Taft-Hartley Act
(1947)
-outlawed the "closed" shop, made unions liable for damages that resulted from jurisdictional disputes among themselves, and required union leaders to take a non-Communist oath
-slowed growth of organized labor
Employment Act
1946
-made it gov policy to "promote max employment, production, and purchasing power"
-created 3 member Council of Economic Advisors to provide the president with the data/recommendations to make policy reality
Servicemen's Readjustment Act
1944
-enacted out of fear that employment markets would never be able to absorb 15 million returning veterans
-made provisions for sending former soldiers to school
Dr. Benjamin Spock
-author of The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care
-advice book on child rearing when families grew apart
Sunbelt
-the 15 state area from Virginia through Florida and Texas to Arizona and California
-large pop growth rate
-pioneers sought jobs, sunny weather, and lower taxes
-abundant jobs in electronics industry
Levittown
-created by the Levitt brothers
-revolutionized techniques of home construction
-built hundreds/thousands of homes in a single project
-specialized crews worked from standardized plans much like an assembly line
Baby Boom
-huge leap in birthrate in the decade and a half after 1945 that added more than 50 million babies by the end of the 1950s
Harry S. Truman
-the "accidental president" and "the average man's average man."
-1st president in many years w/out college edu
-farmer, WWI officer, then precinct-level politics to a judgeship to the U.S. Senate
Yalta Conference
-btw Stalin, Churchill, and FDR in an attempt to get Russian support in the highly anticipated invasion of Japan
-Russia got southern part of Sakilin Island that it had lost to Japan + joint control of Manchuria's railroads
-Allies allowed Poland to become communist
-Many Americans saw this deal as a failure.
-plans were made for international peacekeeping org (the UN)
United Nations
-conference April 25, 1945 at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House with representatives from 50 nations
-UN's home = NYC
-featured a Security Council dominated by the US, Britain, USSR, France, and China (the big 5 powers) who could veto
-had an Assembly that could be controlled by smaller countries
-helped preserve peace in Iran + Kashmir and played large role in Israel
-created UNESCO, FAO, WHO
Nuremberg Trials
-the trial of 22 top Nazi leaders in Germany 1945/46
-accused of committing crimes against laws of war and humanity and plotting aggressions contrary to solemn treaty pledges
-12 Nazi's were hung and 7 got jail time
Berlin Crisis
-USSR had embargoed all supplies that would go into the Allied Germany
-US used planes to drop food and supplies into Berlin to show the USSR that they were determined to maintain control of Berlin
-it worked, the Soviets lifted the blockade.
Policy of Containment
US foreign policy after WWII designed to stop the spread of communism. (Truman Doctrine)
Truman Doctrine
-Truman wanted to prevent the spread of communism and keep it "contained"
-1st implementation of Truman Doctrine was $400 million given to aid Greece and Turkey to prevent a communist takeover
Marshall Plan
-Issued in response to the struggling European countries, the Marshall Plan would allow the U.S. to give financial assistance to certain countries
-done to prevent communism from rising in countries like France and Italy, whose economies where suffering after WWII
-agreed in July 1947 that the U.S. would spend $12.5 billion in 16 different nations
-In order to receive financial assistance you had to have a democratic government
-was successful
National Security Act
-Passed by Congress in 1947
-created the Department of Defense
-established a NSC and CIA
NATO
-Military alliance between the US, Canada and 10 European nations signed on April 4, 1949 in Brussels
-committed to building military defense of Europe against Communist Russia
-Dwight D.Eisenhower became the Supreme Commander of NATO
-strengthened US policy of containment
-pledged that an attack on one was an attack on all
Reconstruction of Japan
-led my General Douglas MacArthur
-top Japanese war criminals were tried in Tokyo (18 sent to prison and 7 hanged)
-MacArthur-dictated constitution was adopted in 1946 renouncing militarism, advocating women's equality, and introducing western democracy
China
-civil war btw Nationalists and communists
-communists gained control in 1949
-republicans blamed democrats for the fall of china
H-Bomb
-soviets exploded an atomic bomb in sept 1949
-to outpace soviets, Tuman ordered the development of this device 1,000 times more powerful
-Oppenheimer led scientists in opposition who claimed it would bring annihilation of any life on earth
-the first device was exploded in the South Pacific in 1952
-Soviets countered with their 1st bomb in 1953
Loyalty Program
-fearing communist spies, Truman launched this in 1947
-attorney general drew up list of 90 disloyal org
-the Loyalty Review Board investigated more than 3 million federal employees
-states demanded loyalty oaths
Richard Nixon
-committee member of HUAC
-tried to catch Alger Hiss accused of being a communist agent in the 1930's.
-brought Nixon to the attention of the American public
-1956 he was Eisenhower's VP
Alger Hiss
-accused of being a communist agent in the 1930s
-defended himself against Nixon in front of the Un-American Activities Committee in 1948
-denied everything but was convicted of perjury in 1950 and sentenced to 5 years
McCarran Internal Security Act
-authorized the president to arrest and detain suspicious people during an "internal security emergency"
-Congress enacted the bill over Truman's veto
Julius and Ether Rosenberg
They were convicted in 1951 of giving atomic bomb data found by American scientists to the Soviet Union. They are the only Americans ever executed during peacetime for espionage.
Election of 1948
-republicans nominated Dewey
-truman nominated by democrats
-J. Strom Thurmond nominated by southern democrats on a State's Rights party ticket
-Henry A. Wallace was nominated by democrats on a Progressive ticket
-Truman triumphed thanks to farmers, workers, and blacks
-democrats regained control of Congress too
Point Four Program
-Truman's 1949 plan to lend US money and technical aid to underdeveloped lands to help them help themselves (would help underprivileged peoples from becoming communist(
-helped Latin America, Africa, Near East, and Far East
Fair Deal
-Truman's 1949 message to Congress
-program that called for improved housing , full employment, higher minimum wage, better farm price supports, new TVA's, and the extension of social security
-Its only successes: raised the minimum wage, better public housing, extended old-age insurance to more people.
Korean War
-US and Soviets had set up rival regimes above/below the 38th parallel
-Soviets crossed border in 1950 pushing South Korea southward
-Truman called on UN to declare North Korea as an aggressor
-UN troops were ordered to support south korea in "police action" (mostly US)
-MacArthur regained land and pushed north above 38th parallel
-Chinese "volunteers" forced troops back to the parallel where a stalemate began
-MacArthur was fired and stalemate lasted until 1953
NSC-68
-First drawn up in 1950, NSC-68, or National Security Council Memorandum Number 68, was buried until the Korean crisis later that year
-suggested that the US should quadruple defense spending
-Truman was able to order massive military buildup
-marked a major step in militarization of American foreign policy and reflected sense of limitless possibility in postwar american society