Stats

• Impact of WW2 in America (4)

  -Great Depression ended

  -Women worked in jobs previously taken by men now at war - Double V campaign.

  -America only manufacturer of goods as all European factories were bombed in the war Monopoly on production. Sets up economic boom.

  - New technology made USA leading distributer of products like microwave and radios.
• Criticisms of America (2)

  - How can the country be 'free' when it discriminates over its own citizens based solely on skin colour?

  - holocaust stories appear and the public can draw links between segregation of Jews and of African-Americans... Nazi Germany?
• Effects of Post War Prosperity (5)

  - Suburbs and Levittowns created, white flight as African-Americans migrated to northern cities and white people to suburbs.

  - the baby boom of the 1950s as more families were financially stable.

  - the construction of an interstate highway system

  -increased consumerism (TV, Radio, music), helped by the emergence oft the teenager, who could now stay in education and receive pocket money to spend in their free time, so advertising is also created.

  - the economy shifted from mainly manufacturing to more service jobs, (ex. restaurants), and unemployment plummeted from 9.5 million in 1939 to 670k in 1945.
• GI Bill features (4)

  - subsidised and staggered the job market to prevent mass unemployment

  - veterans receive free university courses

  - ex-soldiers also receive 100% mortgages

  - more houses built for these soldiers which creates roads, suburbs and railways.
• Negatives of America 1945 (5) STATS

  - 1/3 lived in poverty

  - 1/3 houses had no running water

  -2/5 lacked flushing toilets

  -3/5 lacked central heating

  -south was still segregated; civil rights was not progressing
• Evidence of economic boom (Laws;2)

  - 1946 employment act, council of economic advisors

  -Taft-Hartley act 1947, to restrict influence of unions
• Evidence of economic boom (economic) (4)

  - substantial increase in average family income resulted in millions of office and factory workers having social mobility into the growing middle class

  - economy grew with an annual rate of 3.5%

  - ideal american family had high wages, larger houses, better schools, and more cars and household technology

  -By the end of the 1950s, 87% of all U.S. families owned at least one television, 75% owned cars, and 60% owned their homes
• who did not benefit from the boom?

  the urban poor: elderly, african-americans, white flight to blame for lack of funds in cities
• evidence of economic boom (households) (2)

  - development of tv and entertainment: i love lucy, dick van dyke, elvis, etc.

  - scientific progress/development of wartime technologies to household products e.g radios and microwaves
• what was the inflation rate by 1947?

  15%
• Effects of the Baby Boom

  - Caused increase in economy and education,

  - created a new market for goods
• What was Truman's postwar thinking influenced by?

  his ambitions were mostly domestic, but the usa needed to return to peaceful trading with europe and the pacific to remain dominant
• 1952 STATS in comparison to 1939 (4)

  - total output had increased by 90%

  - industrial output had doubled

  - employment grew from 46 million to 61 million

  - per capita income had risen about 40%
• features of Truman's proposed fair deal

  - federal aid to education

  - tax cuts for low income earners

  - increase in public housing

  - abolition of poll taxes

  - permanent FEPC

  - new dept of welfare
• How much of the world's manufacturing output did the USA produce by 1945

  50%
• 3 key agreements made at Yalta Conference

  split Germany, free elections in eastern Europe, Russia help for war in Pacific
• Date of the Yalta Conference

  February 1945
• Date of the Potsdam Conference


  August 1945
• 3 key agreements made at Potsdam

  German disarmament/reparations, nuremberg trials, polish borders
• What was NSC-68 a response to?

  Soviets Succesful A Bomb test
• When did Truman give the 'Truman Doctrine' speech?

  march 1947
• How much money did Truman ask for to implement to Truman doctrine?

  $400 million
• When was the Marshall Plan approved?

  1948
• How much money did the Marshall Plan give in support of the recovery of European nations following WWII?

  $17 billion
• Berlin Airlift Dates


  1948-1949
• When did China 'fall' to communism?

  1949
• what percentage of the costs for the French war in Indochina did the Truman administration cover?

  78%
• the name given to the divide between North and South Korea

  38th parallel
• when did the Korean war break out?

  june 1950
• what technicality allowed Truman to intervene in Korea without congressional approval?

  It was a UN police action
• When was McArthur dismissed as commander of the UN forces in Korea after criticising Truman and advocating the use of Nuclear weapons against the Chinese.

  1951
• how low was Truman's approval rating by 1952 (according to a gallup pole in february)?

  22%
• what % of US GDP did the Korean war cost in its final year?

  14%
• What is the term characterising Truman's policy towards communism?

  containment
• impact of the fair deal (4)

  - substantial social and economic progress; in 1953, 62 million people were employed (lowest unemployment rate at 2.5%)

  - income was at an all time high due to agriculture and business

  - no bank had failed in 9 years

  - social security benefits had doubles
• how many strikes in 1946 and what happened?

  - 5 thousand strikes, prices skyrocketed
• what and when were the railway strikes?

  may 1946, the halting of the railways ground the country to a stop as workers protested for better working conditions
• how did truman end the railway strikes? what was the effect?

  he threatened to draft all non-workers into the military. it worked, but it seemed unconstitutional and so lost him support
• 1948 STATS(4)


  - increase in birth rate, leading to more housing demands and increased pressure on schools

  - unemployment up 5% by 1950

  - inflation up 20% in food prices

  - cost of living went up by 30%
• what were europe's post-war problems? (6)

  - refugees

  - unemployment

  - loss of industry

  - debts

  - shortages of goods

  - reconstruction