The 1950s & The Cold War:

Prosperity, Power, & Paranoia

Big Picture Questions

Roots of the Cold War

Interpretations of Cold Wars origins:
Traditional:
Revisionists:

Containment
Containment: official foreign policy for stopping or containing soviet or communist expansion.
Localized military action, foreign aid just dont be communist
Truman Doctrine: (1946) beginning of containment. dev. From a memo(article) diplomat wrote it- George
Kleinthey did not respect weakness at all, create soviet expansion.
Marshall plan: William klein .
Nato: created by north Atlantic treatythere to keep the Russian out and Americans in and to keep the germans
down. Sig: alliance that was oppose..made wore saw Pac
Eisenhower Doctrine: leader of Egypt as a puppet. Changed to policy of accommodation.
Truman Doctrine:
The Long Telegram:
Greece & Turkey:
Significance:
Marshall Plan:
Secretary of State George Marshall:
European Recovery Plan:
Significance:
North Atlantic Treaty Organization:
Membership included:
Warsaw Pact:
Significance:
Eisenhower Doctrine:
Suez Crisis.
Accommodation

Development of Nuclear Weapons

U.S. - Manhattan Project (July 13, 1945):
USSR
Nuclear Arms Race:
Bombers:
Missiles:
Hydrogen Bomb: US dev a hydrogen ballsUS test their bomb

Berlin Crisis
Berlin Blockade: 1st major clash of the cold war, and first to involve casualties.
Soviet goals:
Berlin Airlift:
Soviet counter response:
Success:
Significance:
Korean War
Pusan Perimeter:
MacArthur:
MacArthur vs. Truman:
MacArthur:
Truman:
Wake Island:
China:
Mao:
Clement Attlee:
Significance:
Stabilization/Stalemate:
 Eisenhower:

New Technologies
America won the world war
ENIAC: this is a computer1st modern comp. , the first use was the hydrogen bomb, big whopping 5000 calculation per
sec
Medicine
Antibiotics: during WWII they were dev.
Vaccines: people were dying of many diseases specially polio. Jonas salk created solid vaccine and sain injection
vaccacine
Television: by 1947 80% of the people had television.
Movie industry: attendance drop rapidlywide screen were invented, colored movies, blockbuster!! 1990
1950 they tried 3D, AC, more comfy seats, becoming focus of the dating culture
Radio: they did serials, depicts American family
Significance:
Air Conditioning:

Family Life in the 50s

Suburbs:
Household Consumerism: what levit did to house is what ford did to automobile.
Women: 8 million people choose to work.
Baby Boom: most imp thing is 50s 6 million men were pulled out of society and spread around the globe
More than 65million children were born 1 per 7 sec

Youth Culture
The Generation Gap: difference of ideas between youth.
Television:
Rock n Roll:

Economy
Standard of living increased: men came from war need space to live big house!
Strikes:
Taft Hartley Act:
White collar jobs:

Harry Truman 1945-1952

Election of 1948: Truman comes from behind to beat dewey
Domestic Policies:
GI Bill (Servicemans Readjustment Act): transition from war time to peace time. Loans to veteran. 6 million men
came home have family but no homes.
Fair Deal: raise minimum wage
Help the common workers, disadvantaged and African American
Trumans tried to help Africans

Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953-1960

Domestic Policies: GI bill..baby boom,
Television:
Suburban growth:
Baby boom (1945-1961):
Federal Highway Act:
Foreign Policy:
1953 End of Korean War:
Sputnik:
U-2 incident:
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA):

Containment at Home
Late 1940s to Mid-1950s:
Anticommunism and the Labor Movement

HUAC and the Loyalty Program

House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC)
 "Hollywood Ten
Naming names
Richard Nixon & JFK.
Whittaker Chambers:
Alger Hiss:
FBI investigations of artists and intellectuals
McCarran-Walter Act:

The Great Fear

Julius and Ethel Rosenbergthey were spy and were executed.
Dennis v. US (1951): justify invasion of free speech

McCarthyism
Joseph McCarthy Minnesota, always making wild accusation he was denied and claimed as a fraud.
"McCarthyism:
Army-McCarthy Hearings (April 22, 1954):
Millard Tydings: only thing he could do was vite 1957 died of hepatitis , victory for the democratic in 1950s elections.
Censured by the Senate December 2, 1954.