Week 11: World War II and the Cold War, to 1960
1) FDR recognizes the dangers posed by Fascism in Germany and Italy, Communist terror in the Soviet Union and aggressive militarism in Japan; most Americans
committed to neutrality and non-involvement.
2) Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia (1935), Germany’s seizure of the Rhineland (1936) and Japan’s invasion of China (1937) strain American neutrality.
3) FDR’s “quarantine speech” rallies isolationists; constitutional amendment requiring a public referendum before a declaration of war narrowly defeated in House.
4) FDR authorizes secret $2 billion Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb.
5) FDR calls U.S. the “great arsenal of democracy”; maneuvers to prevent fall of Britain with Lend-Lease (March, 1941). Germany invades U.S.S.R. (June, 1941).
6) Isolationists discredited after Japan attacks Pearl Harbor and Germany and Italy declare war on U.S. (December, 1941).
7) Japan and Germany appear invincible after victories in Asia and Blitzkrieg in Europe.
8) Battle of Midway, German defeats at Stalingrad and in North Africa turn tide by 1943.
9) D-Day invasion and German losses in Battle of Bulge compel Nazi surrender (April, 1945); Truman succeeds FDR; atomic bombs force Japan’s surrender (August, 1945).
10) United Nations established with active American support and leadership.
2: The Home front During World War II:
1) FDR pledges ships, tanks and planes for victory; federal controls established over the economy; Truman Committee exposes waste and corruption in wartime production.
2) War hysteria, greed and racism in California; FDR agrees to the internment of more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans; $2 billion in personal property lost.
3) March on Washington threat persuades FDR to establish Fair Employment Practices Commission to open defense jobs to blacks; race riots in Detroit and other cities.
4) Armed forces remain segregated and double “V” on mastheads of black newspapers proclaims goal of victory over racism at home and abroad.
5) Women (symbolized by “Rosie the Riveter”) flock to defense industries and jobs traditionally held by men.
6) FDR and State Department fail to confront or act on evidence of the Holocaust.
7) Hollywood and radio mobilize national commitment to destroy tyranny; World War II remains in our national memory as “the good war,” fought by “the greatest generation.”
3: The Fair Deal and the Cold War:
1) Revisionist controversy over Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb: a military necessity or a political move to restrain the Soviet Union in the postwar world?
2) Containment policy emerges as Soviets pressure Berlin and divided Germany, Eastern Europe, Iran, Greece and Turkey and communists make gains in Italy and France.
3) Truman warns against a return to isolationism: aid to Greece and Turkey, the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan.
4) National Security Act (1947) creates Department of Defense, National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency.
5) Soviets blockade Berlin (1948): airlift supplies the city and breaks the blockade.
6) 1949: North Atlantic Treaty Organization: first U.S. mutual security alliance repudiates isolationism; Soviets detonate atomic bomb and Communists take over China.
7) North Korea invades South Korea (new documents from Soviet archives confirm Soviet backing); Truman send U.S. troops under United Nations command.
8) The second Red Scare: Joseph McCarthy and “McCarthyism” spur reckless efforts to expose communist subversion in American life. (Newly declassified documents confirm extensive espionage and control of U.S. Communist Party by Soviet Union).
9) Truman proposes national health insurance, federal aid to education and civil rights legislation; desegregates armed forces by executive order; wins second term upset (1948).
10) Truman’s popularity collapses over Korea and charges of corruption and communist influence at home; Dwight Eisenhower returns GOP to White House after 20 years.
4: Eisenhower and the 1950s:
1) The television revolution: 10,000 homes get new sets every day of “the Fifties”. 11% of American homes have TV in 1950; nearly 90% by 1960; the consumer culture revives after decades of Depression and wartime controls.
2) Idealization of the single family suburban home, the nuclear family and the housewife; but 1/3 of married women in workforce by 1960.
3) The automobile age (Federal Highway Act) and the decay of American cities; ambiguous legacy of urban renewal.
4) America invents “the teenager” and youth-centered popular culture.
5) The genial public Ike vs. new evidence of the decisive private Eisenhower (“hidden-hand” in the censure of McCarthy).
6) Eisenhower reduces the budget and federal controls over the economy; cuts military spending and farm supports; taxes reduced for individuals and business; balanced budgets in 1954 and 1960.
7) Ike preserves New Deal safety net: expands unemployment compensation and Social Security.
8) Brown v. Board of Education (1954) launches modern civil rights movement; emergence of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Montgomery bus boycott (1955); Ike sends federal troops to Little Rock and Civil Rights Commission established (1957); sit-ins sweep south; less than 10% southern black children attend integrated schools by 1960.
9) Ike initially supports “massive retaliation,” “more bang for the buck” and the “domino-theory” but warns in 1961 of anti-democratic threat by “military-industrial complex”.
10) Korean armistice (1953), military advisers to Vietnam; U-2 incident and collapse of Paris summit and Moscow visit (1960); diplomatic break with Castro’s Cuba (1961).