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Yalta Conference
The final meeting of the Big Three; Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin. Finalized plans for German lines, and assigned occupation zones in Germany to the Allied Powers. The most controversial decision concerned the Far East, Japan. Many promises were made, but never fulfilled. -
Nuremberg War Crimes Trial
Accusations included committing war crimes against laws and humanity, and plotting aggressions that contradicted treaty pledges. Many punishments were against top Nazis. It was difficult for the Allies to come to terms with postwar Germany. The US wanted dismantle German factories and to retrieve what made it powerful, like its military. The Soviets wanted to extract enormous reparation from the Germans. -
United Nations
Designed to prevent another world war. It also provided that no one from the Security Council, dominated by the Big Five powers (US, Britain, USSR, France, and China) could take action against it without its consent. The U.N. presumed great-power cooperation. -
Employment Act of 1946
To prevent an economic downturn, war factories and other government installations were sold to private businesses at fire-sale prices. The act made government policy to “promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power.” The act created a 3 member Council of Economic Advisers. -
The “Loyalty” Program
Truman launched this program because many citizens feared communist spies were undermining the government and misdirecting foreign policy. The attorney general made a list of 90 “disloyal” organizations. None of the organizations were given the popular to prove their innocence. The Loyalty Review Board investigated more than 3 million federal employees, and 3,000 resigned or were dismissed. -
Taft-Hartley Act
It made unions liable for damages that happened among themselves due to disputes, and it required union leaders to take a non-communist oath. This slowed the growth of organized labor, which relieved some conservatives. -
Chasing Alger Hiss
The committee member of the House Un-American Activities Committee, Richard M. Nixon, led a chase after Alger Hiss. Alger Hiss is an ex-New Dealer who was accused of being a communist agent in the 1930s. Hiss denied everything, but was caught in embarrassing falsehoods. He was convicted of perjury in 1950 and sentenced 5 years in prison. -
Executive Order 9981
Competition for international support created new political opportunities and rhetorical tools for advocates to press civil rights claims. An example of new international politics of civil rights is when Truman issued the Executive Order 9981. It desegregated the armed forces. -
Operation Dixie
Aimed to unite southern textile workers and steelworkers. Despite the efforts, it failed to overcome white workers’ fears of racial mixing. The workers proved difficult to organize compared to assembly line workers. Organized labor played a significant role in the economic and political order in the U.S. -
The Beginning of the “Arms Race”
The Soviets tested an atomic bomb of their own. US President, Truman, declared that the US was going to create an even more destructive atomic weapon. Therefore, the arms race began. -
Fair Deal
“ It called for improved housing, full employment. national health insurance, a higher minimum wage, better farm price supports, new TVAs, and an extension of Social Security.” Republicans and southern Democrats greatly opposed. The only major successes were raising minimum wage and adding more beneficiaries through the Social Security act of 1950. -
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
An alliance with the North Atlantic European powers. “Pledged to regard an attack on one as an attack on all.” If necessary, an armed force will be used as a response. European unification and a great step towards militarization in the Cold War. NATO’s purpose: “to keep the Russians out, the Germans down, and the Americans in.” -
China Won’t Sit Still
The Chinese had publicly warned that they would intervene if troops approached the Yalu River boundary between Korea and China. Thousands of Chinese hurled U.N. forces back down the peninsula, becoming a stalemate on an icy terrain. -
Was it a Red Hunt or a Witch Hunt?
Truman realized that the red hunt was becoming a witch hunt. He vetoed the McCarran Internal Security Bill, which authorized the president to arrest/detain suspicious people during an “internal security emergency.” -
McCarythism
McCarthy saw the red hand of Moscow everywhere. He grew bolder in his accusations, he was an ineffective red-hunter, but he was ruthless. He damaged American traditions of fair play, freedom of speech, and fair/open democracy. Many American people approved of McCarthy’s crusade. -
Baby Boom
Huge leap of birthrates and many marriages. By the end of the 1950s, there was 50 million newborns. By 1973, fertility rates decreased significantly. With this major decrease the American life strained. For example, many schools closed and left teachers unemployed, due to the lack of pupils. -
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Women Got Rewarded
Urban offices and shops provided employment for female workers. The great majority of new jobs created in the postwar era went to woman. Women accounted for a quarter of the American workforce at the end of World War II. A feminist revolt sparked in the 1960s. -
National Security Council Memorandum Number 68
Recommended that the US quadruple it’s defense spending. Truman ordered a massive military buildup. Soon enough there were 3.5 billion armed American men, and a defense budget of $50 billion/year. -
Korean War
The North Korean army with Soviet-made tanks, shoved South Korean forces southward with their backs to the sea in a small defensive area. The invasion was proof that communist aggression had to be stopped. As a result, the American military expanded significantly. Truman ordered American air and naval units to support South Korea. -
Dennis v. United States
11 communists were brought to a New York jury for violating the Smith Act of 1940, an anti sedition law. The communists were convicted of advocating the overthrow of the American government by force. The defendants were sent to prison. -
The Rosenbergs
Soviet scientists successfully developed atomic bombs because of communists spies who stole American secrets. Two notorious spies were the American citizens, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Both convicted in 1951 of espionage and sent to the electric chair in 1953. -
Truman-MacArthur Conflict
MacArthur wanted a drastic retaliation against the Chinese, he even suggested using nuclear weapons to gain an upper hand against China. Truman refused because then they would be fighting “the wrong enemy.” MacArthur criticized Truman and got fired, Americans welcomed MacArthur. Meanwhile, Truman was “taking the heat.” Truman was seen as an “appeaser of communism.” -
The First H-Bomb Test
A hydrogen bomb (or super bomb) was tested in the Marshall Islands. Demonstrated the fearsome incoming nuclear age. The H-bomb vaporized the island, and blew a hole in the ocean floor. American and Soviet tests left radioactive waste in the atmosphere. -
Army-McCarthy Hearings
McCarthy went too far when he attacked the U.S. Army. The military me fought back in 35 days of televised hearings. 20 million Americans watched these hearings. McCarthy later died of chronic alcoholism. McCarythism was a label for the “dangerous forces of unfairness and fear that a democratic society can unleash at its peril.” -
Reinhold Niebuhr
The Cold War was a battle between good and evil. Niebuhr was a liberal Protestant theologian, a “vocal enemy of fascism, communism, and pacifism.” Niebuhr divided the work into polarized camps: the “children of light” and the “children of darkness.” Force is a necessary to use against the “children of darkness” like Hitler and Stalin. Niebuhr emphasized the dangers of fallibility and the limits of power.
