1. Regulating capitalism:The Progressive Era, 1901-1914

2. Creating a safety net:The New Deal, 1933-1938

3. A more equal nation:

The Great Society, 1964-

1968

Age of Reaction: 1980-2008

4. A fourth age of reform?

The GI Bill, 1944-1955• 4,300,000 home loans to

veterans (worth 33 billion dollars)

• 8 million veterans went back to school with a GI bill

scholarship• 14.5 billion dollars in

federal money going to the nation’s schools and

colleges• 50 billion in direct or

indirect subsidies to the American people

• 1/3 of the population received some sort of

benefit from the GI Bill

FDR’s Four Freedoms speech, via Norman Rockwell, January 6, 1941

The Yalta Conference, 1945

• In exchange the U.S.S.R. will

declare war on Japan

• and hold free elections in

Poland.

• The U.S.S.R. will get three votes in the United Nations General Assembly

1939: Einstein and Szilard warn Roosevelt about Nazi research on Atomic weapons

August 6 and 9, 1945: Atomic weapons used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Concerns about the Bomb:

Teller: Demonstrate the Bomb first.

Eisenhower: Bomb a bad precedent.

Office of Strategic Bombing: Japan would surrender even without using the Bomb.

Nuclear weapons plans (1946)• Acheson-Lilienthal Plan:

– UN would control atomic energy

– And stockpile weapons until UN plan set up

• Baruch Plan:– International agency would

inspect countries to prevent production of nuclear weapons

– Countries that did not have nuclear weapons could not develop them

– Agency’s decisions would be immune to veto power from UN Security Council or General Assembly

Marshall Islands Bikini Atoll tests of 1940s; 23 nuclear devices were exploded in the area.

The Truman Doctrine (1947)

• Massive military aid to all governments fighting communism

• 400 million dollars in military aid for Greece and Turkey

George Kennan’s “containment” thesis, 1946

• Stalin opposes west in to justify his dictatorship

• Soviet Union must be “contained by the adroit and vigilant application of counterforce at a series of constantly shifting geographical points . . . ”

• U.S. must show that it has a better system for prosperity

Walter Lippmann: “The Cold War” (1947)

• “Containment” basically puts the strategic ball in the Soviet Union’s court

• It will force the U.S. to place all its resources against Russia

• U.S. should focus on Russia’s presence in Eastern Europe, not the whole world

The Marshall Plan, 1947• Massive aid to Europe to

strengthen European consumer markets; reduce influence of Communism

• “ . . . the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.”

• 1946-1952: U.S. exports to Europe jump from 9.5 to 15 billion dollars

• 1960: U.S. corporations have 32 billion dollars invested in Europe

Breton-Woods conference, 1944

• The World Bank– Purpose: to lend

money to developing nations for projects that would return investments to the First World

• The International Monetary Fund– Purpose: Oversee

international currency and exchange systems

The Berlin Airlift, 1948-49

U.S. flies supplies to Berlin in defiance of Soviet blockade

West Germany declares itself parliamentary democracy.

Soviets set up German Democratic Republic in the east.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization established in 1949: ten nations establish mutual aid pact Communist East

NSC-68 (National Security Council document # 68),

1950• U.S. and the Soviet Union locked

in struggle for world power• Soviets want world domination• Conflict between the superpowers

“endemic” . . . like a disease, inherent

• Soviets can only be stopped by military buildup

• Soviet people only support the communists out of fear; once the U.S. shows strength, the Russian people will overthrow communism

Syngman Rhee of South Korea

Kim Il Sung of North Korea

The Yalu River from aerial View

U.S. retreat from the Yalu River, 1950

Korean War, 1950-1953