Postwar Economic Anxieties
o Joblessness and insecurity = ^ suicide rate and dampened the marriage rate.
o After war GNP decreased from wartime peak and prices increased 33 %.
§ Many strikes out of fear that goods cannot be afforded later.
§ Worried conservatives = Taft Hartley Act over Truman’s veto
· Outlawed all closed shops, made unions liable for damages resulted from jurisdictional disputes among themselves and required union leaders to take noncommunist oath.
§ Slowed growth of organized labor in years after WWII.
o Labor efforts to organize in South, West frustrating.
§ CIO’s “Operation Dixie” aimed at unionizing southern textile workers and steel workers failed due to lingering fears of racial mixing.
§ Laborers in service sector much more difficult to organize
· Widely separated from one another.
· Union membership peak in 1950s then begin decline.
o Truman administration
§ Sold war factories and other gov installations to private businesses at very low prices.
§ Employment Act making it gov policy to promote max employment, production and purchasing power.
· Created Council of Economic Advisers to help president w/ econ recommendations to make policy reality.
§ GI Bill of Rights.
· Generous provisions sending former soldiers to school.
· Enabled Veterans Administration to guarantee $16 bil in loans for veterans to buy homes, farms and small businesses.
The Long Economic Boom 1950 – 1970
o 1950 America economy = sustained growth
o national income doubled in 1950s and again in 1960s.
§ 6% enjoying 40% of wealth.
§ Did not enrich all, but transformed majority of lives
§ New welfare programs like Medicare.
§ Middle class ($3000 - $10,000 per year) doubled and included 60% of people.
· 90% owned TV, 60% owned homes by 1960 compared w/ 40% in 1920s.
o Great majority of postwar jobs created went to women.
§ Accounted for 25% of US workforce at end of WWI.
§ Accounted for 50% of labor pool 5 decades later.
· Clashed w/ traditional feminine roles as mother.
The Roots of Postwar Prosperity
o US used war crisis to fire up factories and rebuild economy.
§ 1950s 1960s economy rested on military spendings
§ Critics = “permanent war economy”.
§ 1950 fueled by Korean War and defense spending accounted for 10% of GNP.
· Dollars spent on high tech industries, aerospace, plastics, electronics.
· Financed much research and development (think tanks and the Rand Corporation).
o Cheap energy fueld econ boom.
§ Abundant flow of petroleum. Kept prices low.
§ Doubled their consumption of oil quartercentury after war.
§ 6 fold increase in country’s electricity generating capacity b/w 1945 – 1970.
o Increased productivity of workers.
§ 3 percent increase per year.
§ By 1970 90% of school age population in education.
· Due to better edu could produce twice as much in hour than they have in 1950.
o Mechanization of agriculture, family farm was artifact.
§ One farmworker to produce food for over 50 people.
§ From 15% before war to 2% after war, but fed much of the world.
The Smiling Sunbelt
o Postwar average of 30 mil people changed homes every year.
§ Families apart.
§ Dr. Benjamin Spock’s The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care.
· Instructed parents in homely wisdom from grandparent to later generations.
§ But mobility = loneliness and isolation.
o Sunbelt growth
§ Population growth rate nearly double to that of industrial zones of NE in 1950s.
§ CA = 1/5 of entire nations growth, 1963 most populace state w/ NY behind.
§ South and SW new frontier for Americans.
§ Many federal dollars for Sunbelt’s prosperity though southern, western politicians against use of gov spending in South.
o New econ war b/w states.
§ Opposition from those of the Rustbelt.
o Shifts of population = every elected occupant of White House since 1964 from Sunbelt and region’s congressional rep rose as its population grew.
The Rush to the Suburbs
o White middle class to suburbs.
§ Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Veterans Administration (VA) home-loan guarantees made it more economically attractive to own a home in suburbs than rent to an apartment in the city.
· Gov built highways = suburbans could go to work faster.
§ 1960 25% in suburbs and later to 50%.
o Construction = Levittown” revolutionized techniques of home construction.
§ 100s or 1000s of dwellings in a single project.
§ Homebuyers moved into them by the millions.
o Left inner cities black, brown and broke.
§ Businesses went from downtown shops to suburban shopping malls.
§ FHA admin cited risk of making loans to blacks so refused them mortgages for private home purchases.
· Limited black mobility out of inner cities.
§ Public housing often build housing for blacks in neighborhoods already black, solidifying racial separation.
The Postwar Baby Boom
o Baby boom huge leap in birthrate in decade and half after 1945.
o 50 million babies
§ Followed by very low fertility rates that dropped below point necessary to maintain existing population figures.
o Elementary school enrollments many in 1970 then was a steady decline w/ closed schools and unemployed teachers.
§ 1940s and 1950s were toddlers therefore industry for baby products
§ 1960s teenagers had clothes and rock music.
§ 1970s had popular jeans.
§ 1980 crowded job market
§ Later stress on Social Security system as they went into retirement.
Truman: The “Gutty” Man from MO”
o Truman very average, first in long time w/o college education.
§ Assertive
§ “I’ve never been talked to like that in my life”
§ “Carry out your agreements and you won’t get talked to like that”.
o Had the associates of “Missouri gang” gather around him.
o The buck stops here
§ Doesn’t dodge responsibility.
Yalta: Bargain or Betrayal?
o Yalta Conference with Big Three.
o Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt.
§ Stalin agreed that Poland, Bulgaria and Romania can have free elections, but he broke pledge later.
o Big Three announced plans for United Nations.
o Most controversial decisions over Far East.
§ Atom bomb not tested yet, and US
§ Feared that Stalin should enter Asian war and put down Japan troops, but Soviet casualties already enormous.
§ Stalin agreed to attack Japan within 3 months after Germany, but would get some land as well as control of railroads of China.
· Would give Stalin control over industrial centers of China.
· Undermining of Chinese morale accused of contributing to Jiang’s overthrow by communists later.
· Also attacked “sellout” of Poland and Eastern Europe.
o Yalta Conference was sketching general intentions and testing each other’s reactions
The United States and the Soviet Union
o A lot of suspicion.
§ US refused to recognize Bolshevik gov until 16 years later.
§ Allies’ delayed second front against Germany = USSR mad.
§ USSR kept out of Manhattan Project.
§ US terminated lend-lease aid to USSR in 1945.
o Had conflicting visions
§ Stalin wanted to guarantee security for USSR.
§ Twice stabbed from west.
§ Determined to have friendly governments in western border.
§ Wanted safe “sphere of influence”
· Conflicted w/ FDR’s Wilsonian dream of having an “open world”.
o Both countries very similar, which was troublesome.
§ Largely isolated, one by choice, one by rejection.
§ Both had missionary diplomacy.
o Confrontational unavoidable
Shaping the Postwar World
o Bretton Woods Conference.
§ Allies est. International Monetary Fund.
· To encourage world trade by regulating currency exchange rates.
§ International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank).
· Promote economic growth in war-ravaged world.
o US took lead in creating important int’l bodies and supplied most of funding.
o United Nations Conference.
§ FDR brought both Demo and Repub delegates.
§ Representatives from 50 nations.
· Made the UN Charter, Security Council dominated by Big Five (US, Britain, USSR, France, China) with right of veto and the Assembly.
o UN successes:
§ Preserved peace in Iran, Kashmir, other trouble spots.
§ Created state of Israel.
§ UNESCO (educational, scientific and cultural organization), FAO (food and agricultural organization) and WHO (world health) brought benefits to people.
o Failures:
§ Failed to control atomic developments.
§ US Bernard Baruch called for UN agency free from great power veto w/ worldwide authority over atom energy.
§ Soviets suggested that nuclear wewapons be outlawed in every nation
· Both plans collapsed.
· Truman did not want to give up bombs, Soviets did not want to be spied upon.
The Problem of Germany
o Nuremburg trials.
§ Germans accused of committing crimes against laws of war and humanity and plotting aggressions contrary to solemn treaty pledges.
§ 12 hung, 7 to long jail terms.
§ Criticized as “judicial lynchings”.
o Disagreement over what to do w/ postwar Germany.
§ US initially wanted to dismantle Germany factories
§ Soviets who were denied US assistance wanted to rebuild land by extracting reparations from Germans.
· Both ideas clashed w/ idea that healthy Germany = healthy Europe.,
§ US eventually realized, but Soviets resisted all efforts to revitalize Germany.
o Divisions
§ Austria, Germany divided into four military occupational zones.
§ Each assigned to Big Four Powers
§ When wanting to reunite Germany, USSR held on grip to eastern Germany.
· Eastern Germany along w/ Poland and Hungary were “satellite states” bound to USSR.
· Eastern Europe disappeared behind iron curtain
o Controversies over German currency and four-power control = choked off rail and highway access to Berlin.
§ Americans = Berlin air lift
§ Soviets would lift blockade in 1949
· Same time two Germanies, East and West make their governments.
Crystallizing the Cold War
o Stalin wanted to get part of oil-rich Iran and broke an agreement to remove troops from Iran.
§ Used them to aid rebel movement.
§ Truman protests, USSR backs down.
§ Truman: “I’m tired of babying the Soviets”
o Began containment doctrine
§ Developed by George F. Kennan
§ Held that since USSR wanted to expand, should “get tough” with it and decrease that.
o Test: Britain can no longer bear aid to Greece against communists.
§ Truman Doctrine.
§ $400 million to help Greece and Turkey.
§ “It must be the policy of the US to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures”
· criticized for polarizing Cold War.
o France, Italy and Germany also suffering from hunger and econ chaos after war
§ Led to Marshall Plan which invited European nations to get together and get out a JOINT plan for econ recovery.
· If so, US would provide financial assistance.
· Would lead to the European Community creation.
§ Marshall offered same aid to USSR if they would make political reforms, but they rejected.
o 12.5 billion spending over 4 years in 16 cooperating countries.
§ US had already contributed to EU relief through UNRRA and US contributions to UN, IMF, World Bank.
§ Motivated by Soviet communist coups in Czechoslovakia.
o Marshall plan a SUCCESS.
§ Aided countries exceeding prewar outputs soon.
o Access to ME oil crucial to EU recovery program and US economy.
§ Oil countries did not want an Israel.
§ But Truman recognized the state of Israel b/c of humanitarian sympathy as his wishes to prevent Soviet influence in Jewish state and to have US Jewish voter support.
America Begins to Rearm
o USSR armed services led to National Security Act creating the Department of Defense
§ Headed by new secretary of defense.
§ Civil secretaries of navy, army and air force.
§ Also established National Security Council advising president on security matters and the CIA to coordinate the government’s foreign fact-gathering.
o “Voice of America” beaming US radio broadcasts behind iron curtain.
o Selective Service System provided for conscription of selected young men 19 – 25 years.
o USSR threat also forcing democracies of Western Europe into unity.
§ North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
· 12 countries pledged to “collective security”
· would strengthen containment, provide framework for reintegrating Germany into EU, would reassure Europe that there wouldn’t be isolatinoist US.
· Membership to 14 after Greece and Turkey, and then West Germany.
§ Was departure from US diplomatic convention, boost for EU unification, step towards militarization of Cold War.
Reconstruction and Revolution in Asia
o Reconstruction led by Douglas MacArthur
§ Went inflexibly ahead
§ Tokyo Trials where Japanese “war criminals” 18 to prison, 7 hanged.
o Japanese cooperated very well.
§ MacArthur constitution adopted.
· Renounced militarism and introduced Western-style democratic government.
o China wasn’t so good
§ Civil war b/w nationalists and communists.
§ Corruption in Jiang Jieshi’s government eventually meant the “fall of China”
· But China was never controlled by non-communists in the first place.
o Truman announces that USSR exploded an atomic bomb
Ferreting Out Alleged Communists
o New antired chase at home.
o Truman launched massive “loyalty” program
§ Drew up “disloyal” organizations and told them to prove innocence.
§ Loyalty Review Board investigated 3 mil federal employees.
§ Loyalty oaths demanded of employees.
o Smith Act first peacetime antisedition law
§ Supreme Court upheld constitutionality in Dennis v. United States.
o House of Reps establishes Committee on Un-American Activities
§ Richard Nixon ambitious red-catcher led case after Alger Hiss.
§ Hiss denied everything but in embarrassing falsehoods, convicted of perjury.
o Nixon and McCarthy used scare of communists to go against real/perceived social changes incl. declining religious sentiment, increased sexual freedom, civil rights.
o Truman recognized that red hunt into witch hunt.
§ Vetoed McCarran Internal Security Bill.
· Authorized president to arrest and detain suspicious people during an “internal security emergency”.
· Conservative congressional delegates overran veto.
o Soviet success due to communist spies stealing American secrets
§ “leaked” atomic data allegedly b/c of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
§ Only people in US history ever executed in peacetime for espionage
Democratic Divisions in 1948
o Republicans won Congressional control 1946
§ Still chose Thomas E. Dewey.
o Democrats nominated Dwight D. Eisenhower but he refused to be drafted so Truman nominated again.
§ Opposed by southern delegates who were alienated by his strong stand in favor of civil rights for blacks
o Trumans nomination = divided Democrats.
§ Dixiecrats went to nominate J. Strom Thurmond on a States’ Rights ticket.
§ Former Democrat Henry A. Wallace nominated by new Progressive party.
· Had a pro-Soviet line that raised the only hopeful voice in Cold War.
o Against all odds, Truman wins.
§ “give em hell” speeches
§ Support for civil rights, improved labor benefits and health insurance.
· Support from South, Midweest, West.
· Dewey votes from East.
o Democrats regained control of Congress.
§ Truman victory rested on farmers, workers and blacks, all of them Republican-wary.
o Truman called for a bold new program “Point Four”.
§ Lend money to underdeveloped lands to help themselves.
§ Prevent communism rather than cut communism out of place.
§ Brought assistance to badly needed places like Latin America, Africa, ME and Far East.
o Fair Deal back at home.
§ Improved housing, full employment, higher minimum wage, better farm price supports, new TVAs and extension of Social security.
§ Most of Fair Deal victim to congressional opposition from Repubs and Southern Democrats.
· Only successes in raising minimum wage, providing for public housing in Housing Act and extending social security to many more in Social Security Act of 1950
The Korean Volcano Erupts (1950)
o USSR and US troops stopped at 38th parallel.
§ 1949 both had withdrawn forces, yet very suspicious of each other.
§ Secretary of State Acheson declared that Korea was outside essential US defense perimeter in Pacific.
o 1950 June 25 North Korean army attacked south Korean forces, went to Pusan
o Containment doctrine shaped US foreign policy, so Korean invasion
§ Allowed for expansion of US military
§ Truman’s National Security Council recommended National Security Council Memorandum # 68 which suggested that US should quadruple its defense spending.
· Resurrected by Korean crisis.
§ Truman orders massive military buildup beyond what is necessary for Korean War.
o Major step in militarization of US foreign policy.
§ Reflected sense of limitless possibility throughout postwar US.
§ Rested on assumption that US economy could bear out huge costs of rearmament.
o In Soviet absense UNSC had a unanimous condemnation of North Korea as aggressor.
§ Council called upon all members to restore peace.
§ Truman ordered US air, naval units to support South Korea.
o US was participating in UN’s “police action” but in reality was making up a lot of the UN contingents.
§ General MacArthur UN commander of entire operation
§ Orders from US not Security Council
The Military Seesaw in Korea
o MacArthur amphibious landing at Inchon.
§ Reclaim Korea and went north, provided no intervention by Chinese or soviets.
· Chinese warned that they would not sit back.
§ Chinese volunteers pushed them back to peninsula.
§ MacArthur wanted drastic retaliation, incl blockade of Chinese coast and bombardment of Chinese bases in Manchuria.
· US refused to enlarge conflict, and MacArthur went against his boss Truman, so removed.
0 comments:
Post a Comment