About the Cold War
TheEisenhower Era – Coup in Guatemala
I wrote this background based on information from Stephen G. Rabe, The Killing Zone:
The United States Wages Cold War in Latin America (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2016), 36-38.
Guatemala in the Cold War era (and well before that) had a significant racial
hierarchy. On top were the “westernized, Spanish-speaking groups.” On the bottom were
indigenous people descended from the Mayans. The elite owned the vast majority of
land, while those on the bottom were effectively forced to work on plantations. As
Stephen Rabe puts it, “Terms like “serfdom,” “debt peonage,” and even “slavery”
accurately characterized the socioeconomic conditions of Guatemala’s indigenous
population.” Some 90% of laborers were illiterate, they lived in dire poverty, and had a
life expectancy that was less than 40 years.
The following section comes from the Baltimore County History Labs Program
(supported by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County) and is copied verbatim with
added comments from me. You can find the original source at:
https://www.umbc.edu/che/tahlessons/pdf/historylabs/Guatemalan_Coup_student:RS01.p
df
https://www.umbc.edu/che/tahlessons/pdf/historylabs/Guatemalan_Coup_student:RS01
https://www.umbc.edu/che/tahlessons/pdf/historylabs/Guatemalan_Coup_student:RS01
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Latin American governments were
characterized by economic policies that allowed for liberal foreign investments from
wealthy countries like the United States. Military dictators led a number of these Latin
American governments. The United Fruit Company (UFCO), an extremely successful
American owned and run company, profited greatly from investments it made in
Guatemala. The business of United Fruit was bananas, and from bananas it had built a
business empire in the Central American nations of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.
The United States government was also interested in bananas, and had sponsored
initiatives to promote the fruit in the American diet. Guatemala became known as a
“banana republic,” a disdainful term for poor, developing countries that relied on a single
cash crop, such as bananas, and were ruled by corrupt governments. Under the
Guatemalan dictator Jorge Ubico, the United Fruit Company gained control of 42% of
Guatemala’s land, and was exempted from paying taxes and import duties. Seventy-seven
percent of all Guatemalan exports went to the United States; and 65% of imports to the
country came from the United States. The United Fruit Company was, essentially, a state
within the Guatemalan state. It not only owned all of Guatemala’s banana production and
monopolized banana exports, it also owned the country’s telephone and telegraph system,
and almost all of its railroad track.
The United Fruit Company was well connected to the Eisenhower administration.
Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his New York law firm, Sullivan and
Cromwell, represented the company. Allen Dulles, the director of the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) and brother of John Foster Dulles, had served on UFCO’s Board of
Trustees and owned shares of the company. Ed Whitman, the company’s top public
relations officer, was the husband of Ann Whitman, President Eisenhower’s private
secretary. Ed Whitman produced a film, Why the Kremlin Hates Bananas, which
depicted UFCO fighting on the front line of the Cold War. The company’s efforts paid
off. It picked up the expenses of journalists who traveled to Guatemala to learn its side of
the crisis, and some of the most respected North American publications, including the
New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, New York Herald Tribune, and New
Leader, ran stories that pleased the company.
The Guatemalan Revolution of 1944 forced the resignation of the right-wing
dictator, Ubico, who by then had ruled the nation for 13 years. The country held what
many believed was the first true election in its history, popularly electing Dr. Juan Jose
Arévalo to the presidency. A new constitution, based on that of the United States, was
adopted. Arévalo, a liberal politician and educator, built over 6,000 schools and made
great progress in education and health care. Arévalo was followed by Colonel Jacobo
Arbenz, who became president in democratic elections in 1951. After Arbenz came to
power, he extended political freedoms, allowing Communists in Guatemala to participate
in politics. In a country of three million people, only 4,000 were registered as
Communists; however, with the Cold War in full force, the United States was extremely
concerned with the decision so close to home in the Western Hemisphere. (Comment
from DN: One key reform was a 1947 law that allowed workers to form labor unions and
launch strikes against companies like United Fruit. Historian Stephen Rabe compares
these laws to FDR’s New Deal laws that protected the rights of workers to form unions.)
The United States became further alarmed after President Arbenz proposed
“Decree 900,” to redistribute undeveloped lands held by large property owners to
landless farmers, which constituted 90% of the population. The United States likened this
land reform policy to that enacted by Communist regimes. By 1952, Arbenz had
expropriated (taken from its owners) 225,000 acres and made them available to rural
workers and farmers. At the time, just two percent of landowners owned 70% of useable
agrarian lands, and farm laborers were kept in a form of debt slavery. The biggest
obstacle to land reform in Guatemala was the United Fruit Company. While the
government compensated property owners for the expropriated lands, United Fruit
believed the compensation was not enough. The company demanded to be reimbursed for
the full market value of the land, while the Guatemalan government was only willing to
pay according to the worth of the land claimed in May 1952 tax assessments. This was
problematic because United Fruit, like other big companies, had understated the value of
the land to reduce its tax burden. The Guatemalan government was able to seize 40% of
the land held by the giant corporation at little cost. (Comment from DN: This part isn’t
well written as key points can be missed. Let me emphasize that the government of
Guatemala didn’t just take land from companies and the wealthy. It’s more accurate to
say that large landholders were forced to sell land that they were not using. As noted,
United Fruit claimed their land wasn’t worth much to avoid taxes for years. That came
back to haunt them when Decree 900 came out. Notably, Arbenz himself was wealthy
and had to give up 1,700 acres.)
United Fruit felt that Arbenz was challenging it politically and financially. The
company began a massive anti-communist propaganda effort against Guatemala in the
U.S. press. The Eisenhower administration was also alarmed by the policy direction of
the Arbenz government. Eisenhower did not want to intervene directly in Guatemala,
however, to avoid the impression that the United States would attack a Western
Hemisphere ally. Additionally, Eisenhower had vowed to reduce Cold War military
spending. Instead, the United States utilized the newly created Central Intelligence
Agency to launch a covert operation to remove Arbenz. The CIA was created, in part, to
conduct espionage missions around the world. The Guatemalan operation was known as
“Operation PBSUCCESS.” In 1952, two years after the election of Jacobo Arbenz, the
CIA began recruiting an opposition force to overthrow him. Looking to the Guatemalan
military, the CIA chose a disgruntled, anti-Arbenz officer, named Carlos Castillo Armas,
to lead the operation.
On June 17, 1954, with the support of the U.S. government and the CIA, Armas launched
an invasion. The invading forces numbered only 150 men, but the CIA had convinced the
Guatemalan public and Arbenz that a major invasion was underway. The CIA set up a
clandestine (secret) radio station to broadcast propaganda messages, jamming
Guatemalan radio signals. Skilled American pilots were hired to bomb strategic points in
Guatemala City. U.S. personnel flew the invasion aircrafts and filled the airways with
bogus transmissions, adding to the impression. The CIA used spies within the
Guatemalan military and government to actively undermine President Arbenz’s authority,
demoralize his supporters, and block efforts to defeat Armas.
Unaware that the CIA was orchestrating the military coup against him, Arbenz
turned to the U.S. government for help, placing his faith in a so-called ally that stated it
was committed to advancing and spreading democracy. On Sunday, June 27, 1954,
President Jacobo Arbenz resigned from office and fled Guatemala. The CIA replaced him
with a military dictator, Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, whom the CIA designated the
“liberator” of the Guatemalan people.
This section is from me based on Stephen G. Rabe, The Killing Zone: The United States
Wages Cold War in Latin America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 36-38.
Following the coup, the CIA launched Operation PBHISTORY. They scoured
through some 500,000 documents in an effort to link the Arbenz government to the
Soviet Union and international communism. They, essentially, found nothing. The
Guatemalan Revolution of 1944 was launched by workers unhappy with the oppressive
conditions they faced. The Arbenz government implemented reforms that can be
compared to New Deal era policies. Despite that, Arbenz’s policies looked communistic
to the Eisenhower administration. That was unacceptable during the Cold War, and
Eisenhower used the CIA to replace the democratically elected government (Arbenz)
with a brutal dictatorship.
There are historical debates about the motives behind the 1954 coup. Some
historians suggest that fears of communism alone explain the decision to overthrow the
government. Others (like the above piece) place more emphasis on economic motives and
suggest the coup was partially or largely driven by efforts to support the United Fruit
Company.
Following the coup, Armas, the new dictator, murdered some 3,000-5,000 Arbenz
supporters. His “disposal list” was written with assistance from the CIA. The government
crushed all political opposition, revoked Decree 900 and restored land to the elite, and
eliminated labor rights established in 1947. Guatemala plunged into a bloody civil war
that lasted from 1960 to 1996. The U.S. government supported the Guatemalan
government in that conflict despite many human rights abuses carried out by the
government, because the dictatorial government of Guatemala was a Cold War ally. We
can draw connections between the civil war, current crises in Guatemala, and the plight
of Guatemalans who are trying to enter the U.S. as refugees in our current era to the CIA
coup of 1954.
- Background Information
The Guatemalan Revolution of 1944, Reforms, and the CIA Led Coup of 1954
Aftermath
Source:US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
The Eisenhower Era, Pt. 2
Although the Eisenhower years were marked by fear of the Soviet Union and its military
might, they were also a time of peace and prosperity. Even as many Americans remained
mired in poverty, many others with limited economic opportunities, like African
Americans or union workers, were better off financially in the 1950s and rose into the
ranks of the middle class. Wishing to build the secure life that the Great Depression had
deprived their parents of, young men and women married in record numbers and
purchased homes where they could start families of their own. In 1940, the rate of
homeownership in the United States was 43.6 percent. By 1960, it was almost 62 percent.
Many of these newly purchased homes had been built in the new suburban areas that
began to encircle American cities after the war. Although middle-class families had
begun to move to the suburbs beginning in the nineteenth century, suburban growth
accelerated rapidly after World War II.
Several factors contributed to this development. During World War II, the United States
had suffered from a housing shortage, especially in cities with shipyards or large defense
plants. Now that the war was over, real estate developers and contractors rushed to
alleviate the scarcity. Unused land on the fringes of American cities provided the perfect
place for new housing, which attracted not only the middle class, which had long sought
homes outside the crowded cities, but also blue-collar workers who took advantage of the
low-interest mortgages offered by the GI Bill.
An additional factor was the use of prefabricated construction techniques pioneered
during World War II, which allowed houses complete with plumbing, electrical wiring,
and appliances to be built and painted in a day. Employing these methods, developers
built acres of inexpensive tract housing throughout the country. One of the first
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
developers to take advantage of this method was William Levitt, who purchased farmland
in Nassau County, Long Island, in 1947 and built thousands of prefabricated houses. The
new community was named Levittown.
Levitt’s houses cost only $8,000 and could be bought with little or no down payment.
The first day they were offered for sale, more than one thousand were purchased. Levitt
went on to build similar developments, also called Levittown, in New Jersey and
Pennsylvania. As developers around the country rushed to emulate him, the name
Levittown became synonymous with suburban tract housing, in which entire
neighborhoods were built to either a single plan or a mere handful of designs. The houses
were so similar that workers told of coming home late at night and walking into the
wrong one. Levittown homes were similar in other ways as well; most were owned by
white families. Levitt used restrictive language in his agreements with potential
homeowners to ensure that only whites would live in his communities.
(David Norberg adding here: I think it is easy to miss the profound economic
implications of Leavittown’s whites only policy. For many working and middle-class
families, buying a house is a major step up in economic standing. Here’s one way to think
about it: consider the differences between paying rent vs. paying a mortgage over 20
years. If a person pays $1,000/month, that comes to a total of $240,000. Those paying
rent have nothing to show for it at the end of that period. Those who buy a house and pay
a mortgage have a valuable asset, and houses typically gain value over time.
Homeowners can sell that asset or leave it to children as an inheritance. The housing
policies of that era made it much easier for white families to gain wealth. In our era,
whites on average have significantly more wealth than African Americans, and this
history helps to explain why.
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
You can find info on economic equality in the U.S. at
https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/recent-trends-in-wealth-
holding-by-race-and-ethnicity-evidence-from-the-survey-of-consumer-finances-
20170927.htm Back to the textbook.)
Figure 28.12 This aerial view of Levittown, Pennsylvania, reveals acres of standardized homes. The
roads were curved to prevent cars from speeding through the residential community that was home
to many young families.
In the decade between 1950 and 1960, the suburbs grew by 46 percent. The transition
from urban to suburban life exerted profound effects on both the economy and society.
For example, fifteen of the largest U.S. cities saw their tax bases shrink significantly in
the postwar period, and the apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives
shifted to the suburbs and away from urban areas.
The development of the suburbs also increased reliance on the automobile for
transportation. Suburban men drove to work in nearby cities or, when possible, were
driven to commuter rail stations by their wives. In the early years of suburban
development, before schools, parks, and supermarkets were built, access to an automobile
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/recent-trends-in-wealth-holding-by-race-and-ethnicity-evidence-from-the-survey-of-consumer-finances-20170927.htm
https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/recent-trends-in-wealth-holding-by-race-and-ethnicity-evidence-from-the-survey-of-consumer-finances-20170927.htm
https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/notes/feds-notes/recent-trends-in-wealth-holding-by-race-and-ethnicity-evidence-from-the-survey-of-consumer-finances-20170927.htm
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
was crucial, and the pressure on families to purchase a second one was strong. As
families rushed to purchase them, the annual production of passenger cars leaped from
2.2 million to 8 million between 1946 and 1955, and by 1960, about 20 percent of
suburban families owned two cars. The growing number of cars on the road changed
consumption patterns, and drive-in and drive-through convenience stores, restaurants, and
movie theaters began to dot the landscape. The first McDonalds opened in San
Bernardino, California, in 1954 to cater to drivers in a hurry.
As drivers jammed highways and small streets in record numbers, cities and states rushed
to build additional roadways and ease congestion. To help finance these massive
construction efforts, states began taxing gasoline, and the federal government provided
hundreds of thousands of dollars for the construction of the interstate highway system.
The resulting construction projects, designed to make it easier for suburbanites to
commute to and from cities, often destroyed urban working-class neighborhoods.
Increased funding for highway construction also left less money for public transportation,
making it impossible for those who could not afford automobiles to live in the suburbs.
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
Figure 28.13 In the late 1940s, a network of newly constructed highways connected suburban Long
Island with Manhattan.
The nation’s new road network also served a military purpose; interstate highways made
it easier to deploy troops in the event of a national emergency.
As the government poured money into the defense industry and into universities that
conducted research for the government, the economy boomed. The construction and
automobile industries employed thousands, as did the industries they relied upon: steel,
oil and gasoline refining, rubber, and lumber. As people moved into new homes, their
purchases of appliances, carpeting, furniture, and home decorations spurred growth in
other industries. The building of miles of roads also employed thousands. Unemployment
was low, and wages for members of both the working and middle classes were high.
Following World War II, the majority of white Americans were members of the middle
class, based on such criteria as education, income, and home ownership. Even most blue-
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
collar families could afford such elements of a middle-class lifestyle as new cars,
suburban homes, and regular vacations. Most African Americans, however, were not
members of the middle class. In 1950, the median income for white families was
$20,656, whereas for black families it was $11,203. By 1960, when the average white
family earned $28,485 a year, blacks still lagged behind at $15,786; nevertheless, this
represented a more than 40 percent increase in African American income in the space of
a decade.
While working-class men found jobs in factories and on construction crews, those in the
middle class often worked for corporations that, as a result of government spending, had
grown substantially during World War II and were still getting larger. Such corporations,
far too large to allow managers to form personal relationships with all of their
subordinates, valued conformity to company rules and standards above all else. In his
best-selling book The Organization Man, however, William H. Whyte criticized the
notion that conformity was the best path to success and self-fulfillment.
Conformity was still the watchword of suburban life: Many neighborhoods had rules
mandating what types of clotheslines could be used and prohibited residents from parking
their cars on the street. Above all, conforming to societal norms meant marrying young
and having children. In the post-World War II period, marriage rates rose; the average
age at first marriage dropped to twenty-three for men and twenty for women. Between
1946 and 1964, married couples also gave birth to the largest generation in U.S. history to
date; this baby boom resulted in the cohort known as the baby boomers. Conformity also
required that the wives of both working- and middle-class men stay home and raise
children instead of working for wages outside the home. Most conformed to this norm, at
least while their children were young. Nevertheless, 40 percent of women with young
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
children and half of women with older children sought at least part-time employment.
They did so partly out of necessity and partly to pay for the new elements of “the good
life”—second cars, vacations, and college education for their children.
The children born during the baby boom were members of a more privileged generation
than their parents had been. Entire industries sprang up to cater to their need for clothing,
toys, games, books, and breakfast cereals. For the first time in U.S. history, attending
high school was an experience shared by the majority, regardless of race or region. As the
baby boomers grew into adolescence, marketers realized that they not only controlled
large amounts of disposable income earned at part-time jobs, but they exerted a great deal
of influence over their parents’ purchases as well. Madison Avenue began to appeal to
teenage interests. Boys yearned for cars, and girls of all ethnicities wanted boyfriends
who had them. New fashion magazines for adolescent girls, such as Seventeen, advertised
the latest clothing and cosmetics, and teen romance magazines, like Copper Romance, a
publication for young African American women, filled drugstore racks. The music and
movie industries also altered their products to appeal to affluent adolescents who were
growing tired of parental constraints.
With a greater generational consciousness than previous generations, the baby boomers
sought to define and redefine their identities in numerous ways. Music, especially rock
and roll, reflected their desire to rebel against adult authority. Other forms of popular
culture, such as movies and television, sought to entertain, while reinforcing values such
as religious faith, patriotism, and conformity to societal norms.
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
In the late 1940s, some white country musicians began to experiment with the rhythms of
the blues, a decades-old musical genre of rural southern blacks. This experimentation led
to the creation of a new musical form known as rockabilly, and by the 1950s, rockabilly
had developed into rock and roll. Rock and roll music celebrated themes such as young
love and freedom from the oppression of middle-class society. It quickly grew in favor
among American teens, thanks largely to the efforts of disc jockey Alan Freed, who
named and popularized the music by playing it on the radio in Cleveland, where he also
organized the first rock and roll concert, and later in New York.
The theme of rebellion against authority, present in many rock and roll songs, appealed to
teens. In 1954, Bill Haley and His Comets provided youth with an anthem for their
rebellion—”Rock Around the Clock”. The song, used in the 1955 movie Blackboard
Jungle about a white teacher at a troubled inner-city high school, seemed to be calling for
teens to declare their independence from adult control.
Figure 28.14 The band Bill Haley and His Comets (a) was among the first to launch the new genre
of rock and roll. Their hit song “Rock Around the Clock” supposedly caused some teens to break into
violent behavior when they heard it. Chuck Berry (b) was a performer who combined rhythm and
blues and rock and roll. He dazzled crowds with guitar solos and electrifying performances.
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
Haley illustrated how white artists could take musical motifs from the African American
community and achieve mainstream success.
Teen heartthrob Elvis Presley rose to stardom doing the same. Thus, besides encouraging
a feeling of youthful rebellion, rock and roll also began to tear down color barriers, as
white youths sought out African American musicians such as Chuck Berry and Little
Richard.
While youth had found an outlet for their feelings and concerns, parents were much less
enthused about rock and roll and the values it seemed to promote. Many regarded the
music as a threat to American values. When Elvis Presley appeared on The Ed Sullivan
Show, a popular television variety program, the camera deliberately focused on his torso
and did not show his swiveling hips or legs shaking in time to the music. Despite adults’
dislike of the genre, or perhaps because of it, more than 68 percent of the music played
on the radio in 1956 was rock and roll.
At first, Hollywood encountered difficulties in adjusting to the post-World War II
environment. Although domestic audiences reached a record high in 1946 and the war’s
end meant expanding international markets too, the groundwork for the eventual
dismantling of the traditional studio system was laid in 1948, with a landmark decision
by the U.S. Supreme Court. Previously, film studios had owned their own movie theater
chains in which they exhibited the films they produced; however, in United States v.
Paramount Pictures, Inc., this vertical integration of the industry—the complete control
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
by one firm of the production, distribution, and exhibition of motion pictures—was
deemed a violation of antitrust laws.
The HUAC hearings also targeted Hollywood. When eleven “unfriendly witnesses” were
called to testify before Congress about Communism in the film industry in October 1947,
only playwright Bertolt Brecht answered questions. The other ten, who refused to testify,
were cited for contempt of Congress on November 24. The next day, film executives
declared that the so-called “Hollywood Ten” would no longer be employed in the
industry until they had sworn they were not Communists. Eventually, more than three
hundred actors, screenwriters, directors, musicians, and other entertainment professionals
were placed on the industry blacklist. Some never worked in Hollywood again; others
directed films or wrote screenplays under assumed names.
Figure 28.15 One of the original Hollywood Ten, director Edward Dmytryk publicly announced he
had once been a Communist and, in April 1951, answered questions and “named names” before the
House Committee on Un-American Activities.
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
Hollywood reacted aggressively to these various challenges. Filmmakers tried new
techniques, like CinemaScope and Cinerama, which allowed movies to be shown on large
screens and in 3-D. Audiences were drawn to movies not because of gimmicks, however,
but because of the stories they told. Dramas and romantic comedies continued to be
popular fare for adults, and, to appeal to teens, studios produced large numbers of horror
films and movies starring music idols such as Elvis. Many films took espionage, a timely
topic, as their subject matter, and science fiction hits such as Invasion of the Body
Snatchers, about a small town whose inhabitants fall prey to space aliens, played on
audience fears of both Communist invasion and nuclear technology.
By far the greatest challenge to Hollywood, however, came from the relatively new
medium of television. Although the technology had been developed in the late 1920s,
through much of the 1940s, only a fairly small audience of the wealthy had access to it.
As a result, programming was limited. With the post-World War II economic boom, all
this changed. Where there had been only 178,000 televisions in homes in 1948, by 1955,
over three-quarters of a million U.S. households, about half of all homes, had television.
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
Figure 28.16 An American family relaxes in front of their television set in 1958. Many gathered not
only to watch the programming but also to eat dinner. The marketing of small folding tray tables and
frozen “TV dinners” encouraged such behavior.
Various types of programs were broadcast on the handful of major networks: situation
comedies, variety programs, game shows, soap operas, talk shows, medical dramas,
adventure series, cartoons, and police procedurals. Many comedies presented an idealized
image of white suburban family life: Happy housewife mothers, wise fathers, and
mischievous but not dangerously rebellious children were constants on shows like Leave
It to Beaver and Father Knows Best in the late 1950s. These shows also reinforced certain
perspectives on the values of individualism and family—values that came to be redefined
as “American” in opposition to alleged Communist collectivism. Westerns, which
stressed unity in the face of danger and the ability to survive in hostile environments,
were popular too. Programming for children began to emerge with shows such as Captain
Kangaroo, Romper Room, and The Mickey Mouse Club designed to appeal to members of
the baby boom.
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- SUBURBANIZATION
THE ORGANIZATION MAN
Developments in American Culture
ROCKING AROUND THE CLOCK
HOLLYWOOD ON THE DEFENSIVE
THE TRIUMPH OF TELEVISION
Source:US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
The Eisenhower Era
Against the backdrop of the Cold War, Americans dedicated themselves to building a
peaceful and prosperous society after the deprivation and instability of the Great
Depression and World War II. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the general who led the United
States to victory in Europe in 1945, proved to be the perfect president for the new era.
Lacking strong conservative positions, he steered a middle path between conservatism
and liberalism, and presided over a peacetime decade of economic growth and social
conformity. In foreign affairs, Eisenhower’s New Look policy simultaneously expanded
the nation’s nuclear arsenal and prevented the expansion of the defense budget for
conventional forces.
After Harry Truman declined to run again for the presidency, the election of 1952
emerged as a contest between the Democratic nominee, Illinois governor Adlai
Stevenson, and Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had directed American forces in
Europe during World War II. Eisenhower campaigned largely on a promise to end the
war in Korea, a conflict the public had grown weary of fighting. He also vowed to fight
Communism both at home and abroad, a commitment he demonstrated by choosing as his
running mate Richard M. Nixon, a congressman who had made a name for himself by
pursuing Communists, notably former State Department employee and suspected Soviet
agent Alger Hiss.
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
Figure 28.9 Dwight D. Eisenhower was the perfect presidential candidate in 1952. He had never
before run for office or even cast a vote, and thus had no political record to be challenged or
criticized.
In 1952, Eisenhower supporters enthusiastically proclaimed “We Like Ike,” and
Eisenhower defeated Stevenson by winning 54 percent of the popular vote and 87 percent
of the electoral vote. When he assumed office in 1953, Eisenhower employed a
leadership style he had developed during his years of military service. He was calm and
willing to delegate authority regarding domestic affairs to his cabinet members, allowing
him to focus his own efforts on foreign policy. Unlike many earlier presidents, such as
Harry Truman, Eisenhower was largely nonpartisan and consistently sought a middle
ground between liberalism and conservatism. He strove to balance the federal budget,
which appealed to conservative Republicans, but retained much of the New Deal and
even expanded Social Security. He maintained high levels of defense spending but, in his
farewell speech in 1961, warned about the growth of the military-industrial complex,
the matrix of relationships between officials in the Department of Defense and executives
in the defense industry who all benefited from increases in defense spending. He disliked
the tactics of Joseph McCarthy but did not oppose him directly, preferring to remain
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
above the fray. He saw himself as a leader called upon to do his best for his country, not
as a politician engaged in a contest for advantage over rivals.
Figure 28.10 The above map shows the resounding victory of Dwight D. Eisenhower over Adlai
Stevenson in the 1952 election. Stevenson carried only the South, where whites had voted for
Democratic Party candidates since the time of the Civil War.
In keeping with his goal of a balanced budget, Eisenhower switched the emphasis in
defense from larger conventional forces to greater stockpiles of nuclear weapons. His
New Look strategy embraced nuclear “massive retaliation,” a plan for nuclear response
to a first Soviet strike so devastating that the attackers would not be able to respond.
Some labeled this approach “Mutually Assured Destruction” or MAD.
Part of preparing for a possible war with the Soviet Union was informing the American
public what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. The government provided instructions
for building and equipping bomb shelters in the basement or backyard, and some cities
constructed municipal shelters. Schools purchased dog tags to help identify students in
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
the aftermath of an attack and showed children instructional films telling them what to do
if atomic bombs were dropped on the city where they lived.
Government and industry allocated enormous amounts of money to the research and
development of more powerful weapons. This investment generated rapid strides in
missile technology as well as increasingly sensitive radar. Computers that could react
more quickly than humans and thereby shoot down speeding missiles were also
investigated. Many scientists on both sides of the Cold War, including captured Germans
such as rocket engineer Werner von Braun, worked on these devices. An early success for
the West came in 1950, when Alan Turing, a British mathematician who had broken
Germany’s Enigma code during World War II, created a machine that mimicked human
thought. His discoveries led scientists to consider the possibility of developing true
artificial intelligence.
However, the United States often feared that the Soviets were making greater strides in
developing technology with potential military applications. This was especially true
following the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik the first manmade satellite, in October
1957. In September 1958, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act, which
pumped over $775 million into educational programs over four years, especially those
programs that focused on math and science. Congressional appropriations to the National
Science Foundation also increased by $100 million in a single year, from $34 million in
1958 to $134 million in 1959. One consequence of this increased funding was the growth
of science and engineering programs at American universities.
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
Figure 28.11 The launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik frightened many in the United States, who
feared that Soviet technology had surpassed their own. To calm these fears, Americans
domesticated Sputnik, creating children’s games based on it and using its shape as a decorative
motif.
In the diplomatic sphere, Eisenhower pushed Secretary of State John Foster Dulles to
take a firmer stance against the Soviets to reassure European allies of continued
American support. At the same time, keenly sensing that the stalemate in Korea had cost
Truman his popularity, Eisenhower worked to avoid being drawn into foreign wars. Thus,
when the French found themselves fighting Vietnamese Communists for control of
France’s former colony of Indochina, Eisenhower provided money but not troops.
Likewise, the United States took no steps when Hungary attempted to break away from
Soviet domination in 1956. The United States also refused to be drawn in when Great
Britain, France, and Israel invaded the Suez Canal Zone following Egypt’s
nationalization of the canal in 1956. Indeed, Eisenhower, wishing to avoid conflict with
the Soviet Union, threatened to impose economic sanctions on the invading countries if
they did not withdraw.
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- Introduction
WE LIKE IKE
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
THE FAIR DEAL
Early in his presidency, Truman sought to build on the promises of Roosevelt’s New
Deal. Besides demobilizing the armed forces and preparing for the homecoming of
servicemen and women, he also had to guide the nation through the process of returning
to a peacetime economy. To this end, he proposed an ambitious program of social
legislation that included establishing a federal minimum wage, expanding Social Security
and public housing, and prohibiting child labor. Wartime price controls were retained for
some items but removed from others, like meat. In his 1949 inaugural address, Truman
referred to his programs as the “Fair Deal,” a nod to his predecessor’s New Deal. He
wanted the Fair Deal to include Americans of color and became the first president to
address the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He
also took decisive steps towards extending civil rights to African Americans by
establishing, by executive order in December 1946, a Presidential Committee on Civil
Rights to investigate racial discrimination in the United States. Truman also desegregated
the armed forces, again by executive order, in July 1948, overriding many objections that
the military was no place for social experimentation.
Congress, however, which was dominated by Republicans and southern conservative
Democrats, refused to pass more “radical” pieces of legislation, such as a bill providing
for national healthcare. The American Medical Association spent some $1.5 million to
defeat Truman’s healthcare proposal, which it sought to discredit as socialized medicine
in order to appeal to Americans’ fear of Communism. The same Congress also refused to
make lynching a federal crime or outlaw the poll tax that reduced the access of poor
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
Americans to the ballot box. Congress also rejected a bill that would have made
Roosevelt’s Fair Employment Practices Committee, which prohibited racial
discrimination by companies doing business with the federal government, permanent. At
the same time, they passed many conservative pieces of legislation. For example, the
Taft-Hartley Act, which limited the power of unions, became law despite Truman’s veto.
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- The Early Cold War Pt. 3
The Early Cold War Pt. 3
THE FAIR DEAL
THE FAIR DEAL
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
Introduction
Is This Tomorrow? warned Americans about the potential horrors of living under a Communist dictatorship.
Postwar propaganda such as this comic book, the cover of which showed invading Russians attacking
Americans and the U.S. flag in flames, served to drum up fear during the Cold War.
The Cold War
As World War II drew to a close, the alliance that had made the United States and the
Soviet Union partners in their defeat of the Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—
began to fall apart. Both sides realized that their visions for the future of Europe and the
world were incompatible. Joseph Stalin, the premier of the Soviet Union, wished to retain
hold of Eastern Europe and establish Communist, pro-Soviet governments there, in an
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
effort to both expand Soviet influence and protect the Soviet Union from future
invasions. He also sought to bring Communist revolution to Asia and to developing
nations elsewhere in the world. The United States wanted to expand its influence as well
by protecting or installing democratic governments throughout the world. (Dave
Norberg here: The U.S. very much wanted to expand its influence but the point
about promoting democracies in the world is overly simplistic and a bit misleading.
While there is some truth to it, the U.S. also overthrew democratic governments that
seemed to oppose U.S. interests and actively supported oppressive, but pro-U.S.,
dictatorships. ) It sought to combat the influence of the Soviet Union by forming
alliances with Asian, African, and Latin American nations, and by helping these countries
to establish or expand prosperous, free-market economies. (D.N.: This sentence is also
quite debatable.) The end of the war left the industrialized nations of Europe and Asia
physically devastated and economically exhausted by years of invasion, battle, and
bombardment. With Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and China reduced to
shadows of their former selves, the United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the
last two superpowers and quickly found themselves locked in a contest for military,
economic, social, technological, and ideological supremacy.
FROM ISOLATIONISM TO ENGAGEMENT
The United States had a long history of avoiding foreign alliances that might require the
commitment of its troops abroad. However, in accepting the realities of the post-World
War II world, in which traditional powers like Great Britain or France were no longer
strong enough to police the globe, the United States realized that it would have to make a
permanent change in its foreign policy, shifting from relative isolation to active
engagement.
On assuming the office of president upon the death of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman
was already troubled by Soviet actions in Europe. He disliked the concessions made by
Roosevelt at Yalta, which had allowed the Soviet Union to install a Communist
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
government in Poland. At the Potsdam conference, held from July 17 to August 2, 1945,
Truman also opposed Stalin’s plans to demand large reparations from Germany. He
feared the burden that this would impose on Germany might lead to another cycle of
German rearmament and aggression—a fear based on that nation’s development after
World War I.
At the postwar conference in Potsdam, Germany, Harry Truman stands between Joseph Stalin (right) and
Clement Atlee (left). Atlee became prime minister of Great Britain, replacing Winston Churchill, while the
conference was taking place.
Although the United States and the Soviet Union did finally reach an agreement at
Potsdam, this was the final occasion on which they cooperated for quite some time. Each
remained convinced that its own economic and political systems were superior to the
other’s, and the two superpowers quickly found themselves drawn into conflict. The
decades-long struggle between them for technological and ideological supremacy became
known as the Cold War. So called because it did not include direct military confrontation
between Soviet and U.S. troops, the Cold War was fought with a variety of other
weapons: espionage and surveillance, political assassinations, propaganda, and the
formation of alliances with other nations. It also became an arms race, as both countries
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd
Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located
at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License
Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/
competed to build the greatest stockpile of nuclear weapons, and proxy wars were fought
on their behalf, primarily by the citizens of poorer nations, such as Korea and Vietnam.
http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- The Early Cold War Pt. 1
The Early Cold War Pt. 1
Introduction
Introduction
The Cold War
The Cold War
FROM ISOLATIONISM TO ENGAGEMENT
FROM ISOLATIONISM TO ENGAGEMENT