Post WWII America Education The GI Bill Servicemens

Post WWII America

Education: §The GI Bill [Servicemen’s Readjustment Act] allowed veterans to attend colleges and trade schools §More educated and skilled work force = economic and cultural growth in the postwar period. §Increased birth rate §The baby boom led to an increase in the number of school age children which put a strain on the educational system - new schools were needed. §Launching of Sputnik brought increased emphasis on education, especially in science and math §Prosperity brought prolonged education and college for more women

Suburbanization § Veterans married and began families = more housing § The wide availability of the cars and the expansion of highways by the nat’l govt § The growth of highways during the Eisenhower administration accelerated the growth of suburbs.

Shopping malls, motels and fast food restaurants followed. Population shifts during and after WWII contributed to white flight from the cities and also spurred suburbanization.

§ The war industries in cities of the N. east and the w. coast caused many AF. AM to move from the South and continued to move in the 1950 s and 1960 s to escape poverty and racism. § As middle and upper class people moved to the suburbs, so did jobs and businesses, leaving the cities with high unemployment, limited services and a shrinking tax base. § This set the stage for the race riots of the 1960 s. § Pent-up demand for goods during the Depression years and war created a high demands post WWII

§Changes that took place on the home front during WWII helped spur women’s rights §Women were displaced from their wartime jobs by returning veterans Many returned to the home. § Ads portrayed women as their role as the chief consumer of the family. §Media, both TV and print, glorified the role of the homemaker. §Suburban living increased feeling of isolation § Although 40% of women held jobs outside of the home by 1960, their career opportunities were limited to nursing, teaching, domestic service, social work, retail sales and secretarial work. Few were promoted to managerial positions and women earned less.

§ Demand led to an increase in production, more jobs and an economic boom. § The Cold War caused economic growth as the govt’ spent more $ on weapons systems and the growing defense industries hired workers. § Americans had the highest standard of living in the world by the end of the 1950 s Jobs: § More jobs in ‘white-collar’ occupations: clerical, professional or managerial positions in sales, advertising, insurance and communications rather than traditional ‘blue-collar’ manufacturing jobs. *Resulted in: A growing middle class with more $ to spend • A consumer society re-emerges and the use of credit returns but now with the newly invented credit card

Cold War

USHC-9. 2 Summarize the origins and course of the Cold War, including the containment policy; the conflicts in Korea, Africa, and the Middle East; the Berlin Airlift and the Berlin Wall; the Bay of Pigs and Cuban missile crisis; the nuclear arms race; the effects of the “Red Scare” and Mc. Carthyism; and the role of military alliances.

• The Cold War started from mutual suspicions of the U. S. S. R. and the US which grew out of their basic ideological, economic and political differences and from WWII. • Both were against Germany but had different strategic priorities. • The Soviets suspected that the US and Great Britain were allowing the USSR to take the brunt of casualties on the eastern front in order to weaken their country and therefore demanded the immediate opening of a second front.

§ The USSR wanted to create a buffer zone of friendly states on its eastern border so that Germany could not invade it again. § The US wanted the states of Eastern Europe to be able to hold free and fair elections. § Unable to sustain this military support, the British asked the US to take up the effort. § The French attempted to restore their control of Southeast Asia. § French faced the nationalist forces that had fought the Japanese under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh- also seeking help from the United States.

9. 2 Containment and Iron Curtain § By 1946, the US-USSR tensions were publicly recognized. § Winston Churchill (English PM) said an ‘Iron Curtain’ had fallen upon Europe. § The US began a policy of “containment” (carried out by the Truman Doctrine). § The US offered military and financial aid to Greece and Turkey to resist the communist backed rebel forces. § Marshall Plan- Fearing that a war-torn and economically weak Europe would elect socialist/communist govts, the US offered aid to promote rebuilding, but no aid was given to Soviets- suspicions increased. § US used the threat of the atomic bomb in diplomatic talks with the USSR § Also, the US supplied financial aid to the French in Indochina. § The first Soviet test of the US policy, then, was the Berlin blockade. § The US responded with the Berlin Airlift and the US won this first Cold War confrontation.

1. How, if at all, do you think communication problems and ideological prejudice contributed to the cold war? 2. Why were the Berlin blockade and resulting airlift such dramatic and important events in the cold war?

An Ideological Confrontation- The U. S. vs. the U. S. S. R United States • Democracy • Capitalism/free enterprise/laissez faire • Liberties • Post war goal- spread democracy; selfdetermination Soviet Union • • Communism Command Economy Loyalty to state/govt Post war goal- security thru satellite nation

§ In 1949, a series of events escalated the tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. § The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) established a military alliance aimed at the USSR. § The test explosion of an atomic bomb by the USSR led the US to accelerate the development of the hydrogen bomb and began a nuclear arms race and then a space race. § After a long civil war, China fell to the communist forces led by Mao Tse-tung (Mao Zedong). § The nationalists fled to Taiwan & China became two countries. § In 1950, N. Korea invaded S. Korea. § US thought it was planned by USSR- probably untrue.

§ At the urging of Truman, the UN voted unanimously to demand a cease fire. (The Soviet Union did not veto this decision b/c it was boycotting the meetings of the Security Council. ) § The UN supported a ‘police action’ to defend S. Korea, but the majority of troops and financial support for the Korean War came from the US. § When US forces approached the Chinese border, the Communist Chinese attacked and drove US forces back to the 38 th parallel. § American public opinion turned against the war. § Formal peace negotiations ended with N. Korean forces contained above the 38 th parallel- only containment (for 34, 000 American lives). § These threats, both real and imagined, set the stage for a Red Scare that developed in the U. S. in the late 40 s § Truman made the public to see the US and the Soviet Union’s relationship as good vs. evil.