1A. Post-WW2

Question 1

Which events started the Second Red Scare, 1947-54?

Answer 1

• Many eastern European countries were occupied by the USSR and became communist after WW2
• 31 July 1948 - US government employee Elizabeth Bentley told the HUAC that she had been part of a Moscow-led spy ring - named other government employees involved
• 3 days later, Whittaker Chambers did the same
• Trials of Alger Hiss (1949 and retrial in 1950), advisor to Roosevelt, and the Rosenbergs (1951) were high profile - found guilty
• China became communist in 1949 - communist forces help North Korea in 1950 Korean War
• The USSR held its first nuclear weapons test in 1949

Question 2

How did Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy stir up anti-communist sentiment?

Answer 2

9 February 1950 - made an anti-communist speech to a Republican women’s group claiming to know the names of 205 known communists working in the state department.

(When reporters asked to see this list, he claimed to have left it on an airplane)

The next day, he revised this number to 57, but increased it to 81 when addressing the Senate. Despite his obvious lies, he gained a large amount of support through his conviction and speeches.

• In the months that followed, he led a series of investigations of suspected communists

Question 3

How did Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy lose credibility and popularity?

Answer 3

• 14 July 1950 - Tydings Committee issued a majority report stating that McCarthy’s accusations were a muddle of half-truths and lies

McCarthy remained popular until he turned to investigating the army in 1953:

• His investigation was televised to 20 million people
• Treatment of interviewees was so unreasonable that he lost his support and the Senate passed a vote of censure against him.

Question 4

What were the effects of the Second Red Scare, 1947-53?

Answer 4

• Curb on civil liberties, freedom of speech and freedom of expression
• FBI given powers to investigate people and bring them to be questioned by Loyalty Boards or the HUAC on very little evidence. They were allowed to open letters, bug homes and offices and tap into phone lines
• Fear of accusation of having communist sympathies - in the late 1950s, 1/3 of libraries removed books such as the works of Karl Marx for fear of accusation.

Question 5

What were the key features of liberalism?

Answer 5

Defined by Kennedy as forward-thinking, flexible, concerned about the welfare of the people and willing to be less suspicious abroad.

• Usually educated middle-class, possibly also upper-class
• Supported equality, civil rights and social welfare. Prepared to limit individual libertiesto help those in need
• Produced the idea of ‘positive discrimination’

Question 6

What goal united the different counter-culture groups in post-WW2 America?

Answer 6

They wanted to change society by changing the culture - if people began to live differently, then they would behave differently.

Question 7

What were the key features of hippies?

Answer 7

• Looser family system and life in communal societies
• Peace and a simple way of life rather than working hard within the system to accumulate wealth
• Some took recreational drugs and many supported the wider sexual freedom than marriage gave
• Lived according to their beliefs in separate communal groups:

Woodstock festival 15-18 August 1969: Just under 200,000 tickets sold, 400,000 - 500,000 people came.

Question 8

What were the key feature of radical student groups?

Answer 8

• Wanted to change society in the USA to produce a more equal world closer to their view of the American Dream

Question 9

What was Students for a Democratic Society?

Answer 9

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a student group founded in 1960.

• Their 1962 Port Hurron statement denounced conservative politics as having forgotten the principle that all men are created equal and urged a return to equality
• Rejected all forms of bigotry including racism and anti-communism
• Protested (often violently) against war in Vietnam - organised the first anti-war rally in 1965

Question 10

What was the Free Speech Movement?

Answer 10

Free Speech Movement was a student group that led a campaign on the University of California campus at Berkeley in 1964.

• The group used sit-ins, peaceful protest and other tactis used by civil rights groups to push for free speech on campus.

When a student was arrested for campaigning for CORE, students took over the main square, escalating the protest.

• During the two months that it lasted, over 700 students were arrested for sit ins and other activities

Question 11

What happened on 4th May 1970 at Kent State University, Ohio?

Answer 11

Ohio National Guardsmen shot four unarmed students and injured nine during a student protest at the invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

Question 12

What happened on 24th August 1970?

Answer 12

A bomb placed by a radical student group was detonated outside an army research base in Madison, Wisconsin, killing one researcher, injuring four and causing $60 million of damage

Question 13

How did conservatives react to counter-culture in America?

Answer 13

• Many older Americans were bewildered by counter-culture, which challenged family values, rejected consumer culture and the values of hard work, Christian religious values and patriotism.
• Many who had not had the chance to go to university saw students as being ungrateful
• When students resorted to violence, it added to the feeling that liberal government wasn’t working.

Question 14

How was the ‘New Right’ created?

Answer 14

On 3rd November 1969, Nixon campaigned for president on ‘New Right’ policies, gaining support from previous Democrat voters who found the campaign promise of uniting society appealing.

From the late 1960s, religious groups, especially evangelical ones, held campus campaigns e.g. Bill Bright, whose 1967 ‘Campus Crusade for Christ’ campaign went to campuses across the USA.

During the 1970s, a religious right movement emerged that campaigned for a return to traditional family values, with a move away from ‘liberal’ policies such as abortion and contraception, as well as against homosexuality.

Question 15

What were the impacts of WW2 on US foreign policy?

Answer 15

• WW2 increased US involvement abroad and ended isolationism that followed WW1 - USA was a founding member of the UN in 1945
• Policy of ‘contaimnent’ of communism solidified into ‘Truman Doctrine’ and drove all foreign policy - Marshall Aid, 1948 Berlin blockade and airlift, 1950 Korean War…

Question 16

How did the Cold War affect civillians?

Answer 16

• 1950s - Federal Defense Administration set up to organise evacuations and give out pamplets with advice e.g. wearing wide-brimmed haits to protect from light of nuclear explosion
• Schools ran duck and cover exercises
• 1956 Interstate Act was designed for rapid evacuation of cities
• Fallout shelters available to buy - $1300 versus average family income of $5100 a year

Question 17

How did the Cold War affect US arms spending?

Answer 17

• Increased nuclear arsenal - USA had to be seen as preparing for nuclear attack
• Between June 1947-1948, the US holdings of atomic weapons rose from 13 to 50. When the USSR also began building atomic weapons, it started an arms race draining the GDP of both nations
• Creation of a large, permanent military force was costly to run but provided jobs and was a major customer of goods from food to fabric.

Question 18

What was the impact of the Cold War on the presidency?

Answer 18

• Power of the President to go to war or make treaties without Congress grew with the USA’s involvement with NATO and the UN

1947 National Security Act reorganised US military forces under a new Defense Department based at the Pentagon. The size of the armed forces was greatly enlarged, and the President could move forces around without permission of Congress.

• This Act also created the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Council; both of which reported only to the President.

President gained the power to react to nuclear war without permission of Congress.

Question 19

Give some examples of post-WW2 actions made by the President without the permission of Congress:

Answer 19

• Treatises were made to place US air bases in other countries
• Berlin Airlift in 1948
• Korean War 1950
• 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion

Question 20

What were the impacts of Korean war on foreign policy?

Answer 20

• Emphasised shift of presidential attention from domestic to foreign policy
• Reinforced the expectation that the USA should be innvolved in foreign affairs as it was the only country able to oppose the USSR

Question 21

How did the Republican party change their attitudes towards Congress?

Answer 21

Republicans ended their cooperative stance after WW2 to become a force of oppositon again:

• Critical of Korean war, gaining 5 seats in the Senate and 28 in the House
• Criticism encouraged over the cost of Korean War - defense spending hit 14% of US GDP - greatest solo contributor to the war. Every US government since has had issues balancing the tax/borrowing contribution to the defense budget.

Question 22

What was the impact of the Korean War on the Presidency?

Answer 22

Media coverage of the war, due to the President’s limited coverage / withholding of information, began to take information from other sources e.g. the Republicans and even use speculation as fact.

• August 1950 - Truman arranged for over 200 reporters to go to Korea but struggled to regain media support

Beginnings of disillusionment with the Presidency

• Truman came under pressure from both Republicans and Democrats to scare up the war - sacking of General Douglas MacArthur was unpopular.