Chapter 36 - The Cold War Begins, 1945-1952

Harry S. Truman

33rd U.S. president who became president upon Roosevelt's death in April 1945; didn't know anything about R's presidency so he was concerned about taking office; led the country through the last few months of World War II; made the controversial decision to use two atomic bombs against Japan in August 1945

"white flight"

50's movement where middle-class white Americans fled to suburbs leaving inner cities to decay; blacks were not allowed loans to move to suburbs

"Operation Dixie"

CIO tried to unionize textile workers & steelworkers, but failed due to fears of racial mixing; plus, women were hard to organize

Yalta Conference

February, 1945; Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met to make final war plans, arrange the post-war fate of Germany, and discuss the proposal for creation of the United Nations as a successor to the League of Nations; announced the decision to divide Germany into three post-war zones of occupation, although a fourth zone was later created for France; Russia also agreed to enter the war against Japan

Harvard University, June 5, 1947

George C. Marshall gave his "Marshall Plan" speech

"Levittown"

In 1947, the Levitt Brothers used mass production techniques to build inexpensive homes in suburban New York to help relieve the postwar housing shortage; became a symbol of the movement to the suburbs in the years after WWII

Alger Hiss Case

In 1948 Richard Nixon led the chase after a man, who was a prominent ex-New Dealer and a distinguished member of the "eastern establishment," accused of being a communist agent in the 1930s; demanded the right to defend himself; dramatically met his chief accuser before the HUAC in August but was convicted of perjury

Fate of East Germany

In 1948, U.S.S.R. choked off all air and railway access to Berlin, located deep in East Germany, they thought that such an act would starve the Allies out; Allies responded with the Berlin Airlift

Collapse of Nationalist China

In late 1949, they were forced to flee the country to the island of Taiwan when the communists, led by Mao Zedong, swept over the country; one-quarter of the world population (500,000,000 people) was plunged under the Communist flag

United Nations

International organization founded in 1945 to promote world peace and cooperation; replaced the League of Nations

Truman-MacArthur Dispute

MacArthur wanted to blockade China and bomb Manchuria, but Truman didn't want to enlarge the war beyond necessity; he began to publicly criticize President Truman and spoke of using atomic weapons, T had no choice but to remove him from command on grounds of insubordination

NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization; an alliance made in 1949 to defend one another if they were attacked by any other country; US, England, France, Canada, Western European countries

Joseph R. McCarthy

Republican senator from Wisconsin who accusing the State Department of being infested with Communists and was a major instigator of the Red Scare; was later censured by the Senate

1948 Election

Republicans nominated Thomas E. Dewey; Democrats were forced to choose Truman again; Truman's nomination split the Democratic Party, as Southern Democrats ("Dixiecrats") nominated Governor J. Strom Thurmond; Truman won

George C. Marshall

Secretary of State; in charge of state department during and after WWII; came up with the Marshall Plan

"the Missouri Gang"

Truman called many of his friends to work with him in office; many weren't honest men

UNRRA

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Association; to provide relief and rehabilitation to countries after WWII; to provide food for countries that have been destroyed and helped rebuild nations; ceased operations because it was specifically designed for after WWII

UNESCO

United Nations agency that promotes international collaboration on culture, education, and science

Berlin Blockade

a Soviet attempt to starve out the allies in Berlin in order to gain supremacy; was a high point in the Cold War, and it led to the Berlin Airlift

Dennis v. US

a US Supreme Court case involving Eugene Dennis, general secretary of the Communist Party USA, which found that Dennis did not have a right under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, if that exercise was in furtherance of a conspiracy to overthrow the government

World Bank

a United Nations agency created to assist developing nations by loans guaranteed by member governments

WHO

a United Nations agency to coordinate international health activities and to help governments improve health services

National Security Council

a committee in the executive branch of government that advises the president on foreign and military and national security

"Containment Doctrine"

a foreign policy strategy advocated by George Kennan that called for the United States to isolate the Soviet Union, "contain" its advances, and resist its enroachments by peaceful means if possible, but by force if necessary

"iron curtain"

a political barrier that isolated the peoples of Eatern Europe after WWII, restricting their ability to travel outside the region

Federal Housing Authority

also called FHA; created by Congress in 1934 to insure long-term, low-interest mortgages for home construction and repair

Veteran's Administration

also called VA; a federal agency that administers benefits provided by law for veterans of the armed forces; gave home loans to many Veterans

GI Bill of Rights

also known as Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944; gave money to veternas to study in colleges, universities, gave medical treatment, loans to buy a house or farm or start a new business

George F. Kennan

an American advisor, diplomat, political scientist, and historian; best known as "the father of containment" after he anonymously wrote an article in the Foreign Affairs magazine & signed it "X"

Baruch Plan

an American plan presented in 1946 that called to control and eventually outlaw nuclear weapons; called for United Nations control of nuclear weapons in three stages before the United States gave up its stockpile; Soviet insistence on immediate nuclear disarmament without inspection doomed this and led to a nuclear arms race between the US & USSR

"Fair Deal"

an economic extension of the New Deal proposed by Harry Truman that called for higher minimum wage, housing and full employment; led only to the Housing Act of 1949 and the Social Security Act of 1950 due to opposition in Congress

Central Intelligence Agency

an independent agency of the United States government responsible for collecting and coordinating intelligence and counterintelligence activities abroad in the national interest

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

an international organization of 183 countries, established in 1947 with the goal of promoting cooperation and exchange between nations, and to aid the growth of international trade

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

arrested in the Summer of 1950 and executed in 1953; they were convicted of conspiring to commit espionage by passing plans for the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union

US Economy in 1950's

began to boom tremendously; middle class more than doubled while people now wanted two cars in every garage; over 90% of American families owned a television; women grew in the American work force while giving up their former roles as housewives

Women After WWII

called pink collar workers; hard for them to get good jobs; view of the ideal modern women popped up: supposed to keep the family healthy, makes dinner, cleans the house, etc

June 25, 1950

communist North Korea attacked free South Korea; Korean war begins

Department of Defense

department of the federal executive branch entrusted with formulating military policies and maintaining American military forces; its top official is the civilian secretary of defense; headquartered in the Pentagon

Germany Occupation Zones

divided into four parts: France, US, Britain, & USSR; Berlin was in the USSR section but was divided as well

Loyalty Review Board

effort to control possible communist influence in US gov: boards to investigate "security risks" working for gov; also known as the Red Scare

Truman Doctrine

first established in 1947 after Britain no longer could afford to provide anti-communist aid to Greece and Turkey; pledged to provide U.S. military and economic aid to any nation threatened by communism

State of Israel

formally recognized by the US on May 14, 1948

Bretton Woods Conference

he common name for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held in New Hampshire in 1944; 44 nations at war with the Axis powers met to create a world bank to stabilize international currency, increase investment in under-developed areas, and speed the economic recovery of Europe

Bernard Baruch

head of War Industries Board; attempted to impose some order on US war production; U.S. delegate who called in 1946 for a U.N. agency free from the great power veto that could investigate all nuclear facilities and weapons

General Douglas MacArthur

headed reconstruction in Japan and tried the top Japanese war criminals; dictated a constitution that was adopted in 1946, and democratized Japan

Joint Chiefs of Staff

high-ranking military officers who represent the Navy, Army, Air Force and Marines; assist the civilian leaders of the Department of Defense & advise the president on security matters

Marshall Plan

introduced by Secretary of State George G. Marshall in 1947; promised a blank check to any country that could prove they were a democracy; helped W. Europe to recover; Stalin wouldn't let any E. Europe countries accept the check

Berlin Airlift

joint effort by the US and Britian to fly food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviet blocked off all ground routes into the city

1946 Employment Act

made it government policy to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power; created the Council of Economic Advisors to provide the president with data to make that policy a reality; passed the GI Bill of Rights

Smith Act of 1940

made it illegal to advocate the overthrow of the US government by force or violence

"the pig in the python"

nickname for the Baby Boomers since there was such a large burst in population

Strom Thurman

nominated in 1948 by the Dixiecrats; lost to Truman

Taft-Hartley Act

passed by Congress in 1947; outlawed "closed shops and required union leaders to sign loyalty oath & required 80 day cooling off period before strike; very unpopular with workers

National Security Act

passed in 1947 in response to perceived threats from the Soviet Union after WWII; established the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Council

Rand Corporation

pays people to do studies to try to solve the world's problems, one of the most famous "think" tanks

McCarran Internal Security Act

proposed in 1950; required Communists to register and prohibited them from working for the government; Truman vetoed this b/c it would've let the president arrest and detain suspicious people during an "internal security emergency"

Nuremburg Trials

series of trials in 1945 conducted by an International Military Tribunal in which former Nazi leaders were charged with crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes; punished 22 top officials

"Dixiecrats"

southern Democrats who opposed Truman's position on civil rights; caused a split in the Democratic party; led to Truman winning the election

Selective Service System

system used in the United States to draft young people into armed service; redefined many young people's career choices and persuaded them to go to college

Coca-Colonizing the World

term for the immense expansion of American consumerism & products into markets around the world

Baby Boomers

the 78 million people born during the time period following World War II and lasting until the early 1960s

Hydrogen Bomb

the US made the first one in 1952 after the Soviets made their first atomic bomb in 1949; the Soviets then made their own a year later starting the arms race

FAO

the United Nations agency concerned with the international organization of food and agriculture

nuclear arms race

the competition between the U.S. and Soviet Union for supremacy in nuclear warfare; both countries tried to have the largest nuclear arsenals

Point Four Program

the concept proposed by Truman of foreign aid to the non-Western world in hope that such aid would prevent new nations from turning to communism; this channeled up to billions of dollars into the economies of newly emerging nations

"Frostbelt"

the northeastern and midwestern regions of the united states

"Voice of America"

the official external radio and television broadcasting service of the United States federal government; promoted a positive view of the United States; committed to "public diplomacy"

"Sunbelt"

the southern and southwestern states, from the carolinas to California; characterized by warm climate and recently; rapid population growth; California became the most populated state

Postwar Economy

the war forced America to produce more than it'd ever imagined; much of the prosperity rested on colossal military projects; research and development, became an entirely new industry; workers upped their productivity tremendously, as did farmers, due to new technology

Us & the USSR

they were only world superpowers after WWII; the U.S. and Britain had frozen the Soviets out of developing nuclear arms; and the U.S. had withdrawn its vital lend-lease program from the U.S.S.R; both were very advanced and had been isolationist before the 20th century, now they found themselves in a political stare-down that would turn into the Cold War

House Committee on Un-American Activities

this Congressional committee (1938-1975) investigated suspected Nazi and Communist sympathizers; called the HUAC

"Rustbelt"

urban areas in New England and Middle West characterized by concentrations of declining industries (steel or textiles)

The Common Sense Book of Baby & Child Care

written by Dr. Benjamin Spock; instructed millions of parents during the ensuing decades in the kind of homely wisdom that was once transmitted naturally from grandparent to parent