Assignment 3: “World War II Through The 1970’s”
Joseph L. Carter
History 105
June 11, 2012
Professor Everett Hardy Strayer University Delaware County Campus

Analyze the facts that war and propaganda had on American society World War 2 and the 1970’s.

Looking at the history of the United States, never had the country seen such dramatic

changes in the social, economic, and political structure that happened at the end of World War II.

Multiple events throughout this period guided the direction of the United States government and

the attitudes of Americans. This paper will provide a look into the evolution of the United States

by analyzing the most significant events in the five decades after World War II.

The 1950s brought about a new look into the foreign affairs for the United States government

and the American people. After the victory of World War II, two allies of the war, the United

States and the Soviet Union became bitter enemies that tried to secure a position of world leader.

The Soviet Union had its Communist Manifesto that according to the Decades Project (1999)

website stated, “a mission statement that provides that communism requires a world revolution

and the destruction of capitalism in order to succeed”. This was a direct threat to the American

Way of life, and started the beginning of the Cold War. With different ideals and hunger for

power, both sides began to build up military strength, especially in the form of each country’s

nuclear arsenal. This carried with it the fear of communism spreading not only to other countries

but also to the front doors of Americans. With these fears, many Americans began looking over

their shoulders in anticipation that people close to them may be Communist. One man in

particular, Senator Joseph McCarthy, took it to another level by announcing that he had a list of

many people in the State Department that he claimed to be Communist. With these accusations,

McCarthy sent waves of fear through the government and created a political downfall for the

“lefties,” while increasing the popularity of the republican conservatism.

At times during the 1950s, the Cold War would heat up as Communist leaders began forcefully

advancing on capitalist governments and this of course would lead the United States into conflict

across the globe. One such conflict was the Korean War, which pulled in American forces into a

“police action,” even though the United States had not declared war. Truman knew if war was

declared that it would ultimately involve the Soviet Union and the possibility of a nuclear strike,

and neither side wanted this. The Cold War affected many people around the world and

continued to affect the global community for many years to come. By the end of the 1950s, the

overwhelming fear of Communism taking over the U.S. began to calm and many Americans

started looking for a different direction for the government. The Cold War however, still loomed

on and Communism continued to spread in Southeast Asia.

In the 19060’s with the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia continuing, the United

States government saw that it was necessary to prevent this from happening. This started out as

an advisory role in the 1954, and then turned into one of the most expensive wars in U.S. history.

In the early 1960s the Kennedy administration turned up the heat and sent in U.S. Army Green

Berets to help with the effort but still remained to keep costs to a minimum. It was after

President Johnson took over and refused to be the first president to lose a war by sending up to

half a million troops into Vietnam that the cost of the war began to effect the economy of the

United States. As the war progressed and Johnson kept sending in troops, the defense budget

jumped from 100 million to 28.8 billion from 1965 to 1969. With the budget deficit growing and

the economy in full swing, America’s annual inflation rate increased to 4.7 % by 1967. This

created an influx of cash with a limited number of goods, and the consumer market would

experience inflation that continued into the 1970s.

The 1960s was a prosperous decade for most Americans, but the involvement in the Vietnam

Conflict brought on many economic challenges by the end of the decade and eroded the

prosperity on which the optimism of the postwar era had rested. With President Johnson leaving

office and Richard Nixon taking over, Nixon was left with an economic debacle to deal with, but

he could see that the war needed to come to an end to help the United States get out of the

economic situation it was in. Unfortunately for Nixon, some of his decisions while in office

resulted in his eventual demise.

In the 1970’s with inflation and the Vietnam Conflict still looming, President Richard

Nixon took over a nation in despair. The people of the United States were looking for new

direction, because many believed it that the current recession and continuing war was brought on

by the democratic policies invoked by Kennedy and Johnson. Many believed that Nixon was the

one that could fix it, Nixon did in fact adopt a deficit budget to try to stimulate employment rates

and in 1971, he implemented freeze on wages and pricing. Nixon was also responsible for the

new diplomatic relations with China and the eased tensions with the Soviet Union. Nixon was

unfortunately best known for his involvement in the Watergate scandal that turned out to be the

worst political scandal in U.S. history. At the beginning of Nixon’s time in office, his CRP

(Committee to Re-elect the President) team was already planning Nixon’s re-election. Nixon

used this team to conduct electronic surveillance of officials within the government and the

media to try and control the information flow of Nixon’s activities in office. He even had a

recording device install in the oval office, which was the nail in the coffin for Nixon when the

impeachment trial was conducted. With the help of his Special Investigation Unit, President

Nixon made an attempt to silence the security leaks that had brought forth the “Pentagon

Papers,” which were a series of top-secret documents that contained national defense information

pertaining to America's involvement in the Vietnam War”. This was just the beginning of the

illegal activities performed by the Nixon administration. Nixon soon thereafter used his

plumbers to infiltrate the Democratic National Committee headquarters, which was on the sixth

floor of the Watergate apartment and office complex. The goal of this infiltration was to acquire Democratic campaign material as well as plant

bugging devices for eavesdropping purposes. On June 17, 1972, the office was again entered and

state that, “At 2:30 AM, there entered five men, all wearing surgical gloves

and carrying wiretapping equipment and cameras, where they found three police officers waiting

for them in the office of the deputy chairman's secretary. The burglars, along with CRP security

coordinator James McCord, were placed under arrest. When news of the break in spread, Nixon

claimed to be unaware of the CRP’s involvement, and quickly began the cover up of the

incidents with his closest advisers. Unfortunately for Nixon, this was done in the Oval Office

where he had installed voice recorders. This was the “smoking gun” that tied the Nixon

administration to the incident. In the aftermath of the impeachment of Nixon, it was revealed that

numerous illegal contributions were made to the both parties during the 1972 campaign for

presidency. These actions forced Congress to implement campaign finance reforms, which limits

the amount contributions to a campaign. This also damaged the public’s view not only on the

Nixon administration but also the confidence in democracy in general. This erosion of

confidence is still evident today in the public’s view of the federal government and the

assumption that all politicians are corrupt and dishonest. This wrong doing led to a

continuing rise in unemployment and inflation into the 1980’s, and put pressure on the newly

appointed president Ronald Reagan, to create an economic plan to rejuvenate the American

economy.

In 1980, the country was searching for a new form of leadership, and saw it in the former Hollywood star and California Governor, Ronald Reagan. Reagan’s task was to fix an economy that was stuck in a position of rising prices, energy shortages and economic uncertainties that was brought on by the liberal agenda. So Reagan brought to the table a conservative revival that challenged the liberal values of the preceding decades. He also presented to the people, the idea of “supply–side” economics, which entailed large tax cuts to stimulate the economy and at the same time increase tax revenues even with the tax cuts. This strategy was coined the phrase, “Reaganomics,” and in 1983, an economic expansion had begun and continued through Reagan’s presidency. This was done even with the military buildup that totaled approximately 1.5 trillion dollars. Reagan took control of the nation’s economy in many ways. President Reagan deregulated oil prices, proving the conventional wisdom wrong as energy became much cheaper. He launched U.S.-Canadian free trade. He was unyielding in his opposition to the air-traffic controllers’ strike, firing thousands of these government workers and ending the anti-growth union stranglehold on private industry. He created individual retirement accounts and 401(k)s, giving birth to the investor class. He also slashed social spending by reducing domestic program levels by nearly 50 billion in 1981.

References

History, volume 2, 2nd Edition 2012 Text Book, Kevin M Schultz

http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2009/01/3-the-watergate-scandal-top-10-mistakes-by-us-presidents/

Reaganomics Debate. (n.d.). Did Reaganomics Improve the Economy. http://www.youdebate.com/DEBATES/REAGANOMICS.HTM

http://www.ushistory.org/us/59b.asp