STUDENTS!!!
You were given a copy of the article below. You were to read it. At the end of this post, you will find two (2) questions. Please respond to these questions in the comment section of this post. THIS WILL HELP YOU WITH YOUR JIM CROW ARTICLE.
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Trials of Racial Identity in 19th Century America
Author: Ariela Gross, University of Southern California
Full Time Count: 05:12
In 1857 Alexina Morrison, a slave in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana ran away from
her master and threw herself on the mercy of the jailer of the county jail, or the parish jail
as it is known in Louisiana. She told him that she had been kidnapped into slavery and
did not belong in slavery, and he believed her. He told the court later that she had blue
eyes and flaxen hair, and he believed that she was white and that she had been wrongly
enslaved. He took her home to live with his family, and introduced her into white
society. She slept in bed with his daughter and went to balls with the neighbors, and by
the time that her master came to Jefferson Parish to file his answer to her lawsuit at the
local court, she had won over the community to so such an extent that he appealed for a
change of venue. He said he had been surrounded by a lawless mob and that he feared for
his life.
Alexina Morrison's lawsuit went through three trials in Jefferson Parish,
Louisiana. She won the first trial, the second ended in a hung jury, and we don't know
what happened in the final appeal because it was right when the Louisiana Supreme
Court doors were closed by the occupying Union Army. But Alexina Morrison's case –
while surprising I think to many people today who don't know about such cases – was not
an uncommon occurrence in local courts across the South. From the beginning of the
Republic through the Civil War, similar cases happened after the Civil War as well and
even in the North. They were cases where the central issue that the witnesses and
litigants were discussing in a courtroom was whether someone was black or white or
Indian. What was their racial identity?
These questions should have been decided simply by statutes. Louisiana, like
many southern states, defined a Negro by statute as a person with at least one grandparent
of African origin. This is the kind of statute that was on the books in not only southern
but many northern states as well. But in practice, statutory rules about ancestry couldn't
decide someone's racial identify. In fact, the witnesses and the jury couldn't see the
ancestors and the person's blood when they're put in terms of blood, because in fact all
our blood is red. So these factors couldn't decide the case, and what really mattered at
trial was not only how a person appeared, but how he or she behaved and who he or she
associated with. In particular for men, it was whether they performed acts of citizenship
and for women whether they upheld honor and virtue, particularly sexual virtue. In
Alexina Morrison's case, people came in and talked about how she looked, how she
carried herself, and how she had appeared at balls. They said she must be white because
she slept with our daughter, we would have known. As one witness in the case said, a
Louisiana native knows African blood the way an alligator knows a storm is coming. So
they had this idea of racial common sense.
We know it when we see it, and we know it based on performance, not really on
biology. We know it in the way people perform their identity. Performance for men was
tied up in ideas about citizenship – so long that a man who could prove that he had voted,
he had mustered in the militia, and he had sat on a jury was a man who must be white.
Whiteness was defined through exercise of the rights of citizenship, and it seems like a
strange kind of circularity in order to claim rights of freedom you have to be white. You
have to show that you behave like a citizen. But that circularity made sense to
Antebellum southerners because they believed so deeply in that equation of whiteness
and citizenship. That, I think, is the legacy of these racial identity trials that we still have
to reckon with today and break that link between the idea of whiteness and fitness.
QUESTIONS
1. How were nineteenth century court cases about racial identity suppose to be decided? How were they actually decided?
2. What does the history of nineteenth-century racial-identity trials suggest about how Americans understood “Race” in that era? What were some of the historical consequences of nineteenth-century definitions of race?
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 31
Disaster and Détente: The Cold War, Vietnam, and the Third World, 1961-1989
Chapter Summary
Chapter 31 continues the survey of the Cold War, begun in Chapter 29, and carries the story from the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to the end of President Reagan’s term in 1989. As can be seen in the discussion of U.S. foreign policy during this period, the containment doctrine, formulated during the Truman administration, continued to be the guiding force behind American foreign policy from the Kennedy administration through the Reagan administration. Furthermore, the action-reaction relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union that was so much a part of the early Cold War persists into the 1961 to 1989 period.
In its quest for friends in the Third World and ultimate victory in the Cold War, the Kennedy administration adopted the goal of nation building, to be accomplished, for example, through the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps as well as through the techniques of counterinsurgency. Such methods perpetuated an idea that had long been part of American foreign policy: that other people cannot solve their own problems and that the American economic and governmental model can be transferred intact to other societies. Historian William Appleman Williams believed that such thinking led to “the tragedy of American diplomacy,” and historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., refers to it as “a ghastly illusion.” The idea is further evidenced in the CIA’s intervention in the Congo (Zaire) from 1960 to 1961 and in Brazil from 1962 to 1964.
Despite the strategic superiority of the United States over the Soviet Union in 1960, President Kennedy’s presidential campaign was based, in part, on the false premise that the Eisenhower administration had allowed a “missile gap” to develop between the United States and its arch-rival. Once elected, President Kennedy oversaw a significant military buildup based on the principle of “flexible response,” and his policies and actions in the field of foreign policy were shaped by his acceptance of the containment doctrine and his preference for a bold, interventionist foreign policy. His activist approach not only helped bring the world to the brink of nuclear disaster in the Cuban missile crisis but also led to a significant acceleration of the nuclear arms race—a trend that continued through the administration of Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson.
The authors trace the course of American involvement in Vietnam from deepening U.S. involvement during the Kennedy administration to the collapse of South Vietnam in April 1975. This discussion is based on the thesis that disaster befell the United States in Vietnam because of the U.S. belief that it had a right to influence the internal affairs of Third World countries. This theme runs through the discussion of United States involvement in Vietnam in several variations: the United States decision to sabotage the Geneva accords (see Chapter 29), United States support of the overthrow of the Diem regime, Johnson’s view of Vietnam as a “damn little pissant country,” the arrogance of power on the part of the United States, and Nixon’s “jugular diplomacy.”
Several subthemes remind us of the sources of the Cold War, discussed in Chapter 29. It is within this context that the authors state: “Overlooking the native roots of the nationalist rebellion against France, Washington officials took a globalist view of Vietnam, interpreting events through a Cold War lens.” And in a review of the material we find that the following sources of the Cold War discussed in Chapter 29 fit the war in Vietnam:
1. The unsettled international environment at the end of World War II encouraged competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. Empires were disintegrating (France’s attempt to reinstate its authority in Indochina ended in disaster at Dienbienphu); nations were being born (Ho Chi Minh attempted to create an independent Vietnam); and civil wars were raging within nations (the National Liberation Front emerged against Ngo Dinh Diem’s South Vietnamese regime).
2. United States fear of the Soviet system led to economic expansionism (the United States recognized Southeast Asia as an economic asset) and globalist diplomacy (Southeast Asia seemed vital to the defense of Japan and the Philippines).
3. United States officials exaggerated the Soviet threat because of their belief in a monolithic communist enemy bent on world revolution. (American presidents from Truman through Nixon failed to recognize the nationalist roots of the problem in Vietnam. Instead, they saw Ho Chi Minh as a Communist and Vietnam as an “Asian Berlin,” and they accepted the tenets of the domino theory.)
In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Americans began to debate its causes and consequences. Just as they had disagreed over the course and conduct of the war, they were now unable to reach any real consensus on its lessons for the nation.
Although a great deal of energy was expended on questions relating to the Vietnam War during Richard M. Nixon’s presidency, Nixon considered other foreign policy matters, especially the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, to be more important. In an attempt to create a global balance of power, Nixon and Henry Kissinger (Nixon’s national security adviser and later his secretary of state) adopted a “grand strategy.” By means of détente with the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, Nixon and Kissinger sought to achieve the same goals as those of the old containment doctrine, but through accommodation rather than confrontation. Despite détente, the United States still had to respond to crises rooted in instability. Nowhere was the fragility of world stability via the grand strategy more apparent than in the Middle East, where war again broke out between the Arab states and Israel in 1973. While the Soviet Union and the United States positioned themselves by putting their armed forces on alert, OPEC imposed an oil embargo against the United States. Kissinger was able to persuade the warring parties to agree to a cease-fire; OPEC ended its embargo; and, through “shuttle diplomacy,” Kissinger persuaded Egypt and Israel to agree to a United Nations peacekeeping force in the Sinai. But many problems remained, and the instability of the region continued to be a source of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union.
President Nixon believed, just as previous presidents had believed, in America’s right to influence the internal affairs of Third World countries. It was out of this belief and the concomitant belief that the United States should curb revolution and radicalism in the Third World, that Nixon accepted the Johnson Doctrine in Latin America, as evidenced by the overthrow of the Allende government in Chile.
As Nixon and Kissinger sought world order through the grand strategy, global economic issues highlighted the differences between the rich and poor nations of the world and heightened the animosity of Third World nations toward what they perceived to be the exploitive industrialized nations of the world. The United States, the richest nation on Earth, exports large quantities of goods to developing nations as well as importing raw materials from those nations. This important trade, along with America’s worldwide investments, in part explains the interventionist nature of United States foreign policy, a policy accepted and continued by Presidents Nixon and Gerald Ford, and by their foreign-policy overseer, Henry Kissinger. Therefore, during the Nixon-Ford-Kissinger years America’s global watch against forces that threatened its far-flung economic and strategic interests continued.
When Jimmy Carter assumed the presidency in 1977, he and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance at first pledged a new course for the United States. However, this course was challenged by Carter’s national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, by Democratic and Republican critics, and by the Soviet Union, which reacted in anger and fear to the human rights aspect of Carter’s policies. The Cold War seemed to have its own momentum. Despite the Carter administration’s successful negotiation of the SALT-II Treaty and its achievements in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, it was overwhelmed by critics at home, the Iranian hostage crisis, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The grain embargo, the 1980 Olympics boycott, and the Carter Doctrine all seemed more reminiscent of the containment doctrine and the sources of the Cold War than of a new course in American foreign policy. Furthermore, the excesses in which the United States had engaged in the past in its attempts to create stability, protect American economic interests, and contain the Communist threat rained down on the Carter administration in the form of the Iranian hostage crisis. In this crisis America’s missiles, submarines, tanks, and bombers ultimately meant nothing if the lives of the hostages were to be saved. But many Americans wished for a return to the immediate postwar world, a world in which the United States had a monopoly on economic and military power. In this spirit of nostalgia, the electorate chose Ronald Reagan as its president in the 1980 election.
Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980 marked a return to foreign-policy themes rooted in America’s past and reminiscent of the early days of the Cold War. As a result, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorated and arms talks between the two nations broke down. The questioning of U.S. intervention in Third World nations, so apparent in the immediate aftermath of the Vietnam disaster, was absent in the Reagan administration. Fearing communism, Reagan simplistically blamed unrest in the world on the Soviets, failed to see the local roots of problems, and formed alliances with antirevolutionary regimes, which tended to be unrepresentative. American relations with the Third World during the 1980s evoke memories of the sources of the Cold War, of the containment policy, and of attempts to protect American economic interests against the force of revolutionary nationalism. Therefore, in the name of protecting private American companies, the Reagan administration rejected the Law of the Sea Treaty. In the same vein, American policies toward El Salvador and Nicaragua recall phrases used to describe American policy in previous eras; and Reagan’s desire for victory rather than negotiation, seen especially in his policies toward Central America, brings to mind the early years of the Kennedy administration. However, since the Kennedy years the American people had been through the traumas of Vietnam and Watergate, and the power of Congress, relative to that of the president, had increased. Therefore, Congress in the mid-1980s was much more willing to play an active role in foreign policy decisions than it had been in the 1960s. But Congress, reflecting the debate among the American people over the nation’s policy toward Nicaragua, vacillated between ending aid to the contras in mid-1984 and again extending aid in 1986. During the period when aid was prohibited, the executive branch of the government, through the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency, acted to circumvent the will of Congress. These actions came to light in 1986 in the Iran-contra scandal, a scandal that deeply wounded Ronald Reagan’s ability to lead during his last two years in office.
From this discussion of the Iran-contra scandal, the authors turn their attention to continuing problems in the Middle East, the problem of terrorism against United States citizens and property, America’s ill-fated 1983 mission in Lebanon, and to a discussion of Congress’s ability to force the Reagan administration to alter its policy of “constructive engagement” toward South Africa. At the close of the 1980s major problems continued to face the United States in the Third World.
Public concern over the Reagan administration’s anti-Soviet stance and propensity toward confrontation led to international concern and to massive support for a freeze in the nuclear arms race. Public pressure, combined with other forces, led to a resumption of arms talks in 1985. In the same year Mikhail Gorbachev assumed power in the Soviet Union. Perhaps President Reagan was right when he said that he was “dropped into a grand historical moment,” because under Gorbachev’s leadership the Soviet Union undertook an ambitious domestic reform program and Soviet foreign policy underwent significant changes. These dramatic changes helped reduce international tensions and, in 1987, led to a Soviet-American agreement to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe.
Learning Objectives
1. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
2. Discuss Cuban-American relations from 1959 to October 1962; explain the causes, outcome, and consequences of the Cuban missile crisis, and evaluate President John Kennedy’s handling of the crisis.
3. Examine and evaluate the events and decisions that led to deepening United States involvement in Vietnam from 1961 to 1965.
4. Discuss the nature of the Vietnam War, the characteristics of American soldiers who served in the war, and the war’s impact on those soldiers.
5. Explain the factors that contributed to the emergence of anti-Vietnam War sentiment and protests within the United States.
6. Discuss the course of the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1975; explain the war’s impact on Southeast Asia and American society; and discuss the debate in the United States over the meaning of the American experience in Vietnam.
7. Explain the theories on which the Nixon-Kissinger “grand strategy” was based; examine and evaluate the policies and actions inspired by those theories; and examine the international crises and issues that placed the grand strategy in jeopardy.
8. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Carter administration.
9. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Reagan administration.
10. Discuss the activities that constituted the Iran-contra scandal, and explain the scandal’s impact on the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
Developing countries became entangled in Cold War diplomacy because both America and the Soviet Union wanted them as allies. The Third World altered the bipolar nature of the Cold War.
II. Kennedy’s Nation Building, Arms Buildup, and the Cuban Missile Crisis
A. Nation Building and Counterinsurgency
Based on the concept of nation building, the Kennedy administration initiated aid programs to help developing nations through the early states of nationhood. The concept of counterinsurgency was the tactic used to defeat revolutionaries in Third World countries friendly to the United States.
B. Military Expansion
John Kennedy vowed to improve the military, and his “flexible response” sought ways to fight any kind of war.
C. Berlin Wall
Kennedy rejected Soviet demands concerning Berlin, and he vowed to defend West Berlin. The Soviets responded by building the Berlin Wall to stop the flow of Eastern Germans into the more prosperous Western zone.
D. Bay of Pigs Invasion
Kennedy inherited the Bay of Pigs invasion plan, but he ordered that no Americans be directly involved. The April 1961 invasion was a disaster.
E. Cuban Missile Crisis
Russia provided military assistance to Cuba and placed nuclear missiles on the island. Discovery of these missiles in 1962 sparked a frightening episode of brinkmanship.
F. Kennedy’s Handling of the Crisis
Critics assert that Kennedy courted disaster in the way in which he handled the crisis.
G. Aftermath
The crisis led to some easing of Soviet American tensions. However, the Soviet pledge to catch up in the nuclear arms race increased tensions.
III. Johnson and Americanization of the War in Vietnam
A. Nuclear Proliferation Treaty
Johnson signed a non proliferation treaty in 1968, but Vietnam meant that Cold War tensions would continue.
B. Kennedy’s Legacy in Vietnam
Kennedy sent more than 16,000 advisors to Vietnam. Diem created problems because of his oppressive policies and his persecution of Buddhists. The CIA urged South Vietnamese officers to overthrow Diem, and they murdered him in 1963.
C. Tonkin Gulf Incident
Despite flimsy evidence of attacks on American ships, in 1964 Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution giving Lyndon Johnson authority to wage war on North Vietnam.
D. Bombing Campaigns in Laos and Vietnam
In 1964 stepped-up bombing of Laos. After the Vietcong attacked the American airfield at Pleiku, Johnson ordered Operation Rolling Thunder against North Vietnam.
E. Troop Strength
Johnson decided to increase U.S. ground forces in Vietnam in July 1965. U.S. troop strength peaked in 1969 at 543,400.
IV. Vietnam: Escalation, Carnage, and Protest
A. My Lai Massacre
A gruesome atrocity occurred at the village of My Lai, where Americans killed some 500 civilians.
B. American Soldiers in Vietnam
Many Americans in Vietnam just tried to survive their tours of duty in a brutal and inhospitable environment.
C. Growing Antiwar Sentiment
Protests at home grew along with the military escalation in Vietnam, but Johnson vowed to continue the war.
D. McNamara’s Doubts
McNamara became convinced that continued bombing would not win the war.
E. Tet Offensive
The Vietcong and North Vietnamese offensive in 1968 ended in an American victory, but many people came to believe that the war could not be won.
F. Dollar/Gold Crisis
Rampant deficit spending to finance the war caused Europeans to redeem dollars for gold, providing further pressure on the Johnson Administration to end the war.
G. Johnson’s Exit
On March 31, 1968, Johnson announced a halt to the bombing of most of North Vietnam, asked Hanoi to begin negotiations to end the war, and announced that he would not run for reelection.
V. Nixon, Vietnamization, and the Impact of America’s Longest War
A. Invasion of Cambodia
Richard Nixon announced that the United States would help those nations that helped themselves. In Southeast Asia this doctrine meant “Vietnamization” of the war by replacing Americans with South Vietnamese troops. In 1970 Nixon announced that American and South Vietnamese forces had entered Cambodia. This action sparked violent protests in the United States.
B. Cease Fire Agreement
In 1973, America and North Vietnam agreed to withdraw American troops, return POWs, account for MIAs, and recognize a role for the Vietcong in South Vietnam.
C. Costs of the Vietnam War
More than 58,000 Americans and a million and a half Vietnamese died in the war. The conflict cost the United States almost 200 billion dollars, and it delayed improved relations with other nations.
D. Debate over the Lessons of Vietnam
Hawks claimed the war taught that the military should be allowed a free hand; doves insisted that losing the war showed the dangers of an imperial presidency.
E. Vietnam Veterans
Post traumatic stress disorder plagued thousands of veterans, causing them fears and anxiety.
VI. Nixon, Kissinger, and Détente
A. SALT
Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger sought détente that would recognize Soviet American rivalry while creating cooperation through negotiations. The United States and the Soviets signed the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks treaties, which limited ABM systems for each nation to two sites and imposed a five year freeze on the offensive missiles each side could possess.
B. Opening to China
Nixon extended détente to the People’s Republic of China, and he made a historic trip there in 1972.
C. War in the Middle East
When Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in 1973, OPEC stopped oil shipments in an effort to gain American support for the Arabs.
D. Chile
Nixon plotted covert actions against Salvador Allende, while continuing to deny it.
E. Containing Radicalism in Africa
Nixon viewed the white minority governments in Rhodesia and South Africa as bulwarks against communist inspired radicalism.
F. United States in the World Economy
American interventionism reflected a dependence on raw materials from abroad and the importance of foreign investments. Threats to investments, materials, and markets made intervention appear to be a viable option.
G. Economic Competition with Japan
Economic relations with Japan deteriorated as an influx of Japanese imports caused the United States to suffer from an unfavorable balance of trade.
H. International Environmental Issues
In 1972 the U.S. participated in a U.N.-sponsored environmental conference in Stockholm, Sweden.
VII. Carter, Preventive Diplomacy, and a Reinvigorated Cold War
A. Carter’s Divided Administration
Jimmy Carter suffered from indecision and from squabbles among members of his administration, hampering his attempts to advance human rights.
B. SALT II
The SALT II Treaty further limited nuclear weapons, but the treaty stalled when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. In the Carter Doctrine, the President promised to defend the Persian Gulf militarily from any Soviet invasion.
C. Camp David Accords
Jimmy Carter helped ease tensions in the Middle East by negotiating an accord between Egypt and Israel.
D. Iranian Hostage Crisis
In 1979 Iranians stormed the embassy in Teheran and took a number of hostages. The United States unfroze Iranian assets and promised no further intervention in Iran in January 1981, and the hostages were released.
E. Panama Canal Treaties
Carter signed treaties with Panama that turned the Canal Zone over to Panama in the year 2000 and allowed the United States to defend the Canal Zone after that time.
VIII. The Ups and Downs of Reagan’s World
A. Law of the Sea Convention
The Reagan Doctrine announced that the United States would openly support all anti-Communist fighters. A supporter of free-market capitalism, Reagan rejected the 1982 United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea, which dealt with offshore resources. Furthermore, Reagan believed an intensive military buildup would thwart the Soviet threat.
B. Intervention in El Salvador
Reagan considered the revolution in El Salvador a case of communist aggression, and, citing the domino theory, he persuaded Congress to fund the government there.
C. Contra War in Nicaragua
Reagan, afraid of Nicaragua as a Soviet client, worked to topple the Sandinista regime. The CIA trained rebels, mined Nicaraguan harbors, and blew up merchant ships.
D. Iran Contra Scandal
The Reagan administration sold arms to Iran and sent the profits to anti Sandinista forces, in violation of the law.
E. U.S. Interests in the Middle East
The troubled Middle East was strategically and economically important to the U.S.
F. Crisis in Lebanon
Reagan sent troops to Lebanon, where a terrorist attack killed 241 American servicemen in Beirut in 1983.
G. South Africa
Reagan struggled with South Africa’s racist policy of apartheid. Because of public pressure, Congress passed economic restrictions against South Africa in 1986.
H. Third World Indebtedness
Indebtedness of Third World nations caused economic instability and political unrest throughout the Third World, and had an adverse economic impact on the United States
I. Debate over Nuclear Weapons
Reagan’s search for nuclear superiority sparked a worldwide debate and appeals for a freeze in the nuclear arms race. Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed that they should limit weapons but could not reach an accord because Reagan wanted the Strategic Defense Initiative.
J. Gorbachev’s Reforms
Gorbachev worked to modernize the Soviet economy and to liberalize the political system, which eased tensions.
Disaster and Détente: The Cold War, Vietnam, and the Third World, 1961-1989
Chapter Summary
Chapter 31 continues the survey of the Cold War, begun in Chapter 29, and carries the story from the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to the end of President Reagan’s term in 1989. As can be seen in the discussion of U.S. foreign policy during this period, the containment doctrine, formulated during the Truman administration, continued to be the guiding force behind American foreign policy from the Kennedy administration through the Reagan administration. Furthermore, the action-reaction relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union that was so much a part of the early Cold War persists into the 1961 to 1989 period.
In its quest for friends in the Third World and ultimate victory in the Cold War, the Kennedy administration adopted the goal of nation building, to be accomplished, for example, through the Alliance for Progress and the Peace Corps as well as through the techniques of counterinsurgency. Such methods perpetuated an idea that had long been part of American foreign policy: that other people cannot solve their own problems and that the American economic and governmental model can be transferred intact to other societies. Historian William Appleman Williams believed that such thinking led to “the tragedy of American diplomacy,” and historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., refers to it as “a ghastly illusion.” The idea is further evidenced in the CIA’s intervention in the Congo (Zaire) from 1960 to 1961 and in Brazil from 1962 to 1964.
Despite the strategic superiority of the United States over the Soviet Union in 1960, President Kennedy’s presidential campaign was based, in part, on the false premise that the Eisenhower administration had allowed a “missile gap” to develop between the United States and its arch-rival. Once elected, President Kennedy oversaw a significant military buildup based on the principle of “flexible response,” and his policies and actions in the field of foreign policy were shaped by his acceptance of the containment doctrine and his preference for a bold, interventionist foreign policy. His activist approach not only helped bring the world to the brink of nuclear disaster in the Cuban missile crisis but also led to a significant acceleration of the nuclear arms race—a trend that continued through the administration of Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson.
The authors trace the course of American involvement in Vietnam from deepening U.S. involvement during the Kennedy administration to the collapse of South Vietnam in April 1975. This discussion is based on the thesis that disaster befell the United States in Vietnam because of the U.S. belief that it had a right to influence the internal affairs of Third World countries. This theme runs through the discussion of United States involvement in Vietnam in several variations: the United States decision to sabotage the Geneva accords (see Chapter 29), United States support of the overthrow of the Diem regime, Johnson’s view of Vietnam as a “damn little pissant country,” the arrogance of power on the part of the United States, and Nixon’s “jugular diplomacy.”
Several subthemes remind us of the sources of the Cold War, discussed in Chapter 29. It is within this context that the authors state: “Overlooking the native roots of the nationalist rebellion against France, Washington officials took a globalist view of Vietnam, interpreting events through a Cold War lens.” And in a review of the material we find that the following sources of the Cold War discussed in Chapter 29 fit the war in Vietnam:
1. The unsettled international environment at the end of World War II encouraged competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. Empires were disintegrating (France’s attempt to reinstate its authority in Indochina ended in disaster at Dienbienphu); nations were being born (Ho Chi Minh attempted to create an independent Vietnam); and civil wars were raging within nations (the National Liberation Front emerged against Ngo Dinh Diem’s South Vietnamese regime).
2. United States fear of the Soviet system led to economic expansionism (the United States recognized Southeast Asia as an economic asset) and globalist diplomacy (Southeast Asia seemed vital to the defense of Japan and the Philippines).
3. United States officials exaggerated the Soviet threat because of their belief in a monolithic communist enemy bent on world revolution. (American presidents from Truman through Nixon failed to recognize the nationalist roots of the problem in Vietnam. Instead, they saw Ho Chi Minh as a Communist and Vietnam as an “Asian Berlin,” and they accepted the tenets of the domino theory.)
In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Americans began to debate its causes and consequences. Just as they had disagreed over the course and conduct of the war, they were now unable to reach any real consensus on its lessons for the nation.
Although a great deal of energy was expended on questions relating to the Vietnam War during Richard M. Nixon’s presidency, Nixon considered other foreign policy matters, especially the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union, to be more important. In an attempt to create a global balance of power, Nixon and Henry Kissinger (Nixon’s national security adviser and later his secretary of state) adopted a “grand strategy.” By means of détente with the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, Nixon and Kissinger sought to achieve the same goals as those of the old containment doctrine, but through accommodation rather than confrontation. Despite détente, the United States still had to respond to crises rooted in instability. Nowhere was the fragility of world stability via the grand strategy more apparent than in the Middle East, where war again broke out between the Arab states and Israel in 1973. While the Soviet Union and the United States positioned themselves by putting their armed forces on alert, OPEC imposed an oil embargo against the United States. Kissinger was able to persuade the warring parties to agree to a cease-fire; OPEC ended its embargo; and, through “shuttle diplomacy,” Kissinger persuaded Egypt and Israel to agree to a United Nations peacekeeping force in the Sinai. But many problems remained, and the instability of the region continued to be a source of tension between the United States and the Soviet Union.
President Nixon believed, just as previous presidents had believed, in America’s right to influence the internal affairs of Third World countries. It was out of this belief and the concomitant belief that the United States should curb revolution and radicalism in the Third World, that Nixon accepted the Johnson Doctrine in Latin America, as evidenced by the overthrow of the Allende government in Chile.
As Nixon and Kissinger sought world order through the grand strategy, global economic issues highlighted the differences between the rich and poor nations of the world and heightened the animosity of Third World nations toward what they perceived to be the exploitive industrialized nations of the world. The United States, the richest nation on Earth, exports large quantities of goods to developing nations as well as importing raw materials from those nations. This important trade, along with America’s worldwide investments, in part explains the interventionist nature of United States foreign policy, a policy accepted and continued by Presidents Nixon and Gerald Ford, and by their foreign-policy overseer, Henry Kissinger. Therefore, during the Nixon-Ford-Kissinger years America’s global watch against forces that threatened its far-flung economic and strategic interests continued.
When Jimmy Carter assumed the presidency in 1977, he and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance at first pledged a new course for the United States. However, this course was challenged by Carter’s national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, by Democratic and Republican critics, and by the Soviet Union, which reacted in anger and fear to the human rights aspect of Carter’s policies. The Cold War seemed to have its own momentum. Despite the Carter administration’s successful negotiation of the SALT-II Treaty and its achievements in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, it was overwhelmed by critics at home, the Iranian hostage crisis, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The grain embargo, the 1980 Olympics boycott, and the Carter Doctrine all seemed more reminiscent of the containment doctrine and the sources of the Cold War than of a new course in American foreign policy. Furthermore, the excesses in which the United States had engaged in the past in its attempts to create stability, protect American economic interests, and contain the Communist threat rained down on the Carter administration in the form of the Iranian hostage crisis. In this crisis America’s missiles, submarines, tanks, and bombers ultimately meant nothing if the lives of the hostages were to be saved. But many Americans wished for a return to the immediate postwar world, a world in which the United States had a monopoly on economic and military power. In this spirit of nostalgia, the electorate chose Ronald Reagan as its president in the 1980 election.
Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980 marked a return to foreign-policy themes rooted in America’s past and reminiscent of the early days of the Cold War. As a result, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorated and arms talks between the two nations broke down. The questioning of U.S. intervention in Third World nations, so apparent in the immediate aftermath of the Vietnam disaster, was absent in the Reagan administration. Fearing communism, Reagan simplistically blamed unrest in the world on the Soviets, failed to see the local roots of problems, and formed alliances with antirevolutionary regimes, which tended to be unrepresentative. American relations with the Third World during the 1980s evoke memories of the sources of the Cold War, of the containment policy, and of attempts to protect American economic interests against the force of revolutionary nationalism. Therefore, in the name of protecting private American companies, the Reagan administration rejected the Law of the Sea Treaty. In the same vein, American policies toward El Salvador and Nicaragua recall phrases used to describe American policy in previous eras; and Reagan’s desire for victory rather than negotiation, seen especially in his policies toward Central America, brings to mind the early years of the Kennedy administration. However, since the Kennedy years the American people had been through the traumas of Vietnam and Watergate, and the power of Congress, relative to that of the president, had increased. Therefore, Congress in the mid-1980s was much more willing to play an active role in foreign policy decisions than it had been in the 1960s. But Congress, reflecting the debate among the American people over the nation’s policy toward Nicaragua, vacillated between ending aid to the contras in mid-1984 and again extending aid in 1986. During the period when aid was prohibited, the executive branch of the government, through the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency, acted to circumvent the will of Congress. These actions came to light in 1986 in the Iran-contra scandal, a scandal that deeply wounded Ronald Reagan’s ability to lead during his last two years in office.
From this discussion of the Iran-contra scandal, the authors turn their attention to continuing problems in the Middle East, the problem of terrorism against United States citizens and property, America’s ill-fated 1983 mission in Lebanon, and to a discussion of Congress’s ability to force the Reagan administration to alter its policy of “constructive engagement” toward South Africa. At the close of the 1980s major problems continued to face the United States in the Third World.
Public concern over the Reagan administration’s anti-Soviet stance and propensity toward confrontation led to international concern and to massive support for a freeze in the nuclear arms race. Public pressure, combined with other forces, led to a resumption of arms talks in 1985. In the same year Mikhail Gorbachev assumed power in the Soviet Union. Perhaps President Reagan was right when he said that he was “dropped into a grand historical moment,” because under Gorbachev’s leadership the Soviet Union undertook an ambitious domestic reform program and Soviet foreign policy underwent significant changes. These dramatic changes helped reduce international tensions and, in 1987, led to a Soviet-American agreement to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Europe.
Learning Objectives
1. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
2. Discuss Cuban-American relations from 1959 to October 1962; explain the causes, outcome, and consequences of the Cuban missile crisis, and evaluate President John Kennedy’s handling of the crisis.
3. Examine and evaluate the events and decisions that led to deepening United States involvement in Vietnam from 1961 to 1965.
4. Discuss the nature of the Vietnam War, the characteristics of American soldiers who served in the war, and the war’s impact on those soldiers.
5. Explain the factors that contributed to the emergence of anti-Vietnam War sentiment and protests within the United States.
6. Discuss the course of the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1975; explain the war’s impact on Southeast Asia and American society; and discuss the debate in the United States over the meaning of the American experience in Vietnam.
7. Explain the theories on which the Nixon-Kissinger “grand strategy” was based; examine and evaluate the policies and actions inspired by those theories; and examine the international crises and issues that placed the grand strategy in jeopardy.
8. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Carter administration.
9. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Reagan administration.
10. Discuss the activities that constituted the Iran-contra scandal, and explain the scandal’s impact on the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
Developing countries became entangled in Cold War diplomacy because both America and the Soviet Union wanted them as allies. The Third World altered the bipolar nature of the Cold War.
II. Kennedy’s Nation Building, Arms Buildup, and the Cuban Missile Crisis
A. Nation Building and Counterinsurgency
Based on the concept of nation building, the Kennedy administration initiated aid programs to help developing nations through the early states of nationhood. The concept of counterinsurgency was the tactic used to defeat revolutionaries in Third World countries friendly to the United States.
B. Military Expansion
John Kennedy vowed to improve the military, and his “flexible response” sought ways to fight any kind of war.
C. Berlin Wall
Kennedy rejected Soviet demands concerning Berlin, and he vowed to defend West Berlin. The Soviets responded by building the Berlin Wall to stop the flow of Eastern Germans into the more prosperous Western zone.
D. Bay of Pigs Invasion
Kennedy inherited the Bay of Pigs invasion plan, but he ordered that no Americans be directly involved. The April 1961 invasion was a disaster.
E. Cuban Missile Crisis
Russia provided military assistance to Cuba and placed nuclear missiles on the island. Discovery of these missiles in 1962 sparked a frightening episode of brinkmanship.
F. Kennedy’s Handling of the Crisis
Critics assert that Kennedy courted disaster in the way in which he handled the crisis.
G. Aftermath
The crisis led to some easing of Soviet American tensions. However, the Soviet pledge to catch up in the nuclear arms race increased tensions.
III. Johnson and Americanization of the War in Vietnam
A. Nuclear Proliferation Treaty
Johnson signed a non proliferation treaty in 1968, but Vietnam meant that Cold War tensions would continue.
B. Kennedy’s Legacy in Vietnam
Kennedy sent more than 16,000 advisors to Vietnam. Diem created problems because of his oppressive policies and his persecution of Buddhists. The CIA urged South Vietnamese officers to overthrow Diem, and they murdered him in 1963.
C. Tonkin Gulf Incident
Despite flimsy evidence of attacks on American ships, in 1964 Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution giving Lyndon Johnson authority to wage war on North Vietnam.
D. Bombing Campaigns in Laos and Vietnam
In 1964 stepped-up bombing of Laos. After the Vietcong attacked the American airfield at Pleiku, Johnson ordered Operation Rolling Thunder against North Vietnam.
E. Troop Strength
Johnson decided to increase U.S. ground forces in Vietnam in July 1965. U.S. troop strength peaked in 1969 at 543,400.
IV. Vietnam: Escalation, Carnage, and Protest
A. My Lai Massacre
A gruesome atrocity occurred at the village of My Lai, where Americans killed some 500 civilians.
B. American Soldiers in Vietnam
Many Americans in Vietnam just tried to survive their tours of duty in a brutal and inhospitable environment.
C. Growing Antiwar Sentiment
Protests at home grew along with the military escalation in Vietnam, but Johnson vowed to continue the war.
D. McNamara’s Doubts
McNamara became convinced that continued bombing would not win the war.
E. Tet Offensive
The Vietcong and North Vietnamese offensive in 1968 ended in an American victory, but many people came to believe that the war could not be won.
F. Dollar/Gold Crisis
Rampant deficit spending to finance the war caused Europeans to redeem dollars for gold, providing further pressure on the Johnson Administration to end the war.
G. Johnson’s Exit
On March 31, 1968, Johnson announced a halt to the bombing of most of North Vietnam, asked Hanoi to begin negotiations to end the war, and announced that he would not run for reelection.
V. Nixon, Vietnamization, and the Impact of America’s Longest War
A. Invasion of Cambodia
Richard Nixon announced that the United States would help those nations that helped themselves. In Southeast Asia this doctrine meant “Vietnamization” of the war by replacing Americans with South Vietnamese troops. In 1970 Nixon announced that American and South Vietnamese forces had entered Cambodia. This action sparked violent protests in the United States.
B. Cease Fire Agreement
In 1973, America and North Vietnam agreed to withdraw American troops, return POWs, account for MIAs, and recognize a role for the Vietcong in South Vietnam.
C. Costs of the Vietnam War
More than 58,000 Americans and a million and a half Vietnamese died in the war. The conflict cost the United States almost 200 billion dollars, and it delayed improved relations with other nations.
D. Debate over the Lessons of Vietnam
Hawks claimed the war taught that the military should be allowed a free hand; doves insisted that losing the war showed the dangers of an imperial presidency.
E. Vietnam Veterans
Post traumatic stress disorder plagued thousands of veterans, causing them fears and anxiety.
VI. Nixon, Kissinger, and Détente
A. SALT
Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger sought détente that would recognize Soviet American rivalry while creating cooperation through negotiations. The United States and the Soviets signed the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks treaties, which limited ABM systems for each nation to two sites and imposed a five year freeze on the offensive missiles each side could possess.
B. Opening to China
Nixon extended détente to the People’s Republic of China, and he made a historic trip there in 1972.
C. War in the Middle East
When Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in 1973, OPEC stopped oil shipments in an effort to gain American support for the Arabs.
D. Chile
Nixon plotted covert actions against Salvador Allende, while continuing to deny it.
E. Containing Radicalism in Africa
Nixon viewed the white minority governments in Rhodesia and South Africa as bulwarks against communist inspired radicalism.
F. United States in the World Economy
American interventionism reflected a dependence on raw materials from abroad and the importance of foreign investments. Threats to investments, materials, and markets made intervention appear to be a viable option.
G. Economic Competition with Japan
Economic relations with Japan deteriorated as an influx of Japanese imports caused the United States to suffer from an unfavorable balance of trade.
H. International Environmental Issues
In 1972 the U.S. participated in a U.N.-sponsored environmental conference in Stockholm, Sweden.
VII. Carter, Preventive Diplomacy, and a Reinvigorated Cold War
A. Carter’s Divided Administration
Jimmy Carter suffered from indecision and from squabbles among members of his administration, hampering his attempts to advance human rights.
B. SALT II
The SALT II Treaty further limited nuclear weapons, but the treaty stalled when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. In the Carter Doctrine, the President promised to defend the Persian Gulf militarily from any Soviet invasion.
C. Camp David Accords
Jimmy Carter helped ease tensions in the Middle East by negotiating an accord between Egypt and Israel.
D. Iranian Hostage Crisis
In 1979 Iranians stormed the embassy in Teheran and took a number of hostages. The United States unfroze Iranian assets and promised no further intervention in Iran in January 1981, and the hostages were released.
E. Panama Canal Treaties
Carter signed treaties with Panama that turned the Canal Zone over to Panama in the year 2000 and allowed the United States to defend the Canal Zone after that time.
VIII. The Ups and Downs of Reagan’s World
A. Law of the Sea Convention
The Reagan Doctrine announced that the United States would openly support all anti-Communist fighters. A supporter of free-market capitalism, Reagan rejected the 1982 United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea, which dealt with offshore resources. Furthermore, Reagan believed an intensive military buildup would thwart the Soviet threat.
B. Intervention in El Salvador
Reagan considered the revolution in El Salvador a case of communist aggression, and, citing the domino theory, he persuaded Congress to fund the government there.
C. Contra War in Nicaragua
Reagan, afraid of Nicaragua as a Soviet client, worked to topple the Sandinista regime. The CIA trained rebels, mined Nicaraguan harbors, and blew up merchant ships.
D. Iran Contra Scandal
The Reagan administration sold arms to Iran and sent the profits to anti Sandinista forces, in violation of the law.
E. U.S. Interests in the Middle East
The troubled Middle East was strategically and economically important to the U.S.
F. Crisis in Lebanon
Reagan sent troops to Lebanon, where a terrorist attack killed 241 American servicemen in Beirut in 1983.
G. South Africa
Reagan struggled with South Africa’s racist policy of apartheid. Because of public pressure, Congress passed economic restrictions against South Africa in 1986.
H. Third World Indebtedness
Indebtedness of Third World nations caused economic instability and political unrest throughout the Third World, and had an adverse economic impact on the United States
I. Debate over Nuclear Weapons
Reagan’s search for nuclear superiority sparked a worldwide debate and appeals for a freeze in the nuclear arms race. Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed that they should limit weapons but could not reach an accord because Reagan wanted the Strategic Defense Initiative.
J. Gorbachev’s Reforms
Gorbachev worked to modernize the Soviet economy and to liberalize the political system, which eased tensions.
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 30
Reform and Conflict At Home:
A Turbulent Era, 1961-1974
Chapter Summary
In Chapter 30, we examine the crises that engulfed American society during the 1960s and early 1970s. As we learn from the first section, “Civil Rights and the New Frontier,” the New Frontier was overly ambitious in light of the political distance between the new president’s liberal agenda and a Congress dominated by a conservative coalition. When he attempted to deal with this conservative coalition, Kennedy at first failed to press forward on civil rights issues. At this point, violence began to have an impact on developments. In the face of violent challenges from southern segregationists to an expanding black civil-rights movement, the Kennedy administration gradually committed itself to a decisive stand in favor of black equality. But only because of continuing racial violence and Kennedy’s assassination did Congress finally pass civil rights legislation.
The section “The Great Society and the Triumph of Liberalism” covers the legislative accomplishments of the Johnson administration—the most sweeping reform legislation since 1935. This legislation comprised the Civil Rights Act of 1964, establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and legislation associated with Johnson’s War on Poverty. The authors look closely at the legislation that constituted the War on Poverty and discuss the problems and successes of this program.
The liberal decisions rendered by the Supreme Court during the 1960s and early 1970s matched the liberalism reflected in the progressive legislation of the Johnson years. The authors examine these rulings, the aspects of American life and American society they affected, and the praise and criticisms they evoked.
As the three branches of the federal government slowly began to deal with such long-standing American problems as poverty and minority rights, frustrations that had built up over generations of inaction manifested themselves. Events convinced civil-rights activists in the South that the “power structure” in American society was not to be trusted. Northern blacks began to reach the same conclusions. Both the civil-rights movement and Johnson’s antipoverty programs had offered African Americans hope for a better day in American society. However, as discussion of the social, economic, and political plight of urban blacks reveals, that hope had not been fulfilled. Among other factors, unfulfilled expectations and the continued display of wealth and possessions in the consumer-oriented American society led to the urban riots of the 1960s. Militant black leaders gained prominence and questioned Martin Luther King’s philosophy of nonviolence as well as his goal of integration. Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, and the Black Panther Party called for “black power” within the context of black nationalism.
Along with this revolution of rising expectations among blacks, some whites involved in the civil rights movement began to become disillusioned with American society. Although their disillusionment stemmed from different sources than that of blacks, it led to the political and social activism associated with the New Left and the counterculture. The authors discuss the emergence, characteristics, and goals of both of these groups as well as the reaction of the middle class to their attacks on traditional values. In addition, the activism of blacks, the New Left and counterculture, and women gave rise to gay activism and to the gay rights movement. As the Vietnam War escalated and the New Left and the counterculture found common cause in their antiwar stance, the middle class became more and more convinced that traditional society was under siege.
The forces of frustration, rage, and anger born of racism, sexism, poverty, disillusionment, materialism, and the revolution of rising expectations practically ripped America apart in the tumult of 1968. After explaining the events of that year, the authors discuss the emergence, characteristics, and goals of both moderate and radical feminists. They also examine the problems encountered by many working women in the 1960s and note gains made by women against sexism in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Continuation of chaos into the 1970s convinced President Nixon and many Americans that society was on the verge of anarchy. Nixon attempted to use the perceived danger to his political advantage by portraying critics, including the Democratic opposition, as Communist pawns and enemies of American society. These tactics gained Nixon little in the 1970 congressional elections, and publication of the Pentagon Papers fostered more distrust of government. As Nixon prepared for the 1972 presidential election, he turned to Keynesian economics to deal with the country’s economic problems and opened relations with the People’s Republic of China.
In “Nixon’s Reelection and Resignation,” the authors first examine the factors that contributed to Nixon’s landslide victory in the 1972 election. These factors include the “southern strategy,” Nixon’s success in associating the Democratic Party with groups and movements that threatened traditional values, the nature of George McGovern’s campaign, and division within the Democratic Party. Even though the voters overwhelmingly chose to return Nixon to the White House in 1972, they also chose to leave both houses of Congress in the hands of the Democrats.
Unfortunately, Nixon’s landslide victory did not guarantee an end to the crisis atmosphere that had plagued the nation since the late 1960s. The Watergate scandal caused more disillusionment with government and increased the somber mood of the people, for it involved a series of illegal activities approved at the highest level of American government. Some of these activities, such as the break-in at Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office, had been undertaken to discredit political opponents; others, such as the paying of hush money to witnesses, were part of an elaborate cover-up.
Beyond the illegal actions, the Watergate scandal was a constitutional crisis; the “imperial presidency” threatened the balance-of-power concept embodied in the Constitution and the guarantees of individual rights embodied in the Bill of Rights. We see the constitutional nature of the crisis in the clash between the executive and judicial branches of government, the impeachment hearings undertaken by the House Judiciary Committee, and ultimately the resignation of the president. Unlike the scandals of previous administrations, the activities linked to Watergate were aimed not at financial gain but at monopolizing political power. After citing the events associated with Watergate, the authors outline and briefly evaluate congressional attempts to correct the abuses associated with the scandal.
Learning Objectives
1. Discuss John F. Kennedy’s personal and political background; examine the goals and accomplishments of the Kennedy administration, and evaluate the legacy of the Kennedy presidency.
2. Discuss John F. Kennedy’s assassination and its impact on American society.
3. Examine the goals and accomplishments of the Johnson administration, and evaluate the legacy of the Johnson presidency.
4. Discuss the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1964 congressional and presidential elections.
5. Discuss the major rulings of the Warren Court, and explain the impact of these rulings on American life and society.
6. Discuss the accomplishments and failures of the black search for equality from 1961 to 1973; explain the transformation of the civil rights movement into the black power movement; and discuss the impact of black activism on American society.
7. Discuss the forces that gave rise to the New Left and the counterculture; examine the philosophy, goals, and actions of these two groups; and discuss their impact on American society.
8. Explain the emergence of the gay rights movement, and discuss the movement’s goals and its impact on American society.
9. Examine the crises that sent shock waves through American society in 1968.
10. Discuss the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1968 congressional and presidential elections.
11. Explain the emergence, characteristics, and goals of the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and discuss the successes and failures of this movement and its impact on American society.
12. Discuss the issues that faced the Nixon administration in the late 1960s and early 1970s; explain and evaluate the administration’s actions concerning those issues; and discuss the consequences of those actions.
13. Examine the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1972 congressional and presidential elections.
14. Discuss the illegal activities that constituted the Watergate scandal, and explain the threat these activities posed to constitutional government.
15. Examine the impact of the Watergate scandal on the American people, American society, and American institutions, and discuss and evaluate the reforms enacted in the scandal’s aftermath.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
Each administration from 1961 to 1974 promised reforms, but violence also marked the terms of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.
II. Civil Rights and the New Frontier
A. “The Best and the Brightest”
Kennedy surrounded himself with intellectuals with fresh ideas.
B. The New Frontier
Kennedy’s program promised more than the president could deliver, especially since Congress was dominated by conservatives.
C. March on Washington
Student volunteers formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and encouraged African Americans to resist segregation and register to vote. Kennedy gradually began to commit himself to first-class citizenship for blacks. In August 1963, thousands gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for a March on Washington. At this event Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered one of the most memorable speeches in American history.
D. The Kennedy Assassination
Kennedy died in Dallas Texas, and crushed the hope that many held for the future. Many Americans still wonder if Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy.
E. Kennedy in Retrospect
Critics fault Kennedy as president, but he seemed to grow in the office and his untimely death enhanced his reputation.
III. The Great Society and the Triumph of Liberalism
A. Civil Rights Act of 1964
At the urging of President Johnson, Congress outlawed discrimination in public accommodations and employment.
B. Election of 1964
Johnson and the Democrats won a tremendous victory in 1964, paving the way for numerous domestic programs.
C. Voting Rights Act of 1965
The federal government became involved in voter registration.
D. War on Poverty
Johnson’s ambitious effort to destroy poverty through education and job training enjoyed mixed success.
E. Successes in Reducing Poverty
Federal programs and economic expansion alleviated a number of problems the poor faced.
F. The Warren Court
Under Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Supreme Court supported judicial activism and handed down a series of landmark decisions.
G. Civil Rights Rulings
The Court protected freedom of speech, of privacy, of the rights of accused criminals, and upheld the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
IV. Civil Rights Disillusionment, Race Riots, and Black Power
A. Explosion of Black Anger
Many black leaders advocated nonviolence, but in 1964 frustration erupted into riots in several northern cities.
B. Race Riots
A bloody riot occurred in Los Angeles in 1965. In this case blacks, not whites, initiated the violence. Riots continued from 1966 to 1968. A federal committee found that white racism had led to the disturbances.
C. Malcolm X
Malcolm X, a symbol of AfricanAmerican pride, was killed in 1965 for moderating his hard line positions.
D. Black Power
In 1966, Stokely Carmichael encouraged African Americans to express their identity through Black Power.
V. The New Left and the Counterculture
A. Free Speech Movement
At the University of California at Berkeley, the Free Speech Movement indicated a new white activism.
B. Students for a Democratic Society and the New Left
Students for a Democratic Society, meeting at Port Huron, Michigan, condemned racism, poverty, and the Cold War. The heterogeneous protest movement referred to itself as the New Left.
C. Countercultural Revolution
Cynicism, drug use, and a contempt for many traditional values shaped the emergence of a counterculture.
D. Rock ‘n’ Roll
The counterculture often found expression for their feelings in rock music.
E. Sexuality
Oral contraceptives led young people to adopt more casual sexual mores.
F. Gay Rights Movement
Many homosexuals became more open, and a 1969 riot in Greenwich Village marked the genesis of “Gay Power.”
G. Antiwar Protests
The counterculture and the New Left both opposed the Vietnam War.
VI. 1968: A Year of Protest, Violence, and Loss
A. Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
In April 1968, James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr., touching off widespread violence.
B. Assassination of Robert Kennedy
In June 1968, an Arab nationalist assassinated Robert Kennedy, increasing a sense of despair in Americans.
C. Violence at the Democratic Convention
In August 1968, a riot between demonstrators at the Democratic convention and the police shocked the nation.
D. Election of 1968
In November 1968, Americans narrowly elected Richard Nixon over Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace.
E. Unraveling of the New Deal Coalition
The Vietnam War and the Democratic Party’s support for civil rights and welfare for the poor shook apart the Democrat’s New Deal coalition.
VII. Rebirth of Feminism
A. National Organization for Women
The need for action in advancing women’s issues led to the 1966 founding of NOW.
B. “Personal Politics”
Radical feminists preferred confrontational, direct action.
C. Working Women’s Burdens
For working women, the most pressing issue was sex discrimination in employment.
D. Women’s Educational and Professional Gains
By 1973, female participation in professional schools rose. Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment failed.
E. Roe v. Wade
In 1973, citing a woman’s constitutional right to privacy, the Supreme Court legalized abortions.
VIII. Nixon and the Divided Nation
A. Kent State and Jackson State
The United States invaded Cambodia in 1970, leading to huge protests and the killing of four demonstrators at Kent State University and two students at Jackson State.
B. Politics of Divisiveness
The Republicans sought to discredit the Democrats as radical at best and treasonous at worst. Still the Democrats made gains in the 1970 elections.
C. Stagflation
In 1971 the United States suffered relatively high inflation and unemployment, or “stagflation.” Nixon took pragmatic, liberal steps to restore the economy.
D. Environmental Issues
Over Nixon’s opposition, environmentalists made gains during his first term.
IX. Nixon’s Reelection and Resignation
A. Liberal Legislative Victories
Democrats still controlled the Congress after 1968, and they continued to enact liberal programs.
B. Nixon’s “Southern Strategy”
Nixon’s “southern strategy” appealed to voters from the Sunbelt and helped Nixon defeat George McGovern.
C. Nixon and the Supreme Court
Nixon managed to appoint four conservative justices to the Supreme Court.
D. Election of 1972
Nixon faced very few serious challengers. In 1972 he took elaborately staged trips to China and the Soviet Union. He was also aided by the rumor planted by his aids that the Vietnam War was near its end. Nixon won a smashing victory in 1972, but the Democrats retained control of Congress.
E. Watergate Break in
During the election, Nixon henchmen burglarized the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office complex.
F. White House Cover up
In June 1972, police arrested five men for breaking into the Democratic National Headquarters. The White House began feverish efforts to destroy any link with the men.
G. Watergate Hearings and Investigations
Judicial and Congressional investigations uncovered misconduct high in the Nixon administration.
H. Saturday Night Massacre
When pressured for Watergate tape recordings, Nixon fired the Attorney General and a Special Prosecutor.
I. Agnew’s Resignation
Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned because of income tax evasion and corruption. Gerald Ford replaced him.
J. Nixon’s Resignation
Facing the prospect of impeachment on three counts, Nixon resigned as president on August 9, 1974.
K. Post Watergate Restrictions on Executive Power
The excesses of Nixon’s term led Congress to pass laws restraining presidents in foreign affairs, preventing the impounding of federal appropriations, limiting campaign funding, and ensuring access to government documents.
Reform and Conflict At Home:
A Turbulent Era, 1961-1974
Chapter Summary
In Chapter 30, we examine the crises that engulfed American society during the 1960s and early 1970s. As we learn from the first section, “Civil Rights and the New Frontier,” the New Frontier was overly ambitious in light of the political distance between the new president’s liberal agenda and a Congress dominated by a conservative coalition. When he attempted to deal with this conservative coalition, Kennedy at first failed to press forward on civil rights issues. At this point, violence began to have an impact on developments. In the face of violent challenges from southern segregationists to an expanding black civil-rights movement, the Kennedy administration gradually committed itself to a decisive stand in favor of black equality. But only because of continuing racial violence and Kennedy’s assassination did Congress finally pass civil rights legislation.
The section “The Great Society and the Triumph of Liberalism” covers the legislative accomplishments of the Johnson administration—the most sweeping reform legislation since 1935. This legislation comprised the Civil Rights Act of 1964, establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and legislation associated with Johnson’s War on Poverty. The authors look closely at the legislation that constituted the War on Poverty and discuss the problems and successes of this program.
The liberal decisions rendered by the Supreme Court during the 1960s and early 1970s matched the liberalism reflected in the progressive legislation of the Johnson years. The authors examine these rulings, the aspects of American life and American society they affected, and the praise and criticisms they evoked.
As the three branches of the federal government slowly began to deal with such long-standing American problems as poverty and minority rights, frustrations that had built up over generations of inaction manifested themselves. Events convinced civil-rights activists in the South that the “power structure” in American society was not to be trusted. Northern blacks began to reach the same conclusions. Both the civil-rights movement and Johnson’s antipoverty programs had offered African Americans hope for a better day in American society. However, as discussion of the social, economic, and political plight of urban blacks reveals, that hope had not been fulfilled. Among other factors, unfulfilled expectations and the continued display of wealth and possessions in the consumer-oriented American society led to the urban riots of the 1960s. Militant black leaders gained prominence and questioned Martin Luther King’s philosophy of nonviolence as well as his goal of integration. Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, and the Black Panther Party called for “black power” within the context of black nationalism.
Along with this revolution of rising expectations among blacks, some whites involved in the civil rights movement began to become disillusioned with American society. Although their disillusionment stemmed from different sources than that of blacks, it led to the political and social activism associated with the New Left and the counterculture. The authors discuss the emergence, characteristics, and goals of both of these groups as well as the reaction of the middle class to their attacks on traditional values. In addition, the activism of blacks, the New Left and counterculture, and women gave rise to gay activism and to the gay rights movement. As the Vietnam War escalated and the New Left and the counterculture found common cause in their antiwar stance, the middle class became more and more convinced that traditional society was under siege.
The forces of frustration, rage, and anger born of racism, sexism, poverty, disillusionment, materialism, and the revolution of rising expectations practically ripped America apart in the tumult of 1968. After explaining the events of that year, the authors discuss the emergence, characteristics, and goals of both moderate and radical feminists. They also examine the problems encountered by many working women in the 1960s and note gains made by women against sexism in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Continuation of chaos into the 1970s convinced President Nixon and many Americans that society was on the verge of anarchy. Nixon attempted to use the perceived danger to his political advantage by portraying critics, including the Democratic opposition, as Communist pawns and enemies of American society. These tactics gained Nixon little in the 1970 congressional elections, and publication of the Pentagon Papers fostered more distrust of government. As Nixon prepared for the 1972 presidential election, he turned to Keynesian economics to deal with the country’s economic problems and opened relations with the People’s Republic of China.
In “Nixon’s Reelection and Resignation,” the authors first examine the factors that contributed to Nixon’s landslide victory in the 1972 election. These factors include the “southern strategy,” Nixon’s success in associating the Democratic Party with groups and movements that threatened traditional values, the nature of George McGovern’s campaign, and division within the Democratic Party. Even though the voters overwhelmingly chose to return Nixon to the White House in 1972, they also chose to leave both houses of Congress in the hands of the Democrats.
Unfortunately, Nixon’s landslide victory did not guarantee an end to the crisis atmosphere that had plagued the nation since the late 1960s. The Watergate scandal caused more disillusionment with government and increased the somber mood of the people, for it involved a series of illegal activities approved at the highest level of American government. Some of these activities, such as the break-in at Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office, had been undertaken to discredit political opponents; others, such as the paying of hush money to witnesses, were part of an elaborate cover-up.
Beyond the illegal actions, the Watergate scandal was a constitutional crisis; the “imperial presidency” threatened the balance-of-power concept embodied in the Constitution and the guarantees of individual rights embodied in the Bill of Rights. We see the constitutional nature of the crisis in the clash between the executive and judicial branches of government, the impeachment hearings undertaken by the House Judiciary Committee, and ultimately the resignation of the president. Unlike the scandals of previous administrations, the activities linked to Watergate were aimed not at financial gain but at monopolizing political power. After citing the events associated with Watergate, the authors outline and briefly evaluate congressional attempts to correct the abuses associated with the scandal.
Learning Objectives
1. Discuss John F. Kennedy’s personal and political background; examine the goals and accomplishments of the Kennedy administration, and evaluate the legacy of the Kennedy presidency.
2. Discuss John F. Kennedy’s assassination and its impact on American society.
3. Examine the goals and accomplishments of the Johnson administration, and evaluate the legacy of the Johnson presidency.
4. Discuss the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1964 congressional and presidential elections.
5. Discuss the major rulings of the Warren Court, and explain the impact of these rulings on American life and society.
6. Discuss the accomplishments and failures of the black search for equality from 1961 to 1973; explain the transformation of the civil rights movement into the black power movement; and discuss the impact of black activism on American society.
7. Discuss the forces that gave rise to the New Left and the counterculture; examine the philosophy, goals, and actions of these two groups; and discuss their impact on American society.
8. Explain the emergence of the gay rights movement, and discuss the movement’s goals and its impact on American society.
9. Examine the crises that sent shock waves through American society in 1968.
10. Discuss the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1968 congressional and presidential elections.
11. Explain the emergence, characteristics, and goals of the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and discuss the successes and failures of this movement and its impact on American society.
12. Discuss the issues that faced the Nixon administration in the late 1960s and early 1970s; explain and evaluate the administration’s actions concerning those issues; and discuss the consequences of those actions.
13. Examine the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1972 congressional and presidential elections.
14. Discuss the illegal activities that constituted the Watergate scandal, and explain the threat these activities posed to constitutional government.
15. Examine the impact of the Watergate scandal on the American people, American society, and American institutions, and discuss and evaluate the reforms enacted in the scandal’s aftermath.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
Each administration from 1961 to 1974 promised reforms, but violence also marked the terms of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.
II. Civil Rights and the New Frontier
A. “The Best and the Brightest”
Kennedy surrounded himself with intellectuals with fresh ideas.
B. The New Frontier
Kennedy’s program promised more than the president could deliver, especially since Congress was dominated by conservatives.
C. March on Washington
Student volunteers formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and encouraged African Americans to resist segregation and register to vote. Kennedy gradually began to commit himself to first-class citizenship for blacks. In August 1963, thousands gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for a March on Washington. At this event Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered one of the most memorable speeches in American history.
D. The Kennedy Assassination
Kennedy died in Dallas Texas, and crushed the hope that many held for the future. Many Americans still wonder if Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy.
E. Kennedy in Retrospect
Critics fault Kennedy as president, but he seemed to grow in the office and his untimely death enhanced his reputation.
III. The Great Society and the Triumph of Liberalism
A. Civil Rights Act of 1964
At the urging of President Johnson, Congress outlawed discrimination in public accommodations and employment.
B. Election of 1964
Johnson and the Democrats won a tremendous victory in 1964, paving the way for numerous domestic programs.
C. Voting Rights Act of 1965
The federal government became involved in voter registration.
D. War on Poverty
Johnson’s ambitious effort to destroy poverty through education and job training enjoyed mixed success.
E. Successes in Reducing Poverty
Federal programs and economic expansion alleviated a number of problems the poor faced.
F. The Warren Court
Under Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Supreme Court supported judicial activism and handed down a series of landmark decisions.
G. Civil Rights Rulings
The Court protected freedom of speech, of privacy, of the rights of accused criminals, and upheld the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
IV. Civil Rights Disillusionment, Race Riots, and Black Power
A. Explosion of Black Anger
Many black leaders advocated nonviolence, but in 1964 frustration erupted into riots in several northern cities.
B. Race Riots
A bloody riot occurred in Los Angeles in 1965. In this case blacks, not whites, initiated the violence. Riots continued from 1966 to 1968. A federal committee found that white racism had led to the disturbances.
C. Malcolm X
Malcolm X, a symbol of AfricanAmerican pride, was killed in 1965 for moderating his hard line positions.
D. Black Power
In 1966, Stokely Carmichael encouraged African Americans to express their identity through Black Power.
V. The New Left and the Counterculture
A. Free Speech Movement
At the University of California at Berkeley, the Free Speech Movement indicated a new white activism.
B. Students for a Democratic Society and the New Left
Students for a Democratic Society, meeting at Port Huron, Michigan, condemned racism, poverty, and the Cold War. The heterogeneous protest movement referred to itself as the New Left.
C. Countercultural Revolution
Cynicism, drug use, and a contempt for many traditional values shaped the emergence of a counterculture.
D. Rock ‘n’ Roll
The counterculture often found expression for their feelings in rock music.
E. Sexuality
Oral contraceptives led young people to adopt more casual sexual mores.
F. Gay Rights Movement
Many homosexuals became more open, and a 1969 riot in Greenwich Village marked the genesis of “Gay Power.”
G. Antiwar Protests
The counterculture and the New Left both opposed the Vietnam War.
VI. 1968: A Year of Protest, Violence, and Loss
A. Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
In April 1968, James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr., touching off widespread violence.
B. Assassination of Robert Kennedy
In June 1968, an Arab nationalist assassinated Robert Kennedy, increasing a sense of despair in Americans.
C. Violence at the Democratic Convention
In August 1968, a riot between demonstrators at the Democratic convention and the police shocked the nation.
D. Election of 1968
In November 1968, Americans narrowly elected Richard Nixon over Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace.
E. Unraveling of the New Deal Coalition
The Vietnam War and the Democratic Party’s support for civil rights and welfare for the poor shook apart the Democrat’s New Deal coalition.
VII. Rebirth of Feminism
A. National Organization for Women
The need for action in advancing women’s issues led to the 1966 founding of NOW.
B. “Personal Politics”
Radical feminists preferred confrontational, direct action.
C. Working Women’s Burdens
For working women, the most pressing issue was sex discrimination in employment.
D. Women’s Educational and Professional Gains
By 1973, female participation in professional schools rose. Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment failed.
E. Roe v. Wade
In 1973, citing a woman’s constitutional right to privacy, the Supreme Court legalized abortions.
VIII. Nixon and the Divided Nation
A. Kent State and Jackson State
The United States invaded Cambodia in 1970, leading to huge protests and the killing of four demonstrators at Kent State University and two students at Jackson State.
B. Politics of Divisiveness
The Republicans sought to discredit the Democrats as radical at best and treasonous at worst. Still the Democrats made gains in the 1970 elections.
C. Stagflation
In 1971 the United States suffered relatively high inflation and unemployment, or “stagflation.” Nixon took pragmatic, liberal steps to restore the economy.
D. Environmental Issues
Over Nixon’s opposition, environmentalists made gains during his first term.
IX. Nixon’s Reelection and Resignation
A. Liberal Legislative Victories
Democrats still controlled the Congress after 1968, and they continued to enact liberal programs.
B. Nixon’s “Southern Strategy”
Nixon’s “southern strategy” appealed to voters from the Sunbelt and helped Nixon defeat George McGovern.
C. Nixon and the Supreme Court
Nixon managed to appoint four conservative justices to the Supreme Court.
D. Election of 1972
Nixon faced very few serious challengers. In 1972 he took elaborately staged trips to China and the Soviet Union. He was also aided by the rumor planted by his aids that the Vietnam War was near its end. Nixon won a smashing victory in 1972, but the Democrats retained control of Congress.
E. Watergate Break in
During the election, Nixon henchmen burglarized the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office complex.
F. White House Cover up
In June 1972, police arrested five men for breaking into the Democratic National Headquarters. The White House began feverish efforts to destroy any link with the men.
G. Watergate Hearings and Investigations
Judicial and Congressional investigations uncovered misconduct high in the Nixon administration.
H. Saturday Night Massacre
When pressured for Watergate tape recordings, Nixon fired the Attorney General and a Special Prosecutor.
I. Agnew’s Resignation
Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned because of income tax evasion and corruption. Gerald Ford replaced him.
J. Nixon’s Resignation
Facing the prospect of impeachment on three counts, Nixon resigned as president on August 9, 1974.
K. Post Watergate Restrictions on Executive Power
The excesses of Nixon’s term led Congress to pass laws restraining presidents in foreign affairs, preventing the impounding of federal appropriations, limiting campaign funding, and ensuring access to government documents.
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 29
The Cold War and American Globalism,
1945-1961
Chapter Summary
Chapter 29 surveys the history of the bipolar contest for international power between the United States and the Soviet Union, a contest known as the Cold War, from 1945 to 1961.
We first examine the Cold War as the outgrowth of a complex set of factors. At the end of the Second World War, international relations remained unstable because of (1) world economic problems; (2) power vacuums caused by the defeat of Germany and Japan; (3) civil wars within nations; (4) the birth of nations resulting from the disintegration of empires; and (5) air power, which made all nations more vulnerable to attack. This unsettled environment encouraged competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, the two most powerful nations at the war’s end.
Furthermore, both the United States and the Soviet Union believed in the rightness of their own political, economic, and social systems, and each feared the other’s system. Their decisions and actions, based on the way each perceived the world, confirmed rather than alleviated these fears. For example, the American resolution to avoid appeasement and hold the line against communism, the American feeling of vulnerability in the air age, and American determination to prevent an economic depression led to an activist foreign policy characterized by the containment doctrine, economic expansionism, and globalist diplomacy. These factors, along with Truman’s anti-Soviet views and his brash personality, intensified Soviet fears of a hostile West. When the Soviets acted on the basis of this feeling, American worries that the Soviet Union was bent on world domination intensified.
Despite the fact that the Soviet Union had emerged from the Second World War as a regional power rather than a global menace, United States officials were distrustful of the Soviet Union and reacted to counter what they perceived to be a Soviet threat. They did so because of (1) their belief in a monolithic communist enemy bent on world revolution; (2) fear that unstable world conditions made United States interests vulnerable to Soviet subversion; and (3) the desire of the United States to use its postwar position of strength to its advantage. When the actions of the United States brought criticism, the United States perceived this as further proof that the Soviets were determined to dominate the world.
The interplay of these factors provides the thread running through the examination of American-Soviet relations from 1945 to 1961. The action-reaction theme is evident throughout the chapter, and the events discussed serve as evidence to support the authors’ interpretation of the sources of the Cold War. For example, in the discussion of the origins of the Korean War, we find that Truman acted out of the belief that the Soviets were the masterminds behind North Korea’s attack against South Korea. However, closer analysis of the situation shows the strong likelihood that North Korea started the war for its own nationalistic purposes and secured the support of a reluctant Joseph Stalin only after receiving the support of Mao Zedong. We examine the conduct of the war, Truman’s problems with General Douglas MacArthur, America’s use of atomic diplomacy, and the war’s domestic political impact. In the war’s aftermath, the globalist foreign policy used to justify it became entrenched in U.S. policy. This, in turn, led to an increase in foreign commitments and military appropriations and solidified the idea of a worldwide Soviet threat.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, accepted this view of a worldwide communist threat. During Eisenhower’s administration, this belief and the fear of domestic subversives that accompanied it led to the removal of talented Asian specialists from the Foreign Service, an action that would have dire consequences later on. Meanwhile, a new jargon invigorated the containment doctrine and the U.S. undertook propaganda efforts to foster discontent in the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe. Despite Eisenhower’s doubts about the arms race, as expressed in his 1953 “Atoms for Peace” speech, the president continued the activist foreign policy furthered during the Truman years and oversaw the acceleration of the nuclear arms race. Therefore, during the Eisenhower-Dulles years, the action-reaction relationship between the superpowers continued. Each action by one side caused a corresponding defensive reaction by the other in a seemingly endless spiral of fear and distrust. As a result, problems continued in Eastern Europe, Berlin, and Asia.
The process of decolonization begun during the First World War accelerated in the aftermath of the Second World War. As scores of new nations were born, the Cold-War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union began. Both superpowers began to compete for friends among the newly emerging nations of the Third World; however, both the United States and the Soviet Union encountered obstacles in finding allies among these nations. The factors that created obstacles for the United States in its search for Third World friends included:
1. America’s negative view toward the nonaligned movement among Third World nations;
2. the way in which the United States characterized Third-World peoples;
3. embarrassing incidents in the United States in which official representatives of the Third World were subjected to racist practices and prejudices;
4. America’s intolerance of the disorder caused by revolutionary nationalism; and
5. America’s great wealth.
To counter nationalism, radical doctrines, and neutralism in the Third World, the United States undertook development projects and, through the United States Information Agency, engaged in propaganda campaigns. In addition, during the Eisenhower administration the United States began increasingly to rely on the covert actions of the Central Intelligence Agency, as demonstrated in the Guatemalan and Iranian examples. Moreover, the attitude of the United States toward neutralism and toward the disruptions caused by revolutionary nationalism may be seen in the discussion of America’s deepening involvement in Vietnam and in the Eisenhower administration’s reaction to the events surrounding the 1956 Suez Crisis. In the aftermath of that crisis, fear of a weakened position in the Middle East led to the issuance of the Eisenhower Doctrine, which in turn was used to justify American military intervention in Lebanon in 1958, thus expanding the nation’s “global watch” approach to the containment of Communism.
Learning Objectives
1. Examine and explain the sources of the Cold War.
2. Examine the reasons for the activist, expansionist, globalist diplomacy undertaken by the United States in the aftermath of the Second World War; and, during the course of the Cold War, explain the exaggeration of the Soviet threat by United States officials.
3. Discuss the similarities and differences between American and Soviet perceptions of major international problems and events from 1945 to 1961.
4. Explain the rationale behind the containment doctrine; examine the evolution of the doctrine from its inception in 1947 to the end of the Eisenhower administration in 1961; discuss the history, extent, and nature of criticisms of the doctrine; and evaluate the doctrine as the cornerstone of American foreign policy from 1947 to 1961.
5. Examine the nature and extent of the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1961.
6. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Truman administration.
7. Discuss the reconstruction of Japan after that country’s defeat in the Second World War, and discuss relations between the United States and Japan from 1945 to 1961.
8. Examine and evaluate the events and decisions that led to deepening United States involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1961, and discuss the course of the war from 1950 to 1961.
9. Discuss the nature and outcome of the Chinese Civil War, and examine United States policy toward the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to 1961.
10. Discuss the origins of the Korean War; explain its outcome; and examine its impact on domestic politics and United States foreign policy.
11. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Eisenhower administration.
12. Discuss the rise of the Third World and explain the challenge the Third World posed to the United States from 1945 to 1961.
13. Explain the U.S. view of the Third World and the obstacles to United States influence in the Third World.
14. Discuss the various ways in which the United States attempted to counter nationalism, radical doctrines, and neutralism in the Third World.
15. Examine the role of the CIA as an instrument of United States policy in the Third World during the 1950s.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
Harry Truman introduced a new era that saw the United States and the Soviet Union move toward war and back again, exhausting their power and influence in the process.
II. Why the Cold War Began
A. Decolonization
Economic dislocation and the aftermath of disintegrating empires characterized the world after World War II.
B. U.S. Economic and Strategic Needs
An expanding American economy became part of an activist postwar foreign policy. In the air age, the United States and the Soviet Union collided as each attempted to establish defensive positions.
C. Truman’s Get Tough Style
Truman had a brash and impatient style not suited to diplomacy.
D. Debate over Soviet Intentions and Behavior
Critics charged that policymakers often exaggerated the Soviet threat.
III. Truman’s Cold War: Europe and Global Containment
A. Atomic Diplomacy
The United States pursued a policy of using the atomic monopoly for leverage.
B. Kennan and Churchill Warn Against Soviet Power
George F. Kennan doubted if Soviets could be trusted, and Winston Churchill’s “iron curtain” speech solidified many Americans’ fears.
C. Truman Doctrine
In response to a British request for American aid against leftist insurgents in Greece and Turkey, Truman announced his commitment to stopping communism.
D. The “X” Article
George Kennan wrote an influential article that argued that the United States should contain Soviet expansion.
E. Marshall Plan
In 1947, the United States initiated the Marshall Plan, funneling billions of dollars into Western Europe.
F. National Security Act
The National Security Act created the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the United States Information Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
G. Fulbright Program and Cultural Expansion
The United States launched what amounted to a “cultural Marshall Plan.”
H. Recognition of Israel
The United States quickly recognized the new state of Israel in 1948.
I. Berlin Blockade and Airlift
In response to the Allied decision to unite their sections of Germany, the Soviets denied them access to Berlin. Truman responded with a massive airlift.
J. Point Four Program
In 1949 Truman instituted the Point Four Program to improve food supplies, public health, housing, and private investment in Third World countries.
K. Founding of NATO
The Berlin crisis and Soviet development of atomic weapons convinced the western nations to sign the North Atlantic Treaty Organization collective security accord.
L. NSC 68
In April 1950, the National Security Council issued NSC 68, a secret document asking for increased funds and a publicity campaign to gain support for the expenditures.
IV. Asian Acrimony: Japan, China, and Vietnam
A. Reconstruction of Japan
The United States reconstructed Japan after World War II by providing it with a democratic constitution, by revitalizing its economy, and by destroying its weapons.
B. Communist Victory in Chinese Civil War
Despite Jiang Jieshi’s corruption and recalcitrance, the United States continued to back him against Mao Zedong.
C. U.S. Nonrecognition Policy
Mao defeated Jiang and established the People’s Republic of China. Truman did not recognize the new republic.
D. Vietnam’s Quest for Independence
The Vietnamese resisted colonialism, and when French authority collapsed during World War II the Vietminh declared independence in 1945. The Cold War gave the United States several reasons to reject Vietnamese autonomy.
E. U.S. Aid to France In the War Against the Vietminh
The United States bore most of the financial costs of the French war against the Vietminh.
V. The Korean War
A. Origins of the War
The leaders of both North and South Korea sought reunification. Kim Il Sung persuaded a reluctant Stalin to approve the June 1950 invasion against South Korea.
B. Truman Commits U.S. Forces
The United Nations’ Security Council voted to aid South Korea and Truman ordered American troops into the region. Truman sent troops because he believed that the Soviets had orchestrated the attack. MacArthur staged a brilliant amphibious landing behind enemy lines that forced the North Koreans to retreat.
C. Chinese Entry into the War
When the Chinese sent thousands of troops into North Korea, MacArthur demanded full scale bombing of China.
D. Truman’s Firing of General MacArthur
MacArthur denounced Truman’s actions regarding China, leading the President to fire him.
E. Dispute over POWs
Thousands of North Korean and Chinese prisoners did not want to go home; the United States did not return them.
F. Costs and Consequences of the War
More than four million people died in this limited war. The powers of the presidency grew during the war, and the stalemated war helped elect Eisenhower.
G. Globalization of Containment
Worldwide military containment became entrenched as U.S. policy causing an escalation in defense spending.
VI. Eisenhower, Dulles, and Unrelenting Cold War
A. John Foster Dulles
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles intoned systematic and uncompromising anti-Communism. Dulles purged the State Department of many specialists, among them Asian experts whose absence adversely affected the American role in Vietnam.
B. Eisenhower-Dulles Policies
“Liberation,” “massive retaliation,” and the “New Look” military became bywords of American foreign policy. Backed by increasing stockpiles of nuclear weapons, the U.S. practiced “brinkmanship.”
C. CIA as Foreign Policy Instrument
The CIA put foreign leaders on its payroll, subsidized foreign labor unions, and engaged in “disinformation” campaigns. The CIA also launched covert operations to subvert governments in the Third World.
D. Propaganda and Cultural Infiltration
The U.S. also allocated assets for radio broadcasts and other media.
E. Hydrogen Bomb, Sputnik, and Missiles
American production of the incredibly powerful hydrogen bomb increased Soviet-American tensions. Following Soviet advances in missile technology, the United States stepped up its missile research.
F. Eisenhower’s Critique of Nuclear Arms
Eisenhower expressed his uneasiness over the arms race.
G. Rebellion in Hungary
When troops crushed a revolt against Soviet power in Hungary, America could do nothing to help the rebels without risking full scale war.
H. U 2 Incident
The Soviets walked out of the 1960 Paris summit when the Americans refused to apologize for U 2 spy missions.
I. Jinmen-Mazu Crisis
The Formosa Resolution of 1955 allowed deployment of American forces to defend the Formosan islands, which prompted China to develop nuclear capability by 1964.
J. “Japanese Miracle”
The United States rebuilt Japan as a bulwark against communist influence in Asia.
VII. At Odds with the Third World
A. Interests in the Third World
Decolonization advanced rapidly after 1945. The Soviets and the Americans sought alliances with the new nations.
B. Nonaligned Movement
Many Third World nations did not want to take sides in the Cold War and declared themselves nonaligned.
C. American Images of Third World Peoples
Americans saw the Third World’s people emotional, irrational, and dependent.
D. Racism and Segregation as U.S. Handicaps
American racism became an embarrassment and a liability in efforts to befriend Third World nations.
E. U.S. Hostility to Nationalist Revolution
Many people believed that Third World revolutions were aimed at American allies and at American investments.
F. Development and Modernization
The U.S. sought to aid developing nations in order to foster stability. The U.S. also directed propaganda toward the Third World to persuade Third World peoples to abandon radical doctrines and neutralism.
G. Third World Views of the United States
People in the developing nations both envied and resented the U.S.
VIII. U.S. Interventions in the Third World
A. CIA in Guatemala
The CIA helped overthrow Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in Guatemala in 1951 because the United Fruit Corporation disliked his confiscation of their lands.
B. The Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro’s ouster of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba sparked a serious crisis. When Cuba moved into a closer relationship with the Soviets, Eisenhower encouraged Cuban exiles to invade their homeland.
C. Operation Bootstrap in Puerto Rico
Operation Bootstrap encouraged investments in Puerto Rico from U.S. corporations.
D. U.S. Interests in the Middle East
American policy in the Middle East centered on upholding Israel and protecting the region’s extensive oil holdings.
E. Suez Crisis
In 1956, Egypt nationalized the British owned Suez Canal. The Israelis, British, and French moved against Egypt, but the United States refused to support them.
F. Eisenhower Doctrine
Eisenhower declared that the United States would intervene in the Middle East if any government threatened by a communist takeover asked for aid.
G. Dienbienphu Crisis in Vietnam
The Vietminh surrounded French troops at Dienbienphu, forcing France to end the war.
H. Geneva Accords
A peace accord divided Vietnam and set a 1956 election to unify the county, but Diem refused to hold the election.
I. Backing the Diem Regime in South Vietnam
The United States backed a corrupt and repressive regime in South Vietnam.
The Cold War and American Globalism,
1945-1961
Chapter Summary
Chapter 29 surveys the history of the bipolar contest for international power between the United States and the Soviet Union, a contest known as the Cold War, from 1945 to 1961.
We first examine the Cold War as the outgrowth of a complex set of factors. At the end of the Second World War, international relations remained unstable because of (1) world economic problems; (2) power vacuums caused by the defeat of Germany and Japan; (3) civil wars within nations; (4) the birth of nations resulting from the disintegration of empires; and (5) air power, which made all nations more vulnerable to attack. This unsettled environment encouraged competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, the two most powerful nations at the war’s end.
Furthermore, both the United States and the Soviet Union believed in the rightness of their own political, economic, and social systems, and each feared the other’s system. Their decisions and actions, based on the way each perceived the world, confirmed rather than alleviated these fears. For example, the American resolution to avoid appeasement and hold the line against communism, the American feeling of vulnerability in the air age, and American determination to prevent an economic depression led to an activist foreign policy characterized by the containment doctrine, economic expansionism, and globalist diplomacy. These factors, along with Truman’s anti-Soviet views and his brash personality, intensified Soviet fears of a hostile West. When the Soviets acted on the basis of this feeling, American worries that the Soviet Union was bent on world domination intensified.
Despite the fact that the Soviet Union had emerged from the Second World War as a regional power rather than a global menace, United States officials were distrustful of the Soviet Union and reacted to counter what they perceived to be a Soviet threat. They did so because of (1) their belief in a monolithic communist enemy bent on world revolution; (2) fear that unstable world conditions made United States interests vulnerable to Soviet subversion; and (3) the desire of the United States to use its postwar position of strength to its advantage. When the actions of the United States brought criticism, the United States perceived this as further proof that the Soviets were determined to dominate the world.
The interplay of these factors provides the thread running through the examination of American-Soviet relations from 1945 to 1961. The action-reaction theme is evident throughout the chapter, and the events discussed serve as evidence to support the authors’ interpretation of the sources of the Cold War. For example, in the discussion of the origins of the Korean War, we find that Truman acted out of the belief that the Soviets were the masterminds behind North Korea’s attack against South Korea. However, closer analysis of the situation shows the strong likelihood that North Korea started the war for its own nationalistic purposes and secured the support of a reluctant Joseph Stalin only after receiving the support of Mao Zedong. We examine the conduct of the war, Truman’s problems with General Douglas MacArthur, America’s use of atomic diplomacy, and the war’s domestic political impact. In the war’s aftermath, the globalist foreign policy used to justify it became entrenched in U.S. policy. This, in turn, led to an increase in foreign commitments and military appropriations and solidified the idea of a worldwide Soviet threat.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, accepted this view of a worldwide communist threat. During Eisenhower’s administration, this belief and the fear of domestic subversives that accompanied it led to the removal of talented Asian specialists from the Foreign Service, an action that would have dire consequences later on. Meanwhile, a new jargon invigorated the containment doctrine and the U.S. undertook propaganda efforts to foster discontent in the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe. Despite Eisenhower’s doubts about the arms race, as expressed in his 1953 “Atoms for Peace” speech, the president continued the activist foreign policy furthered during the Truman years and oversaw the acceleration of the nuclear arms race. Therefore, during the Eisenhower-Dulles years, the action-reaction relationship between the superpowers continued. Each action by one side caused a corresponding defensive reaction by the other in a seemingly endless spiral of fear and distrust. As a result, problems continued in Eastern Europe, Berlin, and Asia.
The process of decolonization begun during the First World War accelerated in the aftermath of the Second World War. As scores of new nations were born, the Cold-War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union began. Both superpowers began to compete for friends among the newly emerging nations of the Third World; however, both the United States and the Soviet Union encountered obstacles in finding allies among these nations. The factors that created obstacles for the United States in its search for Third World friends included:
1. America’s negative view toward the nonaligned movement among Third World nations;
2. the way in which the United States characterized Third-World peoples;
3. embarrassing incidents in the United States in which official representatives of the Third World were subjected to racist practices and prejudices;
4. America’s intolerance of the disorder caused by revolutionary nationalism; and
5. America’s great wealth.
To counter nationalism, radical doctrines, and neutralism in the Third World, the United States undertook development projects and, through the United States Information Agency, engaged in propaganda campaigns. In addition, during the Eisenhower administration the United States began increasingly to rely on the covert actions of the Central Intelligence Agency, as demonstrated in the Guatemalan and Iranian examples. Moreover, the attitude of the United States toward neutralism and toward the disruptions caused by revolutionary nationalism may be seen in the discussion of America’s deepening involvement in Vietnam and in the Eisenhower administration’s reaction to the events surrounding the 1956 Suez Crisis. In the aftermath of that crisis, fear of a weakened position in the Middle East led to the issuance of the Eisenhower Doctrine, which in turn was used to justify American military intervention in Lebanon in 1958, thus expanding the nation’s “global watch” approach to the containment of Communism.
Learning Objectives
1. Examine and explain the sources of the Cold War.
2. Examine the reasons for the activist, expansionist, globalist diplomacy undertaken by the United States in the aftermath of the Second World War; and, during the course of the Cold War, explain the exaggeration of the Soviet threat by United States officials.
3. Discuss the similarities and differences between American and Soviet perceptions of major international problems and events from 1945 to 1961.
4. Explain the rationale behind the containment doctrine; examine the evolution of the doctrine from its inception in 1947 to the end of the Eisenhower administration in 1961; discuss the history, extent, and nature of criticisms of the doctrine; and evaluate the doctrine as the cornerstone of American foreign policy from 1947 to 1961.
5. Examine the nature and extent of the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1961.
6. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Truman administration.
7. Discuss the reconstruction of Japan after that country’s defeat in the Second World War, and discuss relations between the United States and Japan from 1945 to 1961.
8. Examine and evaluate the events and decisions that led to deepening United States involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1961, and discuss the course of the war from 1950 to 1961.
9. Discuss the nature and outcome of the Chinese Civil War, and examine United States policy toward the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to 1961.
10. Discuss the origins of the Korean War; explain its outcome; and examine its impact on domestic politics and United States foreign policy.
11. Examine, evaluate, and discuss the consequences of the defense and foreign policy views, goals, and actions of the Eisenhower administration.
12. Discuss the rise of the Third World and explain the challenge the Third World posed to the United States from 1945 to 1961.
13. Explain the U.S. view of the Third World and the obstacles to United States influence in the Third World.
14. Discuss the various ways in which the United States attempted to counter nationalism, radical doctrines, and neutralism in the Third World.
15. Examine the role of the CIA as an instrument of United States policy in the Third World during the 1950s.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
Harry Truman introduced a new era that saw the United States and the Soviet Union move toward war and back again, exhausting their power and influence in the process.
II. Why the Cold War Began
A. Decolonization
Economic dislocation and the aftermath of disintegrating empires characterized the world after World War II.
B. U.S. Economic and Strategic Needs
An expanding American economy became part of an activist postwar foreign policy. In the air age, the United States and the Soviet Union collided as each attempted to establish defensive positions.
C. Truman’s Get Tough Style
Truman had a brash and impatient style not suited to diplomacy.
D. Debate over Soviet Intentions and Behavior
Critics charged that policymakers often exaggerated the Soviet threat.
III. Truman’s Cold War: Europe and Global Containment
A. Atomic Diplomacy
The United States pursued a policy of using the atomic monopoly for leverage.
B. Kennan and Churchill Warn Against Soviet Power
George F. Kennan doubted if Soviets could be trusted, and Winston Churchill’s “iron curtain” speech solidified many Americans’ fears.
C. Truman Doctrine
In response to a British request for American aid against leftist insurgents in Greece and Turkey, Truman announced his commitment to stopping communism.
D. The “X” Article
George Kennan wrote an influential article that argued that the United States should contain Soviet expansion.
E. Marshall Plan
In 1947, the United States initiated the Marshall Plan, funneling billions of dollars into Western Europe.
F. National Security Act
The National Security Act created the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the United States Information Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
G. Fulbright Program and Cultural Expansion
The United States launched what amounted to a “cultural Marshall Plan.”
H. Recognition of Israel
The United States quickly recognized the new state of Israel in 1948.
I. Berlin Blockade and Airlift
In response to the Allied decision to unite their sections of Germany, the Soviets denied them access to Berlin. Truman responded with a massive airlift.
J. Point Four Program
In 1949 Truman instituted the Point Four Program to improve food supplies, public health, housing, and private investment in Third World countries.
K. Founding of NATO
The Berlin crisis and Soviet development of atomic weapons convinced the western nations to sign the North Atlantic Treaty Organization collective security accord.
L. NSC 68
In April 1950, the National Security Council issued NSC 68, a secret document asking for increased funds and a publicity campaign to gain support for the expenditures.
IV. Asian Acrimony: Japan, China, and Vietnam
A. Reconstruction of Japan
The United States reconstructed Japan after World War II by providing it with a democratic constitution, by revitalizing its economy, and by destroying its weapons.
B. Communist Victory in Chinese Civil War
Despite Jiang Jieshi’s corruption and recalcitrance, the United States continued to back him against Mao Zedong.
C. U.S. Nonrecognition Policy
Mao defeated Jiang and established the People’s Republic of China. Truman did not recognize the new republic.
D. Vietnam’s Quest for Independence
The Vietnamese resisted colonialism, and when French authority collapsed during World War II the Vietminh declared independence in 1945. The Cold War gave the United States several reasons to reject Vietnamese autonomy.
E. U.S. Aid to France In the War Against the Vietminh
The United States bore most of the financial costs of the French war against the Vietminh.
V. The Korean War
A. Origins of the War
The leaders of both North and South Korea sought reunification. Kim Il Sung persuaded a reluctant Stalin to approve the June 1950 invasion against South Korea.
B. Truman Commits U.S. Forces
The United Nations’ Security Council voted to aid South Korea and Truman ordered American troops into the region. Truman sent troops because he believed that the Soviets had orchestrated the attack. MacArthur staged a brilliant amphibious landing behind enemy lines that forced the North Koreans to retreat.
C. Chinese Entry into the War
When the Chinese sent thousands of troops into North Korea, MacArthur demanded full scale bombing of China.
D. Truman’s Firing of General MacArthur
MacArthur denounced Truman’s actions regarding China, leading the President to fire him.
E. Dispute over POWs
Thousands of North Korean and Chinese prisoners did not want to go home; the United States did not return them.
F. Costs and Consequences of the War
More than four million people died in this limited war. The powers of the presidency grew during the war, and the stalemated war helped elect Eisenhower.
G. Globalization of Containment
Worldwide military containment became entrenched as U.S. policy causing an escalation in defense spending.
VI. Eisenhower, Dulles, and Unrelenting Cold War
A. John Foster Dulles
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles intoned systematic and uncompromising anti-Communism. Dulles purged the State Department of many specialists, among them Asian experts whose absence adversely affected the American role in Vietnam.
B. Eisenhower-Dulles Policies
“Liberation,” “massive retaliation,” and the “New Look” military became bywords of American foreign policy. Backed by increasing stockpiles of nuclear weapons, the U.S. practiced “brinkmanship.”
C. CIA as Foreign Policy Instrument
The CIA put foreign leaders on its payroll, subsidized foreign labor unions, and engaged in “disinformation” campaigns. The CIA also launched covert operations to subvert governments in the Third World.
D. Propaganda and Cultural Infiltration
The U.S. also allocated assets for radio broadcasts and other media.
E. Hydrogen Bomb, Sputnik, and Missiles
American production of the incredibly powerful hydrogen bomb increased Soviet-American tensions. Following Soviet advances in missile technology, the United States stepped up its missile research.
F. Eisenhower’s Critique of Nuclear Arms
Eisenhower expressed his uneasiness over the arms race.
G. Rebellion in Hungary
When troops crushed a revolt against Soviet power in Hungary, America could do nothing to help the rebels without risking full scale war.
H. U 2 Incident
The Soviets walked out of the 1960 Paris summit when the Americans refused to apologize for U 2 spy missions.
I. Jinmen-Mazu Crisis
The Formosa Resolution of 1955 allowed deployment of American forces to defend the Formosan islands, which prompted China to develop nuclear capability by 1964.
J. “Japanese Miracle”
The United States rebuilt Japan as a bulwark against communist influence in Asia.
VII. At Odds with the Third World
A. Interests in the Third World
Decolonization advanced rapidly after 1945. The Soviets and the Americans sought alliances with the new nations.
B. Nonaligned Movement
Many Third World nations did not want to take sides in the Cold War and declared themselves nonaligned.
C. American Images of Third World Peoples
Americans saw the Third World’s people emotional, irrational, and dependent.
D. Racism and Segregation as U.S. Handicaps
American racism became an embarrassment and a liability in efforts to befriend Third World nations.
E. U.S. Hostility to Nationalist Revolution
Many people believed that Third World revolutions were aimed at American allies and at American investments.
F. Development and Modernization
The U.S. sought to aid developing nations in order to foster stability. The U.S. also directed propaganda toward the Third World to persuade Third World peoples to abandon radical doctrines and neutralism.
G. Third World Views of the United States
People in the developing nations both envied and resented the U.S.
VIII. U.S. Interventions in the Third World
A. CIA in Guatemala
The CIA helped overthrow Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán in Guatemala in 1951 because the United Fruit Corporation disliked his confiscation of their lands.
B. The Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro’s ouster of Fulgencio Batista in Cuba sparked a serious crisis. When Cuba moved into a closer relationship with the Soviets, Eisenhower encouraged Cuban exiles to invade their homeland.
C. Operation Bootstrap in Puerto Rico
Operation Bootstrap encouraged investments in Puerto Rico from U.S. corporations.
D. U.S. Interests in the Middle East
American policy in the Middle East centered on upholding Israel and protecting the region’s extensive oil holdings.
E. Suez Crisis
In 1956, Egypt nationalized the British owned Suez Canal. The Israelis, British, and French moved against Egypt, but the United States refused to support them.
F. Eisenhower Doctrine
Eisenhower declared that the United States would intervene in the Middle East if any government threatened by a communist takeover asked for aid.
G. Dienbienphu Crisis in Vietnam
The Vietminh surrounded French troops at Dienbienphu, forcing France to end the war.
H. Geneva Accords
A peace accord divided Vietnam and set a 1956 election to unify the county, but Diem refused to hold the election.
I. Backing the Diem Regime in South Vietnam
The United States backed a corrupt and repressive regime in South Vietnam.
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.
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.
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 27
The Second World War at Home and Abroad, 1941-1945
Chapter Summary
The first two sections of Chapter 27, “Winning the Second World War” and “The War in the Pacific,” trace the European and Pacific theater campaigns that led to Allied victory in World War II. The undercurrent of suspicion among the Allies, obvious in the second-front controversy, provides the theme for discussion of the European campaigns. Discussion of the war in the Pacific focuses on America’s wartime perception of Japan as the major enemy. The authors also consider the “island-hopping” strategy adopted by American forces after breaking the momentum of Japan’s offensive at the Battle of Midway, and the American goal of crippling Japan’s merchant marine. The success of these strategies led to the conventional bombing of Japan’s cities and ultimately to the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman’s rejection of suggested alternatives to the atomic bomb and the strategic, emotional, psychological, and diplomatic reasons for his decision to use it are explained at the end of the section on the war in the Pacific.
The focus of the chapter then shifts to a discussion of the impact of World War II on the home front. In the economic sphere the war brought (l) renewed government-business cooperation and an acceleration of corporate growth, (2) the growth of scientific research facilities through government incentives, (3) the growth of labor unions, and (4) increased mechanization of agriculture as part of a transition from family-owned farms to mechanized agribusiness. The Second World War, to an even greater extent than the First World War, was a total war, requiring not only military mobilization but mobilization of the home front as well. The responsibility for coordinating total mobilization fell on the federal government. As a result, the federal bureaucracy mushroomed in size.
Life in the military, life away from family, and the experience of war profoundly affected the men and women who served in the armed forces during the course of the Second World War. The frame of reference of many GIs was broadened by associations with fellow soldiers from backgrounds and cultures different from their own. Some men and women homosexuals found the freedom within the service to act upon their sexual feelings. As a consequence of the military’s technical schools, many soldiers returned home with new skills and ambitions. But as GIs returned to civilian life, they quickly realized that life at home had continued without them; thus, many felt a sense of loss and alienation.
The war had a special impact on Japanese Americans, nonwhites, and women. The authors note that the treatment of Japanese Americans was the “one enormous exception” to the nation’s generally creditable wartime civil liberties record; Japanese Americans were interned chiefly because of their ethnic origin. For African Americans, the war did provide some opportunities in the military and at home, but the Detroit riot of 1943 made clear that racism remained a shaping force in blacks’ lives. The zoot-suit riot in Los Angeles in 1943 demonstrated that the same was true for Mexican Americans.
For women, the war became a turning point. More women, including more married women and mothers, entered the labor force than ever before. As some of the negative attitudes toward women working in heavy industry began to change, women experienced more geographic and occupational mobility. Although they continued to receive lower pay than men and were still concentrated in sex-segregated occupations, more women than ever were deciding to remain in the labor market. But even with those changes, home and family responsibilities continued to fall on their shoulders. In many cases, the wartime absence of husbands and fathers made women fully responsible for the family. The combination of these factors and experiences meant that many women gained a new sense of independence.
The political impact of the war is the theme of “The Decline of Liberalism and the Election of 1944.” Then, in the last two sections of the chapter, the authors examine wartime foreign policy. The goals of the United States, embodied in the Atlantic Charter, were based to some extent on the memory of the post-First World War period. Continued suspicions among the Allies made cooperation to achieve these objectives difficult. Despite these suspicions and continued disagreement over Poland, Stalin and Churchill reached some agreements about Eastern Europe; and, though China’s role was not determined, the Allies agreed in most other respects on the charter for a United Nations Organization.
After a brief discussion of American policy toward Jewish refugees—a policy characterized by anti-Semitism and fear of economic competition—the authors turn to the Yalta and Potsdam conferences. The Yalta Conference was “the high point of the Grand Alliance.” The agreements reached there are explained in the context of the suspicions among the Allies, the goals of each of the Allies, and the positions of each of the Allied armies. The Potsdam Conference, on the other hand, revealed a crumbling alliance in which any sense of cooperation had given way to suspicions among competitive nation states. These suspicions, so obvious at Potsdam, were a portent concerning the post-war world.
Learning Objectives
1. Describe the military strategy and the major military operations undertaken by the Allies in the European theater; discuss the disagreements that arose concerning strategy; and explain the resolution of these disagreements.
2. Discuss United States military strategy and the major military operations in the Pacific theater that brought America to the verge of victory by 1945.
3. Explain and evaluate President Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb.
4. Examine the impact of the Second World War on America’s economic institutions, organized labor, agriculture, and the federal government, and discuss and assess the role played by the federal government in the war effort.
5. Discuss the impact of military life and wartime experiences on the men and women in the United States armed forces during the Second World War.
6. Examine and evaluate the civil liberties record of the United States government during the Second World War, and discuss the government’s response to the Holocaust and to the plight of Jewish refugees.
7. Discuss the impact of the Second World War on African Americans, Mexican Americans, women, and the family.
8. Discuss the decline of political liberalism during the early 1940s, and examine the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1944 presidential election.
9. Examine the relations, the issues debated, and the agreements reached among the Allies from the second-front controversy through the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, and discuss the issues left unresolved after Yalta and Potsdam.
10. Assess the impact of the Second World War on the world community of nations and on the world balance of power.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
World War II marked a watershed in American history. The immediate challenge of defeating the enemy directly affected thousands of men and women, while the new world the war created had ramifications for millions of people.
II. Winning the Second World War
A. Second Front Controversy
Americans strongly supported the war, but from the beginning Allied leaders had differences. In particular, difficulties arose over how the Americans and the English would carry the war into Europe.
B. Teheran Conference
This meeting managed to ease the strain and renew relations between the allies.
C. D Day
The second front offensive began with the Allied landings at Normandy in June 1944. Less than a year later, Germany surrendered.
D. The War in the Pacific
At first the war in the Pacific, largely the responsibility of the United States, did not go well.
E. Battle of Midway
The Japanese enjoyed early successes, but the Battle of Midway in June 1942 was the turning point in the war.
F. Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa
Facing intense fighting, American forces “island hopped” across the Pacific, bypassing a number of strongly held Japanese islands. The Japanese and Americans engaged in especially bloody combat on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
G. The Atomic Bomb
The Japanese surrendered after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan.
H. The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb
A variety of military, scientific, and political reasons motivated the U.S.
III. Mobilizing the American Home Front
A. Office of Price Administration
To control inflation, this agency was given the power to fix price ceilings on commodities and control rents in defense areas.
B. War Production Board and War Manpower Commission
The WPB succeeded in turning the civilian manufacturing economy into a powerhouse of military industrial might. The WMC recruited workers for the nation’s factories.
C. Government Incentives to Business
Wartime policy encouraged the growth of big business.
D. University Research and Weapons Development
Universities benefited from government grants to aid the war effort.
E. Unions and Wartime Labor Strikes
Despite a “no strike” agreement with the government, some workers staged walkouts during the war. Congress responded with a bill designed to place limits on labor.
F. Wartime Change in Agriculture
Agriculture mechanized to replace workers.
G. Growth in the Federal Government
The American economy expanded dramatically during the war. The national government also experienced remarkable growth.
IV. The Military Life
A. The Ordeal of Combat
Americans faced the stress of combat and struggled to cope.
B. Homosexuals on Active Duty
Many men and women in the armed forces who had a same-sex orientation found the freedom to act on their feelings.
C. Postwar Ambitions
The interaction of people from all over the U.S. facilitated an exchange of ideas. Soldiers returned home with new skills, and many took advantage of the GI Bill of Rights.
V. Enemy Aliens, Conscientious Objectors, and Japanese American Internees
A. “An Enemy Race”
Many in the U.S. saw the war against Japan as a struggle against the “Japanese race.” Despite anti-Japanese sentiment, Japanese Americans fought valiantly for the United States as evidenced by the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
B. Life in the Internment Camps
The camps were bleak and demoralizing.
VI. Jobs and Racism on the Home Front
A. African Americans in Combat
Almost a million African Americans served in the armed forces and distinguished themselves on the battlefield. However, there were a number of racist incidents during the war.
B. Civil Rights Movement
Blacks, more militant and more willing to protest, waged a “Double V” campaign. CORE, which advocated nonviolent direct action, was founded.
C. African American War Workers
When the government prohibited discrimination in defense jobs, thousands of blacks migrated to the North and West to find work.
D. Race Riots of 1943
Racial tensions began to develop in the North. Racial warfare broke out in Detroit in June 1943.
E. Bracero Program
The United States turned to Mexican laborers during the war. The “zoot-suit riot” in Los Angeles in 1943 involved attacks on young Mexican Americans.
VII. Women and Children in the War Effort
A. Women in War Production
Women participated in war production on an unprecedented scale.
B. Discrimination Against Women
Wartime needs made millions of jobs available, and many women went to work for the first time. They found that discrimination often characterized the workplace.
C. Children in Wartime
The government became involved in childcare as a result of wartime pressures. Children contributed to the war effort by buying war bonds. Many also dropped out of school to go to work.
D. Increase in Marriage, Divorce, and Birth Rates
During the war, the number of marriages, births, and divorces, rose markedly. The new social dynamic had long term consequences for women.
VIII. The Decline of Liberalism and the Election of 1944
A. Wartime Liberalism
As conservatives worked to limit or dismantle the New Deal, Republicans made gains in the election of 1942. However, in his Economic Bill of Rights Roosevelt pledged to provide jobs, food, shelter, clothing, and financial security to every American.
B. Roosevelt and Truman
The President chose a loyal New Deal trooper to aid him in his reelection.
C. Roosevelt’s Fourth-term Victory
In apparent ill health, Roosevelt defeated Thomas Dewey for a fourth term in 1944. Roosevelt died in April 1945, and Vice President Harry Truman became president.
IX. Planning for Peace
A. Allied Disagreement over Eastern Europe
The Allies shared a commitment to defeating the enemy, but they also had a number of differences. The fate of Eastern Europe posed the greatest problem.
B. Creation of the United Nations
In 1944, diplomats established the framework for the United Nations.
C. Jewish Refugees
Six million Jews died in concentration camps during the war, but the Allies took few steps to stop the killings.
D. The Holocaust
The U.S. did too little, too late, to greatly affect the Holocaust.
E. The Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference of February 1945 shaped the postwar world. As the meeting convened, each of the Allies had its own agenda. Russia wanted a friendly Poland to serve as a buffer state. The Allies agreed to accept a coalition government in Poland and to resolve disputed borders at a later date.
F. Potsdam Conference
At Potsdam, Truman, who knew the United States had achieved atomic capability, showed less deference to Stalin than had Roosevelt.
The Second World War at Home and Abroad, 1941-1945
Chapter Summary
The first two sections of Chapter 27, “Winning the Second World War” and “The War in the Pacific,” trace the European and Pacific theater campaigns that led to Allied victory in World War II. The undercurrent of suspicion among the Allies, obvious in the second-front controversy, provides the theme for discussion of the European campaigns. Discussion of the war in the Pacific focuses on America’s wartime perception of Japan as the major enemy. The authors also consider the “island-hopping” strategy adopted by American forces after breaking the momentum of Japan’s offensive at the Battle of Midway, and the American goal of crippling Japan’s merchant marine. The success of these strategies led to the conventional bombing of Japan’s cities and ultimately to the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truman’s rejection of suggested alternatives to the atomic bomb and the strategic, emotional, psychological, and diplomatic reasons for his decision to use it are explained at the end of the section on the war in the Pacific.
The focus of the chapter then shifts to a discussion of the impact of World War II on the home front. In the economic sphere the war brought (l) renewed government-business cooperation and an acceleration of corporate growth, (2) the growth of scientific research facilities through government incentives, (3) the growth of labor unions, and (4) increased mechanization of agriculture as part of a transition from family-owned farms to mechanized agribusiness. The Second World War, to an even greater extent than the First World War, was a total war, requiring not only military mobilization but mobilization of the home front as well. The responsibility for coordinating total mobilization fell on the federal government. As a result, the federal bureaucracy mushroomed in size.
Life in the military, life away from family, and the experience of war profoundly affected the men and women who served in the armed forces during the course of the Second World War. The frame of reference of many GIs was broadened by associations with fellow soldiers from backgrounds and cultures different from their own. Some men and women homosexuals found the freedom within the service to act upon their sexual feelings. As a consequence of the military’s technical schools, many soldiers returned home with new skills and ambitions. But as GIs returned to civilian life, they quickly realized that life at home had continued without them; thus, many felt a sense of loss and alienation.
The war had a special impact on Japanese Americans, nonwhites, and women. The authors note that the treatment of Japanese Americans was the “one enormous exception” to the nation’s generally creditable wartime civil liberties record; Japanese Americans were interned chiefly because of their ethnic origin. For African Americans, the war did provide some opportunities in the military and at home, but the Detroit riot of 1943 made clear that racism remained a shaping force in blacks’ lives. The zoot-suit riot in Los Angeles in 1943 demonstrated that the same was true for Mexican Americans.
For women, the war became a turning point. More women, including more married women and mothers, entered the labor force than ever before. As some of the negative attitudes toward women working in heavy industry began to change, women experienced more geographic and occupational mobility. Although they continued to receive lower pay than men and were still concentrated in sex-segregated occupations, more women than ever were deciding to remain in the labor market. But even with those changes, home and family responsibilities continued to fall on their shoulders. In many cases, the wartime absence of husbands and fathers made women fully responsible for the family. The combination of these factors and experiences meant that many women gained a new sense of independence.
The political impact of the war is the theme of “The Decline of Liberalism and the Election of 1944.” Then, in the last two sections of the chapter, the authors examine wartime foreign policy. The goals of the United States, embodied in the Atlantic Charter, were based to some extent on the memory of the post-First World War period. Continued suspicions among the Allies made cooperation to achieve these objectives difficult. Despite these suspicions and continued disagreement over Poland, Stalin and Churchill reached some agreements about Eastern Europe; and, though China’s role was not determined, the Allies agreed in most other respects on the charter for a United Nations Organization.
After a brief discussion of American policy toward Jewish refugees—a policy characterized by anti-Semitism and fear of economic competition—the authors turn to the Yalta and Potsdam conferences. The Yalta Conference was “the high point of the Grand Alliance.” The agreements reached there are explained in the context of the suspicions among the Allies, the goals of each of the Allies, and the positions of each of the Allied armies. The Potsdam Conference, on the other hand, revealed a crumbling alliance in which any sense of cooperation had given way to suspicions among competitive nation states. These suspicions, so obvious at Potsdam, were a portent concerning the post-war world.
Learning Objectives
1. Describe the military strategy and the major military operations undertaken by the Allies in the European theater; discuss the disagreements that arose concerning strategy; and explain the resolution of these disagreements.
2. Discuss United States military strategy and the major military operations in the Pacific theater that brought America to the verge of victory by 1945.
3. Explain and evaluate President Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb.
4. Examine the impact of the Second World War on America’s economic institutions, organized labor, agriculture, and the federal government, and discuss and assess the role played by the federal government in the war effort.
5. Discuss the impact of military life and wartime experiences on the men and women in the United States armed forces during the Second World War.
6. Examine and evaluate the civil liberties record of the United States government during the Second World War, and discuss the government’s response to the Holocaust and to the plight of Jewish refugees.
7. Discuss the impact of the Second World War on African Americans, Mexican Americans, women, and the family.
8. Discuss the decline of political liberalism during the early 1940s, and examine the issues and personalities and explain the outcome of the 1944 presidential election.
9. Examine the relations, the issues debated, and the agreements reached among the Allies from the second-front controversy through the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, and discuss the issues left unresolved after Yalta and Potsdam.
10. Assess the impact of the Second World War on the world community of nations and on the world balance of power.
Chapter Outline
I. Introduction
World War II marked a watershed in American history. The immediate challenge of defeating the enemy directly affected thousands of men and women, while the new world the war created had ramifications for millions of people.
II. Winning the Second World War
A. Second Front Controversy
Americans strongly supported the war, but from the beginning Allied leaders had differences. In particular, difficulties arose over how the Americans and the English would carry the war into Europe.
B. Teheran Conference
This meeting managed to ease the strain and renew relations between the allies.
C. D Day
The second front offensive began with the Allied landings at Normandy in June 1944. Less than a year later, Germany surrendered.
D. The War in the Pacific
At first the war in the Pacific, largely the responsibility of the United States, did not go well.
E. Battle of Midway
The Japanese enjoyed early successes, but the Battle of Midway in June 1942 was the turning point in the war.
F. Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa
Facing intense fighting, American forces “island hopped” across the Pacific, bypassing a number of strongly held Japanese islands. The Japanese and Americans engaged in especially bloody combat on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
G. The Atomic Bomb
The Japanese surrendered after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan.
H. The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb
A variety of military, scientific, and political reasons motivated the U.S.
III. Mobilizing the American Home Front
A. Office of Price Administration
To control inflation, this agency was given the power to fix price ceilings on commodities and control rents in defense areas.
B. War Production Board and War Manpower Commission
The WPB succeeded in turning the civilian manufacturing economy into a powerhouse of military industrial might. The WMC recruited workers for the nation’s factories.
C. Government Incentives to Business
Wartime policy encouraged the growth of big business.
D. University Research and Weapons Development
Universities benefited from government grants to aid the war effort.
E. Unions and Wartime Labor Strikes
Despite a “no strike” agreement with the government, some workers staged walkouts during the war. Congress responded with a bill designed to place limits on labor.
F. Wartime Change in Agriculture
Agriculture mechanized to replace workers.
G. Growth in the Federal Government
The American economy expanded dramatically during the war. The national government also experienced remarkable growth.
IV. The Military Life
A. The Ordeal of Combat
Americans faced the stress of combat and struggled to cope.
B. Homosexuals on Active Duty
Many men and women in the armed forces who had a same-sex orientation found the freedom to act on their feelings.
C. Postwar Ambitions
The interaction of people from all over the U.S. facilitated an exchange of ideas. Soldiers returned home with new skills, and many took advantage of the GI Bill of Rights.
V. Enemy Aliens, Conscientious Objectors, and Japanese American Internees
A. “An Enemy Race”
Many in the U.S. saw the war against Japan as a struggle against the “Japanese race.” Despite anti-Japanese sentiment, Japanese Americans fought valiantly for the United States as evidenced by the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
B. Life in the Internment Camps
The camps were bleak and demoralizing.
VI. Jobs and Racism on the Home Front
A. African Americans in Combat
Almost a million African Americans served in the armed forces and distinguished themselves on the battlefield. However, there were a number of racist incidents during the war.
B. Civil Rights Movement
Blacks, more militant and more willing to protest, waged a “Double V” campaign. CORE, which advocated nonviolent direct action, was founded.
C. African American War Workers
When the government prohibited discrimination in defense jobs, thousands of blacks migrated to the North and West to find work.
D. Race Riots of 1943
Racial tensions began to develop in the North. Racial warfare broke out in Detroit in June 1943.
E. Bracero Program
The United States turned to Mexican laborers during the war. The “zoot-suit riot” in Los Angeles in 1943 involved attacks on young Mexican Americans.
VII. Women and Children in the War Effort
A. Women in War Production
Women participated in war production on an unprecedented scale.
B. Discrimination Against Women
Wartime needs made millions of jobs available, and many women went to work for the first time. They found that discrimination often characterized the workplace.
C. Children in Wartime
The government became involved in childcare as a result of wartime pressures. Children contributed to the war effort by buying war bonds. Many also dropped out of school to go to work.
D. Increase in Marriage, Divorce, and Birth Rates
During the war, the number of marriages, births, and divorces, rose markedly. The new social dynamic had long term consequences for women.
VIII. The Decline of Liberalism and the Election of 1944
A. Wartime Liberalism
As conservatives worked to limit or dismantle the New Deal, Republicans made gains in the election of 1942. However, in his Economic Bill of Rights Roosevelt pledged to provide jobs, food, shelter, clothing, and financial security to every American.
B. Roosevelt and Truman
The President chose a loyal New Deal trooper to aid him in his reelection.
C. Roosevelt’s Fourth-term Victory
In apparent ill health, Roosevelt defeated Thomas Dewey for a fourth term in 1944. Roosevelt died in April 1945, and Vice President Harry Truman became president.
IX. Planning for Peace
A. Allied Disagreement over Eastern Europe
The Allies shared a commitment to defeating the enemy, but they also had a number of differences. The fate of Eastern Europe posed the greatest problem.
B. Creation of the United Nations
In 1944, diplomats established the framework for the United Nations.
C. Jewish Refugees
Six million Jews died in concentration camps during the war, but the Allies took few steps to stop the killings.
D. The Holocaust
The U.S. did too little, too late, to greatly affect the Holocaust.
E. The Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference of February 1945 shaped the postwar world. As the meeting convened, each of the Allies had its own agenda. Russia wanted a friendly Poland to serve as a buffer state. The Allies agreed to accept a coalition government in Poland and to resolve disputed borders at a later date.
F. Potsdam Conference
At Potsdam, Truman, who knew the United States had achieved atomic capability, showed less deference to Stalin than had Roosevelt.
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