History 212
3/20/14 Chapter 26
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Connection of great depression in connection with the war, brought the country out of the
depression
War do to American tradition of isolationism
o We originally thought that our country was separated from other countries, we can
avoid the problems of Europe
o We were never really isolated if you want to engage in commerce
o Pearl harbor gave us an idea that we shouldn’t be isolated
o After WWI there is an attempt to go back to isolationism
o End of WWII no attempt to go back to isolationism due to development of Cold War
with Russia, WWII is barely ending and we are entering into this Cold War with the
Soviet Union to stop the spread of communism
War began first in the far east – Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and makes its intentions
know that the expansion is going to include china
We were too preoccupied with a domestic economy to respond but we did respond by refusing
to recognize what they had done and we tried to pressure the Japanese to pull back. Japan
would pull out of the League of Nations
Fascism VS Communism
o Fascism: is a movement in the right, one party dictatorial state, favored capitalism
o Communism: movement on far left, favored socialism
Mid 1930s Italy and Germany: Mussolini invaded Ethiopia and the very next year Hitler in
Germany invades the Rhineland
Gerald Nye: chairmen of the senate foreign relations. 1930s put a committee together to
investigate why US got into WWI, Nye Committee, was a political committee meaning it had a
political agenda not a historical agenda. Was to keep us out of WWII. Nye was an isolationist, if
he could convince the American people that we were pulled into WWI by the merchants of
death, arms industry and banking industry, in WWI if the allies lost the war with all that we
loaned and provided them it bankrupted the US and they wouldn’t be able to pay back their
debt and economically it would destroy us. No evidence really supports that argument most
historians believe, but you can never prove that one way or the other. He just wants Americans
to avoid those mistakes that we made in WWI. Nye Committee first time that anyone ever
referred to the military industrial complex, Nye argues that military needs are married with
industrial or economic; feed each other in that one helps the other. Does have a political impact
and Americans were scared of repeating WWI, 1930s we try to be isolated. Refuse to get
involved and declare neutrality.
Why did we stay out of the Spanish Civil war?
o Declared neutrality
o Franco was a fascist military leader in Spain that opposes the first republican
government in modern history.
o Not just Spain, didn’t have a two party system but a multiparty system, basically to gain
political power parties had to form coalitions and come together and agree on a basic
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agenda and work together to get that agenda. Coalition in that agenda include the
Spanish communist party. Another reason we refused to get involved.
o Hitler and Mussolini were providing much aid to Franco which also led to the end of the
republican government in Spain and the US not aiding helped in achieving the Fascist
party coming to power
Munich Conference: Munich, Germany. Britain and France tried to put pressure on Germany to
stop expanding. Legacy of Munich; Germany/Hitler persuades France and England that if they
allow him to expand a little more into czheckslovakia then he will stop and they think it sounds
like a good idea and FDR favored that agreement.
o Raises issue of appeasement because the aggressor will always want more because
Hitler would invade Poland
When was begins FDR claims neutrality: WWI VS WWII
o Beginning of WWI we really tried to be neutral while at the beginning of WWII we really
don’t even try to be neutral
o Difference in the way that Germany was viewed. WWII genuine fear that Hitler wants to
conquer, at the beginning of WWI nobody feared that Germany wanted to conquer the
world. Hitler was a global threat or perceived to be
o From the beginning of the war in WWII we had military convoy out on the seas
Peace time draft, first time ever
Lend Lease Act: involved American ships, provided old destroyers and military equipment to the
British in return for military bases over there. We loaned anything and everything we could
Widely believed that if we could aid the British after France fell then they could defeat Hitler
and we wouldn’t have to enter the war, sounded logical but didn’t turn out that way
Atlantic Charter 1941: 4 ideas and aims of the war, similar to 14 points
o Freedom from fear and want for religion and speech
Japan in Indochina: invaded, including Vietnam. US response: cut off oil, froze assets and cut off
credit. Pearl Harbor had to be in Japan’s plans. Cutting off oil really hurt Japan the most. FDR
deliberately manipulated getting into the war. We should have been more prepared for Pearl
Harbor
Second Front Controversy: Russia was already fighting Germany on eastern front and when US
entered the war we would provide that second front on the western front, which wouldn’t
happen till the very end of the war. Britain and US need to focus attentions in Japan and North
Africa before taking on Germany and the second front. Russian point of view the US was
deliberately trying to deplete and destroy Russia, so they would be weak and not a rival at the
end of the war. Will eventually play a major role for Cold war
Nuremburg trials: war crimes, genocide and holocaust.
o US made no response, a little disbelief, but we refused to get involved. US Jewish
community not together enough.
o Major military trial
o Nuremburg ethic: said that saying you were following orders is not a good excuse when
crimes against humanity
Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: were they necessary?
o At the end of WWI Germany signed an armistices, thought the terms of the peace were
going to be the 14 points, which wasn’t the case
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End of WWII there is the determination to avoid making that mistake again because it
had led to Hitler.
o Unconditional Surrender: lets avoid mistakes of WWI. No one confused about deals of
the end of the war. Japan surrendered months before the bombings, but not
unconditional surrender. Condition is to maintain their emperor. Since japan refused to
surrender unconditionally, the bombing was agreed upon by the allies even though it
wasn’t militarily necessary.
o Cold war thinking had already started, bomb was dropped to send a signal to soviets
that if they tried to expand then the bomb would be dropped on them
o 90% were civilians, no warnings
Rosie the Riveter: women working to support the war effort, posters
FEPC: Fair employment practices commission; begins as a voluntary system that eventually
evolves into law. Leading to civil rights movement
Japanese relocation camps: internment camps on west coast where Japanese Americans live in
large amounts. 130,000 were put into concentration camps most of those were Japanese
American citizens. There were Italians and Germans that were put into these camps as well.
Morgenthau Plan: Henry Morgenthau – came up with this highly debated plan. Proposed turning
Germany into an agrarian state, not letting them industrialize so that they could not be a major
threat again. Was rejected because prior to the great depression most economists believed that
national economies were independent but they are seeing now that most economies are
interdependent. All being intertwined with one another. This plan brings a fear that we will go
back into another depression after the war, if we turn to the German economy into an agrarian
economy it will hurt our economy. Defeated due to economic consequences.
US policy towards colonialism at end of WWII: mixed, eventually we did give the Philippines
independence. But we still believe that colonies were important economically with our
European allies
Need to promote economic welfare so that communism will lose its appeal
Good Neighbor Policy: US would be a better neighbor to Latin America, intervened militarily into
many countries. Latin America hated us. FDR moves American troops out in order to be a better
neighbor.
o In order to keep promoting economic interest America replaced its troops with
American trained native national guard units in most of these Latin American countries
to protect economic interest and continue what US troops were doing
o End result producing right wing military leaders, seizing power dictatorially
o Right wing military rulers were ruthless but anti communist
3/25/14 Vietnam War
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Before we get involved in Vietnam war
o Vietnam had been a colony for 100s of years of China and then a French colony
First US contact 1919
o Peace conference ending WWI
o 14 points idea of self-determination: allowed to determine own destiny, but Wilson was
very vague, playing historian maybe
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Wilson trying to figure out what led to WWI then figure points that will keep it
from happening in the future
 Wilson may not have really understood what he was saying when it came to
self-determination
Ho Chi Minh petitioned treaty of Versailles for Vietnamese
o Year after conference Ho joined a communist party, French Socialist party
 Opposed colonialism
 Became convinced that capitalism and colonialism were inseparable
WWII and Vietnam
o We became an ally of Ho Chi Minh, both having Japanese as an enemy
o Vietnam thought that the US would give them their independence
o Trusteeship Plan which was a proposal similar to self-determination, colony are working
their way towards independence. There would be a period of time preparing colonies to
be independent.
o Will not get independence at end of war because
 British opposed trusteeship plan
 Our own Navy department leaders pressured Roosevelt to back off the plan as
well because if you go criticizing colonies then it can be argued that our military
bases are seen as colonies.
Truman as president – political change being
o Vietnamese will not get independence due to cold war
Cold War developed between soviet union and the US about the spread of communism
o Huge debate about Ho Chi Minh being a communist leader and he was a puppet
controlled by Moscow
o Wrote government asking for US to support Vietnamese independence
Cold war such a critical issue having to deal with Europe
o Priorities at the end of the war
 Democrat party believed that our number one global priority was Europe
 Republican said that is was Asia
 Became involved in Vietnam because of Europe
 Largest political party in France at the end of the war was a communist party
8 out of every 10 dollars the French was spending during Vietnam was the US’
Truman increased commitments
o Secretly sent the first military advisors to Vietnam in 1950s
1954 the French are defeated at a battle and begin to pull out
o As the French pull out the US go in
o Geneva conference held in Switzerland
 Vietnam was to be divided into 2 temporary zones being north and south. North
controlled by Ho Chi Minh and south controlled by French puppet government.
 Vietnam should get its independence
 Elections were to be held in Vietnam
o US said they would respect the terms
o When 1956 came around the US opposed elections in Vietnam saying the Vietnamese
weren’t ready.
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Reason later was that intelligence information said that Ho Chi Minh would get
80% of the votes, British intelligence said he would probably get 90% of the vote
Figuring out who the enemy was, was extremely difficult. Who are we fighting?
o Escalating war Kennedy
 Strategic hamlet program: if the US found a town in Vietnam that supported the
enemy they introduced this. Would move a town to these which were small
concentration camps.
 Napalm that would burn people not fatally but to the point they have to be
taken care of. Less people that would fight you. Was hitting children and babies
causing American public to become not okay with what was going on
 Defoliation: use of Agent Orange that destroyed vegetation.
1964 incident occurred gulf of Tonkin
o Pivotal event
o American was misled
 American ships were fired upon on 2 different occasions which was a lie
 Attacks were unprovoked which was another lie because the ships were there
providing intelligence
o US began the bombing of Vietnam and sent in troops and was an almost impossible
situation for American troops
1968 tet offensive
o Tet= new years
o The fighting usually stopped but the fighting went on attacking major cities and villages
o TV cameras revealed many battle situations
o During Tet offensive TV captured Saigon police killing someone and had no trial or
anything and it would upset the American public greatly
o American officer said that we had to destroy the town to save the town and he said this
on TV. After this most Americans opposed the war
Stayed there till 1975 when north took over the south
3/27/14 Cold war
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Containment
o Strategy the US was using to keep capitalism from spreading into other countries
o Double meaning to the term, fight communism overseas but to also contain
communism at home
o Inseparable link between the second red scare (McCarthy era) and the cold war.
o Doesn’t like calling the second red scare the McCarthy era because the red scare had
already begun before Joe McCarthy had ever been heard of he didn’t create it
Consensus history VS Revisionist history
o Consensus History: history that is generally agreed upon by most historians, ordinary
explanations
o Revisionist History: changes and challenges what most historians think
o Related to the cold war: Consensus historians blame Russia, revisionist historians blame
both Russia and the US for the cold war in which that is what Harrison is a part of!!!
o Russia came out of WWII paranoid because it had been attacked twice by Germany in
less than a decade and also because the US came out of WWII with megamania
convinced that they were almighty god and controlled everything. Which was pretty
easy for US to believe being the only one with a bomb and a major power where we
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weren’t physically devastated or damaged by the war, we are the only major country on
the globe with a healthy economy. We could possibly control the world it seemed. More
than this caused the cold war.
Cold war started with Jamestown, founding of it. Because a week after we first settled we were
fighting Indians. White Americans perceive Indians? Thought they were communistic, shared
things living communally, didn’t worship god as we perceived god should be worshipped.
Refused to work a good ole protestant work ethic, their women had far more power. They were
the first communists.
o Became more intense in the 20th century after Bolshevik revolution
o Are things that happened in WWII that play a major role in intensifying the cold war
 Big deal about second front: Being the Russians on one side and we didn’t help
them with the other side. We said that we would take the western side when
Russia was fighting against Germany and we never game to that front till the
last year of the world. The Russians have a perception that this is deliberate,
they said US wanted to deplete Russia to make them weak and unable to
threaten anything and not be a serious opponent.
 We thought we needed to fighting on other fronts and that there were other
things to take care of
End of war for Germany
o Devastated, divided into 4 zones. One zone is US, France and Britain other being Russia
o One has divided capital called Berlin
o Russian view conspiracy about Germany: has a problem because it has the economically
weak part of Germany which is unfair because they did most of the fighting against
Germany. Wanted resources of Germany to be put in a collective pot so each can take
out what they need and deserve while the US said no you get your resources out of your
occupation zone only. Soviets again were mad.
o Rich part of Germany is in west, mineral zone
Buffer states
o Russia creates an area of buffer states between Russia and future enemies (Germany) so
to make it more difficult to invade
o US perspective they weren’t buffer states they were just spreading communism.
would make sure these buffer states had governments sympathetic to what they
wanted
o We did the same things in places that we went into, making them like the US, but the
soviets cannot do
o All going into the cold war
Truman doctrine
o Containment
o Announced in 1947 that US would contain the spread of communism
o Was a problem in Greece and Turkey, crisis beginning the cold war
 Greece: revolution, we said was communistic, but revolution was very
complicated and very few communists were involved. Reaction to British
colonialism was very much resented. Soviets not even directly involved at all
and we send in economic aid and military assistance and advisors.
 Turkey: no revolution, totally different situation, 1947 concerns was that the
soviets wanted to take over waterways and passages controlling trade and
commerce, but there was no evidence to support that. We sent in economic aid
and military assistance and advisors.
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Marshall Plan
o George Marshall: most important general of WWII who later became Truman’s
secretary of state
o To rebuild Europe in late 19th century
 To stop communism: where there was weakness communism could spread
much easier
 At the time there is a lot of reasons that Americans were worried about going
into another depression, we had been in one for over a decade, so Marshall Plan
was to keep our economy strong and going and so that we wouldn’t slip back
into a depression. We have to help other people have healthy economies so
that we can have a healthy economy, global economy is an interdependent one
o Marshall plan not a giveaway program, there were all kinds of strings attached we had
to buy American goods
First Berlin Crisis
o Berlin in 1948: soviets blockade city and cut off all traffic, waterway, highway, etc into
berlin.
o So Truman does berlin airlift: 250000 flights flying supplies into berlin to keep from
falling into soviet hands and eventually they back away.
 Will end peacefully
Truman election in 1948
o Before the days of sophisticated political polls
o Polls said Truman was miserably lose
o Truman would win election shocking many because he was tough on communism
Crisis of Cold war in 1949
o China: has communist revolution, now fighting cold war against China as well, being
much larger now
o Atomic weapons when in 1949 the soviets get the bomb but have no delivery system, its
only a matter of time. And now war is changing
1950 cold war changed
o Korea: cold war becoming HOT
 End of war soviets controlled northern half of Korea and US controlled the
southern half (noncommunist)
 Intent after war was reunification, but with cold war that became very
complicated. Koreans wanted reunification. Both the north and south were
guilty of violating that dividing line or demarcation zone trying to get them to
back down
 North Korea invaded south Korea, being first hot war crisis
 We blame soviets for Korea, soviets discouraged North Korea from invading the
south but provided them the weapons to invade
 Truman sent in American troops immediately
 UN took action to turn back the North Korean invasion, would become UN
police action
 When the war begins the objective is to force the North Koreans back
 General McArthur, convinced that you couldn’t fight this kind of war.
Argument made sense that once North Koreans are forced back into the
north they will totally regroup and attack again. We need to invade the
north and completely punish them.
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North Korea had agreement with China that if they were attacked China
would come to its aid and McArthur said don’t worry China won’t try to
go against the US.
First time we try more than just containment
War expanded between North Korea and China, China did enter the war
and we have to be able to fight them. China had agreement with Russia
that if China gets attacked Russia would come to their aid and Truman
said they will come to fight and McArthur was fired
Taft-Hartley Law 1947
o Tried to undo the Wagner Act: legalized labor union. To weaken labor unions limiting
boycotts and striking.
o Important
 Symbolized this attack on the New Deal, part of cold war, fearing that New Deal
is too liberal
HUAC
o House activities coordinating committee
o Becomes the main government organization fighting the cold war at home
o Leads the attack on communists in the US: professionals and Hollywood professionals.
 During second red scare Hollywood was asked to produce movies about alliance
between Russia and US being wartime propaganda
 Would come back to haunt them because films were too sympathetic to Russia
and the soviets
Alger Hiss
o Second red scare
 Minor officially who was accused of smuggling secrets from the soviets
o He was convicted, opening door for other attacks
o Rosenberg’s were executed for espionage and treason during peacetime
Joe McCarthy
o Arrives making a great speech saying he had a list of over 200 people that were working
in the US government and were communists but the list number kept dropping
o Times were so tense at this time that generally the press accepted what he was saying
Loyalty review program
o 1947 Truman introduced this which examined federal employees to make sure they
were loyal and a few were fired from their federal jobs. This was the beginning of
second red scare.
o Number 1 target were generally homosexuals
Miller Tydings
o First senator to take on McCarthy
o Said his list was totally fabricated
o Set up a senate committee saying he was lying
o Things got serious with McCarthy
o Tydings up for reelection, was in a forged photograph and was not reelected
Fair Deal
o Truman’s program
o Ending Jim Crow in military, supporting GI bill, increasing Social Security
Jackie Robinson
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Reese on Brooklyn dodgers when baseball desegregated, first athlete in professional
sports
Eisenhower’s reelection strategy
o K1C2: democrats had not won Korea and had been too soft on communism and had
been guilty of corruption and the strategy worked, he won
McCarthy and the army
o He was not a timid soul
o More and more he seemed to be successful the more he went on the offensive, accused
the army of harboring communists
o Guilt by association; dentist in military was friends through friends with someone who
was a communist
o Army McCarthy hearings on TV
 Army had lawyer, Clarence Darrow, wanted him to identify one communist in
the government
 Attacked someone in Harvard and McCarthy was ruined from there, died a few
years later of alcoholism
4/1/14 Hayslip
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Hayslip becoming a revolutionist?
o Why so many Vietnamese fighting the US
 Been under French imperialism for so long that they wanted to be done with it,
Chinese and Japanese imperialism as well.
 Didn’t know who the enemy was
o Why did countries want colonies?
 Resources
 Commerce, strategic location or interests.
 Economic advantage to colonies: combo, preferential market; it’s your colony
you can pay for those natural resources however you want to. You can take
them back home and manufacture them into goods and sell them for how much
you want to sell them for. Manufacturing the goods, you don’t let your colony
do, don’t want them to get your profit, and you then sell them back to colony at
whatever price you want to.
 Vietnam was never profitable to the French, cost more to administer than they
would make
 Yet there is this since that countries have that it brings prestige and promise
 Even you can convince you yourself that you are helping the colonies
French talked about a mission of civilization
o Motivating French colonialism: manifest destiny is what US called it
o French believed they were civilizing the Vietnamese, bring them modernization,
Catholicism, spreading French way of life and values. Another motive being: manifest
destiny was all a rationalization, was of rationalizing, excusing and making yourself
believe that you are doing right while you are economically taking advantage of those
you have colonial control over.
o He believes now that it is not a rationalization but it is a real motive, very intense.
Why do you suppose there were those in Vietnam who didn’t want to be civilized?
o What is there about Le Li that doesn’t want to be civilized?
 Already civilized from their perspective
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Values of civilization are different from those of others and they are just as
civilized as any other person
 They were thinking how can other people tell us that we aren’t civilized when
your country is only 200-300 years old, how can you tell us what we are doing is
no good.
o Nationalism w/ Le Li motives
 Vietnam was split (supposed to be 2 temporary zones)
 One historian says that south Vietnam was a country of US creation; when US
becomes involved we change everything and make it 2 different countries while
the 2 zones were supposed to reunited
 She wanted one united Vietnam nation and for it to be independent
Ho Chi Minh
o Him and his men were a bunch of communists
o Why so many communists in Vietnam?
 Only political party in France at the end of WWI was least bit critical of
colonialism and was communist.
 Joining communist party made since for Hi Chi Minh
 End of WWII Ho wrote letters to US that the communist party be done away
with if they would support Vietnamese independence
 US government told the American public that the North Vietnamese were the
enemies – what was inaccurate about this? Just as many south Vietnamese
 CIA said all the way through most of the 1960s that the enemy we were fighting
in Vietnam were 80% South Vietnamese
 What happened in 1954 as far as the populous is concerned with Vietnam was
divided? Many moved to the North and some in the North actually moved to
the South.
 Many of those North Vietnamese were actually from the south
Not having elections in 1956
o If they would have then Ho would’ve won and the US didn’t want that.
o We told the American public that we aren’t letting them have elections because the
Vietnamese aren’t ready for elections, but the major explanation the US government
gave was that the Vietnamese had been brainwashed by the communists. Were told all
these lies and untrue information and that’s why 80% would vote for Ho in the election
and these elections wouldn’t be fair. Most American accepted these explanations. So
intense that it was easy to believe and explanation like this. Nobody asked whether or
not the US did any brainwashing because only the communists would think to do a thing
like this.
Le Li thought about growing up about what it meant for Vietnam to be divided for Ho to be a
leader in the North and Diem to be the leader in the South?
o Most Vietnamese didn’t think you could have 2 leaders of 1 country, most Vietnamese
saw Ho as their leader not Diem.
o Diem was extremely corrupt. No dancing at one point in South Vietnam. Nepotistic only
electing people from his family, favoring them over others.
o Another reason Vietnamese didn’t like him was because he was catholic. Most
Vietnamese were either Buddhists or confused. Only 5%-10% had been converted to
Catholicism. Diem basically got rid of all the Buddhists in the government and replaced
them with Catholics.
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Required all voters to have a voting card with a cross on their card and most
Buddhists refused to have that on their card and so they just wouldn’t vote.
US realized they were backing a losing side and would overthrow Diem eventually, but it
wouldn’t really help.