Cold War to Ike (Part 2)
Chapter 36-37
Truman’s Federal Employee
Loyalty Program (1947)
• FBI ordered to do background checks
on federal employees
• Loyalty Review Board becoming more
powerful as millions were investigated
• Over 3 million investigated
• 2900 resigned in protest or because
they did not want to be investigated
• 212 employees were dismissed
Congressional Loyalty
Program
• Smith Act (1940): Federal crime to advocate
or teach the forcible overthrow of the U.S.
government
• 1949: Eugene Dennis and several others
arrested for teaching communism (aka the
violent overthrow of the government)
• Dennis v. United States (1951): Smith Act
upheld due to real danger of subversion
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McCarran Act (1950)
• Made it illegal to
substantially contribute
to establishing a
totalitarian govt
• Communist groups had
to register with the
government
• Communists could not
obtain passports
• Communists could not
work near national
defense organizations
House Committee on UnAmerican Activities (HUAC)
• Created by Republican controlled
Congress to search for Communist
influence in the United States
– Stated Democrats had been too tolerant of
Communism in the U.S.
• Hollywood became their first targets in
1947
– Pro-Communist propaganda in film industry
HUAC Con’t
• Writers and producers
called to testify about
their political views
– Hollywood Ten were
those who refused to
testify
– Jailed for contempt of
Congress
– Blacklisted until the
1960s
• Many people blacklisted
because they were in
the wrong place at the
wrong time
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Alger Hiss Trial
• Whittaker Chambers was an editor for
Time Magazine
– Was a former Communist
• Alger Hiss worked in FDR
administration in the 1930s
• Chambers claimed Hiss was a
communist in the 1930s
Hiss Trial Continued
• Freshman Congressman Richard Nixon
pursued the case
– Hiss denied knowing Chambers
– Hiss then sued Chambers for libel
• Chambers then accused Hiss of giving
government documents to the USSR
• Hiss then admitted knowing Chambers, but
not being a Communist
– During trial, USSR tested atomic bomb scaring
Americans
– Statute of limitations on espionage was up
red scare3
Alger Hiss
Whitaker Chambers
Richard Nixon
•Hiss found guilty of perjury & served 4 yrs in prison
•Weak evidence, but Chambers’ accusations probably
true.
•Propelled career of Richard Nixon and influenced the
Second Red Scare
•Hurt Democratic Party
3
Cold War at Home
• Julius and Ethel
Rosenberg were
members of the
American
Communist Party
• Found guilty of
leaking atomic
secrets to Soviets
• Executed in 1953.
Joseph McCarthy
• Senator from Wisconsin
• 1950: Stated he had a
list of 205 Communists
working in the State
Department
– When pressed for list he
reduced number to 57
and would only release
list to President Truman
– Truman did not ask for
the list
McCarthy’s List
• Senate Foreign
Relations Committee
calls list a hoax
• Republicans Robert
Taft and Richard Nixon
urge McCarthy to
release the list
• McCarthy releases a list
naming enemies,
Democrats,
Communists, etc.
4
McCarthy Grows Powerful
• McCarthy attacked
Dean Acheson and
George C. Marshall
• Rosenbergs
arrested in 1950
added fuel
• Second Red Scare
fueled McCarthyism
McCarthy’s Peak
• 1952: McCarthy becomes Chair of
Government Operations Committee
• Started greater anti-communist
witchhunt
• Hundreds of lives ruined.
Army-McCarthy Hearings
(1954)
• McCarthy begins investigating top-level Army
leaders after a friend did not get preferential
treatment
• Army demands Senate hearing
– 20 million watch daily over 36 days
– McCarthy manufactured evidence and came
across as a lying bully
– Joseph Welch puts McCarthy in his place
– Senate condemned McCarthy
– Did not end Second Red Scare
5
1949 – Fall of
China
• In June, Jiang Jieshi
defeated by Mao
– Flee to island of Taiwan
• Oct 1, Mao proclaims
People’s Republic of
China (PRC)
• Two months later, Mao
travels to Moscow,
– negotiates the SinoSoviet Treaty of
Friendship, Alliance and
Mutual Assistance.
•1950 to 1953, North Korea
invades South Korea.
•North Korea was a
communist nation and
South Korea was a
democracy.
•First war of “containment
containment””
policy to stop communism
•“Police Action”
Action” not a
declared war
•President Truman leads
United Nations.
•General Douglas
MacArthur commands US
and UN troops.
•Called “forgotten war”.
6
China Enters War
• After UN troops crossed into N. Korea
in 1950, China joins North and mounts
counter-attack pushing troops back
south
• Stalemate
The Shifting Map of Korea
[1950-1953]
Truman vs. MacArthur
•Truman fires General
MacArthur when he
advises Truman he would
use nuclear weapons
against the Chinese.
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End of War (1953)
• Eisenhower becomes President in 1953
– He had promised to end the war
• July, 1953: Armistice
– 2 million Korean casualties
– 54,000 Americans died
• First war of integrated units
– Truman had integrated military in 1948
• US now permanently mobilized
Middle East
• Very important suppliers of oil
– Needed for post-war European recovery
and U.S. consumerism
• 1946: USSR occupied Iran against
agreement made in WWII
– US threatened war, USSR withdrew
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Iran
• CIA helped with coup
that put Mohammed
Reza Pahlevi (Shah of
Iran) on throne
• U.S. rewarded with oil
wells
• Caused resentment for
years (indirectly led to
Iran Hostage Crisis in
1979)
Israel
• 1948: UN split Palestine
(Arab state) and
recognize Israel (Jewish
state)
• U.S. also recognizes
Israel
• Leads to much
animosity toward West
by Arab nations
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