CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Creating a National Security State, 1945-1949
A. Onset of the Cold War
1. Many historical interpretations
a. Traditional interpretation blames Soviets and asserts that U.S. had to take the hardest line possible
b. Revisionists fault US for not working harder to assuage Soviet security fears
c. Other scholars say assigning blame serves little or no purpose2. Role of Harry S. Truman was crucial
a. Sharp manner a real contrast to FDR’s conciliatory posture
b. Came to rely on hard-line advisers3. Atomic bomb was immediate source of Soviet-American friction
a. Baruch Plan, 1946
b. Would have required other nations to halt their programs while allowing US to keep its atomic monopoly until an international authority could be established
c. Soviets refused to go along4. US efforts to tie postwar economic aid to Soviet concessions in Eastern Europe
a. Failed miserably
b. Actually pushed Soviets to consolidate further their position in Eastern Europe, which they called defensive and which the Americans called proof of communist expansionism5. Administration focused on “national security” after 1947
B. Containment abroad: The Truman Doctrine, Mar 1947
1. Effort to combat communist insurgency in Greece
2. Tied US security to fate of “free peoples” everywhere
3. Congress approved $400 million in assistance to Greece and Turkey, most of it in military aid
4. Gave voice to policy of “containment”a. Guiding principle of US foreign policy during Cold War
b. Called for US action to counter specific moves by the Soviets
c. Catchphrase for global, anticommunist, national security policy5. Linked all leftist insurgencies to aggression directed from Moscow
C. Truman’s loyalty program, Mar 1947
1. Executive Order 9835 brought containment of communism to the home front
2. Instituted system of loyalty boards to investigate backgrounds and activities of federal employees
3. Looking for “security risks” within government workforce
4. Also authorized attorney general’s office to identify organizations it considered subversive
5. Stemmed from administration’s fear of Soviet espionage activity in the United Statesa. Extent of Soviet involvement hotly debated at the time
b. Were Soviets operating only on fringes, or had they penetrated highly into government?6. Recently released Venona documents revealed depth of Soviet penetration
a. Close ties between Moscow and Communist Party of the United States
b. Soviet informants in wartime governmental agencies
c. Soviets had begun gathering atomic information in 19447. Administration’s program generated much criticism
a. Some charged that it was too weak
b. Others that it violated civil liberties and did not distinguish between sensitive and nonsensitive workersD. The National Security Act, the Marshall Plan, and the Berlin Crisis
1. National Security Act of 1947 created several new bureaucracies
a. Defense Department
b. National Security Council
c. Air Force separate from Army and Navy
d. Central Intelligence Agency2. Marshall Plan of 1947 linked economic policies in Western Europe to containment
a. US funds would be used to help the Western European governments work together to design and carry out a broad program of postwar economic reconstruction
b. Entailed almost $13 billion between 1946 and 1951
c. Soviets invited but declined because they did not want to reveal details about their economy to the United States
d. Pushed Soviets to consolidate their own position in Eastern Europe
e. Stunning success, as it rebuilt and revitalized Western Europe3. Key to European recovery was stability in Germany
a. In June 1948, Britain, France, and the United States announced a plan for currency reform, a first step toward merging their zones of occupation
b. Soviets alarmed at prospect of revitalized Germany
c. Hoping to sidetrack Western plans, Soviets cut off highway, rail, and water access to West Berlin, which was located in their zone of occupation
d. Western allies responded with airlift to resupply West Berlin
e. Soviet blockade of Berlin failed and was abandoned in May 1949
f. Soviets created German Democratic Republic out of their zone
g. Two Germanys and the divided city of Berlin thereafter stood as symbols of Cold War divisionsE. The election of 1948
1. Concerns about national security helped Truman win election in 1948
2 Truman’s popularity had been sinking since 1946
3. Hard-line foreign policy stand attracted voters in 1948 election
4. Republican candidate was Thomas E. Dewey
5. States’ Rights Party candidate was Strom Thurmond
6. Progressive Party candidate was Henry A. Wallace
7. Truman conducted a vigorous campaign and ultimately won
8. Many voters remained loyal to the party of their hero, FDR
9. Truman attracted support because of his hard-line anticommunist foreign policy
II. The Korean War Era, 1949-1952
A. NATO, China, and the Bomb
1. In Apr 1949, US and 11 other nations formed North Atlantic Treaty Organization
a. Attack against one would be seen as attack against all
b. Cooperate on economic, political, and military matters
c. Generated opposition among some Americans
d. US joined other security pacts in 1950s2. Chinese Civil War, 1945-1949
a. US rendered extensive assistance to Jiang Jieshi’s Nationalist government
b. Truman refused to abandon Jiang because he was bulwark against communism
c. Communists forced Nationalist onto Formosa (Taiwan) in late 1949
d. Administration blamed for allowing “loss” of China
e. US refused to recognize or deal with “Red China” for more than two decades3. Soviets exploded a nuclear device in Sept 1949
a. End of US nuclear monopoly
b. Led to decision to build hydrogen bombB. NSC-68
1. Blueprint for both the rhetoric and the substance of future Cold War foreign policy
2. Predicted global struggle between US and Soviet Union
3. Urged full-scale offensive to enlarge US power for confrontation with Soviets
4. Endorsed covert action, economic pressure, propaganda campaigns, and a massive military buildup
5. Measures should be labeled as “defensive” and be presented as stimulus to economy rather than drain on national resourcesC. The Korean War
1. Dire warnings of NSC-68 seemed to be confirmed when communist North Korea attacked South Korea in June 1950
2. Administration saw as naked communist aggression, directed from Moscow
3. Korean situation, though, was partly a civil wara. Korea had been divided at 38th parallel after World War II
b. Soviet zone in north; US zone in south
c. Zones eventually became separate states, to dismay of the Korean people
d. Both sides hoped that the nation could one day be reunified
e. Attack was North’s effort to accelerate reunification under communist direction
f. Move had blessing of both China and the Soviet Union4. US took case of North’s aggression to UN and won approval for sending a peacekeeping force to Korea
5. US goals confused from start: push communists back above 38th parallel or reunify country under South’s leadership?
6. Initially, war went poorly for UN forces
7. Sept landing at Inchon, though, turned tide and forced communists to retreat northward
8. MacArthur decided to pursue the communist forces north of the 38th parallel
9. Resulted in intervention of the Chinese and push of UN forces back below 38th parallel
10. Truman wished to sue for peace after Chinese intervention, but MacArthur refused
11. MacArthur relieved of his command in Apr 1951
12. War stalemated thereafter and little progress made in peace talks
13. Republican presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower promised to go to Korea to hasten the peace process if elected
14. Eventual settlement pretty much along 38th parallelD. Korea and containment
1. War focused US policy more narrowly on anticommunism
2. Justified global offensive recommended in NSC-68
3. US laid plans to rearm Germany in 1951
4. Formal peace treaty with Japan and Japanese-American security pact
5. US acquired military bases around world
6. Began providing direct military aid to Latin America
7. Opposed nationalist insurgencies in Indochina and the Philippines
8. Dramatic increase in military budget
9. Real militarization of American life followed Korean War
10. General US opposition to all movements that were left-leaning in political orientation
11. US solidified ties with South Africa due to that nation’s rich stocks of important raw materials, especially uranium for bombs and manganese for steel
12. US moved rapidly during postwar period to stake out a global military and strategic presence
III. Containment at Home
A. Anticommunism and the labor movement
1. Militant strikes in postwar period for increased wages and a greater voice in workplace routines and production decisions
2. Truman took hard line against strikes, and they subsided
3. Labor unrest made unions a prominent target of anticommunist legislators
4. Labor-Management Relations (Taft-Hartley) Act, 1947a. Limited a union’s power to conduct boycotts
b. Reduced use of “closed shop” as way of influencing which workers could be hired
c. Prevented unions from calling strikes that president judged against national interest
d. Strengthened power of unions to control their own members
e. Required union leaders to swear that they were not members of the communist party or other “subversive” organizations5. Labor movement began policing itself and expelling radical members and whole unions
B. HUAC and the loyalty program
1. Anticommunists also scrutinized the entertainment industry
2. House Committee on Un-American Activities held hearings in 1947 to expose alleged communist infiltration in Hollywood
3. Ten producers, writers, and directors who refused to answer questions were sent to prison
4. Studio heads compiled blacklist of alleged subversives who could no longer work in the
entertainment industry
5. Alger Hiss affair catapulted Richard Nixon into national prominence
6. Involved low-level member of FDR’s administration who was alleged to have communist connections
7. Statute of limitations ran out on espionage charge, but convicted of perjury
8. FBI compiled dossiers on a wide range of allegedly subversive artists and intellectuals
9. McCarran-Walter Act (1952) limited immigration from areas outside northern and western EuropeC. Targeting difference
1. Crusade against communist influence also focused on homosexuals
2. Kinsey Report (1948) claimed that homosexual behavior could be found throughout American society
3. Gays and lesbians formed organizations to push for recognition of their legal rights
4. Presence of communists in gay rights movement and claim that homosexuals could be blackmailed by Soviet agents more easily than heterosexuals helped to link homosexuality with subversion
5. Connection between antihomosexual and anticommunist rhetoric developed
6. Homosexuality became an acceptable basis for denying people government employmentD. The “Great Fear”
1. Foreign policy setbacks in 1949 and 1950 renewed fears of spy rings and communists at work in the US government
2. Spy case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg became symbol of Cold War politicsa. Convicted of espionage and executed in 1953
b. Recently released documents paint pretty convincing picture of Julius’s guilt and suggest that Ethel may have known of his activities
c. Yet government did not prosecute all such cases, and certainly not with the zeal with which it went after the Rosenbergs3. Courts came to accept argument that the American Communist Party was the arm of an international conspiracy
4. Civil libertarians appealed to arguments about free speech and appeals to the First Amendment to protect the right of all groups, including the Communist Party, to say what they wished
5. Administration under fire for being soft on communism by 1950
6. McCarran Internal Security Act (1950) called for detaining, during times of national emergency, of all alleged subversives in special camps
7. Truman vetoed law, but was overriddenE. McCarthyism
1. Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy became biggest critic of Truman administration on anticommunist question
2. Claimed that hundreds of communists were working in State Department
3. Helped to explain foreign policy failures of Truman administration
4. Enjoyed support from Roman Catholic Church and prominent Republicans
IV. Truman’s Fair Deal
A. Postwar debate about role of government in society
1. Lingering support for FDR’s “Second Bill of Rights”
2. Many Americans called for expansive government powers and responsibilities
3. Others denounced big government as an unconstitutional intrusion into people’s private affairs
4. Significant opposition to social policymaking during Truman administrationB. The Employment Act of 1946 and the promise of economic growth
1. Full Employment Bill proposed in 1946
a. Would have empowered federal government to ensure employment for all citizens seeking work
b. To opponents, the word “full” resembled European socialism, or even communism2. Renamed Employment Act of 1946
a. Called for “maximum” employment, not “full”
b. Acknowledged that private enterprise, not government, bore primary responsibility for economic decision making
c. Created Council of Economic Advisers to help formulate long-range policy recommendations3. Administration came to see overall economic growth as the way to permanent prosperity
4. Increased defense spending fit in with containment policy abroad and provided domestic economic stimulusC. Shaping the Fair Deal
1. Outlined in Truman’s inaugural address in 1949
2. Extension of New Deal programs like Social Security and minimum wage laws
3. Enactment of civil rights and national health care legislation
4. Federal aid to education
5. Repeal of Taft-Hartley Act
6. Brannan plan for agricultural price supports
7. Substantial spending for public housing
8. Based on belief that enlarged domestic programs could be financed from economic growth
9. The more expansive (and expensive) Fair Deal proposals either failed or were scaled back
10. Ultimately focused on specific groups, such as veterans or older Americans, rather than on more extensive programsD. Civil rights
1. Truman supported the fight against racial discrimination more strongly than any previous president
2. Had appealed strongly to African American voters during campaign of 1948
3. Created commission on civil rights
4. Report, “To Secure These Rights,” called for sweeping government involvement in civil rightsa. Federal legislation against lynching
b. Special civil rights division within Department of Justice
c. Antidiscrimination initiatives in employment, housing, and public facilities
d. Desegregation of the military5. Truman endorsed efforts of Fair Employment Practices Commission to end racial discrimination in federal hiring
6. Justice Department began chipping away at separate but equal principle
V. A Changing Culture
A. Jackie Robinson and the baseball “color line”
1. Jackie Robinson became first African American in major league baseball in 1947
2. Other black players followed
3. Still, opportunities for managerial positions were few for African AmericansB. Suburban development
1. Levittown welcomed its first residents in Oct 1947
2. Featured mass-produced, affordable houses for the masses
3. Government aided purchasers through subsidized mortgages and low down payments
4. Mortgage interest could be deducted on federal income tax
5. Government, in effect, provided subsidy for building and lending industries and for homeowners
6. New suburbs provided greater privacy and more amenities than cities or older suburbs
7. Suburbs seen as ideal places in which to raise children
8. Postwar baby boom dramatically increased number of children in the country
9. Suburbs remained off-limits to blacksC. Allure and danger: Women on film
1. Film noir genre developed in 1940s and 1950s
2. Peeked into the dark corners of postwar America and hinted at deep-seated anxieties and fears
3. Most prominent characters were femmes fatales, beautiful but dangerous women who challenged the prevailing order
4. Developed a loyal audience among women
VI. From Truman to Eisenhower
A. The election of 1952
1. Democrats ran Adlai Stevenson
2. Republicans ran Dwight Eisenhower
3. Republican campaign based on equation “K1C2”: Korea, corruption, and communismB. The soldier-president
1. Eisenhower was career military man who had never before sought elective office
2. Generally perceived as a middle-of-the-road candidate
3. First military hero to gain the presidency since Ulysses S. Grant
4. Republican majority Congress was slim, though Eisenhower was elected by a wide margin
