Political environment 1945-80 - key facts

House Un-American Activities Commission (HUAC)

• Set up in 1938, made permanent in 1945, investigated people for all ‘un-American’ activities, but focused on communists

• Government employees Elizabeth Bentley and Whittaker Chambers told HUAC of others involved in a Moscow-led spy ring

• High-profile trials of Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs

Jospeh McCarthy

• Announced he had the names of 205 known communists working in the State Department in an anti-communist speech to a Republican women’s group in 1950 → later revised this number to 57, then 91

• Tydings Committee set up to investigate charges → televised and watched by 20 million

Librarians in the late 1950s

1/3 removed books such as the works of Karl Marx from their shelves

1968 Democratic National Convention

• Met in Chicago to decide policy

• Anti-war protests in the park outside the hall → broken up by the police with tear gas and batons

• 2000 marched against police brutality the next day

1969 Woodstock

400,000 - 500,000 attended

Students for a Democratic Society

• Set up in 1960

• Organised the first mass rally against the Vietnam War in 1965

Free Speech Movement

• Led a campaign on the University of California campus at Berkley in 1964

• During the 2 months it ran, over 700 students were arrested for sit-ins and other activities

1970 Ohio Guardsmen

Shot 4 unarmed students and injured 9 during a protest at the invasion of Cambodia

1970 radical student bombers

• Bomb detonated outside an army research base in Madison, Wisconsin

• Killed 1 researcher, injured 4 and caused $60 million of damage

Bill Bright

Evangelical preacher whose 1967 ‘Crusade for Christ’ went to campuses all over the USA, including the extremely radical Berkley, California

Nuclear Defence

• Federal Defence Administration set up in early 1950s → organised evacuations and gave out pamphlets with advice

• Schools ran regular ‘duck and cover’ exercises

• 1956 Interstate Act → designed for rapid evacuation of cities

• Fallout shelter could be bought for $1300 in 1958

Arms race

Between June 1947 and June 1948, the US holdings of atomic bombs rose from 13 to 50

1947 National Security Act

• Reorganised US military forces under a new Defense Department based at the Pentagon

• Size of the armed forces was greatly enlarged → after 1950, as commander-in-chief, the president could move forces around without the permission of Congress

• Created the CIA and the National Security Council → both reported to the White House, not Congress

Troops in Korean war

• 260,000 US troops

• 35,000 from the other 15 UN countries

• Over 33,000 American troops died

Korean War cost

Defence spending hit a peak of 14% of GNP

Media speculation about Korean War

On 7 July 1950, headlines falsely announced that the president wanted to use the draft and was considering using the atomic bomb

Vietnam Veterans Against War

Reached a membership of over 30,000

Opposition to anti-war demonstrations

75% of Americans in 1967

Trust in government

• 1960 - 70%

• 1974 - <40%