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why did the Red Scares change the political scene?
because they led to a significant curb on civil liberties.
what was the FBI given powers to do?
investigate people and bring them to be questioned by Loyalty Boards or HUAC on very little evidence. It was allowed to open letters, tap phones and bug offices and homes. Its behaviour was moving towards that of the repressive communist regimes that the government condemned.
what happened at the height of both scares?
people had their freedom of speech and freedom of expression severely limited by worries about what would happen if they expressed even vaguely liberal views.
libraries in the late 1950s
a third of librarians removed books such as the works of Karl Marx from their shelves, to avoid being accused of having communist sympathies for stocking them.
what happened when Nikita Khrushchev visited the USA in 1959?
he was met with large anti-communist demonstrations - one placard read THE ONLY GOOD COMMUNIST IS A DEAD COMMUNIST!
who was united by anti-communism?
Republicans and Democrats; between 1953 and 1962, not one Senator publicly supported a softening of attitude to the USSR or China.
what was set up form the 1950s?
Various groups were set up from the 1950s to press the government to take a hard line in relations with communist countries. One of the most powerful of these was the Committee on the Present Danger, first set up in 1950. It was reformed in 1976 and had many powerful government advisors as members.
why did the US emerge as a superpower for WWII?
The mainland suffered no significant attacks, so American industry engaged undisturbed in the mass production of war materiel. This generated great wealth and prosperity and confirmed America's position as the world's richest
nation. The United States was the sole possessor of the phenomenally powerful new atomic bomb. While the war increased US wealth and power, potential rivals suffered. Wartime enemies such as Germany and Japan were devastated and wartime allies such as Britain and the Soviet Union were exhausted.
what did America’s unprecedented power arouse?
fear and antagonism in the Soviet Union, which had lost roughly 30 million people during the war. However, it had also acquired an East European Empire
late 1945 USSR
the USSR was the second most powerful country in the world, although far behind the USA in wealth and without nuclear weapons. Their power disparity, differing ideologies and expansionism ensured that the United States and the Soviet Union would be mortal enemies for the next five decades of Cold War.
How did the emergence of the US as a Cold War superpower have significant impact on domestic politics in the truman and eisenhower years?
The Cold War increased the power of the presidency, dominated Republican and Demrat clashes, generated another Red Scare, affected American society and the economy
what increased the powers of the president?
Foreign threats invariably increased the powers of the president, whose constitutional role as head of state and commander in chief gave him great influence in foreign affairs.
how was the increased influence in foreign affairs for Eisenhower demonstrated?
demonstrated when the Truman administration found itself in disagreements with the Soviets post-war world. Congress repeatedly granted Truman the money to finance the opposition to Communism that he declared essential.
what turnedTruman’s focus to the rise of communism in Asia?
After the policies of Truman and Stalin promoted the division of Europe into two hostile camps, North Korea's attack upon South Korea in June 1950 turned Truman's focus to the rise of Communism in Asia.
what did Truman consider important and what did he therefore do?
He considered collective security important. He therefore mobilised the United Nations to defend South Korea. However, the United States bore most of the military burden.
what initial decision did Truman make as Commander-In-Chief?
Truman made the initial decision to deploy American troops in Korea and congressional leaders quickly agreed that there was no need for a congressional declaration of war. This congressional abdication of its constitutional power to declare war opened the way to increased presidential power.
Congressional awarness
Congressional awareness that nuclear weaponry might necessitate a speedy presidential decision to help defend the nation from a Soviet nuclear attack lay behind this development. The Korean War had considerable popular support in its early months, but 'Truman's war' became unpopular when it settled into a bloody war of attrition.
The Course of the Korean War 1950-53
With the advantage of preparation and surprise, Communist North Korea's forces made the Americans and South Koreans retreat in summer 1950. Then US General Douglas MacArthur turned the war around with a brilliant amphibious landing at Inchon in September, after which the US/UN/South Korean forces drove the North Koreans from South Korea. Supported by a vengeful American public and Congress, Truman then changed US war aims from the restoration of South Korean territorial integrity to the reunification of the Korean peninsula under a pro-American regime. That prompted Communist China to enter the war, leading to a long bloody stalemate until both sides were exhausted and willing to sign an armistice that left South Korean territory intact in July 1953.
how had the increasingly unpopular Koraen War have a significant impact on domestic politics?
It greatly damaged Truman's presidency and made it virtually impossible for him to control Congress or effectively lead the country. It helped ensure the election of Eisenhower, and demonstrated that the Cold War could sometimes decrease presidential power and prestige.
what impact did the Korean War have on American economy?
It cost $67 billion and billions more were needed to rebuild South Korea. This increased US defence expenditure boosted the GNP but was also inflationary.
what did Eisenhower fear about the War?
Eisenhower feared the impact of the Cold War and the Korean War on the federal budget. He believed that continued military expenditure at the Truman administration level of $50 billion per annum would lead to economic ruin - We must not go broke, he said.
what else was he worried about?
what he called the military-industrial complex; the industries and service chiefs who had vested interest in a continued and ever more costly Cold War and whose total influence - economic, political, even spiritual - is felt in every city, every state house, every office in the federal government.
what did Cold War fears attribute to?
the militarisation of American society.
what was expanded in order to promote national security?
the armed forces and their weaponry were greatly expanded and new federal government organisations were set up by the 1947 National Security Act - the intelligence-gathering Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Council (NSC).
who was the NSC under the control of?
the President, but the statute was unclear as to whether the CIA would be subject to any congressional oversight.
did Truman make use of those agencies?
Truman made little use of these agencies, but in the 1950s and 1960s they significantly increased presidential power, because they provided the President with much information about foreign threats that he could justifiably avoid sharing with Congress on the grounds that secrecy was important to national security.
