The ideological clash behind the cold war: The soviet union was a communist state in which the government owned and controlled the economy- it had a non democratic government.
The USA was a capitalist country where it had a democratic government. The economy was not state owned. The opposition between these two super powers became known as the cold war After the second world war the usa watched the spread of communism over the countries of eastern europe. To help stop this truman announced his doctrine which included him saying that he wanted to contain the spread of communism.
The marshall plan was also announced, this consisted of the capitalist USA helping any european countries suffering badly after the war to keep them from communism. The SU saw this as an attempt to bribe these countries into staying capitalist Cold war fears continues to drive us policy abroad and at home for many years as many people were scared of the possibility of a nuclear war and the US was desperate to keep the secret of making the atomic bomb outside the soviet hands How cold war fear affected US foreign policy: The first clash of the cold war was in berlin.Britain America France and the Soviet union all held parts in uniting germany. However the SU encouraged the people of Berlin to vote to become communist in the ‘free’ elections and as a result of this, they closed ll transport links out of the communist side of berlin cutting off supplies to the British, American and French sector.
As a result of this ,the soviet union hoped that this would make these sectors starved into voting communism. However, the western powers flew in supplies into these sectors and the berlin blockade was stopped resulting in germany being permanently divided. Another clash involved korea.Korea was like germany, with the USA and the SU disagreeing to reunify. The north of korea was communist and the south of korea was non communist. With the USA fearing the domino affect- spread of communism, and the SU seeing korea as an important symbol of asia, the SU invaded south korea with the aim to make it communist, The USA supported south korea by sending in military supports.
The war dragged on until 1954 with the country still being dividedThe activities of HUAC and the Spread of the Red Scare With the fear of communism growing people became suspicious and believed that the SU was working secretly inside the USA to overthrow the government. The House Committee on Un-American Activities was set up to search out soviet agents. Elizabeth Bentley admitted to being a soviet agent and gave names of 150 agents including 40 government officials. HUAC questioned these individuals and held further investigations. HUAC also investigated hollywood fearing that communists might use the film industry to spread propaganda.10 hollywood writers and actors refused to give evidence to HUAC because they argues that they had freedom of speech and that they was entitled to their own political beliefs.
These were known as the ‘Hollywood Ten’. These were put into prison for refusing to give evidence. As a result of this, people began to not support those who were investigated by HUAC or the FBI as the fear of communism increased. The Hiss Case- Alger Hiss, who advised Roosevelt and worked in the UN was accused of being communist in 1948.
He was accused before but this time HUAC accepted the evidence against him and he was sent to trial.During the trial the soviet union started testing the atomic bomb and fears of a nuclear war grew. The evidence for & against Alger Hiss was very complicated and he was accused for lying in court (not spying) and was sentenced to Five years in prison. Although he was not accused of spying, A guilty verdict gave the public a general view that he was a spy therefore this causes anti-communist hysteria to increase. The McCarran Act- This limited the places in which communist could be employed and it also denied them US passports.
This was passed despite Truman’s argument that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. As a result of this being passed, all communist organisations had to be registered and all members were investigated. This caused the public to be more suspicious of each other causing them to become more suspicious of their neighbors.They were more reluctant to criticise the government and some were unwilling to speak politics at all. The problem with HUAC investigations was that anyone who was investigated had a black mark put next to their name How McCarthy Played on Cold War Fears- Joseph McCarthy, the senator of Wisconsin made a public speech in 1950 where he said ‘i have the names of 250 names of members of the communist party who are shaping the policy and who are working in the state department’ With a western country - china becoming communist in 1949, anti-communist hysteria increased so what McCarthy said was easily believed. Although a day later, McCarthy decreased the number of people, The Tyding’s Committee was set up to investigate his accusations and his communist hunting was renamed as ‘McCarthyism’.
At first McCarthy had a lot of support including 25 american states introducing anti communism laws. Anti communist groups, hunted down many suspects and forced them out of work and their homes and beat them up. Many workers that government policy influenced and that influenced the way people thought such as teachers and government workers were targets as well. The Rosenberg Case & Its Impact On the 18th of july 1950 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were arrested for passing on information to the Soviet Union about making the atomic bomb, the evidence against the Rosenbergs wasn't clear and therefore it was hard to deny, the court also relied on evidence from other people included Ethel's brother. It also depended on identifying code names for Julius and Ethel in soviet telegrams.The evidence against them was weak.
Unfortunately for them, this case started just after the war in korea broke out, so anti-communist hysteria was high. Many americans blamed the Rosenbergs for passing atomic bomb information to the Soviets, the invasion of korea and many other problems that occurred in the USA. The Rosenbergs were found guilty and were sentenced to Death in the Electric Chair.The fall of McCarthy The Tyding’s Committee heard the evidence for McCarthy’s accusations and it was very weak. On the 20th july 1950, the 3 democratic members of the committee signed a statement calling McCarthy’s accusations a hoax and a fraud, however the two republican members (one was McCarthy) refused to sign the statement. McCarthy then turned on Senator Tydings accusing him with communist sympathies, he produced more and more accusations of political and personal enemies, including people who spoke out against him in the press/media.
His accusations became more wilder and the evidence became more stretched out and fake, for example, he produced a fake photo of Senator Tydings with the Communist leader, this picture was clearly a fake as the photos were taken at different times and were modified so it looked like it was the same photo whereas it was two different photos stuck together. However, when eisenhower became president in 1953, he set up an investigation into communist beliefs amongst workers to clear the suspicion that everyone had that there were communists in the working economy.He also gave McCarthy a job but on a less important committee. However, McCarthy took it too far. In september 1953, McCarthy started to turn on possible communists in the Army, This was on TV and this led to the public seeing McCarthy at his worst- bullying army generals and second world war heroes.
This caused McCarthys popularity to fall sharply then the media and the senate turned on him in 1954, The senate voted that McCarthy was to be censored for improper conduct.Key Topic 2- The Civil Rights Movement 1945-62 Background information Black people had the worst living conditions in america and were prevented from voting in the USA. They were also ‘the last hired & first fired’ The civil rights movement groups started to more widely campaign against this and campaigned to stop injustice and equality. Segregation laws were called Jim Crow laws after a white singer who did racist impressions of black people. However, the supreme court could only overrule laws if they were proven to be unconstitutional and even if the laws were passed, they were generally not put into practise or wasnt introduced in the states that the law was overruled in.Civil Rights Movement Groups included: NAACP- National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People CORE- Congress of Racial Equality These campaigned for black civil rights, they fought against racism, segregation and violence against black people.
Under segregation laws, black people were forced to live in the worst parts of cities, and were forced to use separate and worse facilities compared to white people, consisting of education to health care. The Aims & Diversity of the Civil Rights Movement After world war 2.More and more black people joined civil rights groups to campaign such as NAACP & CORE. Civil Rights groups all had the same basic aim: For black people to have the same rights in real life as they do legally.
However, some groups concentrated on different things, for example the Montgomery Bus Boycott concentrated on Segregation, as two black women were arrested for not obeying the segregation laws. All of the groups faced white opposition as soon as they gained influence on the way people acted and thought.The SCLC (Southern Cristian Leadership Conference) was set up following the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott outlining the importance of Church Organisations in the Organisation of protests. One of the big aims of the civil rights groups was to be able to give black people the power to vote, they knew that politicians were more likely to listen and change their policies and that black people would have more influence over them if they knew that their would be a large amount of black people voting for them. The Tactics, especially non-violent tactics of the civil rights Movement Most Civil Rights Movement groups stressed and encouraged their members to Protest Peacefully.But they took direct action ( protested in a way that made their protest visible) so the public could notice and therefore they could gain publicity and portray their views to a mass population.
They were stressed to protest peacefully as if they would have protested violently they would have been seen as violent people and less people would have listened to their views and more people would have thought their views were wrong as they would have showed them violently.So protesters had to be non violent and used such tactics as: Picketing (holding placards with messages- standing outside somewhere that discriminates and telling people not to use it) Boycotts (not using a service if it discriminates) Sit-ins (sitting in segregated lunch counters and using shops that do not serve black people) Freedom Rides (riding buses to integrate and using ‘white’ only toilets) Mass Marches The Causes, Events & Results of The Montgomery Bus BoycottOn the first of December 1955, Rosa parks was arrested for not moving out of her seat for a white person to sit, she was sitting on the 6th row. (the law in alabama was that the first 5 rows of the bus were reserved for white people and that black people had to clear the whole row if only one white person wanted to sit) The NAACP worked with church organisations to set up a one day boycott of the montgomery buses on that day. Rosa Parks was found guilty and was fined $10. That evening, the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) was set up to improve integration in Montgomery.
They chose MLK (Martin Luther King) As their chairman and asked all black people to boycott the buses of Montgomery. As a result of this, some employers sacked workers who boycotted and boycott leaders were arrested. The boycott went on for 381 days and it was successful as nearly all black people took part and the MIA organised support for it. The bus company lost a lot of money and received bad ratings nationally and worldwide as the state government would not change the law to allow buses to be integrated.
In 1956 it was ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional and black people rode on buses again. It wasnt for another 4 years that the supreme court went further and desegregated the buses and the facilities at bus stations. The ruling was very unpopular with white people in montgomery and people elsewhere. The role of Martin Luther King Martin Luther King was a world famous leader of civil rights movement. His first important campaign was the montgomery bus boycott.
He was a firm supporter of non-violent action. He was an inspiring speaker and convinced many people to take part in sit-ins, boycotts, marches, demonstrations and picketing despite the fact that they would be arrested, or attacked by the opposition.Martin Luther King said for his supporters to not be afraid because what they are doing is within the law. Attempts To Obtain Civil Rights, Especially In Education, Via The Constitution In 1947, Truman told the committee on civil rights that it was time to enforce civil rights laws in which they had been trying to do for the last 150 years.
However, many states had enforced laws for segregation and other racist policies which only the supreme court could overrule.However, many southern states wanted to keep these racist laws in place. In 1986 the supreme court ruled in the Plessy Case which meant that things such as education health care and transport could be segregated as long as they were ‘separate but equal’ But this did not stop the NAACP bringing cases to the supreme court. Once example of this was the Oliver Brown case who tried to integrate schools, this was rejected because of the Plessy Ruling but the NAACP urged brown to try again and combined it with four other cases to make it stronger.In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled that all school segregation was unconstitutional, however an integration date was not given so this weakened the force of the law. After the brown case, some schools did integrate, some peacefully, some less so.
Many states left it to the future and many white people in the south remained very hostile about it and set up white citizen councils to make sure segregation remained. These white citizen councils spread all over the south.
