module 6 notes

lesson 1

postwar boom

  • gi bill of rights: aka the servicemen’s readjustment act of 1944, helped returning veterans secure education and access to home purchases at government expense

  • organized labor had prosperity, many working class americans had salaries that placed them in the middle class

  • unions peaked in 1950s

  • economic boom came baby boom

  • builder william levitt took advantage of housing boom and made levittowns in the suburbs of new york and philadelphia, sold for under 10 grand and no down payment for veterans

  • eisenhower was elected 34th president of the us in 1952

    • signed into law the highway revenue act in 1956 (provided funding to build a national system of highways called the interstate highway system)

impact of television

  • engineers developed first television in 1920s

  • television programs played a key role in the religious revival of 1950s

  • in 1960s television was used to influence voters, democrats benefited

youth culture

  • economic freedom

    • american youth of the 50s had a powerful force on society because of disposable income

    • parents worried about the freedom it gave their children

  • rock and roll

  • crossing the color line

    • parents were disturbed in kids passion for rock because it had african american roots

    • many white and african americans listened to the same music

    • music and sports began to mix fields in the 1950s

effects on african americans

  • entered sports and music in 50s

  • us was still widely segregated and they kept trying to move toward equality

effects on women

  • women had no ambitions beyond getting married and having kids

  • ww2 changed job force and women entered the workforce in jobs traditionally reserved for men

  • working women remained invisible in the media

  • in the 50s women were only seen as taking care of the men and children

  • in the 60s women were challenging cultural assumptions about their roles and demanding an equal rights amendment to the constitution

the beat generation

  • word for the postwar boom was conformity

  • first group to challenge conformity viewed suburbia and material possessions as alienating and destructive to the human spirit

    • called the beats, defined by despising materialism and personal ambition

    • became more well knows during the 50s

    • by the 60s, the beats had become role models for the baby boomers who reached college age

lesson 2

the early cold war

nuremberg trials

  • court proceedings of german war criminals and nazi leaders after ww2

  • military officers, government officials and party leaders were all tried for participation in the holocaust

  • tried 22 nazi defendants, sentenced 12 to death, 3 to life in prison and 4 got terms from 10-20 years, 3 were acquitted

    • number of war criminals were never tried

  • established principles for future conflicts like individuals are responsible for their actions during the war

the united nations

  • dumbarton oaks conference: late 1944, international peace conference in washington dc where the plan was made to create the united nations

  • in april 1945, representatives from 50 nations met in san fransisco to formally create the united nations

  • in 1948 delegates formed a commission on human rights, named eleanor roosevelt as chairperson

    • drafted universal declaration of human rights

the iron curtain

  • soviets wanted to rebuild eastern europe using their own raw materials and manpower, wanted to prevent democracy and spread communism

  • leaders agreed to divide germany and austria into 4 zones at yalta conference

  • churchill said that an iron curtain has descended upon europe, summarized division of eastern and western powers during the cold war

  • historians mark 1946 as beginning of cold war

  • during cold war us and soviet union engaged in a nuclear arms race

containing communism

  • truman doctrine: providing american aid to any country whose welfare deemed essential to the safety of the us, support to nations threatened by authoritarian powers and assisted democratic nations

  • marshall plan: economic aid sent by us to european nations after ww2 to help rebuild their economies and win their loyalty

  • berlin airlift: soviet blockaded roads and railways to berlin so us and britain used aircraft to supply city during the war

cold war alliances

  • both sides of cold war begin to compile weapons, race to militarize

  • north atlantic treaty organization (nato): defensive military alliance formed by us and allies in 1949

  • warsaw pact: military alliance between soviet and 7 other communist nations

lesson 3

the cold war at home

intro/objective

  • senator joseph mccarthy came to fame in america for his wild accusations

    • macarthyism: name given to his tactics of spreading fear of communism through false charges of radical activities

    • one of the most dishonorable terms in american political history

another red scare

  • as stalin’s rule emerged, americans became fearful of communism

  • huac: house un-american activities committee, formed by reps to investigate people thought to be disloyal to the us, especially those believed to be communist

    • led investigation in 1945

    • many people appeared before the huac in oct 1947

    • lots of actors, screenwriters and directors were commonly accused of being communist and were permanently blacklisted from working in hollywood

politics and the red scare

  • candidates used the red scare for political elections in 1946

  • federal employee loyalty program: program created by president truman in 1947 to investigate all federal employees in order to establish their loyalty to the us

  • subversive activities control act/mccarran act: legislation passed by congress in 1950 over truman’s veto that required communists to register with the federal government, outlawed any group for making a plan to prevent dictatorship and prevented communists from obtaining a passport or entering the us

lesson 4

the korean war

korean war: cold war conflict between north korea and south korea that included the united states, soviet union and china

beginning of the war

  • japan annexed korea in 1910

  • during ww2 thousands of koreans were forced into the japanese army

  • 38th parallel: international boundary between north and south korea in 1945 established at the end of ww2

  • soviet leaders installed a communist government in korea led by kim ii sung

    • communist north and democratic south

  • republic of south korea was formed in may of 1948 in seoul

  • people’s republic of north korea was formed in sept in pyongyang

  • north korea launched a surprise attack on june 25, 1950

  • south korea asked the un to intervene and they sent a force to korea, forced us troops back into action

    • truman quickly moved american troops stationed in japan to korea, 15 other nations also sent troops

      • general douglas macarthur took charge of the un forces

seesaw conflict

  • north korean invasion was immediately successful and they captured the capital

  • on sept 15, 1950 macarthur surprised NK with an attack from behind their lines by sea, successful

  • late 1951, seesaw from south to north and again ended in a stalemate, general douglas macarthur’s career was over

end of war

  • june 1951 proposed cease-fire

  • fighting continued for much of the next 2 years but they eventually agreed on a cease-fire line and created a demilitarized zone (dmz)

  • july 1953 signed an armistice that ended the fighting, korean war ended in a stalemate

lesson 5

the cold war

arms race

  • us chose cape canaveral florida in 1948 as a testing site

    • chose it because of location and missiles could be tested without concern that they would harm populated areas

  • worked on building an intercontinental ballistic missile (icbm) that could hit targets in the soviet union

space race

  • oct 4, 1957 was when the soviet union launched a rocket that put the world’s first satellite into orbit called sputnik 1

    • soviet union launched a second sputnik into orbit with a dog on board

  • us got worried because if they had a rocket that could launch a satellite into orbit, what could stop them from building an ICBM that could deliver a nuclear bomb

  • us gets into the race

    • on dec 6 a vanguard rocket carrying america’s first satellite was ready to be launched

    • as the rocket fired it blew up in a fireball televised all across america

    • was very small triumph when the did succeed a month later

    • now were in a space race (competition between us and ussr over achievements in space tech and exploration) to match the arms race

    • russian cosmonaut yuri gagarin was the firrst man to travel into space in 1961 and american navy commander alan b shepard succeeded less than a month later

  • funding the space program

    • on july 30k, 1958 eisenhower asked congress to fund space organizations, nasa

    • initiated a program called project mercury to select and train america’s first group of space travelers

    • 7 men were chosen and all were designated astronauts

    • eisenhower started the space program but jfk inspired americans to beat the russians in space

    • after kennedy took office, soviets sent the first human into space beating the us

    • 2 soviet cosmonauts were launched into orbit around the earth before the first mercury astronaut was sent on a 10 min flight out of florida

kennedy and the cold war

  • in his first weeks in office kennedy established the peace corps, organization of various jobs that worked in 48 underdeveloped countries

  • alliance for progress, initiated in may 1961, was less successful

    • aid program for latin america but ended up as a way to stop communism

communist cuba

  • us relationship with cuba dated back to the spanish american war on 1898

  • on may 1, 1969 castro announced an end to democratic elections

  • on feb 7, 1962 the us declared a trade embargo on cuba

  • castro responded by seeking further economic and military aid from russia

  • in october soviets brought missiles to cuba and caused the world to be on the brink of nuclear war

cuban missile crisis

  • on oct 15, 1962 a us pilot saw soviet bases on cuba capable of launching missiles

  • 13 day standoff between us and russia

  • kennedy imposed a naval blockade around the island

  • in the end both sides agreed to remove the missile and it was cleared by negotiations, closest to direct military conflict in the cold war

assassination

  • jfk was assassinates on nov 22, 1962 in dallas

  • 3 shots were fired from a local building and 2 struck the president

  • lee harvey oswald shot kennedy, he was a troubled ex marine married to a russian and lived in the soviet union

  • oswald was murdered 2 days after he killed kennedy

  • assassination shocked the nation and the us was at a standstill for 4 days until his funeral

quiz questions

  • what event was the bay of pigs invasion a response to

    • castro’s rise to power in cuba

  • what was a propaganda victory for the ussr

    • launching of sputnik

  • what limits did the us ussr and great britain agree to regarding nuclear weapon testing in 1963

    • testing could only occur underground

  • what was not a result of the cuban missile crisis

    • increase in refugees from cuba to the us

  • what led to the establishment of nasa

    • soviets launching sputnik 1

  • according to the warren investigation who was responsible for assassination of jfk

    • lee harvey oswald

  • what ended the cuban missile crisis

    • us agreed to not invade cuba and soviets agreed to remove all missiles from cuba

  • why was cape canaveral chosen as a launch site for rockets

    • favorable geographic location for launches

  • what development was made during the 1950s that made long-range bombers obsolete

    • icbm, intercontinental missiles

lesson 6

vietnam war

us involvement

  • france created indochina during the 19th century but after ww2 french control of indochina weakened

  • ho cho minh declared vietnam independent in 1945

    • us believed in domino theory and thought communist vietnam would spread communism

  • in 1954 us + 7 other nations formed the southeast asia treaty organization (seato) to fight the spread of communism

  • because of containment us leaders supported france to help the french maintain control in vietnam and prevent communist victory, billions of dollars in us military aid went to france

  • vietnam divided

    • battle of dien bien phu, vietnamese siege on french military base, french surrendered after a 55 day siege

    • geneva accords (peace treaty ending the indochina wars between france and vietnam) granted independence to indochina

    • due to treaty, vietnam was divided into 2 nations - communist north (led by ho chi minh) and non-communist south (led by ngo dinh diem)

    • us provided lots of support to diem although he was less popular

    • vietcong: south vietnamese communists who fought against us and south vietnamese troops with help from the north vietnamese, use guerilla tactics

  • us support of south vietnam

    • diem was a bad political leader

    • only kept his government in power by us support

    • when jfk took office he increased us troops to vietnam but by 1963 the us ceased support

    • diem was assassinated in november 1963 and kennedy was weeks after

johnson and vietnam

  • lyndon b johnson took office after kennedy’s assassination

  • johnson increased direct us support for the war and gained unprecedented control over military involvement

  • august 1964 north vietnamese torpedo ships fired on us destroyer uss maddox in the gulf of tonkin off north vietnam

  • congress passed the gulf of tonkin resolution

    • act granting the president the power to send us troops into battle without a formal declaration of war

end of us involvement

  • vietnamization: process of shifting control of the war from the us military to the south vietnamese military

quiz questions

  • what was the policy of vietnamization

    • South Vietnam took on a greater military role in the conflict

  • What was the most immediate result of Diem's refusal to hold elections?

    • The Vietcong formed to resist the government

  • what country controlled vietnam prior to the vietnam war

    • france

  • what was weakened by the outcome of the vietnam war

    • popular support for cold war theories

  • Which event most directly contributed to the end of U.S. involvement in Vietnam?

    • U.S. public opinion against the war became very high during an election year

  • What was the effect of the Twenty-Sixth Amendment?

    • The voting age was lowered

  • How did the Tet Offensive mostly affect the course of the Vietnam War?

    • It greatly damaged American popular support for the conflict

  • How did the media shape public perception of the Vietnam War?

    • For the first time, people saw up-to-date news coverage of war on television

  • What position did the United States take during the Indochina Wars?

    • It supported France because it wanted to limit communism in Southeast Asia

lesson 7

disillusionment: being confronted with reality after believing in a false ideal

effects of vietnam war

  • television had a big impact on how americans saw the war, they could compare what they saw on screen with what they were told by government officials

  • television created a credibility gap between government statements and media reports

  • many people protesting us involvement in vietnam war were from the baby boom and born after ww2

  • vietnam war had been part of american life for almost 10 years

  • 1968 nixon won the presidential election and in 1969 he announced the policy of vietnamization

  • nixon also approved the secret bombing of cambodia and a raid in 1970

the pentagon papers

  • in 1971 us support for war diminished when the new york times published a series of articles about leaked secret government documents

  • pentagon papers: secret government documents about us involvement in vietnam

  • daniel ellsberg leaked the contents and was a researcher who helped compile the 3000 page document

  • finally a supreme court ruling found that the newspapers had the right to publish the documents

  • war powers act: law required the president to consult with congress within 48 hours of committing us troops to foreign conflicts

the watergate scandal: scandal that resulted from a politically motivated break-in and government cover-up that led to the resignation of president nixon

effects of watergate

  • nixon was accused of accepting illegal campaign contributions

  • In October 1973, during the Watergate turmoil, the FBI charged Vice President Spiro Agnew with several felonies, including taking bribes while in office

    • became the first vice president to resign over criminal charges

    • nixon appointed congressman gerald ford as vp

  • during investigations, investigators found that nixon had used federal agencies to target personal enemies

  • faced with impeachment, nixon resigned in august 1974 and gerald ford became president