Chapter 26

Theme: Backdoor Fear

• American Communities
  
• University of Washington, Seattle
  
• In 1948
  philosophy professor Melvin Rader was falsely accused of being a Communist conspirator.
  
• During the cold war era, the federal government was providing substantial support for higher education through the GI Bill.
  
• The student population at the University of Washington grew rapidly and a strong sense of community among the students grew, led by older, former soldiers.
  
• The Cold War put a damper on this community.
  
• Wild charges of communist subversion led several states to require state employees to take loyalty oaths.
  
• In this repressed atmosphere, faculty were dismissed, students dropped out of school, and the free speech was restrained on the campuses.
  

 

Global Insecurities at War's End

• During WWII, the United States and Soviet Union had temporarily put aside their differences in a common fight.
  
• Divergent interests made a continued alliance unlikely.
  
• Fears of the return of depression led the United States to take a much more active international stance.
  
  • (FDR set up the International Monetary Fund (IMF) & World Bank)
    
• The Soviet Union interpreted the aggressive American economic moves as a threat.
  
• FDR's realism allowed him to recognize that some kinds of spheres of influence were inevitable for the winning powers.
  
  • Stalin (picture)
    
  • Truman (picture)
    

 

Dividing Europe

• The Soviet Union lay in virtual economic ruins and had established military dominance over much of Eastern Europe, partially as a buffer zone.
  
• German had been temporarily divided into 4 occupation zones, but its long-term fate was unresolved.
  
• USSR had created a buffer zone with its bordering Western countries.
  
• The West grew increasingly restive over the Soviets' spheres of influence.
  
• UN formed in 1945; many hoped that a stronger United Nations would be the source for collective security that the League of Nations could not provide.
  
• Although the UN in its early years operated along lines of the Cold War, it proved effective at providing humanitarian relief. (Eleanor Roosevelt, one of 1^st dignitaries that went over to give aid.)
  
  • UN recognized 50 nations (5 permanently on the Security Council- US, GB, USSR, France, Nationalist China)
    
• Western nations allied with US and held the balance of power.
  

 

The Truman Doctrine

• While FDR favored diplomacy and compromise, Truman was committed to a get-tough policy with the Soviets.
  
  • Winston Churchill made a mention of the "iron curtain" (splitting off Russia from everyone else.)
    
• When civil war threatened the governments in Turkey and Greece, the United States warned of a communist coup and provided $400 million to defeat the rebels.
  
• The Truman Doctrine committed the United States to a policy of trying to contain Communism.
  

The Marshall Plan, Berlin Crisis, & NATO

• The Marshall Plan provided $13 billion to rebuild Europe.
  
  • (Introduced by George C. Marshal at comencment speech at Harvard.)
    
• The plan had the long-term impact of revitalizing the European capitalist economy and driving a further wedge between the West and Soviet Union.
  
• The gap widened when the western zones of Germany merged.
  
• When the Soviets cut off land access to West Berlin, the United States airlifted supplies to the city. (Berlin Airlift)
  
• The United States also created an alliance of anti-Soviet nations, NATO, and the Soviets responded with the Warsaw Pact.
  
• The East/West split seemed permanent.
  
• The American policy of containing Communism (Truman Doctrine) rested on the ability to stop its expansion by military means.
  
• After the Soviets developed nuclear weapons, both sides amassed lethal stockpiles. The U.S. and Soviets could not come up with a plan to control them. Within a few years both sides had a stockpile of hydrogen bombs.
  
  • (An H-Bomb would essentially take out the entire Western coast of the US.)
    
  • The rise of the bomb shelter.
    
  • (Picture- Berlin Airlift)
    
  • 
    

 

"To Err is Truman"

• The early years of the Truman presidency were plagued by protests by Americans tired of war-time sacrifices.
  
• An inability to bring troops home quickly or end rationing really hurt Truman's popularity. Inflation spread and strikes paralyzed the nation.
  
• Congress blocked Truman's plans for reconversion.
  
• In 1946, Republicans gained control of Congress and started to undo the New Deal. Over Truman's veto, Republicans passed the Taft-Hartley bill that curtailed the power of labor. (Also ratified the 2 term limit amendment.)
  

 

The 1948 Election

• Going into the 1948 election the liberal community was divided.
  
• Liberals feuded with Truman over how to extend the New Deal and the extent of the Soviet threat.
  
• Henry Wallace challenged Truman by running on the Progressive ticket, a campaign effectively quashed by red-baiting.
  
  • Red-baiting- accusing Wallace of being a Communist
    
• Truman repositioned himself to the left by warning voters that Republicans would make the United States "an economic colony of Wall Street."
  
• He also offered a liberal legislative package that Congress defeated.
  
• The Democrats split again over civil rights when segregationists ran Strom Thurmond (racist) for president.
  
• Truman managed to hold on to the New Deal coalition and won re-election.
  

 

The Fair Deal

• In 1949 he proposed a package of reforms, the Fair Deal.
  
• Truman said that everyone had a right to expect from our government a "fair deal."
  
• Truman won some gains in public housing, minimum wage and Social Security increases, but little else.
  
• Truman helped to define Cold War liberalism as promoting economic growth through expanded foreign trade and federal expenditures, chiefly defense.
  

 

The National Security Act of 1947

• A climate of fear developed after the war that the United States was the target of or had already fallen prey to subversive influences. (Pg. 791)
  
• The Cold War triggered a massive reordering of governmental power.
  
• Established under the National Security Act of 1947, the Defense Department became a huge and powerful bureaucracy. (Donald Rumsfeld- today)
  
• The Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation pursued scientific research, especially related to physics.
  
• New agencies like the CIA fed off the fear of communism.
  

 

The Loyalty-Security Program

• Allegedly to combat subversive influences, Truman promoted a loyalty program.
  
• The Attorney General published a list of potentially subversive organizations. (churches, groups, etc.)(McCarthy?)
  
• Many groups disbanded and prior membership in them destroyed individuals' careers. A wide range of restrictions on alleged subversives passed Congress.
  

 

The Red Scare in Hollywood

• The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) launched investigations into Communist influence in Hollywood.
  
• A parade of friendly witnesses denounced Communists. (writers being accussed)
  
• Many people gave names of suspect former friends so that they themselves would be cleared and able to work again. (survive)
  
• A few witnesses (many blacklisted later) attacked HUAC and a handful went to prison for contempt of Congress.
  

 

Spy Cases

• Public anxieties were heightened when former State Department advisor Alger Hiss was accused of being a Communist spy. ("Pumpkin Papers")
  
• Richard Nixon pursued the charges. ("Tricky Dick")
  
• Hiss went to jail for perjury.
  
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed despite worldwide protests. (Executed- killed, by the government for being communist- accused March 1951, killed June 1953)
  

 

McCarthyism

• Sen. Joseph McCarthy caused a sensation when he charged that 200 Communists worked for the State Department.
  
• His lack of evidence did not stop him from striking a chord with many Americans. (Homosexuals- easily swayed, Communist)
  
• He played into fears that Communism was a demonic force and that eastern elites had successfully manipulated the public.
  
• McCarthyism attacked Jews, blacks, women's organizations, and homosexuals. Effective use of the media made McCarthyism seem credible.
  
• McCarthy's crusade was destroyed when he went on national TV and appeared deranged, making wild charges of Communist infiltration of the army.
  
  • ("Good Night & Good Luck"- Media fight McCarthy had with Edward R. Murrow)
    

 

An Anxious Mood

• After World War II, millions of Americans achieved middle-class status.
  
• But prosperity did not dispel American anxiety over nuclear war and economic depression. (People moving out of cities, nuclear attack- small suburbs growing)
  
• Movies and plays reflected cold war anxieties and alienation as well as anti-communism.
  
  • ("The Best Years of Our Lives"-"Flags of Our Fathers"-"Body Snatchers"-"Death of a Salesman"-"Catcher in the Rye")
    
• The move to the suburbs, high levels of consumption, and even the rush towards marriage and parenthood illustrated these fears. (Baby boom)
  
• The baby boom and high consumer spending changed the middle-class family.
  
• To sustain support of larger families and high rates of consumer spending, a growing number of married, middle-class women sought employment.
  
• Commentators bemoaned the destruction of the traditional family that they linked to the threat of Communism. (Benjamin Spock- "let's be a nice family"- psychotherapy)
  
• High-profile experts weighed in with popular books and articles about the dangers of women who abandoned their housewife roles.
  

The conservative trend was also evident in declining numbers of woman college graduates.