GLOBAL IMERIALISMUTFWSNov.,2009

Roosevelt Dead, Truman in office

• Enduring stability in a tumultuous era

• Leading the nation through depression, recovery, and war

• Little & simple man

• Rude

• Saw things as either black or white

Harry S. Truman• Born into a not too prosperous family in

Lamar, Missouri• Refused acceptance to college• Worked at mundane jobs and as laborer

for his father• Accepted active duty during WWI• Was recommneded to the political boss of

Missouri• Became « Judge » Truman of Jackson

County!• Got into the Senate

Truman at Work• Seldom spoke• Voted as he was supposed to• Disliked Wall Street intensely• Had little love for organized labor• A feable Liberal, not consistent• Gained national reputation as chairman of a

committee to investigate the defense program(though research was done by some one else!)

• Paved his way for vice-presidency• FDR forced to have him as vice president

Decisive elements shaping Truman’s Policies1. The Atom Bomb2. Consolidation of Military and

Industry3. Growth of American economic

power and decline of other’s economic power

4. Advisors(differed in method not objectives of

FDR)

United States in the Postwar Era

James McMillan & Bernard Harris in The American Take-Over of Britain:

« US...harvested 1/3 of the world’s grain, 1/2 of its cotton, smelted 55% of its steel, pumped 70% of its oil, used 50% of its rubber, generated 45% of its mechanical energy, produced 60% of its manufactured goods, and enjoyed 45% of of the entire annual income of humanity with 6.5% of its population… »

This huge economy needed foreign markets.

Britain in the Postwar Era• British wealth plunged downward

30%• Lord Woolton: « The war has left us

poor. It has left us the largest debtor nation in history… »

Wealth and Power• Lend-lease conditions

– More open door for US– Abolish imperial prefrences– Convertibility

• Recipients of US $ had to accept political and economic conditions dictated by Washington– General– specific

The $ Era

• Used to conform nations to the Pax Americana

Howard K. Smith’s The State of Europe

• « No noise imperialism »– Investments that bring silent control– Fair sounding arrangemnets like « equality of

trade »

Case of Iranian oil• Russians stayed

– Encouraged revolt in Azerbaijan– Installed pro-Communist government under Pishevari– Secured temporary cencesion for oil exploration

• Russia went US came!– Iran as a satellite of US– Overthrew the Mosadegh government– Five US companies got 40% of Iran’s petroleum riches

Acchieved all this with no occupation, but through their dollars and military support for a coup

Russia in the Postwar Era

• Had to show that they deserved American help

• Did not, so paid the price by:– Making innovations and living in a tight economy

Communism in Practice

• Stalin compromised to anything and everything

• The Soviet Union worked to sustain the status quo cherished by US

• Entered « bourgeois governments »

• Worked to revive capitalism No social or military threat from Stalinists

Why the Atom Bomb?• Truman: to save the lives of millions or save 200,000

American soldiers• Japan

– Bound to surrender unconditionally

• Therefore:– Mainly a warning to the Soviet Union– Get over with Japan before the Soviet enters

• P.M.S. Blackett:– The main reasons the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and

Nagasaki was to keep the Soviet Union out of that phase of the war and thereby minimize its role in the Far East