HIST 202 - Hesen
 February 1945
 Roosevelt, Churchill,
Stalin
 Germany would be
broken into zones
 Free elections
 United Nations would
be formed
 FDR Dies! – April 12, 1945
 Harry Truman takes the
helm
 Potsdam (July 1945)
 End the war with Japan
 Nuremburg Trials
 “Normalcy”
 15 million soldiers




return home
Hard to find jobs
People saved A LOT of
money
Great Depression is a
memory
Enjoyed high standard
of living
 Servicemen’s
Readjustment Act (1944)
 GI Bill
 Offered $ for college
 Low interest loans
 Segregated at first
 1950s Family Life
 People happy to be




home!!!
Increase in marriages
and births
Sex was looked at
differently
50 million births
between 1945-1960
Switched focus for
women
 Suburbs
 Outside cities
 Cheaper – better
transportation
 Cities life wasn’t
appealing
 William J. Levitt
 Levittowns…
 Employment Act of 1946
 Truman wanted to give




people benefits
Universal healthcare
Increase minimum wage
Congress did not approved
Only approved minimum
wage
 Office of Price
Administration (OPA)
 Kept prices and wages
fixed
 Price and wage fixing
caused inflation
 Inflation rose to nearly
25%
 Workers were unhappy
 United Mine Workers
strike (1946)
 Truman sent in Army
 Quelled strike
 Passed 22nd Amendment
(1951)
 President may only serve
two terms
 Truman’s Fair Deal
 Wanted to mirror
Progressive programs
 Much like FDR’s New
Deal
 Congress shot him down
 U.S. Soviet relations
strained:
 WWI
 Bolshevik Revolution
 Red Scare
 Stalin as dictator
 Truman was ALWAYS
suspicious of Stalin
 Non-aggression pact
w/Hitler
 Occupation zones set up in
Europe
 U.S.
 Soviet
 Other Allied powers
Winston Churchill’s “Iron
Curtain” Speech
Containment
Keep the Commies where
they are – don’t let them
spread
 Truman Doctrine (1947)
 $400 million in economic
aid to Greece and Turkey
 Marshall Plan (1948)
 Infused the European
economy with billions
 Communism won’t have a
chance to take over
 Berlin Airlift (June 1948)
 Berlin cut off by Soviets
 U.S. aids by dropping food
and rations
 North Korea invades South




Korea
Divides country along 38th
parallel
U.S. gets involved –
containment
Ends in stalemate
General Mac Arthur
criticized Truman
publically – “too soft on
Communism”
 House Un-American
Activities Committee
(HUAC)
 Hiss Case
 Whittaker Chambers
 “Pumpkin Papers”
 Alger Hiss
 The Rosenbergs
 Presumably spied for the
Russians
 Exceuted in 1953
 Joseph McCarthy
 Senator from Wisconsin
 Went after “radicals”
 McCarthyism
 Mutually Assured
Destruction (MAD)
 Militarism returns
 Between U.S. and
Soviets
 Search for the best ABomb
 Developed the H-Bomb
 Space Race
 Soviets launched
Sputnik in 1957
 Made Americans look
inferior
 U.S. placed emphasis on
math and science
 1959 – U-2 Incident
 Soviets shot down spy
plane
 Francis Gary Powers
 Escapism




TV
Advertising
Paperbacks
Corporate America
 The Organizational Man
 Critics – “beatniks”
 Women
 Return to duties at home
 The Common Sense Book
on Baby and Child Care
(1946) – Dr. Benjamin
Spock