The American Century

1
Chapter 29

• The American Century

2
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

3
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

4
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

5
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

6
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

7
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

8
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

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10
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

11
Election of 1948

• Trumans 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

12
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

13
Election of 1948

• Deweys 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

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15
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)

16
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

17
Containing Communism

• NSC 68
• Submitted by Secretary of State Dean Acheson
• Called for enormous increase in military spending
  (350 increase)
• Create an arms race that the USSR could not hope
  to win due to inferior system
• Truman not warm to idea but changed mind due to
  war in Korea

18
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

19
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

20
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

21
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

22
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

23
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

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25
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

26
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

27
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

28
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

29
1952 Election

• Stevenson tagged as an egghead
• Eisenhower attempted to emulate Washington and
  remain above partisan politics
• Fiscal conservative

30
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?

31
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

32
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

33
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

34
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)

35
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

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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)

38
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)

39
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

40
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 Nixons kitchen debate /
  Disneyland

41
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

42
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

43
Latin America Aroused

• 1958 Nixons 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

44
Civil Rights

• Ideological competition with communism caused
  many to question current attitudes of racial
  equality
• American racism hurt Americas cause in Asia and
  Africa
• Coincided with crackdown on communists in America
• 1950 Internal Security Act (McCarran Act)

45
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

46
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

47
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

48
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
• Kennedys victory in popular vote was razor thin