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The GI Bill, 1944-1955

The GI Bill, 1944-1955. 4,300,000 home loans to veterans (worth 33 billion dollars) 8 million veterans went back to school with a GI bill scholarship 14.5 billion dollars in federal money going to the nation’s schools and colleges

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The GI Bill, 1944-1955

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  1. The GI Bill, 1944-1955 • 4,300,000 home loans to veterans (worth 33 billion dollars) • 8 million veterans went back to school with a GI bill scholarship • 14.5 billion dollars in federal money going to the nation’s schools and colleges • 50 billion in direct or indirect subsidies to the American people • 1/3 of the population received some sort of benefit from the GI Bill

  2. FDR’s Four Freedoms speech, via Norman Rockwell, January 6, 1941

  3. In exchange the U.S.S.R. will declare war on Japan and hold free elections in Poland. The U.S.S.R. will get three votes in the United Nations General Assembly The Yalta Conference, 1945

  4. The Polish Corridor to Russia • 15th century Teutonic invasion • Napoleon’s 1812 invasion • The Kaiser’s 1914 invasion • The Nazi invasion of 1941

  5. The Truman trajectory: Tom Pendergast and Harry Truman of Missouri; in Senate (far right); then President (below right)

  6. Churchill, 1945 “An iron curtain has descended across the Continent. . . .

  7. Nuclear weapons plans (1946) • Acheson-Lilienthal Plan: • UN would control atomic energy • US would stockpile weapons until UN plan set up • Baruch Plan: • International agency would inspect countries to prevent production of nuclear weapons • Countries that did not have nuclear weapons could not develop them • Agency’s decisions would be immune to veto power from UN Security Council or General Assembly

  8. The Truman Doctrine (1947) • Massive military aid to all goverments fighting communism • 400 million dollars in military aid for Greece and Turkey

  9. George Kennan’s “containment” thesis, 1946 • Stalin opposed west in order to justify his dictatorship • Soviet Union had to be “contained by the adroit and vigilant application of counterforce at a series of constantly shifting geographical points . . . ” • U.S. had to show that it had a better system for prosperity

  10. Walter Lippman: “The Cold War” (1947) • “Containment” basically put the strategic ball in the Soviet Union’s court • The amorphousness of Kennan’s strategy will force the U.S. to place all its resources against Russia • U.S. should most focus on Russia’s presence in Eastern Europe, not the whole world

  11. The Marshall Plan, 1947 • Massive aid to Europe to reduce the influence of communism • And strengthen European consumer markets • “ . . . the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.”

  12. The Berlin Airlift, 1948-49 U.S. stands down Soviet threats to occupy West Berlin West establishes Germany and Soviets establish German Democratic Republic

  13. Communist revolution in China, 1949 Mao Zedong Chiang Kai Shek

  14. NSC-68 (National Security Council document number 68), 1950 • U.S. and the Soviet Union were locked in a struggle for world power • The Soviets had as their ultimate priority world domination • Conflict between the two superpowers was “endemic” . . . like a disease, inherent • The Soviets could only be stopped by military power • The Soviet people only supported the communists out of fear; once the U.S. showed its strength, the Russian people would overthrow communism

  15. Kim Il Sung of North Korea Syngman Rhee of South Korea

  16. The House Committee on Un-American Activities, (HUAC), 1937-1969

  17. Starring: Leonard Bernstein Lee J. Cobb Aaron Copland Dashiell Hammett Lena Horne Langston Hughes Burl Ives Gypsy Rose Lee Burgess Meredith Arthur Miller Zero Mostel Edward G. Robinson Pete Seeger William L. Shirer Orson Welles Leftist actor John Randolph was one of many blacklisted performers who resurfaced in the 1960s

  18. Democratic Party 3-way split, 1948 Incumbent Harry Truman Strom Thurmond and the Dixiecrats Henry Wallace and the Progressive Party

  19. ThePresidential election of 1948

  20. The Smith Act (1940) and the McCarran Act (1950) • Smith Act: "Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States . . . by force or violence . . . • . . . shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both . . . ” • McCarran Act: illegal to conspire to act in a way that will "substantially contribute" to the establishment of a totalitarian dictatorship in America

  21. McCarthy era movies • The Caine Mutiny, 1955 • Based on the Herman Wouk novel. The movie required permission from The Navy to be released! • From Here to Eternity, 1953, a novel cleaned up for The Army! • Houses of prostitution turned into USO clubs! • In the novel the sadistic head of the Army prison is promoted! • In the film he gets fired! • In the novel one adulterous Army wife suffers from venereal disease! • In the movie she has a miscarriage! • On the Waterfront, 1954

  22. Levittown, Long Island: population 88,000 1950-1980: most major cities lose population. Suburbs gain 60 million people 83 percent of nation’s growth takes place in suburbs By 1970 more people live in suburbs than in cities The flight to the suburbs

  23. The racialized suburbs • Federal Housing Authority defines minority communities as financial risks • Between 1934 and 1962, the federal government backed $120 billion of home loans. • More than 98% went to white homebuyers

  24. 50 Radio 45 40 Television 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 1940 1950 1960

  25. Poverty in the 1950s • 40 million Americans still lived below the poverty level (almost a quarter of the population) • 2 million migrant workers lived on subsistence wages • 27 percent of all residential units were substandard • As whites migrated to suburbs, many cities lost their tax base • slums proliferated • Legal segregation and racial discrimination were rampant in the south and the north

  26. Players: Vice President Richard Nixon vs. Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev (with future Premier Brezhnev on the right) The Kitchen Debate, 1959

  27. Alfred Kinsey, 1894-1956 Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, 1948, found that . . . Most men masturbate . . . and that’s fine . . . One third of men have had a homosexual experience . . . and that’s ok too . . . Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, 1953, found that . . . Most women achieve orgasm more “efficiently” via means other than vaginal penetration. And, hey, that’s ok folks, just relax . . .

  28. Founded in 1953 by Hugh Hefner Celebrated the bachelor life Celebrated home technology for men Championed civil liberties for both men and women, including the right to choose pregnancy

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