Unit 8 Princeton Review Flashcards
(31 cards)
The end of World War II raised two major issues.
The first concerned the survival of the combatants; with the exception of the United States, the nations involved in World War II had all seen fighting within their borders, and the destruction had been immense.
The second issue involved the shape of the new world and what new political alliances would be formed. This question would become the major source of contention between the world’s two leading political-economic systems, capitalism and communism
COLD WAR (1945–1953)
The stakes in this power struggle, called the Cold War (because there was no actual combat as there is in a “hot war”), were high. Though the major powers (the United States and Soviet Union) didn’t enter into combat in the Cold War, the United States did fight hot proxy wars in Korea and Vietnam during this time. The American economy was growing more dependent on exports; American industry also needed to import metals, a process requiring (1) open trade and (2) friendly relations with those nations that provided those metals. In addition, with many postwar economies in shambles, competition among the few reasonably healthy economies grew fiercer. Finally, those countries that were strongest before the war— Germany, Japan, and Great Britain—had either been defeated or seen their influence abroad greatly reduced. The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the two new superpowers. Although they were allies during World War II, the war’s end exposed the countries’ many ideological differences, and they soon became enemies.
Cold War Intro
The differences between Soviet and American goals were apparent even before the war was over, but became even clearer when the Soviets refused to recognize Poland’s conservative government-in-exile. (The Polish government had moved to England to escape the Nazis; this government was backed by the United States.)
A communist government took over Poland.
Within two years, pro-Soviet communist coups had also taken place in Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
The propaganda in the United States and USSR during this period reached a fever pitch.
In each country, the other was portrayed as trying to take over the world for its own sinister purposes.
Insurgents in Greece and Turkey
Then, in 1947, communist insurgents threatened to take over both Greece and Turkey, but England could no longer prop up these nations.
In a speech before Congress, Truman requested $400 million in aid to the two countries to Greece and Turkey
Truman Doctrine, Containment
This statement, called the Truman Doctrine, became the cornerstone of a larger policy, called containment, articulated by George Kennan.
The idea of containment came from what is known as the Long Telegram, which Kennan sent to Washington from his duty station in Germany, in 1946.
This policy said that the United States would not instigate a war with the Soviet Union, but it would come to the defense of countries in danger of Soviet takeover.
The policy aimed to prevent the spread of communism and encourage the Soviets to abandon their aggressive strategies.
Marshall Plan
Meanwhile, the United States used a tried-and-true method to shore up its alliances—it gave away money.
The Marshall Plan, named for Secretary of State George Marshall, sent more than $12 billion to Europe to help rebuild its cities and economy.
In return for that money, of course, countries were expected to become American allies.
The countries were also required to work together to promote economic growth, and is the precursor to the European Union.
Although the Marshall Plan was offered to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, no countries in the Soviet sphere participated in the program, as Stalin viewed the initiative as further evidence of U.S. imperialism.
Formation of NATO
The United States also formed a mutual defense alliance with Canada and a number of countries in Western Europe called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949.
Truman did not have an easy time convincing Congress that NATO was necessary; remember, from the time of Washington’s Farewell Address, American sentiment has strongly favored avoiding all foreign entanglements.
The crisis in Berlin the previous year, however, helped convince Congress to support NATO.
Berlin Blockade
The crisis represented a culmination of events after World War II.
In 1945, Germany had been divided into four sectors, with England, France, the United States, and the USSR each controlling one.
Berlin, though deep in Soviet territory, had been similarly divided.
Upon learning that the three Western Allies planned to merge their sectors into one country and to bring that country into the Western economy, the Soviets responded by imposing a blockade on Berlin.
Truman refused to surrender the city, however, and ordered airlifts to keep that portion under Western control supplied with food and fuel.
The blockade continued for close to a year, by which point the blockade became such a political liability that the Soviets gave it up.
The Berlin Blockade occurred when the Soviets closed off access to the city during the Truman administration in 1948
Berlin Wall
Soviets erected the Berlin Wall in 1961 during the Kennedy administration to divide the city between the East and the West.
Constructed of concrete and barbed wire, the wall separated the Soviet sector of Berlin from West Berlin and became a symbol of the Cold War.
The wall was finally dismantled in 1989.
US Fear of Socviet Invasion and Subterfuge
Not long after the United States joined NATO, the Soviets detonated their first atomic bomb.
Fear of Soviet invasion or subterfuge also led to the creation of the National Security Council (a group of foreign affairs advisers who work for the president) and the Central Intelligence Agency (the United States’ spy network).
National Security Council 68 was a document that said the United States should invest much more money into military spending because they couldn’t trust other countries to help protect them against communism.
REconstruction of Japan and Chinese REvolution
After the war, the United States occupied Japan, and its colonial possessions were divided up.
The United States took control of the Pacific Islands and the southern half of Korea, while the USSR took control of the northern half of Korea.
Under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, Japan wrote a democratic constitution, demilitarized, and started a remarkable economic revival.
The United States was not as successful in China, where it chose to side with Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government against Mao Zedong’s Communist insurgents, during China’s 20-year civil war (Mao having taken control of China in 1949).
Despite massive American military aid, the Communists overthrew the Nationalists, whose government was exiled to Taiwan.
For decades, the United States refused to recognize the legitimacy of Mao’s regime, creating another international “hot spot” for Americans.
Truman also chose to aid the French during the Vietnamese war for independence in Indochina, although most Americans were not aware of this at the time.
Pre-McCarthy Suspicion
All this conflict with communists resurrected anti- communist paranoia at home, just as anticommunism had swept America during the Red Scare after World War I.
In 1947, Truman ordered investigations of 3 million federal employees in a search for “security risks.”
Those found to have a potential Achilles’ heel—either previous association with “known communists” or a “moral” weakness such as alcoholism or homosexuality (which, the government reasoned, made them easy targets for blackmail)—were dismissed without a hearing.
In 1949, former State Department official Alger Hiss was found guilty of consorting with a communist spy (Richard Nixon was the congressman mostly responsible for Hiss’s downfall).
Americans began to passionately fear the “enemy within.”
Even the Screen Actors Guild, then headed by Ronald Reagan, attempted to discover and purge its own communists.
Joseph McCarthy, McCarthyism
It was this atmosphere that allowed a demagogic senator named Joseph McCarthy to rise from near anonymity to national fame.
In 1950, McCarthy claimed to have a list of more than 200 known communists working for the State Department.
He subsequently changed that number several times, which should have clued people in to the fact that he was not entirely truthful.
Unchallenged, McCarthy went on to lead a campaign of innuendo that ruined the lives of thousands of innocent people.
Without ever uncovering a single communist, McCarthy held years of hearings with regard to subversion, not just in the government, but in education and the entertainment industry as well.
Those subpoenaed were often forced to confess to previous associations with communists and name others with similar associations.
Industries created lists of those tainted by these charges, called blacklists, which prevented the accused from working, just as blacklists had been used against union organizers at the turn of the last century.
Eisenhower himself was worried about McCarthy and refused to speak against him, for fear that McCarthy would attack him.
McCarthy’s downfall
Came in 1954, during the Eisenhower administration, when he accused the Army of harboring communists.
He had finally chosen too powerful a target.
The Army fought back hard, and with help from Edward R. Murrow’s television show, in the Army- McCarthy hearings, McCarthy was made to look foolish.
The public turned its back on him, and the era of McCarthyism ended, but public distrust and fear of communism remained.
Fair Deal
Harry Truman, Extension of New Deal vision and provisions for reintegrating WWII veterans into society (e.g., the G.I. Bill)
The end of the war meant the end of wartime production.
With fewer Jeeps, airplanes, guns, bombs, and uniforms to manufacture, American businesses started laying off employees.
Returning war veterans further crowded the job market, and unemployment levels rose dramatically.
At the same time, many people who had built up their savings during the war (since rationing had limited the availability of consumer goods) started to spend more liberally, causing prices to rise.
In 1946, the inflation rate was nearly 20 percent.
The poor and unemployed felt the effects the most.
Truman offered some New Deal–style solutions to America’s economic woes, but a new conservatism had taken over American politics.
Most of his proposals were rejected, and the few that were implemented had little effect.
New Round of Anti-Unionism
The new conservatism brought with it a new round of anti- unionism in the country.
Americans were particularly upset when workers in essential industries went on strike, as when the coal miners’ strike (by the United Mine Workers, or UMW) cut off the energy supply to other industries, shutting down steel foundries, auto plants, and more.
Layoffs in the affected industries exacerbated tensions.
Americans cared little that the miners were fighting for basic rights.
Truman followed the national mood, ordering a government seizure of the mines when a settlement could not be reached.
During a later railroad strike, Truman threatened to draft into the military those strikers who held out for more than he thought they deserved.
Consequently, Truman alienated labor, one of the core constituencies of the new Democratic coalition.
Truman Alienates, Republicans Take Control
Labor and consumers, angry at skyrocketing prices, formed an alliance that helped the Republicans take control of the Eightieth Congress in the 1946 midterm elections.
Truman also alienated many voters (particularly in the South) by pursuing a civil rights agenda that, for its time, was progressive.
He convened the President’s Committee on Civil Rights, which in 1948 issued a report calling for an end to segregation and poll taxes, and for more aggressive enforcement of antilynching laws.
Truman also issued an executive order forbidding racial discrimination in the hiring of federal employees and another executive order desegregating the Armed Forces.
African Americans began to make other inroads.
The NAACP won some initial, important lawsuits against segregated schools and buses; Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball; and Black groups started to form coalitions with liberal white organizations, thereby gaining more political clout.
These advances provoked an outbreak of flagrant racism in the South, and in 1948 segregationist Democrats, or Dixiecrats, abandoned the party to support Strom Thurmond for president.
With so many core Democratic constituencies—labor, consumers, Southerners—angry with the president, his defeat in 1948 seemed certain.
Truman’s popularity, however, received an unintentional boost from the Republican-dominated Congress.
The staunchly conservative legislature passed several anti-labor acts too strong even for Truman.
The Taft-Hartley Act
The same Congress then rebuked Truman’s efforts to pass health care reform; increase aid to schools, farmers, the elderly, and the disabled; and promote civil rights for Black people.
The cumulative effect of all this acrimony made Truman look a lot better to those he had previously offended.
Taft-Hartley Act
passed over Truman’s veto
prohibited “union only” work environments (called closed shops)
restricted labor’s right to strike
prohibited the use of union funds for political purposes
gave the government broad power to intervene in strikes.
Election of 1948, Truman incumbent
Still, as election time neared, Truman trailed his chief opponent, Thomas Dewey.
He then made one of the most brilliant political moves in American history.
He recalled the Congress, whose majority members had just drafted an extremely conservative Republican platform at the party convention, and challenged them to enact that platform.
Congress met for two weeks and did not pass one significant piece of legislation.
Truman then went out on a grueling public appearance campaign, everywhere deriding the “do-nothing” Eightieth Congress.
To almost everyone’s surprise, Truman won re-election, and his coattails carried a Democratic majority into Congress.
The Korean War
The Korean War began in June of 1950, when communist North Korea invaded U.S.-backed South Korea. Believing the Soviet Union to have engineered the invasion, the
United States took swift countermeasures.
Originally intending only to repel the invasion, Truman decided to attempt a reunification of Korea after some early military successes.
Under the umbrella of the United Nations, American troops attacked North Korea, provoking China, Korea’s northern neighbor. (The Chinese were not too keen on the idea of hostile American troops on their border.)
China ultimately entered the war, pushing American and South Korean troops back near the original border dividing North and South Korea. U.S. commander Douglas MacArthur recommended an all-out confrontation with China, with the objective of overthrowing the Communists and reinstating Chiang Kai-shek.
Truman thought a war with the world’s most populous country might be imprudent and so decided against MacArthur.
When MacArthur started publicly criticizing the president, who was also the commander-in-chief, Truman fired him for insubordination.
MacArthur was very popular at home, however, and firing him hurt Truman politically.
Although peace talks began soon after, the war dragged on another two years, into the Eisenhower administration.
1952 Presidential Election, Eisenhower
When the 1952 presidential election arrived, the Republicans took a page from the Whig playbook and chose Dwight D. Eisenhower, a war hero.
By this point, the presidency had been held by the Democratic Party for 20 years. Truman was unpopular; his bluntness is now seen as a sign of his integrity, but during his terms, it offended a lot of potential constituents.
In short, America was ready for a change.
Eisenhower beat Democratic challenger Adlai Stevenson easily.
THE EISENHOWER YEARS (1953–1961)
The 1950s are often depicted as a time of conformity.
Across much of America, a consensus of values reigned.
Americans believed that their country was the best in the world, that communism was evil and had to be stopped, and that a decent job, a home in the suburbs, and access to all the modern conveniences (aka consumerism) did indeed constitute “the good life.”
Congress had enacted the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act, commonly known as the G.I. Bill of Rights, in June of 1944.
It provided an allowance for educational and living expenses for returning soldiers and veterans who wished to earn their high-school diploma or attend college.
The G.I. Bill not only helped many Americans achieve the American dream but also helped stimulate postwar economic growth by providing low-cost loans to purchase homes or farms or to start small businesses.
The 1950s also proved to be an era in which the civil rights movement built on the advances of the 1940s and met some violent resistance; an era plagued by frequent economic recessions; and an era of spiritual unrest that manifested itself in such emerging art forms as Beat poetry and novels (“Howl,” On the Road), teen movies (Blackboard Jungle, The Wild One, Rebel Without a Cause), and rock ‘n’ roll (Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry).
Eisenhower arrived at the White House prepared to impose conservative values on the federal government, which had mushroomed in size under Roosevelt and Truman.
