Provided college for returning
World War II veterans
(commonly referred to as GIs )
Provided one year of unemployment compensation
Millions of GIs bought homes, attended college, started business venture, or found jobs

VA Mortgages paid for nearly 5 million new homes, by making homes affordable with low interest rates and
30 year loans.
President Franklin Roosevelt signs the GI Bill in 1944
Between 1945 and 1954, the
U.S. added 13 million new homes to its housing stock

One of the major acts made by Truman was when he made an executive order to end segregation in the armed forces
Truman also asked
Congress to pass a civil rights bill that would make lynching a federal crime

Truman angered many
Southern Democrats by supporting integration
Many people didn’t think he would be re-elected
Harry S Truman Thomas Dewey Strom Thurmond
People were so sure that
Truman would lose that one headline even incorrectly said that Dewey had won
Historians view the Election of 1948 as the greatest election upset in U.S. history

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

The era of confrontation and competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union when the threat of nuclear war created constant world tension
vs.

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
The Cold War is the term we use to define the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union that lasted from 1945-1991.
 Called “cold” because the 2 never fought each other directly
○ Fought through proxy wars, technological competitions, sporting events etc.
Brought world to the brink of nuclear war
○
○
○
○
○
○
○
Events that occurred during the Cold War:
○ Berlin Blockade and Berlin Airlift
Korean War
Space Race
Cuban Missile Crisis
Vietnam War
Invasion of Afghanistan
Iranian Hostage Crisis
And many more events…

• Believed in democratic forms of government
•
Believed economic stability would keep peace in the word
•
Believed the free enterprise system was necessary for economic growth
•
Believed in a communistic forms of government
•
Believed in workers revolting
(striking) against business owners and taking control of government
•
Wanted to control countries between Russia and Germany

 From World War II to Cold War



French
British
American
Soviet
After World War II,
Germany was divided into four zones, occupied by French,
British, American, and Soviet troops.
Occupation zones after 1945. Berlin is the multinational area within the Soviet zone.

Soviet troops move into Germany near the end of World War II
As World War II ended, the Soviet army occupied the countries of Eastern
Europe that Germany had conquered during the war

 Get into your groups for the debate.
Kennan’s committee sits closest to the counter, Wallace sits closest to the windows. Take 3 minutes to draft an opening statement of your suggestion about the action that President Truman should take.

 What was containment and how was it applied in 1947-1948?
 Containment Overview

Poland, Romania,
Czechoslovakia,
Hungary Bulgaria and East Germany became satellite nations of Soviet
Union
“An iron curtain has descended across the Continent”
– Prime Minister Winston Churchill

Peep under the
Iron curtain
March 6, 1946
• Who is “Joe”?
•
What part of
Europe is sealed off?
•
What does the wall symbolize?

Letter from U.S. diplomat
George Kennan that led to the
U.S. policy of containment of communism.
Kennan said the Russians were concerned about invasions from the west and wanted a buffer zone
Russians wanted to spread communism world-wide
U.S. should use diplomatic, economic and military actions to keep communism contained


The United States’ foreign policy in the
1940s and 1950s in order to stop the spread of communism to more countries.
 Containment Policy
 Watch the following 7 minute video a teacher recorded on the early policy of containment. Take notes from her slides in your notebook, defining communism, the
Truman Doctrine, and the Marshall Plan.

U.S. foreign policy established by President Truman saying the U.S. would protect democracies throughout the world
“It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or outside pressures”
-Harry Truman

It pledged that the United States would fight Communism worldwide
American tanks provided by the Truman Doctrine roll through Turkey
Truman Doctrine was an extension to the
U.S. foreign policy set forth in the Monroe
Doctrine (1823) and the Roosevelt
Corollary (1904)

Secretary of State
George Marshall toured Western
Europe; witnessed widespread homelessness and famine.
Children in a London suburb, waiting outside the wreckage of what was their home
Fearing Europeans would turn to communism as an answer to their economic problems,
Marshall proposed the U.S. help to rebuild Europe, leading to…

Plan made U.S. heroes to people of Western Europe
U.S. plan for rebuilding
Western Europe , and repelling communism after World War II
George C. Marshall
Plan pumped billions of dollars into Western
Europe for food and supplies

The Marshall Plan proved to be a great success
Within 4 years, countries receiving aid saw a
41% higher industrial production than on the eve of World War II
Countries were stabilized and exports were rising rapidly
Countries receiving aid under Marshall Plan

Eastern European countries were offered to take part in the
Marshall Plan…
What is this cartoon trying to say?
… but Stalin and other
East European leaders refused financial help from the United States

 Why did the United States formally commit itself to the defense of Europe by joining the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization?

French
British
American
Soviet
After World War II,
Germany was divided into four zones, occupied by French,
British, American, and Soviet troops.
Occupation zones after 1945. Berlin is the multinational area within the Soviet zone.

West
Germany
East
Germany
East Berlin
West Berlin
In June of 1948, the
French, British and
American zones were joined into the nation of
West Germany after the
Soviets refused to end their occupation of
Germany.

In response, the Soviets cut off West Berlin from the rest of the world with a blockade.
Eventual site of the Berlin Wall

President Truman decided to avoid the blockade by flying in food and other supplies to the needy people of West Berlin
At times, over 5,000 tons of supplies arrived daily

The airlift continued for
11 months before Stalin finally lifted the blockade
The Berlin Airlift saved the people of West Berlin from falling under
Soviet Union control
Soviet blockade of West
Germany convinced many
Americans that the
Soviets were trying to conquer other nations

Formed in April, 1949 to protect Western
Europe from Soviet aggression

Poland, Romania,
Czechoslovakia,
Hungary Bulgaria and East Germany became satellite nations of Soviet
Union
The Warsaw Pact was the Soviet Union’s response to the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

 Overview

 Video



 Why did the Korean War occur and how did it change the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union?

Communists take over in China
Mao Zedong takes control of Chinese government from
Chang Kai-shek’s
Nationalist Party
Half the world now appeared to be under Communist control
The country of Korea became the next battleground in the Cold War
China Korea

The Korean War
The Cold War gets HOT
Following World
War II, the Allies divided Korea at the 38 th parallel
Soviets controlled
North Korea; U.S. sets up a democracy in South Korea
Both governments claimed to control all of Korea

The Korean War
A “Police Action” (1950-1953)
Kim Il-Sung
Leader of
North Korea
“Domino Theory”
If one country falls to communism, others around it will fall as well
Syngman Rhee
President of
South Korea

The Korean War
The Cold War gets HOT
On June 25, 1950,
North Korea invades
South Korea
UN forces under
MacArthur come to the aid of South Korea
Communist forces push UN forces to brink of defeat
UN forces push North
Koreans back to border of China

China enters the war
North Koreans pushed back to border with China
Chinese enter war on the side of North Koreans
Macarthur calls for an invasion of
China, wants to use the atomic bomb
Macarthur criticized Truman for wanting a “limited war”
An artillery officer directs UN troops as they drop white phosphorous on a Communist-held post in February 1951.

War ends in a stalemate
An armistice was signed ending the war in July 1953
Korea was divided at the 38 th parallel
Korean War marked an important turning point in the Cold War
U.S. began a major military buildup; began using military force to prevent spread of communism

 Intro to the War
 Map Explanation
 Korean War in 30 Seconds

Do Now: Ponder this:
You’re an American living in the 1950s. You read the following account published in the newspaper given by an attorney general:
“Communists are everywhere-in factories, offices, butcher shops, on street corners, in private businesses. At this very moment they are busy at work —undermining your government, plotting to destroy the liberties of every citizen, and feverishly trying in whatever way they can, to aid the Soviet Union.”
A couple days later, you read in the newspaper about a senator from Wisconsin who said:
“I have here in my hand a list of 205 . . . a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the
Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department .”
How does this make you feel? How would you react? Write your response in your notebook.

U.S. citizens in 1950s feared
Communists wanted to take over the world. This fear became known as the Second
Red Scare.
Spies like Julius and
Ethel Rosenberg and
Alger Hiss caused fear that our government was infiltrated by the
Communists

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
Truman argued national security demanded huge increase in size of federal govt., including military forces and surveillance agencies
1947: Act established Department of
Defense and National Security Council to administer and coordinate defense policies and advise president
 Created Central Intelligence Agency (CIA): operation devoted to collecting political, military, and economic information for security purposes throughout the world.
 Information about CIA was classified

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National security required increased surveillance at home
1947: Federal Loyalty Security Program tested and investigated all federal employees
1950: Congress overrides President Truman’s veto to pass “Internal Security Act”
 Authorized arrest of suspect persons during national emergency
 Barred people deemed subversive or homosexual from becoming citizens or visiting U.S.

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Immigrants who were members of communist organizations could be deported, even if they had become citizens
Truman called it “the greatest danger of freedom of press, speech, and assembly since the Sedition Act of 1798.”

Committee set up to investigate
Communist activities in the U.S.
HUAC searched for Soviet spies and Communist sympathizers.
House Un-American Committee meeting in 1948
“Are you now or have you ever been a Communist?”
Red Scare and HUAC

• American lawyer, government official
• Involved in establishment of U.N.
• 1948: Accused of being a Soviet spy
• Convicted of perjury in 1950 and sent to jail

Julius and Ethel
Rosenberg
 Married couple living in U.S.
 1950: Arrested for sharing atomic secrets of the Manhattan Project with the Soviets
 Executed via electric chair in 1953
 Only 2 Americans to be executed for espionage-related activity during the
Cold War
 Video

People who were accused of being
Communists were often “blacklisted”
A group of Hollywood actors who were blacklisted for refusing to answer HUAC questions became known as the “Hollywood Ten”
Movie stars Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart lead a protest during height of Hollywood Blacklist controversy
If someone was blacklisted, it meant they were denied work or ostracized from society

•
Joe McCarthy: Republican Senator from Wisconsin
•
1950: gave speech claiming he had a list of over 250 known
Communists that were currently working in the State Department
•
1953: Began holding Senate hearings
•
Despite lack of any proof, over
2,000 government employees lost their jobs b/c of these investigations
•
McCarthyism
•
How to Spot a Communist

• Eisenhower brought “New Look” to U.S. national security policy in 1953
• Main elements =
• Maintaining the vitality of the U.S. economy while still building sufficient strength to prosecute the
Cold War
• Relying on nuclear weapons to deter Communist aggression or, if necessary, to fight a war
• Using the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to carry out secret or covert actions against governments or leaders "directly or indirectly responsive to Soviet control”
• Strengthening allies and winning the friendship of nonaligned governments

•
1954: turned attention to exposing supposed communist infiltration of the armed forces
•
Army-McCarthy hearings were televised
•
Americans watched McCarthy intimidate witnesses and offer evasive responses when questioned
•
By time hearings were over, his credibility was ruined and he lost all his power.
•
Have You No Sense of Decency
Sir?

Col. Francis Gary
Powers’ spy plane was shot down over Soviet airspace in 1960
Incident cools Soviet-U.S. relations

The Russians have beaten America into space—they have the technological edge!

Congress establishes the National
Aeronautics and
Space Agency
(NASA) to conduct research in rocket and space technology
Congress also passed the National
Defense Education Act , which provided money for education and training in science, math and foreign languages

In 1961, Russian cosmonaut
Yuri Gagarin blasted off into space, making the Soviet
Union the first nation to launch a human into orbit
Kennedy said he wanted U.S. to land a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s

Kennedy’s challenge was met on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong became the first human to step foot on the moon
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” –
Neil Armstrong

Soviets wanted to keep
Germans from moving out of East Germany into West Berlin, where they could become free
Berlin Wall became the symbol of
Communist oppression around the world

President Kennedy tells Berliners that the West is with them!
(1963)

(1959)
Cuban dictator Fidel Castro embraces Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev

(1961)
CIA-trained Cuban exiles led an attack at the Bay of Pigs in
Cuba in an attempt to overthrow Castro
Invasion was a disaster and failed; was a huge foreign policy blunder for the United States

U.S. and Russia came extremely close to nuclear war when
Russians place nuclear missiles in Cuba in
November of 1962
In response to U.S. missiles in Turkey, the
Russians began building missile bases in Cuba

United States places an embargo on incoming shipments to Cuba from the Soviet Union, U.S. goes to DEFCON-3
Soviet ships reach the quarantine line, but receive radio orders from Moscow to hold their positions

Kennedy threatens a
U.S. invasion of Cuba unless Soviet missiles are removed; U.S. moves to DEFCON-2
President John F. Kennedy thinking in the Oval
Office during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962
The Russians agreed to take their missiles out of Cuba if the U.S. removed theirs from Turkey

T
E
V I E T
A M
W
R

Ho Chi Minh
President of North
Vietnam who led the efforts to defeat
South Vietnam and support of the South
Vietnamese Vietcong
William Westmoreland
American commander in South Vietnam who told people in the media that the United
States was close to winning the war, even though it wasn’t
Lyndon B. Johnson
President of the United
States who was president during much of Vietnam
War; greatly escalated the U.S. soldier involvement in the conflict

Robert McNamara
U.S. Secretary of
Defense during the
Vietnam War who made the American republic feel like we were winning the war
Richard Nixon
President of the United
States during the latter part of the Vietnam
War
Ngo Dinh Diem
President of South
Vietnam who whose corruption and harsh standards led numerous people to turn to the Vietcong

Following World War II, the
French controlled southeast
Asia (known as Indochina)
Ho Chi Minh led a revolt against the French to gain independence for Vietnam
Southeast Asia (aka: French Indochina)
By 1954, the French fell to the
Vietminh and they withdrew from Indochina, leaving
Vietnam a divided country

The Domino Theory was the belief that if one country fell to communism, the other
Southeast Asian nations would eventually fall to communism as well

This map from an American magazine published 14th
November 1950 shows how much they feared the spread of Communism in the Far East.

The people of South Vietnam hated
South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh
Diem. He was corrupt and did not govern in the best interest of the citizens.
Diem was disliked because he discriminated against the
Buddhist population
A Buddhist monk commits suicide in protest to the harsh policies of the S. Vietnamese government
Some Buddhist monks protested Diem’s rule by setting themselves on fire

In August of 1964, Pres. Johnson announced that North Vietnam ships had fired on two American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin
USS Maddox
Johnson insisted that the
North Vietnamese attack was unprovoked and responded by ordering
American airplanes to attack
North Vietnam

After accusing N.
Vietnam of attacking the
U.S., Johnson asked
Congress to give him the authorization to use force to defend American forces
When, in August of
1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution, Congress handed over war powers to the president
The President had the power to send U.S. troops into battle without a declaration of war

The U.S. bombing campaign conducted against the North
Vietnam from 1965 until 1968
The three-year assault was intended to get North
Vietnam to stop supporting
Operation became most intense air/ground battle waged during
South Vietnamese guerrillas the Cold War

Guerrilla army based in
South Vietnam (also known as the NLF) that fought the U.S. and South
Vietnamese governments during the Vietnam War
The Vietcong were South
Vietnamese communists who fought for Vietnamese unification on the side of the
North Vietnamese

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Path that ran from North Vietnam to
South Vietnam through Laos and
Cambodia system providing manpower and materiel to the Vietcong
Red line indicates Ho Chi Minh
Trail through Laos and Cambodia
A look at the Ho Chi Minh Trail from road level, with camouflaged convoy truck approaching.

January 30 – June 8, 1968
In early 1968, the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese launched a surprise attack throughout South Vietnam during the Tet, which is the Vietnamese New Year

While the Vietcong suffered heavy losses, it was a major political victory for the Vietcong
Tet was the turning point in the war and showed that the U.S. was nowhere close to winning the war The Tet Offensive in 1968 was a surprise attack by the Vietcong throughout South Vietnam

Robert McNamara
Opposition to the
Vietnam War grew in the United States in the late 1960s
Many Americans were suspicious of the government’s truthfulness about the war William Westmoreland
Many Americans believed a credibility gap had developed (people lost trust in what the government was telling them)

March 16 th , 1968
An American platoon had massacred more than 200
South Vietnamese civilians who they thought were members of the Vietcong in a village called My Lai
Most of the victims were old men, women and children
The My Lai massacre increased feelings among many
Americans that the war was brutal and senseless

• Ongoing US casualties and losses saw an increase in antiwar sentiment on the American Home Front
• b/c Vietnam was a TV War where American audiences saw the brutality of war firsthand
• included American atrocities at My Lai
• also witnessed the usage of weapons like napalm and
Agent Orange , which devastated the environment
• Napalm: mixture creates a jelly-like substance that, when ignited, sticks to practically anything and burns up to ten minutes. The effects of napalm on the human body are unbearably painful and almost always cause death among its victims.

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

Mixture creates a jelly-like substance that, when ignited, sticks to practically anything and burns up to ten minutes.
 Effects on human body are unbearably painful and almost always cause death among its victims.
First used in flamethrowers for U.S. ground troops
 Burned down sections of forest and bushes in hopes of eliminating any enemy guerrilla fighters.
 Later on B-52 Bombers began dropping napalm bombs and other incendiary explosives. Air raids that used napalm were much more devastating than flamethrowers; a single bomb was capable of destroying areas up to 2,500 square yards.
Throughout war, 1965 – 1973, eight million tons of bombs were dropped over Vietnam
 More than three times the amount used in WWII.

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
Toxic chemical herbicide that was used from about 1965 – 1970
Intended to deprive Vietnamese farmers and guerilla fighters of clean food and water in hopes they would relocate to areas more heavily controlled by the U.S. By the end of the operation over twenty million gallons of herbicides and defoliants were sprayed over forests and fields.


Fifty times more concentrated than normal agricultural herbicides
Completely destroyed all plants in the area.
Had devastating effects on agriculture, people, and animals.
○ The Vietnam Red Cross recorded over 4.8 million deaths and 400,000 children born with birth defects due to exposure to Agent Orange.

Johnson refuses to run for re-election
After Johnson refused to run for re-election and Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, the Democrats ended up choosing LBJ’s vicepresident, Hubert Humphrey, as their presidential candidate
Republicans nominate former vice-president Richard Nixon, who lost to JFK in 1960
"I shall not seek, and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your President." March 31, 1968

Many Americans who were against the war believed the United States had an unfair draft system
Minorities made up a large percentage of people drafted and most soldiers were under 21 years old

May 4, 1970
In April of 1970,
President Nixon announced that
American troops had invaded Cambodia
Anti-war protestors saw this as an escalation of the war, sparking violent protests on college campuses
At Kent State University in Ohio, protestors became violent. The Ohio National Guard was called in and fired upon the student demonstrators, killing four students

th
Anger over the draft led to debates about the voting age.
Demonstrators help public rallies and marches.
The average age of a
American soldier in Vietnam was 19. Because you had to be 21 to vote, many people called for changes in voting laws, saying that if you’re old enough to fight in war, you should be old enough to vote.
President Nixon signs the 26th Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote for people over 18.
In 1971, the 26 th
Amendment was ratified, lowered the legal voting age from 21 to 18

Vietnamization called for a gradual withdrawal of
American troops as South
Vietnamese took more control
Even though the U.S. had begun cutting back its involvement in the Vietnam War, the American home front remained divided and volatile as Nixon’s war policies stirred up new waves of protest

In January of 1973, North and South Vietnamese reach a cease-fire agreement;
By 1975, the United States withdraws all of its people from Vietnam
In late1975, North Vietnam violated the ceasefire and captured the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon. The war was over and the communists had won

(1973)
Law was an attempt to set limits on the power of the president during wartime
Required the president to inform
Congress of any commitment of troops with 48 hours

In 1971, a former Defense Department worker leaked what were known as the
Pentagon Papers to the New York
Times
The documents showed how various administrations deceived Congress,
The government had not been the media, and the public about how the honest with the war was going
American people