The Cold War Era 1945-1991 Happy Days

Post War America

Demobilization
Size of the armed forces was decreased - 1946 - 12 million to 3 million
Some still served in West Germany and Japan to ensure a smooth governmental transition
Election of 1948
Democratic Nominee: Harry S. Truman - Incumbent Pres
Democratic party split - Opposed to Trumans stand on civil rights
Republican nominee: Thomas E. Dewey - Gov. of New York
Truman - Campaigned by train - Whistle Stop
TV was a factor
Truman wins a close election
Truman - wanted to give the American people to a Fair Deal
Fair Deal - An extension of New deal reforms
Atomic Energy
Atomic Energy Act - Preserved govt. control of fissionable materials
Atomic Energy commission (AEC) Encouraged private and government research an developed of atomic energy
National Security Act
Armed forces - placed under a new Cabinet department
Headed by a civilian: Sec. of Defense
Created the National Security Council and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Presidential Succession Act
Succession passed from Vice President to Speaker of the House and then to the President
pro tempore of the Senate
Truman - Believed the President should be someone elected to office
Twenty-Second Amendment

 Limited any president after Harry Truman to two terms

A reaction of FDRs time in office
Consumerism
People desire the objects their neighbors have - keeping up with the jones
More disposable income = more spending
Luxury items
Advertising
People are buying more
Companies marketing goods to try and sell
Advertising explosion
Levittown
Levittown, NY one of the first suburbs
Bill Levitt - mass produced similar looking houses
Houses were inexpensive
Other Levittown's spring up
Reasons for moving to the suburbs:
Escape crime and congestion
better life
Picturesque environment
Affordable
Effect - Leads to urban sprawl
Technological Breakthroughs
Polio vaccination
Jonas Salk - 1954
Polio was a huge issue in the 1950s
We didn't know what caused it
Polio Vaccine

 Jonas Salk first test it on himself and family

Albert Sabin invents oral vaccination
Polio cases plummet across USA
Rise in Television Popularity
TuVs more affordable
1946 - 7000 sets
1957 - 40,000,000 sets
Advertising finds a new outlet
Athletic events become very popular

Popular Tv Programs of the 1950s

Comedy Shows
Bob Hope and Jack Benny
Action Shows
Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke
Variety Shows
Ed Sullivan show, quiz shows
Movies in the 1950s
TV grows; Movies decline
Try different things
- 3-D
- Widescreen
- Drive In Movies
Youth Culture
Rock and Roll

 Early forms grew from R&B

Music was ideal for dancing
Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and the Comets
Music and Youth
Rock n Roll became the popular music of the times
Parents do not like it
Youths rebel
People complain that Rock n Roll incites youths
Generation Gap
African American Entertainers
TV tended to shut out African American Entertainers
Few break through
Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Little Richard popular
Female groups became popular
Other side of American Life
In 1950 1 in 3 were impoverished
End of the 50s 1 in 5
Most were blind to the nations poor
Thought all were well
Not all Americans were apart of the affluent society
Minorities and rural poor
The American Dream remained out of reach for these people
Decline of the Inner City
White families move to suburbs
Tax money goes with these people
Urban centers begin to decline
Urban renewal

 Tear down slums

Nice high rise towers
- Overcrowded: leads to violence
African Americans in the 1950s
City population increase
Mostly due to African Americans moving North during/after WWII
Life was typically not better in the north
Racial discrimination continues
last hired, first fired
Hispanic-Americans in the 1950s
Bracero Program
Brings million of workers to work on farms in SW
- Temporary - Started during WWII
Long hours, little pay
10-12 hours a day
100 degrees
Slept where they could, ate what they could
Native Americans in the 1950s
Made $1000 less than a typical African American worker
Termination Policy - federal government terminated separate status
Forced them to assimilate into society
Disastrous policy

Juvenile Delinquency
Increase 45% in the early 50s
Crime increases

 Car theft
Muggings
Why?
Stereotypes abound
Education system
Focus in thrown into better education younger citizens

Interstate Highway System

Beginnings
Eisenhower and army personnel crossed the country in 1919
Autobahn
Eisenhower liked the autobahn in Germany
Thought it was efficient
Kept that in his head
How it came to be
Eisenhower: Threw support behind creation of the Interstate System
Revitalizing nations highway system was a high priority
Ownership and Operation
The individual states own and operate the Interstate System
Currently 46,876 miles of highway
Speed Limits
States control the MPH limit: In 1974 it was 55
You could go over, but lose federal funds
Hotness Level
How hot was the Cold War?
Level 1: Friends - Team you support (Phillies/Eagles)
Level 2: Acquaintance - Team you mildly support (Pirates/Steelers)

 Level 3: Dislike Person - Team you dislike (Nationals/Redskins)

Level 4: Strong Dislike - Team you would never root for (Braves/Patriots)
Level 5: Mortal Enemy - Team you actively hate and root against (Mets/Cowboys)
Early Cold War Foreign Affairs
United Nations
A new organization to replace the League of Nations
Organized to promote international security and cooperation
General Assembly included delegates from every member nation
Truman Doctrine
Attempted to contain communist growth
Containment Policy
Did so by supporting those who resisted Communism
Peacetime military aid to other countries; Became our diplomacy
Turkey and Greece
Marshall Plan
Sec. of State Marshall - Provide gifts to Europe
Wanted to prevent economic, social, and political deterioration
Also, US was concerned countries that were is dis repair would go to Communism
Russia and satellites did not accept aid
Berlin Airlift
June 1948 - Russians banned all traffic between Allied controlled West Berlin and Russian
controlled East Berlin
Russians - Wanted to drive Allies out of West Berlin by cutting off supplies
US, England, France supplied West Berlin by air
May 1949 - Russians lifted the blockade
Fall of China
US former ally, Chiang Kai-shek, was driven out of mainland China

 October 1949 - Chinese Communists, led by Mao Zedong, controlled the Chinese mainland
The fall of the mainland seemed like one more defeat (to communism) for the US
N.A.T.O
NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied US and Canada with ten W. European nations from Norway to Portugal; Eventually 15
members
Signed April 4, 1949; An attack on one is treated as and attack on all
US joined the first peacetime alliance in its history
Gen. Eisenhower - Commander of NATO forces
Korean War
Invasion by North Korea:
1949 and 1950 - Skirmishes took place between N and S Korea along the 38th parallel
(Dividing Line)
Suddenly on June 25, 1950, 135,000 N. Koreans, armed and organized by the Soviets,
attacked S. Korea
Trumans Action
Had the attack brought before the UN Security Council
UN - Called for an end to fighting
General MacArthur - Told to furnish arms and naval and air support to South Korea
UN Action
2 days after invasion, UN Security Council calls on member to aid S. Korea
Gen. MacArthur - Put in command of UN forces
Inchon Landing
Early days of the war: N. Korea pushed S. Korea and UN forces south into a small area
around Pusan
Sept. 15, 1950 - MacArthur lands forces from sea at Inchon
A daring and successful flank maneuver

Chinese Communists in Korea

UN - Wanted to defeat NK and create a unified, independent, and democratic govt.
China warned - If UN crossed 38th parallel, the Chinese would defend NK
Chinese troops joined NK after UN troops crossed the 38
Truman vs MacArthur
Mac - An entirely new war
Wanted to bomb mainland China
Truman and Joint Chiefs of Staff refused him
Truman removed Mac from his position

Today: The border (close to the 38) is a Demilitarized Zone (2.5 miles wide)
It is the MOST heavily militarized border in the world

Post Quiz
Eisenhowers Domestic Program
Election of 1952
Republican Nominee: Dwight D. Eisenhower
GOP - Grand Old Party: Nickname of Rep. Party
Democratic Nominee: Adlai E. Stevenson
Eisenhower Won Easily
Eisenhowers Farm Problem
Farm Problem: Surplus Farm Production
Eisenhower admin - Discouraged overproduction
Soil Bank - Paid farmers for not planting their crops
Combating Communism at Home
Many believed that there was a strong communist conspiracy to take over the US

 Truman - Issued and Executive Order to go after suspected communists

FBI and Civil Service Commission checked the loyalty of all Federal employees; many were
dismissed
McCarthyism and its Demise
Senator Joseph McCarthy - Felt Communists ha taken over many Govt. positions
Accused many individuals of communist activities
TV exposed and defeated McCarthy - Influence rapidly declined
Election of 1956
SAME AS 1952
Ike vs Stevenson: Ike wins 2nd term
Alaskan and Hawaiian Statehood
49th State - Alaska - Jan. 1959
50th State - Hawaii - Aug. 1959
Eisenhower and Foreign Affairs
Brinkmanship
Eisenhowers Sec. Of State - John Foster Dulles
Dulles threatened massive retaliation against the Soviet Union or Communist China if they
attacked any country
Brinkmanship - Necessary to go to the brink of war to preserve the peace of the world
Crisis in Indochina
Following WWII - Communist Ho Chi Minh liberated Vietnam
The French tried to re-gain control and set up a puppet gov.
US air to the French
US aided the French because we felt they were helping us contain communism
1950 - US helped the French with money and weapons
1954 - US paid for 80% of the cost of the war
Dien Bien Phu

 Communist Viet Minh troops had trapped a large French force

Should the US assist the French? Decide against it
French was defeated
Geneva Agreement
Vietnam would be divided in two
North: Communist
South: a free Govt.
S.E.A.T.O
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
Special Attention/support to Non-Communist nations - and attempt to keep Communism from
spreading
Hungarian Revolution, 1956
Hungarian people revolt against Communism
Crushed by Soviet tanks and troops
US could not provide much help
Eisenhower Doctrine
March 1957 - US would help any Middle East country that requested aid to resist military
aggression from a Communist Country
Came about as a result of the Suez Crisis
Sputnik and the Space Race
Rocket development became very important
Operation Paperclip - Project to rescue German rocket engineers from WWII
Worked on a rocket and space travel for the US
Oct. 4, 1957 - Russians sent up the first man-made earth satellite - Sputnik
Feb. 1958 - US launches its first satellite - Explorer I - Space race is on
1958 - National Aeronautics and Space Admin (NASA)

Scheduled Summit Conference

U-2 Incident:
May 5, 1960 - Soviet forces shot down and American U-2 spy plane
Khrushchev demanded and apology; Ike refused
Wreck of summit of hopes:
The chance of a summit was now gone
Rise of Castro in Cuba
1958 - Forces led by Fidel Castro overthrew the Cuban Govt.
Set up Communist Govt. supported by the Soviets
Eisenhower Steps Down
Farewell address - wanted of a military-industrial complex
He and others were concerned with the new relationship formed between the military
establishment and the defense industry
Many did not see a lasting peace in future years, and feared spending on defense