Unit VIII: Period 8:
1945-1989
Chapter’s 26, 27, 28, 29, & 30
Ch. 26: The Cold War Abroad and at
Home, 1945-1952
• Holocaust!
• 1945 Potsdam Conference!
• Issue of the Cold War at first was control over post-war Europe!
• Soviet “iron curtain” of satellite governments in Eastern
Europe (Pol., Czech., Hun., Rom., Bulg.)!
• Split in Germany and Berlin!
• Was Stalin a cautious leader protecting Russian
security or an aggressive dictator leading a communist
drive for world domination
Postwar America
• GI Bill of Rights: (Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of
1944)!
• Offered unemployment benefits, veterans hospitals,
low-interest loans for businesses, homes, or farms!
• Led to the “baby boom” generation
Postwar America
• Should we demobilize?!
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Employment Act of 1946: federal govt to ensure
economic growth!
1946 Atomic Energy Commission established!
Bretton Woods Agreement (1944) among the Allies set
the stage for US to become the economic leader of the
noncommunist world!
It created the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to
stabilize exchange rates (based on US dollar)!
1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT):
broke up closed trading blocs and expanded
international trade
The Cold War Begins
• Atomic dilemma!
• US stressed inspection and control….why?!
• Russia advocated immediate disarmament….why?!
• Both “agree to disagree” and instead tried to take
advantage of wartime gains: Russia exploited Eastern
Europe and the US retained economic and strategic
advantage over Russia...the result was the Cold War
The Cold War Begins
• Secretary of State George Marshall; Undersecretary
of State Dean Acheson; and Policy Planning Staff
Chief George Kennan!
• Containment Policy: to patiently curb Russian
expansion!
• Military and economic assistance given to Greece and
Turkey through the Truman Doctrine which marked an
informal declaration of Cold War vs. the Soviet Union!Built a national consensus for containment policy by !
using the crisis in Greece
The Cold War Begins
• Marshall Plan: economic aid to European nations in
order to revive their economies and hold free elections!
• Stimulated trade with Europe and checked Soviet
expansion!
• Communist bloc countries turned down offer…why?!
• NATO: US committed itself to the defense of Europe
and “an armed attack against one considered an
attack against them all”
The Cold War Begins
• Berlin Blockade incident: 1948 massive airlift of
supplies was a US political victory!
• Consolidation of US military branches!
• 1947 National Security Act:!
• Created the CIA, established the Department of Defense, and the
National Security Council (NSC) to advise the President!
• NSC-68: authorized expansion of military power to halt and
overcome the Soviet threat
The Cold War Begins
• 1949 Mao’s communist forces defeat Chiang’s
nationalists in China!
• Sino-Soviet Treaty of mutual assistance!
• US instead now focused more on building up Japan
Korean War (1950-1953)
• North Korea advanced over the 38th parallel in June
1950 with permission from Stalin and Mao; US-UN
forces responded slowly pushing North Korean forces
back to the 38th parallel; US then crossed over that
line up to the Chinese border but then Chinese troops
advanced in support and pushed the UN-US forces
back to the 38th parallel!
• General MacArthur recalled!
• Chart pg. 814
Truman Domestic (Fair Deal)
• Truman struggled domestically with inflation and labor
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unrest!
Truman’s “Fair Deal” laid the groundwork for
advances in health care, aid to education, and civil
rights!
1947 Taft-Hartley Act outlawed some labor activities
and gave the President “cooling off” period power!
1948 Election: Truman defeats Dewey (pg. 817)!
1948 Displaced Persons Act allowing people into the
country
Struggle over Civil Rights
• Segregation continued in the South after WWII!
• President’s Committee on Civil Rights!
• 1948 election had the Dixiecrat Ticket with Strom
Thurmond!
• Truman desegregated the US armed forces
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Red Scare
• Loyalty in government issue!
• Rosenberg Trial in 1951 for conspiracy to transmit atomic
secrets to Russia!
• House Un-American Activities Committee!
• Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers!
• McCarthyism to hunt down alleged communists in
government!
• Senator McCarthy from Wisconsin!
• Instilled fear in Congress!
• Sought to defeat the enemy at home!
• Censured after going after US army officials
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1952 Election: Eisenhower vs. Stevenson
Eisenhower Domestic:
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Dynamic Conservatism/Modern Republicanism
Ike wanted to reduce taxes, contain inflation, govern
efficiently, keep military spending in check, encourage
private initiative, and reduce federal activities
Ike continued social measures of the New Deal, extended
Social Security and raised the minimum wage
1956 Highway Act: interstate system developed for
defensive purposes…other effects?
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Downfall of Senator McCarthy
1950s Civil Rights Movement:
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1954 Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka decision:
Chief Justice Earl Warren desegregated schools “with all
deliberate speed”…..this led to resistance in the South,
Southern Manifesto in 1956, which defended segregation
Little Rock Nine Incident:
• Governor Faubus in Arkansas prevented the integration
in Little Rock school with the national guard….Ike sent
in paratroopers then nationalized the Arkansas national
guard
Ike set up a permanent commission for Civil
Rights
Rosa Parks, MLK, bus boycott in Montgomery,
Alabama
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MLK’s “passive resistance” campaign
Sit-inns, Kneel-inns, Wade-inns
Southern Christian Leadership Conference &
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
“beat generation” rebelled against the
conformity and materialistic society of the
1950s
Reaction to the Soviet satellite Sputnik
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NASA; National Defense Education Act
US needed to recommit to the pursuit of
excellence
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Levittown: flight to the suburbs
Economic boom, population growth, yet Cold
War insecurity
Demand for consumer goods fueled industrial
expansion
Heavy government spending
Affluence in the 1950s; baby boom
generation; television; highest standard of
living in the world; “togetherness” concept;
social theme of consumerism
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Armistice in Korea—38th Parallel
“New Look” defense policy cutting back on
money for US defense
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles
• Reliance on “Massive Retaliation”
French Indochina
• French defeat at DienBienPhu in 1954;
convention at Geneva; unification election
never held…why?
• NVN- Ho Chi Minh; SVN- Diem
Attempted to drive a wedge between China
and Russia
US commitment to defend Formosa deterred
China’s advance due to nuclear threat
Suez Crisis in the Middle East when Britain and
France invaded Egypt to re-gain control of the
canal from Nassar
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US became the Western force in the area after
Britain and France withdrew
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Involvement in Beirut and Lebanon in 1958
Other covert operations in Guatemala and Iran
Nuclear test bans
Sputnik
Khrushchev
U-2 Spy Plane shot down
Ike warned the US of its “growing military
industrial complex”
1960 Election (chart pg. 861)
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Kennedy defeats Nixon
Impact of television
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“New Frontier” to get America moving again
Problems in Congress
Economic growth under Kennedy due to
defense and space spending
Large tax cut
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Kennedy moved slowly on Civil Rights (fox
rather than a lion…meaning he waited for a
national consensus before acting)
CORE “Freedom Riders” incident
Kennedy appointed African Americans to
government positions
MLK March on Washington (August 28, 1963)
Counterinsurgency buildup to create an
alternative to Ike’s massive retaliation policy
Flexible Response: options to counter Soviet
threat
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Green Berets
1961 Berlin Crisis
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Kennedy said the defense of Berlin was essential
Soviets build the Berlin Wall in response…led to a
stalemate
Containment in Southeast Asia & Latin
America:
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Financial and technical assistance to 3rd World
countries
Peace Corps & Alliance for Progress in Latin
America
Support for Diem in SVN then allowed for a coup to
replace him
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sent advisors, not troops, to Vietnam
Bay of Pigs Fiasco
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April 1961:
Plot to oust Castro from power
Cuban exile troop invasion failed to get U.S. air
cover…Kennedy took blame for failed attempt to
topple Castro
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Cuban Missile Crisis
• October 1962: Kennedy rejected diplomacy
(Turkey for Cuba), then ordered a quarantine
of Cuba
• 2 messages from Khrushchev:
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Kennedy accepts the 1st one that Russia would remove
the missiles in Cuba in exchange the U.S. pledged that it
never would invade Cuba
• “secret” agreement as well
“hot line” put in place to speed up
communication from Moscow to D.C.
• Kennedy’s moment of triumph ensured the
escalation of the arms race
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Kennedy assassination
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Lee Harvey Oswald
Jack Ruby
Conspiracy? What do you think?
Lyndon Baines Johnson sworn in aboard Air Force
One
got Kennedy’s tax and civil rights bills passed in
1964
1964 Civil Rights Act: made segregation illegal
and established the EEOC and protected voting
rights
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Title VII added gender to prohibition of discrimination
War on Poverty: focus was on self help
Immigration Act of 1965
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Replaced racist 1920s laws
Great Society: liberal reform program (chart pg.
874)
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Medicare and Medicaid
Federal funds for education
1965 Voting Rights Act
Countercultural Society in the 1960s
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Free Speech Movement at Berkeley, CA
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
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wanted to rid American society of poverty, racism, and
violence
Protests at colleges over the Vietnam War
Spawned cultural uprising
1969 Woodstock event
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Hippies & Yippies
Counterculture Continued:
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Extremism of Black Power and Black Nationalism
April 1968 MLK assassinated
Rise of Ethnic Nationalism
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Cesar Chavez (National Farm Workers Association)
Women’s Liberation Movement
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Betty Freidan’s 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique
National Organization of Women (NOW) formed
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Chart pg. 875
Constitutional guarantees extended
Reapportionment process
Achieved greater social justice by protecting
the rights of underprivileged and by
permitting dissent and free expression to
flourish
Vietnam (chart pg. 884)
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LBJ expanded US covert operations
August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident
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Result: “blank check” given to LBJ by Congress to use
whatever forces he wanted
1965 air strikes in NVN led to steady military
escalation…limited war, yet 500,000 troops sent
over from 1965-1968
Bloody stalemate and failure in both NVN and SVN
General Westmoreland’s “search and destroy”
tactics failed
1968 Tet Offensive by Vietcong in SVN cities
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US/SVN repulsed the attack
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1968 Election:
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LBJ decides not to run again in 1968
RFK assassinated
George Wallace was Independent party candidate
Humphrey gets Democratic nomination yet riots
outside convention hall in Chicago
Nixon (Republican) wins which signaled a reaction
against the growth of federal power
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The Youth Movement
Young Americans for Freedom (YAF)
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Demanded a rollback of big government at home and
called for victory in Vietnam
New Left & SDS
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Envisioned a nonviolent youth movement transforming
the US into a “participatory democracy” in which
individuals would participate in making the decisions that
affected their lives
Helped mobilize public opposition to the Vietnam War
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Mario Savio and the Berkeley Free Speech
Movement
Political demonstrations on college campuses
increased
Kent State & Jackson State
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Hippies
• Disdained employment and consumerism, preferring
to make what they needed, share it with others, and
not want what they did not have
• LSD’s impact in the 1960s
Music Revolution
• Woodstock festival
• The Beatles
Sexual Revolution
• Roe vs. Wade (1973)
Gay Liberation
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The public association of the counterculture, the
sexual revolution, and gay liberation with student
radicalism and ghetto riots swelled the tide of
conservatism as the 1960s ended.
The social and cultural upheavals of the late 1960s
unfolded against a backdrop of frustration with the
war in Vietnam and the disillusionment with
liberalism.
domestic revenue sharing policy shifted
responsibility for social problems from
Washington to state and local authorities
Nixon used the Supreme Court to appeal to
Southerners
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“Southern Strategy” to attract white Democrats
into the GOP fold
Nixonomics described economic disaster in the
early 1970s
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Nixon cut government spending and encouraged
the Fed to raise interest rates, resulting in
stagflation (inflation and recession)
High inflation, negative balance of trade, weak US
dollar
He abandoned his resistance to controls and placed
a 90 day freeze on wages and prices
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July 21, 1969 Neil Armstrong walked on the
moon
Granted 18 year olds the right to vote
Occupational Safety and Heath Administration
(OSHA)
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
1973 War Powers Act: required the President
to consult with Congress before sending
American troops into action overseas
Realpolitik
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A pragmatic approach stressing national interest
rather than ethical goals
Nixon sought to check Soviet expansionism and to
reduce superpower conflict, to limit the nuclear
arms race, and to enhance America’s economic
well-being
Nixon chose Henry Kissinger to manage diplomatic
relations
Détente
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A relaxation of tension
A plan to use American trade to induce Soviet
cooperation while at the same time improving USChinese relations
Nixon visits China and officially opens up
diplomatic relations
SALT I Treaty with Russia
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To control arms race
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Vietnam
• Vietnamization
• Cambodian Invasion in 1970
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Tried to stop supplies on the Ho Chi Minh
trail
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Appealed to the great “silent majority” of
Americans
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Jan. 27, 1973 peace treaty with NVN
• “Peace with honor”?
• Release of prisoners, US withdrawal, NVN
promise to leave SVN alone
• Vietnam chart pg. 906
1975 fanatical Khmer Rouge (Cambodian
communists) led by Pol Pot, took power and
turned Cambodia into a genocidal killing field,
murdering some 2 million people
Nixon Doctrine: redefined America’s role in
the Third World as that of a helpful partner
rather than a military protector
War in the Middle East during the 1970s
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Impacted US economy
- October War (Yom Kippur War) in 1973
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Egypt & Syria vs. Israel
Result was the Arab oil embargo by OPEC
US was dependent on other countries for its economic
well-being
“Shuttle Diplomacy”
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Kissinger flying from one Middle East capital to
another for two years
He negotiated a cease-fire, pressed Israel to cede
some captured territory, and persuaded the OPEC
nations to end the oil embargo
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Plumbers
• Tried to discredit opposition to Nixon
• CREEP
Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
• Secret document history of US involvement in Vietnam
1972 Election: Nixon defeats McGovern overwhelmingly
Deep Throat (W. Mark Felt…#2 man in FBI)
• Was the source for Washington Post reporters Carl
Bernstein and Bob Woodward for the Watergate scandal
Supreme Court ordered the release of White House tapes
Impeachment charges voted on: Abuse of presidential
authority
Nixon resigns (Aug 9, 1974); Ford becomes president
Economic & Energy Crisis in the 1970s
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Nixon, Ford, & Carter all struggled with this crisis
Tax cuts led to more consumer spending but
inflation continued
Focus on more fuel efficient cars
Economy was in transition
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Businesses developed new technology to adapt
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Inflation was caused by the following:
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Vietnam war costs, worldwide
food shortage, increase in
petroleum prices
Wage increase failed to keep pace
with inflation
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Cultural trends & the Personal Computer
AIDS, Changing Gender Roles, & Sexual
Behavior
Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s
Changing economy: deindustrialization
Affirmative action; Immigration Control;
Indian Self-Determination Act
Growing conservative movement
William Buckley, Phyllis Schlafly, Ronald
Reagan
pardoned Nixon
outlawed CIA from using assassination as a
tool of American foreign policy
OPEC problem
1975 South Vietnam fell
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US response?
lost 1976 election to Carter
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Carter’s unwillingness to take political risks
Alaska Lands Act; Three Mile Island incident; Love Canal
incident in Niagara Falls
Carter returned Panama Canal control to Panama
Camp David Accords in 1978 between Egypt Sadat and
Israel Begin
1979 Iranian Revolution & Hostage Crisis
Carter Doctrine: US would fight to protect the vital oil
supplies in the Persian Gulf
SALT II: passed in the House but failed in the Senate
Cold War tensions rose again when Russia invaded
Afghanistan in 1979
growing conservative mood in the US by 1980
Reagan defeats Carter in 1980 Election (pg.
934)
Reagan (“the great communicator”) believed
in less government, balanced budget, family
values, and peace through increased military
spending
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Christian Right supported him along with the Moral
Majority
Presidential Republican realignment
PATCO air traffic controllers strike in 1981
Commission to look at Social Security trust
fund
Supply-Side Economics
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Cutting government spending and sharply reducing
taxes
Private sector would shift resources to productive
investment (“trickle-down effect”)
Reduce government intervention in business
Deregulation
Focus was on cuts in social spending and
reduced taxes
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The struggle was trying to avoid huge deficits
because of increased defense spending
This led to a federal budget deficit
1986 Gramm-Rudman Act called for across the
board spending cuts to bring the deficit under
control
Foreign trade deficit problem led to massive
borrowing
growing inequality of wealth in America
income disparity was the product of economic
restructuring and Republican tax policy
1986 Tax Reform Act
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Created a more simplified tax system which lowed
the tax percentage for the top bracket and raised
it slightly at the low end
AIDS epidemic
War on Drugs
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steady increase in defense spending
• Russia deemed the “evil empire”
• Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
• Aka “Star Wars”
• Use of ground and space based systems to protect the US
from nuclear attack
• Led to a dangerous level for the arms race
involvement in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war
problem with Nicaragua with the Sandinista communist
based government
• US worked with the Contra exiles to try to oust the
Sandinista government
• Led to 1984 Boland Amendment- stop giving money to the
Contras
1983 invasion of Grenada to prevent communists from
gaining a military base
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1985 Iran-Contra Affair
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Antitank missiles in exchange for hostage release (arms
for hostages)
• Israel involved
• Result?--more hostages taken
Oliver North (NSC) used profits from arms sales to Iran to
help finance the Contras in Nicaragua
• Unconstitutional…was Reagan aware of it?
Reagan – Gorbachev relations
Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty:
disarmament
• Nuclear Arms Control treaties pg. 942