Cold War: Containment, Truman Doctrine and Key Events

• Cold War saw tensions rise between the Soviet Union and the United States from 1945 to 1989.
• Containment was the U.S. strategy during the Cold War to prevent Soviet expansion, conceptualized by George F. Kennan.
• George Kennan's Long Telegram in 1946 influenced the containment policy.
• Winston Churchill coined "iron curtain" to describe the divide between Western Europe and Soviet-influenced Eastern Europe.
• The Truman Doctrine aimed to provide aid to countries resisting communism.
• The Marshall Plan was a U.S. initiative to rebuild post-war Europe, offering aid to both former allies and enemies, proposed by George C. Marshall in 1947.
• The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) aimed to lower trade barriers and evolved into the World Trade Organization.
• NSC-68, approved by Truman in 1950, advocated a militaristic approach to combat communism.
• The Korean War began in 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea, with U.S. forces heavily involved until 1953.
• Decolonization was the process where European empires' African and Asian colonies gained independence post-World War II.
• Liberal democrats and black leaders pushed for worldwide decolonization.
• The U.S. granted the Philippines independence in 1946.
• Totalitarianism describes states that aggressively control civil society, suppressing individual rights.
• Totalitarian states control both personal and public life; North Korea is considered highly totalitarian.
• Communism and fascism are often associated with totalitarianism, but distinct ideologies.

Fair Deal

• Fair Deal was Truman's domestic program that included civil rights legislation and national health insurance however only some New Deal programs were enacted.
• The Fair Deal saw increases in minimum wage, public housing, and Social Security
• Included proposals for national health insurance and aid to education.

Operation Dixie

• Operation Dixie was the CIO’s unsuccessful post-World War II campaign to unionize southern workers.

Taft-Hartley Act

• The Taft-Hartley Act, passed in 1947, restricted labor unions, banning closed shops.
• Authorized the president to suspend strikes with an 80-day "cooling-off period".

To Secure These Rights

• To Secure These Rights, a report, called for federal action to end segregation and ensure equality in housing, employment, education, and justice.

McCarran-Walter Act

• The McCarran-Walter Act (1952) allowed the deportation of immigrants identified as communists, regardless of citizenship.

Industrial/Commercial Agriculture

• Industrial/commercial agriculture involves large-scale farming using manufacturing techniques.

McCarthyism

• McCarthyism was the Post–World War II Red Scare, fueled by the fear of Communists in the U.S. government.
• Joseph McCarthy was a key figure in instigating the hysteria.

Hollywood Ten

• The Hollywood Ten were called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and refused to discuss their political affiliations or name communists, leading to imprisonment for some.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were Jewish communists executed for espionage, with Julius accused of sharing atomic secrets with the Soviet Union.

Bracero Program

• The Bracero Program (1942-1964) allowed Mexicans to work temporarily in U.S. agricultural jobs.
• The program made it harder for laborers to create unions since braceros could be deported at any time.

Growers

• Growers relied on braceros for agricultural labor.

"Illegal Alien"

• The Immigration Act of 1924 created the category of "illegal alien" for immigrants exceeding the new quotas.

"Foreignness"

• Mexicans faced segregation akin to the Jim Crow practices of the South
• Mexicans were constructed into a one-dimensional notion of someone who possesses a “commodity function and utility"

Push/Pull Factors for Illegal Immigration

• Push factors include rural poverty in Mexico.
• Pull factors include demand for cheap labor.

Recontracting/"Pre-Designated Return"

• Enabled braceros recontracting, ensuring a consistent labor supply.

"Operation Wetback"

• "Operation Wetback" was a mass deportation effort targeting undocumented agricultural workers, carried out as a military operation.
• The operation caused problems for Mexico with the sudden influx of deported workers.

Redlining

• Redlining is a discriminatory practice involving discriminatory denial of services based on race or ethnicity in specific neighborhoods

Restrictive Covenants

• Restrictive covenants prevented homeowners from selling to people of color to maintain property values.

Shelley v. Kraemer

• Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) struck down restrictive covenants as unenforceable by the government.
• The ruling stated the fed gov could not enforce segregation at a national level, however allowed them at a state leve;, resulting in continued restrictive covenants.

Contract Buying/Installment Plans

• Contract buying involved contracts where payments did not build equity, leading to families losing their homes with a single late payment

White Flight/Panic

• White flight occurred due to overcrowded schools and demographic shifts, fueled by real estate agents exploiting racial fears.
• Real estate agents profited by buying homes cheaply from white families and selling them at inflated prices to black families.

Blockbusting

• Blockbusting is the practice of persuading owners to sell property cheaply due to fears of other ethnic or social groups moving into the neighborhood, and then profiting by reselling at a higher price.
• Tactics included hiring African American women to push carriages in white neighborhoods, African American men accompanying agents, random phone calls, and staged crimes.

Plessy v. Ferguson

• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) upheld state laws that discriminate people based on race, effectively rolling back Reconstruction Amendments.
• It said the federal government couldn't control/provide relief against state level public facilities in general due to restrictions in race at national level
• It supported Jim Crow laws allowing "separate but equal" facilities.

"Separate but Equal"

• "Separate but equal" was the justification for segregation stemming from Plessy v. Ferguson.

Jim Crow Era

• Jim Crow Era saw systemic racial segregation and discrimination.

Brown v. Board of Education in Topeka

• Brown v. Board of Education in Topeka (1954) challenged school segregation, arguing it violated the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause.

Rosa Parks

• Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
• Segregated seating deemed unconstitutional by Supreme Court.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

• The Montgomery Bus Boycott protested segregation on buses.

"Little Rock Nine"

• "Little Rock Nine" exemplified integration, with black students needing federal protection to attend an all-white school in 1957.

Civil Rights Act of 1957

• The Civil Rights Act of 1957 addressed voting interference and voter suppression.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination in public programs/facilities.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

• The Voting Rights Act of 1965 protected POC and AA voting rights.

Fair Housing Act of 1968

• The Fair Housing Act of 1968 aimed to end redlining and housing discrimination
• Ensured developers could not discriminate with where individuals live based on race.

Loving v. Virginia

• Loving v. Virginia (1967) overturned anti-miscegenation laws, allowing interracial marriage.

KEY TOPICS

Events Prompting the Cold War

• Global events and ideological conflicts gave rise to the Cold War, including communism versus capitalism.
• The end of World War II led to the Yalta Conference, where Germany was divided and the UN was created.
• The Truman Doctrine was established where the US helped countries to stop communism with aid

Effects of Anticommumism on U.S. Society

• McCarthyism heightened racial tensions where Black civil rights activists accused of communist sympathies even though they were simply advocating for racial equality.
• HUAC investigated celebrities
• Military spending increased and there was an arms race with the Soviet Union
• Immigration policies made sure no communists immigrated to the USA

Migration From Mexico to the U.S.

• Rural poverty was the biggest push factor for Mexicans
• Pull factors for Mexicans include agricultural growers that want undocumented laborers and braceros because they are inexpensive
• The Bracero Program was agreed to by the Mexican and American governments in 1942 where tens of thousands of contract laborers crossed into the United States to take up jobs as domestic and agricultural workers.

Redlining

• The origin includes multiple racist laws + discrimination, not just one
• The FHA creates redlining by "includ[ing] a whites-only requirement” on all bank mortgages and ordering real estate agents to treat all African American borrowers and predominantly African American neighborhoods as uncreditworthy during the underwriting process
• Tactics include mapping discrimination in communities.
• Racial wealth gap, segregation and demographics of cities, less resources like schools, and generational wealth impacts are the lasting effects

Conditions Faced by Women and BIPOC

• Inequalities pay and marriage were important markers of freedom for women
• Women faced racial inequalities that limited job opportunties

Origins, Landmarks, and Impacts of the Civil Rights Movement

• The Civil Rights Movement sought to challenge the "separate but equal" doctrine and systemic discrimination
• Landmarks include key legal cases, legislative acts, and events such as Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.