Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Enduring Vision Chap 26: The Cold War


Identifications
1.       GI Bill of Rights (Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944)
a.       Provided for college or vocational education for returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as GIs or G. I.s) as well as one-year of unemployment compensation.
b.       provided loans for returning veterans to buy homes and start businesses.
2.       Bretton Woods Agreement
a.       international financial agreement signed shortly before the end of world war ii that created the world bank and the international monetary fund
b.      International Monetary Fund
                                    i.      An international organization of 183 countries, established in 1947 by a united nations with the goal of promoting cooperation and exchange between nations, and to aid the growth of international trade.
c.       World Bank
                                    i.      An international bank established in 1944 to help member nations reconstruct and develop, esp. by guaranteeing loans:
                                  ii.      a specialized agency of the United Nations. Officially named the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
3.       Employment Act of 1946
a.       Main purpose was to lay the responsibility of economic stability onto the federal government.
b.      legislation declaring that the government's economic policy should aim to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power, as well as to keep inflation low.
c.       a general commitment that was much shorter on specific targets and rules than its liberal creators had wished. created the council of economic advisers
d.      The Council of Economic Advisors 
a.       to provide the president with data and recommendations to make economic policy
4.       Yalta Declaration of Liberated Europe
a.       all nations previously under German control would have a democratic government. Stalin broke his agreement. he barred free elections in Poland and by trying to create a sphere of influence in eastern Europe.
5.       George F. Kennan and the containment policy
a.       "the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the cold war, believed the us should resist soviet attempts to expand power and influence.
b.      Policy that called on the United States to take steps to prevent soviet expansion. the policy would adopt two approaches. One approach was military; the other was economic.
6.       Winston Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech
a.       Winston Churchill reviewed the international response to Russian aggression and declared an "iron curtain" had descended across Eastern Europe, separating western democracies from eastern, communist countries
b.      Condemned Stalin’s behavior and Called for an anticommunist alliance of the English-speaking peoples
7.       Atomic Energy Act and the Atomic Energy Commission
a.       created the atomic energy commission (AEC) to oversee nuclear weapons research and to promote peacetime uses of atomic energy
8.       Truman Doctrine
a.       Truman wanted to prevent the spread of communism. He wanted it "contained".
b.      The first implementation of the Truman Doctrine was $400 million given to aid Greece and Turkey to prevent a communist takeover, after Britain no longer could afford to provide anti-communist aid
c.       it pledged to provide U.S. military and economic aid to any nation threatened by communism
9.       George C. Marshall and The Marshall Plan
a.       oversaw the implementation of the European recovery program, offered financial aid to the soviet union and its allies
b.      plan that the US came up with to revive war-torn economies of Europe and help prevent the spread of communism. this plan offered $17 billion in aid to western and southern Europe
10.   Berlin Blockade and airlift
a.       soviets blockaded Berlin after saying that the 4-power administration of the city was no longer in effect
b.       US & Britain responded by airlifting necessities of life to west Berliners to keep them alive
c.        the soviets eventually lifted the blockade, allowing US, Britain, & France to keep their outpost deep in soviet-controlled Europe
11.   North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Warsaw Pact
a.       NATO: a military alliance established by the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949. With headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, the organization establishes a system of collective security whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. US, England, France, Canada, Western European Countries
b.      Warsaw Pact: treaty signed in 1945 that formed an alliance of the eastern European countries behind the iron curtain; Ussr, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. In response to NATO
12.   General Douglas MacArthur
a.       one of the most-known American military leaders of ww2(he liberated the Philippines and made the Japanese surrender at Tokyo in 1945, also he drove back north Korean invaders during the Korean war)
b.      disobeys orders of Truman to retreat from Korea, since he does not like Truman. Truman fires him and is critiqued for firing him. General comes home a hero. 
c.       MacArthur wanted to use the Atomic bombs against China, since China had invaded Korea to prevent US interference of Korea. Truman fires him.
13.   National Security Council and NSC-68
a.       an office created in 1947 to coordinate the president's foreign and military policy advisers. its formal members are the president, vice president, secretary of state, and secretary of defense, and it is managed by the president's national security assistant.
b.      NSC-68: document, approved by president Truman in 1950, developed in response to the soviet union's growing influence and nuclear capability; pushed for a large build up of the U.S military. it allowed the U.S to quickly build up its military for the Korean conflict.
14.   Taft-Hartley Act
a.       federal law that greatly restricts the activities and power of labor unions.
b.      The Act is still largely in effect
c.        U.S. President Harry S. Truman described the act as a "slave-labor bill" and vetoed it, adding that it would "conflict with important principles of our democratic society".
d.       The Senate followed the House of Representatives in overriding Truman's veto on June 23, 1947, establishing the act as a law. The Taft-Hartley Act amended the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA, also known as the Wagner Act), which Congress had passed in 1935.
15.   To Secure These Rights
a.       report produced by the committee of civil rights in 1957 that called for the elimination of segregation
b.      Dramatized the inequities of life in Jim Crow America and emphasized all the compelling moral, economic, and international reasons for the government to enact federal legislation outlawing lynching and the poll tax, establish a permanent FEPC, desegregate the armed forces, and support a legal assault on segregation in education, housing, and interstate transportation.
16.   J Strom Thurmond and The Dixiecrats
a.       Dixiecrats: (States' Rights party) Splinter party of the Democrats who aimed to protect states' rights and the southern way of life from the expanding federal government; supporters of racial segregation, the party formed after delegates walked out of the Democratic convention when Truman endorsed the Civil Rights card.
b.      Strom Thurmond: ran for the presidency of the United States in 1948 under the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party banner. He garnered 39 electoral votes in that race, making him the first third party presidential candidate to receive electoral votes since Robert LaFollette in 1924.
17.   Henry A. Wallace and the Progressive Party
a.       Wallace: FDR's vice president in 1940. Headed the Board of Economic Warfare, a position vital to US entry into WWII. After the declaration of the Truman Doctrine, he made an unsuccessful run as the Progressive Party Candidate in 1948, advocating an end to segregation, full voting rights for blacks, and universal health insurance.
b.      Progressive Party: Made up of left-wing Democrats
18.   Thomas E. Dewey:
a.       Republican candidate in 1944 and 1948. In 1948 he was widely expected to beat Truman, who was losing popularity, so Dewey centered his campaign on doing and saying nothing. His political stances revolved around clever witticisms like, "Our future lies ahead."
19.   The Conservative coalition in Congress
20.   House Un-American Activities Committee
a.       (HUAC) Created on temporary basis to monitor activities of foreign agents. Made a standing committee in 1945. During WWII most investigations involved fascists, following the war the committee focused on communists.
b.      investigate disloyalty in the US
21.   Federal Employee Loyalty Program
a.       united states executive order 9835
b.      1947. President Truman had FBI screen federal employees to see if they had any communist ties. 3,000 employees were either fired or resigned
22.   Smith Act and Dennis v. United States
a.       Dennis v. United States: 1951, The Supreme Court upheld the conviction clearing the way for prosecution of other communist leaders. In July 1048, the administration charged eleven top communists with violating the Smith Act of 1940, After ten months of trial and deliberation, a lower court declared the Smith Act constitutional and the communists guilty.
b.      Smith Act: which made it a crime to conspire to "advocate and teach" the violent overthrow of government. The basis of later prosecutions of members of the Communist and Socialist Workers parties. Required fingerprinting and regulating of all aliens in the US.
23.   Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers, and Richard M. Nixon
a.       Alger Hiss: A former State Department official who was accused of being a Communist spy and was convicted of perjury. The case was prosecuted by Richard Nixon.
b.      Whittaker Chambers: An American writer/editor who was a defected communist and Soviet Union spy. Best known for his testimony against Alger Hiss.
24.   Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
a.       Rosenberg case: American communists executed for passing nuclear weapons secrets to the USSR.
25.    Joseph R. McCarthy and McCarthyism
a.       Began sensational campaign in February, 1950 by asserting that the U.S. State Department had been infiltrated by Communists.
b.       In 1953 became Chair of the Senate Sub- Committee on Investigations and accused the Army of covering up foreign espionage. The Army-McCarthy Hearings made McCarthy look so foolish that further investigations were halted.
c.       McCarthyism: the act of accusing people of disloyalty and communism, a synonym for public charges of disloyalty without sufficient regard for evidence. Mass hysteria
26.   McCarran Internal Security Act:
a.       Passed by Congress in 1947, it created the Department of Defense.
b.      established a National Security Council (NSC) to advise the president on security matters and a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to coordinate the government foreign fact-gathering.
27.   McCarran-Walter Immigration and Nationality Act
a.       1952; restricts immigration to us;
b.      people born in Guam, commonwealth of the northern Mariana islands, Puerto Rico, and the virgin isles get us citizenship;
c.       maintained quotas from national security act of 1924, restricted immigrations from south and eastern Europe even more
28.   Adlai Stevenson
a.       the democratic candidate who ran against Eisenhower in 1952. his intellectual speeches earned him and his supporters the term "eggheads". lost to Eisenhower.
29.   Los Alamos, other western atomic  facilities and environmental damage (826)
a.       location of Manhattan project (to create atom bomb) in New Mexico
b.      Hanford Engineer Works in Washington; Rand Corporation and Douglas Aircraft in Los Angeles; Lawrence Radiation Laboratory  at the University of California; Rocketry work at the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena; and nuclear weaponry developments at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
c.       (Plutonium Blues) radioactive liquids dumped into leaky tanks and trenches near the Columbia River.
d.      health hazards kept from workers and the public
e.      atmospheric detonations of atomic devices in the 1950s sent pink-orange clouds of ash, dust, and gases over towns in Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, causing a sudden spurt of acute leukemia deaths and abnormally high cancer rates in the region
Questions
1.       Why did the US economy enjoy a boom after WW2 rather than slide back into depression?
a.       The main reason for the economic boom after WW2 was the GI Bill of Rights. This bill helped the returning soldiers readjust to civilian life. It provided the GIs with low-interest government backed loans, which the GIs used to start their own businesses, and buy homes and farms. About four million veterans homes with the loans. This greatly stimulated the construction industry and economy, and suburbanization.
b.       During this time consumers spent their savings on homes, cars, electronic appliances, and televisions. New inventions in electronics and synthetic materials also appeared in the market. The employment Act of 1946 also ensured economic growth and employment.
c.       The second portion of the bill paid for the GIs 4 years of college or professional training. About 8 million veterans accepted the tutoring making half of the nation’s college students GI bill veterans. With the increase of higher educated Americans a generation of working class Americans rose to the middle class.
d.      Using its economic boom provided by the GI bill, the US formed the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to help rebuild Asia and Europe and stabilize the exchange rates.  

2.       Explain why the president expounded the Truman Doctrine to Congress? What was Truman proposing? Why did Congress go along with the doctrine?
a.       The main purpose of the Truman Doctrine was to stop the spread of communism by giving out loans to countries resisting communism. Truman had many reasons to stop the spread of Soviet influence. First, it went against national self-determination, which was a betrayal of democracy and a plot of communism.  Soviet control would be no different than Hitler’s tyranny. It would also hurt American business in that area. And finally, Britain could no longer provide funds to countries fighting off communism. Truman’s undersecretary of State Dean Acheson made the argument that giving aid to Greece and Turkey rulers was not about giving them aid, but instead of fighting a universal struggle of freedom against tyranny. He employed fear tactics to show that if the countries fell to Soviet control, then the Asia, Western Europe, and the oil fields of the Middle East would also fall to communist rule. Truman used both the greed of oil and the fear of communism to pass the Truman Doctrine.

3.       Why did the Soviet Union impose the Berlin blockade, and how did President Truman respond to it?
a.       Beginning in 1947 Stalin took over Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Great Britain, France, and US united their occupied zones in Germany to form West Germany which included parts of Berlin. Stalin reacted to this unification by imposing the blockade upon Berlin. He hoped to stop the establishment of West Germany. During the time from June 1948 and May 1949, the soviets prevented the movement of all goods and people between West and Germany and West Berlin. Truman reacted to this by enacting the Berlin Airlift. He, along with Great Britain, dropped in supplies to the Berliners. He told Stalin that if the soviets shot down any supply planes, then he would retaliate with atomic bombs. In May 1949 Stalin ended the Berlin blockade.

4.       Why were the communists able to take over China in 1949? How did some Republicans explain communist success in China?
a.       In dealing with China, the Truman administration failed to end hostilities between the Nationalist Party under Jiang Jieshi and the Communist Party under Mao Zedong. It had sent the Nationalist Party $3 billion in aid, but the government was too corrupt to use it to earn the support of the people. The Communist party was disciplined and had the support of the people. China, the most populous nation and a market for American exports, had become red China.
b.      The Republicans blamed the Truman Administration for communist success in China. Truman was too easy on the communists.

5.       Who supported Senator Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism, and why?
a.       The Democrats, specifically Ohio senator John Bricker and Robert Taft, who did not support and believe in McCarthy’s accusations, but wanted to destroy the reputation of the Republicans so the Democrats could enter back into office. Bricker even called McCarthy a SOB, but he desired to have Democrats in control so he supported and encouraged McCarthy. It was all a power game.

6.       What accounts for the victory of Eisenhower and the other Republicans in the election of 1952?
a.       Eisenhower easily won the presidential election of 1952 because of McCarthy labeling the Democrats as the party of treason. McCarthy had accused many Democratic senators and members of the Truman Administration of being communist agents.  Also Eisenhower had pledged to go end the Stalemate in Korea. 

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