Chapter 24/ Lecture #10

Cold War Society, 1945-1952

I. The Era of Prosperity Begins

-concern about politics and foreign policy was offset by the prospect of unprecedented opportunities in the immediate postwar period.

-the return to “normalcy” saw a similar postwar desire to find economic security and stability.

-‘making up for lost time’ theme that fuelled passions of many.

-Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill) provided an economic and social cushion for veterans and similarly helped jump start the economy.

-mass consumer society of interwar period grew to tremendous heights: goal was material comfort and social mobility.

A. Americans struggled in the postwar period to find their ethnic identities.

1. War inspired belief in social equality, at least for whites.

-man individuals were first or second generation immigrants, whose parents had voted for Al Smith back in 1928 – as democrats captured ethnic city vote for first time; they followed through by supporting Roosevelt’s new Deal.

2. Some groups still experienced discrimination.

3. Others benefited from quotas for college admission and other positions.

B. Nonwhite groups cited their wartime patriotism as justification for political rights.

1. NAACP cited the Wartime struggle to persuade the Supreme Court to prohibit segregation in interstate bus travel in 1946.

2. Congress passed the Indian Claims Commission Act that year too, which allowed lawsuits for past treaty violations.

-although the Commission proved slow to uphold rights of claimants in 1948 a federal court upheld Native American voting rights in all states.

3. GI Forum ensured Mexican American soldiers' claims to GI benefits.

-in 1948, California courts ruled that laws barring interracial marriages were unconstitutional; US Supreme Court also rejected the State’s Alien land laws which prohibited Asians from owning real estate.

4. African Americans in south still victims of discrimination.

-“Negro Soldiers disgraced the flag,” Mississippi’s James Eastland told the Senate in 1945, “I assert that the Negro race is an inferior race.”

-black voting, however, increased in the south.

5. Others voted with their feet – Black migration to north continued; 1.6 million during 1940s.

6. Situation in north not perfect, but better than in south.

-in North, African Americans confronted problems of ‘adjustment’; In the south everybody knew you, opined Ralph Ellison in his novel of black migration, The Invisible Man, coming north was “a jump into the unknown – nobody knew you’ and you could actually ‘make yourself anew.’

7. Truman formed Committee on Civil Rights in 1946 to study situation.

-charged with making recommendations to ease racial tensions.

8. Recommendations came in report To Secure These Rights in 1947.

a. Made clear moral, economic, international repercussions of continued inequality.

b. recommended enforcement of civil rights laws, expanded suffrage, and an end to segregation.

9. Supreme Court outlawed racial discrimination in housing in 1947.

10. Truman introduced civil rights program that year; it died in Congress.

-it had included an end to the discriminatory poll tax, a federal anti-lynching law, a permanent fair-employment Practices Commission....

11. Ordered desegregation of military and end of discrimination in federal employment in 1948.

- In 1947 to push Congress and Truman to act in a progressive fashion the Interracial Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) organized sit-in protests at lunch counters to force desegregation, and launched an integrated “freedom ride” on interstate buses in the South to test compliance with Supreme Court rulings.

-In 1947, second baseman Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers marking the arrival of integration of major-league baseball (although discrimination still remained on and off the field).

C. Americans had postwar concerns about stability of the nation's economy.

1. Some feared that demobilization would lead to renewed depression.

2. In reality, the economy boomed as people bought everything they could.

-the opportunity was there for many to move rapidly upward through various levels and social classes in society.

-in 1946 Congress debated a Full Employment bill that would commit the federal government to intervene to ensure sufficient jobs. Conservatives balked at the idea

3. Congress then deleted the word “full” before enacting the Employment Act of 1946 which allowed government regulation to ensure jobs and stability.

-also created a presidential Council of Economic Advisers; endorsed the principle of government regulation through spending policies and tax incentives to maximize jobs and ensure stability.

D. High postwar birth rate stimulated baby boom.

-by 1950, two-thirds of all men and women over 15 were married; by 1950 average age of mothers first birth was at 21; second at 24.

1. Nation's birth rate peaked during the 1940s with 32 million babies, a 25 percent increase over the 1930s.; postwar boom began almost nine months following V-J Day; dropped by sixties end of era: Boom, Bust Echo.

2. Again couples began marrying at younger age; family size increased; graph portrays the changing median ages at first marriage from 1947-1981; note nose dive in late forties and slow climb in seventies again.

3. Child rearing became less rigid, more individualistic.

-Dr. Benjamin Spock’s book Baby and Child Care (1946) had as its motto “trust yourself”; previous generation raised children by rigid time tables, new generation led by Spock encouraged respect for individuality of their offspring.

E. Women's roles during 1940s emphasized home and the family.

-a pediatrician’s guide in the mid-40s emphasized that most women wanted 4 children on average.

1. Number of working women decreased; marriage assumed new importance.

-reconversion to a civilian economy saw the percentage of working women drop from 36 percent in 45 to 29 in 47.

-work in Canada, Pierson, “They’re Still Women After All”, session at Learneds

2. Cult of domesticity discouraged the pursuit of independent careers.

-popular Hollywood movies such as Mildred Pierce (1945) and The Snake Pit (1949) reinforced the idea that non-domestic women made bad role models for their daughters or were psychologically disturbed.

-survey’s found that often women attended college not for careers but to meet husbands; 2/3rds failed their degree requirements.

-Reflected a belief of males as ‘breadwinners’; women domestic supporters; mention Joy Parr.

3. Subordinate status of women was legally sanctioned and generally accepted.

a. Supreme Court in 1947 said women had no constitutional right to serve on juries; other federal decisions upheld state laws that restricted the right of married women to work or obtain credit.

b. ‘Motherhood cannot be amended,’ applauded The New York Times when congress defeated the defeated the Equal Rights Amendment in 1946.

-reflection of Brandeis case decades earlier, officials opposed changing labour laws that gave special protection to women.

-following immediate postwar drop, push of women into homes, reversal takes place; however, these women did not fit perceived pattern, young, single etc. – mothers, single, middle age, more m-c etc.

4. Those women who were working had low-status jobs and earned lower wages.

F. Despite limits on women's opportunities, families in general prospered.

1. GI Bill enabled 2.3 million veterans (nearly all men) to attend institutions of higher education on federal scholarships.

-proportion of women on campuses dropped from 34 percent in 20s to 20 percent, their share of doctorates declined from 16 to 10 percent too.

2. Veterans exerted pressure for housing construction. GI bill also helped solve this problem.

-Conservatives such as Senator J. McCarthy and private builders like William Levitt denounced public housing as “communistic”.

a. Housing Act of 1949 was passed but never provided enough funding for slum clearance and low-cost construction.

b. William Levitt pioneered construction of affordable single-family dwellings taking advantage of low-interest federal loans to purchase land in city suburbs, places such as Long Island’s “Levittown”.

-Levitt appealed to veterans, built simple functional houses for under $8,000.

-GI bill made homes affordable by forgoing down payments and extending 30 year loans backed by the Veterans Administration and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)

c. White families increasingly moved to the suburbs.

3. Automobile registrations soared, as did demand for other durable goods.

-former went from 26 million in 1945 to 40 million in 1950; arrival of the high-compression (high-octane-burning) V-8 engine in 1949 Cadillacs elevated postwar bar for a thriving car culture – large vehicles that traded fuel efficiency for horse power- created a greater dependency on foreign fuel – precursor to SUVs – defined citizenship through cars, American wages, American dreams, ‘Unamerican’

4. Population movement to the western states during 1940s.

-all part of the search for upward social mobility.

-following wartime trends; oil industry Texas; aircraft production in California; manual labour brought 200,000 Mexican migrants north by 1947, half in California; others in Texas; Arizona... story told in Arthur F. Corwin, Immigrants – and Immigrants: Perspectives on Mexican Labor Migration to The United States (edited collection, Greenwood Press, 1978).

G. Postwar situation was tumultuous for organized labor.

1. Crippling strikes in automobiles, steel, railroads.

-labour dropped no-strike pledge and sought to recover losses in purchasing power caused by rising prices.

-1946, 4.6 million workers (more than 10 percent of labour force) participated in work stoppages.

2. During auto strikes, White House pressured GM to concede Cost-of-living-adjustments (COLAs) to offset inflation helped to stabilize the situation.

-J.L. Lewis’ coal miners struck in winter of 1946, Truman took union to court, challenging right to strike and forcing mine workers to resume negotiating. Conservative Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 restricted the right to strike, Truman vetoed it.

3. Conservative Congress overrode Truman veto of Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. “Lie down like good dogs”

a. Empowered president to seek cooling-off period before unions could strike.

-would essentially kill advantage to strikers, gave employers time to prepare.

b. Outlawed wildcat strikes, secondary boycotts, general strikes of nonworkers.

c. Permitted states to enact right-to-work laws to combat mandatory union membership (closed shops).

d. Prohibited Communists from holding union offices (in 1949 CIO would expel 11 communist-led unions) – union leaders vowed to see the law repealed.

II. Building a Cold War Political Consensus

A. Partisan politics heating up by 1946.

1. Republicans capitalizing on instability of immediate postwar period.

2. Republicans carried both houses of Congress for first time in twenty years.

3. 80th Congress began in 1947;

-brought a new generation of politicians to congress, war veterans such as Massachusetts’s J.F. Kennedy; California’s Richard Nixon; and Wisconsin’s Joe McCarthy.

-Truman christened "do nothing”; still hung in the shadows of his predecessor; yet he remained loyal to the “new deal” and demonstrated considerable finesse.

4. Twenty-second Amendment limited presidents to two terms in 1951.

5. Truman's 1947 State of the Union address was militant in demanding reforms.

-proposed anti-trust laws, farm supports, streamlining the military, national health insurance and civil rights.

-conservative democrats aligned themselves with the republican majority to curtail Truman’s plans; however sometimes they failed – a case in point was David Lilienthal, a liberal Jewish New Deal manager Truman wanted to head the civilian controlled Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) which oversaw top-secret projects; accused Truman of being soft on communism in this case and he overrode their objections and pushed Lilienthal through.

B. Foreign policy became major partisan issue.

-the question fo whether the White House was hard or soft on communism soon came to dominate politics.

1. Emerging anti-Communist consensus targeted two interrelated threats.

a. Had to oppose Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe.

-at root was the failure to reach agreement on the status of Germany and Eastern Europe; at root was two very differing economic systems, social and political philosophies; and the greater divergence was even about putting beliefs into practice

b. Needed to stop Communist subversion of domestic society – fear of fellow-travellers, fifth columnists.

2. Communism became litmus test of all political discussion.

-Truman had been battling Stalin for two years: “We must face the fact” Truman advised Congress in 1945, “that peace must be built on power as well as upon good will and good deeds”

3. Administration was constructing strategy to ensure national security.

-through bilateral treaties the US established military bases from the Azores in the Atlantic to Okinawa in the Pacific.

-independence was granted to the Philippine Islands in 1946; but US also “reserved military positions” to keep troops there.

-government also tried secretly to gain control over the world’s uranium resources

- goal to provided humanitarian assistance to ease postwar economic hardships and to try to stave off conversion to communism.

4. Winston Churchill warned of "iron curtain" in 1946 speech; Truman supported. (Fraser Harbutt)

5. U.S. staged atomic tests in Pacific in 1946.

C. Administration saw no alternative but to challenge Soviet influence in Eastern Europe.

1. Kennan's "Long Telegram" (an 8000 word analysis) advocated tough policy against Soviets – depicted the Soviet State as a government “committed fanatically” to undermining “the internal harmony of our society” and threatening the international order; he advocated a long and patient period of vigilant containment of SU expansionism.

2. Truman Doctrine, a speech made to Congress in March 1947, depicted bi-polar world and called for aid to Greece and Turkey; both it was feared might slip into the SU orbit; Truman noted in speech that “every nation must choose between alternative ways of life” and proposed 400 million of economic and military assistance for these countries.

3. Secretary of State, George C. Marshall, presented the 1947 Harvard University Commencement Address; proposed economic aid to rebuild non-Communist Europe – a European Recovery Program was embarked upon– known as the Marshall Plan, its total price tag reached 17 billion.

D. Anti-Communist foreign policy paralleled on home front.

-Spy Ring in Canada Gouzenko gave credibility to charges of communist subversion.

1. Administration introduced loyalty program for federal employees in 1947.

2. House Committee on Un-American Activities (1938) conducted investigations as well into activities in government, schools, labour unions and the motion picture industry.

3. Attorney general began compiling list of subversive organizations.

-FBI and Civil Service Commission began investigating 2 million federal employees and eventually over 5 million people.

-FBI budget for administrative work jumped from 35 million in 47 to 53 in 1950.

-Hollywood 10 screenwriters and producers refused to testify about their political assessment on basis of the First Amendment Congress voted them in contempt, a crime that brought them prison terms. — Woody Allen Movie. “The Front”

-Hollywood studios established industry blacklists against other suspected criminals.

4. HUAC victory in perjury case against Alger Hiss – state department official in 1948 accused of passing secret documents to the Soviet Union. His dramatic perjury trial enable conservatives to play on public fears about traitors within government catapulting HUAC Republican Richard Nixon into prominence.

-in 1949 the Justice Department indicted top leaders of US CP for conspiring to advocate the overthrow of the government by force; again other communists were forced to go underground to avoid arrest.

-fear of domestic communism reflected deeper anxieties of the postwar era of “Red Fascism” according to J. Edgar Hoover. — book The Red Web; movie The Red Menace (1948), awakened concerns about domestic society, that big government, corporations and impersonal economic forces were limiting free expression and individual choice.

E. Unstable international situation led to reorganization of national security apparatus.

1. To streamline security decisions the National Security Act of 1947 became a blueprint.

a. Unified armed services into Department of Defense.

b. Created National Security Council and Central Intelligence Agency.

2. Administration adopted air-atomic bomb military strategy; the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 provided for civilian, not military control of nuclear weapons; and the Atomic Energy Commission, moved slowly to develop an arsenal.

a. Belief that air force and atomic capabilities would deter Soviet aggression.

b. Required drastic expansion of the military budget.

3. Berlin blockade and Air Lift of 1948 demonstrated superiority of the U.S. strategy.

F. Policy of containment since WWII demanded U.S. vigilance throughout the world.

1. U.S. supported Chinese Nationalists, under Chiang Kai-skek against communist rivals led by Mao Zedong despite their corruption and unpopularity.

2. Worked to improve relations with Japan as Communist victory in China became more likely.

3. As well since Washington viewed all communist regimes as part of a global conspiracy they refused to support independence bid of Communist Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam against the French colonial administration.

-US also backed anti-communist regimes in Korea and the Philippines and secretly funded anti-communist parties in Italy and France.

4. U.S. pushed for Organization of American States in 1948: collective defense closer to home.

G. Political situation very tumultuous as election of 1948 approached.

-International situation strengthened Truman’s domestic hand.

1. Truman had fired Commerce Secretary Henry Wallace in 1946 for criticizing his foreign policy. Wallace, his secretary of Agriculture, asserted US had no more business in the political affairs in Eastern Europe than Russia had in Latin America, Western Europe and the US.

2. Wallace ran as Progressive in 1948; Truman called him Communist dupe.

3. Southern Democrats formed States Rights party (Dixiecrats) when Democrats endorsed civil rights in party platform; they ran South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond.

4. Republicans ran Thomas Dewey and running mate California Governor Earl Warren; thought they had an easy win.

5. Truman won surprising victory; also gained the Jewish vote when he came out quickly during debates over recognition of Israel, strongly in favour; campaigned in Harlem first time a president did; Truman also ran stronger than FDR in 1940 and 1944 among white ethnics.

-huge upset, Truman beats Dwey by 2 million votes 303-189 in electoral college; key point is despite substantial lead in electoral vote, popular margin was small;

– democrats swept both houses.

6. Truman proposed Fair Deal in 1949; not much success enacting.

-included increases in minimum wages and social security, national health insurance, aid to education, and repeal of Taft-Hartley law; languished in congress and then faded.

H. Anticommunism continued to dominate foreign policy after 1949.

1. North Atlantic Treaty Organization protected Western Europe; including the new west German state; formed in 1949; first peace-time military commitment made earned tremendous debate about entanglements etc.

2. Soviets broke U.S. atomic monopoly by testing own device in September 49; within a week it ended the quarrel over NATO congress released funds.

3. Communist victory in China was public relations disaster for administration; it followed two months later.

4. Administration on defensive by end of 1949.

-especially after the rise of the Warsaw Pact.

III. The Rise of Joseph R. McCarthy

A. Early 1950 speech at Women’s Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, ignited firestorm throughout country.

1. Accused Truman administration of losing China and atomic monopoly.

2. Said Communists in government had sold the country out.

-date of speech was 9 February 1950; five months after soviet bomb test; two months after china drove out nationalists to Taiwan; and one month after a jury convicted Alger Hiss of perjury for denying he had given government documents to communists; six days after British arrested Klaus Fuchs for passing atomic secrets to Soviets.

3. Attacked government officials who were not elected by public.

-announced he had a list of 205 names of known communists still working shaping policy in the state department. Rise of McCarthyism

B. Administration moved quickly to protect itself.

1.FBI Julius and Ethel Rosenberg arrested two NY CP members for espionage in 1950, passing atomic secrets to SU during WWII; executed in 1953.

-Rosenberg case, like Hiss conviction, reinforced the belief that communists were not merely radicals but agents of the SU.

2. Internal Security Act (1950) Sponsored by Nevada Senator Patrick McCarran required registration of Communists and placed other limits on their movements.

-barred from working in defense industries, obtaining passports, and created a Subversive Activities Control Board to monitor the activities of Communist Front Orgs.

-also increased presidential powers, authorizing the president the right to declare a national emergency; permitted the arrest of suspected dissidents even without their committing illegal acts. Truman vetoed the bill and congress soon overrode him.

-new executive order permitted the dismissal of federal employees not on reasonable grounds but rather reasonable doubt which shifted the burden of proving innocence and guilt; 3000 employees fired, countless dozens of homosexuals, or “sex perverts” as security risks.

3. McCarran-Walter Act (1952) placed limits on immigration policy.

-limited newcomers from communist countries and allowed the president to expel suspected subversives.

-meanwhile HUAC reopened its investigation into hollywood.

4; fear of spread of global communism meant spring of 50 National Security Council proposed a comprehensive document called NSC-68 (1950) laid out aggressive foreign policy program – through a new agency the Federal Civil Defense Administration which Truman created and it distributed 16 million copies of the booklet, Survival Under Atomic Attack; NSC - 68 also recommended quadrupling the national defense budget to 26 billion a year.

C. Outbreak of war in Korea on 25 June 1950 was more bad news for administration.

-North Korean communists invaded the south

1. U.S. immediately blamed Soviets for masterminding the war.

-recent documents reveal however it was a N K initiative.

2. U.S. led UN forces to turn back Communist advances.

-had passed the UN since SU was boycotting it to protest UN rejection of China.

-strings to Supreme Commander, General Douglas MacArthur, pulled in Washington.

-line of battle was the 38^th parallel

-originally Truman wanted to push NK above it and restore. But after MacArthur’s Inchon landing on 15 Sept 1950, attempt to push them well north up to china; election coming in US and Truman wanted to dispel all myths soft on C.; troops pushed to the Yalu River and Mao Zedong saw a threat to own country.

3. Chinese eventually intervened as combat lines approached their territory.

-communists smashed US lines, seized thousands of US prisoners and drove allied armies south of 38 parallel.

4. Goals became limited to status quo, rather than complete victory.

5. Conflict over strategy (Truman preferred a negotiated settlement) led to firing of General Douglas MacArthur in 1951.