Unit 11: the Post-War Era, 1945 the 1950 S

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Unit 11: the Post-War Era, 1945 the 1950 S

1 APUSH Dr. I. Ibokette

Unit 11: The Post-War Era, 1945 – the 1950’s

A. The Cold War: External and Internal B. The Domestic Scene: From Truman to Eisenhower

As usual, use the recommended “4-step” reading and note-taking process. Also, use the “looking ahead” and “recall and reflect” questions; as well as the “study questions” and key terms and names provided as guides to both the context and significance of sub-themes within the unit.

A. The Cold War: External and Internal

Key Terms and Names: Chapter 27

1. Atlantic Charter

2. Yalta Conference

3. Potsdam Conference

4. United Nations

5. containment policy

6. Truman Doctrine

7. George F. Kennan

8. Marshall Plan

9. National Security Act 1947

10. Syngman Rhee

11. Berlin blockade and airlift

12. NATO and Warsaw Pact 13. NSC-68

14. Mao Zedong

15. Thomas Dewey

16. Whittaker Chambers

17. GI Bill of Rights

18. Fair Deal

19. Taft-Hartley Act

20. Korean War

21. Truman-MacArthur controversy

22. HUAC

23. Alger Hiss

24. The Rosenbergs’ case

25. Joseph McCarthy/McCarthyism

Sub-Sections a. Setting the Stage 757  “ Looking Ahead” a.i. What made the growing tension between the US and the Soviet Union evolve into the Cold War? a.ii. What was the theory of containment and how did it drive the US foreign policy and foreign interventions in the post-war era? a.iii. Why did the US govt and the American people believe that there was a threat of internal communist subversion? b. Origins of the Cold War, 758 c. The Collapse of the Peace, 759 d. American Society and Politics after the War, 765 e. The Korean War, 769 f. The Crusade against Subversion, 772 g. End-of-Chapter Review, 774  Looking Back  Significant Events

Recall and Reflect, 777 a.i. How did US diplomats plan for the postwar world and settle postwar issues? How did opposing visions of the postwar world order thwart those efforts?

a.ii. How did post-war economic problems affect American politics and society?

a.iii. Why did the US become involve in the war in Korea? What was the result of US involvement?

a.iv. Why did the fear of communism at home reach such great proportions? What events helped fan that fear?

h. A Timeline of seven to ten key events/developments

Study Questions

1. Describe the origins of the Cold War, 1945-1947.

2. In assessing the origins of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, was one country or one leader more responsible for it than the other?

3. What role did wartime diplomacy, personalities, and tensions play in the coming of the Cold War?

4. How and why did President Truman alter Franklin Roosevelt’s foreign policy toward the Soviet Union? 5. Describe the major goals of the Truman administration in the Cold War, and explain how they sought to achieve those goals.

6. Describe the Truman Doctrine, noting whether or not it contributed to world peace and security.

7. Describe the Marshall Plan and assess its importance in the postwar world.

8. What was President Truman’s “Fair Deal,” and to what degree was it successful?

9. Place the Korean War in the context of the Cold War. How and why did President Truman respond as he did? How and why did he change American war aims?

10. What were the major events related to communism between 1949 and 1953 that alarmed the American public?

11. To what degree was communism a genuine threat to the interests and security of the United States in the early 1950s? Was the American reaction to this threat reasonable?

12. Why did communism cause such fear in the United States in the postwar period?

13. What are the similarities and differences between the rising fear of communism in the United States after World War II and the Red Scare that had followed World War I?

14. How do you account for the rise of Joseph McCarthy? Why were his tactics successful? What did he accomplish?

B. The Domestic Scene: From Truman to Eisenhower

Key Names and Terms: Chapter 28

1. “economic miracle”

2. Keynesian economics

3. union gains

4. medical advances 5. H-bomb and arms race developments

6. Sputnik

7. NASA

8. consumer culture

9. Federal Highway Act 1956

10. Levittown

11. suburbanization

12. Dr. Spock

13. Beats

14. Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac

15. Elvis Presley

16. urban poverty and urban renewal

17. Jackie Robinson

18. Brown v. Board of Education 1954

19. Central High School, Little Rock, AR

20. Rosa Parks

21. Montgomery bus boycott

22. MLK and nonviolent disobedience

23. Army-McCarthy hearings 24. John Foster Dulles

25. Dien Bien Phu

26. Echo Park

27. JD Salinger

28. Jonas Salk

29. Saul Bellow

30. Michael Harrington

31. UNIVAC

32. William H Whyte, Jr

33. liberation and roll back

34. massive retaliation and brinksmanship

35. Suez crisis

36. Fidel Castro

37. Nikita Khrushchev

38. U-2 incident

Sub-Sections a. Setting the Stage, 779  “ Looking Ahead” i. Why did the US economy experience such a boom in the late 1950s and early 1960s. How did this boom affect American society? ii. Who constituted the other America”, who failed to share in the economic prosperity and affluence of the postwar era? Why were they left out?

iii. What was the response to the Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education? How did the Court’s decision affect African Americans and the early civil rights movement? How did it affect white southerners?

iv. What policy guided foreign affairs under Eisenhower, and how was that policy implemented around the world? b. “The Economic Miracle”, 780 c. The Explosion of Science and Technology, 782 d. People of Plenty, 786 e. The “Other America”, 794 f. The Rise of the Civil Rights Movements, 796 g. Eisenhower Republicanism, 798 h. Eisenhower, Dulles, and the Cold War, 800 i. End-of-Chapter Review 803  Looking Back  Significant Events

Recall and Reflect, 681 i. How did the econ. boom of the postwar era change American lifestyles?

ii. What were some of the significant scientific and technological breakthroughs, especially in medicine, chemistry, electronics, weaponry and space explorations, of the 1950s and 60s? How did these developments affect American life? iii. How did the increasing popularity of the automobile change the American landscape and American society?

iv. Who were the critics of the affluent society of the 1950s? What were their criticisms?

v. How did the CW progress under Eisenhower? j. A Timeline of seven to ten key events/developments

Study Questions 1. How do you account for the prosperity of America during the late 1940s and 1950s? How was this prosperity similar to and different from that of the 1920s?

2. What factors account for the broad-based and rapid progress of science and technology following World War II? Why did this progress not occur sooner?

3. Examine earlier periods of medical advancement covered in the text. Explain why the development of antibiotics was of such profound importance to medical science.

4. What were the various technological advances brought together to develop the American space program in the late 1950s and the 1960s?

5. How and why has the primary focus of the American space program changed since its founding to the present day?

6. What were the major changes in America as a result of the growing availability and reliance on private automobiles?

7. Consider the automobile and television. Which of these two products had the most influence in changing American society during the 1950s? Why?

8. In what ways did television during the 1950s both encourage conformity and spark desires for rebellion and change?

9. Who were the leading domestic critics of the America of the 1950s? What were their major criticisms?

10. What was the appeal of rock music in the 1950s, and what accounts for its popularity?

11. Where would one most likely find the poor in America in the 1950s? Why did they remain poor?

12. How do you account for the rise of the civil rights movement?

13. What were the various strategies used by supporters and opponents of desegregation?

14. How do you define Eisenhower republicanism? How did it differ from Hoover republicanism and New Deal or Fair Deal liberalism?

15. How did the Eisenhower administration criticize Truman’s foreign policy? How did Eisenhower’s foreign policy differ from Truman’s? How and why was it similar?

16. Discuss the evolution of Eisenhower’s dealings with the Soviet Union. Why did the Cold War persist? By the end of his presidency, had Eisenhower improved or worsened the Cold War?

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