1945-1980

😿

1946→50s Baby boom, GI Bill

• Rather than put 10 million ex-soldiers back on the unemployment lines, the GI Bill pays to send them to college.

• This reduces the risk of returning to the Depression.

House-UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC),

was an investigative committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Created in 1938, it is best known for its aggressive, highly publicized searches for suspected Communist sympathizers during the Cold War.

McCarthyism/ Red scare

second red scaare

Cold War Causes & Effects

• At the end of World War II, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were the two most powerful nations.   

• The entire world was effectively divided between these two countries into “spheres of influence.”

Containment

keep communism from spreading

Truman Doctrine

In 1947, the Truman Doctrine offered $400 million in military and economic aid to support both Greece and Turkey who were fighting against communist rebels.

Marshall Plan

• In 1947, to prevent the war-ravaged nations of Western Europe from descending into poverty and despair, the U.S. sent billions of dollars in economic aid to help these nations rebuild.

• This reduced the risk of these nations turning to a communist dictator to solve their problems.

Berlin Airlift

The “BERLIN AIRLIFT” lasted for 24 hours a day for 11 months before the Russians ended the blockade!! 

NATO

The U.S. creates an alliance called the North Atlantic
    Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Soviet Union
      responds with an alliance called the Warsaw Pact.

Korean War

1950 - communist Korea attacked capitialist s. Korea. The US w UN support, enters the war, then souht to liberate n. Korea. n. Korea quickly gained ground against South Korea. china enters the war, pushes back US and UN forces. Truman fires MacArther for undermining Diplomacy and suggesting the use of nuclear weapons. July 1953 war ends -Eisenhower negotiats and armstice.

Sputnik(1957)

The Russians could now launch Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM’s) with nuclear warheads on them!  

    Somehow, the U.S. has fallen behind technologically!!

Kennedy/Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

   In October 1962, the Soviets stationed nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba, 90 miles from Florida.

Vietnam

• The U.S. believed the communist challenge in Vietnam was outside aggression which must
  be contained.

• The N. Vietnamese saw 
  it as an extension of
  anti-colonialism which expelled the French in 1954 and divided the country into two.

(Domino Theory

If one country falls to communism then the rest will follow.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution(1964)

• The GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION
      (1964) provided a  “blank check,”  
      enabling the President to decide to
      escalate the war! 

•    By 1968, the U.S. had more than
      500,000 troops in Vietnam.

Vietnamization/Nixon Doctrine

-- Nixon advocated VIETNAMIZATION of the war, by training the South Vietnamese to fight for themselves, enabling a withdrawal of most American forces.

War Powers Act (1973)

The WAR POWERS ACT attempted to reign in Presidential war-making power by requiring:

LBJ and Great Society

War on poverty → food stamps, wellfare, medicare, head start(liberalism and the War on Poverty contrast with New Deal)

Assassination of MLK, RFK

1970s Nixion

African American Civil Rights

Types of protest

(nonviolent; sit-ins; freedom rides)

1947

Jackie Robinson

1948

Truman desegrates military

1954

Brown v. Board of Ed.

1955

Rosa Parks, MLK, Montgomery Bus Boycott

1957

Little Rock Nine

1963

Martin Luther King; Jr. (“I have a dream.”)

24th Amendment

(no poll taxes)

Civil Rights Act of 1964

(no segregation/discrimination)

March

Selma→ Montgomery

Voting Rights Act of 1965

(no literacy tests!)

(Affirmative Action, Bakke v. California – 1978)

March on Washington

Women’s rights 1960s-1970s

Feminine Mystique(Betty Friedan)

National Organization for Women (NOW)

Birth Control Pill, ERA; Roe v. Wade 1973

Civil rights for others

[Gay rights – Pink Panthers] Latinos – Cesar Chavez, and American Indians – AIM)

Invasion of Cambodia

President Nixon expanded the war into
  neighboring Cambodia (1970) to destroy
  enemy supply routes.

OPEC oil embargo/energy crisis

ARAB OPEC
OIL EMBARGO

is used against all countries that support Israel, especially the United States.

Opening to China

Détente w/U.S.S.R.

(SALT/ABM Treaty)

 SALT – The Strategic Arms
  Limitation Treaty limited the
  production of nuclear weapons
  on each side and symbolized
  détente. (1972 – Nixon

• ABM TREATY – The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty stated that neither side could produce anti-missile defenses.This preserved M.A.D., -- keeping the peace. (1972 – Nixon)

Watergate

Several burglars were arrested breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters.  It was soon discovered that they had connections to Nixon’s reelection campaign.

--Nixon was active in trying to cover this up, raising the possibility of being charged with “obstruction of justice.”

--In the course of the Congressional investigation, the existence of audio tapes of oval office conversations was revealed.

--Congress sued for access to the tapes and won in the S.C. case US v. NIXON.

--Subsequently, Nixon resigned before he could be impeached and convicted.

Stagflation

HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT and HIGH INFLATION due in large part to the energy crisis resulting from the Iranian Islamic Revolution.

Iranian Hostage Crisis

• U.S. diplomats held hostage for 444 days.

• Jimmy Carter was unable to free them.

• This crippled his Presidency and made
    the U.S. appear weak throughout the world.

• Since then, Iran has supported terrorism 
    and anti-American Islamic fundamentalism  
    around the world.

Camp David Accords

Peace between Israel and Egypt. Failed.

SALT II

Limited increases in nuclear weapons.

Was never ratified by Congress, and was withdrawn from consideration  after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Russian invasion of Afghanistan

This marks the end of détente. Carter responds weakly with a grain embargo and a boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.

End of Détente

• With the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S.S.R. ended any pretense of being a peaceful nation.

• detente had failed.   Instead of being more moderate, the Russians sought to increase their strength and spread their influence.