Chapter Twenty-Six

Truman and the Cold War

1945-1952
Postwar America
 GI Bill – Help for Veterans
• Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944
– Loans for land
– Education
 Baby Boom
• 50 million babies born in five years (10 million
a year :P)
 Suburban Growth
• William J. Levitt
– Created Levittown
– Cheap houses in Long Island
– Many American towns became suburbs as well
 Rise of the Sunbelt
• ‘Sunbelt’ states
– Florida and California
• Millions of Americans moved
– This helped fund industry and people shifts, as
well as political power
Postwar Politics
Economic Program and Civil Rights
• Employment Act of 1946
– Created the Council of Economic Advisers
– Counseled the president and Congress on how to
improve the economy
• Inflammation and Strikes
– Office of Price Administration relaxed
– Inflation rose 25%
– 4.5 million people striked.
• Civil Rights
– Truman created the Committee on Civil Rights
– Fair Employment Practices Commission
 Republican Control of the Eightieth
Congress
• Twenty-Second amendment (1951)
– The presidency was limited to a max of 2 terms.
• The Taft-Hartley Act (1947)
– Workers were required to join a union before being
hired
– Could outlaw the union shop
– Outlawed secondary boycotts
– The president could call an 80 day cool off time before
national safety was considered to be endangered.
 Election of 1948
• State’s Rights Party (Dixiecrats)
– J. Strom Thurmond
• Republicans
– Thomas E. Dewey
• Democrats
– Truman
• Truman was victorious, surprising everyone
 The Fair Deal
• Proposed
– National health care insurance
– Federal aid to education
– Civil rights legislation
– Public housing funds
– New farm program
– Increase of minimum wage
• Most points shot down
– Truman had a conflict with congress, and foreign
policy that others disapproved of, lowering his voters
Origins of the Cold War
 US-Soviet Relations to 1945
• The US refused to recognized the Soviet Union until
1933
• Allies in WWII
– Alliance with the Soviets was a matter of convenience, not
trust.
• Satellite States in Europe
– SU had leverage in many surrounding countries
• Occupation Zones in Germany
– SU had control over east Germany, the US over west
• Iron Curtain
– Metaphor used to refer to Soviet satellite states
Containment in Europe
 The Truman Doctrine
• Truman’s containment policy came into effect:
– Communists were rebelling in Greece
– The Soviets demanded to have control over Turkey
 The Marshall Plan
• George Marshall
– $17 billion to European recovery
– $12 billion to Western Europe over 4 years
– Helped Europe become self-sufficient by the
1950’s
– Bolstered American economy
 The Berlin Airlift
• Soviets cut off all access to Berlin
• US planes flew supplies into Berlin, with
Atomic Bombs waiting in the wings
 NATO and National Security
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization
– Eisenhower designated as first supreme
commander
• National Security Act (1947)
– Created a Department of Defense
– Created the National Security Council
– Created the Central Intelligence Agency
• Atomic Weapons
– Arms race to develop the next bomb
Cold War In Asia
 Japan
• Under the control of the United States
• MacArthur was in charge
• Japanese generals tried and executed for war
crimes
• US-Japanese Security Treaty
– Japan gave up all land in Korea and other islands
 The Philippines and the Pacific
• The Philippines became independent
 The Korean War
• On June 25th, 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea
• After an amphibious landing in North Korea, the United
Nations destroyed North Korea’s army
• Truman vs. MacArthur
– MacArthur wanted to bomb North Korea, and Truman
refused. MacArthur pushed the issue, and Truman fired
him
• Political Consequences
– After the stalemate was reached in Korea, republicans
began to become dissatisfied with Truman, claiming he
was ‘too soft’ on Communism
The Second Red Scare
 Security and Civil Rights
• Prosecutions under the Smith Act
– Communists were thrown in prison
– Dennis et al. vs. United States
• Supreme Court upheld the Smith Act
• McCarran Internal Security Act (1950)
– Illegal to support communism
– Stopped citizens from traveling to communism
– Created internment camps for communists
• Un-American Activities
– Un-American Activities Committee
• Sniffed out communists
 Espionage Cases
• The Hiss Case
– Alger Hiss was an official in the State Department
– Convicted of perjury and imprisoned
• Rosenberg Case
– Found guilty and executed for treason
 The Rise of Joseph McCarthy
• Tactics
– Unsupported accusations
• Hearings
– Showed McCarthy as a bully
– The ‘Witch-hunt’ ended
– McCarthy died 3 years later
 Truman In Retirement
• Truman retired from office, and moved back
into Missouri
• In the next election, the republicans blamed
Truman for everything (Go figure)