Post War America

What happened after WW2 that caused immediate fear and propaganda from the Americans?

Soviet Union spreading communism across the globe

Servicemen’s Readjustment Act:

Every honorably discharged veteran who had seen active duty, but not necessarily combat, was eligible to receive a year’s worth of unemployment compensation. As well as giving an opportunity to get an education and pursue a life again while everything was being paid for.

American Japanese Claims Act:

allowing Japanese Americans to apply for compensation for property losses which occurred as "a reasonable and natural consequence of the evacuation or exclusion."

How were people in the United States feeling after the war in particular about the soldiers? Was this a unanimous decision?

Once the war was finished the United States wanted to demobilize its military and return veterans to go back to civilian lives. This was paired up with people who threatened to vote republican if they weren’t home by December 1946. Nope!

Common between WW1 and WW2?

Women left their jobs for men and there was fear of fitting in and the casualties was immensely high

Goal of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act?

was to ease veterans of the worries of not being able to assimilate into the country properly again. Ensured Soldiers and People at home about the veterans in war and the hopes that they would win the war.

Loophole of GI Bill?

People were dishonorably discharged and it was only for certain people like white Americans

The American Japanese Claims Act Loophole?

wasn’t effective as the records weren’t there anymore and only barely some money was spread around.

Congress Hatred Why?

Congress was constantly against getting rid of segregation and made laws to limit the powers of lower classes and citizen’s power to express

Aspects of Fair Deal?

achieve a federal minimum wage, expanding Social Security and public housing, and prohibiting child labor, include all and extend civil rights to African Americans by establishing the Presidential Committee on Civil Rights to investigate racial discrimination in the US

Cold War Long Term Cause?

Long Term Causes: Western democracies had always been hostile to the idea of a communist state. American business leaders had long feared the consequences of a politically driven workers' organization. World War II provided short-term causes as well.

Cold War was about?

Between the US and the Soviet Union, lasted 45 years, no direct fighting, about democracy spreading vs communism

Iron Curtain?

Soon such governments, aided by the Soviet Red Army came to power all across eastern Europe. Stalin was determined to create a buffer zone to prevent any future invasion of the Russian heartland.

Policy of Containment:

primarily through economic policy—to those places where it already existed and prevent its political expansion into new areas. This formed the basis for the US foreign policy and military decision making for more than thirty years.

National Security Act of 1947:

streamlined the government in matters of security by creating the National Security Council and establishing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to conduct surveillance and espionage in foreign nations.`

Truman Doctrine:

which offered support to Greece and Turkey in the form of financial assistance, weaponry, and troops to help train their militaries and bolster their governments against Communism. Eventually, the program was expanded to include any state trying to withstand a Communist takeover

Cold War Essentials?

Cold War: The decades-long struggle between them for technological and ideological supremacy

Cold War: Propaganda + Race to Highest Power, and Resources

Soviet Union Belief?

They believed any country that threatened to spread their opposite belief about how a government should act, needs to be removed immediately.

Policy of Containment Form?

The Truman Doctrine was a form of the policy of containment as they helped other countries fight communism making it harder for the Soviets to be able to spread their beliefs and become more powerful.

What did Soviet Union want after WW2 in terms of money?

Soviet Union wanted reparations from Germany but the US found this a repeat of WW2

US had to be in engagement because of?

Had to be in active engagement because traditional powers weren’t powerful enough to fight back in case of war.

Congress the European Recovery Program/Marshall Plan:

13 billion in economic aid to European nations to rebuilt Europe after WW2

April 1949 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO):

an alliance pledging its members to mutual defense in the event of attack, Allies except for Soviet Union+Canada

Fear for USA in Europe?

Countries that were destroyed could have communists who could take over the country

Marshall Plan ensures?

ensured that countries in Europe had to work together and remove communists in order to receive aid for rebuilding of the country. Considered a hit towards the Soviet Union

Executive Order 9835:

which provided the Federal Bureau of Investigation with broad powers to investigate federal employees and identify potential security risks. State and municipal governments instituted their own loyalty boards to find and dismiss potentially disloyal workers.

House Committee on Un-American Activities:

established in 1938 to investigate suspected Nazi sympathizers, after World War II also sought to root out suspected Communists in business, academia, and the media.

Second Red Scare?

suspicions that there were people passing information about how to make the bomb and passing military information even before the declaration of China being communist, causing people to be scared and worried, causing people to get executed without any evidence

Korean War Beginnings?

The Soviet Union allowed North Korea to capture the entirety of “Korea” and this caused the UN to gather forces with South Korea to reestablish the line and ensure that Russia couldn’t spread its communist behavior any longer on June 27th 1950.

Why was the Korean War hated by General MacArthur?

“the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy.” People wished for Truman to stage war on the Soviets to continue democracy and pro capitalism

Reason for the baby boom

After a difficult transition from war and wishing to build the secure life that the Great Depression had deprived their parents of, young men and women married in record numbers and purchased homes where they could start families of their own

Key Factors of Levittown development?

unused land in the suburbs, low mortgage rates, war production and since it was over they used to their advantage and built homes at the same speed, Low cost but they all looked the same.

Impact of the Suburbans

largest U.S. cities saw their tax bases shrink significantly in the postwar period, and the apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives shifted to the suburbs and away from urban areas. The entire country became more developed and better for families around the country, Automobiles usage increased helping people to transport and get things faster

The Civil Rights Act of 1964:

which prohibited discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, and religion, also prohibited, in Title VII, discrimination on the basis of sex

Women opinion after WW2?

Women had lost their power when the war ended and didn't want to return to their stereotypical jobs and during this time they started to come together and protest leading into the 1960's where the civil rights movement occurred,

The Civil Rights act of 1964 Loophole?

ironically not really applied to women but it was for african americans and having women the same as men was too radical and not realistic.

N.O.W set the precedent for?

the feminist movement and promoted protesting for equal rights. As well as this they created goals for the Equal Rights Amendment. Radical Feminists