1. The Cold War Begins:
AP US History

2. Postwar At Home - Economy
American’s feared a return to the Great Depression after the war.
REASONS:
15 Million soldiers were returning to flood the job market
Gross National Product dipped from
Price controls were lifted = inflation (33%)
Labor Union Strikes (4.6 million halted in 1946)

3. Postwar At Home - Economy
Labor Unions had grown through Depression/War - Were Gaining too much power – Government tries to reign them in:
Taft-Hartly Act (1947):
Banned “closed shops” (you can’t work there unless you join the union)
Unions responsible for damages
Union leaders had to take a non-communist oath

4. Postwar At Home - Economy
Governments Steps to make sure the economy doesn’t slow down…
The Employment Act (1946)
Promoted Maximum employment and production
The Council of Economic Advisors was formed to assist the President when making economic decisions
The GI BILL (1944)
Helped pay for soldiers to go to school (raised education levels)
*Passed because of fear that labor market could not absorb all the returning soldiers.
Helped provide home loans (stimulated construction industry)
GI Bill shaped economic expansion/prosperity for the postwar era!

5. Postwar at Home - Economy
By 1950 the American economy began to skyrocket
By 1960 it doubled, and again by 1970
By 1973 American’s = 6% of population but 40% of wealth
BIG WINNERS
Middle Class:
Doubled in size
New Goal: two cars in the garage and pool outback
Women:
Made up 25% of workforce at wars end, five years later 50%
The Traditional Role of women was still glorified by the media

6. Postwar at Home - Economy
Causes for the postwar economic BOOM!
The War’s massive production jumpstarted economy
Jobs in military related areas
Aerospace, plastics, electronics and “R and D”
Energy was cheap and plentiful (Biggest reason for boom)
Worker Production increased
More Americans went/stayed in school = higher standard of living

7. Postwar At Home - Society
The Decade after WWII was characterized by the following…
Unprecedented prosperity
A population explosion known as the baby boom
Rapid and extensive suburbanization

8. Postwar at Home - Society
At Wars end many veterans came home and tied the knot.
The GI Bill allowed financial flexibility and helped contribute to the BABY BOOM
With the Baby Boom came the Sunbelt Boom!
People began to move South and West from Florida to California.
Power shifted with the people
WE SEE A SHIFT IN POWER FROM NORTHEAST/MIDWEST TO THE NEW SOUTH AND WEST

9. Rustbelt to Sunbelt

10. Postwar at Home - Society
Highways and Prosperity allowed for the growth of the suburbs.
“White Flight”: Whites moved to the suburbs after WWII
FHA offered cheap home loans
25% of Americans lived in the suburbs by 1960
EX: Levittown on Long Island, NY “cookie cutter” houses

12. Postwar at Home - Society
This massive migration to the suburbs by whites left cities: Black and poor
Suburbia grew because…
White Flight
Government mortgage programs
New Highways
The baby-boom

13. Postwar at Home - Society
Baby Boom peaked in This generation had a huge impact on America!
Entire Industries would ride this generation to success!
Levi’s Jeans
Burger Joints
Music (Rock and Roll)
Baby Boomers gave rise to the teenage generation!

14. Postwar – Foreign Affairs
In Feb 1945 the “Big Three” met at the Yalta Conference (Last Meeting)
PURPOSE: Sketch out general intentions for peace settlement post WWII
OUTCOME:
Shaped the Cold War
Highlighted by distrust between Britain/US and the Soviet Union

15. Postwar Foreign Affairs
PROMISES WERE MADE…
RUSSIA PROMISED:
Enter war against Japan
Russia Promised:
Evacuate lands in Eastern Europe it occupied after WW II (Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania)
Free elections -representative government – In lands it occupied
** The roots of the Cold War will lie in the disagreement between the Soviets and Americans about the situation in post war Eastern Europe

16. Postwar – Foreign Affairs
Reasons Russia didn’t trust US…
US waited until 1933 to recognize the USSR
Allies were slow to open 2nd front in Europe during WWII
America stopped Lend-Lease program to Russia in 1945 but not Britain.
America rejected Russia’s request for $6 Billion for reconstruction but gave Germany $3.75 Billion.

17. George Kennan American Diplomat and expert on Soviet Union SAID THAT…
The U.S.S.R was expansionist by nature but it could be held in check by firm American containment.
The idea of Containment becomes postwar America’s main foreign policy

18. Postwar – Foreign Policy
Our foreign policy is going to change from Isolationism to Containment under Truman
Key Points:
Containment was a foreign policy designed to contain or block Soviet expansion.
Containment was the primary U.S. foreign policy from the Truman Doctrine (1947) – Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989)

19. Postwar – Foreign Policy

20. Truman and Containment
Truman Doctrine (1947):
President Truman was determined to block the expansion of the Soviet influence into Greece and Turkey
March 12, 1947, Truman asked Congress for $400 million in economic aid for Greece and Turkey
JUSTIFICATION: Said the US would support “free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugations by armed minorities or by outside pressures.”

21. Truman and Containment
The Marshall Plan –
Sec. of State George C. Marshall
Program of economic aid designed to promote the recovery of war-torn Europe while also preventing the spread of communist influence
Western Europe’s economy was struggling
Communism was looking attractive
“ Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist…Any government that is willing to assist in the task of recovery will find full cooperation, I am sure, on the part of the United States government.”

22. Marshall Plan
We lent financial help to rebuild Europe and keep communism out!
Started by Truman and George Marshall (Sec of State)
Helped form a European Community (EC)
$17 Billion was spent over four years
Western Europe’s economies rebounded and communist groups lost influence

24. Truman and Containment
NATO Alliance (1948):
Marked the US’s break from isolationism
US didn’t get entangled in alliances (Washington)
10 Western European nations along with the US and Canada formed this defensive military alliance.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
To attack one meant to attack all
Soviets set the Warsaw Pact with Eastern European Nations.

25. Postwar – Foreign Policy

26. Truman and Containment
Berlin Airlift (1948)
Germany had been divided up at wars end into four military occupation zones (Britain, France, US and Soviets)
The Soviets had blocked the railroads/western land access into West Berlin (Deep in Soviet zone)
Truman ordered a massive airlift of food, fuel and other supplies to the citizens of West Berlin.
MARKED A CRUCIAL AND SUCCESSFUL TEST OF CONTAINMNET!