Ferreting Out Alleged Communists:
The struggle to stem Soviet Communism resulted in “the Cold War”.
Incidents involving freedom of speech and teaching.
In 1938, the House of Representatives established a Committee on Un-American
Activities to investigate “subversion”.
Richard M. Nixon / Alger Hiss - 5 years in prison.
Senator Joseph R. McCarthy charged that there were scores of known Communists
in the Department of State.
The Berlin Airlift:
Lying deep within the Soviet zone of Germany, Berlin had been broken into 4 sectors.
In 1948 the Russians abruptly cut off land and water routes to Berlin.
For nearly a year aviators flew in the necessities of the Berliners, including coal.
One plane every 3 minutes.
The Russians formally lifted their ban on surface shipments in May 1949.
The Election of 1948:
Republicans re-nominate Thomas E. Dewey, Governor of New York.
Democrats re-nominate President Harry S. Truman. Truman’s nomination split
the party wide open.
Truman won 303 to 189 in the Electoral College.
The Nuclear Arms Race and China’s Collapse:
September 1949 – Russia exploded an atomic bomb.
This was due largely to the cleverness of Communist spies in stealing American secrets.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted in 1951 of espionage and sentenced to
the electric chair in 1953.
1949 the fall of China to Communism.
Washington had halfheartedly supported the Nationalists government of
Chaing Kai-shek.
Chaing is forced to flee to Formosa (Taiwan).
Mao now takes over China. ¼ of the world’s population is now under Communism.
The Korean War:
When Japan collapsed in 1945, Russian troops accepted the Japanese surrender North
of the 38th parallel.
U.S. troops accepted the surrender South of that line.
North Korean Premier - Kim Il Sung.
South Korean President - Syngman Rhee.
June 25, 1950 - North Korean army rumbled across the 38th parallel.
Pusan Perimeter
Douglas MacArthur - amphibious landing at Inchon.
Red Chinese spokesman had publicly warned that they would not sit idly by and watch hostile troops approach the strategic Yalu River.
November 1950 - hordes of Chinese “volunteers” hurled the U.N. forces down the peninsula.
April 11, 1951 - Truman relieves MacArthur of command for insubordination.
Panmunjom Peace Talks - South Korea is still legally at war with North Korea.
They did not sign the peace treaty.
The Election of 1952:
Democrats nominated Adlai E. Stevenson.
Republicans chose General Dwight D. Eisenhower – with running mate, Senator
Richard M. Nixon of California.
Eisenhower won 442 to 89 in the electoral college.
Harry S. Truman - The Man - Biography on-line
The Menace of McCarthism:
One of the first problems Eisenhower had to contend with was the swelling
popularity of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy.
The careers of countless people were ruined after he “named” them Communists
or Communist sympathizers.
He went to far when he attacked the U.S. Army.
The Senate formally condemned him for “conduct unbecoming a member.”
The Blacks Surge Forward:
Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in May 1954 ruled that segregation in the public schools was “inherently unequal” and thus unconstitutional.
December 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks took a seat in the “Whites Only” section of the bus and refused to give it up.
The prominent and chief organizer of the Civil Rights movement became Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The Vietnamese Nightmare:
After W.W.II the Vietnamese had won their independence from France.
Geneva roughly halved the two Vietnams at the 17th parallel.
Ho Chi Minh - in the North.
Ngo Dinh Diem - in the South.
Eisenhower promised economic and military aid to the conservative Diem regime.
Election of 1956:
Republicans re-nominate Eisenhower and Nixon.
Democrats offered up Adlai Stevenson for a second time.
Eisenhower won 457 to 73 in the electoral college.
The Space Race:
On October 4, 1957 the Soviets launched a satellite (Sputnik I), weighing 184 lbs.
A month later they launched (Sputnik II), weighing 1,120 lbs. And carrying a dog.
Americans, four months after the initial Soviet triumph, managed to put into orbit a grapefruit sized satellite weighting 2.5 lbs.
Cuba’s Castroism Spells Communism:
Dr. Fidel Castro engineered a revolution early in 1959.
He expropriated valuable American properties.
He ultimately made his left-wing dictatorship an economic and military satellite of Moscow.
Washington broke diplomatic relations with Cuba early in 1961.
The Election of 1960:
Vice-President Nixon was the Republican nominee.
The Democrats nominated John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts.
He won the nomination over rival Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, the Senate Majority Leader from Texas.
Johnson was therefore given the position of Vice-Presidential candidate.
Kennedy called for a “New Frontier”.
Television may well have tipped the scales.
Kennedy squeezed through with 303 electoral votes to Nixon’s 219.
The popular margin was only 118,574 votes out of over 68 million cast.
During Truman’s second term in 1951 the 22nd Amendment was ratified:
No President will serve for more than 10 years consecutively.
Alaska and Hawaii also achieved statehood in 1950.
Dwight D. Eisenhower - The Man Biography on-line
Kennedy’s New Frontier Spirit:
He was the youngest President ever elected, and he assembled one of the youngest Cabinets - including his 35 year old brother – Robert as Attorney General.
The Peace Corps - bring American skills to underdeveloped countries.
The European Time Bomb:
Kennedy met Soviet Premier Khrushchev at Vienna, in June of 1961.
Soviets begin construction on the Berlin Wall in August 1961.
It was to plug the heavy population drain from East Germany to West Germany.
Foreign Flare-ups and “Flexible Response”:
The African Congo received its independence from Belgium in 1960.
Critics complained that increasingly Uncle Sam was picking up the tab for United Nations operations.
Laos was dangerously close to falling to Communism.
Stepping into the Vietnam Quagmire:
The Conservative Diem government in Saigon ruled shakily.
Late in 1961 Kennedy ordered a sharp increase in the number of “Military Advisers”
in South Vietnam.
The Kennedy administration encouraged a successful coup against Diem in Nov. 1963.
Cuban Confrontations - The Bay of Pigs:
Kennedy inherited from Eisenhower a CIA backed scheme to topple Fidel Castro
from power by invading Cuba with anti-Communist exiles.
April 17, 1961 – some 1,200 exiles landed at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs.
Most of them rotted for two years in Cuban jails, but were eventually ransomed for some $62 million worth of American drugs and other supplies.
“Victory has a hundred fathers, and defeat is an orphan.”
The Cuban Missile Crisis:
October 1962 – aerial photographs of American spy planes revealed nuclear tipped missiles in Cuba.
Kennedy and Khrushchev now began a nerve-racking game of “Nuclear Chicken”.
Kennedy rejected air force proposals for a “surgical” bombing strike.
Instead, on October 22, 1962, he ordered a naval “quarantine” of Cuba and demanded immediate removal of the threatening missiles.
October 28, 1962 – Khrushchev agreed to a partial compromise:
- He would pull the missiles out of Cuba.
- The U.S. agreed to end the quarantine and not invade the island.
A U.S. – Soviet pact prohibiting trial nuclear explosions in the atmosphere was signed in late 1963.
Installation in August 1963 of a Moscow - Washington “Hot Line”, permitted immediate teletype communication in case of crisis.
Black Unrest in America:
Kennedy had campaigned with a strong appeal to Black voters…but he proceeded
very slowly to fulfil his promises.
Blacks, impatient at the slow pace of school desegregation had begun sit-ins, lie-ins,
wade-ins, and pray-ins to compel equal treatment for Blacks in restaurants, transportation, employment, housing and voter registration.
Reverend martin Luther King, Jr. – a young clergyman from Atlanta, preached Christian love and the non-violent tactics of India’s Mohandas Gandhi.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
1963 – Birmingham, Alabama – demonstrators were repelled with fire hoses, attack dogs, and electric cattle prods.
Governor George Wallace – “Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!”
In August 1963 King led 200,000 demonstrators on a peaceful “March on Washington.”
“I Have A Dream”
The Killing of Kennedy:
November 22, 1963 in Dallas, TX – Kennedy was shot in the brain and died within seconds.
Lee Harvey Oswald – shot Kennedy.
Jack Ruby – shot Lee Harvey Oswald.
Vice-President Johnson was sworn in on the plane back to D.C.
Kennedy was acclaimed more for his ideals and spirit – than for the concrete goals
he had achieved.
He had proved that a Catholic could be President of the United States.
John F. Kennedy - The Man Biography on-line