Cold War and 1950s

Question 1

Cold War

Answer 1

• A conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union in which neither nation directly confronted the other on the battlefield

Question 2

United Nations

Answer 2

• Hopes for world peace were high at the end of the war
• Even though the UN was intended to promote peace, it soon became an arena in which the two superpowers competed
• Both the United States and the Soviet Union used the UN as a forum to spread their influence over others

Question 3

Arms Race

Answer 3

• US learned that the U.S.S.R. had developed a nuclear bomb
• From then on, “fear of the bomb” would dictate life in America as well as diplomatic relations
• Both countries continued building more and bigger bombs

Question 4

Duck and Cover

Answer 4

• What kids were taught to do in case of a bomb

Question 5

Formation of NATO

Answer 5

• The tension that resulted from the Berlin airlift convinced Western powers that they needed to form a peacetime alliance against the Soviet threat
• NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was established
• Participating nations pledged that an attack on one was an attack on all
• The Soviet Union and its allies responded by forming the Warsaw Pact

Question 6

Containment

Answer 6

Official policy goal of the US government during the Cold War to stop the spread of Communism by surrounding “it” with democratic allies

Question 7

Domino Theory

Answer 7

The idea that, should one country turn to communism, this will spread to surrounding countries and dominate the globe

Question 8

The Truman Doctrine

Answer 8

• Pledged support of U.S. to countries that were in danger of takeover by communist countries
• Gave $400 million in economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey

Question 9

The Marshall Plan

Answer 9

• Called for nations of Europe (including communist countries) to draw up a program for economic recovery from the war
• The U.S. would then support the plan with financial aid (This action would both improve the European economy as well as reward the U.S. with strong trading partners)
• Ultimately gave $17 billion over 4 years to 16 western European nations

Question 10

The Korean War (why involved, policies, outcome)

Answer 10

• Korea split into two countries at Potsdam
• Tensions between two sides
• Kim Il-sung asks permission to unite country
• Stalin agrees but refuses to help
• Truman wanted to get involved but feared Soviet retaliation
• Still, if unchecked it could give the perception that we would allow this action to continue
  
  • Like Hitler and appeasement
• US full force when found out Stalin was not getting involved
• China invaded in 1950
• No progress from 1951 to 1953

Question 11

Joseph McCarthy

Answer 11

• Anti-Communist activist, senator, republican from Wisconsin
• Charged that Communists were taking over the government
• Taking advantage of people’s concerns about communism, he made one unsupported accusation after another
• 57, 81, and 205 Communists in the State Department

Question 12

McCarthyism

Answer 12

• Attacks on suspected Communists in the early 1950s
• The unfair tactic of accusing people of disloyalty without providing evidence

Question 13

Levitt town (criticisms)

Answer 13

• Mass-produced, affordable housing for veterans returning from WWII

Question 14

Suburbs (pros and cons)

Answer 14

• CONS:
• Cookie-cutter uniformity
• Pressure to conform
  
  • Housing restrictions
  • Close-knit communities
  • Overly-involved neighbors
• Repression of individualism
• Perpetuation of gender stereotypes
• Racially homogenous (excluded African-Americans)
• Restrictive covenants
• PROS:
  
  • Total living

Question 15

Nuclear family

Answer 15

• Mom, dad, 2-3 children
• The general makeup of most of the families in the US during the Cold War

Question 16

Baby boom

Answer 16

• 1946-1964 (dramatic increase in birth rate)
• Birth rate had fallen during the Depression
• Rise and fall in the birthrate rise during the baby boom years

Question 17

Betty Friedman and The Feminine Mystique

Answer 17

• Friedan set out to disprove the common notion that education had ill prepared women for their role as women
• Sent a survey to her fellow Smith graduates
• Raised more questions than it answered for her…Friedan began to question whether it was the education that was wrong or the role
• Male publisher keep turning down her articles
• Published her own book, good feedback from women
• Had to say “no” to the old way before you could begin to find the new “yes” you need
• “Is this all?”

Question 18

Why was the Cold War called the cold war? Who were the two biggest countries involved?

Answer 18

• Neither the Soviet Union nor the United States officially declared war on each other
• However, both sides clearly struggled to prevent the other from spreading its economic and political systems around the globe

Question 19

The Soviet Vision

Answer 19

• Communism predicted that through a process of class struggle, the workers of the world would eventually triumph
• When this happened, everyone would join hands and sing, as well as then split the resources of the land equally
• Because the Soviets had suffered such significant losses in the war (20 million), they were determined to rebuild on their own terms

Question 20

How did the arms race affect military budget?

Answer 20

• In response to arms race, the National Security Council spelled out American policy in a document entitled NSC-68.
• Document stated that the U.S. should triple to quadruple its defense budget (from $13 billion to $50 billion annually) in order to meet the security needs of the time

Question 21

The American Vision

Answer 21

• The U.S. fought in WWII to protect its version of the American Dream
• The U.S. hoped to share with the world the essential elements of democratic life: liberty, equality, and representative government
• The U.S. also sought to protect its economic interests by ensuring a worldwide market for its products (free trade)

Question 22

What was “the super” and why did so many scientists not want to help develop it?

H bomb

Answer 22

• 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb
• Truman authorized H-bomb program

Question 23

What happened to Germany after WWII? Why was the issue of Berlin such a complicated and potentially hostile situation?

Answer 23

• Tension then rose when, in an attempt to rebuild Germany’s economy and stop rampant inflation, the 3 western sectors of Germany changed its currency to the Deutsch Mark
• The Soviets had not agreed to the currency reform and in response, they blockaded all ground and water routes to West Berlin
• Truman did not want to risk starting a war with the Soviet Union by forcing open the trade routes, nor did he want to give up West Berlin to the Soviets
• So he started the Berlin Airlift – moved supplies into West Berlin by plane (went for a year+)
• Success for the US – publicly humiliated the Soviets and served to win the hearts of the residents of W. Berlin
• By the time the Soviet blockade was ended, the Marshall Plan had succeeded in strengthening capitalist nations in Western Europe

Question 24

What politics did our government put into place in order to fight communism and prevent it from spreading?

Answer 24

• The Truman Doctrine (1947)
• The Marshall Plan (1948)

Question 25

How did the US government try to keep people calm and downplay the fear of the bomb?

Answer 25

• Deliberately played down the destructiveness of the bomb to make people feel safer
• Made people feel like they could survive an atomic blast if they were protected
• Duck and Cover film

Question 26

What did many Americans do in order to prepare for a possible nuclear attack?

Answer 26

• They built bomb shelters

Question 27

Communism (pure vs reality)

Answer 27

• PURE
  
  • No government
  • Requires working class to overthrow government run by rich
  • No religion
  • No police or military
  • Life necessities are free! (education, health care, housing, etc.)
  • People work for society, not personal gain
  • No classes (rich, poor, etc.)
  • Everyone has a job
• REALITY
  
  • Totalitarian government
  • Government controls all industry
  • Military plays a powerful/threatening role in government and lives of people
  • Many of life’s necessities are either free or low cost (food, education, health care, etc.)
  • Freedoms are greatly restricted
  • People work for the government and country
  • Government run by dictator

Question 28

Why did our society fear/hate (pure) communism so much?

Answer 28

• Fear of giving rise to a dictator – someone telling you exactly what to do
• If you are communist, you can’t be American
• Communist – associated with Russia
• Communism – spread

Question 29

What did Levit do and how did he revolutionize the building industry? Why was this so important at the start of the 19050s?

Answer 29

• Applied techniques used in barracks construction in WWII
• Introduced mass production techniques to postwar building industry
  
  • Bought pre-cut and pre-assembled materials
  • Standardized parts
  • Tightly controlled suppliers of goods & services (vertical integration)
  • Workforce with highly specialized skills
  • Workers moved from site to site doing their specific targeted tasks
  • Painter whose entire job was to paint window sills
  • Moved workers from house to house – avoided the necessity of craft workers and unions
• Built affordable houses in weeks as opposed to months
• Simple model - house could be expanded upwards & outwards (unfinished attic), no basement (concrete foundation)
• All houses were equal in size and amenities, strict rules

Question 30

How did the US economy change in terms of types of jobs most Americans had? How did unions help blue collar workers in the 1950s?

Answer 30

• Before the war, most Americans worked in blue collar jobs (manual labor, hourly wage)
• After the war, new machines performed jobs that used to be done by people
  
  • By 1956, majority of all American workers held white collar jobs (office job)
• Wages and working conditions improved in 1940s & 1950s for blue collar workers
• Labor unions cont. through WWII and 1950s
  
  • Win gains like guaranteedcost-of-living increases

Question 31

What was society’s view of women in the 1950s and what were some expectations? How did women like Betty Friedman try to push back against these expectations?

Answer 31

• Pressure to conform to pre-war gender patterns
• Women felt torn between desire to work and societal expectations for women to stay home
• A woman’s job was to “influence man and boy” in her “humble role of housewife” and mother
• Expected to be the perfect housewife, mother, and wife
• Women, like children, “should be seen and not heard”
  *

Question 32

Why did the Cold War start? (x)

Answer 32

• Ever since Russia adopted a communist government after the Russian Revolution, the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union was fragile
• At the war’s end, there were disputes about the futures of Germany and Poland
  • Germany was partitioned into four zones (one American, one French, one British, and one Soviet).
  • Poland’s new government would loosely be controlled by the Soviets
• Composition of the United Nations rendered the Soviets outnumbered
• Stalin was angry that Truman did not tell him about the A-Bomb (worked with Britain but did not tell Soviets until bomb completed)
• The two sides had totally different visions for the postwar world

Question 33

Ever since Russia adopted a communist government after the Russian Revolution, the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union was fragile: (x)

Answer 33

• After the Russian Revolution, the U.S. refused to extend formal diplomatic relations to the new communist nation until 1933
• US was angered when Soviets signed a non-aggression pact with Germany in 1939 (on the same side when Hitler broke the pact)
• Stalin was angered when the U.S. first entered the war and went to North Africa to help the British, instead of helping out the Soviets on the western front

Question 34

Issue of Poland

Answer 34

• Truman insisted that the new Polish gov’t have representatives sympathetic to Western interests
• Stalin insisted that because Poland was so close to the Soviet Union, the Soviets must be allowed to have a strong influence there
• Stalin wanted to protect the security of his own nation (by ensuring that Poland remained under Soviet influence)

Question 35

Division of Germany

Answer 35

• Problems right after Potsdam
• Truman refused to allow the Soviets to use Germany’s industrial plants in Western Germany (most of the nation’s industry was located in the west, the non-Soviet sector)
• Concerned with the deteriorating economic situation in the western zones, the U.S. pumped aid through the Marshall Plan in to Western Germany which got economic recovery underway
• The Russians mad about Marshall Plan situation, they felt it was just a way for the US to buy friends in Western Europe

Question 36

The Berlin Wall (and cause)

Answer 36

• The Soviets resisted the reunification efforts of the West out of fear of a reunited Germany which could potentially invade the Soviet Union again
• Soviets formed a separate government in E. Germany: German Democratic Republic
• The W. was united as the Federal Republic of Germany
• Constant stream of E. Germans fleeing to W. Germany strained E-W relations in the 1950s
• The Soviets sealed the borders btw E. and W. Germany in 1952 but people cont. to flee from E. to W. Berlin
• Wall surrounded all of W. Berlin cutting it off from the rest of E. Germany
• Remained intact until Nov. 9, 1989

Question 37

Chinese Civil War

Answer 37

• Between the Nationalist and Communist Party
• Resulted in a victory for the Communists under Mao Zedong
• The “loss of China” was very disappointing, and would lead to future efforts to prevent more Asian nations from falling to communism

Question 38

After China entered the war

Answer 38

• The president authorized use of nuclear weapons (were not used)
• War ended with a truce in 1953 (borders set)
• Little gained and North Korea remains US enemy