Discussion 8

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Of the People

McGerr, Lewis, Oakes, Cullather, Summers, Townsend, Dunak

Volume II

Since 1865

Chapter 24 The Cold War 1945—1954

George Tooker, Government Bureau (1956)

Chapter 24 American Portrait: John Turchinetz

Served in the Navy in WWII

Son of eastern European immigrants

Postwar normality did not last long

Cold War

Role of nuclear weapons

Origins of the Cold War

Iron Curtain In Winston Churchill’s image, an “iron curtain” divided Europe, but soon similar barriers would mark the frontiers of containment in Asia and the Middle East.

Ideological Competition

Both powerful nations with different ambitions

USSR: socialist economy, limited individual rights

Autarkic economy

US: capitalism, traditions of individualism

Uneasy Allies

American leaders feared autarkic trade blocs, Great Depression and war

Had faith in free trade

Soviet leaders feared repeat invasions of Russia, Eastern Europe

Trusted in a closed economic system

Yalta Conference, spheres of influence

From Allies to Enemies

Bretton Woods economic system disadvantaged closed economies

US air and naval bases around the world

Soviets saw both as threatening

Disagreement over Germany, Poland

National Security

Iron Curtain In Winston Churchill’s image, an “iron curtain” divided Europe, but soon similar barriers would mark the frontiers of containment in Asia and the Middle East.

The Truman Doctrine

Iron Curtain

George Kennan’s Long Telegram

Communism is expansionistic

Civil war in Greece

US must support free peoples who are resisting subjugation

Containment

Led to conflicts all over the world

Soviet atomic capabilities

Increased military spending, arms race

Marshall Plan, 1947

North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 1949

National Security Act, 1947

CIA, NSC, Joint Chiefs of Staff

Taking Risks

Reunification of American, British, French sectors of Berlin

Soviet blockade

Berlin Airlift

Cold War in Europe

Cold War in Europe, 1950 Five years after World War II, the cold war had divided Europe into hostile camps, with NATO members allied with the United States and Warsaw Pact signers tied to the Soviet Union.

Global Revolutions

Civil War in China

Mao Zedong’s communists vs. Jiang Jieshi’s nationalists

‘Loss’ of China to communism

Rio Pact, Organization of American States, 1948

US tolerated dictators, colonies, white supremacists who opposed communism

American Landscape

The Nevada Test Site

Nuclear weapons test site

Tested weapons

Measured effects on environment

Fallout

Trust in government?

Nevada Nuclear Tests Unprotected members of a secret federal unit film an atomic bomb explosion at the test site in Nevada, 1957. A number of the group’s filmmakers would die of cancer.

Korea

Postwar joint US/USSR occupation of Korea

38th parallel

North Korea invaded the South in 1950

US/UN “police action”

Attack by China led to stalemate

The Korean War

The Korean War, 1950–1953 The shifting lines of advance mark the back-and-forth struggle that would end with stalemate and the division of Korea.

NSC-68

Triple defense spending

Order in postcolonial areas

Development of powerful weapons

Paid for with deficit spending

Gov’t generated jobs and growth

The Reconversion of American Society

The GI Bill in Action William Oskay, Jr. lived in a trailer with his wife and daughter while attending Pennsylvania State College (now University) under the GI Bill in 1946.

The Postwar Economy

GI Bill sent veterans to school rather than work

Gov’t spending remained high

Industrial production spread

US dominated world economy

The Challenges of Organized Labor

Unions wanted to expand influence, increase wages for members

Wave of strikes in 1946

Accused of being Communists

Taft-Hartley Act

Passed by Republicans and conservative Democrats

Treaty of Detroit

Opportunities for Women

Women did not return to the home after 1945

More married women worked

Became a permanent part of the armed forces

Discrimination in hiring, pay

Opportunities gradually expanded

Civil Rights for African Americans

Southern industrial growth undermined segregation

United Nations Declaration on Human Rights

Supreme Court decisions struck at racial discrimination

Role of African American veterans

NAACP citizenship schools, CORE

Executive Order 9981

Jackie Robinson

The Frustrations of Liberalism

Jackie Robinson Steals Home for the Brooklyn Dodgers His daring, speed, and power helped force the integration of Major League Baseball.

The Democrats’ Troubles

Truman wanted to expand gov’ts role

Full employment bill, national health insurance system

Many people wanted less gov’t more individual freedom in peacetime

Veterans Administration, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute of Mental Health

Truman’s Comeback

Taft-Hartley Act

Americans did not favor rolling back the New Deal

Divided parties

Henry Wallace ran as a Progressive, Strom Thurmond as a Dixiecrat

New Deal coalition

Fair Deal legislation stalled

1948 Presidential Election

The 1948 Presidential Election Segregationist and pro-ressive candidacies were expected to undermine the Democratic majority, but the Roosevelt coalition returned Truman to the White House for a second term.

Fighting the Cold War at Home

George Tooker, Government Bureau (1956) Modernist painter George Tooker captured the claustro- phobic anxiety of the McCarthy era in paintings like Government Bureau and The Subway (1950). In popular fiction and noir films, social conformity thinly concealed a mounting hysteria.

Doubts and Fears in the Atomic Age

Rise of fascism, wartime atrocities raised questions about the direction of progress

UFO sightings

Hollywood

Atomic fears

Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952

The Anti-Communist Crusade

Fears of Communist threats from within

House Un-American Activities Committee

Hollywood Ten

Federal employee loyalty program

No due process

Struggles for Democracy

The Hollywood Ten

Alleged Communist influence in Hollywood

Ten suspected Communists forced to testify before Congress

Some pointed fingers at colleagues; Screen Actors Guild

Studios discriminated against suspected communists

Courts allowed unconstitutional treatment

Right of free speech and dissent suffered

The Hunt for Spies

Alger Hiss trial

Accused of passing State Dept documents to USSR

Spy ring passed nuclear secrets to USSR

David Greenglass and Julius Rosenberg

Rosenbergs were executed in 1953

The Rise of McCarthyism

Senatory Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin

Claimed to have evidence of Communists working in the State Department

Internal Security Act of 1950

Army-McCarthy hearings

Teachers were forced to swear loyalty oaths

Labor unions, civil rights activists accused of harboring communists