Home Front: The Impact of the Cold War on the United States, 1945-63

1
Home Front The Impact of the Cold War on the
United States, 1945-63

• Unit 7

2

• I. Politics The Cold War Presidency
• Key Issue How why did the Cold War bring about
  an enlargement of presidential powers?
• A. Onset of Cold War USs arrival as a
  superpower transformed the institution of the
  presidency.
• 1. Successive presidents spent much of their
  time engaged in foreign policy.
• 2. limits imposed on the executive powers by the
  constitution were pushed back _at_ the expense of
  Congress
• a. In particular the war and treaty making
  powers of the presidency grew.
• i. In June 1950 Truman sent troops to Korea
  w/out Congressional authorization.
• b. Truman justified the action in several
  ways
• i. Truman said it was a police action not a
  war because US troops were being dispatched
  as part of the UN force
• ii. They said immediate response to the
  invasion of South Korea by the North was
  required.
• iii. Truman got approval from Congress a
  couple of days later, but Truman had already
  unilaterally taken the US into a major war.
• iv. Trumans actions in 1950 created a
  precedent

3

• B. There was a similar erosion of the
  treaty-making powers of Congress in the post-war
  period.
• 1. Increasingly pacts with other countries took
  the form of executive agreements
• a. agreements were not formal treaties subject
  to approval by a 2/3 majority in the Senate.
• i. The Senate attempted to get this power
  back by introducing an amendment that would
  invalidate any international agreements made
  by the president unless they were approved
  by Congress.
• C. Three other developments altered the balance
  of power between president Congress in the
  field of foreign policy.
• 1. the maintenance of a large peacetime army
  during the Cold War meant that a presidents
  powers as commander-in-chief were now much wider.
• Examples
• a. Truman independently ordered US forces to
  mount the Berlin Airlift.
• b. Truman sent troops to Germany to reinforce
  NATO in 1951 at the height of the Korean War.

4
(No Transcript)
5

• 2. Secondly, the invention of nuclear weapons
  had changed the conventions of war.
• a. A major conflict need not now be preceded
  by a formal declaration of war might be
  triggered by a surprise nuclear strike by the
  USSR.
• i. The president would need to make a instant
  decision on the use of nuclear weapons for the
  sake of the nation.
• 3. Third, the creation of the CIA served to
  exclude Congress from important decisions about
  foreign policy.
• a. The Central Intelligence Act in 1949 gave
  wide ranging powers to the CIA. This meant that
  the CIA was effectively unaccountable.
• i. some secret operations were mounted
  jointly by the White House the CIA beyond
  the scrutiny of Congress
• Example
• 1961 Bay of Pigs action was planned
  executed w/out the knowledge of Congress

6

• D. Some historians see the increased powers of
  the executive in the early Cold War period have
  led to a imperial presidency.
• 1. Worldwide interests made post-war America an
  imperial
• power whose leaders wielded huge authority.
• a. Constitutional restraints on the powers of
  the executive were violated as successive
  presidents limited the role of the legislature in
  foreign policy and used the authority inherent in
  their position to the fullest to deploy American
  forces across the world, make war and strike
  agreements w/ foreign states.
• II. Society
• Key Issues What were the key characteristics of
  the Red Scare?
• A. The Red Scare heightened fears about
  communism abroad were accompanied by a new
  anxiety about communism at home.
• 1. Fifth columnists were seen everywhere
• 2. What followed was a concerted attempt to
  eliminate communists from every sphere of public
  life.

7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9

• B. Fed. Government targeted suspected communists
  within its own ranks w/ the introduction of loyal
  tests for employees in 1947.
• 1. Links w/ any communist organizations
  constituted disloyalty provided grounds for
  dismissal.
• a. If recommended for dismissal, employees had
  a right to appeal to the Loyalty Review Board.
• i. these boards often cross-examined federal
  jobholders about their political views.
• C. The 18th Congress elected in 1946 typified
  the anti-communist spirit of the age.
• 1. The House Un-American Activities Committee
  (HUAC) played a leading role in investigating
  communist activity.
• a. It turned attention to Hollywood
• i. Congress recognized media had the power to
  influence the opinion of the masses
• 2. In 1947 HUAC summoned to hears by HUAC
• a. The Hollywood Ten leading figures in the
  film industry who were or had been members
  refused to discuss their political beliefs.

10

• b. People began to boycott films that stars
  that supported the 10 were in.
• i. producers directors pulled support for
  the 10
• c. The Film Actors union the Screen Actors
  Guild operated a blacklist of suspected
  communists
• i. Regan helped the FBI identify actors who
  were sympathetic to communist ideas
• d. Anti-communist in Hollywood formed the
  Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of
  American Ideas
• D. The search for communists extended to the
  schools universities
• 1. Loyalty oaths were required for teachers
• a. Textbooks as well as teachers came under
  suspicion
• b. US campuses were seen as a nursery for
  radicalism
• i. Anti-communist believed the classroom
  should be the chapel for democracy.

11

• E. American Unions were the next target.
• 1. late 1940s the Congress of Industrial
  Organizations (CIO) launched a campaign against
  its communist members.
• a. In 1949 the CIO expelled the pro-communist
  Farm Equipment Workers United Electrical
  Workers
• i. 9 more communist-led unions were later
  expelled from the movement
• F. The CPUSA fell victim to the Red Scare
  next.
• 1. In 1948 Truman prosecuted leading figures in
  the party
• 2. The outbreak of Korean War in 50 the
  mood of the country made some sort of
  anti-communist legislation a certainty
• G. The outcome was the Internal Security Act
  (ISA) of 1950
• 1. required all communist to identify
  themselves register w/ the Justice Dep. It
  also denied them government jobs, US passports
  denied their right to work in defense plants.
• 2. Senator Joseph McCarthy rode the wave
• a. he claimed to have a list of 205 members of
  the State Department who were members of the
  Communist party
• b. In the face of intense questioning he
  changed the number to 57
• i. He was supreme Red-Baiter
• ii. Early 1950s often known as the McCarthy
  era
• iii. The search for communist in America
  became known as McCarthyism.

12
(No Transcript)
13

• 3. His allegations in 1950s were designed to
  rescue his own political career.
• a. Elected in 1946, he was looking for a way
  to make his name known to the voters before
  the 1952 elections
• b. It was not all political. His motives were
  also an expression of continuing regional,
  religious and class divisions in US society.
• i. like the people that voted for him, he was
  from the Midwest, catholic, from an ordinary
  school background
• ii. Many of who he labeled communist were
  from the East coast, protestant, and upper
  class, attended private schools
• 4. At 1st McCarthy focused his accusations on
  the State Dep.
• a. He saw State as a haven for liberals
  left-wingers who were tolerant of the communist
  ideas
• b. He blamed State for not giving Jiang enough
  support in the Chinese civil war therefore
  responsible for the loss of China.

14

• c. His allegations may have been inaccurate
  but had support of leading Republicans
  bolstered his stature
• d. The times also gave him credibility
• i. China had been taken over by communists
• ii. Soviets had an atomic bomb
• iii. Klaus Fuchs had been convicted in Great
  Britain for spying for the USSR
• iv. Outbreak of Korean was proved perfect
  backdrop for McCarthy
• v. all these concerns about communism fuelled
  the public generated a Red Scare.
• H. His search for commies intensified when he
  won reelection in 56
• 1. He resumed his attack on the State
  Department.
• 2. In 53 he was _at_ the peak of his influence
  then he blows it
• 3. He overreached. His committee challenged the
  patriotism of the American armed forces
• 4. The committee hearings were a turning point
• a. 1st he found very little evidence of
  communist sympathizers
• b. 2nd the hearings were on in the day. 20
  million watched did not like what they saw.
• i. his treatment of the witnesses was heavy
  handed

15

• ii. His opinion polls slipped bad w/ regard
  to his likeability. Senators ran for the
  hills.
• iii. A vote of censure was passed against
  him.
• c. The problem was not his anti-communist
  views but his conduct.
• i. 22 of the people who voted for censure
  were Republicans.
• d. He died of liver failure in 1957
• III. Causes of the Red Scare
• Key Issue Why was the US gripped by a Red
  Scare from the late forties until the early
  fifties?
• A. Origins of the Red Scare were complex
• 1. Major institutions of American society
  fostered a mood of anti- communism
• a. News magazines (Time, Newsweek, Readers
  Digest) were vociferously anti-communist
• b. New York Times Washington Post were
  fierce critics of the regimes in Beijing
  Moscow

16
(No Transcript)
17

• B. The church too played a role
• 1. The church also was a participant in
  Red-Hunting
• 2. The atheism of the Soviet regime the
  persecution of Catholics behind the Iron Curtain
  created a strong bias against communism within
  the Catholic clergy.
• a. the pulpit was an effective platform for
  expressing disapproval of communism.
• 3. Evangelical preachers also shaped the
  thinking of their followers in fiercely
  anti-communist sermons.
• a. Billy Graham established his reputation in
  this period
• b. The US was identified w/ God good,
  communism linked to the devil, sin, evil.
• c. the churchs power was great in a time when
  church going increased from 49 in 1940 to 69
  in 1960

18

• C. There had been a strong undercurrent of
  anti-communism in America since 1917.
• 1. The Red Scare in 1919-20 was one example
• 2. HUAC had in fact been established as early
  as 1938
• 3. In the 1940s 50s latent hostility to
  communism rose to the surface assumed new
  forms
• a. The Truman doctrine heightened popular
  fears at home sowed the seeds for
  McCarthyism.
• 4. Events of 1949-50 also added momentum to the
  Red Scare.
• a. A former State Department official member
  of Roosevelts administration in the 1930s,
  Alger Hiss, was the defendant in 2 celebrated
  trials.
• i. In 48 Whittaker Chambers told HUAC that
  he Hiss had both belonged to an underground
  network of communists in the 1930s.
• ii. Hiss appeared before HUAC denied under
  oath

19

• iii. One young congressman subject Hiss to
  intense cross- questioning. It was Nixon.
• Chambers repeated allegations outside of
  Congress. Chambers sued for slander.
• Chambers now accused Hiss of espionage,
  claiming that Hiss had handed him classified
  State Department documents. (The Pumpkin
  Papers)
• iv. Nixon trumpeted them as proof of a
  spy-ring
• v. Hiss was convicted of perjury. It has now
  been established that Hiss was a Soviet
  agent.
• vi. He was convicted 3 weeks before
  McCarthys sensational allegations about
  communism in America.
• b. His conviction lent truth to McCarthys
  innuendoes.
• i. People believed that a spy was the only
  way Russia could have gotten the bomb so
  fast.
• ii. It was also believed that traitors in the
  State Dep. must have let China go communist.
• c. The Hiss case was the touchstone for the
  anti-commi hysteria of 1949-50

20
(No Transcript)
21
(No Transcript)
22

• 5. Hiss affair was followed by Ethel Julius
  Rosenberg.
• a. Their trial started w/ Klaus Fuchs.
• b. The key witnesses against the Rosenbergs
  had both been arrested for espionage had
  decided to cooperate w/ the FBI. (Harry Gold
  David Greenglass)
• c. Greenglass said the Rosenbergs had
  persuaded him to smuggle secret sketches out of
  Los Alamos via Gold.
• d. Rosenbergs were charged w/ conspiracy to
  commit espionage but maintained that they were
  innocent.
• e. They were sentenced to die in the electric
  chair in 195. After the appeals process they
  were put to death in 1953.
• f. They were members of the communist party
  evidence that they were in fact spies is pretty
  conclusive.
• D. Charges of communism became common especially
  between Republicans v. Democrats.
• 1. Nixon (R) used these tactics to beat Voorhis
  in California in 1946 for a Congress seat.
• a. He did it again 4 years later for a seat in
  the Senate

23

• III. Consequences of the Red Scare
• Key Issue What were the effects of the Red
  Scare on American society?
• A. One outcome was the erosion of civil
  liberties
• 1. New parameters were imposed on freedom of
  thought expression.
• a. Federal employees found themselves summoned
  before Loyalty Boards or schoolteachers were
  called before School Boards to explain their
  views.
• 2. Under Ike loyalty tests became even more
  stringent.
• a. Workers in all federal departments or
  agencies could be summarily dismissed if
  reasonable doubt existed about their
  suitability for government employment.
• i. Under Ike the State Dep. was purged of
  suspected communists.
• 3. Communist sympathizers who were resident in
  the US but not citizens were expelled alleged
  communists seeking entry to the US were barred.

24

• 4. Civil liberties were also threatened by the
  FBI.
• a. J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI went
  crazy with illegal wire taps on suspected
  communist.
• i. The US was in danger of destroying at home
  the very freedoms it was waging the Cold War
  abroad in order to protect.
• 5. An atmosphere of fear was another legacy of
  the McCarthy era
• a. People thought twice before expressing a
  point of view. They thought they would get
  reported to the FBI.
• b. This fear prevented many in mainstream
  America from exposing McCarthys allegations as
  false.
• i. McCarthy operated in a world of black
  white
• ii. To attack McCarthy was to defend
  communism
• iii. Librarians removed books from their
  shelves. Directors stopped making films w/ a
  social message.

25
(No Transcript)
26

• 6. Popular culture mirrored the prevailing
  anti-communist mood
• a. Hollywood is the perfect example of this.
  Movies like My Son John (1952)
• b. Mass fiction exhibited the same
  anti-communist feel
• i. Author Mickey Spillane wrote a series of
  crime novels, whose hero was private
  investigator Mike Hammer.
• IV. Fear of the Bomb
• Key Issue How did fear of the bomb in the
  fifties affect the American psyche and public
  policy?
• A. Americans worried more about the effects of a
  nuclear blast than about the initial explosion
  itself.
• 1. Ignorance about the impact of nuclear
  weapons gave way to public concern as a series
  of tests were conducted in the Pacific _at_ home.
• 2. Some scientists began to recognize the
  harmful consequences of these tests.
• a. There biggest concern was nuclear fallout.
• b. Radioactive fallout caused radiation
  sickness leukemia

27

• 3. These concerns started a campaign to end
  nuclear testing.
• a. In 57 a pressure group called SANE was
  formed to persuade the government to terminate
  testing.
• i. official government scientists denied
  testing posed a threat to public health
  opposed a ban.
• B. Public anxiety about fallout was mirrored in
  contemporary culture.
• 1. Tom Lehrers satirical songs brought a dark
  humor to the subject
• 2. The science-fiction film Them! (1954) dealt
  w/ the genetic mutations caused by radiation.
• 3. The popular film On the Beach (1959) was
  bleaker.
• C. The American publics horror of the atomic
  age was combined w/ fascination.
• 1. Advertisers capitalized on the interest in
  all things nuclear.
• a. The bikini was named after Bikini Atoll,
  the Pacific test site for Americas bombs.

28
(No Transcript)
29

• 2. Sweets were named Atomic Fire Balls
• 3. Americas housewife was told that the same
  precision-tooled machinery that drove Americas
  nuclear submarines improved the efficiency of
  her kitchen refrigerator.
• 4. Several comic-book characters were products
  of the atomic age
• a. The Incredible Hulk Atom Ant
• D. The possibility of a Soviet nuclear attack
  prompted the government to consider measures of
  civil defense. Numerous propaganda campaigns were
  launched
• 1. men were urged to wear broad-brimmed hats to
  counter the heat flash unleashed by a bomb.
• 2. Schoolchildren were urged to Duck Cover
  under their school desks.
• a. Students were subjected to regular air-raid
  drills
• E. The Federal Civil Defense Administration was
  founded plans were drawn up to evacuate people
  from densely populated cities.
• 1. Ikes 1956 Interstate Act authorized the
  construction of an interstate highway network
  designed to make the process of evacuation
  easier.
• 2. Car owners were advised to keep their tanks
  ¾ full ready for emergency evacuation.

30
(No Transcript)
31
(No Transcript)
32
(No Transcript)
33

• 3. People were encouraged to build fallout
  shelters
• a. Womens magazines suggested ideas for
  decorating shelters encouraged housewives to
  think of them as family dens
• b. The gov. issued designs for a fallout
  shelter
• i. a million shelters had been built by 1960
• 4. Public concerns about fallout had been eased
  by the end of atmospheric testing enshrined in
  the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963)
• a. Fallout was no longer a focus for popular
  fears of the bomb

34
(No Transcript)
35

• V. Economy
• Key Issue How did spending on the Cold War
  affect regional development within the United
  States?
• A. One of the most important changes in post-war
  US society was the shift in wealth population
  away from the north-east mid-west to the south
  west of the US (the sunbelt).
• 1. Since the 40s per capita incomes in the
  south west have risen from below 75 of the
  national average to close to the average.
• 2. Those in the mid-Atlantic Great Lakes
  states have dropped from well above average to
  close to the national norm.
• 3. This process has been accelerated by the
  Cold War.
• a. Historically the Midwest north-eastern
  states had been the crucible of Americas
  industrial economy.
• i. Steel-producing cities like Pittsburgh
  centers of car production like Detroit formed
  Americas industrial heartland.
• ii. These regions entered a period of
  relative economic decline new industrial
  areas rose on the southern western
  perimeters.

36

• b. The most rapidly growing regions in the
  south west were often those w/ a
  concentration of hi-tech defense industries.
• i. they were major beneficiaries of the
  growth of Americas armed forces in the Cold
  War era. (the gunbelt)
• ii. The Pentagon placed defense contracts
  worth millions w/ firms in the south west.
• c. California w/ its cluster of computer,
  electronics communications equipment
  industries quickly felt the effect.
• i. Los Angeles was chosen as the site for the
  production of the H-bomb
• ii. By the end of the 50s higher proportion
  of defense contracts (21) were being awarded
  to firms in Cali. than in any other single
  state.
• B. changing technology of warfare had given new
  importance to the air force.
• 1. long range bombers ballistic missiles,
  both capable of delivering nukes, were vital
  components in a superpowers armory.
• 2. growth of the aerospace industry in the west
  mirrored the rise of the air force.
• 3. Cali. was home to the Hughes Aircraft Plant
  the McDonnell-Douglas Corporation, while Bell
  Helicopters the NASA space centre were based
  in Houston, Texas.

37
(No Transcript)
38
(No Transcript)
39

• 4. The prosperity of the city of Seattle in the
  Pacific north-west partly rested on the fact
  that it was the headquarters of aircraft
  manufacturer Boeing.
• C. High military spending was by no means the
  only reason for economic growth of the periphery.
• 1. The decline of traditional industries
  elsewhere prompted workers to move to the south
  west in search of jobs.
• 2. spending was also sent to Connecticut
  Massachusetts, New Hampshire were defense
  industries there also flourished
• D. Uncle Sams defense spending during the Cold
  War was not the only reason but was undoubtedly a
  contributory factor in Americas changing
  patterns of wealth, population distribution
  industrial geography.

40

• C. Ike worried about the burden imposed by
  defense spending chose it as a theme for his
  farewell address in 1961
• 1. Two fears were implicit in the speech
• a. One was fear of the military industrial
  complex.
• i. Ike warned that the armed forces
  Americas defense industries were dangerously
  interdependent
• ii. Both had a vested interest in ever higher
  levels of military spending served as
  powerful pressure groups in D.C. lobbying for
  increases in the defense budget.
• iii. Leaders of the armed services would
  always want more men equipment, while
  industrialists would always want more defense
  contracts correspondingly higher profits.
• iv. Military chiefs industrialists had a
  shared interest in exaggerating the threat to
  national security in order to squeeze more
  funds from the government.

41
(No Transcript)
42

• b. Often the sort of increases demanded were
  simply not warranted by the actual threat.
• i. Ike believed that what was in the
  interests of the military defense
  manufacturers was not necessarily in the
  interests of the civilian population.
• c. Ikes other fear was that waging the Cold
  War would turn America into a warfare state.
• i. This means a state in perpetual military
  alert
• ii. Compulsory military service
• iii. Consistently high levels of defense
  spending supported by a regime of high
  taxation
• iv. State controls on industry to ensure
  output targets in certain industrial sectors
  are met.
• D. Was Ikes concerns warranted?
• 1. The real level of defense spending the
  proportion of GNP consumed by the military are
  two reasonable indicators