The Century – America’s Time The Best Years (1946–1952)

(Chapter 36)

After the initial jubilation at the end of World War II, America faced severe domestic demographic problems and the international specter of communism and the Cold War. In response to the serious housing shortages exacerbated by the high marriage rates and subsequent baby boom of returning soldiers and the girls they left behind, the Truman administration created the GI Bill, which enabled veterans to secure low interest mortgages and college educations. But the domestic bliss of new homes and growing families could not alleviate the growing fears and hysteria of the new atomic age, and a demagogue from Wisconsin, Senator Joseph McCarthy, harnessed this hysteria for his personal political success. This episode covers some of the major events of the immediate post-war years such as the Korean War, McCarthyism, the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Airlift and the adjustment of returning soldiers.

  1. Winston Churchill made a speech in Missouri and described an” ______”that

had descended upon Europe. What was that curtain?

______

  1. What was the GI Bill?

______

  1. Why was Levittown, Long Island famous?

______

The cost per house: $______!

  1. There was a baby boom between 1946 and 1952: ______babies were born!
  1. ______started playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947?

Why was he so unique? ______

______

  1. How many Americans were sent to Japan for the occupation? ______
  1. Under whose command? ______
  1. What were the major problems in Europe after the war?

______

______

  1. The Marshall Plan sent $______to Europe. Why did we want to help out so much?

______

  1. The Russians were very bad winners after the war. Why were they brutal toward the German

population? ______

  1. A man watched in Eastern Europe as 32 men ______.

How do we know? ______.

  1. Why as Berlin such a unique city in the Cold War? ______

______

What countries had a piece of it? ______

______

What did Stalin do in Berlin? ______

______

How did supplies get to the people? ______

______

  1. By 1949 the Soviets had the ______.
  1. On June 25, 1950 the ______begins.

How? ______.

A ______is held to get soldiers.

Men return home after ______month tours

It has been called the “______” War

What happened to MacArthur? ______

Why? ______

______

  1. 13. Joe McCarthy said that ______were everywhere!

This era was called the ______.

Blacklists in ______investigated ______

______.

  1. How many in all were investigated about Communist ties?______
  1. The Hydrogen Bomb was ______times more powerful than the Atomic Bomb.

What was used to develop it? ______(the acronym)

  1. Eisenhower was the first president to use ______to win an election.
  1. What was the favorite TV show of the time? ______