(Class 20) The Truman Years: The Cold War

Question 1

Policy of Containment

Answer 1

• Formulated by diplomat George F. Kennan in 1946
• Policy to prevent the spread of communism – use “counterforce”
• Response of the United States to the Soviets attempt to spread communist influence in Eastern Europe, China, Korea and Vietnam
• Korean War and Vietnam War were examples of attempts at containment
• The idea of containment was not new – had been used in the 1850s to try to contain slavery in the United States

Question 2

The Iron Curtain

Answer 2

• March 5, 1946
• Truman accompanied Churchill to Westminster College in Missouri
• Churchill denounced Soviet interference in Eastern Europe
• “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent”

Question 3

Truman Doctrine

Answer 3

• With Greece and Turkey at risk of Rebellion and Soviet takeover - Truman developed a policy of resistance and support for world democracy
• The United States must not only resist Soviet military power but it must also “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures”
• Set the precedent for 40 years of Cold War relations and interventions
• The US would aid any kind of government if only alternative was communism

Question 4

Marshall Plan

Answer 4

• Officially the European Recovery Program
• Created by the State Department and begun in April 1948
• Europe needed large scale assistance
• Humanitarian mission
• America wanted to prevent Europe from turning to communism or socialism

Question 5

North American Treaty Organization (NATO)

Answer 5

• Collective security
• 1949 North Atlantic Treaty Organization is founded
• US, Canada and Western Europe
• Purpose was to counter Soviet threat to Western Europe
• Headquartered in Brussels
• US pledged to go to war if one of the members of NATO attacked

Question 6

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

Answer 6

• Espionage part of containment
• National Security Act of 1947 created the CIA
• Anti-communist activities
• Helped to topple governments unfriendly to the United States

Question 7

The Fair Deal

Answer 7

• Truman’s domestic agenda
• Truman needed to transition the economy from wartime to peacetime
• Wanted to extend New Deal policies
• Presented to Congress 21 point program
• 21 new programs proposed by Truman to extend New Deal policies and reforms
• Included:
• Programs to bring full employment
• Higher minimum wage
• Greater unemployment compensation
• Housing assistance
• National Health Insurance Program
• Atomic Energy Control
• Faced opposition from conservatives and Republicans

Question 8

Taft-Hartley Act

Answer 8

• Amended and rolled back the Wagner Act which had given unions power
• Reduced the power of unions to bargain with employers
• Made it more difficult for labor to organize
• Allowed states to pass “right to work” laws
• Banned the practice of requiring all workers to join a union if majority wanted it
• Maintained principle of collective bargaining
• Truman vetoed but Congress over road his veto and passed it in 1947

Question 9

Housing Act of 1949

Answer 9

• Congress passed a few but not many Fair Deal liberal reforms proposed by Truman
• Doubled the minimum wage—from 40 cents to 75 cents an hour
• Approved extension of Social Security benefits
• Passed the Housing Act of 1949
• provided 800,000 new houses for the poor.
• Rejected national health care (Strong medical lobby)
• Rejected new civil rights legislation (Southern Democrats)
• Rejected enacting fair labor practices

Question 10

Senator Joseph McCarthy

Answer 10

• Republican Senator from Wisconsin
• Elected to the Senate in 1946
• In 1950 asserted in a speech that he had a list of “members of the Communist Party” that worked in the State Department in his pocket
• Held Senate Hearings of suspected Communists
• Propagated the Red Scare of the 1950s
• Major Driving force of anti-communism

Question 11

House Un-American Activities Committee

Answer 11

• President Truman issued executive order 9835
• Loyalty review boards investigated every federal employee
• Anonymous informers put burden of proof on the accused
• 2,000+ civil service employees lost their jobs
• House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)
• Investigated Individuals’ political associations
• Investigated radical activity in Hollywood
• Many were blacklisted in the movie industry

Question 12

Korean War

Answer 12

• Already in 1948 there were skirmishes between North and South at the border
• In June 1950 - 90,000 North Koreans invade South Korea
• Truman (under policy of containment) intervenes
• Goes to the United Nations and gets approval of collective effort to repel attack
• Names General Douglas MacArthur as commander of U.N. forces
• 16 countries send troops to Korea but US furnished most of troops and weapons

Question 13

General Douglas MacArthur

Answer 13

• US did not want Japan to become communistic
• US helped Japan rapidly reindustrialize
• US military occupation, under MacArthur, ended in 1951
• Japan became strong democratic and capitalistic ally to US in the area