American History: Truman

• Containment


  A strategic policy to stop the spread of communism
• Kennan "Long Telegram"


  A telegram from diplomat George Kennan in Moscow to the Secretary of State, advising on handling communist foreign policy
• Truman Doctrine


  A strategic pledge to safeguard nations against the threat of a hostile armed minority without specifying their political affiliation
• Marshall Plan


  A program that offered $17 billion (equivalent to $160 billion in 2014) to support rebuilding the European economies after WWII
• Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech


  A speech where Churchill remarked that Europe was now divided by an "Iron Curtain" and shared his belief that Soviet Russia was not seeking a war but was looking to gain the advantages of war and to spread its influence and ideology
• Recognition of Israel


  Truman's recognition of the new state of Israel in May 1948, which stoked tensions in the Middle East
• The Berlin Blockade


  An event where Stalin cut the Allies out of the Eastern Bloc by blockading Berlin, leading Truman to respond with the Truman Doctrine and providing the needs of 2.5 million Berliners by air
• Mao Zedong


  The leader of the Communist Party of China who created the ideology "Mao Zedong's Thought"
• Domino Effect


  The concern that if China fell to communism, the surrounding countries would also fall
• Truman was unconvinced of the strategic importance of supporting the Nationalists, given their ability to create a stable China in the decades before WWII
• Truman was aware of the political impact of allowing the loss of China to communism
• Douglas MacArthur


  A distinguished 5-star US general who led the US Army in the Far East during WWII and presided over the Japanese surrender, but was relieved of his post as the commander of UN forces in Korea in 1951 by Truman
• Rollback


  The strategy of forcing a change in the significant policies of a state, usually by replacing its ruling regime
• Course of events of the Korean War


  1. Korea divided along the 38th parallel after WWII

  2. US-held elections in the South, Soviets installed Kim Il-Sung in the North

  3. North Korean invasion of the South in 1950

  4. US-UN intervention and MacArthur's successful Inchon landing, halted by Chinese intervention

  5. Conflict resulted in a stalemate along the 38th parallel
• Reasons why the US went to fight in the Korean War

  • Spread of communism in Europe and China
  • NSC-68 report warning of the Soviet threat and suggesting increased US military capabilities
• Significance of the Korean War

  Demonstrated Truman's willingness to use military force to support containment, but resulted in a costly and futile conflict
• Positive impacts of Truman's presidency on the US economy

  • Fair Deal policy addressing post-Depression poverty
  • Helping 12 million soldiers re-enter the workforce
  • Unemployment rate of at most 5%
  • Successful peacetime transition of businesses
  • Economic reforms like the Council of Economic Advisors
  • Marshall Plan providing aid to Europe
• Negative impacts of Truman's policies

  • Watered-down Price Control Bill
  • Drawbacks of the Marshall Plan
  • Challenges in demobilization and implementing containment policy
• Taft-Hartley Act


  A US federal law passed in 1947 that modified the Wagner Act 1935, prohibiting certain union practices and requiring disclosure of certain financial and political activities of unions
• Why Congress and Truman had fallen out

  Republicans gained control of both the House and Senate in the 1946 midterm elections, leading to political gridlock
• Thomas Dewey


  The Republican presidential candidate who lost to Truman in 1948 despite receiving 288 electoral votes
• George Wallace


  A four-time governor of Alabama who led the South's fight against federally ordered racial integration in the 1960s
• Strom Thurmond


  A US Senator from South Carolina who ran as an independent Dixiecrat presidential candidate in 1948 before switching to the Republican party in 1964
• Events of the 1948 presidential election

  1. Truman suggested Eisenhower as the Democratic nominee, but he declined

  2. Wallace formed a Progressive Party, Thurmond ran as a Dixiecrat

  3. Truman tirelessly campaigned, criticizing the Republican-controlled Congress

  4. Dewey ran an uninspiring campaign

  5. Truman experienced a hard-won triumph, with the Democrats regaining control of Congress and an improving economy
• Joseph McCarthy was a WWII veteran and senator from Wisconsin who became infamous for making sweeping, unfounded allegations of communist conspiracies
• Despite lacking evidence, he persisted in his pursuits until the Senate censured him in 1954
• He died from alcoholism in 1957
• Anti-communism was widespread in the US despite the Communist Party having less than 80,000 members
• The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan made the USSR the new enemy, leading HUAC to investigate Hollywood actors and change storylines from Nazis to Communists
• Officials and scientists were arrested for divulging Soviet nuclear secrets, including Hiss and the Rosenbergs
• Alger Hiss


  • Born in Baltimore, Maryland
  • Graduated Harvard law school
  • Worked as a clerk to supreme court justice Oliver W. Holmes
  • Practiced law in Boston and NY
  • Returned to Washington following FDR's election to work in the "New Deal"
  • Worked as an aide to assistant Secretary of State – Francis B. Sayre (Woodrow Wilson's son-in-law)
  • During the war, he worked on post-war planning and laying the foundations for the UN
  • He travelled to Yalta with FDR
  • He helped to organise the UN conference in San-Fransisco
• After Chamber's "evidence", the FBI and State Department began investigating. Although the claims weren't proven, Hiss had to resign
• Hiss denied Chamber's claims
• The committee – spurred by a Californian freshman – Richard M. Nixon – frantically checked both stories
• The Trial Build Up

  1. 17th August 1948 – Nixon brought both Hiss and Chambers together. Hiss admitted to knowing Chambers slightly but by the name Geroge Crosley

  2. 4th of November 1948 – Chambers changed his story, not only Hiss was a communist, but also a soviet spy

  3. Chambers provided physical evidence to back up his claim: Notes in Hiss' handwriting, Typewritten copies of State Department documents, Microfilms

  4. 14th November 1948 – Chambers hands over more documents proving Hiss' involvement , but refuses to hand over the microfims

  5. December 1948 – Chambers hands over the microfils which he'd kept in a pumpking on his farm in Maryland – later known as the "Pumpkin Papers"
• The Trial (s)


  1. Part I

  2. 1st June 1949 – the trial starts

  3. Chambers testifies as to his knowledge of the Soviet Spy ring. The "Pumpkin Papers" were proven to have been produced on the same machine as other documents produced by Mr and Mrs Hiss

  4. Hiss' defense was to discredit Chambers: Known as a former spy – good at lying, Changed his story, Troubled past with a history of homosexuality, Many of the details proven to be inaccurate due to the laziness of Chamber's memory

  5. Hiss' star witness was his typewriter. The Hiss' claimed they'd given it away to their maid – before the "Pumpkin Papers". The maid confirmed the story but her evidence was inconsistent and it wasn't clear if she received the typewriter before the papers were written

  6. Part II

  7. 17th November 1949 – 2nd trial starts

  8. A new judge allowed both sides more leniency with their evidence. The prosecution brought forward a new former spy who had claimed to have worked with Hiss

  9. Despite his claimes of innocence, Hiss was convicted on 21st January 1950

  10. He served 44 months before being released in 1954
• The Rosenbergs


  • The Rosenbergs were dedicated communists
  • Belonged to numerous communist organisations
  • Julius worked as an engineer for the US Army until 1945
  • He was fired for being a member of the CPUSA (Communist Party of the United States of America)
  • By the war's end, the FBI saw Julius as an important Soviet Spy
• The case against the Rosenbergs


  1. 2 weeks after Hiss' conviction

  2. When the FBI identified a German physicist (Klaus Kuchs) as someone who'd given secrets to the Soviets under pressure, he gave up Henry Gold as a conspirator. He, in turn, identified David Greenglass (Ethel's brother) as another link

  3. Greenglass was given a choice. Testify that the Rosenbergs supplied the Soviets with information or he and his wife would "go to prison for a very long time"

  4. The case against Julius was strong, but the one against Ethel was very weak

  5. The weakness was solved 10 days before the trial began as David Greenglass and his wife were re-interviewed and amended their stories implicating Ethel too

  6. 6t March 1951 – the trials start

  7. The key witness was Greenglass. He testified that he gave Julius Rosenberg a sketch of an implosion-type atom bomb ("Fat Man" – dropped on Nagasaki)

  8. He also testified that his sister (Ethel) typed notes containing US nuclear secrets in their apartment

  9. Both Rosenbergs denied but were convicted on the 29th of March and were sentenced to death on 5th April 1951

  10. In sentencing, the Judge (Irvin Kaufman) said that they were also responsible for the deaths of US soldiers during the Korean War

  11. Julius died after the first shock. However, after three shocks, Ethel was still alive. After another round of electric shocks. She died and smoke was coming out of her head
• Prejudice was present in the North, but Jim Crow Laws did not enforce it. Instead, it was a result of economic segregation, social pressure, and ghettoisation
• Ghettoisation refers to the phenomenon of some regions of cities becoming dominated by one ethnic group as others move out due to a decline in facilities