The USA 1941 - 80 : The Divided Union.

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The USA 1941 – 80: The Divided Union

Key information

You need to be aware of the key issues in post-war American history,

Including that there were times when American society appeared to be divided. These divisions sometimes resulted in violence eg race riots in 1965 or Little Rock 1957.

You need to be aware of the impact the Second World War had on American society; how the fear of communism came about and how it ended up destroying lives and careers.

You also need to understand how certain sections of American society, eg blacks, females and youth, felt excluded and often saw themselves as ‘second-class’ citizens. What methods these groups used to achieve equality.

Key topic: What was the impact of the Second World war on the 

                 American economy and the American government?

Hint: make sure you include some statistics and if possible the name of some American companies which benefited from war.

The US Economy

  • It benefited from the war

  • The war cured the unemployment of the Depression which had lingered since 1935.

  • Overall 17million new full-time and part-time jobs were created  in war work.

  • Overall wages for American workers increased by 29% though women were paid less.

  • The actual number of jobs in the US economy increased by 50% compared with 1940.

  • By the start of 1943,Americas industrial production was greater than that of Germany, Japan and Italy combined.

  • By the end of the war in August 1945, America’s industrial production had increased by 300% compared with 1941.

  • By the end of the Second World War the USA was producing more iron steel and coal than was produced by the rest of the world in 1939.

The US Government

  • During the war Americans accepted the government’s right to make laws that regulated and controlled their daily lives. This led to an increase in the power of the federal government in Washington.

  • The power of the Presidency and of President Roosevelt (FDR) increased during the war.

  • During the war the number of government regulations relating to employment trebled.

  • The power and influence of local state government decreased during the war.

  • The government acted against the civil rights of those groups in the USA that they saw as a threat eg the Japanese Americans. Though such action was illegal, the government went ahead anyway.

Key topic: The impact of the Second World War on American

                  Society

Hint: Think what is meant by American society – it means women,

         Blacks, Japanese Americans but could also mean Am. Industry

         business etc.

Women

  • The American government used propaganda ( eg Rosie the Riveter)to encourage women to go to work to fill the jobs left by 7 million men joining the Armed Services.
  • In 1940 ¼ of all industrial workers were female. By 1945 this had increased to 1/3 of all industrial workers being female

  • Women’s war work included working in factories producing war materials; working in the aircraft industry eg Boeing ,McDonnell Douglas, working in shipbuilding, welding, construction etc

  • Women served in the US Armed services in non-combat positions
  • WACs (Women’s Army Corps) or WAVEs ( Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Services)

  • Women served as nurses, many women joined the Red Cross.

  • Factory work for women meant higher wages than working women earned before but not necessarily equal pay.

  • For the first time women became consumers with money in their pockets

  • The average female age for marriage went from 22 to 18 by 1943.

  • The number of marriages doubled 1942 – 1945

  • The divorce  rate in the USA quintupled between 1941 and 1945.(up from 35 to 15% by 1945)

  • The number of married women working increased from 35% in 1940 to over 50% by 1945

  • Advertisers targeted many American women. Smoking became socially acceptable. Fashion and make-up advertising increased to target women with $ in their pockets. Newspapers developed women’s columns.

  • The women of America on the Home Front ,made a significant and valuable contribution to the winning of the Second World War.

  • Many American women, particularly the married ones, were unhappy about having to give up their jobs and return to their “previous” lives after August 1945 when the war was over.

Black Americans.

The Second World War acted as a catalyst for change for American blacks. Before 1941 they were often treated as second – class citizens especially in the South.

  • Over 1.2 million black Americans joined the Armed services but were still subject to segregation.

  • Between 1941 and 1943 blacks were not allowed to train as pilots in the US Army. This changed after 1943 due to increasing casualty rates in the USAAF. When blacks were permitted to be trained a pilots they still could only fly in all black crews.

  • Blood and blood plasma were segregated – even though the process  for separating blood plasma products was developed by a black doctor Dr Charles MacIntosh.

  • Backs in the navy were restricted to menial work on board ship.

  • Blacks in the navy were not allowed to join the Marines until 1941. By 1945 there were only 100 black marines in the US navy..

  • 1.5 million blacks migrated from the south to northern cities to find war work.

  • By 1945 2.5 million blacks worked in the American defence industry

  • Even in northern cities race riots developed eg over housing Detroit 1943 a race riot between black workers and Polishg Americans led to 44 dead . Similar conflicts erupted eg in Harlem  1943.

  • 1942 FDR introduced FEPC (The Fair Employment Practices Committee) This was meant to stop racial discrimination in government war contracts and allow black Americans to gain jobs. The FEPC was a positive move on the part of the government but it had not powers to enforce the law and so discrimination especially in wages, continued.

  • Black pressure groups such as the NAACP continued to use the law courts to fight discrimination and segregation

  • Black trade Union leaders such as Phillip Randolph pressured the government by threatening to march on Washington to protest against racial discrimination. This forced FDR to introduce the FEPC in 1942.

  • Randolph also introduced the Double V (for victory) campaign that aimed for victory abroad in the war and victory at home against discrimination.

Japanese Americans

  • Following the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on 7th December 1941, FDR authorised the internment (imprisonment without trial) of all Japanese Americans ( approx 100,000)

  • Japanese Americans were called enemy aliens

  • Special internment camps were set up in Nebraska and Kansas thousands of miles from their homes on the west coast .

  • The government and their FBI in particular feared the Japanese Americans
  • (Nissei and Issei) would become agents for Japan acting as spies and saboteurs.

  • Property and businesses belonging to the Japanese Americans was confiscated. In all more than half-a-billion dollars worth of  property and possessions was confiscated and sold off. No compensation was given.

  • In 1944 the US Supreme  Court declared that the internment of Japanese Americans as enemy aliens had not been unconstitutional. This decision was reversed in 1988 and millions of dollars was paid out to the descendants of the interned Japanese in compensation.

  • More than 5000 Japanese Americans died in the internment camps.

  • The camps finally closed in 1946.

Key topic: Why the fear of communism developed in the USA

                   in the years 1945 – 1950?

Hint: Try to deal with the growing fear in chronological order. ie.start

        in 1945 and go through each incident up to 1950.Some

        Americans saw Communism as threatening the “American Way

       of Life.”

1945. The Soviet Union occupied the eastern half of Europe and the

          Americans, along with their Allies the British and French,

          occupied the western part. The Americans feared that the

          Russians intended to continue their advance  westwards and

          occupy all of western Europe.

1946. Churchill described the divide in Europe as an “Iron Curtain” on

         one side was the American-led ‘Free World’ and on the other

         the Communist – dominated ‘Unfree World’

1946 – 47. A wave of strikes swept America. Wages and prices had been fixed during World war II. When the war ended prices started to rise but wages remained fixed. Many American workers eg Steelworkers and railway workers went on strike. Many Republicans beileved that the strikes were the work of Communists.

1947. President Truman introduced the Federal Employee Loyalty

         Programme (FELP) All employees of the government had to

         take an oath of loyalty to the USA. Government employees had

         their loyalty checked and anyone who was found to have had

         links with Communism was sacked.

1947.The House of Representatives Committee on Un-American

         Affairs began to investigate communist infiltration in many

         aspects of American life eg the Government, the Newspapers

         Industry, Hollywood. In Hollywood, film directors and actors

         who had links or who were suspected as having sympathies

         towards communism were black-listed and unable to work in

         Hollywood. Important actors such as Orson Welles left

         Hollywood for Spain because of his views.

1947. President Truman introduced the Truman Doctrine to contain

         Communism. He promised to give help to any country which

         was threatened by Communism.

1948.The Soviet Union blockaded the city of Berlin in an effort to

         gain control of its western sector from the Americans. The USA

         flew supplies into Berlin to keep it out of Russian hands.

1948. The Fuchs case. It was revealed that a Russian spy, Fuchs had

          been receiving secrets from the USA about the US Atomic

          Bomb project.

1948. Alger Hiss an important official in the US State Department,

         and who therefore had access to many secret foreign policy

         documents, was charged with perjury. Richard Nixon, a

         Republican politician and a key member of the HUAAC persued

         the Hiss case and exposed Hiss as being guilty of perjury in

         denying links with Communist Party in the 1930’s. Hiss was

         found guilty of perjury and spent 5 years in gaol.

1949. The Chinese Communists took control of all of mainland China.

1950. Communist North Korea invaded South Korea, which was

          backed by the Americans.

1950. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of passing atomic

          secrets from the USA to the Soviet Union. Both were

          executed.

These events contributed to the fear of Communism in the USA in the period 1945 – 1950. This was known as the Red Scare. The anti-Communist feelings in the USA  were further stirred up by Senator Joesph McCarthy.

McCarthyism.

  • In 1950 the Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy began to whip-up anti-communist fears in the USA. He began a witch-hunt against Communists.

  • In 1950 McCarthy claimed to have the names of 205 known Communists who were working for the American government. McCarthy was lying but no-one challenged him.

  • McCarthy verbally attacked anyone who dared to criticise him. Even President Truman was afraid to attack McCarthy.

  • McCarthy was the Chairman of the Special Senate Committee investigating Communism in the USA. He verbally abused witnesses. He shouted and rubbished their character. He constantly interrupted witnesses and demanded that they name fellow communists.

  • The McCarthy Years, 1950 – 1954, resembled a witch-hunt .In the past when people believed in witches they tortured old women into admitting that they were witches and demanded that these women reveal the names of other witches. McCarthy demanded witnesses reveal the names of other Communists, or people they believed to be Communists. In an attempt to get away from McCarthy’s investigation many witnesses named names.

  • The Democrats under President Truman were scared of McCarthy’s power and passed some anti-communist measures eg the Mccarren Internal security Act 1950.
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The fall of McCarthy

  • Mccarthy accused even president Eisenhower of having Communist sympathies. This upset many loyal republicans.

  • McCarthys downfall came when he attacked firstly the American Boy scout Movement and then the US Army.

  • In a series of televised hearings about Communists in the US Army Mccarthy was exposed as a bully and a liar.
  • The distinguished journalist Edward R. Murrow publicly attacked Mccarthy and won popular support.

  • Even Mccarthy’s own  supportersd turned aginst him and he was centured by the US Senate in 1957 and died later the same ...

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