The changing political environment

Who was the democratic president from 1913-1921?

Woodrow Wilson

Who was president for WW1?

Wilson

Who was the republican president from 1921-1923

Warren G. Harding

Who was the republican president from 1923-1929

Calvin Coolidge

Who was the republican president from 1929-1933

Herbert Hoover

Why did the republicans win the 1920 election? (3)

• Democratics focused their campaign on the League of Nations

• Voters were more concerned about rising prices

• Presented a return to ‘normalcy’

What percentage of votes did the republicans win in 1920?

61%

What emerged in 1923 about Harding?

There was corruption within his administration, with several men imprisoned for misappropriating funds or accepting bribes

What was Coolidge’s philosophy?

Laissez-faire

What did Coolidge become a symbol of?

Traditional values which were threatened by the forces of change

What economic problems faced Hoover?

1929- Wall Street Crash —> the Great Depression

When was the Prohibition era?

1920-1933

What is ‘rugged individualism’?

The belief that government intervention in the economy should be kept to a minimum

What did many Americans attribute the successes of the1920s to?

Big business'- ‘We want less government in business and more business in government’

How did Americans feel about the League of Nations?

Wilson hoped that it would maintain peace, however many Americans were against US involvement internationally, resulting in the Senate refusing to ratify the Versailles Treaty.

Why were Americans weary of getting involved in international affairs in the 20s and 30s? (2)

• Unhappy that they had entered WW1

• Preoccupied with the economic consequences of the Great Depression

Who was the democratic president from 1933-1945?

Franklin D. Roosevelt

When did Roosevelt pass the first New Deal?

1933- passed in his first 100 days

What was in the New Deal? (3)

• Alphabet agencies- AAA (paid farmers to produce less), FERA (helped those who were homeless and on the brink of starvation)

• Programmes aimed at providing economic relief to workers and farmers

• Regulated the stock market

How did Roosevelt address the country?

Fireside chats- used more casual language to discuss key political matters

What was in the second New Deal? (5)

Roosevelt wanted to create a more structural, long-term approach to solve the issues created by the Great Depression

• Works progress Administration (WPA)- set up schemes to create jobs in public building projects

  • The WPA became the country’s biggest employer, employing more than 8 million Americans over eight years

• Highest rate of tax raised to 75% for over $5 million

• Workers allowed to join trade unions

• Minimum wage enforced and child labour ended

• Provided pensions benefits for the elderly as well as small payments to groups including disabled people, the unemployed, widows and orphans

  • Nothing for famers or domestic service though

How had Hoover laid the foundations for the New Deal? (3)

• Intervened in the economy during the Great Depression

• Set up the Federal Farm Board to bolster farm prices

• 1932- federal budget ended up being $2.7 billion in the red- largest peacetime deficit in US history

What opposition did Roosevelt face?

Attempted to ‘court-pack’ the Supreme Court, which resulted in a split in the Democrats and a storm of protest from his opposition. They believed he had dictatorial ambitions.

When did the USA enter WW2?

1941- Pearl Harbour

What had been established under Roosevelt?

A semi-welfare state

What was the Neutrality Act?

1935- required the President to have an impartial arms embargo on all belligerents

How did Roosevelt support Britain in WW2? (2)

• Gave 40 destroyers in return for bases in the Caribbean

• Roosevelt introduced lend-lease, where he has the authority to aid any nation whose defense he believed vital to the United States and to accept any repayment

Who was the democratic president from 1945-1953?

Harry Truman

Who was the republican president from 1953-1961?

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Who was the democratic president from 1961-1963?

John F. Kennedy

Who was the democratic president from 1963-1969?

Lyndon B. Johnson

Who was the republican president from 1969-1974?

Richard Nixon

How did Truman end WW2?

Dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945

When was the first Red Scare?

1919

What happened in the first Red Scare? (3)

• Palmer Raids- 9,000 people arrested, 500 deported

• 32 states banned unions

• Anarchist bomb killed 38 people on Wall Street

What had triggered the first Red Scare?

1917 Russian Revolution and emergence of American Communist movement (largely foreign born membership)

What caused the second Red Scare?

Fear of Communism during Cold War

What did Truman do against communism within the government in 1947? (2)

• Established a Loyalty Review Board to investigate all federal employees

• Allowed the FBI to investigate subversives

What was McCarthyism?

1950- McCarthy claimed he had evidence that 205 Communists had infiltrated the State Department, placing himself art the centre of the anti-Communist movement.

What did Roosevelt do for Veterans?

GI Bill of rights 1944- included unemployment benefits and low-interest mortgage

What percentage of the world’s arms did USA produce?

1945- 45% meaning it prospered during the war

Why did the USA emerge as a superpower? (3)

• Suffered the lowest loss of lives- 292,000 deaths

• Avoided being bombed or invaded

• Benefitted economically

What was the Truman Doctrine? (3)

• 1947

• USA didn’t return to isolationism

• $400 million to Greece and Türkiye to help ensure they didn’t fall to Communism

What was Marshall Aid? (4)

• 1948

• $13 billion to European countries struggling from poverty and chaos

• Aimed to promote Europe economically so Europeans would buy American goods

• Prevented poverty-struck Europe from adopting Communism

What agency was created in 1947?

CIA

What did the USSR do in 1948?

Blockaded West Berlin, so Truman organised a massive air lift with 13,000 tons of goods per day

When was the Korean War?

1950-1953

What was the first movie shown in the white house?

1915- Birth of a nation, KKK portrayed as a heroic force

Who ended the Korean war?

Eisenhower

What were the three central points in the 1952 election?

Communism, Korea and corruption

What did liberals support? (4)

• Civil Rights

• Opposed Vietnam

• Wanted the government to help poor Americans

• Alternative lifestyles

How did Johnson align with liberals? (2)

• Supported civil rights

• Wanted to create a Great Society

How didn’t Johnson align with liberals? (2)

• Vietnam war

• Had little sympathy for counter-cultural movements

What were hippies? (2)

• Rejected society’s emphasis on competitiveness, individualism and materialism

• Woodstock rock festival 1969- 400,000 people attended

When was the first TV debate for presidents?

1960

What was the Cuban Missile Crisis?

1962- the Soviet Union began to secretly install missiles in Cuba to launch attacks on U.S. cities. The confrontation that followed, known as the Cuban missile crisis, brought the two superpowers to the brink of war before an agreement was reached to withdraw the missiles.

Who took the US to Vietnam?

Kennedy

Who did Nixon pride himself for representing?

Middle America- ‘silent majority’

What was ‘counter-culture’?

Those who protested against the dominant culture- feminists, anti-war activists and hippies

What protests happened under Nixon? (2)

• 1969-70- anti-war

• pro-civil rights protests

How did Nixon decrease the number of protests? (3)

• withdrew troops from Vietnam

• ordered FBI surveillance of disruptive groups

• threatened to end federal scholarships and loans for student trouble-makers

What did the religious right believe in?

Against: abortion, feminism, divorce, drugs, pre-marital sex and homosexuality

How many men were in Vietnam by 1968 vs. 1970?

538,000- required the birthday draft —> 40,000

How many anti-war protests happened in 1968?

220

When was the Vietnam war?

1963-73

What was the Watergate scandal?

Nixon sent men to the Democrat Party headquarters in 1972 to try discover their plans

What was the impact of Watergate? (3)

• Led to a decline in America’s international standing

• Seen as the end of the imperial presidency

• Contributed to the decline in confidence in the presidency

When did Americans begin to lose trust in the presidency?

Johnson (Vietnam, continued divisions and economic problems)

Who was the republican president from 1974-1977?

Ford

How did Ford continue to help the decline in confidence? (2)

• Pardoned Nixon

• Easy to make fun of in the media- fell over a lot

How did people feel about Ford and Carter?

75% felt they lacked presidential quality

Only 54% of eligible voters voted

Who was the democratic president from 1977-1981?

Carter

Who seemed to be winning the cold war in the 1970s?

USSR

What did Carter fail to manage in 1979?

Iran Hostage crisis