Chapter 27
The Age of Containment, 1946-1954
© 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved.
Creating a National Security
State, 1945-1949
• Alliance between Soviet Union and the
United States was not based on
collaboration, but on cooperative defeat
of Axis powers
• Relations between the two countries
descended into suspicion and growing
tensions
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Onset of the Cold War
• Interpretations of Cold War’s origins
– Traditional: Soviet expansion and desire to spread
Communism
– Revisionists: U.S. threatened Soviets into the Cold War
– Rival interests made Cold War inevitable
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Harry S. Truman
Joseph Stalin
Potsdam Conference (1945)
Baruch Plan
Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe
“National security”
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Containment Abroad: The
Truman Doctrine
• Truman Doctrine (1947)
• “Containment"
– George F. Kennan
– “X” article in Foreign Affairs
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Truman’s Loyalty Program
• Executive Order 9835
– Containment on the home front
– loyalty boards
• "Venona files"
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The National Security Act, The
Marshall Plan, and the Berlin
Crisis
• National Security Act (1947)
– Department of Defense
– Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
• Marshall Plan
– George C. Marshall
• Berlin Blockade and Airlift (1948-1949)
• “Two Germanys”
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The Election of 1948
• Progressive Party
– Henry A. Wallace
• State's Rights Party ("Dixiecrats")
– Strom Thurmond
• 80th Congress
• Thomas E. Dewey
• Democratic victory and formula for success
– New Deal Coalition
– Truman looked strong on National Security
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The Korean War Era, 1949-1952
• Cold war crises erupted and led to
warfare in Korea
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NATO, China, and the Bomb
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
– Robert Taft’s opposition
• China
– Jiang Jieshi
– Mao Zedong
– Formosa (Taiwan)
• Soviet atomic bomb
• “Hydrogen bomb”
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NSC-68
• National Security Council document 68 (NSC-68)
– Paul Nitze
– A blueprint for both the rhetoric and strategy of future
cold war foreign policy
– Global ideological clash between U.S. “freedom” and
Soviet “slavery”
– Contain Soviet expansion more aggressively, no
negotiations
– Massive military buildup
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The Korean War
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North Korea vs. South Korea
United Nations involvement
Douglas MacArthur
Inchon
Beyond the 38th parallel
Chinese intervention
MacArthur fired
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Korea and Containment
• American Cold War alliances in Asia
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Japanese-American Security Pact
U.S. bases in the Middle East
ANZUS
Aid to French in retaking Indo-China
“Campaign of Truth”
Atomic Energy Commission
RAND
“The militarization of American life”
U.S. opposes left-wing movements globally
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Containment at Home
• Late 1940s to Mid-1950s:
– Americans in debate over how to counter
alleged communist influences at home
– “Witchhunts” or “Red-baiting”
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Anticommunism and the Labor
Movement
• Increased labor militancy after WWII
• Labor-Management Relations Act (1947)
– Taft-Hartley Act
• CIO expulsion of Communist tainted unions
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HUAC and the Loyalty Program
• House Committee on Un-American Activities
(HUAC)
– "Hollywood ten“
– “Naming names”
• Richard Nixon
– Whittaker Chambers
– Alger Hiss
• FBI investigations of artists and intellectuals
– W. E. B. Du Bois
– Ernest Hemingway
• McCarran-Walter Act
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Targeting Difference
• Alfred Kinsey
– Kinsey Report (1948)
• Mattachine Society (1950)
• Daughters of Bilitis (1955)
• Anti-homosexuality and anti-Communism
merge
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“The Great Fear”
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
• Dennis v. US (1951)
• McCarran Internal Security Act (1950)
– Subversive Activities Control Board
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McCarthyism
• Joseph McCarthy
– "McCarthyism”
• Millard Tydings
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Domestic Policy: Truman’s Fair
Deal
• FDR’s “Second Bill of Rights”
• Opposition
– National Association of Manufacturers
– Southern Democrats
– Republicans
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The Employment Act of 1946
and the Promise of Economic
Growth
• Employment Act (1946)
– Council of Economic Advisors
• Keynesian say government can end boom-andbust cycles
• “Gross national product”
• American economic growth linked to development
in the world and all-pervasive concern with
national security
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Truman’s Fair Deal
• Fair Deal: Truman’s expansion of the New Deal
• Serviceman's Readjustment Act (1944)
– GI Bill of Rights
• Social Security Act of 1950
• National Health Insurance
– American Medical Association
– Hill-Burton Act
• Housing Act (1949)
• Reality of Fair deal was to target specific groups
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Civil Rights
• Civil rights committee (1946)
– “To Secure These Rights”
• Dixiecrats
• Military desgregation
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Fair Deal Summary
• New Deal hope of comprehensive
socioeconomic planning gives way to Fair
Deal view of uninterrupted economic
growth
• Fair Deal accepts “partial remedies” rather
than the “curealls” of FDR’s “Second Bill
of Rights”
A Changing Culture
• Postwar years were time of dramatic
change
• Americans created change with
progress
• Simultaneously, change was unsettling
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Jackie Robinson and the Baseball
“Color Line”
• Jackie Robinson (1947)
– Brooklyn Dodgers
– National League Rookie of the Year (1947)
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Suburban Development
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Levittown, New York
Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
Mortgage interest tax deduction
“Baby boom”
“White flight”
Loans to women could not receive
guarantees
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Allure and Danger: Women on
Film
• Film Noir
• The File on Thelma Jordan
• Fear of Communism reinforces conformity
Estimated Median Age at First Marriage, 1890-1990
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The Baby Boom
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From Truman to Eisenhower
• Truman declines to run
• Democrats on the defensive
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The Election of 1952
• Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson
• Republican ticket: Dwight D. Eisenhower
and Richard Nixon
– Criticized over Korean War
– “Korea, corruption, and communism”
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A Soldier-President
• West Point graduate, career military man
• Defeat Conservative Robert Taft for
Republican nomination
• Republicans retake Congress
• Solid Democratic South slipping
Conclusion
• Domestic and foreign policies were dominated by
containment of communism
• Government power expanded
• Truman administration
– Korean war, 1950
– Cold war climate
– Fair Deal promises guaranteed economic growth
• Eisenhower elected, 1952
– Broad personal appeal more than imminent end of
Democratic coalition
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