The American Pageant Chapter 36 The Cold War Begins, 1945-1952 Cover Slide Copyright © Houghton...

The American Pageant

Chapter 36

The Cold War Begins, 1945-1952

Cover Slide

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

American Food for Hungry EuropeGrateful English mothers line up for orange juice sent by the United States to assist Europeans devastated by the Second World War. (National Archives)

American Food for Hungry Europe


Berlin Air Lift--German children watching American planes bring food, 1948German children watching an American plane in "Operation Vittles" bring food and supplies to their beleaguered city. The airlift kept a city of 2 million people alive for nearly a year and made West Berlin a symbol of the West's resolve to contain the spread of Soviet communism. ((c) Bettmann/Corbis)

Berlin Air Lift--German children watching American planes bring food, 1948


Churchill and Truman, "Iron Curtain Speech," March 5, 1946On March 5, 1946, former British prime minister Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) delivered a speech, which he intended for a worldwide audience, at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. President Harry S. Truman (right) had encouraged Churchill (seated) to speak on two themes: the need to block Soviet expansion and the need to form the Anglo-American partnership. Always eloquent and provocative, Churchill denounced the Soviets for drawing an "iron curtain" across eastern Europe. This speech became one of the landmark statements of the Cold War. (Harry S. Truman Library)

Churchill and Truman, "Iron Curtain Speech," March 5, 1946


Communist hysteria in the media: Red Menace posterAlthough Hollywood generally avoided overtly political films, it released a few dozen explicitly anticommunist films in the postwar era. Depicting American communists as vicious hypocrites, if not hardened criminals, Hollywood's Cold War movies, like its blacklist, were an effort to protect its imperiled public image after HUAC's widely publicized investigation of the movie industry. (The Michael Barson Collection/Past Perfect)

Communist hysteria in the media: Red Menace poster


Map: Cold War Germany

Cold War GermanyThis map shows how Germany and Berlin were divided into occupation zones. Meant as temporary divisions, they became permanent, transformed by the Cold War into East and West Germany. In 1948, with the Berlin airlift, and again in 1961, with the erection of the Berlin Wall, Berlin became the flash point of the Cold War. With the end of the Cold War, the division of Germany also ended. In 1989, the Berlin Wall was torn down, and in 1990 the two Germanies were re-unified.


Map: The Global Cold War

The Global Cold WarDuring the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union faced each other as enemies. The United States attempted to construct a ring of containment around the Soviet Union and its allies, while the Soviets worked to expand their influence and power. This map shows the nature of this military confrontation - the bases, alliances, and flash points of the Cold War.


Couple looking at house

In postwar America, millions of families shopped for new houses in the country's burgeoning suburbs. In the first decade after the Second World War, 4.3 million veterans used GI Bill loan provisions to purchase single-family residences. Many of these men and women were members of what Tom Brokaw, NBC's news anchor, has called "the greatest generation." They survived the Great Depression, served in the war, and became parents of America's baby boomers. (H. Armstrong Roberts)

Couple looking at house


Girl in front of dome atomic bomb shelterAs the Cold War intensified and the Soviets became a nuclear power, the government began to consider methods to survive a nuclear war. One "solution" was to encourage people to build backyard bomb shelters. Pictured here is one family's atomic bomb shelter that slept six. The cost was $1,250 in 1951. (Corbis-Bettmann)

Girl in front of dome atomic bomb shelter


Korean WarThe Korean War was one of ebb and flow, advances and retreats--the movement of troops up and down the rugged Korean peninsula. Here, American troops advance while Korean women and children march in the opposite direction hoping to avoid the destruction of war. Over 33,000 Americans lost their lives in Korea during the conflict. (Corbis-Bettmann)

Korean War


MacDonald, Weizmann, and Ben-GurionAmerica's first ambassador to Israel, James G. MacDonald (1886-1964) (left) meets in 1948 with Israel's President Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952) (right). The historian Michelle Mart has written that "Jews in the postwar world first symbolized a complete lack of masculinity for their role as victims and then masculine resurgence in their survival and construction of a new state"--a change in the image that conditioned American leaders to respect the new Israeli leaders. (National Archives)

MacDonald, Weizmann, and Ben-Gurion


Marshall Plan poster of shipThe goal of the Marshall Plan was to provide American economic support for the rebuilding of Europe's economy. By the time the plan ended, the United States had provided over $12.5 billion dollars to those European nations participating in the European Recovery Program. This poster demonstrated that with cooperation, Europe would soon be moving forward again. (Courtesy of George C. Marshall Foundation)

Marshall Plan poster of ship


New West: Wing production on the Boeing B-52 assembly line, Seattle, 1950sSymbolic of the defense spending and investment that helped the West's economy flourish, Seattle's Boeing plant in 1951 began production of the first of the B-52 Stratofortress heavy bombers. They would continue rolling off the Boeing assembly line until the end of the decade. (Courtesy Boeing Defense & Space Group)

New West: Wing production on the Boeing B-52 assembly line, Seattle, 1950s


Soldiers of 11th Airborne Division watch atomic bomb explosion, 1951 tests in NevadaSoldiers of the 11th Airborne Division watch as an atomic explosion mushrooms into the sky during 1951 testing maneuvers in Nevada. ((c) Bettmann/Corbis)

Soldiers of 11th Airborne Division watch atomic bomb explosion, 1951 tests in Nevada


Truman with "Dewey Defeats Truman" headlines, 1948So few pollsters predicted that President Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) would win the 1948 presidential election that the Chicago Tribune announced his defeat before all the returns were in. Here a victorious Truman pokes fun at the newspaper for its premature headline. (Corbis-Bettmann)

Truman with "Dewey Defeats Truman" headlines, 1948


Map: Continued Shift to the Sunbelt

Continued Shift to the SunbeltThroughout the 1970s and 1980s, Americans continued to leave economically declining areas of the North and East in pursuit of opportunity in the sunbelt. States in the Sunbelt and in the West had the largest population increases.


Map: Divided Europe

Divided EuropeAfter the Second World War, Europe broke into two competing camps. When the United States launched the Marshall Plan in 1948, the Soviet Union countered with its own economic plan the following year. When the United States created NATO in 1949, the Soviet Union answered with the Warsaw Pact in 1955. On the whole, these two camps held firm until the late 1980s.


Map: End of the Cold War

End of the Cold War When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union in 1985, he initiated reforms that ultimately undermined the communist regimes in eastern Europe and East Germany and led to the breakup of the Soviet Union itself, ensuring an end to the Cold War.


Map: Presidential Election, 1948

Presidential Election, 1948In 1948 Harry S Truman won perhaps the biggest upset in a presidential election, defeating not only the Republican candidate but also challengers from the States' Rights Democratic (Dixiecrat) and Progressive Parties.


Map: Rise of the Sunbelt, 1950-1960

Rise of the Sunbelt, 1950-1960The years after the Second World War saw a continuation of the migration of Americans to the Sunbelt states of the Southwest and the West Coast.


Map: The Korean War, 1950-1953

The Korean War, 1950-1953Beginning as a civil war between North and South Korea, this war became international when the United States, under the auspices of the United Nations, and the People's Republic of China intervened with their military forces.


The American Pageant Chapter 36 The Cold War Begins, 1945-1952 Cover Slide Copyright © Houghton...

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