Transcript The Early Cold War Years Notes

Chapter 36
After WWII was over
people continued to
spend money, preventing
inflation
 GI Bill was created to help
veterans buy homes, go
to college, and establish
businesses
 The cost of living rose
and workers went on
strike for better pay
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Truman fought against a
Republican Congress to:
 Expand Social Security Benefits
 Raise minimum wage from 40¢
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to 75¢ an hour
Clear public housing and slums
Plan a system of national health
insurance
Protect African Americans’ right
to vote
Abolish poll taxes
Make lynching a federal crime
Most of his efforts were
unsuccessful, until after the
1948 election and even then
the civil rights legislation and
health insurance would not
pass
Because of increased tension
with the USSR, George
Kennan sent a telegram of
5540 words explaining Soviet
goals as he saw them from the
US Embassy in Moscow
 He claimed that Communists
believed they were in a longterm struggle against
capitalism and weren’t going
to budge
 Kennan proposed containing
Communism, rather than
fighting it, and this is the
position the Truman
administration accepted
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The Soviets attempted to push into
Greece and Turkey to have a direct
line to the Mediterranean
Communist groups launched a
guerilla was in Greece and Britain
helped fight back, but couldn’t stay
long
Truman asked Congress for $400
million to help fight Communist
aggression in Greece and Turkey
He outlined a policy of aiding “free
peoples who are resisting
attempted subjugation by armed
minorities or by outside pressures”
later known as the Truman Doctrine
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Postwar Western Europe was
facing terrible problems
 Economies in ruin, people near
starvation, political chaos
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Secretary of State George C.
Marshall proposed the
European Recovery Program
(known as the Marshall Plan) to
give money to rebuild the
economies of Western Europe
The Soviet Union rejected the
offer for help, but Western
Europe accepted and it was
successful, making communism
much less appealing
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By 1948 the US concluded
the Soviets were
deliberately trying to
undermine the German
economy
We decided to merge our
portion of Germany with
France and Britain to create
the Federal Republic of
Germany (aka West
Germany) and allow it to be
independent to prevent it
from joining the Soviet
Union
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In 1948 Soviet troops cut all
road and rail traffic to West
Berlin
Truman ordered long-range
bombers with atomic
weapons to bases in Britain
and warned the Soviets of
what might happen
Truman then ordered cargo
planes to drop food,
medicine, and coal to the
people of Berlin to show our
support for them
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The Berlin blockade
convinced many Americans
to back military alliance with
Western Europe and NATO
(North Atlantic Treaty
Organization) was created
NATO members agreed to
come to the aid of any
member who was attacked
6 years later NATO allowed
West Germany to rearm and
join NATO, which alarmed
the Soviets who responded
by organizing the Warsaw
Pact (basically a NATO for
Eastern Europe)
China became Communist after
WWII and signed a treaty of
friendship and alliance with the
Soviet Union
 We had new interest in helping
Japan to recover from WWII to
prevent Communism from
spreading in Asia
 President Truman announced in
1949 that there had been an
explosion in the USSR, shocking
Americans
 Plans went ahead for the
development of a hydrogen
bomb (thermonuclear) to
reestablish the U.S. as the world’s
leading nuclear power
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Most people thought Truman
would surely lose the election
because of how charismatic his
opponent, Thomas Dewey, was
Truman traveled more than
20,000 miles and made more
than 350 speeches
Truman called Congress the “Do
Nothing” congress because of
their failure to pass his
legislative agenda
 The idea stuck, and not only did
Truman win, but Congress regained a
Democratic majority after the
election
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All new federal employees were
investigated and the FBI looked into
current employees who might be disloyal
The HUAC (House Un-American
Activities Committee) was formed to
investigate disloyalty during WWII
Claiming that movies had tremendous
influence over the public, many
Hollywood figures were accused of being
members of the Communist party
The celebrities had to face a committee
with little chance to defend themselves
Ten refused to answer the committee’s
questions and were cited for contempt of
Congress and served jail terms
Hollywood would now focus on pure
entertainment because people were
afraid of being blacklisted
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Congress passed the
McCarran-Walter Act to
reaffirm the quota system
established in 1924 and
discriminate against
immigrants from Asia and
Southern and Central
Europe
President Truman vetoed
the bill calling it “one of the
most un-American acts I
have ever witnessed in my
public career,” but Congress
passed it over the veto
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Alger Hiss was accused by Whittaker
Chambers, a former communist and Time
magazine editor, of having been a
communist
Hiss sued his accuser for slander and
Chambers then accused him of being a
spy
Hiss was not tried for espionage because
of the statute of limitations, but was tried
for lying to a federal grand jury
investigating him for espionage and was
convicted
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were
members of the Communist Party and
were accused of passing atomic secrets
to the Soviets during WWII
They were convicted and executed for
espionage
After examining once-classified U.S. and
Soviet records, it appears that both Alger
Hiss and Julius Rosenberg were guilty,
though Ethel Rosenberg herself may only
have had knowledge of her husband’s
espionage
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After WWII American and Soviet
forces entered Korea to disarm the
Japanese troops stationed there
and divided Korea at the 38th
parallel
 North Korea became Soviet
controlled
 South Korea became US controlled
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The North Koreans had a well
equipped army and invaded the
South to claim control
Troops were taken from Japan to
fight back
China then entered the war on the
side of North Korea
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The United States had
blocked Communist China’s
admission into the UN and
the Soviet delegation
walked out in protest
Because of this, President
Truman was able to bring
the issue of North Korean
aggression to the UN and
the USSR was not there to
exercise its veto power to
approve resolutions to
brand North Korea an
aggressor and have member
countries help defend South
Korea
MacArthur (in charge of the
Korean War) asked Truman for a
blockade of Chinese ports and the
use of atomic weapons on
Chinese cities as a part of his
“Home by Christmas” offensive
 Truman refused and MacArthur
sent a letter to House Minority
Leader Joseph Martin, which was
later made public
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 In the letter, MacArthur attacked
the President’s policies
Truman fired MacArthur for
insubordination, but MacArthur
was still popular with the people
 The Communist forces were
eventually pushed back into
North Korea and an armistice
signed in 1953
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Americans questioned the
war and whether the
government was serious
about stopping communism
because of the limited
success of the war
The Korean War was the
first war in which white and
black Americans served in
the same units
Led to huge military
spending, almost half the
federal budget by 1960
Further stressed relations
with Communist China