Post WWII America

The Cold War Begins

The United States emerged from WWII as the most powerful nation.
The Soviet Union was not happy about the ascendancy of the Democratic United States.
Tensions between the US and the Soviet Union made a return to normal life impossible after WWII, leading to the Cold War.
The Cold War is defined as a conflict between two belligerents in which neither engages in open warfare with the other.
It was more of a battle of ideologies than actual fighting, but the tension could have erupted into actual fighting at any moment.

Causes of the Cold War

Tensions between the US and the Soviet Union stretched back to the Russian Revolution in 1917.
The US viewed communism as a threat from its inception, believing it should be contained.
The Soviet Union sought to spread communism, while the US aimed to establish a democratic capitalist world.
Both ideologies were expansionist.
The central question of the Cold War was whether the world would be remade in the image of Soviet communism or democratic capitalism.

Mistrust Between the US and the Soviet Union

Mistrust began even before WWII ended, despite the US and Russia being allies during the war.
The Allies agreed on free elections in Central and Eastern European countries after the war.
Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, kept Soviet troops stationed in those countries.
This created a buffer zone between Russia and Germany.
Stalin's actions violated the agreement for self-determination and democratic governments in those countries, leading to the establishment of communist satellite states.
Germany was divided into four occupation zones (British, French, Soviet, and US) after the war, including Berlin.
Berlin was also divided into four zones, despite sitting in Soviet territory.
The Soviet-occupied eastern section of Germany became another communist state.
The Soviets wanted to keep Germany weak and extract reparations, while the Western powers wanted to help Germany become strong again, especially economically.
Winston Churchill famously said that an iron curtain had descended across the continent.

The US Response to the Threat of Communism

Containment: Many resources were poured into containing the spread of communism.
Truman Doctrine: Advocated containment by lending support to any country threatened by Soviet communism.
Issued by President Harry Truman due to Soviet pressure on Turkey and Greece.
Congress agreed to spend $400,000,000$ in economic aid and military support to fend off the Soviets in both of those places.
Marshall Plan: Allocated almost $13,000,000,000$ in financial aid for European countries to rebuild.
Developed by Secretary of State George Marshall.
Aimed to prevent countries from turning to communism by strengthening their economies.
The Marshall Plan was a strategic move because, as these countries were struggling to rebuild, the communists seemed to have a good plan to support them.
Stalin was annoyed by the US meddling in Berlin.
Berlin Blockade: Stalin blocked Western powers' entry into West Berlin, including canals, roads, and railways.
The goal was to absorb West Berlin into the Soviet occupation.
Berlin Airlift: The US organized over 200,000 flights to carry supplies into Western Berlin, preventing the Soviets from taking over the city.
NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization): Member nations entered a military alliance to resist any aggressive actions of the Soviet Union.
Warsaw Pact: The Soviets formed a counter alliance to NATO, doing the same thing for communist nations of Eastern Europe.

Nuclear Proliferation

A fierce arms race occurred between the United States and the Soviets.
The United States developed the first atomic bomb in 1945.
The Soviets tested their first atomic bomb in 1949, thanks to Soviet infiltration and American intelligence agencies.
Truman ordered the development of a more powerful hydrogen bomb, which was completed and tested in 1952.
The Soviets tested their first hydrogen bomb in 1953.
The US and the Soviet Union kept stockpiling increasing amounts of increasingly powerful nuclear bombs, threatening the world.
Both sides understood that using these weapons would result in mutual assured destruction.

Proxy Wars

The Cold War included many proxy wars, where the US and the Soviet Union backed different sides without directly fighting each other.
Korean War: Korea was a Japanese colony before the end of World War II, but after the war it was divided right along the 30 Eighth Parallel.
Korea was divided along the 38th Parallel after WWII, with the Soviets administering the North and the US administering the South.
In June 1950, North Koreans invaded South Korea using Soviet munitions and supplies.
The United Nations, mainly American troops, sent troops to support the South.
Under General Douglas MacArthur, the UN troops pushed back the North Koreans dang near all the way to the southern border of China.
China sent troops to repel the UN troops back below the 30 Eighth Parallel.
The war ended with Korea in the same position as when it started, divided at the $38^{th}$ Parallel, which is to say Korea was in the exact same position as when the war started.
The Korean War was a proxy war between the US and the Soviet Union and a direct result of Truman's containment policy.

The Red Scare After World War II

Americans were very scared of red because we're talking about here is the second Red Scare just after World War two, this should not be confused with the Red Scare during World War One.
Red refers to Soviet communism.
While The United States did its fighting best to contain communism around the world, there was also a massive push to root it out at home as well.
The first set of efforts came in labor unions in the federal government and basically required people to pledge loyalty to The United States and swear that they were not communists.
The US made a massive push to root out communism at home as well as contain it abroad, with efforts focused on labor unions and the federal government.
Taft-Hartley Act of 1947: Passed in response to labor union strikes, making it more difficult for workers to strike and requiring union leaders to pledge they were not members of the Communist Party.
Federal Employee Loyalty and Security Program: An executive order from Truman, federal employees had to swear that they were not communist or fascist, the order also made provisions for federal investigations into the political affiliations of federal workers.
Federal employees had to swear they were not communist or fascist, and federal investigations into their political affiliations were implemented.
Un-American Activities Committee: Searched for communist influence in every crack of American society, most notably in Hollywood.
Fear of communist influence in the burgeoning film industry.
Hollywood Ten: Singled out as communists and were summoned to testify in congress about their obvious and filthy communism, they refused to go and were held in contempt of congress, which earned them short prison sentences and a spot on the Hollywood blacklist, which meant that they could not find work in the industry again.

Senator Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism

McCarthy claimed to have the names of 205 known communists that had infiltrated the State Department and that hurled him into American prominence.
The Red Scare was so exacerbated by McCarthy that this phenomenon is often referred to as McCarthyism.
McCarthy's claims exacerbated the Red Scare, a phenomenon referred to as McCarthyism.
The senate held meetings to give McCarthy the chance to show that he was peddling more than a conspiracy theory.
The senate voted to censure him and his meteoric rise into the spotlight was matched by a precipitous and disgraceful decline.

The Rosenberg Case

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were accused of being involved in the espionage that resulted in said stolen plans.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in the electric chair in 1953.
Many Americans believed the Soviet Union could not have developed the atomic bomb without stolen information from the US.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, members of the Communist Party, were accused of espionage and executed.
Subsequent research has concluded that at least Julius was a Soviet spy.

Effects of the Red Scare

Thanks to anti communist federal laws and a general fear amongst ordinary Americans that communists were everywhere, the freedom of labor unions was suppressed, Hollywood Directors were out of work, and in general, the Cold War tension increased between The Soviet Union and The United States.
The freedom of labor unions was suppressed.
Hollywood Directors were out of work.
The Cold War tension increased between The Soviet Union and The United States.

Post-1945 Economic Growth and Migration

Part 1 of 2

Economic Growth After World War II

The economy in the 1950s was noise.
There were a lot of causes for that, including increased productivity, which was really just a holdover from the massive spike productivity during the war, and massive federal spending on infrastructure, most notably the interstate highway system.
Increased productivity, a holdover from wartime.
Massive federal spending on infrastructure, especially the interstate highway system.
Thanks to the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, also known as the GI Bill, the World War II veterans were given the opportunity to go to college on big daddy government's dime and take out low interest loans to buy houses and start businesses.
World War II veterans had opportunities to go to college and take out low-interest loans to buy houses and start businesses thanks to the GI Bill.
Between 1945 and 1960, over 50,000,000 people were added to The US population in a phenomenon that became known as the baby boom.
Between 1945 and 1960, over 50,000,000 people were added to The US population, a phenomenon that became known as the baby boom.
With all these new families growing, that led to an increased demand for housing construction, and most of that construction occurred in the form of suburbs.
With all these new families growing, that led to an increased demand for housing construction, and most of that construction occurred in the form of suburbs.

Suburbanization

Now the widespread possibility of suburban living was created with the advent of the automobile just a couple of decades into the twentieth century.
And as cities began to construct more and more roadways, more and more of the middle class decided they wanted to use those cars to live outside the city and just commute in for work.
Mainly this was a white middle class phenomenon.
And once the white folks left the cities for their suburbs, what was often left behind was minorities and the impoverished.
During the nineteen fifties, the trend of suburbanization exploded.
Suburbanization exploded during the 1950s.
Levittown: Suburban community conceived and built by William J. Levitt.
Purchased large tracts of land right outside several major cities and built metric buttloads of mass produced low cost homes organized in sprawling identical lots.
Mass Produced Low Cost Homes organized in sprawling identical lots
The original Levittown was built in New York.
Despite criticism from some folks who said that suburban living was monotonous and homogenizing, these mass produced homes provided a low cost solution to the housing demand and many people flocked to them.
They could do this more easily thanks to Interstate Highway Act, which was passed in 1956.
He created fast moving highways that gave people the occasion to travel quickly from suburbs to urban areas and they very much did that.

Migration to the Sunbelt States

There was also a kind of mass migration to the Sunbelt States in the South and the West.
A part of this movement had to do with northern people being tired of butt cold winters in the North, but maybe more significant was the newly minted highway system that made interstate migration far easier.
Many of the folks who made this move to the Sunbelt were GIs and their families who came seeking opportunities in the defense industry.
Since we're right smack in the middle of the Cold War and the arms race thereunto appertaining, tax dollars devoted to defense spending shifted to the Sunbelt states and created the occasion for the shift of political power from the Northeast and the Midwest to the South and the West.
Tax dollars devoted to defense spending shifted to the Sunbelt states, leading to a shift of political power from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West.

Mass Culture Maintained and Challenged

Part 1 of 1

Mass Culture

A kind of widespread homogenous set of ideas and patterns of behavior to which many Americans subscribe.
Part of this pressure to conform culturally came from what we talked about a couple of videos ago, namely McCarthyism.
As the fear spread that communists were under every rock and tree, there was societal pressure to be a predictable kind of American.
There was societal pressure to be a predictable kind of American.
By the end of the 1950s, nearly 90% of all American households had a television, the widespread use of this new communication technology provided a platform for the consumption of mass culture.
Televisions provided a platform for the consumption of mass culture.
Television programming was dominated by a few networks which produced sports programming, sitcoms, soap operas, variety shows.
Television programming was dominated by the Ideal American Family complete with a working dad, a housewife, and slightly cheeky but ultimately obedient children. Those family's can be found in sitcoms in programs such as,