Truman and the Crisis of Peace

1
Truman and the Crisis of Peace

• Postwar adjustment and onset of Cold War,
  1945-1952

2
H S T (1884-1972)

• Availability put him on ticket in 44 election
• Had to make decision to use A-bomb
• Never really acceptable to establishment
  Democrats, but then and now, something of a hero
  to common folk.

3
From War to Peace

• Rapid demobilization (12 million to 1.5 million
  between 1945 and 1947)
• Onset of babyboom
• Postwar inflationbeginning of wage/price spiral
• Vetoed Taft Hartley
• Fair Deal in 1948
• Beginnings of Civil Rights Movement To Secure
  these Rights

4
Thomas E. Dewey lost to Truman in 48
5
Cold War

• Tense, bipolar world, with conflict by proxy
• Crowthers 4 zany points on why the cold war
  happened.
• Historical Antagonisms
• Ideological Differences
• Fractures in the Great Alliance
• Problem of Perception

6
Yalta ConferenceFeb. 1945

• U. S. strongly desired getting Soviets to go to
  war versus Japan
• Churchill and Stalin agree on practical Soviet
  Domination of Eastern Europe
• U. S. focuses on Free elections that were to be
  held by 1946
• Trimming results in communist regimes in
  Eastern Europe
• Myth of F. D. R.s selling out

7
Containment

• George Kennan, The Sources of Soviet Conduct
• Truman Doctrine
• Marshall Plan
• Berlin Airlift
• Does Containment apply to Asia

8
Domestic Red Scare

• Loyalty Oaths
• Who lost China?
• Alger Hiss Case
• Joe McCarthy
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
• Beliefs about Reds correlated with ones
  politics and ideology. (subsequent research
  shows that almost everyone was wrong about some
  important particular.)

9
(No Transcript)
10
Does Containment apply to Asia?

• Korean War (1950-1953)
• MacArthur and Inchon Landing
• Truman vs. MacArthur
• Ultimately 38th Parallel Restored but U. S. had
  moved toward a Domino Theory approach to viewing
  nationalism/communism in Asia

11
(No Transcript)
12
Truman and MacArthur
13
Guarding the 38th Parallel