Final Exam 4 Flashcards
Harry Truman’s background p946
Truman came from a very normal or common background for the time. Never getting the opportunity to attend college, he worked as a clerk in several banks as well as a timekeeper on the Santa Fe Railroad. He was a captain of artillery in World War I but failed in his clothing store venture after the war. He became the equivalent of a county commissioner, and worked his way up to US senator as a part of a political machine. Much about him was ordinary especially when compared to FDR. But Truman was well read in history, had good common sense, and was not prone to procrastination when making decisions.
Truman’s greatest strength p946
Truman’s personality evoked the spirit of Andrew Jackson’s: his decisiveness, bluntness, feistiness, loyalty, and folksy manner.
One of his greatest strengths was a determined and decisive character.
The GI Bill (2nd Question) p948
the GI Bill included a years unemployment compensation, money for college tuition, and low interest loans to buy homes or start businesses.
Shock absorber that cushioned the economic impact of demobilization. The Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill), the federal government spent $13 billion on military veterans for education, vocational training, medical treatment, unemployment insurance, and loans for building houses and going into business; and most important, the pent-up postwar demand for consumer goods that was fueled by wartime deprivation.
The Marshall Plan p854
The Recovery Plan proposed by Secretary of State George Marshall was viewed as a generous action by the United States and was a great success in helping European counties recover from the war, greatly increasing US influence in Western Europe.
Post WWII changes in race relations p857
The racist nature especially Nazi Germany discredited racism and made it more difficult to defend in the United STates. .
The government-sponsored racism of the German Nazis, the Italian Fascists, and the Japanese Imperialists focused attention on the need for the U.S. to improve its own race relations and to provide for equal rights under the law. But in the ideological content with communism for influence in post-colonial Africa, U.S. diplomats were at a disadvantage as long as racial segregation continued in the U.S.; the Soviets comparted racism in the South to the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews.
George Kennan p952
Kennan said the US should contain Soviet expansive tendencies. The containment policy that Kennan outlined toward the Soviet Union was followed with many variations and mis-steps for the next forty or so years, and in the end, it worked.
Truman’s response to the Soviet blockade of West Berlin in 1948 p955
The airlift was seen as the first victory of the West in the Cold War.
Truman agreed with General Lucius D. Clay to stand firm and even use force to break the blockade. Truman said, “We are going to stay in Berlin– period.” Truman decided – against the advice of his cabinet and General Clay – to organize a massive, sustained airlift to provide needed food and supplies to West Berliners. Berlin airlifts went on for 11 months, transferring 2.32 million tons of cargo.
President Truman desegregation p958
Ending segregation in the military is the civil rights action he is most remembered for.
In the fall of 1946, a delegation of civil rights activists urged Truman to issue a public statement condemning the resurgence of the KKK and the lynching of African Americans. On July 26, 1948, President Truman banned racial discrimination in the hiring of federal employees. Four days later, he issued an executive order ending racial segregation in armed forces.
Jackie Robinson pg. 959
Robinson broke the racial color barrier in baseball when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
In April 1947 the national leagues Brooklyn dodgers included on its roster the first African American player to cross the color line in major league baseball, Jackie Robinson. During his first season with the dodgers teammates and opposing players viciously baited Robinson, the pitchers threw at him, base runners spiked him, and spectators booed him in every city hotels refused him rooms, and restaurants denied him service He received hate mail by the bucket load, but black spectators were electrified by Robinsons courageous example. As time passed Robinson won over many fans and players with his quiet courage, self-deprecating wit, and determined performance and soon other teams signed black players.
The 1948 Election p962
In 1948, The Republicans were united and the Democrats were split three ways. All the odds were against Truman. He conducted a strong campaign that turned things around, giving him an unexpected, last minute, upset victory.
Truman won the biggest upset in history, taking 24.2 million votes to Dewey’s 22 million and winning a thumping margin of 303 to 189 in the Electoral College. Thurmond and Wallace each got more than 1 million votes, but the revolt of right and left had worked to Truman’s advantage.
Communists take over of China p964
The communist victory in China in 1949 was a great shock in the United States ignighting a debate of “who lost China” in which Republicans blamed Truman and the Democrats and charged they were “soft” on communism.
Beginning of the Korean War p965
When the UN branded North Korea an aggressor and authorized intervention against North Korea, it was the first time an international organzation took bold action of this kind.
On June 25, 1950, over 80,000 North Korean soldiers crossed the boundary into South Korea and drove the South Korean army down the peninsula ina headlong retreat. Seoul, the South Korean capital, was captured in 3 days. President Truman responded and assumed that the North Korean attack was directed by Moscow and was a brazen indication of the aggresive designs of Soviet communism.
Truman made a critical decision: he decided to wage war under the auspices of the United Nations rather than seeking a declaration of war from Congress.
The Hiss-Chambers case
Hiss was not convicted of being a spy, he was convicted of perjury for lying about his not being a spy.
The most damaging case to the administration of (HUAC) House Committee of Un-American Activities. Chambers told the HUAC in 1948 that Hiss had given him secret documents 10 years earlier, when Chambers was spying for the Soviets and Hiss was working in the State Department. Hiss sued for libel, and Chambers produced microfilms of the State Department documents that he said Hiss had passed to him. Hiss denied the accusation, whereupon he was indicted and, afer one mistrial, convicted in 1950. The charge was perjury, but he was convicted of lying about espionage for which he could not be tried because the statuate of limitations on that crime had expired.
Senator McCarthy and the fear of Communism
He was very effective in exploiting public fears about the dangers of communist infiltration of American institutions, but his tactics were crude, unethical and bullying, and ultimately, ineffective. McCarthyism has become a word synonymous with name calling, witch hunting demagogy.
The postwar economic boom
The post war boom was fueled by (1). pent up demand - people didn’t have money to spend during the Depression, and during the war, they had plenty of money, but nothing to spend it on. They accumulated savings and went on a spending spree when the war was over. (2) Government spending on the military as the US rearmed to fight the Cold War. (3) vastly increased worker productivity
Growth of Television
Television was the most popular new househould product and became a central feature of American family life in the 1950’s
By far the most popular new household product was the Television. In 1946, there were 7,000 primitive black-and-white TVs in the nation; by 1960 there were 50 million, and people were watching TV almost 6 hours a day on average. Nine out of Ten homes had a TV, 38% of homes had a new color set. Watching TV quickly displaced listening to the radio or going to the movies as an essential daily activity for millions of people.
The GI Bill of Rights
There was a great fear that after the war, the 12 million demobilized servicemen would swamp the job market. The GI bill was designed in part to divert as many of these men as possible from the job market to college. The bill provided for 1 year of unemployment compensation, a preference system for veterans applying for government jobs, low interest loans to buy homes and start business, and tuition reimbursement for college or vocational training. Many millions went to college, a far sighted investment in developing the skills of an entire generation. It was at this point that a college education changed from being something only a small minority of elite people obtained to being something necessary for the majority of Americans to strive for. Your book also correctly points out that African Americans had a difficult time making use of these benefits due to segregation and discrimination.
African American problems in northern cities
Although they had escaped the legalized segregation of the South’s Jim Crow system, blacks living in the north encountered new problems and exploitation, such as discrimination in hiring, and defacto segregation in inner city ghettos.
Suburban growth
The explosive growth of suburbs was due primarily to low interest loans to veterans, highway construction, widespread ownership of cars and federally insured home loans (FHA loans).
Uniformity in the 1950s
It was more than the government and companies that drove uniformity. Suburban living went a long way in producing uniformity. The suburbs contained hundreds, sometimes thousands of houses that were almost all the same except for some minor cosmetic differences. The suburbs were segregated racially, and often economically, where people of the same economic levels lived together. One of the issues was “keeping up with the Jones” that is trying to get ahead or at least stay even with your neigbors in terms of having the newest car, or a color tv. This American Dream included graduating high school, going to college, getting a job with a large company, starting a family, a new home in the suburbs, kids, two nice cars and a color tv, all enjoyed in a neighborhood with people just like yourself.
The Beats
The Beatniks as they were also known. Rebellious, offbeat, and a little scruffy, they stood out in the button down, conformity driven culture of the 1950’s. They were the ancesotors of the hippies of the 1960’s. The term beat had multiple meanings - upbeat, beatific or on the beat. As one of the beats, Jack Kerouac said, beats were not beaten down, the were “mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved.” They nursed an urge to “go, go go.”
Diverse interests of the Beats
The key is that the beats saw their road to salvation in hallucinogenic drugs and alcohol, casual sex, a penchant for jazz, fast cars, the street life of urban ghettos, an affinity for Buddhism, and a restless, vagaboard spirit taking them back and forth across the country in 1950s.
Why Elvis was controversial
Presley’s long hair and sideburns, his swiveling hips and smirking self-confidence, his leather jacket and tight blue jeans–all shouted defiance of adult conventions. Culture conservatives were outraged. Critics urged parents to destroy Presley’s records because they promoted “a pagan concept of life”. A Catholic cardinal denounced Presley as a vile symptom of a teenage “creed of dishonesty, violence, lust, and degeneration.” Patriotic groups claimed that rock and roll music was a tool of Communist insurgents designed to corrupt youth.
Elvis in the 1950’s sensually gyrated his hips a lot when he sang, to the point that when he made his breakout appearance on television in 1956, they showed him only from the waist up.
Alan Freed and rock-and-roll
Black rhythm and blues music was renamed rock and roll for white audiences by Mr. Freed.
Cleveland disc jockey, coined the term rock and roll in 1951. Freed began playing R&B records on his radio show but labeled the music “rock and roll”. Freed’s popular radio program helped bridge the gap between “white” and “black” music.
