not consider South
Korea in its “defense perimeter”; North
Koreans tempted to invade
US able to win UN assistance for South
Korea
25. UNSETTLING BOUNDARIES
Boundary pushed past the 38th parallel by
northern forces, capturing the southern
capital of Seoul
American forces (under MacArthur) pushed
boundary back past 38th parallel, almost
reaching the USSR
On November 4, 1950, the Chinese sent
their own troops in favor of the Communist
North
Boundary yet again pushed to the south of
the 38th parallel
26. RELIEVING MACARTHUR
MacArthur resisted Truman’s limits on
military discretion, insisting that China should
be invaded, or somehow punished
MacArthur sent a letter to House Republican
leader Joseph W. Martin, stating, “There is
no substitute for victory.”
Appalled, Truman relieved him of duty on
April 11, 1951
27. THE END OF THE KOREAN WAR
Opposing forces met in Panmunjom, but
never reached a final decision until 1953
Established the permanent boundary
between the north and South
Like WWII, the war pumped substantial
amounts government funds into the economy
Mobilization and public support, however,
were not as great
31. REPUBLICAN DOMINATION
HUAC formed to battle Democrats
House Un-American Activities Committee
performed and publicized investigations to
prove that the government would not have
tolerated Communist subversion if it was not
under Democratic rule
HUAC interviewed Hollywood writers and
producers
“Hollywood Ten”
32. ALGER HISS
Whittaker Chambers accused Alger Hiss of
the State Department of sending State
Department documents to the USSR in 1937
and 1938
Hiss not tried for espionage because of
statue of limitations
Because of Richard Nixon’s efforts, Hiss was
eventually arrested for perjury
Hiss was imprisoned for several years.
33. THE FEDERAL LOYALTY PROGRAM
1947 – Truman permits a program to review
the loyalty of federal employees
1950 – Truman allows the firing of
employees deemed “bad security risks”
McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950
Forced al Communist organizations in the US to
register with the gov’t
FBI directory J. Edgar Hoover investigated
and harassed alleged radicals
34. THE ROSENBURG CASE
USSR successfully detonated
an atomic bomb in 1949;
Americans believed that the
US gave the USSR atomic
research information
David Greenglass of the
Manhattan Project, admitted
to have provided info to
USSR agents
Admitted that the
masterminds were his sister
and brother-in-law, ordinary
New York couple Ethel and
Julius Rosenburg
35. MCCARTHYISM
Joseph McCarthy, Wisconsin
Republican Senator
During a speech in
Wheeling, West Virginia,
claimed to have a list of 205
known communists working
in the State Department
Harsh investigations spread to other
agencies
Publicized investigations, going through
federal offices and American embassies