APUSH Unit 8 Review (1945-1980)

Cold War (1945-1980)

• America emerged as the most powerful nation after World War II.
• This unit examines America's role during this period.
• Focus areas:
  • The Cold War with Russia.
  • The rise of the Civil Rights Movement.
  • Postwar demographic and economic changes.

Cold War Definition

• A conflict where belligerents do not engage in open warfare but maintain long-standing tension.
• There was no direct fighting between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, but indirect conflicts were frequent.

Origins of the Cold War

• Harry Truman took office after FDR's death and managed the post-WWII peace negotiations.
• The rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was central to the Cold War.
• The U.S. was democratic and capitalist, while the Soviet Union was communist.
• Both countries were allies in World War II out of necessity to stop Hitler's expansionism.
• Mistrust existed even before the end of the war; agreements for free elections in Central and Eastern Europe were violated by Stalin.
• Stalin aimed to create a buffer zone between Russia and Europe by keeping countries under Soviet control.
• The U.S. saw this as a violation of self-determination.
• Germany was divided into four occupation zones: Soviet, American, British, and French.
• The Eastern section became communist.
• The Soviets wanted to keep Germany weak and extract reparations, opposing the Western powers' desire for German economic recovery.
• Winston Churchill described the ideological divide as an "Iron Curtain" across the continent.

Policy of Containment

• The main U.S. policy to deal with communism was containment.
• The Truman Doctrine committed the U.S. to support nations threatened by communism with military and economic aid.
• First implementation: U.S. support of Greece during a communist uprising and response to Soviet demands for control of the Dardanelles.
• Congress allocated $400,000,000$ in aid for these causes.
• The Marshall Plan, proposed by Secretary of State George Marshall, offered economic aid to European nations to rebuild and revive their economies.
• The rationale was that healthy economies would opt for democracy over communism.
• $12,000,000,000$ in aid was approved under the Marshall Plan, which helped European nations rebuild and choose democracy.
• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was a military pact for the defense of Western Europe, leading to the buildup of American military presence abroad.
• The Soviets formed the Warsaw Pact for communist nations in Eastern Europe.

Arms Race

• The Cold War led to an arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union to develop superior weapons.
• The Soviets tested their first atomic bomb in 1949 after the Americans dropped the first one during WWII.
• Truman approved the development of the hydrogen bomb in 1952, which was far more destructive than the atomic bomb.
• The Soviets tested their first hydrogen bomb the next year.
• This escalation led to the concept of mutual assured destruction, deterring either side from launching weapons.

Indirect Fighting

• The Korean War was an example of indirect fighting.
• Korea was divided along the 38th Parallel after WWII, with the Soviets occupying the North and the U.S. occupying the South.
• North Korea became communist, while South Korea became democratic.
• In June 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea, leading to a proxy war.
• The United Nations, primarily American forces, supported the South.
• General Douglas MacArthur pushed North Korean forces back to the Chinese border but failed to heed Chinese warnings.
• Chinese forces overwhelmed UN troops, pushing them back below the 38th Parallel.
• The war ended in a stalemate with massive collateral damage.

Red Scare

• A second Red Scare occurred during the Cold War due to fears of communist spies infiltrating American society.
• The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) searched for communist influence in the government and other organizations.
• Senator Joseph McCarthy fueled the hysteria, claiming to have a list of communists in the State Department.
• McCarthy's influence waned after he failed to prove his claims in the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954, leading to his censure by the Senate.

Post-War America

• The Servicemen's Readjustment Act (GI Bill) of 1944 gave veterans the opportunity to attend college on the government's dime.
• Over 2,000,000 veterans took advantage of this.
• Veterans received $16,000,000,000$ in low-interest government-insured loans for housing and businesses.
• A baby boom occurred with 50,000,000 people added to the U.S. population between 1945 and 1960.
• This led to increased demand for housing construction, especially in the suburbs.
• Levittown was a milestone in suburban development with mass-produced, low-cost homes.
• Suburbanization led the middle class to move to the suburbs, leaving urban areas poor and racially divided.
• Internal migration increased, with people moving to the Sun Belt states in the South and West for warmer climates and economic opportunities.
• The Sun Belt became an economic engine and an influential voting bloc.

Mass Culture

• Mass culture became increasingly homogenous due to the proliferation of television.
• By 1961, there were approximately 55,000,000 television sets in American homes.
• Common programming provided a shared language and cultural norms.
• The advertising industry boomed, appealing to Americans' emotional needs and leading to increased consumer spending.
• The advent of credit cards in the 1950s made spending easier.
• Culture was homogenized through television and national ad campaigns.

Rebellions

• Artists rebelled against this homogenization.
• Novelists like J.D. Salinger expressed disgust with American culture's blandness in "Catcher in the Rye."
• Beat poets or beatniks, like Jack Kerouac, rejected conformity through free-form poetry, drug use, and rejecting societal norms.

Civil Rights Movement

• President Dwight Eisenhower took office in 1953.
• Racial segregation was still the law of the land, especially in the South.
• The 1896 Plessy versus Ferguson case kept blacks and whites separate.
• The racial inequality contrasted with American ideals of freedom.
• Brown versus the Board of Education overturned Plessy, arguing that separate schools were inherently unequal, based on the Fourteenth Amendment.
• In 1954, schools were ordered to be integrated, but there was resistance in the South.
• Southern congressmen issued the Southern Manifesto, objecting to the Supreme Court's decision.
• The school integration effort was slow, with only 2% of Southern schools integrated a decade after the Brown decision.
• The Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 attacked segregation on public transportation after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat.
• Martin Luther King Junior rose to prominence as a leader of the nonviolent movement dedicated to civil disobedience.
• Sit-ins at segregated food counters led to arrests and filled jails, eventually leading to the overturning of segregation laws.
• The March on Washington in August 1963, a peaceful protest for racial harmony and the end of segregation, featured Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 made discrimination based on race, religion, or sex illegal.
• The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited racial discrimination in voting.

Tensions

• Not all African Americans agreed with nonviolent tactics. Malcolm X advocated separatism and militarism, countering white violence with black violence.
• Black militants formed the Black Panthers, advocating violence when necessary.
• Race riots broke out in Los Angeles and other American cities.
• The civil rights movement's gains did not solve America’s race problem.

Expansion Civil Rights Movement

• A new era of women's rights emerged, with Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" exploring the boredom and imprisonment of housewives.
• Friedan argued women should seek professional careers.
• The National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded in 1966 to advocate for women’s rights and equal opportunity.
• The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) narrowly failed to pass due to conservative backlash.

Other Rights Movements

• The Latino, American Indian, and gay populations also demanded rights.
• Mexican workers, who returned in the 1950s and 1960s, faced exploitation with low wages.
• Boycotts and protests led by Cesar Chavez won collective bargaining rights for agricultural workers in 1975.
• The American Indian Movement was founded in 1968 to reclaim tribal traditions and achieve self-determination.
• The occupation of Alcatraz Island was a significant event, leading to the Self-Determination Act of 1975, granting American Indians control over their lands and education.
• The gay liberation movement emerged after the Stonewall Inn raid in 1969, leading to protests and activism.
• Homosexuality changed from a mental illness to a legitimate sexual orientation in the 1970s.

Counterculture

• In the 1960s, a movement dedicated to overturning cultural norms emerged, known as the counterculture.
• Young people rejected societal restraints with experimental drug use and free love.
• The Woodstock Music Festival in 1969 gathered 400,000 people to hear musicians like Jimi Hendrix and Joan Baez.
• The counterculture fizzled out due to excesses, but changed attitudes towards sexuality and expression remained.
• Widespread use of birth control and antibiotics made casual sex with multiple partners a growing norm.

Supreme Court

• Under Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Supreme Court expanded civil liberties.
• Baker versus Carr (1962) declared that representative districts must include all members of the citizenry, addressing the skew towards rural areas.
• Ingle versus Vittal argued that laws requiring bible reading and teacher-led prayers in schools violated the separation of church and state.

Decolonization

• After World War II, there was a massive movement of decolonization around the world.
• Newly independent nations needed aid, making them assets in the conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
  • Guatemala: In 1954, the U.S. led a coup to overthrow a socialist government.
  • Iran: The CIA aided in the overthrow of a socialist government that wanted to nationalize the country's oil supply.
  • Vietnam: Vietnam was divided into North and South at the 17th Parallel. Eisenhower gave economic aid to South Vietnam to stabilize it economically.

Vietnam War

• Eisenhower warned against the growing military-industrial complex.
• John F. Kennedy increased the number of military advisors in Vietnam and agreed with the domino theory - arguing that if South Vietnam fell to communism, then every other domino in the region would be affected.
• Lyndon Johnson became president after Kennedy's assassination.
• After the Gulf Of Tonkin incident, congress gave Johnson the power to defend American interests in the region.
• The fighting officially began in Vietnam, and Johnson increased the escalation step by step.
• Massive anti-war protests erupted, especially among college students.

Great Society

• Johnson expanded on social reforms introduced by FDR's New Deal.
• The War on Poverty aimed to address the 40 million Americans living in poverty.
• The Office of Economic Opportunity implemented self-help programs.
• Medicare was established, providing health insurance to those over 65.
• Medicaid provided health insurance to those in poverty.
• A new immigration act abolished immigration quotas.
• Liberalism reached its high point in the mid-1960s.

Transition

• A recession began in the 1970s with stagflation.
• Nixon cut federal spending, leading to an increased economic downturn.
• The Watergate scandal further eroded confidence in the government.
• Conservatism challenged liberalism, with the Supreme Court becoming a flashpoint.
• Roe versus Wade ruled in favor of the constitutionality of abortion.
• Evangelical Christians fused with the Republican party.

Environmental Movement

• Growing concern over human damage to the environment.
• In 1970, Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).