Soon after the end of
World War II, problems between
the West and the Soviet Union.
Soviets: strip Germany of all
industrial plant—ship to USSR
Stalin in 1946:
Communism and
capitalism are
incompatible;
another war is
inevitable.
Soviets created
satellite nations (dependent on
the Soviet Union (USSR) in:
Poland
Czechoslovakia
Hungary
Albania
Romania
Bulgaria
February 1945—Yalta
Conference (in Soviet Union)
Churchill
Roosevelt
Stalin
Agreed to form the United Nations,
Soviet Union would enter war against
Japan, and division of Europe into
zones after the war.
June 1945, United Nations created.
U.S. joins USSR & 48 other nations.
San Francisco; later New York
General Assembly and 11member Security Council.
5 Permanent Security Council
members: U.S., USSR,
Great Britain, France,
Nationalist China. Each had
veto power.
July 1945, Truman, Stalin,
and Churchill (later
Clement Attlee) meet at Potsdam,
near Berlin, Germany
Truman
informs
other Big 3
members
about bomb
and they
design postwar Germany
China erupts into major
civil war in 1949
Communists under Mao-Zedong
Defeat U. S.-backed
Nationalists
under
Chiang
Kai-Shek
(Jiang
Jieshi)
The Nationalists flee
China and establish a government
on the island of Formosa
(now Taiwan)
U. S. President
Harry Truman: Policy
of Containment
Winston
Churchill:
Fulton, MO,
March 1946:
“From
Stettin in
the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic,
an iron curtain has descended
across the continent (of Europe).”
First sites of Truman’s
Policy of Containment:
Greece and Turkey
The Truman Doctrine:
“The U. S. should
support free
peoples throughout
the world who were
resisting takeovers
by ‘armed minorities’ or
‘outside pressures.’”
U. S. sent $400 million in aid
to Greece & Turkey, 1947-1950,
because they rejected
Communism.
Dean Acheson
and George
Kennan: the
Domino Theory
If one nation fell to Communism,
surrounding nations would fall
The Marshall Plan
Truman names
General George C.
Marshall as Secretary
of State
1947: The U. S. should provide
aid to all European nations that
need it. This move “is not
against any country or doctrine,
but against hunger, poverty,
desperation, and chaos.”
$12.5 billion
National Security Act
of 1947
Created the Department of
Defense
Created the U. S. Air Force
Created the National Security Council
Created the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Created the Central Intelligence
Agency
Soviet
British
U. S.
French
February 1945 , Roosevelt, Stalin
and Churchill meet at Yalta.
The 3 leaders agree to divide
Germany and Berlin into
occupation zones.
Berlin is also divided 4-ways.
The victorious powers agree to
specific corridors from the
west to Berlin
The first major activity of the
Cold War was the Berlin Blockade
in April 1948.
General Lucius D. Clay solves
with the Berlin Airlift
North Atlantic Treaty--1949
North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO)-- a military
organization to meet any attack
on any NATO country
Soviets respond 1955 with
Warsaw Pact
The Army and Navy
discharged millions
of people within a
few months of the
end of World War II
To help care for
returning service
people, Congress
had passed the G. I.
Bill of Rights in 1944
The G. I. Bill
Guaranteed a year’s
unemployment benefits
while discharged G.I.s
looked for work.
Provided money for education
Provided low-interest, federally
guaranteed loans for houses,
businesses and farms
Returning service people
also began to rebuild lives
High divorce rate in the late 1940s
Expanding women’s roles
Many men had changed
Many other families moved to the
suburbs
The war had caused the economy
to recover; people began to again
buy luxury goods
The Fair Deal
21-point domestic program
Expanded Social Security benefits
Increased minimum wage $ .40 to $ .65/hr
Full employment through federal spending
Republicans win control of Congress in 1946
Reduce government spending and chip
away at New Deal reforms
Turned down most of Fair Deal
Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947
(The Taft-Hartley Act)
Anti-union initiative by
conservatives
Closed shop illegal
Union shop (must join a union
after hiring) allowed but
permitted states to pass “Right
to Work” laws that could prohibit
union shops
Unions outraged: Slave Labor Law
The Election of 1948
Harry S. Truman
Became president 1945
Honorable, direct,
down-to-earth, selfconfident
“The Buck Stops Here”
Decisive—accepted full
responsibility for actions
1947: Brooklyn Dodgers,
general manager
Branch Rickey
hires Jackie
Robinson as the
first AfricanAmerican major
league baseball
player
The Election of 1948
Truman supported civil rights for
minorities
Asked Congress to take action:
Anti-lynching laws
Elimination of poll taxes
Commission to assure fairness
in hiring
Congress refused
The Election of 1948
July 1948: Executive Order
integrating the armed forces
Also ended discrimination
in the hiring of
government employees
First president to
effectively deal
with race relations
The Election of 1948
Truman is nominated by Democrats,
but there is a huge split in the
Democratic Party
Southern Democrats,
or “Dixiecrats,” who
want to protect the
Southern way of life,
nominate former
Democrat, Governor
Strom Thurmond of
South Carolina
The Election of 1948
Former liberal Democrats form a new
Progressive Party and nominate
former FDR Vice President Henry
Wallace for President
Major split in the
Democratic Party
similar to split in
Republican Party
in 1912
The Election of 1948
Republicans nominate popular New
York Governor Thomas E. Dewey
Dewey huge lead in the
polls but Truman
conducts aggressive
“whistle stop” campaign
Domestic Successes
1.Congress raised minimum
wage from $.40 to $.75
2. Expansion of Social Security
System benefits by 75%
Passed national Housing Act
of 1949: 810,000 low-income
housing units and long-term rent
subsidies
After World War II,
Allies divide Korea
in two at the 38th
Parallel—Soviet
Union north; U. S.
south.
Syngman Rhee:
Leader of South
North Korean
leader: Kim Il-Sung
June 25, 1950, North
Korean troops, using
Soviet weapons and
equipment invade
South Korea
North Koreans tear through the
South Korean forces; take the
South Korean capital of Seoul in
2 days.
Syngman Rhee appeals to
the United Nations for help.
President Truman
agrees to send U. S.
troops
Eventually 16 nations
send troops in the
first U. N. military
action in history; but
most are from U.S.
Supreme Allied Commander:
General Douglas MacArthur
First troops in
are U. S. troops
from Japan
under LTC
Brad Smith
Taegu
Early August
1950, U.N.
forces forced
back into a
perimeter in
the southeast
corner of
Pusan South Korea.
The Pusan Perimeter.
Inchon
Seoul
Taegu
Pusan
Same time, 8th Army
breaks out of
Pusan Perimeter.
26 Sep links w/ X Corps.
15 Sept. 1950
X Corps:
Marines &
Army land
at Inchon.
X Corps
takes Seoul.
Yalu River
Thousands of N.K.
troops are trapped
in the south and
caught or killed.
Seoul is retaken.
Truman grants General
MacArthur permission
to advance into N.K.
Yalu River
19 October:
Pyongyang,
the North Korean
capital, is taken.
1 November, U. S.
troops within 60 miles
of Yalu River, the
border between N.K.
and China (Manchuria)
25 November:
China enters war.
U.N. troops retreat.
Bloody fighting at the
Chosin Reservoir
U.N. troops
retreat to
South Korea;
Chinese
troops retake Seoul
Jan. 4, 1951
Truman next refuses MacArthur’s
request to attack China, using
atomic bombs.
Meanwhile, the U. S. 8th Army,
under General
Matthew B. Ridgway
counterattacks,
re-takes Seoul and
drives the Chinese
& North Koreans
north of 38th Parallel
After re-taking Seoul,
MacArthur urges full-scale war
against China.
Truman refuses; MacArthur
vents his concerns with media
April 11, 1951, Truman
fires MacArthur; gives
U.N. Commander-in-Chief
position to Ridgway.
July 1951, truce talks begin
while fighting continues.
Thousands of
casualties during
peace talks. Finally, agree to
an armistice in July 1953. It is
still in effect.
Railroad Workers’ Strike of 1951
Truman ordered the government to
seize control of the railroads
No effect on union demands
Workers got most of what they demanded
Nation-wide Steel Strike of 1952
Truman seized steel mills citing powers as
Commander-in-Chief
Supreme Court ruled (6-3) Truman had
exceeded his authority
Long, costly strike followed
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
Focused on the movie industry
The Hollywood 10
Blacklisting
Richard Nixon and Alger Hiss
Whittaker Chambers
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
Roy Cohen
Senator Joseph McCarthy (R, WI)
Edward R. Murrow
CBS News
After his victory in 1948,
Truman’s popularity sinks to all time
low: 23% in 1951
Problems with Korean War,
McCarthyism, and loyalty of
government workers.
1952: Truman decides not
to run for re-election;
Democrats nominate
Governor Adlai E.
Stevenson of Illinois
1952 Election
Republicans nominate retired
General of the Army Dwight D.
Eisenhower for President
and California
Senator
Richard
M. Nixon
for Vice
President
1952 Election
During the campaign, Nixon is accused
of illegally skimming funds.
In reply, Nixon
goes on national
television, (58
million people) on
September 23,
1952, to give the
now famous
“Checkers Speech”
First use of television by a political
candidate
Behind the political campaign
slogan of “I like Ike,” Eisenhower
wins the 1952 election.
Effective, behind the
scenes president
Ended Korean War
Brought Alaska and
Hawaii into the Union
as 49th and 50th
states
Year
Loaf
Bread
Gal.
Gas
Gal.
Milk
Avg.
Inc.
New
Car
New
House
1952
$.16
$.20
$.97
$3,850.00
$1,754.00
$9,075.00
1961
$.21
$.27
$1.05 $5,315.00
$2,849.00
$12,550.00
1970
$.24
$.36
$1.32 $9,357.00
$3,979.00
$23,400.00
1985
$.96
$1.09 $2.31 $22,138.00
$9,011.00
$89,331.00
1988
$1.08
$.91
$2.02 $24,457.00 $10,432.00 $91,777.00
1950s: U. S. produced most
of its own oil
Therefore
gasoline was
inexpensive
Leading to more
cars in the U. S.
Eisenhower had noted the
excellent German autobahn system
during the later stages of WWII.
1956, Eisenhower signs the Interstate
Highway Act—authorizing 41,000
miles of nation-wide expressways
With improved highways,
Americans “took to the roads”—
Americans became mobile, leading
to new business opportunities.
1955, Walt Disney
creates Disneyland
1950s: increases in air and
noise pollution and automobile
accidents
With expanse of the suburbs, economic
gap between inner city (urban) and
suburban dwellers widened
With more money in economy,
manufacturers incorporated
planned obsolescence—products not
built to last as long because Americans
wanted newer and better items
1950: Diner’s Club
issues the nation’s
first credit card
American Express follows in 1958
American private debt rises from
$73 billion to $179 billion in the 1950s
Prompting this surge in spending was
a boom in advertising—the
Advertising Age
The 1950s were the main
years of the Baby Boom
1957: one baby born
in the U. S. every 7
seconds (4,254,784)
Many parents follow the
advice of Dr. Benjamin
Spock regarding child
rearing: Common
Sense Book of Baby
And Child Care
American leisure significantly
affected by the emergence of
television in the 1950s
News shows were
faster with people
able to see, as well
as hear, what was
happening in the
world
First great TV
journalist: Edward R.
Murrow of CBS News
One of the key scientific
discoveries of the 1950s:
Dr. Jonas Salk
finds a cure for the
terrible disease
poliomyelitis
Also, women, once
again, became
housewives;
although many were
frustrated
Sputnik
•Soviet Satellite 1957
•First man-made satellite
•Americans feared Soviets had achieved
superiority in technology
•Led to more funding for math &
science education
The Space Race
April 12, 1961, Soviet Cosmonaut,
Yuri A. Gagarin
became the first human
in space, orbiting the
Earth 188 miles above
the planet’s surface for
108 minutes
The Soviets had
scored another major
victory in the Space
Race
Kennedy responds
with leadership:
in an address to a joint
session of Congress:
“(the United States)
should commit itself
to achieving the goal,
before this decade is out,
of landing a man on the
moon and returning him
safely to Earth.”
Makes Vice President Johnson the chairman of the National Space Council
May 1961, Navy Commander
Alan B. Shepard becomes the
first American in space.
15 minute sub-orbital
flight in Freedom 7.
Mercury Program
Late 1961, Virgil I. “Gus”
Grissom, in Liberty Bell 7,
completes a second
sub-orbital flight.
February 20, 1962, Marine Corps
Colonel John Glenn
becomes the first American to orbit the
earth. Later becomes a U. S. Senator from
Ohio, then becomes the oldest human to
travel in space (on the Space Shuttle).
Three more Mercury astronauts,
Malcolm Scott Carpenter,
Walter Schirra, and LeRoy Gordon
Cooper also orbit the earth.
The Mercury program is followed by
the Gemini program—two people in
one space capsule. Highlights include
space walks and rendezvous in space.
The Gemini
program is
followed by the
Apollo program,
culminating with
5 successful
landings on the
moon.
The Golden Age of TV
The most famous comedy show
(situation comedy) of the 1950s:
I Love Lucy starring
the husband and wife
team of Desi Arnaz
and Lucille Ball,
along with
Vivienne
Vance and
William
Frawley
Children’s shows included
Saturday shows such as Howdy
Doody
and weekday afternoon
shows such as the
Mickey Mouse Club
Afternoons also became a
time for teenage TV with Dick
Clark’s American Bandstand
The 1950s were also the age of the
prime time quiz show, until a cheating
scandal on
The $64,000.00
Question caused
people to question
the validity of TV
quiz, or game, shows
Did the producers
give Charles Van
Doren answers?
General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade
1947
Purpose: Expand international trade by
a mutual reduction of tariffs
World War II set the stage for
the Civil Rights Movement
New demand for African-American,
Latino and female workers
700,000 African-Americans served in
the military; many in combat
During the war, civil rights groups
actively campaigned for AfricanAmerican voting rights and challenged
Jim Crow laws
Roosevelt:
Executive Order
prohibiting racial
discrimination
by federal
agencies and by all
companies engaged in
war work.
1948: Truman signed an
Executive Order integrating
the armed forces.
1938: attorney (and future
first African-American
Supreme Court Justice)
Thurgood Marshall
begins a 23-year civil
rights legal struggle
National Association for
The Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP)
Won 29 of 32 Supreme
Court cases
Marshall’s most stunning
victory: May 17, 1954:
Brown v. Board of Education
of Topeka, KS
Oliver Brown, father of Linda Brown,
sued the Topeka Board of Education for
violating Linda’s rights by denying her
admission to an all-white elementary
school 4-blocks from her house. Rather,
the Board forced Linda to attend an
all-Black school 21 blocks away.
The Warren Court,
led by Chief Justice Earl
Warren, unanimously
decided in favor of Brown
(represented by Marshall),
thereby striking down
Plessy v Ferguson and all
segregation as
unconstitutional.
The Brown decision
immediately affected 12
million schoolchildren in 21 states
1955: Supreme Court handed
down a second Brown ruling:
ordered district courts to implement
school desegregation “with all deliberate
speed.”
President Eisenhower and Congress did
not enforce. Eisenhower believed you
could not force desegregation on people.
Congressional “Southern Manifesto:”
Southern Democrats denounced the
Brown decision and called on the states
to resist it “by all lawful means.”
September 1957: Arkansas
Governor Orval Faubus
ordered the Arkansas
National Guard to turn
away nine African-American
students who had
volunteered to integrate
Little Rock’s Central High
School.
That afternoon, a federal
judge ordered Faubus to
let the students into Central High
Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas
National Guard and sent in 1,000
members of the 101st Airborne Division
(Hooah!) to enforce the judge’s order
Later, Faubus closed Central
High to prevent continued
integration
Congress, under the
leadership of Senator
Lyndon B. Johnson,
passed the Civil Rights Act
of 1957, giving the Attorney
General of the United States
greater power over school
desegregation.
December 1, 1955, seamstress
Rosa Parks refused to give up
her seat to a white man on
a Montgomery, Alabama public bus
Parks passively
accepts arrest for
violating the Jim
Crow law.
News spreads
across the nation
Led by
26-year-old
Dr. Martin
Luther King,
Jr., AfricanAmericans
peacefully
boycott
Montgomery city buses for 381 days
December 1956: Supreme Court outlawed
bus segregation, in response to lawsuit
filed by boycotters. Dec. 21—Dr. King
rides in front seat of Montgomery bus.
Dr. King patterned his form
of nonviolent civil disobedience
after writings of Henry David Thoreau,
A. Philip Randolph, and Mohandas Gandhi
1957, King forms the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC) to
promote civil rights protests in the South.
1960, Ella Baker starts the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC) to try to motivate student protests
1961—Freedom Riders
take bus caravan from
Washington, D. C. to the South
Anniston, Alabama, one bus is firebombed
Other freedom
riders are
attacked by a
white mob and
beaten—police
refuse to
intervene