Friday, March 7, 2008

Chapter 28 The Cold War (1945-1960)

Chapter 28: The Cold War and the American Dream 1945-1960
Section 1: Peacetime Adjustments and the Cold War
Main Idea: Americans looked for prosperity after World War II. They also fought
communism in the Cold War. Following World War II, many war industries reduced their work force. Meanwhile, more than 10 million returning war veterans were looking for work. Economists feared an economic slowdown, but instead, American factories began producing many consumer goods that had not been available during the war years. The nation’s economy boomed. Not everyone benefited from the postwar boom, though. Prices rose and workers demanded pay increases. In 1946, many workers went on strike for higher wages. African Americans were still excluded from prosperity and full equality. In 1948, Harry S. Truman won election as president. He soon presented Congress with a package of reforms called the Fair Deal. The Fair Deal called for new projects to create jobs, build public housing, and end racial discrimination. However, Congress passed few of his plans. After World War II, the United States and other western nations came into increasing conflict with the Communist Soviet Union. Western nations believed that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin intended to spread communism worldwide. Growing tensions between the United States and Soviet Union became known as the Cold War—a state of hostility but without armed action directly between the two nations. The Truman administration’s main Cold War strategy was a policy called containment, aimed at stopping the spread of communism. As part of this policy, the Truman Doctrine promised aid to people struggling against threats to democratic freedom. The United States and several western nations formed the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) as a defense against communism. In response, the Soviet Union and Eastern European nations formed the Warsaw Pact. The United States developed the Marshall Plan. Under this plan, the United States sent billions of dollars of aid to Europe to help those nations’ war torn economies. When the Soviets blockaded West Berlin in 1948, the United States and other nations airlifted food to the closed-off city until Stalin ended the blockade. During the 1950s, an anticommunist hysteria grew in the United States. The House Committee on Un-American Activities began targeting Americans for suspected communist activities.
Section 2: The Korean War and McCarthyism
Main Idea: The Cold War and the Korean War produced a far-reaching form of anticommunism. In 1949, the Communists took over China. Mao Zedong became head of the new Communist state. Many Americans feared that Communists were trying to rule the world. Soon, a battle over communism erupted in Korea. After World War II, Korea was divided along the 38th parallel, or line of latitude. A Communist government ruled North Korea. A non-communist government ruled South Korea. In June 1950, North Korean forces crossed into South Korea, beginning the conflict known as the Korean War. The United States entered the war along with other United Nations countries. The UN troops eventually pushed the North Koreans back across the 38th parallel. Then UN troops invaded North Korea. When the UN forces approached the border of China, the Chinese entered the war. The Chinese and North Koreans drove the UN troops back to South Korea. By 1951, the war had become a stalemate. During the 1952 presidential campaign, the Republican candidate was the World War II hero General Dwight D. Eisenhower. He promised to end the conflict in Korea and won a landslide victory.
A cease-fire ended the fighting in July 1953. Korea remained divided along the 38th
parallel. The North remained Communist. The South remained non-communist.
During the Korean War, anti-communism hysteria continued to grow at home. Fanning its flames was Joseph McCarthy, a Republican senator from Wisconsin. In 1950, McCarthy claimed he knew of many Communists working in the government. His claim launched a hunt for Communists that wrecked the careers of thousands of people. In the end, McCarthy’s charges proved false. In 1956, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles announced that the United States would go to the brink of war to combat communism. This approach was known as brinksmanship. The United States and the Soviet Union also entered an arms race. One of the more deadly weapons that each nation developed was the hydrogen bomb, or H-bomb. In 1957, the Soviets launched the world’s first space satellite. This meant that the Soviet Union had a missile powerful enough to reach the United States. American scientists raced to catch up, and Congress set aside billions for space research.
Section 3: The Fifties
Main Idea: While the United States was locked in a cold war, social and economic
changes took place in American life. During the 1950s, a growing number of citizens moved to the suburbs. However, not everyone prospered. In 1957, one out of every five Americans lived in poverty. President Eisenhower steered the nation down a middle course. He pleased business leaders and conservatives. He also kept most New Deal programs and agreed to expand social security. He even backed some new spending programs, which pleased moderates and liberals. During the 1950s, America’s population grew rapidly. This increase was mostly because of the baby boom, a sharp increase in the U.S. birthrate in the years following World War II. Throughout the 1950s, Americans moved from the North and East to the South and West. Many moved to the sunbelt, a region comprising the states of the South and Southwest. By the 1960s, California had passed New York as the nation’s most populous state. For millions of mainly white Americans, life in the suburbs was the American dream. They lived in affordable houses, sent their children to good schools, and filled their homes with modern appliances. Many critics worried that Americans were being forced to conform to suburban life. By 1960, nine out of ten households owned a television set. Rock ’n’ roll music also had become popular, attracting teenage listeners across the nation. In the mid-1950s, a group of writers known as beatniks protested what they saw as the shallowness and conformity of American society. The 1960 presidential election featured John F. Kennedy, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts. His Republican opponent was Richard M. Nixon, Eisenhower’s vice-president. Kennedy won the election—one of the closest in U.S. history. At age 43, Kennedy was the nation’s youngest elected president. He was also the first Catholic president. Kennedy had campaigned to “get this country moving again.”