COLD WAR: Part II
IV. McCarthyism: The Second Red Scare 1947-1953
A. Multiple Causes: Fall of China, The White Paper, Soviet A-Bomb, Berlin Crisis, Korean War, Eastern Europe, United
Nations, NATO, unions, desegregation
a. 1930’s Martin Dies Committee: labor unions and communism
b. Civil Rights movement
B. Senator Joseph McCarthy: Background
C. Era of Fear
a. House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
i. Loss of basic rights, purpose
b. 1947: Hollywood Ten, spread to actors
c. 1948: Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers, US State Department
d. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Los Alamos, Russian A-Bomb
e. 1947: Loyalty Act, “fellow travelers”
f. Blacklist, repercussions
g. J. Edgar Hoover, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
h. Minute Women, Houston
i. Fears and actions
D. President Dwight David Eisenhower (DDE) and Television
a. McCarthyism discredited, McCarthy dies in 1957
V. The Korean War
A. Background history
a. Colonial status, World War II, US and Russia, (1945-1949) Dividing Line- 38th Parallel, DMZ
b. South Korea: Republic of Korea, Syngman Rhee (Democracy)
c. North Korea: People’s Republic of Korea, Kim II Sung (Communist)
B. June 25, 1950: North Korea invades South Korea
C. US Response: Containment
a. United Nations Security Council actions, Russian action
b. General Douglas MacArthur in charge of UN forces
c. War progress:
i. October 1950
ii. President Harry S. Truman versus China’s Chou En Lai
iii. Stalemate in Summer of 1951, DMZ
iv. Dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur: WHY?
d. Peace Negotiations:
i. issue of repatriation of N. Korean soldiers
ii. July 27, 1953: Korean War is over
iii. 55,000 Americans died
iv. China and US adversaries
e. HST and War Powers
i. Police Action
ii. National Security Council #68: NSC #68
Enlarged definition of Containment, Powers of President
VI. Presidential Election of 1952:
A. HST: Will not run, Why? (3 reasons)
B. Republicans: DDE and Vice-President Richard Milhouse Nixon
C. Democrats: Adlai E. Stevenson
AMERICA AT MID CENTURY
I.
American Society: Post World War II (Domestic Policy)
A. American Culture: The Good Life
B. Presidency of DDE: 1952-1960 Republican
1. Political Philosophy
a. Voluntary Cooperation between business and government, limited regulations, self-restraint,
disinterest in public service, limited New Deal programs. “Don’t Rock the Boat”
2. Leadership abilities: persuasion, conciliation
3. Pro-Business
4. DDE and New Deal programs: few and limited
a. Federal Housing Act: FHA
i. Suburbs flourish, Levittown, Long Island, NY
b. (New) Department of Health, Education, and Welfare: HEW
i. Oveta Culp Hobby
5. G I Bill: increased support, increased benefits
6. Federal Highway Act (1956)
a. Construction begins on “Interstates”
i. Tax on gas, tires, buses, trucks
7. National Defense Education Act (1958), National Aeronautical Space Agency (1959)
a. Soviet’s SPUTNIK
8. Suburban Life: (BABY BOOM)
a. Domestic life, nuclear family, “Leave It to Beaver”, “I Love Lucy” etc.
b. Church membership
c. Impact of Automobile: Drive-thrus, Drive-In movies etc.
d. Conformity
e. Black Migration, Civil Rights, Dead zones (White flight)
i. Birmingham Bus Boycott, Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, SCLC, Brown vs. The Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas, Little Rock, Arkansas, Governor Orval Faubus
9. Higher Education:
a. College enrollment, GI Bill
10. Health and Medicine
a. Penicillin
b. 1955: Salk vaccine (Polio)
c. American Medical Association (AMA) seeks government programs
11. Youth Culture: Concept of Teenager
a. Baby Boom: Special Mass Market: clothes, radios, records, artists. (Elvis Presley)
b. Rise in Deviance and Delinquency: Why?
12. Mass Culture: Television and mass market
13. Counter Culture: Beats or Beatniks
a. Against CONFORMITY; Pro INDIVIDUALITY, SPONTANEITY
b. Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac
c. Foreshadows the turbulent 1960’s and 1970’s