The document discusses the end of WWII and the onset of the Cold War between the US and USSR. It notes that WWII ended with hostility between the former allies and the beginning of the Cold War, though without direct fighting. This climate of fear led to repression of freedoms in the US out of fear of communism. The nuclear arms race and proxy wars like the Korean War exacerbated tensions between the two superpowers.

1. The US and the Cold War, 1945-1953

2. Key Themes
• WWII ends with the atomic bomb –
terrifying impact
• WWII ends with hostility between the US
and the USSR, both part of the Allies
• The Cold War begins – US vs. USSR, but
no direct fighting
• Fear of communism leads to repression of
freedom at home in the US

3. End of WWII and
the Cold War
• Hostility between USSR and
other Allies at war’s end sets
the tone for Cold War
• An era of nuclear weapons
ratchets up climate of fear
• Cold War is “hot” - fought
through proxy wars, like
Korean War
• Impact on U.S.:
• Increasing militarization
• Climate of suspicion:
suppression of left
• Some positive impact on civil
rights

4. End of the War
• December 1944 - Battle
of the Bulge in France:
70,000 American
casualties
• FDR reelected 1944,
dies April 12, 1945
• May 8, 1945: V-E Day
http://www.defense.gov/home/Specials/bulge/images/indexb_10a.jpg

5. The Atomic
Bomb
• The Manhattan Project -
1940
• July 1945 successful test,
New Mexico
• August 6, 1945:
Hiroshima
• August 9, 1945: Nagasaki

6. Planning the
Postwar World
• “Big Three” meetings during
war at Tehran (1943); Yalta
(1945); and finally Potsdam
(July 1945) - Churchill,
Truman, Stalin
• Yalta: USSR expands control;
US tries to pressure Britain
to surrender colonies
• Bretton Woods (NH): July
1944, replaces British pound
with dollar as main currency
for international transactions
• The United Nations forms

7. Peace, but not Harmony
• US and Soviet Union as
world powers
• Atomic bombs and a
legacy of fear
• Four freedoms as
foundation for human
rights in postwar world
• Disputes over freedom of
colonial peoples, non-
whites in the United States

8. • How does the end to WWII set up the
Cold War?

9. Postwar
Economy
• 1942-1943: National Resources
Planning Board - plan for
peacetime economy
• FDR: Economic Bill of Rights -
not passed in Congress
• Servicemen’s Readjustment Act,
a.k.a. GI Bill of Rights
• 1946: 1 million veterans to
college under GI Bill
• 4 million veterans get home
mortgages: the suburbs are
born

10. Changes in
Postwar America
• Integrating pop culture:
Jackie Robinson (1947)
• Rights based on military
service
• Another Red Scare
weakens CIO, unions
• Many women head
home

12. Redefining National
Security
• Broad scope of definition -
creating and preserving “free-
trading capitalist world
order” (p. 317)
• Economic interests as well as
national defense
• US activism in the world to
defend

13. Growing Tensions in
Europe
(again)

14. Postwar Europe
• Vacuum of power in Germany, control by
victors of WWII
• Map 1945:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/
europe/04/changing_borders/html/1945.stm
• Map 1949:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/
europe/04/changing_borders/html/1949.stm

15. In response to changes in Europe,
Winston Churchill gives what becomes
known as the “Iron Curtain Speech” –
says the US must stand up to Russia. See
the video clip on the next slide:

16. The United States stands at this time at the pinnacle of world
power. It is a solemn moment for the American democracy. For
with this primacy in power is also joined an awe-inspiring
accountability to the future. As you look around you, you must
feel not only the sense of duty done, but also you must feel
anxiety lest you fall below the level of achievement. Opportunity
is here now, clear and shining, for both our countries…. It is
necessary that constancy of mind, persistency of purpose, and
the grand simplicity of decision shall rule and guide the conduct
of the English-speaking peoples in peace as they did in war.
Winston Churchill, excerpt from Iron Curtain Speech, 1946

18. Conflict with the USSR
• Containment: preventing the
spread of communist rule and
Soviet influence
• Truman Doctrine: new
international role for the US -
audio clip on the next slide

19. US Leadership in
the Cold War
• Marshall Plan: $13 billion
between 1948-1952 for
Europe’s reconstruction
• Funds also to reconstruct
Japan
• But no Marshall Plan for other
regions affected by war - and
Cold War cools American
support for decolonization

20. “Losing” China
• 1949: Mao Zedong’s
communists win Chinese
civil war
• U.S.: Republican criticism of
Truman for “losing” China
• U.S. refuses to recognize
new government; won’t let
it sit at U.N.
• NSC-68: permanent
military build-up for fight
against communism

21. Korean War
• Divided 1945: Soviet and
US-controlled zones
• June 1950, N. Korean
army invades south to
reunify country
• UN Security Council
authorizes use of force

22. Korean War
Check out maps of the conflict at:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/maps/
koreatxt.html

23. Conclusions: Cold War to
1953
• Series of communist “victories” make U.S.
feel threatened
• Military build-up and rhetoric of good vs.
evil, us vs. them
• External tensions will lead to internal
pressures

24. At Home in the Fifties,
Part 1: Anticommunism

25. Anticommunist
Crusade
• Cold War ideology: anti-
Communist Hollywood, CIA-
funded art and culture
• New language: “totalitarian”
and “socialized”
• Cold War transformations:
science, immigration,
segregation, patriotism

27. Don’t look for physical differences when you try to spot a
Communist. Communists are all kinds of people in all
walks of life and of all races. A Communist is anyone who
believes in the Russian system of government, whereby
those who govern own everything and control all the
activities of all the people…. When a Communist goes to
work on you, tell him that you are on to him and his dirty
game. Tell him, further, that you think it your patriotic
duty to make his activities known to others and to the
police. Tell him that you know no tactics are too low for
a Communist: lying, cheating, betrayal, ruin, and even
murder. But be sure to tell him, too, that America is on
the alert and that his scheme for world domination is
doomed to failure.

28. Loyalty and Disloyalty
• Begins before Sen.
McCarthy comes on scene
• President’s loyalty
program (1947)
• House Un-American
Activities Committee
(1947)
• Hollywood Ten: refuse to
testify - jail terms;
blacklisted
Ronald Reagan testifies at HUAC
Image source: http://theomahaproject.org/module_display.php?mod_id=44&review=yes

29. Spy Trials
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (1951)
New York World-Telegram & Sun
Accessed via ARTStor, Series: Eyes of the Nation:
A Visual History of the United States (Library of Congress)
• Alger Hiss, State-Dept.
official - accused by
Whittaker Chambers,
editor at Time
• Julius and Ethel
Rosenberg - accused by
Ethel’s brother, David
Greenglass, who worked
at Los Alamos

30. McCarthy and
McCarthyism
• WI senator, elected
1946
• List of communists in
State Department
(1950)
• Nationally televised
Army-McCarthy
hearings made
McCarthy look like a
bully (1954)
...that we here highly resolve that this nation, under God,
shall have a new birth of freedom... A. Lincoln, Gettysburg
Address (1954) Leslie Illingworth, published in Punch

31. News anchor Edward R. Murrow
pronounces Joseph McCarthy’s epitaph
after the Army-McCarthy hearings.
Check out the video clip:

32. Anticommunism• Loyalty oaths from
professionals; bans on
licenses to communists;
library censorship
• Ethnic groups: Polish-
Americans and American
Catholics
• FBI: files on thousands of
citizens
• White supremacists and
upholders of traditional
gender roles

33. Anticommunist
Politics
• McCarran Internal Security
Bill of 1950
• McCarran-Walter Act of
1952 - quotas, deportation
of communist immigrants
• Operation Wetback 1954
• 1950: Truman gets domestic
workers and self-employed
included in Social Security

34. Conclusions
• Cold War led to increasing militarization,
climate of fear
• Korean War is an example of the “hot”
proxy wars fought during Cold War
• Fear turns inwards in the U.S., leads to
climate of suspicion