The Soviet-American alliance in World War II was fragile from the start, and the United States was suspicious of the Soviet Union’s territorial ambitions. Stalin wanted access to Italy, Greece, and industries in western Germany, which Truman refused to grant.The United States, meanwhile, had denied Stalin a free hand in Asia (despite enlisting Soviet help late in the Pacific War) and doubted that Stalin would allow democratic elections in those nations. Wanting a “buffer” against Germany, Stalin tightened his grip on eastern Europe and free elections never occurred (LaFeber 300-302).
These factors, along with the Yalta Conference’s failure to produce a viable plan for the postwar world, combined to help start the Cold War. The West was increasingly mistrustful of Stalin, who tightened his grip on eastern Europe and supported Communist uprisings elsewhere. The United States followed George Kennan’s suggestions in NSC-68 that Communism be contained, in order to protect western Europe and the rebuilding of its economies.Part Two: The “national security state” and McCarthyism were both products of Cold War paranoia, which worsened after a rash of espionage cases.
The Republicans gained control of Congress in 1946, forcing the federal government to take a harder line against Communism at home and abroad. Civil liberties were curtailed, loyalty oaths required, and Dean Acheson’s “domino theory” (that nations would fall to Communism one-by-one) became the guiding principle in American foreign policy (LaFeber 316-317).Also, in 1949 the Soviet Union tested its first atomic weapon (assisted by spies inside the Manhattan Project). This climate allowed Senator Joseph McCarthy to embark on his irresponsible “witch hunts” for suspected Communists inside the government (which ruined careers but yielded no Communists).Part Three: The federal government subsidized suburbia’s growth with Veterans’ Administration and FHA loans, as well as policies that favored white borrowers and suburban construction.
The interstate highway system’s creation in 1956 also made living in suburbia more practical, spurring even further suburban growth.The GI Bill also made it possible for veterans to attend college; the college-age population actually attending colleges doubled between 1940 and 1960 (LaFeber 366), helping expand the white-collar middle class.Blacks and other people of color often faced discriminatory lending and renting practices (such as “red-lining”), and whites’ large-scale migration to the suburbs coupled with the FHA’s pro-suburban bias to cause inner cities to decline sharply. Jobs also moved to suburban areas, contributing to high urban unemployment and planting the seeds for the riots of the 1960s.
Part Four: Television helped promote the desire for a stable, placid, conservative domestic culture, emphasizing family, convention, and traditional gender roles and values. It emphasized domesticity and group values, creating a culture of consensus based on conformity and following the crowd.It also inspired criticism because it promoted a sanitized vision of the United States – white, suburban, oriented around the nuclear family, and seemingly oblivious to social realities. In addition, it promoted Cold War anxiety.Critics considered the American mainstream too homogeneous and conformist, and subcultures like the Beats emerged. More inclined toward artistic and hedonistic interests than materialism or politics, the Beats responded to the “square” mainstream by avoiding and disdaining it.
Source: LaFeber, Walter, Richard Polenberg, and Nancy Woloch. The American Century. New York: McGraw-Hill,
