US History 27

They became very suspicious of each other.  Both believed their form of government, democracy for the US, and communism for the USSR, was best.  They both thought the other was scheming to take the other one over.

They wanted to make their own bomb.

Joseph Stalin, who was a dictator.

He wanted to stop the expansion of the USSR.  They already controlled much of eastern Europe.  He didn't want them to control any more.  But he didn't want to have another large world war.

It pledged support to the governments of Greece and Turkey, who looked like they may fall under communist control.  It was a form of containment.

It tried to make sure that all US government employees were loyal to the US.  He was worried about some being spies for the USSR.

It reorganized the Armed Forces.  The army and navy were combined under the Department of Defense.  It also creasted the CIA, which was a secret organization intended to go against the USSR.

George Marshall was the secretary of state.  The Marshall plan gave billions of dollars to western European countries to help their economies.  It was intended to make them strong against the USSR.  There were worries that the poor people in France and Italy could support a communist government there.

• It was split into 4 parts - with the US, the USSR, Great Britain and France each controlling one part.  The capital, Berlin was in the USSR portion.
• Soon, the US, Great Britain and France portions combined to form a new country - West Germany.  The USSR part became known as East Germany.  Berlin got split into a western half and an eastern half.

• The city of Berlin was located within East Germany.  Berlin was also divided into West Berlin, which was democratic, and East Berlin, which was communist.
• In 1947, the USSR placed a blockade around West Berlin.  West Berlin survived however with the Berlin Airlift.  The blockade was stopped in 1949.

Harry Truman was reelected when he beat Thomas Dewey.  Many people thought Dewey won the election initially.

1945 to 1952 - he served three of FDR's term, and 4 of his own.

The US economy did really well both during the war and after the war.  The 1940s and 1950s were a time of large economic growth.  The standard of living in the US improved tremendously.

It was a bill passed by Truman that helped veterans of WW2 go to college and get low interest loans.

It was from 1945 to 1960.  It was a time of great prosperity.  It was standard during that time to have large families.

• After WW2, the cities became too crowded.  The middle class began moving into suburbs - developments just outside the main city.
• Many inner cities eventually became poor.  Many blacks ended up living in the inner city.

It said the maximum a president could be elected was two terms.  It was put into place after FDR.

It was a pro-business law passed by the Republicans.  It favored management, and made things tougher on unions.

From 1945 (end of WW2) until 1991 (breakup of the Soviet Union).

The USSR wanted to have many of the eastern european countries under their control. They won them in WW2, and although they promised to let them become independent, they placed communist governments there which were loyal to the USSR.

The US was worried that the USSR would try to establish communism in other countries.  They were worried about Greece, Turkey, Italy and France, among others.  The US reacted strongly to the possibility of communism expansion.

It started in 1945.  It's goal was to keep peace in the world.

Five countries were made permanent members of the Security Council - the US, Great Britain, France, USSR and CHina.  It was hoped that there 5 countries could prevent a world war from occurring.

They kept their troops in them, and set up communist governments loyal to the USSR in them.  This included East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechkoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and Albania.

It was the term used by Winston Churchill of Great Britain, for the boundary with the Eastern European communist countries.  The USSR was very secretive, and everything seemed to be behind an iron curtain.

Yes, it helped the Western European countries improve economically quickly, by 1950.  It also helped keep communism out of Western Europe.

East Germany was hoping that the allies would withdraw from West Berlin, and give it to East Berlin.  Truman however sent atomic bombs to England, and threatened to use them.  Finally, the US decided to perform daily airlifts to deliver supplies to West Berlin.  This lasted one year, when the blockade was removed.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was a military alliance between the US, Canada and the Western European countries.  Their goal was to limit westward expansion of the USSR.  They raised their own army and started them along the border.

• Yes, in 1950.
• In 1951, the US made the hydrogen bomb, which was 1000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Japan.

The United States controlled Japan.  The US occupied Japan with troops until 1950, which were under the control of Douglas MacArthur.  The US set up the government for Japan - a democratic parliment.  As opposed to Germany, which was shared with the USSR, because the US got to control Japan after the war, Japan became a strong ally to the US.

They were granted independence in 1946.  The US however retained some land in the Phillipines for naval bases.

In the long running civil war, the communist party of Mao Zedong finally pushed the government of Chaing Kai Shek off the mainland onto the island of Taiwan.  The US continued to support Chaing Kai Shek and Taiwan, while Mao became dictator of mainland China.

It was decided to split Korea at the 38th parallel.  North Korea came under USSR control, while South Korea came under US control.

North Korea suddenly invaded South Korea.  This surprised everyone, included the USSR.  The UN was against it, and decided to send troops to South Korea to fight off the North Korean invaders.  Most of the UN troops were made up of US soilders under the control of Douglas MacArthur.

The troops were sent to South Korea to help protect their country.  The United States never formally declared war on North Korea.

At first, North Korea almost won.  They almost pushed South Korea totally off their country.  Then the South Koreans pushed back the North Koreans, almost back to the Chinese border.  Then China suddenly supplied troop to North Korea, and by 1953 they were close to their original borders.  An armistace was then called.

Overall it did, in that communism really never expanded in Europe or Asia much beyond what the intial agreements were after WW2.  Although there was fighting in Korea, and many treats and spies in Europe and USSR, there was no major world war.

MacArthur kept talking to the press about how the US should attack and bomb China, which would have started a very large war.

Red scares were intense suspicion by the US government and the people of US citizens being spies for USSR.The first red scare was right after WW1, in the early 1920s. The second red scare was right after WW2, in the early 1950s.

They considered arresting anyone sympathetic to the communist party.  Even if someone went to a communist party meeting, they were considered to be a supporter of communism.

The House Un-American Activities Committee was a committee of the house of representative who began investingUS citizens to see if they were supporters of communism.

He was a US government worker who worked in the department of state (under the secretary of state).  He was eventually convicted of being a spy for the USSR.  It is not clear if he really was a spy or not.

They were convicted of being USSR spies, and giving them information about the atomic bomb.  Both were executed.  It is uncertain if both were really spies or not.

He was a senator from Wisconsin.  To help get elected, he claimed he know of 205 USSR spies working in the state department.  Most of the public believed him.  Between 1950 and 1954, he claimed many Americans were spies, and got them arrested.  Finally in 1954, everyone realized that he made up or exaggerated a lot of accusations, and he was banned from the senate.

It mostly was a misunderstanding between the US and the USSR.  After WW2, the USSR wanted to keep control of the Eastern European countries that they had won, mainly as a buffer against the rest of Europe (they didn't want Germany invading them again).  The US took this as aggression, and assumed the USSR wanted to further expand communism to take over the world.  Because of this, the US built more atomic bombs and placed troops throughout Europe.  The USSR responded by building up their troops and making atomic bombs.