American History (1945-1980s)

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American History (1945-1980s)

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Title: American History (1945-1980s)

1
American History (1945-1980s)

Chapter 17

2
The Origins of the Cold War

Conflicts between the U.S. and the Soviet Union
during WWII
Clash of interests between the two countries
after WW?

3
The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan

The Truman Doctrine
The Marshall Plan

4
Truman giving Truman Doctrine
5

On March 12, 1947, President Harry S. Truman
presented this address before a joint session of
Congress. His message, known as the Truman
Doctrine, asked Congress for 400 million in
military and economic assistance for Turkey and
Greece.
President Truman declared, "It must be the policy
of the United States to support free peoples who
are resisting attempted subjugation by armed
minorities or by outside pressures." The sanction
of aid to Greece and Turkey by a Republican
Congress indicated the beginning of a long and
enduring bipartisan cold war foreign policy.

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The Berlin Blockade and the Founding of the NATO

The Berlin Blockade
The founding of the NATO

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Berlin Airlift
11
German men and women were removing the rubble
barricades between the American Sector and the
Soviet Sector of Berlin at the end of the Berlin
Blockade, May 1949.
12
U.S. Support of Chiang Kaishek and the Korean War

U.S. support of Chiang Kaishek
The founding of the People's Republic of China
The Korean War

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Korean War Chinese troops
17
McCarthyism

The comprehensive investigation initiated by
President Truman
Joseph R. McCarthy and McCarthyism

Alger Hiss Educated at John Hopkins University
and Harvard Law School .
He worked for the Supreme Court Justice, Oliver
Wendell Holmes, before serving in the departments
of Agriculture, Justice and State, in the
administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hiss
also served as Roosevelt's adviser at the Yalta
Conference in 1945. After working briefly as
secretary-general of the United Nations, in 1949
Hiss became president of the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace.
Alger Hiss died on 15th November, 1996

19
Senator Joseph McCarthy (left) with his attorney
Roy Cohn, at a House Un-American Activities
Committee hearing in 1951.
20

It should be noted, however, that a framework of
laws, political force fields, anti-Red rhetoric
and theatrical anti-Communist methods predated
McCarthy's rise. He was first to discover neither
the presence nor political value of the Red
Menace.

From 1938 to 1942, in the era of the Nazi-Soviet
Pact and the onset of World War II, the federal
government's legislative and executive branches
had set up programs to exclude Communists (and
fascists) from federal jobs. The House of
Representatives launched the Committee on
Un-American Activities in 1938. The 1940 Smith
Act outlawed seeking or advocating overthrow of
government by force or violence.

In 1942 a loyalty program was instituted to weed
Communists and other "subversives" out of
government jobs. The Cold War heightened
pressures to rein in Communist influences.
President Truman instituted a tougher loyalty
program in 1947. In 1948 his Justice Department
prosecuted leaders of the Communist Party under
the Smith Act. Congress passed the Internal
Security Act in 1950.

23
The Civil Rights Movement (1950s)

The end of segregation in education
The end of segregation in public transportation

24
Brown v. Board of Education

In Topeka, Kansas, a black third-grader named
Linda Brown had to walk one mile through a
railroad switchyard to get to her black
elementary school, even though a white elementary
school was only seven blocks away. Linda's
father, Oliver Brown, tried to enroll her in the
white elementary school, but the principal of the
school refused. Brown went to McKinley Burnett,
the head of Topeka's branch of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) and asked for help. The NAACP was eager
to assist the Browns, as it had long wanted to
challenge segregation in public schools. With
Brown's complaint, it had "the right plaintiff at
the right time." Other black parents joined
Brown, and, in 1951, the NAACP requested an
injunction that would forbid the segregation of
Topeka's public schools.

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Although the famous court case, Brown vs. The
Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, had
declared that school segregation in the South was
unconstitutional, many Southern states refused to
integrate their schools. Little Rock Central High
School in Arkansas was one such school.

After several years of stalling, it was to have
the 1957 school year desegregated. On September
2, the night before the first day of school,
Governor Faubus announced that he had ordered the
Arkansas National Guard to monitor the school.
When a group of nine black students arrived at
Central High on September 3, they were kept from
entering by the National Guardsmen.

On September 20, an injunction(??)against
Governor Faubus was issued and three days later
the group of nine students returned to Central
High School. Although the students were not
physically injured, a mob of 1,000 townspeople
prevented them from remaining at school. Finally,
after many diplomatic efforts, President
Eisenhower intervened militarily, ordering 1,000
paratroopers and 10,000 National Guardsmen to
Little Rock, and on September 25, Central High
School was desegregated.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929
April 4, 1968) was the most famous leader of the
American civil rights movement, a political
activist, a Baptist minister, and was one of
America's greatest orators.

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American SocietyDuring the Postwar boom
(1945-1960s)

The economic boom
The baby boom

35
The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

Khrushchev and missile sites in Cuba
President Kennedy and the blockade
Removal of missiles from Cuba

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The Vietnam War (1950-75)

Beginning of American involvement in Vietnam
Outbreak of the Civil War in the south
"Americanization" of the war
"Vietnamization" of the war and the cease-fire
agreement
Impact of the Vietnam War on American society

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United States' Relations with China

The Taiwan problem and U.S. support of Chiang
Kaishek
Change in U.S. policy towards China and Nixon's
visit
Three conditions for normalization and remaining
problems

The Taiwan problem and U.S. support of Chiang
Kaishek
Since Truman sent the 7th Fleet to the Taiwan
Straits and declared that the status of Taiwan
was undecided, the Taiwan problem had been a key
problem in U.S.-China relations.

In December 1954, the U.S. government signed a
Mutual Defense Treaty with the Chiang Kaishek
regime on Taiwan, committing itself to the
defense of Taiwan and Penghu.
In the two Taiwan Straits crises of 1954 and
1958, the U.S. provided Chiang with military aid
considered, on several occasions, the use of
tactical nuclear weapons against military targets
on Mainland China.

44
Change in U.S. policy towards China and Nixon's
visit

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the deep
involvement in the Vietnam War and the expansion
of influence of the Soviet Union in the world,
the U.S. began to look for a way to improve
relations with China so as to get China's help
for its withdrawal from South Vietnam and to work
with China against Soviet expansion.

In February 1972, President Nixon visited China
and the two countries issued the Shanghai
Communiqué. The visit ended twenty-three years of
hostility and led to the establishment of
diplomatic relations in January 1979.

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Three conditions for normalization

From 1972 to 1979, the key problem that
affected the progress in U.S.-China relations
remained the Taiwan problem. The Chinese side
insisted that, to establish diplomatic relations,
the U.S. must withdraw its troops from Taiwan and
the Taiwan Straits, end diplomatic relations with
Taiwan and cancel the Mutual Defense Treaty. It
was not until November 1978 that the Carter
Administration finally accepted the three
conditions.

48
Remaining problems

But soon after the establishment of diplomatic
relations, Congress, supported by the Carter
Administration, adopted the Taiwan Relations Act
which, in words and spirit, violates the spirit
of the agreement for the establishment of
diplomatic relations.

49
Reform, Radicalism and Disappointment (1961-1973)

Reform-a period of liberal atmosphere
Radicalism and Disappointment

50
Reform-a period of liberal atmosphere

The New Frontier
The term New Frontier was used by John F. Kennedy
in his acceptance speech in 1960 to the
Democratic National Convention at the Los Angeles
Memorial Coliseum as the Democratic nominee.
Originally just a slogan to inspire America to
get behind him, the phrase developed into a label
for his administration's domestic and foreign
programs.
We stand at the edge of a New Frontierthe
frontier of unfulfilled hopes and dreams. It will
deal with unsolved problems of peace and war,
unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice,
unanswered questions of poverty and surplus.

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Lyndon Johnson
a Texan who was majority leader in the Senate
before becoming Kennedy's vice president, was a
masterful politician. As president, he wanted to
use his power aggressively to eliminate poverty
and spread the benefits of prosperity to all.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 Lyndon Johnson was
determined to secure the measures that Kennedy
had sought. Immediate priorities were bills to
reduce taxes and guarantee civil rights. Using
his skills of persuasion and calling on the
legislators' respect for the slain president, in
1964 Johnson succeeded in gaining passage of the
Civil Rights Bill. Introduced by Kennedy, it was
the most far-reaching piece of civil rights
legislation enacted since Reconstruction. The
bill outlawed discrimination not only in public
housing, but also in employment on the basis of
race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

On April 24, 1964, Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson
visited Inez, Ky., and the property of Tommy
Fletcher, a father of eight whose living
conditions epitomized the squalor that
characterized Appalachia for decades. On
Fletcher's porch, Johnson declared the War on
Poverty.

The War on Poverty The War on Poverty greatly
reduced hunger and suffering in the United
States. Especially significant was the doubling
of federal spending on social security, health,
welfare, and education, that occurred between
1965 and 1970.

On the economic front, Johnson pushed
successfully for a tax cut, then pressed for a
poverty program Kennedy had initiated. "This
administration today, here and now, declares
unconditional war on poverty in America," he
announced. The Office of Economic Opportunity
provided training for the poor and established
various community-action programs to give the
poor themselves a voice in housing, health and
education programs.

Medical care came next. Truman had proposed a
centralized scheme more than 20 years earlier,
but had failed to gain congressional passage.
Under Johnson's leadership, Congress enacted
Medicare, a health insurance program for the
elderly, and Medicaid, a program providing
health-care assistance for the poor.
Similarly, Johnson succeeded in the effort to
provide aid for elementary and secondary
schooling where Kennedy had failed. The measure
that was enacted gave money to the states based
on the number of their children from low-income
families. Funds could be used to assist public-
and private-school children alike.

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Radicalism and Disappointment

The rise of Black Power The period of liberal
atmosphere was short-lived. As liberal laws were
resisted by white supremacists and actual
benefits to the blacks were slow in coming, some
black civil rights activists proclaimed the rise
of Black Power. The black Muslims led by Malcolm
X advocated violence in self-defense and
attempted to separate themselves from white
society. The wellspring of this new militancy was
Black Nationalism, the concept that black people
everywhere in the world shared a unique history
and cultural heritage that set them apart from
whites.

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Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
Free Speech Movement
Anti-Vietnam War Movement
The National Organization for Women (NOW)

The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
In 1962, a group of radical students met in Port
Huron, Michigan to form the Students for a
Democratic Society.
The Port Huron Statement adopted the position of
"anti-anti-Communism," refusing to support the
West in the Cold War. The statement denounced
bigotry in the United States, world hunger and
American abundance, materialism, personal
alienation, industrialization, the threat of
nuclear war, military spending, and the Cold War.

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The Free Speech Movement (FSM)

a student protest which took place during the
1964-1965 school year on the campus of the
University of California, Berkeley under the
informal leadership of several students. In
protests unprecedented at the time, students
insisted that the university administration lift
a ban on on-campus political activities and
acknowledge the students' right to free speech
and academic freedom.

64
Students protest for free speech on the Berkeley
campus
65
Anti-Vietnam War Movement

political movement protesting United States
involvement in the Vietnam War (1959-1975). The
anti-Vietnam War movement was the most vocal and
sustained antiwar movement in the nations
history. It began in the early 1960s in response
to increased U.S. participation in Vietnam. The
movement eventually encompassed thousands of
different groups and millions of people who
participated in loosely organized protests to
convince their fellow citizens, as well as their
elected officials, that the war was wrong. By
1972 opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam
had become a mainstream, if still controversial,
political viewpoint.

66
anti-Vietnam war demonstration
67

The Counterculture In the wake of the Free
Speech Movement and the anti-Vietnam War Movement
appeared the movement of Counterculture which
revolted against the moral values, the aesthetic
standards, the personal behavior and the social
relations of conventional society.
Revolutionaries like Mao Zedong and Fidel Castro
became models for some of them, while millions of
college students experimented with marijuana and
hallucinogenic drugs. And music, particularly
rock music, became the chief vehicle for the
counterculture attack on the status quo.

The National Organization for Women (NOW)
Following the adoption of the 19th Amendment in
1920, the women's rights movement had faded. But
in the 1960s feminism was reborn. In the Feminine
Mystique (1963), Betty Friedan wrote that the
American home had become a "comfortable
concentration camp". This book inspired the
founding in 1966 of the National Organization of
Women, which was a reform organization battling
for equal rights in partnership with men. This
radical movement produced a new literature in
which feminists challenged everything from
women's economic, political, and legal inequality
to sexual double standards and sex role
stereotypes.

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Watergate Scandal (1971-73)

The illegal breaking into the Watergate
The taping system in the White House and the
resignation of Nixon
Impact of the Watergate Scandal

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The illegal breaking into the Watergate
On the night of June 17, 1972, police at the
Watergate apartment-office complex in Washington
D.C. arrested five men who illegally broke into
the offices of the Democratic National Committee.
Later, these five men proved to be working for
the Republican Richard Nixon's Committee to
re-elect the President. The illegal breaking
turned out to be part of an official plot to
defeat the Democrats in an election.

The taping system in the White House and the
resignation of Nixon
In 1973, one of Nixon's aides, Alexander
Butterfield, disclosed that Nixon had a taping
system installed in the White House, and that
conversations about Watergate had been recorded.
After refusing to surrender his tapes, Nixon was
taken to court by the Watergate special
investigator. On August 5, Nixon finally handed
over the complete tapes to the House Judiciary
Committee. Forty days later, Nixon resigned, the
first president to do so in U.S. history.

Impact of the Watergate Scandal
After Watergate, Americans' disillusionment
grew. Most had grown up believing their system
was the most powerful, the best, and the most
democratic in the history of humankind. By the
early 1980s, far fewer Americans clung to such
beliefs, and many wondered why they had not shed
their innocence earlier.

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New Conservatism and the Election of Ronald
Reagan

Declining of American economy and prestige
The New Right and their program

Declining of American economy and prestige
From the mid-seventies onwards, the U.S. suffered
from "stagflation" and inflation at the same
time. Economic growth was slowing, while prices
and unemployment were rising. The income of
American working people went down with the
declining of the real spendable earnings. The
economic recession affected a large section of
the middle class who became more and more
disappointed and dissatisfied.

Besides, as a result of the Vietnam War and the
Watergate scandal, American prestige became much
lower abroad, and in the face of Soviet
aggressive expansion the U.S. seemed impotent.
This made many Americans feel humiliated and want
to strike back.

The New Right and their program
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a
rise in New Right conservatism. The New Right
consists of two groups of people the firm
believers of Protestant religious teachings who
were more concerned with social and moral issues
and the intellectuals who were more concerned
with political and foreign policy issues.

The New Right demanded equal time in school for
the teaching of man created by God in contrast to
the teaching of evolution, opposed abortion and
"affirmative action (i.e. preferential treatment
for minorities and women in education and
employment), and demanded tax cuts, social
security spending cuts, and the rebuilding of
American military strength.

It was this trend of conservatism that brought
Ronald Reagan into the White House in 1981.

On February 6, 1911, Ronald Wilson Reagan was
born to Nelle and John Reagan in Tampico,
Illinois. He attended high school in nearby Dixon
and then worked his way through Eureka College.
There, he studied economics and sociology, played
on the football team, and acted in school plays.
Upon graduation, he became a radio sports
announcer. A screen test in 1937 won him a
contract in Hollywood. During the next two
decades he appeared in 53 films.

As president of the Screen Actors Guild, Reagan
became embroiled in disputes over the issue of
Communism in the film industry his political
views shifted from liberal to conservative. He
toured the country as a television host, becoming
a spokesman for conservatism. In 1966 he was
elected Governor of California by a margin of a
million votes he was re-elected in 1970.

Ronald Reagan won the Republican Presidential
nomination in 1980 and chose as his running mate
former Texas Congressman and United Nations
Ambassador George Bush. Voters troubled by
inflation and by the year-long confinement of
Americans in Iran swept the Republican ticket
into office. Reagan won 489 electoral votes to 49
for President Jimmy Carter.

On January 20, 1981, Reagan took office. Only 69
days later he was shot by a would-be assassin,
but quickly recovered and returned to duty. His
grace and wit during the dangerous incident
caused his popularity to soar.

Dealing skillfully with Congress, Reagan obtained
legislation to stimulate economic growth, curb
inflation, increase employment, and strengthen
national defense. He embarked upon a course of
cutting taxes and Government expenditures,
refusing to deviate from it when the
strengthening of defense forces led to a large
deficit.

A renewal of national self-confidence by 1984
helped Reagan and Bush win a second term with an
unprecedented number of electoral votes. Their
victory turned away Democratic challengers Walter
F. Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro.

Have you mastered these points?

1. Conflicts arose between the United States and
the Soviet Union because___.
A. their common enemies Nazi Germany and Japan
were defeated
B. They had very different concepts of postwar
world order
C. the United States wanted cooperation with
the Soviet Union but the Soviet Union refused.
D. the soviet Union wanted cooperation with the
United States but the Untied States refused

2. The essence of the Truman Doctrine was ______.
A. to provide economic and military support for
any country which was fighting internal Communist
rebels or external Communist pressure
B. to provide aid for Greece and Turkey which
were fighting against Communism
C. to provide economic aid to needy countries
D. to give moral support to the struggle of free
people

3. President Truman on March 21, 1947 issued an
executive order, initiating a comprehensive
investigation of the loyalty of all federal
employees. This was the beginning of ______.
A. McCarthyism
B. Clearing out Soviet spies
C. widespread persecution of Communists and
progressive people
D. persecution of federal employees

4. The Supreme Court played a role in whipping up
the anticommunist hysteria by ______.
A. upholding the constitutionality of the Smith
Act
B. convicting 11 high-ranking Communist leaders
C. supporting the trial of Alger Hiss
D. supporting President Truman's executive order

5. When ______,this was the beginning of American
involvement in Vietnam.
A. the United States decided to provide France
with military aid in their fight in Vietnam
B. the United States started to provide aid for
the South Vietnamese government after the Geneva
Conference in 1854
C. the United States sent more and more
military advisers to South Vietnam
D. the United States began to Americanize the
war in Vietnam