The Cold War

  • The Soviet Union had an atom bomb. The U.S.now had a hydrogen bomb. This began the Arms Race, where each country builds up its weapons to protect itself against another country. Both the U.S. and the Soviet Union believed having the most and the strongest weapons would keep their people safe.
  • Truman feared the spread of communism was a threat to freedom. In the fight against communism, the U.S. and its allies were known as the free world.
  • The Truman Doctrine – Policy of U.S. helping countries fight communism.
  • In 1948, Secretary of State George C. Marshall developed the Marshall Plan. This plan was to provide more aid to nations in war-torn Europe. It succeeded in helping Europe rebuild.
  • After WWII, Germany was divided into four parts. U.S. Britain and France took control of West Germany. The Soviet Union took charge of East Germany and formed a communist government there.
  • Berlin, the capital of Germany, was also divided into four parts. The Soviet Union blocked all highway, rails and water routes into West Berlin. The U.S. made over 272,000 flights over East Germany to West Berlin to carry supplies. This became known as the Berlin Airlift.
  • After the blockade ended, many tried to escape to West Germany. East Germany, with the Soviet’s help built a fence, took it down and built a concrete wall that became known as the Berlin Wall.
  • To ensure more countries did not set up communist governments in Europe, most remaining European countries started a new alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO. The U.S. and Canada joined too. NATO members promised that a Soviet attack on one member nation would be thought of as an attack on all. NATO also worked to find solutions to problems between member nations.
  • Harry S. Truman desegregated the armed forces, removed racial barriers.
  • The Asian country Korea was divided. Soviet troops, communists, occupied the northern part, and the United States troops, free world, occupied the southern part.
  • June 25, 1950, North Korean troops stormed into South Korea. The United Nations came together to fight North Korea. The UN won.
  • In 1952, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had commanded troops in WWII, was elected president.

Cold War Tensions Grow

  • In 1957, the Soviet Union surprised the U.S. by launching Sputnik. Sputnik was the world’s first human-made satellite.
  • The U.S. sped up its own efforts to explore space by creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA.
  • In 1961, John F. Kennedy took office. Kennedy “New Frontier” raised minimum wage, Congress rebuilt poor areas in the nation’s older cities and started the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps is a program that sends volunteers from the U.S. to live and work with people in developing countries.
  • Cuban Missile Crisis- Kennedy learned the Soviet Union had built launch sites in Cuba, just 90 miles from Florida. Cuba was run by Fidel Castro and was a communist government. When the Soviets did not remove the missiles, the U.S. set up a blockade. After 13 days, the Soviet Union agreed to stop sending missiles to Cuba and the U.S. ended their blockade. The two countries signed a peace treaty, which banned nuclear tests.
  • On November 1963, while riding through the streets of Dallas, Texas, meeting with supporters,John F. Kennedy was shot, assassinated.
  • Space Race–In 1961, the Soviet Union became the first nation to launch a spacecraft with a person on board, who orbited the Earth once. May 1961, U.S. sent an astronaut to space aboard the Freedom 7. July 16, 1969, Apollo 11, with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. and Michael Collins went to space.Four days later they landed on the Moon. Armstrong and Aldrin became the first two people to walk on the moon.

1950s

  • Four aspects of the 1950s – Suburbs were built; new appliances sold faster, 1st credit card, Federal Hwy Act of 1956.
  • Senator Joseph McCarthy began holding hearings to look into possible communist threats in the U.S. He ruined people’s lives and accused them of being communist. This became known as McCarthyism.
  • Linda Brown of Topeka, Kansas, wanted to go to school with other children in her neighborhood. She did not understand why state laws in Kansas said that African American children had to attend separate schools. In 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson, the court said separate public places for whites and African Americans were lawful as long as the places were equal.

Linda Brown and 12 other families decided to fight the law. Thurgood Marshall fought this case which became known as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. In 1954, the Supreme Court ordered to end segregation in schools.

  • December 1, 1955, African American, Rosa Parks got on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama and took a seat in the middle of the bus, which was only allowed if those seats weren’t needed for whites. When the bus driver told Rosa to move, she refused. She was arrested. After her arrest, minister Marin Luther King, Jr. led the boycott. For more than one year, African Americans stayed off buses. Finally in November 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that all public transportation companies had to end segregation.

Equal Rights

  • April 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. led a series of marches in Birmingham, AL. Later that year, 250,000 people gathered for a march in Washington D.C.Standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, King Jr. gave his I have a dream speech.
  • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed that made segregation in public places against the law. After the Act was passed many African Americans still were not treated equal. MLK led a march in Selma; AL. Violence was used to break up the fight.
  • Congress and President Johnson passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.