Chapter 23 Study Outline

  1. Origins of the Cold War
    1. The two powers
      1. United States
        1. Measures of power
        2. Global agenda
      2. Soviet Union
        1. Measures of power
        2. Global agenda
    2. Roots of "containment"
      1. Projection of Soviet dominance in eastern Europe
      2. George Kennan's Long Telegram
      3. Winston Churchill's "iron curtain" speech
    3. Truman Doctrine
      1. Background
        1. President Truman's perspective on world
          1. Lack of experience
          2. Black-and-white outlook
        2. Greece and Turkey questions
          1. Internal conflicts
          2. Strategic significance
          3. Disengagement of Britain
        3. Unveiling by Truman
      2. Themes and significance
        1. Presidential embrace of containment policy
        2. Division of globe between "free" and "communist"
        3. America's ongoing mission to lead, defend "free world"
      3. Impact on popular conception of postwar world
      4. Broad bipartisan support
      5. Implementation
        1. Aid to anticommunist regimes
        2. Forging of global military alliances
        3. Founding of new national security bodies
          1. Atomic Energy Commission
          2. National Security Council (NSC)
          3. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
    4. The reconstruction of Japan
      1. U.S. oversees draft of Japanese Constitution
      2. U.S. oversees economic reconstruction
      3. Japan become power base to counter communism in Asia
    5. Marshall Plan
      1. Provisions
      2. Underlying motivations and vision
      3. Achievements
    6. Berlin crisis
      1. Emerging East-West conflict over Berlin
      2. Soviet blockade
      3. Western airlift
      4. Lifting of blockade
    7. Escalation of Cold War
      1. Division of Germany into East Germany and West Germany
      2. Soviet acquisition of atomic bomb
      3. Establishment of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
        1. Avowed mission
        2. Varied agendas
      4. Establishment of Warsaw Pact
      5. Communist revolution in China
        1. Mao Zedong
        2. Political repercussions in United States
        3. American response
      6. NSC-68
    8. Korean War
      1. Postwar division of Korea
      2. North Korean invasion of south
      3. Mobilization of U.S. military response
        1. Perception of Cold War test
        2. Obtainment of United Nations authorization
      4. Initial American military progress
      5. Intervention by China
      6. Removal of General Douglas MacArthur
      7. Protracted stalemate; eventual death toll
      8. Armistice and aftermath
    9. Concerns raised by Cold War critics
      1. Simplistic East-West dichotomies
      2. Inability to see foreign developments on case-by-case basis
      3. Continual intervention abroad
      4. Tendency to side with undemocratic regimes
      5. Aversion to colonial independence
  2. Ideological mobilization for Cold War
    1. Effect on notions of freedom
    2. Realms
      1. Depictions of U.S. history
      2. The arts
        1. Areas
          1. Film
          2. Painting
          3. Music
          4. Dance
        2. Secret involvement of national security agencies
      3. Political discourse—Imperialism and Decolonization
    3. The Cold War and the idea of freedom
      1. America as land of pluralism, tolerance, equality, free expression, individual liberty
      2. Communist regimes as "totalitarian"
      3. "Socialized" resources (medicine, housing) as communistic, negation of freedom
    4. Rise of "human rights"
      1. Background
        1. Historical origins of concept
        2. Impact of World War II
      2. Drafting of UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
        1. Eleanor Roosevelt
        2. Range of rights identified
          1. Civil and political liberties
          2. Social and economic entitlements
        3. Affirmation of global accountability of nations
      3. Cold War contest over
        1. U.S. emphasis on political rights
        2. Soviet emphasis on social, economic rights
        3. Compromise: two separate "covenants"
      4. Ambiguities of human rights
        1. A fundamental principle
        2. National sovereignty superseded human rights
        3. Nations reluctant to accept "interference" in "internal affairs" and policy
  3. Truman presidency
    1. Postwar domestic situation
      1. Rapid demobilization; return of soldiers to civilian life
      2. Abolition of wartime regulatory agencies
    2. Fair Deal
      1. Aims
        1. Revive momentum of New Deal
        2. Improve social safety net and living standards
      2. Program
    3. The postwar strike wave
      1. Contributing factors
      2. Scope and magnitude
        1. Range of industries affected
        2. Operation Dixie
      3. Truman response
        1. Concern over economic effect
        2. Threat to draft striking railroad workers
        3. Court order against striking miners
        4. Outcomes
    4. Republican congressional gains of 1946
      1. Causes
        1. Middle-class alarm over strike wave
        2. Labor disappointment over Truman
        3. Failure of Operation Dixie
      2. Consequences
        1. Rejection of Fair Deal program
        2. Tax cuts for wealthy
        3. Taft-Hartley Act
          1. Provisions
          2. Impact on organized labor
    5. Postwar civil rights
      1. Anti-discrimination measures, state and local
      2. Vitality of civil rights coalition
      3. Growing response to lynching
      4. Integration of major league baseball; Jackie Robinson
      5. Commission on Civil Rights's To Secure These Rights
      6. Truman's civil rights initiatives
        1. Program presented to Congress
          1. Content
          2. Defeat
        2. Desegregation of armed forces
        3. Underlying considerations
          1. Personal sentiments
          2. Cold War implications
          3. Political strategy
    6. The 1948 campaign
      1. Truman and the Democrats
        1. Drive to revive and broaden New Deal coalition
        2. Progressive program
        3. Assault on "do-nothing Congress"
      2. Strom Thurmond and the States' Rights ("Dixiecrat") party
        1. Break from Democratic party
        2. Call for segregation, "states' rights"
      3. Henry A. Wallace and Progressive party
        1. Program
          1. Expansion of social welfare
          2. Desegregation
          3. De-escalation of Cold War
        2. Support from communists; abandonment by liberals
      4. Thomas A. Dewey and the Republicans
        1. Colorlessness of candidate
        2. Complacency and vagueness of campaign
      5. Truman's upset victory
  4. Anticommunist crusade
    1. Wide-ranging impact of Cold War on American life
      1. Permanent military-industrial establishment
      2. Federal projects
        1. Weapons development
        2. Military bases
        3. Higher education
        4. Interstate highway system
      3. Culture of secrecy, dishonesty
      4. Revised immigration policy
      5. Dismantling of segregation
      6. Assault on right to dissent
    2. Emergence of anticommunist crusade
      1. Truman's loyalty review system
      2. House Un-American Activities Committee hearings on Hollywood
        1. Loyalty and disloyalty
        2. Pressure to testify about beliefs, "name names"
        3. Cooperation and resistance
        4. Hollywood Ten; blacklist
      3. The spy trials
        1. Trial, conviction, and imprisonment of Alger Hiss
        2. Trial, conviction, and imprisonment of Communist Party leaders
        3. Trial, conviction, and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
    3. McCarthy and McCarthyism
      1. Joseph R. McCarthy
        1. Background
        2. Emergence with sensational Wheeling speech
      2. McCarthy's Senate committee hearings
        1. Wild allegations regarding disloyalty, communist presence
        2. Growing Republican ambivalence
      3. McCarthy's downfall
        1. Army-McCarthy hearings
          1. Television exposure
          2. Scolding by Joseph Welch
        2. Senate censure
      4. Genesis of term McCarthyism
    4. Breadth of anticommunist crusade around country
      1. Initiatives of government (national, state, and local)
        1. Investigative committees
        2. Police department "red squads"
        3. Laws to ban, monitor communist presence
        4. Loyalty oaths
      2. Initiatives of private organizations
      3. Ideological "cleansing" of public libraries, universities
      4. Acquiescence of judiciary: Dennis v. United States
      5. Acquiescence of liberals
      6. Cost to the persecuted
    5. Anticommunism as popular mass movement
      1. Strength among those of eastern European descent
      2. Strength among Catholics
    6. Uses of anticommunism
      1. Bureaucratic self-promotion
      2. Political self-preservation
      3. Discrediting of political, social targets
        1. New Deal legacy
        2. Economic regulation
        3. Organized labor
        4. Civil rights
        5. Feminism
        6. Homosexuality
    7. Anticommunist politics
      1. Republican use of anticommunism to block Truman program
      2. McCarran Internal Security Act
      3. McCarran-Walter Act
      4. Operation Wetback
      5. Confinement of social welfare benefits to unionized workers
      6. The Cold War and organized labor
        1. CIO expulsion of left-wing leaders and unions
        2. Labor's support for Cold War foreign policy
    8. Response of civil rights movement to anticommunist crusade
      1. Outspoken opposition (Paul Robeson, W. E. B. Du Bois)
      2. Shifting approach of mainstream groups (NAACP, NUL)
        1. Initial resistance
        2. Growing accommodation
          1. Purges of Communist members
          2. Silence about political persecution
          3. Embrace of Cold War rhetoric
        3. Use of Cold War rhetoric to promote civil rights
      3. Demise of left-leaning organizations (Southern Conference for Human Welfare)
    9. Lull in momentum for civil rights
      1. Dampening effect of Cold War
      2. Diminishing of efforts from Truman administration, Democrats
      3. Legacy for black postwar prospects
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