Chapter 27 Key Terms
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
During the "Great Fear", the Rosenberg case became a key symbol of Cold War politics. To their supporters, the Rosenbergs had fallen victim to anti communist hysteria and that the government seemed to be less interested in conducting a fair trial than finding scapegoats. To others, however, the evidence showed that information had been channeled to the Soviets and documents released later would show that Julius Rosenberg had been engaged in espionage and that Ethel Rosenberg, although not directly involved, may have known of all of his activities. Although they were not allowed a fair trial, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were found guilty and given the death sentence. (HS) The court's' response to the Rosenberg case and the anticommunist effort sparked controversy in the United States.
Truman's Fair Deal
Even at the time of the Cold War, Truman's administration fashioned a domestic policy that sought to reconstruct the domestic legacy of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, a Fair Deal. According to his vision, all Americans had the "right" to a wide range of substantive liberties, including employment, food and shelter, education, and healthcare. Whenever people could not obtain these rights, the national government was responsible for providing them. (HS) Truman's Fair Deal allowed for a new domestic policy that would incorporate Roosevelt's favored New Deal in a changing time of the 1950s.
Taft- Hartley Act 1947
In 1947 congressional opponents of organized labor effectively tapped anticommunist sentiment to help pass the Taft- Hartley Act. The law negated some of the gains unions made during the 1930s by limiting a union's power to conduct boycotts, to compel employers to accept "closed shops" in which only union members could be hired, and to conduct a strike that the president judged against the national interest. In addition, as a means of curtailing "wildcat" strikes, the law strengthened the power of union leaders to discipline their own members. Finally, the Taft- Hartley Act required that these same union officials sign affidavits stating that they did not belong to the Communist Party or they would be denied protection under national labor laws. (HS) Although Truman vetoed the act, Congress overrode him in at attempt to sustain anticommunism in labor unions throughout the country.
Japanese American Security Act
In 1951, the United States signed a formal peace treaty with Japan following the resentment left from World War II. Later, a Japanese American security pact was formed, which granted the United States bases on Okinawa and permission to station troops in Japan. (HS) By establishing the security pact with Japan, the United States was able to confirm stricter containment and anti-communist in Asia and control politics to further protect the nation.
McCarran- Walter Act 1952
In 1952, Congress's concern that subversives might immigrate to the United States produced the McCarran-Walter Act. This law placed greater barriers to immigration from areas outside northern and western Europe and on the entry of people who immigration officials suspected might bring in dangerous ideas. (HS) In a time of heightened fears in the United States, the McCarran- Walter Act constituted the change in immigration and domestic affairs that counteracted that fear of communism.
Berlin Airlift
In June 1948, when the United States, Great Britain, and France announced a plan for currency reform that would eventually merge the sectors of occupation into a federal German republic. In response, Soviet leaders cut off all highways, roads, and water routes linking West Berlin to West Germany, however the Soviet blockade of Berlin failed. During the Berlin Airlift, American and British pilots made 250,000 flights, round the clock, to deliver a total of 2 million tons of supplies to the city's beleaguered residents. Truman then sent a military response, reinstating the draft to send bombers to Britain. (HS) Although the Soviets conceded in its defeat after the Berlin Airlift, the Soviets continued to create the German Democratic Republic.
Truman Doctrine
In March 1947, the Truman plan was announced in a response to the civil war in Greece, a conflict in which communist- led insurgents were trying to overcome a corrupt but pro- Western government. Truman's administration claimed that a leftist victory in Greece would open neighboring Turkey to Soviet subversion, which could tamper with U.S. interests. Through the Truman Doctrine, U.S. security interests were now worldwide, and the fate of the "free peoples" everywhere hung in the balance. (HS) Although the Truman Doctrine's global vision of national security encountered skepticism, the vote signaled broad, bipartisan support for a national security policy of the containment of communism.
Korean War
Prior to the Second World War, Korea had been occupied by Japan and with their defeat Koreans expected to establish their own independent state. The Soviet Union supported a North Korean communist government under the oppressive dictatorship of Kim II- sung, while the United States backed Syngman Rhee, the leader of South Korea. Both Korean leaders hoped that a patronage of their superpower might help bolster their control and advance their respective so when discontent spread in South Korea, Kim moved troops across the 38th parallel on June 25, 1950, to attempt unification. Under UN auspices, the United States rushed to defend Rhee, ending the war soon later, even though North Korea had been able to capture Seoul, the capital of South Korea. (HS) The Korean War provided to be another test of the Cold War and left Korea divided between the communist North and democracy of the South.
McCarthyism
Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin became Truman's prime accuser in the "Great Fear". Charging in 1950 that hundreds, and later dozens, of communists were at work in Truman's State Department, McCarthy put the administration of the defensive. Despite McCarthy's recklessness and lies, influential people tolerated, even supported him. As head of a special Senate Subcommittee on Investigations McCarthy held broad subpoena power and legal immunity from libel suits. He bullied hostile witnesses and encouraged sympathetic "experts" to offer exaggerated estimated of a vast Red Menace. (HS) Although most historians agree that his Cold War contemporaries overestimated his political power and personal appeal, McCarthy fueled the efforts of the Red Scare and anticommunism enwrapped in the U.S. government through his rhetoric of McCarthyism.
Marshall Plan
Shortly after the proposal of the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan was created. Under the Marshall Plan, funds provided by the United States would enable governments in Western Europe to work together to design and carry out a broad program of postwar economic reconstruction. Between 1946 and 1951, the United States provided nearly $13 billion in assistance to 17 Western European nations. The plan succeeded by opening up both markets and investment opportunities in Western Europe to American businesses. Further, the plan helped stabilize the European economy by quadrupling industrial production. (HS) Along with CIA's covert activities, the Marshall Plan helped undermine the appeal of communist parties in Western Europe.
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency was a bureaucracy established under the National Security Act of 1947 which was created to gather information and to undertake covert activities in support of the nation's newly defined security interests. The new agency used its secret funds to gather information on Soviet activities and to encourage anti communist activities around the globe. Between 1949 and 1952, the CIA expanded operations oversees and cultivated ties with anti- Soviet groups in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union. It helped finance the pro- U.S. labor unions in Western Europe to curtail the influence of leftist organizations and orchestrated covert campaigns to prevent the Italian Communist Party from winning an electoral victory. (HS) The CIA was a vital resource used in the United States to contain the spread of communism both in the United States as well as around the world.
House Un- American Activities Committee
The House Un-American Activities Committee was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having Communist ties. After the Truman Doctrine was announced, the House Un- American Activities Committee opened hearings to expose alleged communist infiltration in Hollywood. Committee members seized on the refusal of 10 screenwriters, producers, and directors who had been or still were members of the Communist Party to testify about their political affiliations and those of others of the film community.(HS) During the Cold War, the HUAC was an organization that spread anticommunist rhetoric and added to the mass hysteria of the Red Scare.
Baby Boom
The new postwar suburbs enjoyed a reputation for being ideal places in which to raise children, and many more families were having babies. After the war, a complex set of factors, including early marriages and rising incomes, helped produce a baby boom that would last well into the 1950s. (HS) In many respects, the baby boom and the new the new suburban lifestyle epitomized the optimistic spirit of new possibilities, confidence in the future, and acceptance of change that came with the 1950s and 1960s.
Executive Order 9385 (Loyalty Bonds)
Truman's Executive Order 9385 called for a system of loyalty boards empowered to determine if there were "reasonable grounds"for believing that any government employee belonged to an organization or held political ideas that might pose a "security risk" to the United States. People judged to be security risks would lose their jobs. The Truman loyalty program also authorized the attorney general's office to identify organizations it considered subversive, releasing a Attorney General's security list in response. (HS) During a period of fear of communism throughout the country, the Executive Order 9385 brought this new ideal of containment to the home front of the United States.
National Security Council Document 68
When George Kennan worried that a militaristic version of containment was emerging, he resigned from the State Department's policy planning staff. As a result, Paul Nitze took his place producing the top- secret policy paper, the National Security Council document 68. The NSC-68 relayed the document by claiming that there had been a global ideological clash between "freedom" and "slavery". Their report urged a full scale offensive to enlarge U.S. power and endorsed the more vigorous use of covert action, economic pressure, propaganda campaigns, and a massive military buildup. (HS) The National Security Council Document 68 provided a blueprint for both the rhetoric and the substance of future Cold War foreign policy.
National Security Act of 1947
As a part of Truman's national security initiatives, the National Security Act of 1947 created several new bureaucracies. The National Security Act began the process that transformed the old Navy and War departments into a new Department of Defence. In addition, it instituted another new arm of the executive branch, the National Security Council, with broad authority over planning foreign policy. The Air Force was also established as a separate service equal to the Army and Navy. The Central Intelligence Agency was created to gather information and to undertake covert activities. (HS) Truman's National Security Act of 1947 further established new forms of defense and security for the nation at a time when there was a threat of communism in the world.
Chinese Civil War
Between 1945 and 1948, the United States had extended to Jiang Jieshi's government $1 billion in military aid and another billion in economic assistance to demonstrate their support for the anti-communist government of China. Jiang, however, steadily lost ground to the communist forces of Mao Zedong, who promised land reform and commanded wide support among China's peasantry. In 1949, Mao's armies continued to force Jiang off the mainland to the island of Formosa (Taiwan). (HS) As a result of the Chinese Civil War, the United States refused to recognize or deal with Mao's "Red China" and nonetheless Jiang's anti-communist island of Taiwan became a powerful symbol of the Cold War.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Building on the Truman Doctrine and other foreign policies, the United States set about creating a worldwide system of military alliances. In April 1949 the United States, Canada, and 10 European nations formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Members of NATO pledged that an attack against all and agreed to cooperate on economic and political, as well as military, matters. (HS) Through the organization, the United States was able to prevail in expanding the idea of pursuing containment throughout the world.
McCarran International Security Act 1950
By 1950, in Congress, Republicans and conservative Democrats condemned the administration's handling of anti communist initiatives and introduced their own legislation, the McCarran International Security Act 1950. It authorized the detention, during any national emergency, of alleged subversives in special camps. It created the Subversive Activities Control Board to investigate organizations suspected of being affiliated with the Communist Party and to administer the registration of organizations allegedly controlled by communists. (HS) The Truman administration responded ambiguously to the McCarran Act, and Congress's sentiment in response demonstrates the breadth of anticommunist sentiment during the Red Scare.
Dennis v. U.S. (1951)
Dennis v. United States (1951), was a United States court case relating to Eugene Dennis, General Secretary of the Communist Party USA. The Court ruled that Dennis did not have the right under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution to exercise free speech, publication and assembly, if the exercise involved the creation of a plot to overthrow the government. When the convictions of the Communist Party leaders were appealed to the Supreme Court, in the landmark case, the court modified the "clear and present danger"doctrine and upheld the broad definition of sedition used by the lower courts. (HS) The Dennis v. United States further solidified the effects of the Red Scare at home in the United States.
