Chapter 26
Harry Truman and the
Cold War
Harry Truman 1945-1952
• Born in Lamar, Missouri
• Occupation: farmer, WW 1 soldier,
small businessman, public official
• U.S. Senator 1935-45
• VP under FDR 1945 (only few weeks)
• 33rd President April 12, 1945-1952
Trumanisms
• “If you want a friend in Washington, get
a dog”
• “the buck stops here”
• “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of
the kitchen
• “I felt like the moon, the stars, and all
the planets had fallen on me”
Harry Truman
• Democrat
• Salary $75,000
• Election of 1948
(defeated Thomas
Dewey)
• Made some of the
most crucial
decisions in
Am.history
Truman’s Fair Deal
• Presented to Congress a 21 point
program of progressive ideas to follow
the traditions of the New Deal
– National health care
– Increase minimum wage (75 cents hour)
– Fair employment practices act
– Public housing /slum clearance projects
Fair Deal
• Proposals were
hindered by a
Conservative
Congress & Cold
War foreign policy
crises.
American prosperity
• Income saved during WW2
• Big demand for consumer goods (cars,
houses, etc)
• Gov’t. road building projects (created
many jobs)
• G.I. Bill (1944): gov’t backed, low
interest loans to veterans (bought
homes, farms, businesses, college)
Signs of Confidence
• Baby boom: postwar explosion in
marriages and births
• 50 million babies born 1945-1960
• 1957: record number of births
• 2007: record broken 4,317,119
• Growth of suburbs (housing shortage)
white middle class left cities
Postwar problem in Am.
• Inflation: due to big demand for
consumer goods
• Prices rose 6% in 1 month
• Prices rose 25% in 1 1/2 years
• 4.5 million workers went on strike in
1946 (RR, auto, steel, coal, etc.)
Civil Rights Under Truman
• First modern President to use his
powers to challenge racial
discrimination
– Issued Executive Order to desegregate all
branches of armed forces
– Urged Congress to pass anti-lynching laws,
abolish poll tax, desegregate the schools
Dixiecrat Party
Dixiecrat Party (1948)
Jackie Robinson
The Cold War (1945-1960)
• A state of hostility between the U.S. and
USSR, short of direct military conflict
• 1945-1991
• Two rival superpowers
• Dominated American foreign policy
Major causes of Cold War
• Spread of communism after WW 2
– Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania,
Czechoslovakia, E. Germany, Albania,
Yugoslavia
• Soviets said they needed a “buffer
zone” of satellite nations to prevent
another invasion into Russia
Winston Churchill
• 1946 speech: “an iron curtain has
descended across the continent of
Europe”
• Referring to the Soviet satellite nations
• Called for a democratic partnership to
stop the spread of communism
Causes for Cold War
• Competition over the Atomic Bomb
– U.S. tested A-bomb July, 1945
– USSR tested A-bomb Aug, 1949
– Next came development of H-bomb
– Short, medium, long range missiles
(ICBM’s)
Battlefields for the Cold War
• Weapons race
• Space race
– Oct. 1957 Sputnik (1st satellite to orbit
Earth)
– Nov. 1957 Sputnik II (carried dog-Laika)
– Feb. 1958 Explorer I (1st U.S. satellite to
orbit Earth)
Battlefields for Cold War
• Sports: Olympics (Hockey,
gymnastics, etc)
– Miracle on Ice
– Rocky 4
• Which country can produce the best
athletes?
Rocky 4
Cold War = Fear
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/sf
eature/panicquiz.html
• Take the Panic Quiz that was found in
Collier’s Magazine in 1953.
• Don’t be a “victim of panic”
Policy of Containment
• Truman’s new foreign policy to stop the
spread of communism
– 2 key ways:
– Economic aid (to poor countries willing to
resist communism)
– Military might (building democratic
alliances with countries in Europe)
Economic Aid
• Truman Doctrine: 1947--asked
Congress for 400 million to aid Greece
and Turkey
• Marshall Plan: 1947--U.S. offered aid
to Western Europe
– 13 billion
– 16 nations (most $ went to G.B., Fr., Italy,
W. Germany)
Military Might
• NATO: 1949 (North Atlantic Treaty
Organization)
– 1st peacetime allliance in U.S. history
– U.S., Canada, 10 Western European
nations formed a defense alliance
– Each country would provide soldiers to
defend against communism
Warsaw Pact
• Soviets’ response to NATO was the
Warsaw Pact.
• Created a communist alliance of nations
in Eastern Europe
The United Nations
•
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Created at the end of WW2
Ratified by Senate (82-2 vote)
Structure:
A) General Assembly
B) Security Council
C) Secretary General
D) International Court of Justice
Creation of CIA
• U.S. created the 1st
permanent
worldwide
intelligence agency
• U.S. officially in the
business of spying
on other nations
Cold War turns “HOT”
• Berlin Crisis: 1st direct challenge
between the U.S. and USSR
• Germany divided into 4 zones of
occupation after WW 2
• Berlin (capital) also divided into 4 zones
• Stalin wanted to unite Berlin under
“Soviet occupation”