United States Since 1945

Introduction

• United States in 1945– Reactions to the end of the war: Ecstasy & Concern

• Partying

• What would happen next

– Quest for security: a theme for this time• Security at home: economic security

• Security abroad: focus on national defense

Quest for economic security: 1945-1972

1. Strategy for maintaining economic security: Mixed economy. New Deal Approach and the market economy

2. Securing activist government, Step One: Harry Truman’s Fair Deal

• Importance of the 1948 presidential election

• Republican reaction to defeat: Exploit the Second Red Scare

• Alger Hiss Case & the Rise of Joe McCarthy

Quest for economic security: 1945-1972(Cont.)

3. Securing activist government: Step Two: “The Ike Years”: Eisenhower as President

• Eisenhower’s victory in 1952

• Eisenhower’s role in securing activist government1. Ending the Second Red Scare

2. Limited Extension of Activist government• National Defense Highway Act of 1956

3. Rejecting a change in course. Eisenhower wanted Republicans to accept the New Deal Approach

• United States in 1960: a consensus

Quest for economic security: 1945-1972(Cont.)

4. Great Society: 1960-1972• Three presidencies: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B.

Johnson, Richard M. Nixon. Johnson proposed the Great Society in 1965

• Second Reconstruction: Three branches of federal government attack racial injustice

• Supreme Court: Brown v Topeka Board of Education-1954

• President Eisenhower: 1957 in Little Rock, AR

• Congress enacts Civil Rights laws in 1957, 1960, 1964, 1965, 1968

Quest for economic security: 1945-1972: (cont.)

• Great Society: 1960-1972 (Cont.)• War on Poverty

• Federal government attempted to wipe out poverty in an affluent society. Major attempt to grapple with the “Old Poverty” a la 1930s.

• Concept of a “culture of poverty”

• Environmental Protection• Birth of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): 1970

Declining Trust in government converted to a rejection of activist government

1. Stagflation [Stagnant economic growth + Inflation]

2. Imperial PresidencyEffects of Vietnam War: Credibility GapEffects of Watergate Affair: Presidency not trustworthy

3. Roles of New Left and Counterculture4. Neo-conservative intellectuals provide “muscle

power”

Declining Trust in government converted to a rejection of activist government

5. Ronald Reagan as President• Provides charismatic leadership to transform

anti-government mood into an effective political force

• Program centered on: “Government was not the solution to the problems; government was the problem.”

Cold War: 1945-1991

• Sources of the Cold War– Sovietization of Eastern Europe after World War II

Cold War: 1945-1991 (cont.)

• Strategy for Fighting the Cold War– Birth of Containment: Role of George Kennan as the

“Father of Containment”

– Pillars of Containment• Harry Truman declared the Cold War with the Truman

Doctrine (1947)

• George Marshall proposed the Marshall plan to stimulate economic recovery in Western Europe (1948)

• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1949). United States joined a peacetime military alliance. Applied Collective Security

• NSC 68 (1950). Built up U.S. military power globally

Cold War: 1945-1991(cont.)

• Korean War: 1950-1953: 4 stages1. North Korean Invasion: June-Sept. 1950

2. United Nations counterattack: Sept.-Nov. 1950

3. Chinese Attack: Nov.1950-March 1951

4. Stalemate:March 1951-July 1953

5. Armistice signed: July 27, 1953

• Vietnam War– Vietnam's Background as a French colony

• Rise of Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh

• World War II

• First Indochina War: 1945-1954– Viet Minh victory at Dien Bien Phu: May 1954

– Geneva Accords: 1954

– Nation-Building: 1954-1964• U.S. Goal: Secure non-Communist government in the south

• Ngo Dinh Diem: 1954-1963

• Rise of the Viet Cong and the Birth of the NLF: Rooted in opposition of Diem

• November 1, 1963 coup d’etat

• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: August 1964

Cold War: 1945-1991(cont.)

• Vietnam War (cont.)– United States at war

• Decision for deeper involvement: Operation Rolling Thunder & July 1965 decision

• U.S. Strategy: Use fire power to win war of attrition• Nature of the military side

– Role of Selective Service. OR how the Draft worked– Casualties: Almost 60,000 U.S. service personnel died in the war

while 300,000+ were injured

– Stalemate: 1965-1968• Declining support at home for the policy: College-based anti-

war movement, loss of political support, “Let’s win the war and get out!”

• Signs of success, but

Cold War: 1945-1991(cont.)

• Vietnam War– Tet Offensive: Jan.-Mar. 1968– United States policy now emphasized negotiations– Nixon’s policy to “end” the war

• Fire power• Vietnamization• “Open” and secret negotiations. Role of Henry Kissinger• Truce Agreement: January 1973 in Paris, France

• End of the Cold War & the Collapse of the Soviet Union– Reagan pushes, the Soviet Afghan War (1979-1989),

and the role of Mikhail Gorbachev

Cold War: 1945-1991(cont.)