Post-War America - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Post-War America

Chapter 36

• How did the events of WWII help facilitate the onset of the Cold War and influence American foreign policy throughout most of the 20th Century?

• After WWII the economy slumped, many feared a Great Depression, part 2.
• Labor Unions saw huge gains during GD.
• Taft-Hartley Act: 1947, targeted labor unions, outlawed closed shops and forced union leaders to swear anti-communist oaths. Congress overrode Truman’s veto.
• Congress of Industrial Organizations attempts to unionize south, fail due to fears of racial mixing.

• Government sells off wartime factories.
• GI Bill: Prompted by idea of 15 million unemployed soldiers
• government paid for college, loans for homes and businesses.
• Greatly affected the postwar period, millions could now afford a better life, and spend $$$.

• US economy surges in late 40s
• Income quadruples by 60s.
• US possessed 40% of world’s wealth
• 60% of US middle class
• 2 cars in every garage, TV!!!
• Enabled government to afford welfare programs, become a world leader
• Woman in conflict: Pop culture image of homemaker vs. working woman

• GI Bill
• Defense spending remained high throughout the Cold War
• New industries: technology, aerospace, plastics
• Cheap energy: gas readily available, dams and nuclear power provide cheap electricity.
• Better education = increased production = cheaper prices
• Farm workers decrease, farm productivity increases

• New job opportunities in South, West lead many to relocate
• Air conditioning and highways make it more appealing
• Increased population leads to increased political power (1964-2004 all presidents from Sunbelt)
• Result = Rustbelt: economically depressed areas in Northeast

• GI Bill + Economic boom = more people to suburbs
• White Flight = affluent whites to subs, AA to inner cities
• Federal Housing Administration provides incentives for homeownership
• Need for quick housing leads to Levittowns ( communities of planned, pre-manufactured, uniform homes)
• AA often tried to escape poverty by moving to urban areas, followed them. Often refused home loans, increased segregation.

• Post war prosperity + 15 million returning soldiers + end of Great Depression = Lots of Babies.
• US population explodes from 50 million births by 1960!
• Strain placed on educational system.

• Advertisers take advantage: toys, food, clothing for this generation.
• Leads to the “youth culture of 60s.
• Today: Boomers are close to retirement, strain on Social Security

• President Truman
• No college, farmer, WWI vet, haberdasher
• Veteran of Missouri politics
• Unsure in early days of presidency
• Became a confidant, strong willed, predictable leader.

• Feb 1945; Churchill, Stalin and FDR
• Agreed to divide Germany into 4 zones (France, UK, US, USSR)
• Stalin occupies E. Europe, agrees to allow free elections in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania – Lied!

• USSR agrees to fight Japan 3 months after VE Day
• FDR agrees to allow USSR to have some Japanese islands and some parts of Chinese Manchuria.

• Communism v. Capitalism/ Democracy v. Totalitarianism
• USSR fears raised when Allies delayed D-Day, placing more pressure on eastern front
• Atomic weapons, US stop of Lend-lease $ to USSR increase tensions
• US and USSR both want to lead the world for their respective philosophies

• Stalin’s Fear: Twice (WWI, WWII) Russia was invaded through Europe
• Stalin hoped to establish a “sphere of influence” in E Europe by controlling Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Czech., and Hungary)
• Looked like an empire to US
• Seeds of the Cold War were sown during WWII.

• International Monetary Fund: 1944, regulate currency exchange rates.
• World Bank: loans to war ravaged and 3rd world countries
• 1945: 50 nations create the UN charter
• UN Security Council (US, UK, USSR, France, and China) holds greatest power.

• General Assembly included members form all nations
• Early success: Peace in Kashmir, guide colonies to independence
• Failures: taming nuclear proliferation
• UN also key in the creation of Israel (success or failure?)

• Nuremberg Trials: prosecuted Nazi leaders as war criminals, 13 executed
• Reparations lesson learned after WWI, very limited reparations applied to Germany post WWII

• Per Yalta, divided in 4 zones
• Goal: Rebuild and reunite Germany
• USSR refused to give up their zone.
• Iron Curtain: symbolic division of West (capitalism) and East (Communism)

• The capitol, Berlin, was located within the Soviet zone.
• Divided, like Germany, it became an island of democracy surrounded by communism
• 1948: Soviets stop all supplies coming in from ground into West Berlin
• US airlifts supplies for 1 year until USSR removes blockade
• Significance: 1st confrontation of Cold War, Shows US resolve to fight communism

• Stalin’s refusal to live up to Yalta promises prompted the US to take a tough stand.
• Truman Doctrine: pledged US economic support for any nation in danger of falling to communist regimes.
• 1st used in Greece and Turkey
• Birthed the policy of containment (don’t let communism spread)
• Major US policy for the Cold War
• Divided world into “good and evil”

• Economies of Western Europe continued to struggle after WWII.
• Marshall Plan: Give economic aid to these nations 1) To aid in recovery 2) fight communism
• Billions given to W Europe lead to an economic miracle
• Lead to the European Union

• Sympathy from the Holocaust lead to a movement to return the Holy Land (Palestine) to the Jews.
• Truman, US gave their blessing and in 1948 the nation of Israel was created.
• Vast opposition from Arab neighbors threatened to destroy Israel and their American conspiritors.

• National Security Act (1947)
• Organized military into the Department of Defense
• Created the National Security Council to advise the president.
• Creates the Central Intelligence Agency to gather data in foreign nations.
• Selective Service Act
• Reestablished in 1948, drafted men during peacetime, continuous draft until 1973

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1949)
• Alliance of Western European democracies, US and Canada.
• Pledged to defend each other
• “An attack on one is an attack on all”
• Also consistent with US policy of Containment
• Still in place today!

• US alone reconstructed Japan.
• Douglas MacArthur lead the process, met little opposition from the Japanese.
• MacArthur created the Japanese constitution.
• Japanese economy recovered, soon became one of the world’s mightiest industrial powers.

• 1949
• Chinese nationalist (pro-capitalism) lose a long civil war with communist forces led by Mao Zedong.
• Containment fails
• Nationalists retreat to Taiwan
• USSR successfully develops nuclear weapons.
• Major setbacks for US in Cold War.

• Americans and Soviets clamored to gain an advantage in the new nuclear arms race.
• 1952: US creates 1stHydrogen Bomb
• 1,000 more destructive than Hiroshima
• 1953: USSR also gets H-Bomb
• New weapon lead many world wide to fear that a “hot war” between US and USSR would destroy the planet.

• Americans looked inward for someone to blame for communist successes.
• Fear of Red spies launched loyalty oaths for government employees.
• Many refused the oath on constitutional grounds, fired.

• Would the Cold War destroy freedom of speech, thought, and assembly?
• Was being a communist unconstitutional?
• House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) investigated Reds in government and public.

• Hollywood Ten: Movie producers that were blacklisted for refusal to testify before Congress.
• In truth, some spies were operating in US, but very few.
• Alger Hiss: connected to Communist party in 30s, convicted of perjury.

• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg: had connections to the Manhattan Project; convicted of espionage, executed
• Fear spread, libraries were purged of “un-American” books.
• Led to the rise of Joseph McCarthy (Chap.37)

• Democrats wanted Eisenhower, but he refused.
• Democrats go with Truman
• Southern Democrats break away, form DixiecratParty: Strom Thurmond- states’ rights, segregation

• Progressive Party Reborn under Henry Wallace: New New Deal, Pro-Soviet.
• Democrats split 3 ways, sure win for Republicans.
• Rep. nominate Thomas Dewey: sat back, waited for victory

• Truman gutted-up
• Made speeches across the nation
• Likability and down-home charm proved to be the difference
• Truman = 303, Dewey = 189, Thurmond = 39

• Like Germany, Korea was divided after WWII along the 38th Parallel (USSR in North/ US in South).
• 1950 North Korea attacked the South.
• Tested US policy of containment.
• USSR/China not present at UN, US gets Security Council to approve operation.

• Douglas MacArthur named UN commander.
• NSC-68: top secret document, called for US to drastically increase defense spending. Theory: US economy will win Cold War

September 1950

November 1950

• January 1951 – China sends 260,000 troops to aid North Korea

• US/UN Goal: remove Northern troops from South
• South Korean troops continued North, and US/UN approved MacArthur to fight above the 38th.

• In late 1950, China came to the aid of the North.
• Overwhelming numbers forced UN troops below 38th
• Mac wanted to attack China, even suggesting nukes.

• MacArthur openly spoke out against the President, his boss!
• Truman fired Mac, who came home to a heroes welcome.
• Truman’s popularity decreased
• The Korean stalemate would continue until President Eisenhower signs an armistice.
• Still in place today