Chapter 27: Postwar America
1946-1952

     I. Reconversion: Two Problems
          A. Domestic: Economy
               1. Veterans return
                    a. GI Bill
                2. Search for emotional and material security
                    a. baby boom
                    b. suburbia 
          B. Foreign: The Soviet Threat
               1. U.S.-Soviet relations deteriorate after war
                   a. "Containment" plan set into motion
                   b. Truman Doctrine
               2. Marshall Plan
               3. National Security Act of 1947

     II. The Buck Stops Here (Truman in the White House)
          A. Another Red Scare
          B. 1947-48
               1. Breaking the color line
               2. Recognition of Israel
               3. Berlin divided
               4. Election 

     III. Trouble in Asia
          A. China falls to Communism
          B. Korean War

     IV. McCarthyism
          A. Election of 1952

Key Terms

     Serviceman's Readjustment Act
     baby boom
     William Levitt
     containment
     Iron Curtain
     Cold War
     Truman Doctrine
     Marshall Plan
     National Security Act of 1947
     National Security Council
     Central Intelligence Agency
     HUAC
     Hollywood Ten
     blacklisted
     Jackie Robinson
     NATO
     NSC 68
     38th parallel
     Senator Joseph McCarthy
     General Dwight David Eisenhower
     Richard Nixon
     Checkers Speech

Study Questions

     1. Describe life in America in the months and years after the end of World War II, especially in regard to returning servicemen.  What were their immediate problems and how were their prospects for the future?

     2. Define the concept of containment and explain how the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan are examples of that theory in action.  What events made such ideas necessary?

     3. Explain the threats to reelection that Truman faced in 1948, and account for his unexpected win.

     4. What events occurring overseas caused Americans to become more afraid of a communist menace during the late 1949s?

     5. How did life in America change during the post-war era?  Explain your answer in terms of "affluence and anxiety".