Transcript Chapter 29
Chapter 29
The American Century
Postwar Economy
• US government
convinced sharp swings
in business cycles could
be manipulated through
monetary and fiscal policy
• Reconversion to
peacetime economy
• Economic boom due to
pent-up demand and
forced wartime savings
• GI Bill of Rights –
education and business
Postwar Economy
• Taxes cut and price controls removed Inflation and labor unrest led to
Republican control of Congress
• Taft-Hartley Act – passed over Truman
veto – outlawed the closed shop and
allowed presidential injunctions to prevent
strikes that endangered national interests
• Act hampered unionizing of new industries
but not existing unions
The Containment Policy
• Stalin continued to expand
Soviet domination in Europe
and Asia
• US demobilized (6.5 million to
1.5 million) but Russia
maintained huge army
• Foreign officers warned
against Russian aggression
• The Sources of Soviet
Conduct by George Kennan
called for West to contain
USSR
The Atom Bomb
• Truman saw bomb as
counterweight to Soviet
power
• Many scientists against
use of bomb
(Oppenheimer) – Truman
doubted people would
permit its use again
• Proposed deal whereby
UN would monitor nations
to ensure no bombs
made – US would destroy
stockpile
• USSR refused
Greece
• Communist guerrillas waged war against
Greek monarchy
• Britain warned US they would cut off aid to
Greece
• Truman asked Congress for $400 million
in aid for Greece and Turkey to fight
communism
• Using aid to fight communism = Truman
Doctrine
The Marshall Plan
• 1947 Sec. State George C. Marshall
proposed US financed reconstruction of
Europe – would even allow $ to Soviet
Union and satellites
• Europeans set up committee calling for
$22.4 billion
• Stalin afraid $ would draw satellites into
US orbit – would not participate
The Marshall Plan
• By 1951 Europe booming
• Europe now divided into
communist east and
democratic west
• West announced plans to
create a new democratic West
Germany
• Russia responded with Berlin
blockade
• US and West responded with
Berlin Airlift
Japan and China
• US occupied Japan and
did not allow USSR a role
in China
• General MacArthur military governor of Japan
– helped create stable,
prosperous state
• US attempted to broker
agreement between
Nationalists under Chiang
Kai-shek and Mao
Zedong
• 1947 - Civil war erupted
in China
Election of 1948
• Truman’s popularity low
• Republican nominee Governor Dewey
• Southern Democrats left party over civil
rights plank
• Formed “Dixiecrat” party and nominated
Strom Thurmond
• Liberals organized a new progressive
party and nominated former VP Wallace
Election of 1948
• Truman launched an aggressive whistlestop campaign
• Truman warned Republicans would do
away with New Deal gains
• Success of Berlin Airlift also strengthened
Truman
• Progressive party fell into hands of
communist sympathizers driving away
many liberals
Election of 1948
• Dewey’s campaign
was smug and
lackluster – expected
to win without effort
• Truman won the
election and
attempted to enact a
Fair Deal – little of
which was passed
Containing Communism
• North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO)
formed to counter Soviet
threat to Europe
• 1949 – USSR detonated
an atomic weapon –
caused US to expand its
arsenal
• 1950 – US begins
development of hydrogen
bomb (USSR already
developing)
Containing Communism
• By 1949 mainland China
in communist hands
• Chiang Kai-shek and
Nationalists fled to
Formosa (Taiwan)
• Containment relied on
money but not men on
the ground – Truman
began to reduce number
of troops
Containing Communism
• NSC – 68
Submitted by Secretary of State Dean
Acheson
Called for enormous increase in military
spending (350% increase)
Create an arms race that the USSR could not
hope to win due to inferior system
Truman not warm to idea but changed mind
due to war in Korea
The Korean War
• Japanese disarmed in Korea by USSR in
the north and the US in the south
• Both left the peninsula but USSR left a
well-armed army whereas the one left by
the US was small and ill-trained
• US policy makers determined that military
involvement in Asia was impractical – US
defense perimeter to be based on Japan
and Philippines
The Korean War
• Korea excluded from perimeter
in speech by Sec State
Acheson in 1950
• North Korea responded with
an attack on South Korea
• Truman resolved to stop the
S.O.B.’s
• US planes and ground troops
were sent to help without a
declaration of war
• Truman accepted NSC-68
The Korean War
• US secured UN Security Council
approval for defense of South
Korea (USSR?)
• General MacArthur placed in
command
• 16 nations supplied troops
though US forces comprised
about 90% of the force
• Pusan Perimeter
• Inchon Invasion
The Korean War
• North Korea retreated to well above 38th
parallel
• Some advised Truman to stop at parallel –
not to entice USSR or China to widen war
• MacArthur sought full occupation of North
Korea
• Truman authorized the stop line at the
Yalu River
The Korean War
• Chinese “volunteers” began to turn up in
hauls of POWs
• MacArthur assured Truman China would
not dare intervene
• China entered war with over 250,000
troops
• UN forces pushed back to 38th parallel
• MacArthur urged the use of atomic
weapons and naval blockade of China
The Korean War
• Truman – afraid of starting
WWIII- fired MacArthur
• Korean War became
unpopular due to
mounting casualties and
costs
• Truce negotiations began
in 1951 but war would
drag on until 1953
Communists at Home
• Korean War illustrated growing US decline
in ability to influence world affairs
• Fear of communist espionage in US
increased
• Truman set up Loyalty Review Board to
check on government employees – about
2,700 workers fired over 10 year period
Communists at Home
• Whittaker Chambers (Time)
versus Alger Hiss (former state
department official)
• Case fed fears of communist
underground
• Klaus Fuchs – British scientist
• Harry Gold – associate of
Fuchs
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
McCarthyism
• 1950 – Joseph McCarthy
(Wisconsin) claimed he had list
of 205 communists in the State
Department
• No evidence to back up his
claims
• Backed by public opinion (Red
Scare) McCarthy attacked
several public figures including
George Marshall
• The “Big Lie” – enormity of
charges and status of targets
must mean there was truth
1952 Election
• Truman low in polls again due to Korean
War, firing of MacArthur, and charges
made by McCarthy
• Republicans nominated Eisenhower
• Eisenhower promised to go to Korea
• “I Like Ike”
• Democrats nominated Governor Adlai
Stevenson
1952 Election
• Stevenson tagged as
an “egghead”
• Eisenhower
attempted to emulate
Washington and
remain above
partisan politics
• Fiscal conservative
Eisenhower-Dulles Foreign
Policy
• Dulles argued against containment using
military forces – believed nuclear arsenal
sufficient
• Beliefs tested on Korea – nukes sent to
Asia along with vague warnings of
“tougher measures”
• Weeks later armistice in Korea signed
• China unaware?
Eisenhower-Dulles Foreign
Policy
• 1954 - Communist China
shelled two islands
manned by Nationalist
Chinese troops
• Chiang Kai-shek
appealed to US for help
• 1955 – Eisenhower
announced that US
willing to use nuclear
weapons to defend the
islands
• China backed down
McCarthy Self-Destructs
• McCarthy continued attacks on the State
Department
• Overreached when he began attacks on the
army
• Televised Army-McCarthy hearings brought
about his downfall
• His combativeness and disregard for human
values became apparent and he lost public favor
• McCarthy was censured by the Senate and
became inconsequential – died of cirrhosis of
liver 1957
Post-Korean Asian Policy
• Trouble erupted in French
Indochina in 1953
• Communists supplied Viet
Minh with arms
• Truman countered with
supplies to French –
Eisenhower continued policy
• 1954 – Battle of Dien Bien Phu
• UN divided Vietnam at 17th
parallel – two Vietnams
created
Post-Korean Asian Policy
• Democratic Republic of
Vietnam – North (communist) under Ho Chi
Minh
• Republic of Vietnam – South –
under Bao Dai
• Elections scheduled for 1956
• Bao Dai overthrown by Ngo
Dinh Diem
• US supported Diem
• Establishment of Southeast
Asia Treaty Organization
(SEATO)
Israel and the Middle East
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Jewish immigration into Palestine
Zionism
1947 – UN partition of Palestine
1948 – Establishment of Israel
Eisenhower – policy of moderation
1952 – Egyptian revolution deposes King
Farouk – Gamal Abdel Nasser takes
control
Israel and the Middle East
• US prepared to give Egypt $ for Aswan
Dam but no arms
• Egypt leaned towards USSR
• Eisenhower revoked offer – Nasser
nationalized Suez Canal
• British and French forces attacked Egypt
(Israel also attacked)
Israel and the Middle East
• US calls for ceasefire in UN – vetoed by Britain
and France
• USSR (Khrushchev) threatened to send troops
and fire missiles against Britain and France
• British, French, and Israeli troops withdrew
• Eisenhower issued the Eisenhower Doctrine –
US prepared to use force against any
communist aggression (restatement of
containment policy)
Eisenhower and Khrushchev
• Eisenhower won reelection in
1956
• Cold War continued
• Khrushchev came to power in
USSR upon death of Stalin
• De-Stalinized Russia
• Crude, temper tantrums,
bellicose
• US advantages evaporated with
launch of Sputnik
Eisenhower and Khrushchev
• US bomber advantage
obsolete – Russian ICBMs
new threat
• Khrushchev boasted USSR
could destroy US
• The “Missile Gap”
• Threat of nuclear war
caused more
accommodation between
US and USSR
• Mutual visits – Nixon’s
kitchen debate / Disneyland
Eisenhower and Khrushchev
• A planned conference
between US and USSR
halted due to U-2
incident
• Eisenhower accepted
responsibility
• Khrushchev turning out
nuclear missiles like
“sausages from an
automatic machine”
Latin America Aroused
• 1947 – Organization of American States
(OAS) established (US had no veto power)
• Latin American radicals protested US
support for dictators and lack of financial
aid for poor
• 1954 – US supported invasion of
Guatemala by Honduras due to Soviet
influence
Latin America Aroused
• 1958 – Nixon’s motorcade
attacked in Goodwill Tour of
Latin America – forced to
abandon trip
• 1959 – Cuban Revolution
• Castro nationalized
American businesses and
negotiated trade agreement
with USSR
• Eisenhower broke off
diplomatic relations with
Cuba
Civil Rights
• Ideological competition with communism
caused many to question current attitudes
of racial equality
• American racism hurt America’s cause in
Asia and Africa
• Coincided with crackdown on communists
in America
• 1950 Internal Security Act (McCarran Act)
Civil Rights
• Oppenheimer lost security
clearance
• Military desegregated
• Desegregation of colleges
began in 1938 under
Supreme Court rulings
• 1954 – Brown v. Board of
Education of Topeka –
Thurgood Marshall argued
against “separate but equal”
• The court ruled all schools
must desegregate “with all
deliberate speed”
Civil Rights
• Few schools complied –
where they did riots erupted
• Eisenhower did little to
enforce the ruling
• 1957 – Little Rock –
Governor Faubus called out
National Guard to prevent
blacks from attending white
school
• Eisenhower called in army
troops and nationalized the
National Guard to allow black
students to attend
Civil Rights
• Southern resistance only
strengthened black and
sympathetic white resolve
• Civil Rights Act of 1957 –
allowed attorney general
to obtain injunctions to
stop officials from
interfering with Black
voters
• Law also established Civil
Rights Commission
• Enforcement of the law
was spotty
Election of 1960
• Kennedy versus Nixon
• Issue of Catholicism
• Both were cold warriors –
JFK even admitted he
liked McCarthy
• Television debates –
power of the media
• Kennedy’s victory in
popular vote was razor
thin