Period 8 (1945-1980)

Cold War Ideology/Causes

1947-1991

USSR: want safety for communism to thrive

• Want a “buffer zone” btw Russian and rest of Europe so stop being invaded by Germany/Europe

USA: want stop spread of communism (containment)

• Afraid Stalin is like Hitler

• Afraid starving Europe would get angry and want change political system to communism

• Afraid of Russia vast territory

• Domino Theory: must stop any country from becoming communist because it will catalyze a chain reaction of more countries becoming communist

• Containment: stop the spread of communism everywhere

• Brinkmanship: go to the brink of nuclear war to try and scare off USSR first, also causing US fear

Yalta Conference

1945

Allies plan to split up Germany into 4 zones occupy by France, UK, US, and USSR

• Cause: Germany lose WW2

Long Telegram

1946

George Kennan (US diplomat in Russia) warn that there is no peaceful coexistence between US and USSR

• Create containment

• Effect: Truman Doctrine

Truman Doctrine

1947

US will do whatever necessary to stop the spread of communism

• Include global intervention

• Effect: end isolationism post WW2

• Effect: Korean War

Marshall Plan

1948-1951

US give money to rebuild Europe after WW2

• Cause: want stop spread of communism bc think poverty will lead to communism

• Cause: want Europe to use money to buy US goods

Berlin Airlift

1948-1949

Allies send daily resources to Berlin to help it through USSR blockade

• Cause: USSR blockade Berlin (Germany) bc Germany capitalist nation nearby

  • Cause: want drive out Allies in Germany

• Effect: USSR end blockade

• Effect: split Germany into western half and Soviet half

• Effect: NATO created to protect Allies from USSR

National Security Act

1947

US make CIA, National Security Council, and Department of Defense

• Effect: show US giving up on world piece

Korean War

1950-1953

US and USSR proxy war through North and South Korea

• Long back-and-forth stalemate between North and South Korea

• Cause: Korea split at 38th parallel, USSR control North Korea, US control South Korea

• Effect: 1953 Armistice

• Effect: millions of civilian deaths just for a stalemate

Arms Race

1945-1991 (End of Cold War)

Buildup of military weapons in US and USSR to try and scare the other off first

• Cause: Doomsday Clock magazine (warned that humanity close to nuclear war)

• Cause: NSC-68 (1950): advocation for more funding for national security, depicting the Cold War as a fight between good and evil

• Cause: Developed a hydrogen bomb, more powerful than an atom bomb

• Effect: societal fear and bomb drills

• Effect: Massive Retaliation (1950s): doctrine stating that Soviet aggression would be met w huge nuclear attack

• Effect: took a lot of money to support arms race

Space Race

1950s-1970s

US and USSR race to get the best space technology

• Cause: Soviet sattelites in space

• Cause: arms race

• Effect: NASA created in US

• Effect: National Defense Education Act (1958): provided more money for science education

2nd Red Scare/McCarthyism

1950-1954

Mass fear of USSR spies everywhere

• Amplified by Senator Joseph McCarthy to gain power

• House Committee of Un-American Activites (HUAC) blacklist actors

• Cause: discover Soviet spies in atom bomb program

• Effect: many innocent people lose jobs

• Effect: Hollywood decline

Bay of Pigs Invasion

1961

Failed Cuban invasion by US through Cuban exiles from past dictatorship

• Cause: 1959 overthrow of Cuban dictator and new leadership of Fidel Castro (US fear that he is communist)

• Cause: US want to remove Castro without looking like they instigated a conflict

• Effect: most exiles captured and held at ransom

• Effect: Give Fidel Castro more power and let him be openly communist because not afraid of US anymore

• Effect: US fear of a communist nation in Western Hemisphere (near US)

Cuban Missile Crisis

1962

Nuclear standoff with US missiles near USSR and Soviet missiles in Cuba (near US) as part of the arms race

• Each side want to win with closer and faster missiles

• Neither side want to back down and look weak

• US can’t block Cuba from getting missiles because USSR views as agression against their “defensive” missiles

• End by agreement to take away Cuban missiles if US don’t invade Cuba again, with private agreement for US to also take away missiles near USSR

• Effect: Closest to actual war that the Cold War got

• Effect: expose danger of brinksmanship

Cold War in Latin America

Both US and USSR fight for influence in newly decolonized (post ww2) Latin American countries

• Effect: many countries choose non-alignment (3rd World)

Vietnam War

1955-1975

Long, bloody proxy war where North Vietnam/Viet Cong (USSR) defeats South Vietnam (USA)

• Cause: North want to unite Vietnam under communism, South want to stop spread of communism thru domino theory

• Tet offensive (1968): North guerilla attack on South Vietnam, made US public suspicious of US claims that US will win

• My Lai Massacre (1968): US troops murder innocent Vietnamese civilians, outraged US public

• Pentagon Papers leaked (1971): revealed government lying about the Vietnam war spreading into Laos and Cambodia, angered US public

• End w/ Paris Peace Accords (1973): N & S unite to force the US out, but N overrun S later

• End w/ Vietnamization: replacing US soldiers in Vietnam with Vietnamese soldiers

• Called a “living-room war” bc people could see the brutality of it on TV, increased public dislike

• Effect: US shame of loss and killing civilians

• Effect: huge anti-war sentiment and distrust of government

GI Bill

1944

FDR pay war veterans 1 year unemployment when they come home from WW2

• Provide money for college, medical care, help w/ loans

• Included colored people and women but discrimination in practice

• Effect: expand college teachings

• Effect: successful, cause an economic boom

• Effect: make some people mad bc think college should only be for elites

Baby Boom

1940s-1960s

Huge increase in birth rates

• Previous decline bc of Great Depression and urbanization

• Cause: economic boom (GI Bill), easier to support a family

• Cause: soldiers return to wives from WW2

Suburbs/1950s society

• Levitt and sons = big house making company

• Cause: used industrial power to mass produce houses

• Cause: want build more houses to combat overpopulation when soldiers return

• Effect: American Dream of settling down and having kids

• Effect: nuclear family become building block of society

• Effect: conformity and discontent, youth counter-culture
  Effect: oppressive motherhood ideal for women, though many choose to stay in workforce

• Effect: housing discrimination against black people and Asians, wider economic gap

1960s Counterculture

Movement protesting the conformity, rigid norms, consumerism, racism, and militarism (Vietnam war) of the 1950s

• Youth activism and student movements

• Effect: Nixon try to suppress

• Effect: Conservative movements of 1970s

1970s

1968-Nixon presidency

• “law and order” campaign of ending Vietnam war and going back to tradition

• Appealed to silent majority of white ppl afraid of change in 1960s

Stagflation

• Cause: inflation paired with unemployment and stagnant wages

• Cause: high economic cost of Vietnam war and social programs

• Cause: high job competition between baby boomers, immigrants, and women

• Effect: Nixon try to end with a price freeze, short term success

• Effect: endd of post ww2 economic boom

Globalization: manufacturing in different countries for less wages

Increasing US involvement in Middle-east affairs

Watergate

1972

Nixon caught illegally using spies on Democrats to keep him in power

• Effect: impeachment and resignation

Oil Crisis

1973

Middle east oil embargo on US

• Cause: US supporting Israel in a war

• Effect: lots of inflation

Civil Rights Movement

1940s-1960s

• Cause: Jim Crow, continued discrimination

• Effect: some successes but still discrimination

Also Included:

• Latino activism (economic discrimination)

• Native American activism (lost land and sovereignty)

• Asian activism (Japanese internment reparations)

• Feminism (1973 Roe v Wade and birth control pill)

• LGBTQ activism

Executive Order 9981

1948

Desegregated the military

• Cause: black people deserve equality after fighting for the US in a segregated military

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

Civil Rights group led by Thurgood Marshall

• Effect: successful (BvBoE, CRA 1964, VRA 1965)

Brown v Board of Education

1954

Illegalized segregation in schools because separate is inherently unequal

• Overturned Plessy v Fergusen

• Led by Thurgood Marshall

• Cause: Linda Brown sue for having to travel in dangerous conditions to a black school when a white school was nearby

Emmett Till murder

1955

Brutal kidnapping murder of teenage boy because a white woman accuse him of flirting with her

• Effect: public outrage, more publicity for Civil Rights Movement

• Effect: white ppl put on trial for first time in Jim Crow period (but still get away with it)

Montgomery Bus Boycott

1955

• Cause: Rosa Parks’ arrest

• Led by MLK

• Rosa Parks (a model citizen) made the face of the boycott

• Effect: harm bus revenue

• Effect: 1956 Supreme Court decision deciding bus segregation is unconstitutional

Massive Resistance

White movement against desegregation and Civil Rights movement

• Cause: Brown v Board of Education

Little Rock 9

Federal government send troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to help 9 black students go to a white highschool

• Effect: white student protests

March on Washington

1963

Large, nonviolent protest in Washington DC for civil and economic rights

• Included MLK’s I have a dream speech

• Effect: CRA 1964 and VRA 1965

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Banned discrimination in schools, jobs, and housing

Voting Rights Act

1965

Banned poll taxes and literacy tests that restricted black voters

Effect: CRA and VRA cause white opposition

Effect: many white people join Republican party when black people are in Democratic party

Black Power

Violent/militant back advocacy movement

• Influenced by Malcolm X

• Cause: want end police brutality

• Effect: cause opposition because of increased violence

The Great Society

1964-1965

Large group of reforms by Lyndon B Johnson

• Civil Rights Act 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Medicare and Medicaid

• “War on Poverty” by creating jobs and aiding poor

• Education funding

• Opened immigration

• Conservation

• Effect: help a bit

• Effect: expand government role in welfare