APUSH Unit 8 Cram

The Cold War

“Cold War” - A conflict between two belligerents in which neither engages in open warfare with the other

  • Battle of Ideologies

Causes of Cold War

  • Authoritarian Communism vs. Democratic Capitalism

  • Stalin kept troops in Central and Eastern European countries harboring distrust

  • Post-War agreement

    • Germany divided into 4 parts: France, British, Soviets, U.S.A

      • Also divided Berlin (in Soviet territory)

    • “Temp peacetime necessity” became just another communist buffer state

      • West wanted Germany to come back stronger in order to stabilize Europe

    • Soviet wanted Germany to repay their reparations

CONTAINMENT - Containing the spread of communism

  • Truman Doctrine: Advocated containment of communism by offering support to any countries pressured by Soviet communism

    • Result of pressure on Turkey and Greece

  • Marshall Plan: Allocated almost 13 billion dollars in financial aid for European countries to rebuild

    • Healthy economy = more likely to become a democracy

      • Worked, which made USSR (Stalin) upset

USSR (Stalin) did NOT like America meddling with Berlin

  • U.S. gave them hope of democracy

  • Stalin decided to block their entry into the western part of the city (Berlin Blockade)

    • Soviet blockage of canals, railroads, and roads that aimed to absorb west berlin into USSR.

  • U.S. replied to Berlin Blockade with Berlin Airlift

    • Included over 200,000 American and allied plane rides, dropping off supplies to West Berlin

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created due to the commitment to containment of communism

  • Military Aliance to resist any aggressive actions of USSR

USSR formed counter alliance “Warsaw Pact” which did the same for Eastern European communist countries

Nuclear Proliferation - “Fierce arms race between USSR and USA”

  • U.S. developed first iteration of the atomic bomb in 1945

  • USSR inflitration into U.S. intelligence agencies made it so that USSR was testing their first atomic bomb in 1949

  • Truman commissioned the development of a hydrogen bomb (way more powerful)

    • Completed and tested in 1952, USSR just a year later

  • POINT: USSR and USA both developing and testing increasing amounts of increasingly powerful nuclear bombs and could end the world

    • Could never use them

Proxy War - Fighting not DIRECTLY but US was backing one side and USSR was backing the other

  • Korean War

    • Korea divided at the 38th parallel

      • Soviets = North

      • US = South

    • North Korea invades South Korea using Soviet arms/supplies

    • Enrages both sides and UN sends troops (Like 90% Americans)

    • UN troops pushed back N. Koreas close to China’s border, but China did not like this and pushed the UN troops back to the 38th parallel

    • ENDED IN STALEMATE - Same exact circumstances as before

    • NEED TO KNOW

      • illustrates 2 important things

        • Proxy war between USSR and USA

        • Direct result of Containment policy by Truman

The Red Scare

Second Red Scare just after WWII

Containing communism in the home-front

Labor Unions: Fed Govt - Made people pledge their loyalty to the U.S. and swear they were not a communist

Taft Hartley Act - Made it more difficult for unions to strike and make union leaders swear they are not communists

Federal Employee Loyalty and Security Program - Executive order from Truman that made people declare they were not communists or fascists and made provisions for federal investigations into the political affiliations of federal employees

Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) - Searched for communist influence in every crevice of American society, most notibily Hollywood

  • Film Industry seen as place where communists could easily spread their message.

    • 1947: Hollywood Ten - Ten prominent Hollywood directors were singled out as communists and were summoned to testify about their communism. They refused, which got them short prison sentences and a spot on the Hollywood Blacklist (Could not find work in the industry again)

Joseph McCarthy - Communist Hunter

  • Claimed to have the names of 205 known communists that infiltrated the state department in a speech in 1950

    • Threw him into prominence

    • Later claimed the number was only about 57 but the damage was already done

    • He never made these names public even when given the oppurtunity at Senate meetings

    • They voted to censure him

  • “McCarthyism” - a campaign or practice that endorses the use of unfair allegations and investigations]

Rosenburg Case

  • U.S. believed USSR couldn’t have made the bomb without help from spies

  • Julius and Ethel Rosenburg were accused of being involved in the espionage of said stolen plans

    • They were communists so the government decided that made sense and executed them via the electric chair ‘

Economy After WWII/1945

  • The economy in the 50s was very successful

    • Increased productivity
      Increased govt spending on infrastructure (interstate highway system)

  • Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (GI Bill) 1944 - WWII veterans were given the oppurtunity to go to college on the govt’s dime and given low interest loans to buy houses and start businesses

  • Baby Boom - 50 million babies born between 1945 and 1960

    • Suburbs created due to need for housing with more children being born

Culture after WWII/1945

Television made people have mass culture

  • Classic family systems

Did not want to be nonconformists

Mass advertisement too

Wide spread use of credit cards AGAIN

Rock n Roll came into play as well

Beatniks were poets who went against conformity

  • Jack Kerouack

  • J.D. Salinger

    • BOTH CALLED FOR SPONTINWITY

Civil Rights in the 1940s

Black Americans were promised a lot during the Reconstruction era, but basically none happened (Jim Crow Laws)

Black Americans wanted to pressure the government into giving them some of the things they promised

Executive Order 9981 - Banned segregation in the armed forces (Signed in 1948 put in play 2 years later)

Commitee on Civil Rights - examined civil rights and told govt what to do about it

24th amendment - abolished poll tax

Brown V. Board of Education - Argued that the segregation of schools violated the 14th amendment 1954 it ended up in Supreme court and was excepted

“All deliberate speed” - made South resist

Southern Manifesto - Said supreme court

Great Society

Like FDRs New Deal

Office of Economic Oppurtunity - Self Help Programs

Medicare - Fed funded healthcare for those over 65

Medicaid - Fed funded healthcare for those in poverty

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) -Ruled if a person is impoverished and cannot afford their own attorney in court, then the state must provide one for them

Grisworld v. Connecticut (1965) - Ruled that laws which forbade the use of birth control were unconstitutional

Engel V. Vitale (1962) - Deemed school prayer unconstitutional as it violated the first amendment’s provision for the seperation of church and state

Baker v. Carr (1962) - Decided states must redraw their legislative districts so that they more accurately uphold voting rights

Warren Court and LBJ = Liberal

Expanded Civil Rights Movement

  • Black American civil rights movement inspired a bunch of other people