History Exam 4 Flashcards
- Harry Truman’s background
Truman had no inherited wealth, no European travel, no Harvard– indeed, no college at all. Born in 1884, in Western Missouri, Truman grew up in Independence, near Kansas City. Bookish and withdrawn, he moved to his grandmother’s farm after High School, spent a few years working in Kansas City banks, and grew into an outgoing young man. During WWI, Truman served in France as a captain of an artillery battery. Afterward, he and his partner started a clothing business, but it failed miserably in the recession of 1922, and Truman then became a professional politician under the tutelage of Kansas City’s Democratic machine. In 1934, Missouri sent him to the United States Senate, where he remained obscure until he chaired a commmittee investigating fraud in the war mobilization effort. Truman wasn’t FDR, that was a burden that he had to bear. Truman came from a very normal or common background for the time. A farmer as a young man, he worked as a clerk in several banks as well as a timekeeper on the Santa Fe Railroad. He was a combat veteran of World War I but failed in his business venture after the war. He became the equivilant of a county commissioner, and worked his way up to US senator as a part of a political machine. Much about him was ordinary, except he was well read in history, had good common sense, and was not prone to procrastination when making decisions.
- Truman’s greatest strength
Truman’s personality evoked the spirit of Andrew Jackson’s: his decisiveness, bluntness, feistiness, loyalty, and folksy manner. He also proved to be confident and self assured.
The GI Bill (2nd Question)
Shock absorber that cushioned the economic impact of demobilization. The Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill), the federal government spent $13 billion on military veterans for education, vocational training, medical treatment, unemployment insurance, and loans for building houses and going into business; and most important, the pent-up postwar demand for consumer goods that was fueled by wartime deprivation. Yes, the GI Bill included a years unemployment compensation, money for tuition, and offered low interest loans to buy houses or start businesses. It was passed in part in recognition of the financial sacrifice servicemen had made during the war, and in part to keep ex-servicemen out of the job market and in school. It was a far sighted action, investing in improving the skills of a generation of young
- The Marshall Plan
U.S. program for the reconstruction of post-WWII Europe through massice aid to former enemy nations as well as allies; proposed by General George C Marshall in 1947. “Our policy, he said, “ is directed not against country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos. The Marshall Plan is viewed as a generous action by the United States to help rebuild the economies of primarily Western Europe. It was viewed as a great success in helping those counties recover from the war, and it greatly increased US influence in Western Europe.
Post-World War II changes in race relations
The government-sponsored racism of the German Nazis, the Italian Fascists, and the Japanese Imperialists focused attention on the need for the U.S. to improve its own race relations and to provide for equal rights under the law. But in the ideological content with communism for influence in post-colonial Africa, U.S. diplomats were at a disadvantage as long as racial segregation continued in the U.S.; the Soviets comparted racism in the South to the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews. the World War II service of a million black soldiers made them unwilling to continue to accept racial abuse.
George Kennan
A brilliant diplomat and political analyst stationed at the U.S. embassy in Moscos that developed the doctrine of containment. Kennen’s response in 1946 to Stalin’s speech, the “Long Telegram”, sketched the roots of Russian history and Soviet policy. In his extensive analysis, Kennan insisted that Roosevelt’s assumptions that the Soviets would cooperate with the U.S. and the United Nations after the war (“peaceful coexistence”) were dangerously naive. By Kennan’s idea of containing Soviet expansion, the U.S. would eventually force the implosion of the Soviet communist system. e containment policy that Kennan outlined was followed with many variations and mis-steps for the next forty or so years, and in the end, it worked.
Truman’s response to the Soviet blockade of West Berlin in 1948
Truman agreed with General Lucius D. Clay to stand firm and even use force to break the blockade. Truman said, “We are going to stay in Berlin– period.” Truman decided – against the advice of his cabinet and General Clay – to organize a massive, sustained airlift to provide needed food and supplies to West Berliners. Berlin airlifts went on for 11 months, transferring 2.32 million tons of cargo. The airlift was seen as the first victory of the West in the Cold War.
President Truman desegregation
In the fall of 1946, a delegation of civil rights activists urged Truman to issue a public statement condemning the resurgence of the KKK and the lynching of African Americans. On July 26, 1948, President Truman banned racial discrimination in the hiring of federal employees. Four days later, he issued an executive order ending racial segregation in armed forces.
. Jackie Robinson
In April 1947 the national leagues Brooklyn dodgers included on its roster the first African American player to cross the color line in major league baseball, Jackie Robinson. During his first season with the dodgers teammates and opposing players viciously baited Robinson, the pitchers threw at him, base runners spiked him, and spectators booed him in every city hotels refused him rooms, and restaurants denied him service He received hate mail by the bucket load, but black spectators were electrified by Robinsons courageous example. As time passed Robinson won over many fans and players with his quiet courage, self-deprecating wit, and determined performance and soon other teams signed black players.
The 1948 election
Truman won the biggest upset in history, taking 24.2 million votes to Dewey’s 22 million and winning a thumping margin of 303 to 189 in the Electoral College. Thurmond and Wallace each got more than 1 million votes, but the revolt of right and left had worked to Truman’s advantage. The reason that the 1948 election was an upset is because Truman was given little chance of winning. Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and were united behind candidate Thomas Dewey. The Democrats were split, as the southern wing of the party had rebelled against Truman’s civil rights stand, and the left wing of the party split off in opposition to his containment policies. Refusing to accept defeat, Truman called Congress to a special session to enact his Fair Deal proposals. They refused, which he expected, then he embarked on a whistle stop tour, campaigning against the “do nothing Congress”. It was called the “Give ‘em Hell” campaign, and it is credited with giving Truman the unexpected victory.
Communists take over of China
) Civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists erupted in late 1945. It soon became a losing fight for the Nationalists as the Communists won over the land-hungry peasantry. By the end of 1949, the Nationalist government had flew to the Island of Formosa (Taiwan). It was hard to imagine how the United States could have prevented a Communist victory short of a massive militart intervention, which would have been risky, unpopular, and expensive. The U.S. continued to recognize the Nationalist government on Taiwan as the rightful government of China, delaying formal relations with Communist China (The People’s Republic of China) for 30 years. he communist victory in China ignighted a domestic political debate of “who lost China” in which Republicans blamed Truman and the Democrats and charged they were “soft” on communism.
Beginning of the Korean War
On June 25, 1950, over 80,000 North Korean soldiers crossed the boundary into South Korea and drove the South Korean army down the peninsula in a headlong retreat. Seoul, the South Korean capital, was captured in 3 days. President Truman responded and assumed that the North Korean attack was directed by Moscow and was a brazen indication of the aggressive designs of Soviet communism.
Truman made a critical decision: he decided to wage war under the auspices of the United Nations rather than seeking a declaration of war from Congress. Truman quickly ordered US troops stationed in Japan to be moved to Korea. The precedent for American forces to be sent without a Congressional declaration of war would be followed by Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Hiss-Chambers case
The most damaging case to the administration of (HUAC) House Committee of Un-American Activities. Chambers told the HUAC in 1948 that Hiss had given him secret documents 10 years earlier, when Chambers was spying for the Soviets and Hiss was working in the State Department. Hiss sued for libel, and Chambers produced microfilms of the State Department documents that he said Hiss had passed to him. Hiss denied the accusation, whereupon he was indicted and, afer one mistrial, convicted in 1950. The charge was perjury, but he was convicted of lying about espionage for which he could not be tried because the statute of limitations on that crime had expired.
. Senator McCarthy and the fear of Communism
Early in 1950, little-known Republican Senator of Wisconsin, suddenly surfaced as the most ruthless exploiter of the nation’s anxieties. He took up the cause of anti-communism with an incendiary speech at Wheeling, West Virginia, on February 9, 1950, in which he charged that the State Department was infested with Communists and he claimed to have their names, although he never provided them. For a time it worked. McCarthy provided an anxious public genuinely worried about the Communist subversion with a simple scapegoat: the Democrats were traitors. McCarthy made a career of accusing people of being communists, but actually never proved any of his allegations of communist in government jobs. He threw charges at many respected people, including General George Marshall. He used these tactics to imply that Democrats were traitors or “soft on communism.” Many people, including the Kennedy family supported him, but his tactics soon alienated many, including those in his own party. Convinced that he was giving his party a bad name, a group of Republicans led a successful vote to censure him. McCarthyism has become a word synonymous with name calling, witch hunting demagogy.
The postwar economic boom
) After a surprisingly brief postwar recession in 1945-1946, the economy shifted from wartime production to the peacetime manufacture of an array of consumer goods. The economy soared to record heights. By 1970, the gap between the living standard in the United States and that in the rest of the world had become a charm: with 6% of the world’s population, America produced and consumed Two-thirds of its goods. The post war boom was fueled by (1). pent up demand - people didn’t have money to spend during the Depression, and during the war, they had plenty of money, but nothing to spend it on. They accumulated savings and went on a spending spree when the war was over. (2) Substantial government spending - as the US rearmed to fight the Cold War, build infrastructure including the interstate highway system, and pay social security, GI benifits and welfare payments, government spending became a pillar of the economy. (3) vastly increased worker productivity due to automation and new technology like computers. All of this triggered a housing boom as affluent people moved out of down town areas to the suburbs, had children (the baby boom), and created a consumtion culture that included new things to buy like televsions and air conditioners, using easy credit.
Growth of television
By far the most popular new household product was the Television. In 1946, there were 7,000 primitive black-and-white TVs in the nation; by 1960 there were 50 million, and people were watching TV almost 6 hours a day on average. Nine out of Ten homes had a TV, 38% of homes had a new color set. Watching TV quickly displaced listening to the radio or going to the movies as an essential daily activity for millions of people. Television became a central feature of American family life in the 1950’s
. The GI Bill of Rights
The G.I. Bill created a new government agency, the Veterans Administration (VA), and included provisions for unemployment pay for veterans applying for government jobs, low-interest loans for veterans to buy homes, access to government hospitals, and generous subsidies for on-the-job training programs and post-secondary education. Between 1944 and 1956, almost 8 million veterans took advantage of $14.5 Billion in GI Bill subsidies to attend college or job-training programs. There was a great fear that after the war, the 12 million demobilized servicemen would swamp the job market. The GI bill was designed in part to divert as many of these men as possible from the job market to college. The bill provided for 1 year of unemployment compensation, a preference system for veterans applying for government jobs, low interest loans to buy homes and start business, and tuition reimbursement for college or vocational training. Millions of veterans bought new homes helping fuel the housing boom, and many millions went to college, a far sighted investment in developing the skills of an entire generation. It was at this point that a college education changed from being something only a small minority of elite people obtained to being something necessary for the majority of Americans to strive for. Your book also correctly points out that African Americans had a difficult time making use of these benefits due to segregation and discrimination.
. African American problems in northern cities
Regularly denied access to good jobs. good schools, and good housing, African Americans still found themselves subject to racial prejudice in every aspect of life: discrimination in hiring, in treatment in the workplace, in housing, in schools, and in social life. Affluent white families moved to the suburbs from apartments and older neighborhoods in or near central downtown areas. This left the poorest residents, mainly minorities in the central downtown area, which often became racial ghettos. Businesses closed, opportunities declined, and the quality of life in the central area of many American cities spiraled down, further encouraging those who could, to leave. The post war boom and consumer culture as portrayed on televison, radio and newspapers highlighted to many black people the difference in life syles between whites and blacks. When middle class black people attempted to enjoy this prosperity, they ran into the twin roadblocks of segregation and discrimination.
Suburban growth
As African Americans moved into northern cities, many white residents moved to the suburbs, leaving behind proliferating ghettos. Detroit between 1950 and 1960, for example, gained 185,000 African Ameicans and lost 361,000 whites. Nine of the nation’s ten largest cities lost population to the suburbs during the 1950s. The move to the suburbs was only in part a reaction of whites to the migration of blacks to northern cities. Not many homes had been built in the United States from 1929 with the start of the Great Depression through 1945, the end of World War II. There was a housing shortage in the late 1940’s, and Americans had a lot of cash on hand. In addition, government policies made it easier to buy a house - the 30 year fixed rate mortage pioneered by the New Deal, low interest loans to veterans from the GI Bill, and the deductibility of interest from income taxes fueled the post war housing boom.
Suburbs offered the good life - new, modern houses, a large yard, new schools, new shopping centers and parks were an improvement over older neighborhoods downtown. People had cars and could make the commute to jobs. As your answer indicates, another advantage, at least from those moving to the suburbs was that they were leaving behind crowded, often higher crime rate areas filled with people they did not want to live with. It was called “white flight”.
Uniformity in the 1950s
In huge companies, as well as similarly large government agencies and universities, the working atmosphere promoted conformity rather than individualism. During WWII, millions of woman had responded to patriotic appeals and joined the traditionally male workforce. After the war ended, however, most middle-class women turned their war-time jobs over to the returning male veterans and resumed heir full-time committment to home and family. It was moe than the government and companies that drove uniformity. This is where the term the “American Dream” appears. The suburbs contained hundreds, sometimes thousands of houses that were almost all the same except for some minor cosmetic differences. The suburbs were segregated racially, and often economically, where people of the same economic levels lived together. One of the issues was “keeping up with the Jones” that is trying to get ahead or at least stay even with your neigbors in terms of having the newest car, or a color tv. People saw idealized families on tv or in magazines. Corporate life drove conformity as white collar jobs - clerks, secretaries, accountants, etc, were jobs that were often the same from company to company. Many small businesses were consoldiated into big business. This American Dream included graduating high school, going to college, getting a job with a large company, starting a family, a new home in the suburbs, kids, two nice cars and a color tv, all enjoyed in a neighborhood with people just like yourself, as the end of the old Tv show about Superman used to say, “fighting for truth, justice and the American Way.”
The Beats
A group of writers, artists, and musicians, whose central concern was the discarding of organizational constraints and traditional conventions in favor of liberated forms of self expression. They came out of the Bohemian underground in New York’s Greenwich Village in the 1950s and included writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs. Their attitudes and lifestyles had a major influence on the youth of the 1960s. the Beatniks as they were also known. Rebellious, offbeat, and a little scruffy, they stood out in the button down, conformity driven culture of the 1950’s. They were the ancesotors of the hippies of the 1960’s.
. Diverse interests of the Beats
Undisciplined, unkempt, the Beats were essentially apolitical throughout the 1950s, more interested in transforming themselves than in reforming the world. They sought personal rather than social solutions to their anxieties; they wanted their art and literature to change consciousness rather than reform social ills. Their road to salvation lay in hallucinogenic drugs and alcohol, casual sex, a penchant for jazz, fast cars, the street life of urban ghettos, an affinity for Buddhism, and a restless, vagaboard spirit taking them back and forth across the country in 1950s
- Why Elvis was controversial
Presley’s long hair and sideburns, his swiveling hips and smirking self-confidence, his leather jacket and tight blue jeans–all shouted defiance of adult conventions. Culture conservatives were outraged. Critics urged parents to destroy Presley’s records because they promoted “a pagan concept of life”. A Catholic cardinal denounced Presley as a vile symptom of a teenage “creed of dishonesty, violence, lust, and degeneration.” Patriotic groups claimed that rock and roll music was a tool of Communist insurgents designed to corrupt youth.
- Alan Freed and rock and roll
Cleveland disc jockey, coined the term rock and roll in 1951. Freed began playing R&B records on his radio show but labeled the music “rock and roll”. Freed’s popular radio program helped bridge the gap between “white” and “black” music.
