EOI REVIEW COLD WAR, Korea, Vietnam, Civil Rights

Despite their alliance during World War II, the U.S. and the Soviet Union had little in common.

The United States was a capitalist democracy. The American people valued freedom and individual rights.

The Soviet Union was a dictatorship. Stalin and the Communist Party wielded total control over the lives of the Soviet people.

The nations of Eastern Europe and the eastern part of Germany became satellite states of the Soviet Union, separated from the free world by an “iron curtain.”

Cold War Europe, 1949

After the Big Three split at Potsdam, the Cold War struggle between the world’s two superpowers began.

Containing communist expansion became the United States’ top priority.

The Soviets were determined to spread communism to other lands.

The Americans were determined to stop them.

With the Truman Doctrine, the U.S. promised to support nations struggling against communist movements.

Money was sent to Greece and Turkey to provide aid to people who needed it.

The U.S. sent about $13 billion to Western Europe under the Marshall Plan.

The money provided food, fuel, and raw materials to help rebuild war-torn cities and towns.

Germany, and the city of Berlin, became flashpoints in the Cold War.

The Soviet zone became East Germany.

The zones controlled by the U.S., Britain, and France were combined to form West Germany.

After the war, Germany was divided into four zones.

West Berlin was controlled by the Allies.

The prosperity and freedoms there stood in stark contrast to the bleak life in communist East Berlin.

Determined to capture West Berlin, Stalin blockaded the city, cutting off supplies.

In response, the U.S. and Britain sent aid to West Berlin through a massive airlift. (Berlin Airlift)

As Cold War tensions mounted, both sides formed military alliances for collective security.

NATO Warsaw Pact

Belgium NetherlandsCanada NorwayDenmark PortugalFrance TurkeyGreece United KingdomIceland United StatesItaly West GermanyLuxembourg

AlbaniaBulgariaCzechoslovakiaEast GermanyHungaryPolandRomaniaSoviet Union

Before World War II, China had been torn apart by a brutal civil war.

Pro-government Nationalists

• Led by Jiang Jieshi

• Supported by the United States

Communist revolutionaries

• Led by Mao Zedong

• Supported by the Soviet Union

Mao built support by promising food to the starving population. Communist forces soon dominated.

Jiang fled to Taiwan.

Mao took control of the mainland, renaming it the People’s Republic of China.

The next battleground was on the Korean peninsula.

After World War II, Korea was divided into two countries along the 38th parallel.

Communist forces advanced far into the South, taking over much of the peninsula.

The crisis began in June, 1950.

North Korean troops, armed with Soviet equipment, crossed the 38th parallel and attacked South Korea.

Forces from the U.S. and other UN countries arrived to help their South Korean allies.

They halted their retreat near Pusan.

The situation worsened when China entered the war, sending 300,000 troops across the border into North Korea.

• The Chinese attacked U.S. and South Korean positions.

• Badly outnumbered, UN troops were forced to retreat.

The U.S. now faced the possibility of all-out war against the world’s most populous nation.

MacArthur favored invading China to win a total victory.

Truman refused. He favored a limited war to help stabilize South Korea.

By the spring of 1951, UN forces secured their position near the 38th parallel, and a tense stalemate began.

In 1953, the two sides agreed to a cease-fire. This agreement remains in effect today.

There was no clear winner in the Korean War, but the conflict had lasting effects in the U.S.

• Military spending increases.• Military commitments

increase worldwide.• SEATO contains

communism in Asia.• Future Presidents send the

military into combat without Congressional approval.

On September 2, 1949, the balance of power between the U.S. and the Soviet Union changed forever.

The threat of nuclear war suddenly became very real.

That day, the Soviet Union tested an atomic bomb.

In response, Truman ordered scientists to produce a hydrogen bomb—a bomb 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb.

In 1952, the U.S. tested the first H-bomb.

The next year, the Soviets tested their own H-bomb.

The arms race had begun.

Both sides hoped that this program of mutually assured destruction would serve as a deterrent.

In time, the United States and the Soviet Union would build enough nuclear weapons to destroy each other many times over.

Americans reacted to the nuclear threat by following civil defense guidelines.

Families built bomb shelters in backyards.

Students practiced “duck and cover” drills at school.

Cold War hostilities eased for a time, with the new leader speaking of “peaceful coexistence.”

Joseph Stalin died in 1953.

After a brief power struggle, he was succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev.

• The Soviets crushed protests against communist rule in Hungary.

• The Suez crisis added to the tensions.

As Americans watched events unfold, the threat of massive retaliation suddenly seemed useless in the fight against communism. Truman Doctrine called to help any Middle Eastern country threatened by Communist by Using Force.

Yet hopes for peace faded quickly.

While the U.S. worked to contain communism on the ground, they suffered a serious setback in space.

In 1957, the Soviets launched the Sputnik I satellite into orbit around the earth.

Fearing Soviet dominance of space, Congress approved funding to create NASA.

The arms race was now joined by a space race.

During the Cold War, it seemed to many Americans that communism was spreading everywhere—in Europe, in Asia, even into outer space.

Many feared the United States was next.

Some suspected that communists were already in the country, plotting revolution.

Red Scare fears led President Truman to take action.

Fighting Communism at Home

Act Date Provisions

Smith Act 1940 • Made it unlawful to teach about or advocate the violent overthrow of the U.S. government

Federal Employee Loyalty Program

1947 • Allowed the FBI to screen federal employees for signs of disloyalty

• Allowed the Attorney General to compile a list of subversive organizations in the U.S.

Congress joined in the search for communists.

• the government• the armed forces• labor unions

The House Un-American Activities Committee held hearings to investigate communist influence in American society, including:

• education• newspapers• the movie industry

HUAC hearings were highly charged and widely publicized.

Blacklists were created.

People from all walks of life were accused of being disloyal.

Careers were shattered.

The Hollywood Ten refused to testify and eventually were jailed.

As fears of disloyalty rose, Americans became riveted to two spy trials.

Defendant Year Charges Outcome

Alger Hiss 1948 Accused by a former Soviet spy of being a communist agent

Convicted of perjury and jailed

Julius RosenbergEthel Rosenberg

1950 Accused of passing atomic secrets to Soviet agents

Found guilty and executed

He claimed to have lists of Americans who were secretly communists and had betrayed their country.

As Americans worried about the nation’s security, a little-known leader burst onto the national scene.

Senator Joseph McCarthy charged that communist agents had infiltrated the highest levels of government.

Those branded as communist sympathizers lost their jobs, their reputations ruined.

McCarthy could not prove his charges, but they grabbed the public’s attention.

He consolidated power by making baseless allegations and opening endless investigations.

Few protested, for fear they would be accused.

He was formally censured by the Senate.

By the time the hearings ended, McCarthy had lost much of his support.

Today, such irresponsible actions are known as McCarthyism.

The public was horrified to see McCarthy bullying witnesses, making reckless accusations, and twisting the truth.

McCarthy’s downfall marked the decline of the Red Scare.

Today, the U.S. still struggles with balancing the nation’s security with the civil liberties of its citizens.

In the end, both the nation and free speech survived.

In an attempt to protect the nation from communism, free speech had been threatened.

50s: After World War II, many citizens and economists feared the country would fall into a widespread depression.

• Truman started demobilization, and millions of soldiers came home and searched for work.

• Contracts to produce military goods were cancelled and millions of defense workers lost their jobs.

• An end to rationing and price controls – plus a demand for goods – fueled inflation.

To help veterans, the federal government enacted the GI Bill of Rights.

Benefit Results

• The bill provided one year of unemployment pay for veterans unable to find work.

• The pay helped veterans support themselves and their families.

• The bill provided financial aid to attend college.

• Eight million veterans entered or returned to college.

• The bill entitled veterans to loans for buying homes and starting businesses.

• There was an upsurge in home construction, which led to explosive growth in suburban areas.

Soldiers retuning from the war got married. The result was a postwar baby boom.

Between 1940 and 1955, the U.S. population experienced its greatest increase, growing 27 percent from about 130 to about 165 million.

The postwar years ushered in a period of domestic prosperity that lasted nearly 20 years.

The U.S. became the richest country in the world.

When wartime restrictions ended, demand for consumer goods soared. Businesses employed more people to produce goods.

People bought

new goods

Businesses hire more workers

This created a cycle−

President Harry Truman had to preside over one of the more difficult times in American history.

• The Cold War was beginning and there were communist takeovers in Europe and Asia.

• The U.S. faced inflation and labor unrest at home.

Trade unionists demanded pay increases to keep up with inflation.

Employers refused to meet labor’s demands.

Millions of steel, coal, railroad, and automotive workers went on strike, prompting

Congress to enact the Taft-Hartley Act over Truman’s veto.

Truman desegregated the military, which did not need Congressional approval.

The committee made several recommendations for reforms, but Congress rejected them all.

Truman established a special committee on civil rights to investigate race relations.

By spring 1948, Truman’s standing had sunk so low that few thought he could win election that fall.

However, Truman managed the political upset of the century, beating three other candidates, two of them from new political parties.

Shortly after the election, Truman announced a far-ranging legislative program he called the Fair Deal.

• The Fair Deal was meant to strengthen existing New Deal reforms and establish new programs, such as national health insurance.

• But Congress rejected most of Truman’s Fair Deal proposals.

Legislative failure and a stalled war in Korea contributed to Truman’s loss of popularity, and he did not seek reelection in 1952.

Popular, charming Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower won the presidency that year, beating Democrat Adlai Stevenson.

The public believed that Eisenhower would walk the line between liberal and conservative political positions, and he did not disappoint.

Eisenhower created an interstate highway system and spent more money on education.

The strong U.S economy went a long way toward making his presidency one of the most prosperous, peaceful, and politically tranquil in the 20th century.

After the war, more people were able to complete high school and attend college. A more educated workforce boosted productivity.

• Local and state governments provided most of the funding for education.

• But after the Soviets launched Sputnik 1 in 1957, Congress approved the $1 billion National Defense Education Act, aimed at producing more scientists and science teachers.

Education is “Democratized”

Accessibility

• More states built or expanded their college systems.

• Many states gave funds to make it easier for ordinary Americans to attend college, using the California Master Plan as a model.

The End of Segregation in Schools

• In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that segregated schools were unconstitutional.

• However, it would be years before many schools were integrated.

1950s Religious Revival in the United States

Religious Groups and Churches

• Organized religious groups became more powerful, more churches were built, and evangelists attracted large live and TV audiences.

• Regular church attendance rose.

Acts of Congress

• Congress added “In God We Trust” to the dollar bill and “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance to underscore the contrast between America and atheist communist societies.

Sales of TVs skyrocketed during the 1950s.

Sitcoms, which reflected 1950s ideals, told the stories of happy families with few real-life problems.

Children’s shows had huge followings, and baby boomers became the first generation to grow up watching TV.

Television, along with radio and movies, helped shape a mass national culture.

• Because Americans were exposed to the same shows and advertisements, the media helped erode distinct regional and ethnic cultures.

• Starting with the 1952 presidential campaign, television changed political campaigns by allowing citizens to see the candidates in action.

He planted the seed for a cultural revolution.

Freed renamed the music rock-and roll.

In 1951, a white disc jockey named Alan Freed began broadcasting what had been called “race music” to his Midwestern listeners.

Some Americans believed that while material conditions were better in the 1950s, the quality of life had not improved.

• Many social critics complained about the emphasis on conformity in 1950s America.

• They also criticized the power of advertising to mold public tastes.

• The theme of alienation dominated a number of popular books of the era.

Important Books of the Postwar Era

Title Author(s) Subject

The Lonely Crowd David Riesman and Nathan Glazer

• Americans’ sacrifice of individuality

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit Sloan Wilson

• a World War II veteran who could not find meaning in life

The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger

• the phoniness of adult life

The Feminine Mystique Betty Friedan

• the plight of the 1950s suburban housewife

The beatniks, or beats, insisted that conformity stifled individualism.

The beats lambasted what they saw as the crass materialism and conformity of the American middle class.

Important beat literature included Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” and Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road.

Many Americans were outraged by their behavior.

In the influential 1962 book The Other America, Michael Harrington shocked many Americans by claiming that 50 million Americans—one-fourth of the nation − lived in poverty.

Population shifts affected the standard of living in many cities.

At the same time, many middle-class white families left the cities for the thriving suburbs.

In the postwar years, many African Americans and other minorities moved to the cities in search of jobs.

The loss of the middle class hurt cities economically and politically.

• The middle class paid a large share of the taxes, so without them, cities were poorer.

• When much of the middle class moved to the suburbs, they took their congressional representatives with them.

• City services declined with the loss of economic and political power.

As conditions worsened and crime increased in what was now called the inner city, more of the middle class moved to the suburbs.

Government leaders tried to revitalize American cities by developing urban renewal projects.

But urban renewal drove people from their homes to make room for the new projects and highways.

The federal government tried to ease the housing shortage by building public housing.

At first, public housing residents were happy with their new homes.

But in time, such projects led to an even greater concentration of poverty, which led to other problems, such as crime.