APUSH Unit 8 Review

Causes of the Cold War: 

  • Russian revolution transformed Russia into a communist state

  • US policymakers increased severity of Red Scare

  • The Soviets extended their sphere of influence into Germany and several Eastern European countries postwar. The US opposed this, despite doing a similar thing with advancing its policies to control its sphere of influence in Latin America.

  • US had kept nuclear technologies a secret to Stalin -> mistrust, US refused to destroy nuclear arsenal, US had drawn out opening a second front in WW2


Containment 

  • George Kennan - containment, US should prevent spread of communism, US must help rebuild W. European countries -> Truman Doctrine

  • Truman Doctrine said that the US would provide military and economic aid to any democratic countries threatened by the spread of communism -> put containment into practice 


Cold War policies 

  • Organized Alliance for Collective Security  - NATO, military alliance between US and 11 western European democracies, an attack on one was an attack on all -> Warsaw Pact

  • Offered International Aid - Marshall Plan, helped rebuild western European economies after the war. The Marshall Plan came with expectations from the US: The growth of economies would prevent the spread of communism, and indebted countries would be moldable to policies favorable to the US.

  • Berlin Airlift - USSR wanted to keep Germany weak (to neutralize future threats), while the US wanted Germany to recover its economic and political strength (to keep communism from spreading). Germany was divided into 4 occupied zones (Berlin divided into 4). West Germany promoted democracy, while East Germany became dependent on the USSR. Stalin blockaded West Berlin from western assistance -> Truman authorized the Berlin Airlift in which US and BR planes dropped millions of tons of supplies to Berliners.

  • Series of Proxy Wars - Arms race between US and USSR, and mutually assured destruction led to proxy wars. The Korean War became a test for the Truman Doctrine in Asia. Truman did not ask Congress for a declaration of war and instead received authorization from the UN to deploy troops to defend S. Korea. 


Tension and Detente


Conflict: 

  • Korean War/Vietnam War

  • Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) - occurred during JFK’s presidency. US discovered Soviet missile sites being built in Cuba


Detente

  • Nixon - worked with Brezhnev to sign SALT 1 in which both nations agreed to limit proliferation of nuclear weapons



The Second Red Scare:


  • First Red Scare occurred in the 1920s after the Russian Rev made Russia into a communist state - Palmer Raids, broad in scope

  • Second Red Scare focused entirely on the eradication of communism in the US


Second Red Scare Policies 


  • Federal Employees - Roosevelt Executive Order 9835 created the Federal Employee Loyalty Program which was a board the investigated the loyalty of >2 million federal employees for communist ties

  • Eisenhower executive order targeted gay and lesbian federal employees (Lavender Scare) 

  • Private Sector - gov investigated sectors influencing public opinion (Hollywood film industry, House of Un-American Activities Committee (held widely publicized hearings to investigate members of the film industry), Hollywood Ten were held in contempt of Congress for their refusal to cooperate


McCarthyism


  • Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed to know the names of 205 communist employees of the State Dept. 

  • Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigated McCarthy and found he had no evidence of his claims

  • McCarthy gained power and fostered communist fear 

  • In 1954, the Senate censured McCarthy, sensationalism died out 


Economic Growth Causes


  • Growing private sector because industrial infrastructure focused on war munitions instead of consumer goods and the government introduced rationing. Credit cards were widely used in the 1960s and 70s, inc. consumer spending

  •  Federal gov spending - GI Bill (1944), offered financial assistance to WW2 vets; Federal Aid Highway Act (1956), Eisenhower, necessity for quick mobilization of military assets -> growth of steel, oil and construction industries, spurred growth of suburbs, further connected regional markets; granted contracts to private defense industry companies, arms race, high tech industry in Silicon Valley




Economic Growth Effects 


  • Rapid Population increase (baby boom 1946-1964) - growth of economy allowed for

  • Suburbanization - mass migration of middle class families to suburbs - Levittown streamlined the mass production of family-size homes, was mostly a middle class white phenomenon

  • Sunbelt Migration (California, Florida, TX) because of warmer climates (intro of central air), increased mobility, and government spending on Defense Industry. Redistributed political/economic power away from the NE/MW to Sunbelt states. Strengthened Dixiecrats (group of Southern Democrats focused on pro-racial segregation policies) and rise of new conservatism


Mass Culture Spread


  • Radio and cinema created a national culture during the 20s and 30s 

  • Television led to a more homogeneous mass culture -> Age of Conformity. Three major networks presented programing that appealed to mainstream audiences

  • Billy Graham (protestant evangelist) led nationally broadcasted revivals that combined biblical teaching with conservative politics. To be a christian was to be anticommunism. Evangelism rose (similar to fundamentalism in the 20s) 


Challenges to Conformity


  • Artists: Beat Generation, group of poets and writers that exposed underlying rot accompanying television's middle class, white mass culture. 

  • Intellectuals: 1950s culture emphasized consumerism and corporate capitalism. John Kenneth Galbriath argued that the postwar economy created private wealth at expense of public goods and he criticized mass consumption

  • Homosexuals: Mattachine Society (1951) advocated for gay rights. Daughter of Bilitis (1955) advocated for lesbian rights

  • Teenagers: high school attendance increased substantially. Rock ‘n Roll (Elvis Presley) 


Reconstruction Promises Broken


  • Legislative victories: 13th Amendment, 14th, 15th, Civil Rights Act (1875) guaranteed black citizens equal access to public facilities, transportation, and jury service. 

  • Progress undone with sharecropping and declared Civil Rights Act unconstitutional, Jim Crow Laws, Plessy v. Ferguson, black lynching


Early Civil Rights Efforts


  • Congress of Racial Equality - organized highly visible, nonviolent efforts to challenge racial segregation 

  • Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955)

  • Thurgood Marshall (NAACP Lawyer) - Brown v. Board of Edu 


Federal Responses 


  • Executive Branch - NAACP pressured Truman to create the committee on Civil Rights (1946) to investigate civil rights infringements. Truman issued Executive Order 9981 which desegregated the military

  • Judicial Branch - NAACP took on public school desegregation -> “separate but equal” schools violated 14th amendment’s protection -> Brown v. Board (1954). South resistance caused successes to come at slow paces. 1957, Little Rock Nine, Eisenhower took over the National Guard and sent federal troops.

  • Legislative Branch - Civil Rights Act (1957) aimed to protect black voting rights. Southern senators weakened the Civil Rights Act by using all-white juries.


Arms Race Debates


  • Military-industrial complex, Eisenhower warned Americans against in his Farewell Address. He believed the military and defense industry were becoming too dependent on one another. The Cold War perpetuated this complex, and had potential to send Americans into poverty/dictate government policy.

  • New Look - Eisenhower emphasized production of nuclear arsenal instead of traditional military engagements. This strategy was simultaneously cheaper and more destructive. New problem: encouraged Soviets to build a nuclear arsenal. 


Decolonization


  • Anti-Imperialist Sentiment grows - WWI, EU policies denied self-rule after victory. WWII, colonies again fought for imperial cause and were again denied independence -> worldwide process of decolonization -> Cold War rivals tried spreading respective ideologies.

  • Non-Aligned Movement (1955) - independent nations refused to be controlled by the two global superpowers

  • New Nations Involved in conflict - Egypt had formed a close relationship with the USSR, but the new administration in the 1970s had interest in relationships with the US. Carter mediated Camp David Accord, strengthening Egypt-US ties.


Latin America


  • Guatemala - Arbenz (socialist) claimed Guatemalan ownership of hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland currently owned by the United Fruit Co. (American owned). UFC officials stood to lose money to socialist policy, so they convinced President Eisenhower that the Panama Canal was under threat -> Eisenhower order CIA to overthrow socialist Arbenz, right wing military dictator replace him

  • Cuba - Fidel Castro (socialist) moved to gain control of Cuba’s economic assets, significant portions of which were controlled by American corporations. Eisenhower again authorized the CIA to overthrow the regime, left office before the plan was executed, and JFK took over. The Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961) was a disaster since Cubans did not back the cause and Cuba-US relations sank. 


Vietnam War: Causes


  • Containment Policy - NSC-68 responsible for building up a US military/perpetuating a military-industrial complex. Truman Doctrine said that the US would offer financial and military aid to any nation threatened by communism.

  • Global Decolonization - colonized nations fought for/negotiated for independence. The Geneva Conference outlined terms of Vietnamese peace, agreeing to the divide of Vietnam at the 17th parallel (Ho Chi Minh v. Ngo Ding Diem).  

  • Domino Theory


Fighting in Vietnam


  • Escalation - Dwight D. Eisenhower’s term: sent hundreds of military advisors/billions of dollars of aid to South Vietnam -> Ngo Dinh Diem built up the military. JFK’s term: sent more military advisors to try to resolve the situation, authorized a coup to overthrow Diem. LBJ’s term: refused to end conflict and appear “soft on communism”. 

  • Gulf of Tonkin Incident (1964) - two separate instances in which N. Vietnamese gunboats attacked US Navy ships in the Gulf of Tonkin, both of which were exaggerated. LBJ seized this moment to escalate -> Gulf of Tonkin Resolution gave the president unlimited power concerning US military involvement and strategy in Vietnam.

  • Escalation cont. - Richard Nixon began term with de-escalation but eventually pivoted to escalation. Tet Offensive -> Vietnamization called for removal of US troops by transferring responsibility to S. Vietnamese. At the same time, escalated conflict by bombing Cambodia (leaked by the Pentagon Papers). This led to a credibility gap for the presidency. Peace negotiated in 1973, ended in a stalemate.


Executive Power Debate


  • Second war fought w/o declaration of war from Congress, Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. 

  • Congress reclaimed power with the War Powers Resolution (1973) which severely limited presidential powers in making war, requiring the president to consult Congress within 48 hours of troop deployment


American Poverty


  • Wealth concentrated in the growing middle class, 1/5th of Americans were left impoverished. Impoverished lived in city ghettos or rural countryside, affluent lived in suburban bubble (Michael Harrington’s The Other America). 

  • Liberal Presidents Address Poverty - JFK’s New Frontier included policy proposals that aimed to eliminate poverty and disease, JFK viewed the New Frontier as an extension of FDR’s New Deal. JFK faced major resistance from congressional conservatives.


The Great Society


  • Aimed to eliminate poverty and racial discrimination

  • Shared same liberal assumption as New Deal that government intervention was the most effective method to fix society’s problems

  • Racial inequality - Civil Rights Movement pressured Johnson to push JFK’s civil rights legislation through -> Civil Rights Act (1964) mandated end of legal discrimination and racial segregation. Voting Rights Act (1965) made efforts to discriminate at the voting booth illegal

  • War on Poverty - Economic Opportunity Act (1964) offered services to impoverished Americans (like food stamps and rent assistance. Government funded health insurance (Medicare paid healthcare costs for Americans aged 65+, medicaid did so for impoverished children)

  • Rolled back 1920s anti-immigration restriction with the Immigration and Nationality Act (1965), which abolished immigration quotas from certain countries


Second Wave Feminism


  • Kennedy - commission on the Status of Women (similar to Truman’s committee on civil rights)

  • First Wave of Feminism was during the Seneca Falls Convention era

  • Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique argued that assigned gender roles left many women isolated, burdened, and stifled in their true potential

  • Birth Control pill in 1960 gave women more control over reproductive health and decisions

  • The National Organization for Women lobbied for enforcement of the Civil Rights Act provision for gender equality in employment. ERA would protect constitutional rights of women. Phyllis Chlafly led opposition (Stop ERA, saw feminism as a threat to traditional women).

  • Some feminists attacked patriarchy, feeling as if NOW didn’t do enough

  • Roe v. Wade (1973) made abortion constitutional based on 14th amendment's right to privacy


American Indian rights

  • American Indian Movement formed in 1968 in response to disproportionate marginalization experienced by American Indians, consigned to reservations by federal government




The New Left

  • LBJ’s Great Society marked a high point for liberalism. During the 1960s, a growing movement of young Americans rejected the Old Liberalism of the New Deal and Great Society eras.

  • Young Americans rejected New Deal/Great Society liberalism and felt like old liberalism hadn’t been liberal enough (too cautious to make meaningful changes)

  • The New Left formed - Students for a Democratic Society advocated for policies that facilitated a more participatory democracy. 

  • While the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act eliminated racial discrimination on paper, segregation still existed and urban poverty remained largely untouched. The New Left pushed for policies that not only addressed surface racism but also worked to solve systemic racism. 


Youth Protests


  • Arrest/conviction of Muhammad Ali - refused military draft on basis of religious belief, sentenced to five years of prison and a $10k fine. Punishment inspire greater anti-war protests

  • March on Pentagon (1967) - antiwar demonstration organized by the SDS against LBJ’s escalation of the Vietnam war . Turning point in 1960s youth-led antiwar movement. The New Left could not be ignored by those in power. 26th Amendment lowered voting ge

  • Kent State University (1970) - students gathered to protest President Nixon’s bombing raids in Cambodia despite his campaign on de-escalation promises. The National Guard opened fire on crowds of protesters.


Counterculture


  • Informal version of New Left 

  • Rejection of cultural norms

  • Youth rejected societal conformity through new music taste, experimental drug use, and new styles of clothing -> hippies, embraced free love, prized informality, Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. 


National Energy Policy


  • US was dependent on oil as a main source of energy (automobile)

  • OPEC produced and exported oil, allowing US to import oil

  • US faced oil embargo - OPEC punished US for supporting Israel in Yom-Kippur War. Prices increased and US experienced severe oil shortage -> inflation and rising unemployment -> stagflation

  • Carter created the Dept. of Energy in 1977 which supported research and development of national strategies to conserve energy, find alternative energy sources (help US become less dependent on foreign oil)


Environmental Movement


  • In contrast with the preservationism/conservationism in the Teddy Roosevelt era, environmentalism of the 1970s focused less on protecting specific physical spaces and more on preserving the wider ecosystem in which all species and places lived together in mutual interdependence

  • 1970s’ environmental disasters



New Conservatism


  • In the 1960s, a new conservatism began to stir and its members desired to take back what they believed had been taken from them in the throes of civil rights and liberalism

  • Troubled by countercultures’s free love

  • Opposed growing feminist movement, saw it as social chaos, and sought to bring back a sense of normalcy

  • Limited role of federal gov - federal power had been expanding since the New Deal, conservatives felt expansion was a violation of federalist structure 

  • Enact Aggressive foreign policy - US should make full use of its power on world stage criticized gradualist fight in Vietnam


Growth of Conservatism


  • The National Review unified various strands of conservative thought

  • Barry Goldwater Campaign (against LBJ) advocated for abolishment of policies that he believed contained federal overreach (i.e. Social Security benefits), emphasis on states’ rights, for gov spending

  • Election of Richard Nixon (1968) - pledged to restrain the federal government from regulating and enforcing civil rights legislation, Southern Strategy (appealed to southerners voters who historically voted Democrat). “Silent majority” = large percentage of Americans were fed up with cultural upheaval and needed a candidate who could stabilize and make life more comfortable for white middle class. -> courtpacking, dismantling Great Society legislation

 

Ideological Clashes


  • Roe v. Wade - conservatives sought to limit access to abortion

  • ERA - conservative women like Phyllis Schlafly organized movements to kill the amendment (success)

  • Liberals wanted more federal involvement to expand access to civil liberties and intervention to avoid economic crises. Conservatives wanted less federal involvement. The New Right argued that Great Society’s civil rights policies amounted to federal coercion. Conservatives criticized high tax rates funding liberal policies ->supply-side economics, deregulation of business, trickle-down economics


The Christian Right


  • 1970s melding of conservative New Right politics with growing Evangelical Christian movement -> Christian Right opposed abortion and supported a return to traditional gender roles

  • Vote for republicans = vote for Jesus 


Public Trust Declines


  • Political scandals - Nixon’s Watergate scandal, CREEP broke into Watergate hotel in order to bug Democratic offices. Nixon authorized an elaborate coverup; however, the release of the “smoking gun” tape created major calls for his impeachment, leading to him resigning in 1974. 

  • Economic Crisis - stagflation in the 1970s after OPEC cut off the US. Federal power was unable to fix the problem, making it seem weak.

  • Foreign Policy Crises - Iran Hostage Crisis (1979), Carter invited Pahlavi to receive cancer treatment in America. After Pahlavi’s admission to the US, Iranian troops were ordered to raid the American Embassy in Iran. Carter authorized a covert operation to rescue hostages which was unsuccessful. Carter looked weak and ineffective.