History-Cold War in US
Cold War in the US
December 7, 2010
Aim: 1) The Failure of Truman’s Liberal program, 145-1946
KQ: What happened to FDR’s liberal programs during the Truman Administration?
1. Liberal program:
FDR= New Deal 1933-1935
-Social Security, welfare state, housing, employment, satisfying labor demands (raising wages) protecting jobs
-Program if Democratic Party
-FDR’s legacy
2. FDR’s programs:
-Cut short by war
-War created jobs, which replaced New Deal employment programs
-WPA+NYA+ were abandoned
3. Truman’s liberal legislative program (1945):
-Full employment
-Higher wages
-National housing legislation
4. Result in Congress
- Truman lacks a liberal majority in Congress
-Amendments to bill: substituted “full employment” with “maximum employment” which accepted 5-6% unemployment
-Failed to increase minimum wage
-Did not extend SS
-$4 billion to aid business industry
5. Why did the liberal programs fail?
Chafe, p. 75
-Government negative response to social activism (trade union protest) because the politics of anti-communism stigmatized liberals and liberal programs as sympathetic to Communism. “Red Scare”
-Postwar changes in housing, prosperity and consumerism were positive for many Americans, thus the American people’s demand and need for state-sponsored liberal programs receded.
*NB: Not all Americans shared in the postwar prosperity
6. Consequences:
- 1946 Legislative elections won by Republicans
- Elections of Senator McCarthy and Nixon
-Rise of politics of anticommunism
- Protests by labor unions (anti-government)
History-Cold War in US Part II
Aim: America in the 1950s: Politics, Cold War at Home & Suburbanization
1. KQ: Who was Dwight Eisenhower?
2. What are some examples of the conservatism of his presidency?
3. Why was conservatism valued in those years?
1. War Hero ⇒ immensely popular
2. Architect of D-Day invasion
3. Calm/serene leader
4. Courted by both parties in 1945
5. 1951 – declares candidacy as Republican
6. Vice President Nixon ⇒ attacking Alger Hiss in 1946 for treason
7. K1C2 = campaign slogan against Adlai Stevenson
-Victory and end to Korean War
-Communism and corruption must be ended
2. Eisenhower’s Governing:
-Moderate Republican: cabinet included corporate leaders
-Conservative economic ideas ⇒laissez-faire, keep government out of economy
-Pro-business ⇒ submerged Land Act
$40 billion worth of land opened to oil drilling
-Cabinet included corporate CEOs. Close to GM
-Appointments to FTC sympathetic to corporate/big business interests
Eisenhower also supported some “liberal” programs:
-Expanded social security
-Expanded unemployment benefits
-Increased minimum wage
-National Defense Education Act (1957) ⇒ Sputnik reaction
Goal: to improve science programs
-Reluctant to initiate tax cuts
Critiques of Eisenhower:
1. Economic growth = 2,5% (stagnant, too little)
2. Failure to address civil rights questions
(Exception = Little Rock, 1957)
Aim:
1) Suburbanization
2) Consumerism
3) Postwar Cultural Shirts
Suburbanization: move out of cities to surrounding areas, in search of better quality of life
-4 room homes, plot of ground
-By 1960: 25% of Americans lived in suburbs
-Marriage doubled= need for living space, raising children: Baby Boom
-Grilling space
-Government encouraged home building and purchase VA and FHA: provided loans
-Highway ACT (1956)
-1950-1960: 11 million homes built in suburbs
18 million people moved to suburbs
Consumerism: when individuals are considered economically as consumers.
-Mass consumption: home appliances, cars, TVs, lawnmowers, fridge, knives, grills, clothing, electronics, radios, durable appliances (washing machine), supermarket groceries, conspicuous consumption.
-Advertising encourages consumption to demonstrate social mobility and represent an “American Dream” come true
-Family vacations
1. KQ: Who was Dwight Eisenhower?
2. What are some examples of the conservatism of his presidency?
3. Why was conservatism valued in those years?
1. War Hero ⇒ immensely popular
2. Architect of D-Day invasion
3. Calm/serene leader
4. Courted by both parties in 1945
5. 1951 – declares candidacy as Republican
6. Vice President Nixon ⇒ attacking Alger Hiss in 1946 for treason
7. K1C2 = campaign slogan against Adlai Stevenson
-Victory and end to Korean War
-Communism and corruption must be ended
2. Eisenhower’s Governing:
-Moderate Republican: cabinet included corporate leaders
-Conservative economic ideas ⇒laissez-faire, keep government out of economy
-Pro-business ⇒ submerged Land Act
$40 billion worth of land opened to oil drilling
-Cabinet included corporate CEOs. Close to GM
-Appointments to FTC sympathetic to corporate/big business interests
Eisenhower also supported some “liberal” programs:
-Expanded social security
-Expanded unemployment benefits
-Increased minimum wage
-National Defense Education Act (1957) ⇒ Sputnik reaction
Goal: to improve science programs
-Reluctant to initiate tax cuts
Critiques of Eisenhower:
1. Economic growth = 2,5% (stagnant, too little)
2. Failure to address civil rights questions
(Exception = Little Rock, 1957)
Aim:
1) Suburbanization
2) Consumerism
3) Postwar Cultural Shirts
Suburbanization: move out of cities to surrounding areas, in search of better quality of life
-4 room homes, plot of ground
-By 1960: 25% of Americans lived in suburbs
-Marriage doubled= need for living space, raising children: Baby Boom
-Grilling space
-Government encouraged home building and purchase VA and FHA: provided loans
-Highway ACT (1956)
-1950-1960: 11 million homes built in suburbs
18 million people moved to suburbs
Consumerism: when individuals are considered economically as consumers.
-Mass consumption: home appliances, cars, TVs, lawnmowers, fridge, knives, grills, clothing, electronics, radios, durable appliances (washing machine), supermarket groceries, conspicuous consumption.
-Advertising encourages consumption to demonstrate social mobility and represent an “American Dream” come true
-Family vacations
