Chapter 35 Notes

• Yalta Conference held in February 1945 between the leaders of the Allied Powers

  • Purpose: discuss the post-WWII reorganization of Europe and the establishment of the United Nations

    • Ended up being controversial due to the agreements made between the leaders, especially about the division of Germany and the Soviet Union’s influence in Eastern Europe

    • Critics argue that agreements made led to the Cold War and the USSR’s domination of Eastern Europe → others say that those agreements were necessary to ensure peace and stability in the aftermath of the war

      • Broken promises like giving Poland and Romania representative democracy with free elections that the USSR went back on

• Sphere of Influence of Russia Post-WWII

  • The USSR said that their main goal was the defense and security of the Soviet Union and that they would maintain good relations with their neighboring countries

    • By doing this the USSR would be creating an extensive influence of communism

• Roosevelt had a vision for an open world like Woodrow Wilson did: decolonized, demilitarized, with a strong international organization to oversee global peace

  • Wilson had turned WWI into an ideological crusade where he said that America was fighting for democracy, and a permanent end to all wars → he was also for the creation of the League of Nations although the US did not end up joining it

  • Roosevelt aided the Allies because he feared they were the last survivors of democracy causing the passage of the Lend-Lease Act and others → Roosevelt then went on to help establish the United Nations (basically a better League of Nations)

• Atlantic Charter of 1941

  • One of FDR’s steps toward an open world policy

  • Created by Churchill and FDR and proclaimed all nations the right to self-determination and free access to trade, while ensuring every individual human rights on an international scale

• Bretton Woods Conference in 1944

  • The Western Allies established the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to encourage world trade by regulating currency exchange rates

  • They also founded the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) to promote economic growth in underdeveloped areas

  • 3 years later, the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) reduced trade barriers among member nations and helped to form the basis of economic globalization

• These measures were very different from WWI where the US returned to a isolationist policy instead of taking charge in international affairs

  • America shaped world order after WWII

• The Soviet Union and their sphere of influence seldom participated in these multilateral ECONOMIC institutions

• The United Nations Conference of 1945 established the United Nations Charter

  • FDR started the establishment of the UN before WWII end unlike Wilson who waited until the conclusion of WWI to establish the League of Nations

  • FDR had died before this conference could occur though

  • The USSR WAS expected to take part in the UN though

• The United Nations

  • Succeeded the League of Nations but different in many ways

  • The League of Nations presumed great-power conflict while the UN presumed great-power cooperation

  • In contrast to the League, the US Senate overwhelmingly approved the UN Charter

    • 89:2

  • Created UNESCO, FAO, and WHO to help people all over the world

• Nuremberg War Crimes Trial (1945-1946)

  • Punished Nazi leaders for war time crimes

    • 12 accused Nazis were hung and 7 went to jail for a very long time

  • “Foxy Hermann” committed suicide by the pill rather than face his execution

• The Soviets wanted to take reparations from their zone of Germany but the Western Allies refused them

  • The Western Allies were dreaming of uniting Germany again but the USSR would not let that happen

• Poland and Hungary became “satellite” states (independent but bound to the USSR)

• Iron Curtain

  • The division of Europe (West and East) that provided secrecy and isolation

    • The Iron Curtain was a term used to describe the political, military, and ideological barrier that separated the Soviet Union and its satellite states from the rest of Europe after World War II. The term was coined by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in a speech he gave in 1946. The Iron Curtain was a physical and symbolic representation of the divide between the communist and capitalist worlds. It was a result of the Soviet Union's desire to spread communism and the West's desire to contain it. The Iron Curtain lasted until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

• Berlin Airlift

  • American response to the blockade the USSR put on West Berlin

    • Soviets thought that Berliners would become desperate and accept communism

    • The US would not let that happen

  • The USSR eventually gave up and lifted the blockade in 1949

  • The same year the governments of the 2 Germany’s were formally established → solidified the Cold War

• Containment Doctrine

  • Crafted by George F. Kennan

  • Concept: Russia, whether tsarist and communist, was looking to expand and the only way to stop it was to contain it

• Truman Doctrine

  • Specifically asked for $400 million to support Greece and Turkey because Britain could not anymore

    • Congress quickly agreed

  • Generally, the point was the it was the US’s duty to help free peoples who are resisting subjugation by Communist rebels

    • Critics say that this overreacted the Soviet threat in the public eye, but other argue that it was Truman’s fear of revived isolationism

• Marshall Plan (MAJOR SUCCESS!!)

  • Acted as a bait to get the European countries to WORK together to figure out an economic recovery plan → this forced cooperation eventually led to the European Community (EC)

  • Offered to the Soviets and it’s allies as well, but were worried Soviets would take advantage of it so made the conditions deliberately choking so that Soviets would reject it and they did

  • Sent $12 billion to European countries for economic aid

• Truman recognized Israel despite the conflicts it would create with the Arabs

• National Security Act of 1947

  • Created the Department of Defense to be headed by the new cabinet member replacing the Secretary of War: The Secretary of Defense under which resided the Joint Chief of Staffs

  • Also created the NSC and CIA

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) of 1949

  • ENDED AMERICAN ISOLATIONISM POLICY

  • A defensive alliance between Belgium, France, Britain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and the US

    • An attack on one was an attack on all

  • 1952 → Greece and Turkey were added

  • 1955 → West Germany was added

  • Significant step in the militarization of the Cold War

• Douglas MacArthur greatly succeeded in the reconstruction if Japan

  • Created a democracy style government that caused Japan to become a mighty industrial power

    • Ironic how that challenged America’s position as a global economic power

• China succumbed to a communist rebellion under Mao Zedong

  • Republicans said that Truman (Democrats) had purposely held out on the Chinese for their downfall

• Soviets and the US wanted to unify Korea once again (who had previously been under control of Japan) but things worked out differently

  • When the area was withdrawn from forces, the entire peninsula was an armed camp

  • So, North Korea (controlled by the USSR) ran tanks South of the 38th parallel shoving South Korea (controlled by the US) to Pusan

  • Truman took advantage of Soviet absence in the UNSC to obtain the unanimous decision that North Korea was an aggressor and got all UN members to send aid to restore peace between North and South Korea

    • Stalin ordered the attack but was sure that the US would not pay attention to it → he was wrong

  • Then Truman ordered US units to South Korea w/o consulting Congress and had General MacArthur’s units in Japan to fight alongside South Korea

    • Began the Korean War

• National Security Council Memorandum Number 68 (NSC-68)

  • Recommended that the US quadruple its defense spending

  • Vital in the Korean Crisis

    • Truman ordered a massive military build up in preparation

  • Key document in the Cold War

    • Marked a major step in the militarization of American foreign policy

    • Showed that post-war American society had a limitless possibilities approach

• Korean War (1950-1953)

  • MacArthur decided to launch a landing BEHIND the enemy lines at Inchon

    • Succeeded greatly!! Forced the North Koreans back North of the 38th parallel quickly

    • Truman wanted to reestablish old borders but South Koreans were already pushing into NORTH Korea now → Truman ordered the Northward push to MacArthur as long as there was no Chinese or Soviet intervention

      • MacArthur was convinced that the Chinese were all bark no bite → he was wrong

  • Chinese volunteers fell upon US forces and pushed them away from the Yalu River (border between Korea and China)

  • The fighting reached a stalemate near the 38th parallel

    • MacArthur called for a nuclear war with China but was refused by Truman and other→ nobody wanted to fight China when the bigger threat was the USSR

    • MacArthur began to publicly criticize Truman so Truman had no choice but to fire him in 1951

  • Peace talks began but stalled for 2 years because of POW negotiations

  • MacArthur was seen as a hero and Truman a pig/appeaser of communism

• Post-WWII, it was the first time that international events were affecting politics and economics on the homefront

  • Political issues became more decisive between parties

  • The economy had a LONG boom

• In 1947, Truman launched a “loyalty” program to weed out communists in federal positions

  • The Loyalty Review Board investigated more than 3 million federal employees, 3,000 of which either resigned or were fired

• Smith Act of 1940

  • First peacetime anti sedition law since 1798

  • In 1949, 11 communists were arrested for violating this act

    • Just because of the Red Scare

    • Upheld this decision in Dennis v. United States (1951)

• House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

  • Established by the House of Representatives on 1938 to investigate “subversion”

  • Richard Nixon (then a member of this committee) a red-hunter led the chase after Alger Hiss for being a communist

    • He demanded the right to defend himself

      • When given the chance, he was caught lying and was convicted of perjury in 1950, and was sentenced to 5 years in prison

• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

  • Controversial death sentence → spies who allegedly leaked info to the USSR on how to build an atomic bomb which led the Soviets to earlier success

    • Controversial because at the time people felt sympathy for their pleas of innocence and two orphaned children

    • Now, more evidence has been recovered that they were in fact spies

  • First people to be executed for peacetime espionage

• Conservative politicians at the local levels began to discover that a bunch of social changes could be conveniently tied to communism

  • Declining religious sentiments, increased sexual freedom, and a thirst for more civil rights

  • Anticommunist crusaders drove debtors, drinkers, and homsexuals, all alleged “security risks” from their jobs

  • Those that advocated for radical changes and even moderate changes (racial equality, unions, universities) were branded as communists

• McCarran Internal Security Bill of 1950

  • Vetoed by Truman because he realized that the red hunt was turning into a witch hunt

    • Congress overruled the veto anyways

  • It was supposed to allow the President to arrest and detain suspicious people during an “international security emergency”

• McCarthyism (Second Red Scare)

  • Period of suspicion and fear of communists during the Cold War

  • Started by Senate Joseph McCarthy to mainly target Democrats that kept growing

  • Deprived the government of Asian employees that may have helped them in the Vietnam War

    • Lowered the morale of the workforce left

  • Damaged American democracy’s reputation abroad at a time when it was needed to keep Western Europe on the side of capitalism

• Army-McCarthy Hearings

  • McCarthy went too far when he attacked the Army

    • They fought back in court for 35 days and he humiliated himself

  • The Senate finally condemned him for “conduct unbecoming a member”

• Society began to interpret the Cold War a fight between the pure and evil because of people like Reinhold Niebuhr (Protestant clergyman) so wanted to fight it with “realism”

  • Postwar decades saw an emphasis on religion

    • Congress decided to add the “under God” phrase into the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954

• The US was fighting for democracy in WWII and was doing the same in the Cold War so they had to show others what democracy really looked liked

  • Gave people the tools to press for civil rights: Executive Order 9981

• Executive Order 9981

  • Passed by President Truman, the order desegregated the army

• Many people thought that the economy would slump after WWII was over

  • It faltered for a little bit and strike rates went up, which annoyed conservatives

    • They got their revenge in 1947 when a Republican-controlled Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act despite Truman’s veto

• Taft-Hartley Act of 1947

  • Outlawed the “closed” (all-union) shop, made unions liable for damages (from jurisdictional disputes among themselves), and required union labor leaders to take a non-communist oath

  • SLOWED THE GROWTH OF ORGANIZED LABOR POST WWII

    • Plus it was harder to organize service workers than assembly-line workers

• Operation Dixie

  • Aimed at unionizing Southern textile workers and steelworkers, but failed (in 1948) to overcome the whites’ fear of racial mixing

• Employment Act of 1946

  • Made it government policy to make sure that there was maximum employment, production, and purchasing power

  • The act created a 3 member Council of Economic Advisers to provide the President with the data and information to make the above policy a reality

• GI Bill (1944)

  • Some feared that employment markets would never be able to handle 15 million return veterans, the GI Bill made them members of the “52-20” club and made provisions to send them to school

    • “52-20” → $20 a week for up to 52 weeks

  • Around 8 million veterans got an education on behalf of Uncle Sam’s expense

  • The act also allowed the VA (Veterans Administration) to hand out more loans to buy houses, farms, and small businesses with $16 billion

  • Nurtured the economic growth and greatly shaped the Post-WWII era

• Election of 1948 → Truman v Dewey

  • Republicans renominated Thomas E. Dewey

  • Democrats were tired of Truman, but Eisenhower refused to be drafted

    • That meant they were stuck with Truman, but Southern delegates strictly opposed him because of his stance in civil rights for blacks (like the desegregation of the military)

      • So this split the party into 2 → the Dixiecrats nominated Governor J. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina on states rights party ticket

  • Henry A. Wallace (former VP) also decided to run for the new Progressive Party instead of the Democrats

    • Wallace was a liberal

  • Since the Democrats were so divided, victory seem sure for Dewey so he didn’t do anything actively for his campaign → but Truman did

  • He backlashed all the Republican measures like the Taft-Hartley tariff, and talked about his civil rights measures, improved labor benefits, and health insurance

  • The Chicago Tribune announced early that Dewey had won, but in the morning news came that Truman had won

    • Thurmond had only taken votes from the DEEP South, allowing Truman to win votes in the South, Midwest, and West

    • Dewey won mainly won Eastern states

  • 303:189:39

  • Plus that year, Democrats regained control of Congress thanks to support from farmers, workers, and African Americans (all weary of Republicans)

• Point Four (officially launched in 1950)

  • Truman delivered this note in his inaugural speech saying that the US would lend money and technological aid to underdeveloped countries

    • He wanted to spend money to help people from resorting to communism rather than spend millions to kill those that had resorted to communism

  • Aided many countries, such as those in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East

• Fair Deal (1949 message to Congress)

  • Improved housing, full employment, national health insurance, a higher minimum wage, better farm price supports, new TVA’s, and an extension of the Social Security

  • The program fell victim to Republicans and Southern Democrats

  • Successes: raising the minimum wage, providing for public housing (Housing Act of 1949), and extending the Social Securities Act then for the elderly to more beneficiaries

• Economic growth was huge in social prosperity and mobility: civil rights movement, welfare programs (Medicare), and unprecedented leadership in the Cold War

  • The entire definition of “middle class” changed post-WWII

  • A lot of the jobs created in the post-war era went to WOMEN!!

• Why did WWII help our economy?

  • America used the opportunity to revitalize it’s industry be needing large scale production of everything

  • The US also dominated the global reconstruction of the world post-WWII which meant that the economy depended on the military budgets

    • Critics started to talk about a “permanent war economy”

• The Cold War budget financed much scientific research and development

• CHEAP ENERGY also helped the economy

  • Cheap gas prices led to increased highway building, more ACs, power lines, etc.

• Productivity also increased → more people had higher education now

• More people left agriculture because the work that once took 15 men to do in the 1940s, 1 man could do in 1960s/1970s

  • Production of new inventions caused big farms to flourish and small, family farms to die out

• Post-WWII many families began to move around the US

  • Distance started to divide people → many people could not maintain friends in neighborhoods anymore

  • Books on child-rearing increased: The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care

• Sunbelt

  • A 15-state area strechting from Virginia through Florida and Texas to Arizona and California

    • Population here increased rapidly (faster than the industrial zones of the Northeast - the Frostbelt)

  • New frontier for Americans after WWII

    • People were looking for better jobs, better weather, and lower taxes

    • Theses areas started to get more federal money than the North (or the “Rustbelt” - the Ohio Valley and the industrial regions surrounding it)

      • “The North shall rise again”

  • Broke the historic grip of the North on the nation’s political life

    • Every elected occupant of the White House from 1964-2008 came from the Sunbelt

    • The regions congressional representation also grew as it’s population grew

• People began to move towards suburbs in the postwar world

  • The FHA and VA made the suburbs sound more appealing

• Levittown

  • A Levittown is a suburban housing development built by Levitt & Sons, Inc. after World War II

  • The first Levittown was built in Long Island, New York and became a symbol of the postwar suburban boom in the United States

  • “Cookie-cutter” houses

• Many Blacks from the South began to move into the cities in the North

  • The FHA would not always provide blacks with loans because it was “risk” further lessening Black movement into the suburbs

    • Drove many minorities into public housing projects → even then Blacks were settled with predominantly Black communities solidifying the racial separation and “wealth gap” between White and Blacks

• Businesses moved with the people to the suburbs to live in shopping malls

  • Malls were another post-WWII creation

• Baby Boom

  • The huge leap in the birthrate the decade and a half following 1945 (ended in ~1965)

  • Elementary schools had a huge increase in enrollment and then a sharp decline as the kids moved on

  • The baby product market increased: baby food, clothes, toys, etc.

    • Those babies then spent a lot of money on clothes and rock-and-roll as teenagers

  • Then as those teenagers tried to get jobs in their middle ages, they had kids too leading to a “secondary boom” of kids

  • Those adults will then go into retirement and put strain on the Social Security and Medicare systems ensuring that the effects of the Baby Boom will be felt for a long time to come

Chapter 36 Notes

• Invention of the transistor in 1949 sparked huge electronics especially in computers

• 1956 → marked the first time that “while-collar” workers outnumbered “blue-collar” workers

  • Organized labor started to decrease

• After WWII ended, many women fell back into their traditional roles in families, but there was a movement gaining momentum in 1950s to change this “cult of domesticity”

  • Those that didn’t dominated service work position leading to the name “pink collar ghettos”

• The Feminine Mystique (1963)

  • Written by Betty Friedan

  • Critiqued the traditional roles of women in American society and argued that women should have the same opportunities as men

    • Sparked the second wave of feminist movement in the US

  • It is a landmark in feminist literature and a key part in the women’s liberation movement

• Movies began to lose business as TVs gained it

• Sport franchises also began to move West and Southward

• Rock ‘n’ Roll

  • A new type of music brought to fame by Elvis Presley that basically mixed Black rhythm and blues to White country styles

• Marilyn Monroe → actress that created new sexual standards in society and the movie industry