CHAPTER 28

CHAPTER 28
Postwar America: Cold War Politics, Civil Rights, and the Baby Boom, 1945-1961

Chapter Summary
After the Second World War, the United States experienced an uneasy and troubled transition to peace. The Truman administration was plagued by postwar economic problems, and the administration’s handling of those problems led to widespread public discontent, which in turn led to Republican victory in the 1946 congressional elections. However, the actions of the conservative Eightieth Congress worked to Truman’s political advantage; and, to the surprise of most analysts, he won the presidential election of 1948.
During Truman’s first elected term, he and the American people had to contend with the domestic consequences of the Korean War. Although the war brought prosperity, it also brought inflation and increased defense spending at the expense of the domestic programs of Truman’s Fair Deal. Furthermore, both the nature and length of the Korean War led to disillusionment and discontent on the part of many Americans. These factors, coupled with reports of influence peddling in the Truman administration, caused the President’s approval rating to plummet and led to a Republican triumph in the presidential and congressional elections of 1952.
After a discussion of the Truman legacy, the authors turn to a discussion of the “age of consensus”—a period in which Americans agreed on their stance against communism and their faith in economic progress. Believing in the rightness of the American system, many people viewed reform and reformers in a negative light and saw conflict as the product of psychologically disturbed individuals, not as the product of societal ills. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, sharing these beliefs, actively pursued policies designed to promote economic growth and to defeat communism at home and abroad.
In pursuit of economic growth, Eisenhower tried to reduce federal spending and the federal government’s role in regulating the forces of the marketplace. Eisenhower’s farm policies reflected these efforts, and his belief that government should actively promote economic development may be seen in the St. Lawrence Seaway project, the president’s tax reform program, the Atomic Energy Act, and the Highway Act of 1956. Furthermore, Eisenhower’s conservative fiscal policy, as well as his states’ rights philosophy, may be seen in the Indian termination policy adopted during his administration. The authors relate these programs to Eisenhower’s frame of reference and study their impact on American society.
Despite Eisenhower’s fiscal conservatism, the administration’s activist foreign policy and three domestic economic recessions caused increased federal expenditures, decreased tax revenues, and deficit spending. As a result, Eisenhower oversaw only three balanced budgets during his eight years in office. The Sherman Adams scandal and large Democratic gains in the congressional elections of 1958, meant that a beleaguered Eisenhower was on the defensive during his last two years in office.
During the late 1940s and early 1950s, the United States also witnessed a wave of anti-Communist hysteria. The tracing of events from the Amerasia case to Truman’s loyalty probe, the Hiss trial, and the Klaus Fuchs case supports the view that (l) fear of communism, long present in American society, intensified during the postwar years; (2) the building of this fear in the late 1940s was in many ways a “top-down phenomenon”; (3) revelations gave people cause to be alarmed; and (4) McCarthy’s name has been given to a state of mind that existed before he entered the scene. Further discussion supports the characterization of McCarthy as a demagogue, the idea that McCarthyism was sustained by events, and the contention that anti-Communist measures received widespread support.
Eisenhower’s strong anti-Communist views are reflected in his broadening of the loyalty program, his actions in the Rosenberg case, and his support for the Communist Control Act of 1954. Furthermore, Eisenhower chose to avoid a direct confrontation with Senator Joe McCarthy. As a result, McCarthy proceeded to add more victims to his list of alleged subversives and continued to jeopardize freedom of speech and expression. Ultimately, McCarthyism did decline, with McCarthy himself being largely responsible for his own demise.
One group that challenged the consensus mood of the age was African Americans. Under Truman, the federal government, for the first time since Reconstruction, accepted responsibility for guaranteeing equality under the law—civil rights—to African Americans. Furthermore, work by the NAACP, aid by the Justice Department in the form of friend-of-the-court briefs, and decisions by the Supreme Court resulted in a slow erosion of the separate-but-equal doctrine and of black disfranchisement in the South. Then the Supreme Court’s historic decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka gave African Americans reason to believe that their long struggle against racism was beginning to pay off. However, white southerners reacted with hostility to that decision and actively resisted Court-ordered desegregation. This resistance led to the crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas, a crisis in which Eisenhower felt compelled to use federal troops to prevent violence in the desegregation of the city’s public schools. But the Little Rock crisis was merely the tip of an emerging civil rights movement as can be seen through the discussion of the Montgomery bus boycott, the formation of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the sit-in movement, and organization of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
After discussion of Cold War politics and the civil rights movement, we focus on the social and cultural development of American society between 1945 and 1961. This period is characterized by sustained economic growth and prosperity. One of the consequences of this prosperity was the “baby boom,” which fueled more economic growth. This increase in population was especially important to the automobile and construction industries, two of the cornerstones of the economic expansion during the period. The third cornerstone, military spending, was sustained by the government.
As many white middle-class Americans made more money, bought more goods, and created more waste, they also continued a mass migration to the Sunbelt that had begun during the war. In addition, Americans increasingly fled from the cities to the suburbs. Drawn to the suburbs by many factors, including a desire to be with like-minded people and the desire for “family togetherness,” life in suburbia was often made possible by government policies that extended economic aid to families making such a move. Federal, state, and local expenditures on highway construction also spurred the growth of suburbia and led to the development of the megalopolis. Although suburbia had its critics, most Americans seemed to prefer the lifestyle it offered.
Government aid also played a role in other developments that would have a momentous impact on American society. In the late 1940s, government aid to weapons research led to the development of the transistor, which brought the computer and technological revolution to American society. This revolution affected employment patterns, led to the third great merger wave (characterized by conglomerate mergers), and played a role in stabilizing union membership. Consolidation in industry was matched by consolidation in labor (the merging of the AFL and the CIO) and an acceleration of the trend toward bigness in American agriculture. As the cost of farm machinery, pesticides, fertilizer, and land soared, agribusiness presented more of a threat than ever to the family farm.
Economic growth inspired by government defense spending and by the growth of a more affluent population demanding more consumer goods and larger quantities of agricultural products had a negative impact on the environment. Automobiles and factories polluted the air. Human and industrial waste polluted rivers, lakes, and streams. Pesticides endangered wildlife and humans alike, as did the waste from nuclear processing plants. Disposable products marketed as conveniences made America a “throw-away society.”
As both education and religion gained importance in American life during the postwar years, Americans were also, paradoxically, caught up in the materialistic values and pleasures of the era. This fact is revealed through a discussion of the effects of television on American society during the postwar era. The postwar economic boom also affected the family. The changes it brought included the influence of Dr. Benjamin Spock on the parent-child relationship and the conflicting and changing roles of women as more entered the labor market.
After a discussion of the influence of the pioneering work of Dr. Alfred Kinsey in the late 1940s and early 1950s on American attitudes toward sexual behavior, we look at the emergence of a youth subculture, the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, the fads of the era, and the critique of American society offered by the Beat Generation of the 1950s.
Prosperity did not bring about a meaningful redistribution of income in American society during the period under study. Therefore, many Americans (about 25 percent in 1962) lived in poverty. The authors provide a statistical picture of America’s poor, who stood in decided contrast to the affluence around them. As before, the poor congregated in urban areas. African Americans, poor whites, Puerto Ricans, Chicanos, and Native Americans continued their movement to low-income inner-city housing, while the more affluent city residents—mostly whites—continued their exodus to the suburbs.
Within the context of a rapidly changing American society, Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy became the standard-bearers for the Republican and Democratic Parties in the presidential election contest of 1960. The chapter ends with a discussion of this election and the reasons for Kennedy’s victory.



Learning Objectives
1. Examine the domestic economic problems that faced the Truman administration during the immediate postwar period; explain Truman’s actions concerning those problems; and discuss the consequences of those actions.
2. Explain the actions of the Eightieth Congress concerning major domestic issues; and discuss the consequences of those actions.
3. Examine the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1948 presidential election.
4. Examine the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1952 congressional and presidential elections.
5. Discuss the legacy of the Truman years, and assess the Truman presidency.
6. Discuss the 1950s as an age of consensus and conformity, and explain the beliefs associated with this consensus mood.
7. Discuss the domestic issues facing the Eisenhower administration; explain and evaluate the administration’s handling of those issues; and discuss the consequences of those actions.
8. Discuss the legacy of the Eisenhower years, and assess the Eisenhower presidency.
9. Discuss the combination of forces and incidents that caused the postwar wave of anti-Communist hysteria, and examine the various ways in which this hysteria manifested itself.
10. Explain Senator Joseph McCarthy’s rise to power and his ultimate decline, and discuss the impact of the postwar wave of anti-Communist hysteria on American society.
11. Discuss the gains of African Americans during the late 1940s and early 1950s, and examine the factors responsible for those gains.
12. Examine the reinvigoration of the civil rights movement during the 1950s; discuss the response of white southerners and of the federal government to the demands and actions of African Americans; and explain the extent to which African Americans were successful in achieving their goals.
13. Discuss the reasons for and indicate the extent of the postwar baby boom.
14. Examine the cornerstones of the postwar economic boom, and discuss the causes and consequences of the computer revolution.
15. Examine the forces that contributed to the growth of the Sunbelt, the growth of the suburbs, and the emergence of the megalopolis during the postwar period; indicate the characteristics associated with suburban life; and discuss the criticisms leveled against suburbia.
16. Discuss the concentration of ownership in industry, and explain how the merger wave of the 1950s and 1960s differed from previous merger waves.
17. Discuss the characteristics of and the trends within the labor movement and agriculture from 1945 to 1970.
18. Discuss the impact of the postwar economic boom on the environment.
19. Discuss American concepts about education and American attitudes about religion and sex during the 1950s.
20. Discuss changes in the American family, the role of women, and the concept of motherhood during the 1950s and 1960s.
21. Explain the characteristics of each of the following, and discuss their impact on American society in the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s:
a. Television
b. Motion pictures
c. Popular music
d. Fads
e. the Beat writers

22. Examine the reasons for, extent of, and effects of poverty in America during the postwar era, and discuss the characteristics of the poor.
23. Examine the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1960 presidential election.



Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
During the 1940s and l950s, Americans shared a belief in anti-communism and in the importance of economic progress. This consensus lasted throughout the era despite growing social tensions.

II. Cold War Politics: The Truman Presidency
A. Postwar Job Layoffs
The war ended earlier than anticipated, preventing the government from developing an effective reconversion plan. Consequently, unemployment jumped markedly.
B. Beginnings of the Postwar Economic Boom
The economy rocketed on a 25 year boom.
C. Upsurges in Labor Strikes
Falling real income led many workers to go out on strike, particularly in 1946.
D. Consumer Discontent
Problems associated with lifting wartime price controls caused consumers to express discontent with Truman. However, the Republican-controlled Eightieth Congress offended many interest groups.
E. Truman’s Upset Victory
Republicans expressed great confidence during the election campaign, especially since the Democrats splintered at their convention. Nevertheless, Truman won.
F. Korean War Discontent on the Home Front
The Korean War sparked an inflationary spiral that led to a wage and price freeze in 1951. The war also led to an increase in draft calls and the size of the army.
G. Truman’s Historical Standing
Historians now recognize Truman as one of the nation’s greatest presidents.

III. Consensus and Conflict: the Eisenhower Presidency
A. The “Consensus Mood”
White Americans enjoyed a common optimism that the United States was the greatest nation on earth. Historians in the l950s saw conflict as an aberration, not a constant, in American history.
B. “Dynamic Conservatism”
Eisenhower pursued policies friendly to business, but he also recognized that dismantling New Deal and Fair Deal programs was politically impossible.
C. Termination Policy for Native Americans
Under Eisenhower, the federal government moved to limit its role in Indian affairs.
D. Election of 1956
Despite a heart attack in 1955, Eisenhower successfully ran for reelection.
E. Eisenhower Presidency Assessed
Eisenhower produced mixed results, but in recent years historians have judged him in a more favorable light.
F. The “Military Industrial Complex”
As he left the White House, Eisenhower warned the American people of the “military-industrial complex.”

IV. McCarthyism
A. Truman’s Loyalty Probe
In 1947, Truman ordered loyalty investigations of millions of federal workers.
B. Victims of Anti Communist Hysteria
Film personalities, homosexuals, and others suffered anti communist smears. Within many organizations, redbaiting was used by some to discredit the opposition.
C. Hiss Case
The House Committee on Un American Activities investigated a former State Department official, Alger Hiss, for his links to Communist spies.
D. McCarthy’s Attack on the State Department
When Senator Joseph McCarthy announced that Communists controlled the State Department, he started the hysteria that became known as McCarthyism.
E. Eisenhower’s Reluctance to Confront McCarthy
Eisenhower followed an indirect approach in dealing with McCarthyism.
F. Army McCarthy Hearings
McCarthy made a crucial error by accusing the Army of harboring Communists during televised Senate hearings.

V. The Civil Rights Movement in the 1940s and 1950s
A. AfricanAmericans Political “Balance of Power”
Black migrations to the North and West led to a shift in the political composition of those regions.
B. President Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights
The report of Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights shaped government policy for 20 years.
C. Supreme Court Decisions on Civil Rights
African Americans benefited from court decisions in the late 1940s.
D. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
In 1954, the Supreme Court declared segregated public schools unconstitutional.
E. White Resistance to Civil Rights
Eisenhower objected to a federal role in civil rights, thereby tacitly encouraging resistance to integration.
F. Crisis in Little Rock, Arkansas
When Arkansas tried to block integration of a Little Rock high school, Eisenhower intervened to force compliance.
G. Montgomery Bus Boycott
African Americans protested segregated public transportation in Montgomery, Alabama, by staging a massive boycott of the bus system.
H. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., led the bus boycott, beginning his leadership of the civil rights movement.
I. Sit Ins
In 1960, young African Americans began sit in demonstrations that marked a shift in the movement.
J. Civil Rights and the 1960 Election
Support for the Civil Rights Movement earned Kennedy the AfricanAmerican vote.

VI. The Postwar Booms: Babies, Business, and Bigness
A. The Affluent Society
Americans’ appetites for consumer goods increased. Easy credit was the economic basis of the consumer culture that emerged.
B. Increased Purchasing Power
Real per capita income increased among Americans, creating a boom that seemed to vindicate capitalism.
C. Baby Boom
The baby boom was both a cause and effect of prosperity. The highest birth rate in American history increased demand for houses and schools.
D. Housing Boom
Along with the baby boom, American families became more suburbanized, creating a greater demand for houses. Low interest GI mortgages and Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance helped many people afford homes. Contractors erected rows of houses in record times to facilitate this housing demand.

E. Highway Construction
The Highway Act of 1956 appropriated billions of dollars for the construction of a modern highway system. Federal expenditures on highways made formerly isolated rural areas accessible to average Americans, a development that hastened suburbanization and promoted uniform lifestyles across the nation.
F. Growth of the Suburbs
People left cities and moved to the suburbs for a variety of reasons.
G. Growth of the Sunbelt
Millions of Americans sought affluence by moving to the “Sunbelt,” the southern third of the United States. This mass migration increased the political clout of the area.
H. Military Spending
Military spending also helped the postwar American economy. Defense spending produced rapid increases in the electronics and “high tech” industries.
I. Conglomerate Mergers
Corporate expansion in the l950s took the form of conglomerate mergers, resulting in unprecedented concentration of industry.
J. Labor Merger
The labor movement also underwent mergers of major labor organizations. Unionized blue collar workers gained wage increases after the war, and they could lead middle class lifestyles previously reserved for the white collar workers.
K. Agribusiness
Consolidation and improved technology also drew large investment into agriculture, which brought the decline of the traditional family farm.
L. Environmental Costs
Development led to damage to the environment, but most Americans remained oblivious to the problems. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring alerted Americans to the dangers of DDT, one of the most damaging pesticides used by Americans. The government banned DDT in 1972.

VII. Conformity and Consumerism
A. Pressures in Education
American families became preoccupied with education, seeing success in school as a prerequisite for economic and social success. When the Soviets launched Sputnik I, education became a matter of national security.
B. Growth of Religion
Membership in religious congregations grew steadily in the 1950s.
C. Television Togetherness
The newest luxury item, television, transformed family life in America.
D. Women’s Conflicting Roles and Dilemmas
Although women were expected to be full-time housewives, women continued to enter the labor force. Dr. Benjamin Spock’s Baby and Child Care caused mothers to feel guilty if they did not always think of their children first.
E. Sexuality
Americans’ knowledge of their sexuality was not well advanced as demonstrated by the public outcry against Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female.
F. The Youth Subculture
The music industry catered to youth, and youngsters found subtle ways to rebel against social norms. Movies were successful because of the attendance of young Americans.

G. Beat Generation
Beat writers such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg rejected many of the social mores of the period. They concentrated on freewheeling sexuality and taking drugs, influencing an entire generation in the 1960s.

VIII. The Other America
A. Women
Because of occupational segregation, women constituted a disproportionate share of the poor. Women had little protection, and divorce, desertion, or widowhood often meant that women slipped into poverty.
B. The Inner Cities
By the early 1960s, one out of every four Americans lived in poverty. Most of the poor settled in cities, and African Americans made up the bulk of the urban poor. Mexican Americans became the second largest group of urban poor. Many of them came into the United States illegally, and they created barrios in several large cities. Native Americans were the nation’s poorest people. Accustomed to reservation life, many had great difficulty adjusting to life in the cities.
C. Rural Poverty
Tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and migratory farm workers often lived in poverty.

IX. The Election of 1960 and the Dawning of a New Decade
Young and charismatic, John Kennedy won the Democratic nomination in 1960. Kennedy defused the question of his Catholicism, courted the black vote, and convinced Americans that the Republicans had hurt America’s international standing.