The Cold War Era

Ariana FullerChapter 26 AMSCOApril 2007

Post WWII

America became a military superpower because of WWII

Soldiers wanted to come home to white picket fences

Cold War conflict with the Soviet Union dampened this dream

GI Bill of Rights

Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944

Free college education

Low-interest loans Bought homes Started businesses Roosevelt signing the bill

Employment Act of 1946

Truman tried to pass this act through Congress National health insurance Increase in minimum wage Commit government to maintaining full

employment Less effective bill passed

Council of Economic Affairs created

Civil Rights

Committee on Civil Rights established in 1946

Tried to end segregation in schools

End of racial discrimination in federal government and in the armed forces.

Twenty-Second Amendment 1951

Limited a president to a maximum of two full terms in office

Taft-Hartley Act 1947

Restrictions on unions Outlawed the “closed shop” States could pass “right to work”

laws Outlawed the union shop

Outlawed “secondary boycotts”

80-day cooling off period before a strike could be called

Fair Deal

Reform program Enact national

health care insurance

Federal aid to education

Civil rights legislation

Funds for public housing

Most Fair Deal bills were defeated

Postwar Cooperation

The US and the Soviet Union had an alliance of “mutual convenience”

After WWII, positive relations diminished United Nations was founded to maintain

international peace The Soviet Union rejected a plan to

eliminate atomic weaponry

Satellite States

Soviet forces occupied countries of Central and Eastern Europe

Democratic elections were manipulated

“Iron Curtain” Separating

Communist countries from non-Communist countries.

Truman Doctrine

Policy of Containment

Communist uprising in Greece and Soviet demand for Turkey’s Dardanelles

$400 million in economic and military aid to assist them

The Marshall Plan

$17 billion European Recovery Program helped Western Europe achieve self-sustaining growth

Ended threat of Communism in that region

Deepened right between Communists and non-Communists

Berlin Airlift

Soviets cut off all access by land to Berlin

Truman flew in supplies to West Berlin for 11 months

Two Germanys: Federal Republic of

Germany German Democratic

Republic

NATO & National Security

North Atlantic Treaty Organization was a military alliance.

National Security Act Department of

Defense National Security

Council Central Intelligence

Agency (CIA)

NSC-68 Secret report about fighting the

Cold War Quadruple US government defense

spending Form alliances with non-Communist

countries Convince American public that a costly

arms build-up was imperative for the nation’s defense.

Defense build-up intensified Russian fears and started unnecessary arms race

Japan

General MacArthur instituted new constitution in US-occupied Japan

Parliamentary democracy

Renounced war, limited military capability Japan depended on

US protection

US-Japanese Security Treaty

Occupation of Japan ended in 1951 Japan surrendered Korea and Pacific

Islands US troops remained in military

bases in Japan

China

Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek since 1920s

Chinese Communists led by Mao Zedong instigated Civil War

Congress voted to give the Nationalists $400 million

80% of that went to Communists because of corruption By 1949, mainland China fell to Communists

Chiang’s government moved to Taiwan (the only Chinese government recognized by the US until the ‘70s)

Korea

Korea was divided at 38th parallel

Soviets occupied the North US occupied the South with

By 1949, Soviets left power to Communist leader Kim Sung II

US left power to conservative Nationalist Syngman Rhee

Korean War

In 1950, the North invaded the South Truman called the UN Security Council to

authorize a UN force to defend South Korea

MacArthur stabilized fighting at 38th parallel, pushed for intensified assault at mainland China

Truman recalled MacArthur for insubordination Armistice signed in 1953 after 54,000 US dead

Second Red Scare

Loyalty Review Board: investigated federal employees’ backgrounds

Thousands lost their jobs Smith Act: illegal to

advocate the overthrow of the government

Dennis et al. v United States: Supreme Court upheld constitutionality of the Smith Act

Second Red Scare

McCarran Internal Security Act Made it unlawful to support totalitarianism Restricted rights of people belonging to

communist organizations Authorized creation of detention camps for

subversives House Un-American Activities Committee

(HUAC) Reactivated in postwar years to find and

alienate Communists

Espionage Cases

Alger Hiss was accused of leaking secret documents to Communists Proclaimed innocence, sent

to prison Julius and Ethel

Rosenburg were executed for giving atomic bomb secrets to the Soviets

Anticommunist hysteria added to extreme accusations

Joseph McCarthy

Senator McCarthy used unsupported accusations about Communists in the government to feed his hunger for power

His ruthless tactics and reckless cruelty was exposed on television in 1954

Viewers saw him as a bully

“McCarthyism” ended in 1954 when the Senate censured him.