Ch.19, Sec.1- Origins of the Cold War

The United Nations

• One item leaders at the Yalta Conference all agreed on was the creation of the United Nations (UN), a new international peacekeeping organization. In April 1945, delegates from 50 nations met in San Francisco to adopt a charter, or statement of principles, for the UN. The charter stated that members would try to settle their differences peacefully and would promote justice and cooperation in solving international problems. In addition, they would try to stop wars from starting and try to end those that did break out. President Roosevelt didn’t get to live to see his dream of the UN fulfilled. He died on April 12, 1945, just 2 weeks before the UN’s first meeting.

The Soviet View

• The Soviet Union wanted to rebuild after WWII by establishing satellite nations, or countries subject to Soviet domination, on the western borders of the Soviet Union that would serve as a buffer zone against attacks.

• The Soviet Union also wanted to spread communism throughout the world. According to Communist doctrine, revolution to overthrow the capitalist system was inevitable, and the role of Communist governments was to support and speed up these revolutionary processes in other countries.

The Iron Curtain

• In February 1946, Stalin predicted in a speech that communism would triumph over capitalism.

• A month later, Churchill also made a speech that called on Americans to help keep Stalin from enclosing any more nations behind the iron curtain of Communist domination and oppression.

• These 2 speeches set the tone for the Cold War, or the competition that developed between the U.S. and the Soviet Union for power and influence in the world.

Containment

• The American policy of containment recognized the possibility that Eastern Europe was already lost to communism. It called for the U.S. to resist Soviet attempts to form Communist governments elsewhere in the world. This policy became the cornerstone of America’s Cold War foreign policy.

The Truman Doctrine

• In February 1947, Great Britain announced that it could no longer afford to provide aid to Greece and Turkey, and they suggested the U.S. take over the responsibility of defending the region. The U.S. was afraid if they didn’t act immediately, the Soviet Union would take these two over. Therefore, Truman made a speech before Congress that came to be known as the Truman Doctrine, which he called on Congress to approve of $400 million in aid for Greece and Turkey. Congress agreed, and the U.S. soon established military bases in both countries.

Sec.2- The Cold War Heats Up

The Marshall Plan

• After the Truman Doctrine, the other plan to combat Communism was the Marshall Plan, which called for the nations of Europe to draw up a program for economic recovery from the war. The U.S. would then support the program with financial aid. Secretary of State George C. Marshall came up with this plan in 1947. The plan was a response to American concerns that Communist parties were growing stronger across Europe. The plan also reflected the belief that the U.S. aid for European economic recovery would create strong democracies and open new markets for American goods.

The Marshall Plan cont.

• The Soviet Union was invited to participate in the Marshall Plan, but it refused the help and pressured its satellite nations to do so too. In 1948, Congress approved the Marshall Plan, which was formally known as the European Recovery Program. 17 Western European nations approved the plan. Over the next four years, the U.S. distributed 13 billion dollars in grants and loans to Western Europe. The region’s economies were quickly restored, and the U.S. gained strong trading partners in the region.

The Berlin Airlift

• In March 1948, the U.S., Britain, and France prepared to merge their three occupation zones to create a new nation, the Federal Republic of Germany, or West Germany. The western part of Berlin, which was in the Soviet zone, would become part of West Germany. The Soviets responded in 1949 by forming a Communist state, the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany. Hundreds of thousands of Eastern Europeans left their homes in Communist-dominated nations, fled to East Berlin, and then crossed into West Berlin. Stalin decided to close this escape route by forcing the Western powers to abandon West Berlin.

The Berlin Airlift cont.

• Truman did not want to risk starting a war, nor did he want to give up West Berlin to the Soviets. He instead decided on an airlift, moving supplies into West Berlin by plane. During the next 15 months, British and American military aircraft made more than 200,000 flights to deliver food, fuel, and other supplies. The Soviets finally gave up the blockade in May 1949, and the airlift ended the following September.

NATO

• In April 1949, Canada and the U.S. joined Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Member nations agreed that an armed attack against one or more of them shall be considered an attack against them all. This principle of mutual military assistance is called collective security.

• In 1955, the Soviet Union responded to the formation of NATO by creating the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance with its satellite nations in Eastern Europe.

The Soviet Atomic Threat

• In 1949, two events heightened American concerns about the Cold War. The first was President Truman’s terrifying announcement that the Soviet Union had successfully tested an atomic bomb. Then, just a few weeks later, Communist forces took control of China. Truman’s response to the Soviet atomic threat was to move ahead with a new weapon to maintain America’s nuclear superiority. In early 1950, he gave approval for the development of a hydrogen bomb that would be many times more destructive than the atomic bomb. The first successful test occurred in 1952, reestablishing the U.S. as the world’s leading nuclear power.

The Soviet Atomic Threat cont.

• At about the same time, Truman organized the Federal Civil Defense Administration. The new agency flooded the nation with posters and other information about how to survive a nuclear attack. These materials included plans for building bomb shelters and instructions for holding air raid drills in schools. Privately, experts ridiculed these programs as almost totally ineffective.

China Falls to the Communist

• Truman at first provided economic and military assistance to Jiang Jieshi at the end of WWII. Despite this aid, by 1947 Mao Zedong’s forces had occupied much of China’s country side and had begun to take control of northern cities. Truman then stopped giving aid to Jiang because he concluded that Mao’s takeover of China could not be prevented. He instead focused on saving Western Europe from Soviet domination.

• In early 1949, China’s capital of Peking (now Beijing) fell to the Communist. A few months later, Mao proclaimed the creation of a Communist state, the People’s Republic of China. Jiang and his followers withdrew to the island of Taiwan, where they continued as the Republic of China and claimed to be the legitimate government of the entire nation.

The Hollywood Ten

• After WWII, if someone in the U.S. was accused of being a Communist, they had little chance to defend themselves and it was difficult to clear their name. The House Un-American Activities Committee, known as HUAC, had been established in 1938 to investigate disloyalty. Claiming that movies had tremendous power to influence the public, in 1947 HUAC charged that numerous Hollywood figures had Communist leanings that affected their film making.

The Hollywood Ten cont.

• In September and October of 1947, HUAC called a number of Hollywood writers, directors, actors, and producers to testify. Facing the committee, celebrities who were accused of having radical political associations had little chance to defend themselves. Over and over the committee asked, “Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” When some of those called before HUAC attempted to make statements, they were denied permission. Ten of the accused exercised their Constitutional rights and declined to answer the committee’s questions. The Hollywood Ten were cited for contempt of Congress and served jail terms ranging from 6 months to one year. The studios compiled a blacklist, or a list circulated among employers, containing the names of persons who should not be hired.

Sec.3- The Korean War

Dividing Korea

• In 1945, the Allies agreed on a temporary solution to divide Korea. Soviet soldiers accepted the surrender of Japanese troops north of the 38th parallel, the latitude line running across Korea at approximately the midpoint of the peninsula. American forces did the same south of the parallel. While the dividing line was never intended to be permanent, Korea was divided into a Soviet-occupied northern zone and an American-occupied southern zone.

The Korean Conflict

• Koreans on both sides of the dividing line wanted to unify their nation. In June 1950, the Korean War broke out when North Korean troops went across the 38th parallel to reunite Korea by force. The invasion took the U.S. by surprise. The Americans wrongly believed the Soviet Union was the cause of this.

The UN Police Action

• The U.S. declared North Korea an aggressor and called on member states of the UN to help defend South Korea and restore peace. President Truman immediately sent a fleet to protect Taiwan, and he ordered American air and naval support for the South Koreans. He later sent ground troops as well. Both Democrats and Republicans praised him for his strong actions, despite war never being declared by Congress. 16 member nations eventually contributed troops or arms, but Americans made up about 80% of the troops sent to Korea.

Waging the War

• Truman chose General Douglas MacArthur to lead the UN forces in Korea. MacArthur developed a plan to drive the invaders out of South Korea. The North Koreans swept through South Korea very quickly using Soviet tanks and air power. MacArthur suspected this stretched their supply lines thin, and he wanted to strike this weakness. His strategy worked, and the UN forces caught them from the north and the south and cut off their supplies, driving them back across the 38th parallel. UN troops then went north, and South Korean leaders began declaring Korea was reunited under South Korea’s control.

Waging the War cont.

• As UN troops approached North Korea’s border with China, the Chinese warned them not to advance any further. MacArthur ignored this, and on November 24, 1950, the general tried to drive the enemy across the North Korean border into China and end the war. However, Chinese troops then combined with the North Korean troops and pushed the UN troops back into South Korea, which created a stalemate.

• MacArthur then wanted to create a second front, calling on Jiang Jieshi to return to the mainland and attack the Chinese Communist. Truman was opposed to this, fearing it would lead to a widespread war in Asia. MacArthur then sent a letter to House Minority Leader Joseph Martin in March, 1951, attacking the President’s policies. Martin made the letter public, and on April 11, Truman fired MacArthur for insubordination.

Waging the War cont.

• The struggle would go on for 2 more years into the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. When peace talks stalled, Eisenhower threatened to use atomic weapons, so peace talks got going again. Finally, a truce was signed in 1953, leaving Korea divided at almost exactly the same place as it was before the war, near the 38th parallel.

The Effects of the Korean War

• Americans after the Korean War wondered why about 54,000 of their soldiers had been killed and 103,000 wounded for a war with basically no results. They also questioned whether the government was serious about stopping Communism. However, they did stop Communist forces from taking South Korea, and it was done without the use of nuclear weapons.

• The Korean War was the first war in which white Americans and African Americans served in the same units.

Sec.4- The Continuing Cold War

McCarthy’s Rise to Power

• Joseph McCarthy was a senator who came to make accusations and unprovable charges of someone being a Communist, which came to be known as McCarthyism. Just being accused by McCarthy caused people to lose their jobs and reputations. He even attacked George Marshall, who was a national hero and a man of integrity. Even other senators feared McCarthy, fearing opposing him would label them a Communist sympathizer.

McCarthy’s Fall

• In early 1954, when one of his assistants was drafted, McCarthy said even the army was full of Communists. Army officials then said he was just trying to get special treatment for his aide. This would lead to the Army-McCarthy hearings in April 1954. Democrats wanted the hearings to be televised so everyone would see McCarthy for what he really was. Seeking publicity, McCarthy agreed.

• By the end of the hearings in June, he had lost even his strongest supporters. The Senate condemned him, so he called them tools of the Communist. However, he no longer had credibility, and his power was gone.

Southeast Asia

• As the Korean War was coming to an end, the U.S. continued providing military aid to France as they tried to retain their colony Vietnam. When an international conference divided Vietnam, like Korea, into a Communist north and an anti-Communist south, the U.S. provided aid to South Vietnam.

The Middle East

• In the 1930s and 1940s, the Holocaust had forced many Jews to seek safety in Palestine, controlled by the British and the Biblical home of the Jewish people. In 1947, the UN created 2 states in the area, one Jew and one Arab. In May 1948, the Jews in Palestine proclaimed the new nation of Israel. The Arabs then attacked the Jewish state in 1948. Israel was able to withstand the attack, and the U.S. supported Israel while the Soviet Union backed the Arabs.

The Growth of Nuclear Arsenals

• In August 1953, less than a year after the U.S. exploded its first thermonuclear device, the Soviet Union also successfully tested its own hydrogen bomb. Deterrence is the policy of making the military power of the U.S. and its allies so strong that no enemy would dare attack for fear of retaliation. Between 1954 and 1958, the U.S. conducted 19 hydrogen bomb tests in the Pacific. One of these explosions, in March 1954, was over 750 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that had been dropped on Nagasaki in World War II. Japanese fishermen 90 miles from the blast suffered severe radiation burns.

Cold War in the Skies

• To carry hydrogen bombs to their targets, American military planners relied mainly on airplanes. Unable to match this strength, the Soviets focused on long0range rockets known as intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. Americans also worked to develop ICBMs. However, the U.S. lagged behind the Soviet Union in missile development.

• The size of this technology gap became apparent in 1957, when the Soviets used one of their rockets to launch Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit Earth. The realization that the rocket used to launch Sputnik could carry a hydrogen bomb to American shores added to the Americans fear.

Cold War in the Skies cont.

• In May 1960, the Soviet military again demonstrated its arms capabilities by using a guided missile to shoot down an American U-2 spy plane over Soviet territory. Because these spy planes flew more than 15 miles high, American officials had assumed they were invulnerable to attack. The U-2 incident made Americans more willing to expend considerable resources to catch up to and surpass the Soviet Union.

Ch.20, Sec.1- The Postwar Economy

Businesses Reorganize

• In 1954, a man named Ray Kroc purchased the idea of assembly line food production and he acquired the restaurants name: McDonald’s. Franchises would eventually make it very difficult for small businesses to make it.

• Automation is the process of new machines performing jobs previously performed by people.

Moving to the Suburbs

• The baby boom began in the 1940s, with its peak year being 1957.

• WWII veterans expanded their opportunities with the help of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, or GI Bill of Rights, which gave them low-interest mortgages to purchase new homes and provided them with educational stipends for college or graduate school.

Cars and Highways

• Growth in the car industry created a need for more and better roads. The 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act, sometimes called the Interstate Highway Act, provided $25 billion to build an interstate highway system more than 40,000 miles long. This would allow for an evacuation of major cities in the event of a nuclear attack.

The Growth of Consumer Credit

• With all the cars on the road, gasoline companies began offering credit cards to loyal customers. Lending agencies then picked up on the credit card idea in the 1950s.

Sec.2- The Mood of the 1950s

Youth Culture

• The strong economy of the 1950s allowed more young people to stay in school rather than having to leave early to find a job. By the end of the decade, half of all teenage girls were employed as part-time babysitters. By 1954, close to half of all brides were in their teens.

A Resurgence in Religion

• In the 1950s, people began going back to church, especially with the threat of a nuclear war. In 1954, Congress added the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, and the next year, they added the phrase “In God We Trust” to all American money. By the end of the 1950s, 95% of all Americans said they felt connected to some formal religious group.

Men’s and Women’s Roles

• Men were expected to go to school and then find jobs to support wives and children. Women were expected to play a supporting role in their husbands’ lives. They kept house, cooked meals, and raised children. Dr. Benjamin Spock had a very popular book on child-care advice called The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care in 1946.

Youthful Rebellions

• In 1951, disc jockey Alan Freed began hosting a radio show playing what was called black rhythm and blues music for mainly black audiences. Both black and white teenagers began listening to his show called “Moondog Rock ‘n’ Roll Party”. This type of music came to be called rock and roll. Many adults didn’t like the new music, fearing it would cause a rise in immorality. For some people, opposition to the music had to do with race. Because rock and roll appealed to both blacks and whites, and it had black origins, this would lead to teenagers of different races going to the same concerts and dancing to the same music. Rock and roll still became very popular.

Youthful Rebellions cont.

• Members of the “Beat Generation” called beatniks, promoted spontaneity, or acting on a moments notice without planning. Beatniks shocked Americans with their open sexuality and use of illegal drugs.

Sec.3- Domestic Politics and Policy

Truman on Civil Rights

• In July 1948, Truman banned discrimination in the hiring of federal employees , and he ordered an end to segregation and discrimination in the armed forces.

The Election of 1948

• Even though it was expected that Thomas Dewey would win this election, Truman won the election instead.

• In 1951, the 22nd Amendment was adopted limiting the amount of terms a president can serve to two.

Meeting the Technology Challenge

• President Eisenhower, nicknamed Ike, cut government spending and caused the economy to slump, having 3 recessions during his presidency . However, in 1958, the U.S. government created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as an independent agency for space exploration. The same year, Congress passed and President Eisenhower signed into law the National Defense Education Act. The measure was designed to improve science and math instruction in the schools so that the U.S. could meet the scientific and technical challenge from the Soviet Union.