Chapter 26 Reading Guide: Truman and the Early Cold War (1945-52)
See the Concept Outline handout for all of Period 8 (1945-1989)
Great to watch: The Century: America's Time - 1946-1952: Best Years
Know all of these Key Terms and their Significance – these all should be in your outlines and highlighted
*GI Bill of Rights (Servicemen's Readjustment Act
of 1944)
Bretton Woods Agreement, International Monetary
Fund, and World Bank
Employment Act of 1946 and the Council of
Economic Advisers
Yalta Declaration of Liberated Europe
George F. Kennan and the containment policy
Winston Churchill's iron curtain speech
Atomic Energy Act/Atomic Energy Commission
Truman Doctrine
George C. Marshall and the Marshall Plan
Berlin blockade and airlift
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO 1949)
Warsaw Pact (1955)
Recognition of Israel (1948)
National Security Council and NSC-68
Mao Tse-tung/People’s Republic of China
Chiang Kai-shek
Chinese Nationalists and Formosa or Taiwan
General Douglas MacArthur
38th Parallel
Taft-Hartley Act (1947)
Jackie Robinson
To Secure These Rights
Desegregation of the armed forces
J. Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecrats
House Un-American Activities Committee
Federal Employee Loyalty Program
Smith Act and Dennis v. United States
Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers, and Richard Nixon
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
Joseph R. McCarthy and McCarthyism
McCarran Internal Security Act
McCarran-Walter Immigration and Nationality Act
Los Alamos, other western atomic facilities, and
environmental damage
After reading the chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions with analysis and
examples.
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Why did the U.S. economy enjoy a boom after World War II rather than slide back into depression?
What were the major characteristics of postwar life in America?
What role did the US play in setting up a new global economy?
What were the origins of the Cold War? Who do you think was “responsible”? Could it have been
avoided?
What was the rationale behind the policy of “containment”? What is the Iron Curtain?
Explain the Truman Doctrine. Why did Congress go along with the doctrine?
What were the goals and outcomes of the Marshall Plan? (think primary and secondary goals/outcomes)
Why did the Soviet Union impose the Berlin blockade, and how did President Truman respond to it?
What was the impact of the National Security Act of 47 and the NSC-68 Report?
How did America respond to the fall of China in 49? How did some Republicans explain communist
success in China?
What were the origins of the Korean War, its outcome, and its impact on the United States in domestic and
foreign policy? Who won?
Why was the Taft-Hartley Act so controversial? Connect it to an earlier labor act that we’ve studied.
To what extent was Truman successful in advancing civil rights? How did his civil rights support affect the
election of 1948?
What were the major components of Truman’s domestic agenda? How successful was he?
Where would you place the loyalty programs and HUAC in the story of civil liberties in American history?
(Think SYNTHESIS and connections) Do you think these programs were more justified than earlier
versions, given the nature and stakes of the threat? Does it matter to you if Hiss or the Rosenbergs were
actually guilty?
Who supported Senator Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism, and why?
What accounts for the victory of Eisenhower and the other Republicans in the election of 1952?