4-A

Alonzo L. Hamby (PPP #8)

o Hamby is an American historian and academic. He is distinguished professor of history emeritus at Ohio University; Miler Center Truman historian

• David McCullough (PPP #8)

o David McCullough (1933-2022)

o The Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Harry S. Truman called Truman (1992)

• Robert Ferrell (PPP #8)

o Robert Ferrell (1921-2018)

o Key Book: Harry S. Truman: A Life (1994)

• Joe Scarborough (PPP #8)

o Joe Scarborough is an American television host, author, political commentator, and former politician and member of Congress

o Key Book on the Truman Doctrine: Saving Freedom: Truman, The Cold War, and the Fight for Western Civilization (2020)

• Stanley K. Schultz (PPP #8)

o Stanley K. Schultz (1938-2020); University of Wisconsin

o Truman and the Fair Deal Expert

• Walter LaFeber (PBS American Experience - Truman Documentary)

o Walter LaFeber (1933-2021) Cornell University

o Cold War Expert

o LaFeber has termed "two halves of the same walnut" for Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan

• H.W. Brands (Korean War Documentary)

o University of Texas at Austin

o Key Book: The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War

• Allan R. Millett (Korean War Documentary)

o Millett is a specialist in the history of American military policy and twentieth century wars and military institutions. He is also a specialist of international stature on the history of the Korean War; University of New Orleans

• Ellen Schrecker (In-Class Notes –McCarthyism Lesson)

o Books on McCarthyism

▪ 1) No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities (1986)

▪ 2) Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America (1998)

▪ 3) The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents (3d ed. 2017)

Truman Key Players (PPP #8) - Matching

• George C. Marshall - Secretary of State (1946-1949)

o Working with Acheson, shaped the Truman Doctrine to support Greece and Turkey against the threat of Soviet expansion

o His economic recovery program for Europe became known as the Marshall Plan

o Berlin Airlift policy in Europe

• Dean Acheson- Secretary of State (1949-1953)

o As undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Defense, he shaped the Truman Doctrine to support Greece and Turkey against the threat of Soviet expansion and helped formulated what came to be the Marshall Plan for spurring economic revival in Europe.

o As Secretary of State promoted the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 and NSC-68 in 1950, Containment Policy in Latin America; Korean War Diplomat

• Clark Clifford

o Special Counsel to the President, 1946-1950. Clifford was probably the most influential and prominent member of Truman's White House staff.

▪ Clifford had a huge impact on foreign policy and national security issues: The development of the Truman Doctrine, the implementation of the Marshall Plan in Europe, the Recognition of Israel, and the development of the U.S. atomic energy program. On the domestic front, he was the mastermind of the 1948 Campaign and help craft the “Fair Deal”.

• George M. Elsey

o Elsey was a top assistant to presidential adviser Clark Clifford in the Truman White House; Cold War Policy of Containment.

• George F. Kennan

o American Diplomat; One of the “Wisemen”; The temporary head of the American embassy in Moscow in 1946; "Long Telegram."

• John Steelman

o One of President Truman's closest aides, with a focus on domestic policy (Including the Fair Deal – 2^nd Term), economics, and labor.  His official title was the assistant to the President.

Cold War and Korean War - Matching

• Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)

o Political Leader of the Soviet Union (Mid 1920s to 1953)

▪ Through a series of conferences with Allied leaders, Stalin secured all territory in Eastern Europe occupied by the Red Army at the time of the German surrender for the Soviet Union. Stalin saw those lands not only as territory that could be exploited for the benefit of the Soviet Union (recalling World War I) but also as a buffer zone between the Soviet Union and the West. By the late 1940s, the boundary between the Soviet sphere and the nations of Western Europe became known as the "iron curtain" by Winston Churchill, and the Cold War began.

• Mao Zedong (1893-1976)

o Chinese political and military leader

o Mao proclaimed the new People's Republic of China (PRC) in October 1949 after the Chinese Civil War

o Leader of PRC (1949-1976)

• Syngman Rhee (1875-1965)

o Syngman Rhee was the first president of the Republic of Korea (ROK) or South Korea from 1948-1960.

• Kim Il Sung (1912-1994)

o President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) or North Koreaand general secretary of the Committee of the Korean Workers Party from 1948-1994).

o He was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Il, who ruled North Korea until his death in 2011. He was succeeded by his son, the 28-year-old Kim Jong Un, that same year

Presidential Administrations-Watershed Events Chronology Fill-In the Blank Question Options

• Harry S. Truman: 1945-1953

• Korean War: 1950-1953

• Franklin D. Roosevelt: 1933-1945

• Second World War in Europe: 1939-1945

1. Truman Background Content Notes (PPP #8 Survey In-ClassLesson)

• Harry Truman was born on May 8, 1884, in the town of Lamar, MO. Truman grew up in Independence, MO only ten miles east of Kansas City.  In the early years before politics, Truman was a farmer, served in World War I, and was a small businessman (haberdasher)

• In the 1920s and early 1930s, Truman was involved in local politics in Jackson County, Mo

• Truman served in the U.S. Senate (1934 – 1944)

• FDR’s 3^rd Vice President in 1945

• Democrat

2. Truman Domestic Policy – 1^st Term (1945-1949) – PPP #8 and Truman Documentary

• Reconversion After the Second World War (1945 to 1949

o Truman was unable to persuade Congress to agree to wage and price controls after World War II ended, and as he had predicted, prices soared. Organized labor responded by seeking wage increases. By the end of 1946, millions of workers were on strike. Truman attempted to use the influence of the White House to help negotiate settlements in the railroad and coal-mining industries. When his efforts failed, he threatened to use the army to run the trains, pressuring the strikers back to work after only a few days, and obtained an injunction to prevent the coal miners from striking.

• 1946 Mid-Term Elections

o The election results produced a change dramatic enough that many analysts saw them as indicative of a broad Republican realignment. The GOP gained 55 House seats and 12 Senate seats, enough to give them control of both houses of Congress for the first time since the elections of 1928

• 80th United States Congress Session: 1947-1949)

o Republican Majorities

• Taft-Hartley Act of 1947

o Taft-Hartley Act, enacted by Congress in 1947 over President Harry Truman's veto, placed several significant restrictions on organized labor. It was passed in response to widespread antilabor and antiunion sentiment following World War II.

3. Cold War Context and Roots Before the Truman Doctrine in March of 1947

• Events at Yalta and Potsdam in 1945 that influenced tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union

• Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union began to increase after World War II because the two nations had different goals.

o Different concerns

o Different ideology

• Containment Policy Roots

o George Kennan (Long Telegram, Article X)

• The “Iron Curtain”; Winston Churchill’s Speech in 1946

• Clifford-Elsey Report

4. Start of the Cold War: Political, Economic, and Military Actions: 1947 to 1949 -PPP #8 and Truman Documentary

• The United States feared Soviet dominance throughout Europe—and perhaps beyond. As a result, President Harry Truman committed the United States to supporting democratic resistance in Europe.

• The Truman Doctrine, and the containment policy it became, led to two key prongs of cold war strategy.

o On March 12, 1947, in a message to Congress, President Harry Truman laid out a foreign policy doctrine for the United States in the early days of the Cold War that subsequently became known as the Truman Doctrine. At heart, the policy was one that mandated an active role for the United States in containing the spread of communism around the world. Truman spoke in reference to Greece and Türkiye (then called Turkey), both of which needed significant economic aid to stave off communist revolutions. He believed that the Soviet Union was directly funding communist forces within the two countries and felt the United States should support the anticommunists. The aid Truman envisaged was primarily financial, which Congress granted by appropriating $400 million to the two countries.

o The Truman Doctrine laid the groundwork for the Marshall Plan, which extended similar aid to all Western Europe. It also formed the backbone of America's Cold War policy and led to both financial and military entanglements throughout the world, including the wars in Korea and Vietnam

• The first was economic aid to Europe with the Marshall Plan (1947) as its cornerstone. Proposed by Secretary of State George C. Marshall, the plan hoped to stabilize Europe—thus protecting it against communist influences—by repairing European economies and infrastructures.

o Between 1948 and 1952, 17 European nations received Marshall Plan funds. The monies helped to restore industry, agriculture, and trade, while they shored up financial institution

• National Security Act-1947

o CIA

o Air Force

o Defense Department

o NSC

• The Draft Resurrected in 1948

1. Tension of the occupied zones in Germany/Berlin Airlift 1948-1949

o Each action in the Cold War prompted a reaction from the opposing side, which raised tensions to new levels. In 1948, the western allies—who had occupied portions of Germany and the city of Berlin—decided to merge their zones into a new democratic German nation (founded in 1949). Because Berlin sat inside the Soviet-occupied portion of Germany, its western zones became a single isolated democratic island surrounded by communist territory

o In June 1948, the Soviet Union blockaded all routes to West Berlin to push the western allies out. Under the terms of the Truman Doctrine, it was not acceptable to let Eastern Europe fall under communism, so the United States instituted the Berlin airlift, which kept West Berlin as a viable, capitalist, democratic area. The airlift, which supplied the city by airdrop, enabled the people there to survive the 11-month blockade

• MacArthur and Japan Reconstruction

• Events of 1949

o China becomes Communist (Mao wins Civil War); Nationalists flee to Taiwan

o Soviet Union gets the Atomic Bomb

• NATO Alliance

o Established in 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance of 30 European and North American countries that have agreed to provide mutual defense, support and cooperation. NATO's mission is to "safeguard the freedom and security of its members through political and military means," as well as to promote democratic values and peace. The 12 founding members of NATO were the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the United States, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Norway, and Portugal. Since then, several other states have signed on to the alliance. The alliance promotes stability and tries to foster economic partnership among its members

5. Truman Domestic Policy– 2nd Term (1949-1953) – PPP #8

• The Fair Deal was the name given to President Harry Truman's domestic policies, which were basically an extension of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies of the 1930s. Truman's efforts to extend the liberal principles of the New Deal included larger outlays for social welfare programs and an increased emphasis on obtaining full civil rights for African Americans.

o Civil Rights Under Truman

o Increase in Minimum Wage

o Increase in Social Security Benefits

o National Housing Act of 1949 (Including the Start of Urban Renewal Programs)

o Fair Deal Failures (A comprehensive federal health-care program, and federal national health insurance, tax cuts for the low-income and the poor, federal education programs)

6. Truman and Civil Rights

• In late 1946, Harry Truman established

o “The President’s Committee on Civil Rights.” established by Executive Order 9808

o The committee released its report in 1947. Entitled, “To Secure These Rights,” it documented nationwide discrimination in areas such as education, housing, public accommodations, and voting rights.

• Truman appointed Fred M Vinson in 1946 as Chief Justice to the Supreme Court (1946 -1953). Vinson had a strong record of supporting decisions that upheld the discrimination claims of African Americans

• On June 29, 1947, President Truman addressed the NAACP’s 38th Annual Convention, the first president ever to do so. An audience of 10,000 listened from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

• On February 2, 1948 President Truman took great political risk by presenting a daring civil rights speech to a joint session of Congress.

• Some of the earliest successful efforts to end segregation in the United States focused on the military. In 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 mandating desegregation of the armed forces, and Black service members fought in integrated units for the first time during the Korean War (1950–1953). Military desegregation helped spark the civil rights movement and led to further gains in the fight for racial equality

• Based on the committee’s findings, he asked Congress to support a civil rights package that included federal protection against lynching, better protection of the right to vote, and a permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission.

• Truman’s actions caused a revolt in his own party. The southern wing refused to endorse his reelection in 1948 and ran its own candidate, Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, for president as a states' rights "Dixiecrat." This starts the shift away from the “Solid South” (Democratic Party Domination in the region since Reconstruction in the 1870s)

7. Second Red Scare and McCarthyism

• McCarthyism is used to describe the widespread charges of communist influence and investigations of alleged communist activities that took place in the United States during the late 1940s and 1950s. It takes its name from Senator Joseph McCarthy, who became a master of making unsubstantiated, but highly popular, charges that individuals or groups were subversive communists or communist sympathizers.

• Role of House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and Hollywood

o Hollywood Ten

o Ronald Reagan

o Richard Nixon

• Loyalty Review Board in 1947

• Alger Hiss Case

• J Edgar Hoover and FBI free reign of suspected “subversives”

• Truman's second term was dominated by a period of mass hysteria over communist spies and infiltrators in America later called McCarthyism

• Rosenberg Trail

• Truman did not support the questionable "witch hunt" activities of Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, but he was unable to prevent their excesses; Hearings in the Senate: 1950-1954

• He vetoed the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950, which required all communists to register with the Justice Department; provided for the deportation of any alien who had ever been a communist; and prohibited the employment of communists or their supporters in positions relating to national defense. Congress passed it anyway.

8. Korean War (1950-1953) * War continues under Eisenhower

• Korean War Context and Causes (1945-1950)

o Division of Korea in 1945

▪ When President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in April 1945, Korea became a pawn in a power struggle between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Both countries agreed that the 38th parallel would be the demarcation line for the surrender of Japanese forces occupying Korea. The country would be divided: the Soviets would take Korea north of that line, and the U.S. would take Korea south of that line.

o Efforts to reunify Korea diminished during the Cold War when the communist northern government refused to allow a United Nations (UN) commission into its territory. In May 1948, the commission held elections in the southern half of Korea, and Syngman Rhee was elected president of the Republic of Korea (South Korea). The North responded by inaugurating the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) with leader Kim Il Sung, who had ties to China and the Soviet Union

o When U.S. president Harry Truman began his second term of office on January 20, 1949, Chinese leader Mao Zedong and the communists continued to dominate the civil war in China against Chiang Kai-shek and the nationalists. Mao also appeared to be taking a more anti-American stance, and in October 1949, Mao proclaimed the People's Republic of China in Beijing. By June 1949, the U.S. had withdrawn its remaining forces from South Korea. They left behind the 500-man Korea Military Advisory Group to train South Korean forces. On January 12, 1950, Secretary of State Dean Acheson defined the U.S. strategic defense perimeter in Asia as excluding the Korean peninsula.

• Impact of National Security Council Paper NSC-68 – 1950

o Start of the Soviet vs. U.S. Arms Race

o Impact on Guns vs. Butters

• North Korean forces invaded South Korea in 1950, Truman, without obtaining a declaration of war from Congress, ordered U.S. forces to the area before the United Nations (UN) voted to halt the aggression.  

• MacArthur was placed in overall command of UN forces and succeeded in driving the North Koreans out of South Korea.

• Three Major Phases of the War during Truman Years

• Truman accepted the political consequences of his extremely unpopular action and relieved MacArthur of command

• First Proxy War out of Europe