1. Chapter 36
The Cold War Begins

2. Post-War Economy
In the immediate years following WWII, the US economy slowed and strikes were common.
Production slowed and prices rose. The Taft-Hartley Act slowed union membership, especially in the South.
Servicemen’s Readjustment Act or the GI Bill was passed in Allowed veterans to go to vocation school or college and provided loans to buy homes, start businesses or farm.
Beginning in 1950, the US would see a 20 period of steady economic growth.
Americans bought cars, homes, washing machines, and televisions as the size of the middle class doubled.
Women went to work like never before but the traditional role of housewife and mother was glorified on tv.
This economic prosperity would lead to future movements such as the Civil Rights Movement, Medicare, the Women’s Movement, and the Cold War.

3. Going to College on the GI Bill
Financed by the federal government, thousands of World War II veterans crowded into college classrooms in the late 1940s. Universities struggled to house these older students, many of whom already had families. Pennsylvania State College resorted to setting up hundreds of trailers.

4. Coca-Colonizing the World
American consumerism—and American products—flooded over the globe after World War II, as this 1950 cover from Time magazine illustrates.

5. Advertising Prosperity, 1956

6. Roots of Prosperity
US emerged from WWII undamaged with factories as productive as ever.
Defense spending in regards to the Korean War, space programs, plastics, electronics, and other scientific research during the Cold War.
Cheap oil prices also allowed the economy to grow along with the interstate system and air-conditioning.
Farming turned in to “agribusiness” and the family farm became all but extinct.
The growth of the “Sunbelt” was massive. This area stretched from Virginia through Florida and Texas to Arizona and California.
People moved to the Sunbelt in search of jobs, for a better climate, and for lower taxes.
This area’s political power also grew. Every president elected from 1964 to 2008 came from the Sunbelt.

7. Agribusiness
Expensive machinery of the sort shown here made most of American agriculture a capital intensive, phenomenally productive big business by the twenty-first century—and sounded the death knell for many small-scale family farms.

8. Distribution of Population Increase, 1950–2005
States with figures higher than 97 percent were growing faster than the national average between 1950 and Note that much of the growth was in the “Sunbelt,” a loose geographical concept, as some Deep South states had very little population growth, whereas the mountain and Pacific states were booming.
Sources: Statistical Abstract of the United States and U.S. Census, relevant years.

9. Sunbelt Prosperity
The old and new West are evident in this view of booming Dallas.

10. Suburbs and the Baby Boom
Home loans, tax deductions, and newly built highways encouraged people to move out of the city and into the suburbs.
Levittown was a subdivision of more than 17,000 homes on Long Island, NY. The homes were partially built in factories and then finished on site. This allowed them to be affordable but they were also identical.
“White flight” left the urban areas full of poor minorities.
The government was less likely to give African American home loans which made it hard for them to move.
Baby Boom: the huge increase in birthrate in the years following WWII. It’s peak was in 1957 and was followed by a steady decline.
This massive generation has put a squeeze on elementary schools, high schools, colleges, the job market, social movements, consumer goods, and eventually retirement and social security.

11. Levittown, Long Island, NY

12. Drive-in Café in Los Angeles, the Mother and Model of All Suburbias

13. Aerial View of the On-ramps to a Typical New Interstate Highway, 1950s

14. Moving to the Suburbs
After World War II, Americans by the millions moved to suburban housing developments like this one. Although criticized for their architectural monotony and cultural barrenness, the suburbs provided inexpensive and spacious housing for growing families seeking to escape the crowded confines of the cities.

15. Shaping the Post-War World
The Yalta Conference was held in February of 1945 and the last meeting attended by the “Big Three”.
Tentative plans (many of which would never happen) were put into place in regards to how to end the war and what would happen afterwards.
The United Nations were created out of the old League of Nations and met even before WWII was over.
It’s permanent home is NYC. It had early successes in keeping the peace in Iran and other trouble spots. It helped to create the nation of Israel and set up organizations to help people all over the world.
It did not, however, stop the spread of atomic weapons.
The United States and the Soviet Union disagreed over what to do with Germany.
The US wanted to rebuild its economy and the Soviets wanted reparations.

16. The Big Three
From left to right, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin sit somberly at their fateful meeting at Yalta in February Roosevelt was only weeks away from death.

17. The Communist Menace
First appearing in the New York Daily News on January 6, 1946, this map reflected Americans’ rising anxiety after World War II that the Soviet Union was an aggressively expansionist power, relentlessly gobbling up territory and imposing its will across both Europe and Asia.

18. Great Hopes for World Peace with the United Nations, 1947
The achievements of the new international regime were dramatic. International trade doubled in the 1950s and again in the 1960s. By century’s end, the volume of global commerce was ten times larger than in 1950 (see Table 36.1).Increased trade fueled postwar recovery in Europe and Japan and set several underdeveloped countries—notably Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, India, and China—on the path to modernization and prosperity.

19. The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial, 1946
Of the Nazi defendants pictured here, from left to right in the first row, Hermann Goering committed suicide during the trial; Rudolf Hess was sentenced to life in prison and died of an apparent suicide in his cell in 1987; Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, and Ernest Kaltenbrunner were executed; in the second row, Karl Doenitz was sentenced to ten years in prison; Erich Raeder was sentenced to life in prison but released in 1955; Baldur von Schirach was sentenced to twenty years in prison; and Fritz Sauckel was executed.

20. Cold War Takes Shape
Germany was split into 4 zones of occupation after the war.
The Western Allies started to push for Germany to be reunited but the Soviets refused.
West Germany eventually became an independent country and East Germany would become, along with Poland and others, a “satellite” country of the Soviet Union.
This dividing line in Europe became known as the “iron curtain”.
Berlin, although deep in Soviet East Germany, would remain under a joint four-power occupation until The Berlin Wall, which divided the city, would become the symbol of the Cold War.
Containment Policy: US strategy against the Soviet Union which sought to contain the spread of communism. (1947)
Truman Doctrine: pledge of support for any people fighting any communist or communist-inspired threat. (1947)
Both of these would drive US foreign policy for the next several decades.

21. Postwar Partition of Germany

22. Where To? 1947
As this satirical view of the Truman Doctrine shows, not all Americans were sure where the country’s new foreign policy was taking them.

23. Marshall Plan
Many European countries were desperate to rebuild and recover their economies after WWII. These countries were the perfect places for communists to take advantage of the situation and take control.
The Marshall Plan (1947) provided billions in aid to help rebuild Europe. This plan would bolster capitalism and democracy. Announced by Secretary of State George Marshall.
The Marshall Plan was a huge success and made enemies into friends.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed by European countries to provide aid to members who were attacked by other countries. The US joined in 1949.
The Warsaw Pact was a similar group formed by the Communist nations.

24. United States Foreign Aid, Military and Economic, 1945–1954
Marshall Plan aid swelled the outlay for Europe. Note the emphasis on the “developed” world, with relatively little aid going to “developing.”

25. The Marshall Plan Turns Enemies into Friends
The poster in this 1950 photograph in Berlin reads, “Berlin Rebuilt with Help from the Marshall Plan.”

26. The Hydrogen Bomb, 1954
This test blast at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands was so powerful that one Japanese fisherman was killed and all twenty-two of his crewmates were seriously injured by radioactive ash that fell on their vessel some eighty miles away. Fishing boats a thousand miles from Bikini later brought in radioactively contaminated catches.

27. McCarthyism
American’s began to worry that Communists were trying to take over the US from within.
The government and companies began to require loyalty oaths and 11 communists were convicted in 1949 of advocating the overthrow of the American government.
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) led to charge against “reds”. Young Richard Nixon led the case against accused Soviet spy Alger Hiss.
Senator Joseph McCarthy led the 2nd Red Scare. Anti-religion, sexual freedom, push for civil rights, labor unions, entertainers, teachers, and authors could all be seen as “communist” and accused accordingly.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for leaking American secrets to the Soviets.
The red hunt eventually turned into a witch-hunt and support for people like Senator McCarthy cooled.

28. Richard Nixon, Red-hunter
Congressman Nixon examines the microfilm that figured as important evidence in Alger Hiss’s conviction for perjury in 1950.

29. That Ain’t the Way I Heard It!
Truman wins.

30. Korean War
June 25, 1950 Soviet-made tanks led the North Korean army across the 38th parallel in an invasion of South Korea.
The United Nations security council (Soviets were absent) condemned North Korea for the aggression and vowed to assist to restore peace.
Although the US was just a participant in the UN “police action”, the US provided the most soldiers, weapons, and supplies.
General Douglas MacArthur pushed the North Koreans back behind the 38th Parallel within 2 weeks.
Aided by Chinese “volunteers” MacArthur was pushed back to the 38th parallel which resulted in a stalemate.
MacArthur pushed for nuclear war but Truman refused.
Mac Arthur was fired in April 1951 and in July peace talks began which would last for another 2 years.

32. Truman Takes the Heat