Postwar Period
1945- 2001
Truman & the Beginning of the Cold War
Two leading superpowers: United States & Soviet Union
Major concerns: 1. survival of the belligerent countries 2.shape of the new postwar world &
new political alliances
Capitalism V. Communism
Power Struggle: Cold War  no actual combat
Hot “proxy” wars: Korea & Vietnam (fought by the U.S)
U.S & Russia never combatted each other.
U.S economy growing more dependent on EXPORTS & IMPORTS (metals)
1. Open Trade
2. Friends relations with nations providing metals
WWII actually exposed the U.S & S.U ideological differences  enemies for the next 40+
years
Truman & Foreign Policy
Differences between the 2 superpowers became vibrant when S.U refused to recognize
Poland  U.S supported Polish government (Poland sought refuge in G.B when Hitler
invaded)
Communist S.U took over Poland and within two years also took over Hungary and
Czechoslovakia
Propaganda  each government portrayed the other as wanted to conquer the world for
their own greedy purposes.
1947: Threat of the spread of communism into Greece & Turkey  England could no longer
prop-op nation  Truman asked congress for $400 million  Truman Doctrine
George Kennan  policy of containment (Long Telegram: sent from Germany to
Washington, 1946)
Prevent the spread of communism & encourage the Soviets to abandon aggressive
strategies
Continued…
U.S Method to gain alliances with other countries  give away money
Secretary of State George Marshall, Marshall Plan  >$12million to Europe to help rebuild
after war  countries became U.S allies  Offered to Eastern Europe & S.U but did not
participate  Stalin saw as U.S imperialism
1949: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)  Canada, U.S & other Western
European countries
Berlin: divided as Germany was in 1945  Western Allies planned to unify into one NONcommunist country  Soviet set up the Berlin blockade (1948) Berlin Airlift (after 1 yr.
S.U surrenders)  symbol of Cold War (dismantled in 1989)
Discovered that the Soviets also had an atomic bomb, detonated around the time NATO is
created/ U.S joins. National Security Council Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Spy networks and foreign affairs advisors to the U.S President
Continued…
Asia: Japan’s Reconstruction & Chinese Civil War
-U.S occupies Japan after WWII, divides it’s colonies (which included Korea)  U.S
took over Pacific Islands and southern Korean & USSR took over the northern
portion of Korea
-Japanese Constitution (General Douglas MacArthur)  democratized Japan
-China not so successful  20 yr. Civil War  U.S sides with Mao Zedong (fighting
the communist revolutionaries)  U.S eventually pulls it’s support to Zedong 
Communist take over  1/3 of world communist at this point
-French Indochina (Vietnam)  Truman aided the French  many not aware at this
time
McCarthyism
Anti-Communist paranoia spreads on the home front (Red Scare)
1947: Truman orders investigation of 3 million federal employees  searching “security
risks  previous associations with communists or with any “moral” weakness subject to
blackmail
1949: State Department official Alger Hiss  guilty of communist affiliations
(communist spy)  Richard Nixon (congress) responsible for bringing him down
Sparks paranoia of communists within our society
Senator Joseph McCarthy  ruthless accusations  the “so-called” list of 200
communists working in State Dept.  U.S Army  Edward R Murrow’s TV show airing
Army- McCarthy hearings  fall of McCarthyism
H.U.A.C (House of Un-American Affairs Committee)
Hollywood 10
Blacklists
Truman’s Domestic Policy & 1948 Election
Economy now has to mobilize back to a “peace-time” industry
Many businesses that produced war goods went out of business laid off employees  rise
in unemployment  there was also an inflation (20%)
Truman offers the Fair Deal in an attempt to assist the poor and unemployed  not passed
into law
Anti-unionism (Red Scare)  United Mine Workers went on strike  shut down energy
supplies to other industries  Truman: seizure of the mines & threatens a draft to railroad
strikers  Alliance formed against skyrocketing prices & frustrated about the unions 
Eightieth Congress (1946)  Republicans take over congress
Truman alienates many voters: Civil Rights Agenda  President’s Committee on Civil Rights 
goals: end to segregation, poll taxes, anti-lynching laws  issued executive order preventing
discrimination for government jobs & desegregated the Army
Galvanizes African Americans  NAACP wins initial/ important lawsuits  Jackie Robinson
(baseball)  form alliances with liberal white organizations  more political ground
Provokes scandalous racism  Democrats- “Dixiecrats” (South)  Strom Thurmond nominee
Continued…
Many Democratic populations against Truman’s civil rights tendencies – labor,
consumers & Southerners
Many believed Truman would be defeated in the 1948 election
Became popular with the Republicans with his harsh reactions/ responses to the labor
strikes  Conservatives passed the Taft-Harley Act (Truman vetoed)  prohibited
union only work environments, closed shops  restricted the right to strike, union
funds for political purposes, government broad powers to intervene in strikes  On
the other hand, Republicans rebuked Truman for his liberal tendencies  health care
reform, civil rights for blacks, farmers, elderly
Recalls former congress to enact platform  Congress does not pass a single law in 2
weeks  Truman campaigns and ridicules Congress as the “do-nothings”  Truman
wins re-election 1948
Korean War
North Korea (more than likely supported by USSR) invades South Korea  War
Truman decides to attempt to “reunify” Korea. U.S attack provokes China  China
enters war & pushes back U.S & South Korea to border
Douglas MacArthur recommends a full out war with China (to overthrow the
communist government)  Truman very hesitant & decides against MacArthur 
MacArthur publically criticized Truman  Truman fires MacArthur
War drags on for 2 years and ends once Eisenhower takes Presidency (1952)
1952: Dwight D. Eisenhower runs for office  war hero  very blunt although now
seen as integrity
Eisenhower Years (1953-1961)
Typical family life
Conformity  consensus of values reigns : “under God” in pledge & “In God We Trust” on
dollar bill.
Cause and Effect: G.I Bill of Rights (1944)  education, unemployment & housing
Many civil rights activist picked up from the advances of the 1940s  violent resistance
Beatniks
Rock ‘n’ Roll  Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis & Chuck Berry
Domestic Politics in the ‘50s
Sought to balance budget, cut federal spending and ease government regulation of
business  partly successful
Cold War forced Ike to spend more money on the military  reduced troops but
bought more powerful weaponry systems  New Look Army
Popularity of New Deal programs  difficult for Ike to eliminate deficit spending 
current circumstances forced Ike to increase the number of Social Security recipients
and their benefits
Interstate Highway System  initially to move soldiers & nuclear missiles around the
country easier –BUT-  promoted travel and tourism (Holiday Inn & Disneyland)
Most important domestic issues  Race
1953: Native Americans  termination  liquidate reservations & subject Native
Americans to state law  plan failed
Civil Rights Movements
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka  NAACP  Thurgood Marshall
Rosa Parks  Montgomery bus boycott  MLK Jr. Montgomery Improvement Assoc.
MLK: encouraged peaceful organizations  Greensboro, NC students follow MLK’s
advice  sit-ins  spread across the nation
U.S vs. Communism
Ike and the Cold War policies:
-Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles advised Ike to change the term
“containment” to “liberation” as it would make it sound more intimidating.
-U.S would eventually free Eastern Europe from USSR  Massive Retaliation
-Deterrence: fear of punishment  USSR feared massive retaliation and would
prevent them from challenging the U.S  arms race  “mutually assured
destruction” (MAD)
-Brinkmanship
- Domino Theory (South East Asia- Vietnam)
-Eisenhower Doctrine
Continued…
Cold War tensions remained high
Stalin dies in 1953 & Ike hoped would improve relations with U.S
Nikita Khrushchev offered hope  against Stalin’s totalitarian rule  peaceful coexistence
Poland and Hungary rebellions  U.S & USSR back as they were during Stalin era
USSR explodes H-Bomb a year after the U.S did, sends first satellite- Sputnik into space 
space race  National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Attempts to avoid war with China: Taiwan (U.S Ally) occupied Quemoy and Matsu close to
China  Brinkmanship: Ike declares that the U.S would defend the islands and hinted on a
nuclear attack on China  U.S troops stationed in the Taiwanese islands
In the next elections, JFK uses this issue against Ike too much $$ into defending the islands.
Third World Politics
After WWII, Europe’s huge oversees empires breakup  countries in Africa, Asia and
South America free from European rule
Did not ally themselves with either of the 2 superpowers  Third World
However, both superpowers very interested in bringing in third world countries into
their own influence  potential markets, raw materials good area to host military
bases
Third World Countries  Nationalism  enjoying new found freedom, not interested
in any interference with the superpowers  distrust
HOWEVER, U.S tries to expand it’s influence other ways: offer foreign aid  Egypt,
Aswan Dam  Gamal Nasser suspected this was a Western scheme  eventually turn
to USSR
CIA covert operations  forceful strategies of increasing influence in foreign countries
 newspaper briberies  overthrow Iran and Guatemalan governments to re replaced
with Pro-American governments  Bay of Pigs
1960 Presidential Election &
The Turbulent 60s
Richard Nixon V JFK
Eisenhower warned about new coalition that had grown from the Cold War 
military might and weapons  Vietnam War
Turbulent ‘60s
-JFK  entourage of the “best and brightest”  many Americans adored JFK 
offered hope for the domestic issues  New Frontier (poverty, racism & other
issues)
- 1969: U.S bitterly divided  Vietnam War & Civil Rights
JFK & Foreign Policy
Cuba  Fidel Castro (1959)  nationalizes over 3 million acres in Cuba owned by
Americans (also controlled the country’s electricity & phone service)  Cuba signs trade
treaty with USSR & depended on USSR for financial and military aid  Ike (while still in
office imposed a partial embargo and poorly planned an invasion  JFK inherits issue 
Bay of Pigs invasion (1961)
Berlin Wall
Cuban Missile Crisis  USSR missiles in Cuba  brinkmanship  blockade  forced
USSR to remove missiles  behind the scenes negotiations solved the crisis  seemed
as if U.S won  eventually removed our missiles from Turkey  “hot-line” for the
purpose of better communication between JFK and USSR is placed
Peace Corps  humanitarian programs  “assimilate” Third World country cultures
into anti-communists provided teachers, agricultural specialists, health care,
transportation  nation building
Many countries did not want American-style progress
JFK- Domestic Policy
Michael Harrington’s book  The Other America  Opens up JFK’s eyes (along with U.S
Society with how the poor were still living)  A book does it again!
New Frontier  unemployment benefits, expanded Social Security, bumped up the minimum
wage, aided distressed farmers
Women’s rights  Presidential committee 1963  remove all obstacles  Equal Pay Act
(1963)
September 1962  JFK enforced desegregation at the University of Mississippi  asked
Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act but was assassinated  LBJ was able to push through
congress in 1964
Active period for Civil Rights Movements  Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) ,
sit-ins boycotts & peaceful demonstrations 00> Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Freedom
Riders  Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), voter registrations – Freedom
Summer
Met with resistance  NAACP Director Medgar Evers murdered in 1963, Police brutality in
Montgomery, JFK’s assassination
LBJ’s Social Agenda
Took immediate action towards the Civil Rights issues
Civil Rights Act of 1964 BASES OF ALL DISCRIMINATION SUITS TO THIS DAY, most
comprehensive piece of civil rights legislation
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Great Society  LBJ’s social agenda, most sweeping change in U.S government since
the New Deal  War on Poverty
Economic Opportunity Act  $1billion in poverty relief
Project Head Start  education (Sesame Street)
Job Corps  vocational training
Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA)  domestic Peace Corps
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)  federal aid to low
income apt renters
Civil Rights Movements
1960’s number of substantial gains  Great Society  Governmental Support
Supreme Court victories under Chief Justice Earl Warren  Warren Court 
extremely liberal
Enforced voting rights for blacks
Withdraw congressional districts  more representation for minorities
Prayer prohibited in school
Rights of the accused  Gideon v. Wainwright  right to an attorney even if one
cannot afford it  Miranda v. Arizona
Strict opposition  police brutality, KKK, civilians supporting movements killed
New Radical Activist in the black community  Malcom X (Nation of Islam)  Black
Panthers  Black Power  SNCC & CORE  segregate themselves by eliminating
white supporters  MLK assassinated  violence breaks out
New Left, Feminism & Counterculture
New LeftYoung, white, college students- particularly men, made up the “New Left”
1962: Students for a Democratic Society- (SDS)  leftist political agenda
Port Huron Statement  Tom Hayden  manifesto; non-ideological call for participatory democracy
New Left: progressive groups. Called for the elimination of poverty, racism and Cold War Policies
University of California, Berkeley (1964)  Free Speech Movement
Colleges changed classes to cater to the members of the New Left
Did not include women  women became frustrated  second class citizens
Feminism –
1963: Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique
Challenged society’s assumptions of acceptable women’s roles
Credited for restarting the women’s movement (feminist movement)
National Organization for Women (NOW)  fought for legislative changes (“Equal” Rights
Amendment added to the constitution)
Feminism… Continued & Counterculture
Fought against discrimination in hiring, pay, college admissions and loans.
Reproductive rights  1965 Griswold v. Connecticut & 1973 Roe v. Wade
Gay Pride movements commence during this time too (1960s)  Stonewall Riots
Counterculture: “against mainstream”
Rebellion against “the establishment” (roots in 1950s)
Hippies  communes, long hair, ripped jeans, tie-dyed shirts, drug use, sexual revolution (designers
catered to the interest of the hippies & so did record companies…)
Music  lyrical weapons  Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, Rolling Stones
Woodstock
New Left, Feminists & Counterculture  huge divide in U.S society  Vietnam War
Other movements: Hispanics  Cesar Chavez  Table Grape Boycotts  United Farm Workers
Native Americans  National Indian Youth Council (NIYC, 1961)  preserving native fishing rights in
the Northwest  group expands to include civil rights issues (1968)  American Indian Movement
(Aim)  occupy Alcatraz  Seized the Bureau of Indian Affairs in D.C (long march from California to
Washington DC  Siege at Wounded nee
U.S Involvement in Vietnam
Truman Administration -1991: Cold War  U.S felt they had the right to intervene
anywhere communism was being spread (to protect U.S interests)
Vietnam  huge failure  divides the country unlike ever before since the Civil War
Origins – Series of events: WWII  French Colony (rice, rubber & metals)  fostered
resistance (Vietminh) led by Ho Chi Minh  lived in France  Treaty of Versailles
(1919)  Wilson’s fourteen points (self determination)  Ignored  Japan invades
Vietnam (WWII)  Vietnam and Allies united by common enemy  hoped for
independence Drafted their declaration of independence (U.S & French)  U.S
does not recognize independence (Bao Dai)  Vietnam & France fight war of
independence (1945-1954)  U.S funds 80 % of war (in favor of France) Battle of
Dien Bien Phu ends that war
Continued…
1954 – Geneva Accords  17th Parallel  Communist Forces get the North 
“democratic” forces get the South (pounced autonomous by Diem)  Division to last
only 2 yrs & free elections would be held  elections never took place  U.S breaks
agreement  U.S joins forces with Ngo Dinh Diem CIA organizes raids against the
North & hoped for communist retaliation  U.S forms SEATO (SouthEast Asia Treaty
Organization) with G.B, France, Thailand, Pakistan, Philippines, New Zealand &
Australia
Diem  tyrannical leader  imprisoned political enemies, persecuted Buddhist
monks, closed newspapers who publically opposed him  Many southerners joined
the North Vietnamese side (Vietcong)
U.S continued to support Diem  JFK sends in the Green Berets (advisors)  CIA
helps stages a coup but assassinates Diem and his brother  JFK killed that same
month  LBJ
U.S involvement in Vietnam (1964-68)
LBJ took office & had opportunity to withdraw
Advisers assured LBJ was winnable  LBJ committed to total victory
U.S didn’t care who ran the Vietnamese government, as long as not communist
U.S starts bombing Laos  N.V shipping weapons to Vietcong
1964 -Reports stated N.V had attacked U.S destroyer ships @ Gulf of Tonkin  LBJ/
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution floods Vietnam with U.S troops  “Americanization” 
Many men leave to escape the draft
Tet Offensive (1968)  Major turning point  Fighting strategies  Tigers v
Elephants  U.S felt lied to (opposition)
My Lai Massacre  opposition grows larger and angrier
1968  As a result, LBJ announces he will start making peace negotiations and that
he won’t run again in upcoming elections
Summer & Election of 1968
Eugene McCarthy, Robert (Bobby) Kennedy an Hubert Humphrey ran for the
Democratic ticket that year.
April 1968- MLK murdered  violence breaks out (riots) in over 150 towns  Kerner
Commission “separate AND unequal”
June 1968- Bobby Kennedy murdered Democratic Convention in Chicago 
violence  convention decides on Humphrey instead of the anti-war candidate
McCarthy  many anti-war democrats decide to vote Republican
Richard Nixon  promises to end U.S involvement in war
Third Party Nominee  George Wallace (pro-segregation  support of the South)
Nixon and Wallace  big threat from Humphrey
Very close election  Nixon wins
“Vietnamization” and Détente
Vietnamization  handing the war back to South Vietnam with as little support from
the U.S as possible
Began to withdraw troops BUT also increased bombing campaigns  Nixon was a
former war vet (WWII) and believed in using military power  the U.S MUST win
Cambodia  airstrikes and ground attacks  root out war supplies and the Vietcong
1973: Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger  Peace negations for a treaty with North
Vietnam
Nixon’s Success: USSR  increased trade with U.S, number of arms treaties. China 
U.S previously decided not to acknowledge China, Nixon travels to China and ease
tensions, leverage with USSR
Détente  eased tensions. Countries would respect others differences
Nixon Doctrine (1979)  U.S would withdraw it’s troops from several overseas
nations, relied on alliances with local governments to check on communism.
Nixon’s Domestic Policy
Successful with foreign Policy but not as successful with domestic  economy
worsened, stagflation  90 day price and wage freeze  efforts did not produce
their intended results
Politically: Society divided  both sides seen the other as an enemy of the American
Way  Kent State University, Ohio demonstration  four protestors killed  incident
is perfect example of the division of youth and middle America (older America)
Many continue to move to the suburbs due to the heightened crime in the urban area
1972: Nixon won re-election  one of the greatest landslide victories  against
Senator George McGovern  house was still Democratic
Watergate & Nixon’s Resignation
1971- Pentagon Papers are published  revealed numerous military miscalculations
and lies the government told the U.S public  Nixon fights to prevent publication
(nothing on Nixon on this tapes)  BUT afraid would destroy current credibility
Nixon grows more and more paranoid  investigators/ plumbers  Watergate Hotel
 arrested  White House begins to cover up the scandal
White House Tapes – executive privilege
The Washington Post  Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein (FBI  Deep Throat)
August 1974  Nixon resigns
Gerald Ford  Who had already replaced VP Spiro Agnew  pardon
Gerald Ford & Jimmy Carter Presidencies
Gerald Ford:
Selects Nelson Rockefeller as VP  first time neither President and VP elected by public
Not very popular/ bad credibility  pardon – deal with Nixon?  Weak economy – W.I.N
 Oil embargo – O.P.E.C  inflation + unemployment  media – Saturday Night Live,
Chevy Chase
1976- Jimmy Carter
Inherits weakening economy  inflation >10%  stagflation
Tries to balance budget, unable to.
Economic issues  OPEC oil  alternatives  Department of Energy – nuclear power
plants – Three Mile Island
High Point: Peace Agreement between Israel & Egypt
SALT II w. USSR  USSR invades Afghanistan  withdrawal of treaty
Sandinistas  supported until Sandinistas allied themselves w/ USSR & Cuba
Lowest Point: Iran Hostage situation
Born again Christian  support of the “conservative group”  1979 Jerry Falwell finds the
“moral majority”  Reagan’s target
Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton & G.W. Bush
1980-2001
**Neither DBQ nor FRQ (Parts B & C) deal exclusively with this periods – but expect to
see multiple choice questions.
Ronald Reagan:
Due to all the events in previous decades, U.S wanted to return to a more
conservative times  major change
Washington “outsider”  stressed positive aspects of America
Wins 1980 election by a landslide
Supply-side economics “Reaganomics”
Military Spending & Budget Deficits
Reduce the size of federal government  New Federalism  shift power from
national government to states
Increase military spending  S.D.I “Star Wars”  escalated arms race
Tax cuts, increased military spending  escalated federal budget deficit
Foreign Policy Under Reagan
Reagan sought to end the Cold War anyway and anywhere he could.
Supported anti-communist groups across the world  Grenade, Nicaragua “Contras”
Iran-Contra affair
Lebanon (240 marines killed)
Greatest success: U.S- USSR relations
Mikhail Gorbachev  perestroika (reform) & glasnost (openness)
USSR collapses & Fall of Berlin Wall (although happens after his presidency, it was
because of his diplomatic relations with the nation.
After his 2nd term, still had a very high approval rating
George H.W Bush
Moral majority had spoken  1988 election  progressive liberalism was destroyed
 “read my lips, no more taxes”
1990 – Saddam Hussein  invades Kuwait  oil  Persian Gulf War Operation
Desert Storm  U.S foreign policy would now focus on Middle East and on Human
Rights