Chapter 29

The American Century

Postwar Economy

• US government convinced sharp swings in business cycles could be manipulated through monetary and fiscal policy

• Reconversion to peacetime economy

• Economic boom due to pent-up demand and forced wartime savings

• GI Bill of Rights – education and business

Postwar Economy

• Taxes cut and price controls removed - Inflation and labor unrest led to Republican control of Congress

• Taft-Hartley Act – passed over Truman veto – outlawed the closed shop and allowed presidential injunctions to prevent strikes that endangered national interests

• Act hampered unionizing of new industries but not existing unions

The Containment Policy

• Stalin continued to expand Soviet domination in Europe and Asia

• US demobilized (6.5 million to 1.5 million) but Russia maintained huge army

• Foreign officers warned against Russian aggression

• The Sources of Soviet Conduct by George Kennan called for West to contain USSR

The Atom Bomb

• Truman saw bomb as counterweight to Soviet power

• Many scientists against use of bomb (Oppenheimer) – Truman doubted people would permit its use again

• Proposed deal whereby UN would monitor nations to ensure no bombs made – US would destroy stockpile

• USSR refused

Greece

• Communist guerrillas waged war against Greek monarchy

• Britain warned US they would cut off aid to Greece

• Truman asked Congress for $400 million in aid for Greece and Turkey to fight communism

• Using aid to fight communism = Truman Doctrine

The Marshall Plan

• 1947 Sec. State George C. Marshall proposed US financed reconstruction of Europe – would even allow $ to Soviet Union and satellites

• Europeans set up committee calling for $22.4 billion

• Stalin afraid $ would draw satellites into US orbit – would not participate

The Marshall Plan

• By 1951 Europe booming• Europe now divided into

communist east and democratic west

• West announced plans to create a new democratic West Germany

• Russia responded with Berlin blockade

• US and West responded with Berlin Airlift

Japan and China

• US occupied Japan and did not allow USSR a role in China

• General MacArthur - military governor of Japan – helped create stable, prosperous state

• US attempted to broker agreement between Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong

• 1947 - Civil war erupted in China

Election of 1948

• Truman’s popularity low

• Republican nominee Governor Dewey

• Southern Democrats left party over civil rights plank

• Formed “Dixiecrat” party and nominated Strom Thurmond

• Liberals organized a new progressive party and nominated former VP Wallace

Election of 1948

• Truman launched an aggressive whistle-stop campaign

• Truman warned Republicans would do away with New Deal gains

• Success of Berlin Airlift also strengthened Truman

• Progressive party fell into hands of communist sympathizers driving away many liberals

Election of 1948

• Dewey’s campaign was smug and lackluster – expected to win without effort

• Truman won the election and attempted to enact a Fair Deal – little of which was passed

Containing Communism

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) formed to counter Soviet threat to Europe

• 1949 – USSR detonated an atomic weapon – caused US to expand its arsenal

• 1950 – US begins development of hydrogen bomb (USSR already developing)

Containing Communism

• By 1949 mainland China in communist hands

• Chiang Kai-shek and Nationalists fled to Formosa (Taiwan)

• Containment relied on money but not men on the ground – Truman began to reduce number of troops

Containing Communism

• NSC – 68Submitted by Secretary of State Dean

AchesonCalled for enormous increase in military

spending (350% increase)Create an arms race that the USSR could not

hope to win due to inferior systemTruman not warm to idea but changed mind

due to war in Korea

The Korean War

• Japanese disarmed in Korea by USSR in the north and the US in the south

• Both left the peninsula but USSR left a well-armed army whereas the one left by the US was small and ill-trained

• US policy makers determined that military involvement in Asia was impractical – US defense perimeter to be based on Japan and Philippines

The Korean War

• Korea excluded from perimeter in speech by Sec State Acheson in 1950

• North Korea responded with an attack on South Korea

• Truman resolved to stop the S.O.B.’s

• US planes and ground troops were sent to help without a declaration of war

• Truman accepted NSC-68

The Korean War

• US secured UN Security Council approval for defense of South Korea (USSR?)

• General MacArthur placed in command

• 16 nations supplied troops though US forces comprised about 90% of the force

• Pusan Perimeter• Inchon Invasion

The Korean War

• North Korea retreated to well above 38th parallel

• Some advised Truman to stop at parallel – not to entice USSR or China to widen war

• MacArthur sought full occupation of North Korea

• Truman authorized the stop line at the Yalu River

The Korean War

• Chinese “volunteers” began to turn up in hauls of POWs

• MacArthur assured Truman China would not dare intervene

• China entered war with over 250,000 troops

• UN forces pushed back to 38th parallel• MacArthur urged the use of atomic

weapons and naval blockade of China

The Korean War

• Truman – afraid of starting WWIII- fired MacArthur

• Korean War became unpopular due to mounting casualties and costs

• Truce negotiations began in 1951 but war would drag on until 1953

Communists at Home

• Korean War illustrated growing US decline in ability to influence world affairs

• Fear of communist espionage in US increased

• Truman set up Loyalty Review Board to check on government employees – about 2,700 workers fired over 10 year period

Communists at Home

• Whittaker Chambers (Time) versus Alger Hiss (former state department official)

• Case fed fears of communist underground

• Klaus Fuchs – British scientist• Harry Gold – associate of

Fuchs• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

McCarthyism

• 1950 – Joseph McCarthy (Wisconsin) claimed he had list of 205 communists in the State Department

• No evidence to back up his claims

• Backed by public opinion (Red Scare) McCarthy attacked several public figures including George Marshall

• The “Big Lie” – enormity of charges and status of targets must mean there was truth

1952 Election

• Truman low in polls again due to Korean War, firing of MacArthur, and charges made by McCarthy

• Republicans nominated Eisenhower• Eisenhower promised to go to Korea• “I Like Ike”• Democrats nominated Governor Adlai

Stevenson

1952 Election

• Stevenson tagged as an “egghead”

• Eisenhower attempted to emulate Washington and remain above partisan politics

• Fiscal conservative

Eisenhower-Dulles Foreign Policy

• Dulles argued against containment using military forces – believed nuclear arsenal sufficient

• Beliefs tested on Korea – nukes sent to Asia along with vague warnings of “tougher measures”

• Weeks later armistice in Korea signed

• China unaware?

Eisenhower-Dulles Foreign Policy

• 1954 - Communist China shelled two islands manned by Nationalist Chinese troops

• Chiang Kai-shek appealed to US for help

• 1955 – Eisenhower announced that US willing to use nuclear weapons to defend the islands

• China backed down

McCarthy Self-Destructs

• McCarthy continued attacks on the State Department

• Overreached when he began attacks on the army

• Televised Army-McCarthy hearings brought about his downfall

• His combativeness and disregard for human values became apparent and he lost public favor

• McCarthy was censured by the Senate and became inconsequential – died of cirrhosis of liver 1957

Post-Korean Asian Policy

• Trouble erupted in French Indochina in 1953

• Communists supplied Viet Minh with arms

• Truman countered with supplies to French – Eisenhower continued policy

• 1954 – Battle of Dien Bien Phu• UN divided Vietnam at 17th

parallel – two Vietnams created

Post-Korean Asian Policy

• Democratic Republic of Vietnam – North - (communist) under Ho Chi Minh

• Republic of Vietnam – South – under Bao Dai

• Elections scheduled for 1956• Bao Dai overthrown by Ngo

Dinh Diem• US supported Diem• Establishment of Southeast

Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)

Israel and the Middle East

• Jewish immigration into Palestine

• Zionism

• 1947 – UN partition of Palestine

• 1948 – Establishment of Israel

• Eisenhower – policy of moderation

• 1952 – Egyptian revolution deposes King Farouk – Gamal Abdel Nasser takes control

Israel and the Middle East

• US prepared to give Egypt $ for Aswan Dam but no arms

• Egypt leaned towards USSR

• Eisenhower revoked offer – Nasser nationalized Suez Canal

• British and French forces attacked Egypt (Israel also attacked)

Israel and the Middle East

• US calls for ceasefire in UN – vetoed by Britain and France

• USSR (Khrushchev) threatened to send troops and fire missiles against Britain and France

• British, French, and Israeli troops withdrew• Eisenhower issued the Eisenhower Doctrine –

US prepared to use force against any communist aggression (restatement of containment policy)

Eisenhower and Khrushchev

• Eisenhower won reelection in 1956

• Cold War continued • Khrushchev came to power in

USSR upon death of Stalin• De-Stalinized Russia• Crude, temper tantrums,

bellicose • US advantages evaporated with

launch of Sputnik

Eisenhower and Khrushchev

• US bomber advantage obsolete – Russian ICBMs new threat

• Khrushchev boasted USSR could destroy US

• The “Missile Gap”• Threat of nuclear war

caused more accommodation between US and USSR

• Mutual visits – Nixon’s kitchen debate / Disneyland

Eisenhower and Khrushchev

• A planned conference between US and USSR halted due to U-2 incident

• Eisenhower accepted responsibility

• Khrushchev turning out nuclear missiles like “sausages from an automatic machine”

Latin America Aroused

• 1947 – Organization of American States (OAS) established (US had no veto power)

• Latin American radicals protested US support for dictators and lack of financial aid for poor

• 1954 – US supported invasion of Guatemala by Honduras due to Soviet influence

Latin America Aroused

• 1958 – Nixon’s motorcade attacked in Goodwill Tour of Latin America – forced to abandon trip

• 1959 – Cuban Revolution• Castro nationalized American

businesses and negotiated trade agreement with USSR

• Eisenhower broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba

Civil Rights

• Ideological competition with communism caused many to question current attitudes of racial equality

• American racism hurt America’s cause in Asia and Africa

• Coincided with crackdown on communists in America

• 1950 Internal Security Act (McCarran Act)

Civil Rights

• Oppenheimer lost security clearance

• Military desegregated• Desegregation of colleges

began in 1938 under Supreme Court rulings

• 1954 – Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka – Thurgood Marshall argued against “separate but equal”

• The court ruled all schools must desegregate “with all deliberate speed”

Civil Rights

• Few schools complied – where they did riots erupted

• Eisenhower did little to enforce the ruling

• 1957 – Little Rock – Governor Faubus called out National Guard to prevent blacks from attending white school

• Eisenhower called in army troops and nationalized the National Guard to allow black students to attend

Civil Rights

• Southern resistance only strengthened black and sympathetic white resolve

• Civil Rights Act of 1957 – allowed attorney general to obtain injunctions to stop officials from interfering with Black voters

• Law also established Civil Rights Commission

• Enforcement of the law was spotty

Election of 1960

• Kennedy versus Nixon• Issue of Catholicism• Both were cold warriors –

JFK even admitted he liked McCarthy

• Television debates – power of the media

• Kennedy’s victory in popular vote was razor thin