Postwar America

After the WWII with its homeland undamaged America dominated global affairs.

In the early postwar period the Cold War was the most important political issue. It’s interesting to know that the US recognized the Soviet Russia only in 1933. During the war the two countries ignored their differences to counter the Nazi threat. After the victory, antagonisms surfaced again.

The Great Depression made the US seek the way to eliminate trade barriers to create markets for American agricultural and industrial products and give West European nations a chance to rebuild their economies.

The Soviet Union was concerned about another invasion from the west. It demanded “defensive” borders and regimes sympathetic to its aims in Eastern Europe.

Truman – ill-prepared to govern the USA - tried his best and his judgements about how to respond to the Soviet Union affected the postwar period/ Public statements defined the beginning of the Cold War. In 1946 Stalin declared that international peace was impossible “under the present capitalist development of the world economy”. Winston Churchill delivered a dramatic speech in Fulton, Missouri, with Truman sitting on the platform during the address: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent”.

The main policy of America became the containment of the Soviet Union. Truman’s actions inspired a wave of hysterical anti-communism and set a stage for McCarthyism.

In 1949 the USA and other countries established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) – an attack against one country of the alliance was to be considered an attack against all.

While seeking to prevent communism ideology from gaining further adherents in Europe, the US also responded to challenges elsewhere. In China, Americans worried about the advances of Mao Zedong (Tse-Tung) and his communist party. In 1949 Mao’s forces seized power.

The Korean war brought armed conflict between the USA and China.

Korea was divided along the 38^th parallel after liberating it from Japan. The Soviet Union accepted Japanese surrender north of the 38^th parallel; the USA did the same in the south.

The UN voted to send troops to help repel the invasion. General Douglas MacArthur (American Caesar) was appointed the commander of the allied forces. He landed at Inchon and drove the North Koreans back; but as fighting neared the Chinese border, China entered the war, sending massive forces across the Yalu River. The UN forces, largely American, retreated and fought their way back to the 38^th parallel.

Then MacArthur attempted to orchestrate public support for bombing China. Truman charged him with insubordination and relieved him of his duties. Many in the US bitterly condemned the action and even more so the president’s refusal to wage war against China.

Peace talks began in July 1951 but were soon deadlocked. In July 1953 Truman’s successor, Dwight Eisenhower, saw the end of the war.

The Korean War came as a bitter shock to Americans. They could not accept Truman’s policy of limited war.

In the Middle East – the region strategically important as a supplier of oil – the US again clashed with the Soviet Union in Iran. America also recognized the new state of Israel but still sought to keep the friendship of Arab states opposed to Israel.

Eisenhower, who assumed the presidency in 1953, shared with Truman a basic view of American foreign policy. He perceived communism as a monolithic force struggling for world supremacy. His basic commitment to contain communism remained was a nuclear shield. In 1950 Truman had authorized the development of a new and more powerful hydrogen weapon (the H-bomb). The US, under Eisenhower’s doctrine, was prepared to use atomic weapons if the nation or its vital interests were attacked. In practice, however, he deployed US military forces with great caution, resisting all suggestions to consider the use of nuclear weapons in Indochina, where the French were ousted by Vietnamese communist forces in 1954, or in Taiwan, where the US pledged to defend the Nationalist Chinese regime against attack by the People’s Republic of China.

Domestic affairs also felt the influence of the Cold War. In 1949 the Soviet Union exploded its own atomic device, which shocked Americans into believing that the US would be the target of a Soviet attack. Espionage scandals contributed to the anti-communism hysteria of the period – the trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, for example.

The most vigorous anti-communist warrior was Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin. He gained power when the Republican Party won control of the Senate in 1952. He charged top-level officials with treachery. But he went too far – he challenged the US Army when one of his assistants was drafted. The Senate condemned him for his conduct.

After the war the United States experienced phenomenal economic growth. More and more Americans considered themselves part of the middle class. Big corporations grew larger. Workers also saw their lives changing – more provided services, not goods. Farmers, though, faces tough times. Family farms found it difficult to compete with agricultural conglomerates.

The West and the Southwest continued to grow. Sun Belt cities like Houston, Texas; Miami, Florida; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Tuscon and Phoenix, Arizona, expanded rapidly. Los Angeles, California, moved ahead of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the third-largest US city.

Postwar years also saw baby boom and the shift to the suburbs where families could find affordable large houses. William J. Levitt – using the techniques for mass production – built new communities – with homes that all looked alike. Levitt’s houses were prefabricated, or partly assembled in a factory rather than on the final location.