Outline of US History by U.S. Department of State - HTML preview

CHAPTER 12: POSTWAR AMERICA

“We must build a new world,

a far better world —

one in which the

eternal dignity of man

is respected.”

President Harry S. Truman, 1945

CONSENSUS AND CHANGE

the growth of government author-

T

ity and accepted the outlines of the

he United States dominated glob- rudimentary welfare state first for-

al affairs in the years immediately mulated during the New Deal . They

after World War II . Victorious in enjoyed a postwar prosperity that

that great struggle, its homeland created new levels of affluence .

undamaged from the ravages of

But gradually some began to

war, the nation was confident of its question dominant assumptions .

mission at home and abroad . U .S . Challenges on a variety of fronts

leaders wanted to maintain the dem- shattered the consensus . In the

ocratic structure they had defended 1950s, African Americans launched

at tremendous cost and to share the a crusade, joined later by other mi-

benefits of prosperity as widely as nority groups and women, for a larg-

possible . For them, as for publisher er share of the American dream . In

Henry Luce of Time magazine, this the 1960s, politically active students was the “American Century .”

protested the nation’s role abroad,

For 20 years most Americans re- particularly in the corrosive war in

mained sure of this confident ap- Vietnam . A youth counterculture

proach . They accepted the need emerged to challenge the status quo .

for a strong stance against the So- Americans from many walks of life

viet Union in the Cold War that sought to establish a new social and

unfolded after 1945 . They endorsed political equilibrium .

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OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

COLD WAR AIMS

(1929-40), America now advocated

T

open trade for two reasons: to cre-

he Cold War was the most im- ate markets for American agricul-

portant political and diplomatic is- tural and industrial products, and

sue of the early postwar period . It to ensure the ability of Western Eu-

grew out of longstanding disagree- ropean nations to export as a means

ments between the Soviet Union and of rebuilding their economies . Re-

the United States that developed af- duced trade barriers, American

ter the Russian Revolution of 1917 . policy makers believed, would pro-

The Soviet Communist Party un- mote economic growth at home and

der V .I . Lenin considered itself the abroad, bolstering U .S . friends and

spearhead of an international move- allies in the process .

ment that would replace the exist-

The Soviet Union had its own

ing political orders in the West, and agenda . The Russian historical tra-

indeed throughout the world . In dition of centralized, autocratic

1918 American troops participated government contrasted with the

in the Allied intervention in Russia American emphasis on democracy .

on behalf of anti-Bolshevik forces . Marxist-Leninist ideology had been

American diplomatic recognition of downplayed during the war but still

the Soviet Union did not come until guided Soviet policy . Devastated by

1933 . Even then, suspicions persist- the struggle in which 20 million

ed . During World War II, however, Soviet citizens had died, the Soviet

the two countries found themselves Union was intent on rebuilding and

allied and downplayed their differ- on protecting itself from another

ences to counter the Nazi threat .

such terrible conflict . The Soviets

At the war’s end, antagonisms were particularly concerned about

surfaced again . The United States another invasion of their territo-

hoped to share with other countries ry from the west . Having repelled

its conception of liberty, equality, Hitler’s thrust, they were determined

and democracy . It sought also to to preclude another such attack .

learn from the perceived mistakes of They demanded “defensible” bor-

the post-WWI era, when American ders and “friendly” regimes in East-

political disengagement and eco- ern Europe and seemingly equated

nomic protectionism were thought both with the spread of Commu-

to have contributed to the rise of dic- nism, regardless of the wishes of

tatorships in Europe and elsewhere . native populations . However, the

Faced again with a postwar world United States had declared that one

of civil wars and disintegrating of its war aims was the restoration

empires, the nation hoped to pro- of independence and self-govern-

vide the stability to make peaceful ment to Poland, Czechoslovakia,

reconstruction possible . Recalling and the other countries of Central

the specter of the Great Depression and Eastern Europe .

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