Chapter 26

Harry Truman and the Cold War

Harry Truman 1945-1952

• Born in Lamar, Missouri

• Occupation: farmer, WW 1 soldier, small businessman, public official

• U.S. Senator 1935-45

• VP under FDR 1945 (only few weeks)

• 33rd President April 12, 1945-1952

Trumanisms

• “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog”

• “the buck stops here”

• “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen

• “I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me”

Harry Truman

• Democrat• Salary $75,000• Election of 1948

(defeated Thomas Dewey)

• Made some of the most crucial decisions in Am.history

Truman’s Fair Deal

• Presented to Congress a 21 point program of progressive ideas to follow the traditions of the New Deal– National health care– Increase minimum wage (75 cents hour)– Fair employment practices act– Public housing /slum clearance projects

Fair Deal

• Proposals were hindered by a Conservative Congress & Cold War foreign policy crises.

American prosperity

• Income saved during WW2• Big demand for consumer goods (cars,

houses, etc)• Gov’t. road building projects (created

many jobs)• G.I. Bill (1944): gov’t backed, low

interest loans to veterans (bought homes, farms, businesses, college)

Signs of Confidence

• Baby boom: postwar explosion in marriages and births

• 50 million babies born 1945-1960

• 1957: record number of births

• 2007: record broken 4,317,119

• Growth of suburbs (housing shortage) white middle class left cities

Postwar problem in Am.

• Inflation: due to big demand for consumer goods

• Prices rose 6% in 1 month

• Prices rose 25% in 1 1/2 years

• 4.5 million workers went on strike in 1946 (RR, auto, steel, coal, etc.)

Civil Rights Under Truman

• First modern President to use his powers to challenge racial discrimination– Issued Executive Order to desegregate all

branches of armed forces– Urged Congress to pass anti-lynching

laws, abolish poll tax, desegregate the schools

Dixiecrat Party

Dixiecrat Party (1948)

Jackie Robinson

The Cold War (1945-1960)

• A state of hostility between the U.S. and USSR, short of direct military conflict

• 1945-1991

• Two rival superpowers

• Dominated American foreign policy

Major causes of Cold War

• Spread of communism after WW 2– Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania,

Czechoslovakia, E. Germany, Albania, Yugoslavia

• Soviets said they needed a “buffer zone” of satellite nations to prevent another invasion into Russia

Winston Churchill

• 1946 speech: “an iron curtain has descended across the continent of Europe”

• Referring to the Soviet satellite nations

• Called for a democratic partnership to stop the spread of communism

Causes for Cold War

• Competition over the Atomic Bomb– U.S. tested A-bomb July, 1945– USSR tested A-bomb Aug, 1949– Next came development of H-bomb– Short, medium, long range missiles

(ICBM’s)

Battlefields for the Cold War

• Weapons race

• Space race– Oct. 1957 Sputnik (1st satellite to orbit

Earth)– Nov. 1957 Sputnik II (carried dog-Laika)– Feb. 1958 Explorer I (1st U.S. satellite to

orbit Earth)

Battlefields for Cold War

• Sports: Olympics (Hockey, gymnastics, etc)– Miracle on Ice– Rocky 4

• Which country can produce the best athletes?

Rocky 4

Cold War = Fear

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/sfeature/panicquiz.html

• Take the Panic Quiz that was found in Collier’s Magazine in 1953.

• Don’t be a “victim of panic”

Policy of Containment

• Truman’s new foreign policy to stop the spread of communism– 2 key ways:– Economic aid (to poor countries willing to

resist communism)– Military might (building democratic

alliances with countries in Europe)

Economic Aid

• Truman Doctrine: 1947--asked Congress for 400 million to aid Greece and Turkey

• Marshall Plan: 1947--U.S. offered aid to Western Europe – 13 billion– 16 nations (most $ went to G.B., Fr., Italy,

W. Germany)

Military Might

• NATO: 1949 (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)– 1st peacetime allliance in U.S. history– U.S., Canada, 10 Western European

nations formed a defense alliance – Each country would provide soldiers to

defend against communism

Warsaw Pact

• Soviets’ response to NATO was the Warsaw Pact.

• Created a communist alliance of nations in Eastern Europe

The United Nations

• Created at the end of WW2

• Ratified by Senate (82-2 vote)

• Structure:

• A) General Assembly

• B) Security Council

• C) Secretary General

• D) International Court of Justice

Creation of CIA

• U.S. created the 1st permanent worldwide intelligence agency

• U.S. officially in the business of spying on other nations

Cold War turns “HOT”

• Berlin Crisis: 1st direct challenge between the U.S. and USSR

• Germany divided into 4 zones of occupation after WW 2

• Berlin (capital) also divided into 4 zones

• Stalin wanted to unite Berlin under “Soviet occupation”