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American Empire (1945-2000) – Joshua B. Freeman
From the end of World War II (WW2) to the start of the 21st^ century, the US was at the peak of its power, economically and militarily but also politically and culturally. This is why we can talk about an “American Empire”, though Americans rarely spoke of empire or imperialism. The US did not seek to conquer territory after WW2, and so its citizens rarely thought of it as an empire. However, empire comes in many forms and involves asserting influence and control over places, people, resources. This political, economic, cultural, and ideological influence can be as important as weapons. In the 55 years between the war and the end of the century many changes characterized the US:
- Population growth.
- Immigration (diversity).
- Technology (that changed the way people lived, worked, and entertained themselves).
- Militarization (Cold War).
- Democratization of society
- Economic changes, etc.
Prologue: E pluribus unum
When the war ended, US regions had distinctive forms of economy, politics, and culture. Americans shared many national experiences (elections, Hollywood, etc.), but their daily experiences were linked to particular places where they lived. Some variations in lifestyle, law, or power structures were related to the differences in physical environment and histories of settlement. The Midwest The Midwest was important for its centrality but also for the size of its population and economic ability /strength, that came from a combination of agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation. o Even after WW2, much of the Midwest remained rural, because rich soil and mechanization made farms very productive. Farm productivity grew during the first decades of the 20th century, but during the Depression, farm income massively dropped. Then, the New Deal and WW2 brought relief, pushing up farm income, even if not all of the rural heartland flourished. For example, the western Plains were too dry, and so many young people left the region. o Manufacturing even surpassed agriculture in the number of workers and the value of the products, and Midwestern manufacturing exceeded all its rivals. In this region there was the Ford Motor Company, that produced automobiles breaking the manufacturing process into small tasks and using assembly lines. This approach was developed by Ford and increased worker productivity, decreasing the need for skilled labour. Fordism became a symbol of modernity and American power. Then, even manufacturers outside of the vehicle industry employed Fordist methods. High productivity, high wages, and low prices created the basis for mass consumerism. European immigrants (and children) made up a large part of the labour force, but even many African Americans went there from the South. o Midwestern cities were not only manufacturing centres, but also financial, marketing, and transportation hubs for their hinterlands.
The Northeast o Manufacturing was even more predominant in the Northeast than in the Midwest but was organized differently: firms were small and produced custom items in small batches. At the end of the war, New York City was the nation’s largest manufacturing centre. o The financial industry was also really important, with New York as the financial capital of the country. Part of the economic power of the Northeast came from its control of money, as the region housed most of the nation’s largest banks and stock exchanges (Wall Street). The men who ran the banks, corporations, and Wall Street formed something similar to a ruling class. o The Northeast’s history of industrialization and urbanization left it with a fully developed infrastructure. The population was concentrated in metropolitan centres, leaving much of the region free for agriculture. Although wealthy and powerful, the Northeast faced uncertainty about its future position at the end of the war, because other regions were developing quicker. So, many members of its ruling elite saw brighter opportunities elsewhere (especially the West). The South o The South was the opposite of the Northeast. Though more populous, it had far less wealth and power. Its main product (cotton) was traded on international market and generated great wealth for the nation, but the South itself remained far poorer than the North. It was in a disadvantageous economic relationship with the rest of the country (quasi-colonial relationship), as the South provided raw materials to the North with little control over its transportation. The South was also characterized by poor roads; low spending on public health that contributed to high levels of infant mortality; low spending on education, and a system of racial oppression. All contributed to its low level of economic advancement. o Southern society remained rooted in the countryside and depended on farming , with cotton. During the Depression many farmers abandoned cotton, and some turned to raising livestock. Labour shortages during WW2 further eroded the cotton economy. However, even at the end of the war, there was still the way of life that had arisen around cotton cultivation: pervasive authority over the lives of workers characterized southern agriculture. o It had a manufacturing sector, but industry tended to be technically unsophisticated. o The system of racial caste remained central to southern life for years because landowners could maintain control over their workers and keep wages low. Only whites were allowed to do many kinds of jobs, and this forced African Americans to take low-wage jobs (raising cotton or unskilled manual labour; while for black women, domestic and farm labour). Racism was not just a southern system but existed as a national way of life; it involved not only the public realm but also the private one: at the end of the war, most states had laws against interracial marriage (until the 1960s). But even if it was everywhere, racism played a more determining role in the South, for reasons of history and social structure: the African American population mostly lived in the South, and the white elite was afraid that under a
Government Until the 20th^ century, Americans had had very limited contact with the federal government, but things began to change thanks to the New Deal. By the 1940s, the government had become involved in everything, with new public works project (school, hospital, etc.) funded by Washington. During Roosevelt’s presidency, the federal government hired millions of unemployed, regulated prices, and rescued the banking system, and Washington established a limited welfare state: o The Social Security Act created a national pension system, unemployment insurance, and welfare programs for the poor. o The National Labor Relations Act ( Wagner Act ) protected the right of workers to join a union and engage in collective bargaining. o The Fair Labor Standards Act established a national minimum wage and limited working hours. Roosevelt even introduced a “second Bill of Rights,” the People’s Program (1944), that called for full employment at fair wages, federal aid to education, health insurance, price control, etc. A new coalition emerged in support of Roosevelt, including immigrants (and families), African Americans, organized labour, farmers, small businessmen, some corporate leaders. However, this New Deal coalition stopped winning major reforms well before the Depression ended. From 1938 on, a stalemate developed in Congress between two blocs: pro-New Deal liberals , largely in the Democratic Party, and anti-New Deal conservatives , which joined Republicans with southern Democrats. With the start of the war, liberals had little success in getting legislation passed, because war necessities pushed politics to the right. Two important bills passed during the years of the war: o The shifting politics could be seen in the fate of the Full Employment Bill (1945). Liberals believed full employment would stimulate economic growth. President Truman backed the Bill, but it faced opposition from business groups and farmers, afraid that full employment would make labour costs go up. The Bill was passed only in 1946, retaining the commitment to government action to ensure full employment, but with few mechanisms to achieve it. o The GI Bill had the greatest impact on the social and physical landscape of the US than any other 1940s law. The Roosevelt administration had proposed a Federal Rehabilitation Service to help both civilian and military disabled, but veterans rejected the measure, arguing that they deserved special treatment, and Congress passed the GI Bill that covered only veterans. This bill gave pay to returning veterans and benefits, including health care, expenses for college, loans to purchase a home or start a business. In contrast to New Deal programs that provided inferior benefits to blacks, the GI Bill treated black and white veterans equally. But in practice, African Americans were less able to use their benefits because colleges would not admit them, business would not sell to them, etc. The GI Bill was also the first federal benefit program to explicitly discriminate against gays and lesbians. So, although it was a successful piece of legislation that prevented a flooding of the labour market and expanded higher education, it also led to a post-war social policy that favoured aid to particular groups. Rights At the end of WW2, the US was not really a democratic country. It had never been a democracy: over its history, political rights had changed, with some groups gaining rights but others losing them.
The rhetoric of the war stressed freedom as characteristic of the US, which made it difficult for the government to ignore undemocratic practices. During the war, Congress had guaranteed the right of all soldiers, regardless of race, to vote without paying a poll tax, and it had also eliminated bars that prevented Asian immigrants from achieving citizenship. African Americans took advantage of wartime conditions to push for equal rights. But wartime advances still left a huge gap between reality and democracy: in the South, poll taxes, literacy tests, and violence didn’t allow blacks to vote, and even Indians faced obstacles. Even when a citizen did get to vote, that might count for very little because of inequities in congressional representation (unequal apportionment). There were also various state norms that limited popular democracy: the right to a fair trial, like the right to vote, often proved illusory in the South, where African Americans were beaten up to force confessions and often received incompetent representation in court or could not sit on juries. Then, the democratic rhetoric of the New Deal and the fight against fascism brought increased investigation to the limitations on the basic rights of Americans. Equal rights for African Americans got finally placed on the national agenda and debated, but actual progress proved very limited. Labour The union movement was central in the postwar years. Unions had rich financial and ideological resources and capacity to mobilize mass action. The postwar strikes derived from disputes between employers and unions over contracts but had broad implications, because labour was battling to establish union power. The Truman administration tried to prevent or end strikes through threats of repression, and so the industrial conflict became political. As the war drew to a close, workers wanted to push up hourly rates. Wartime prosperity had transformed the lives of working-class families, who began to buy cars and houses. Still, workers lived very modestly. The leaders of the CIO ( Congress of Industrial Organizations , a federation of unions) hoped that at the end of the war the government would agree to boost wages and keep price controls. The Truman administration tried, but no consensus was reached, so labour leaders turned to mass demonstrations to preserve their improved living standards. Strikes became common after the war, even because workers became confident about their social centrality: the postwar years represented the peak of blue- collar America (manual labour). Unions expressed the workers’ power. During the war, unionists could say their ideas on production methods and job assignments; but with mass memberships and financial resources, they also did political work for Democratic candidates in some areas. In those places where unions were strong (Northeast-Midwest manufacturing area), they used their strength to win political influence to win benefits for workers. Businessmen did not like the position labour had achieved and fought back in various ways. Companies used all the resources they could to resist them (legal or not), and some won contractual limits related to unions, penalties for unauthorized strikes, etc. The postwar clash between labour and management ended in a draw: workers won wage increase and new benefits (health insurance and pension plans), and companies won stricter limits on bargaining and greater stability, because one-year contracts were replaced by agreements lasting from two to five years. Prices During the war, the OPA (Office of Price Administration) set prices, but when the war ended, it was President Truman who kept price controls in place, because he hoped to check inflation. Business hated price controls, believing they had the right to set the prices for the goods they sold. Business
The American Century In 1941, Henry Luce, in the editorial “The American Century”, argued that Americans “have failed to play their part as a world power.” The US had emerged as the world’s leading economy, with a huge domestic market that allowed it to achieve its wealth with only modest engagement outside its borders. Much of the country was protectionist and hostile to foreign places and people, but the war changed American thinking. Other powers all suffered from loss of life, destruction, economic exhaustion, but the US suffered no significant damage and comparatively few deaths, US industrial production grew, it developed militarily, and American diplomatic influence grew. In post-war negotiations, five great powers played the leading roles: the US, the Soviet Union, Britain (the Big Three), France, and China. Although the US demobilized its armed services after the war, and Truman accelerated demobilization to keep a balanced budget, an internationalist orientation developed within the military and among public figures. They wanted to expand the diplomatic, economic, and military presence of the US throughout the world, especially in Europe and Asia. The US started a new kind of imperialism that did not seek control of territory, but the creation of a world economic, political, and moral system centred on the US. Some people dissented from the emerging consensus in support of a global US role: Republican senator Taft worried about the cost of any grand program of internationalism, believing it would undermine domestic economy. However, the execution of foreign policy was centralized in the executive branch, with policymakers who shared the belief in the superiority of capitalism and internationalism. Even some organizations tried to influence US foreign policy: civil rights and African American groups pressed the government with anticolonialism, and the CIO pushed for an independent role for labour. But such lobbying had only limited success: foreign affairs and the internationalist elite remained immune to popular pressure. International Organization Roosevelt had envisioned achieving safety and prosperity through new international institutions in which the US would play a leading role. o The United Nations , founded in 1945, was to be the main vehicle for settling international disputes, but the main threats to the big powers came from each other. With each of the Big Five able to block UN action by using their veto power, international issues were dealt with outside of the UN itself. However, the UN did play a role that was not central to its planners: promoting human rights. In 1948, it adopted a Universal Declaration of Human Rights (equality before the law). o Allied planners designed another set of institutions meant to regulate international economic relations. In the 1944 conference in Bretton Woods , 44 nations founded the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the World Bank. ▪ The IMF aimed to promote trade by setting up a system to facilitate currency exchange. The dollar became the basis for currency exchange. ▪ The World Bank aimed to aid the reconstruction of nations destroyed by the war. The US controlled both institutions, but neither proved effective. Western European powers tried to rebuild their economies by retaining trade with their colonies and blocking cheap American exports that would undermine home markets. So, the US did not send its aid to Europe through the World Bank, and until the late 1950s the IMF remained inactive.
▪ A third economic organization was ITO (International Trade Organization), meant to encourage and regulate trade, but it never really started. The Wartime Alliance Breaks Down The institutions of postwar world failed to resolve the most important challenges the Allies faced:
- Choose the system of governance that would be put in place in those areas where pre-war regimes had been defeated (French, Dutch, or British possessions).
- Decide what to do about reparations. The Soviet Union and France wanted Germany to pay for the devastation it had caused on them, but the US feared that punitive terms would create economic and political instability.
- After Hiroshima, the control of atomic weapons became another issue. Over all these issues, the alliance began to fracture. In 1945 the Big Three leaders met at Yalta (Soviet Crimea) to settle post-war arrangements. Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt maintained the Big Three alliance by compromising: Germany would be divided into US, British, French and Soviet occupation zones; the Soviet Union got land from eastern Poland; and Stalin agreed to hold free elections. After Yalta, tensions between the US and the Soviet Union began to grow, at first over Eastern Europe. Stalin, in agreeing to hold free elections in Eastern Europe, made Roosevelt believe that the region might be included in an American-led liberal world system. But over time, the Soviet government did whatever it took to prevent hostile regimes from emerging, and the US could not accept Soviet control over Eastern Europe (economic concerns, but especially geopolitics and ideology). Americans were afraid that the Soviets might weaken Western European ties to the US, and they though that the Soviet Union did not care about political self-determination (although the US also tolerated undemocratic practices in zones it influenced, such as Greece). Americans thought that Soviets ignored past agreements, and the American decision to shut the Soviets of key matters like the control of atomic weapons confirmed Soviet suspicions of Western hostility. With President Truman, there was a change in American diplomacy: he spoke favourably of Stalin, worrying that Soviet leaders might block Stalin from working out mutually acceptable arrangements with the US. But then, Truman also assumed a strict position. In 1945, Truman, Stalin, Churchill, and Clement Attlee (new British prime minister) met at Potsdam and worked out an agreement on German reparations. The Soviets got the right to all reparations from their occupation zone, and the conference also agreed to a new border that gave Poland a great deal of German territory. New conflicts arose between the US and Soviet Union over the Near East (Iran and Turkey). o During the war, the US, Britain, and the Soviet Union had agreed to occupy Iran to keep it from coming under German control. After the war, the Soviets tried to win concessions from Iran by encouraging separatist movements. Oil was at the heart of the dispute, because Iran was a major oil producer, and Britain the main beneficiary of its wealth, and it was also near to other oil producers (Saudi Arabia). Both the US and the Soviets wanted oil concessions. When the Soviets occupied Iran, Truman responded to their action insisting that they leave it. Iranian and Soviet governments resolved the crisis by agreeing to a withdrawal of Soviet troops in return for the establishment of a joint oil company, that the Iranian parliament later refused to establish.
the Greek communists were acting under the Soviet’s orders, and they feared a possible Soviet expansion. In reality, Stalin was sticking to an agreement with Churchill to stay out of Greece. Truman needed congressional approval for his aid to Greece and Turkey, and so he described the problems of Greece and Turkey as part of a global struggle between alternative ways of life (Truman Doctrine). In Greece, American officials became involved in shaping every aspect of public life. They even supported violations of civil liberties, and in 1949, the left-wing resistance movement collapsed. The US had launched an European assistance program: the Marshall Plan (from the name of the Secretary of State, 1947 ). European economic recovery was seen as a way to diminish support for the political left, but even economic self-interest came into play (trade with the US). Rather than propose a specific plan, Marshall called on the Europeans to develop a recovery program. The Soviet Union went to the planning meetings for the program but soon walked out, also forcing the Eastern European countries to walk away. The 16 nations that remained developed a program for immediate relief, long-term aid, and increased US investment and trade. At first, the plan faced opposition in the US (huge cost), but the events in Eastern Europe convinced Congress. The Marshall Plan won approval, and with American aid, Western Europe entered a period of unprecedented growth. The US created structures for carrying out its Cold War : Congress passed the National Security Act in 1947, that established the Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) to coordinate military and diplomatic intelligence and undertake actions authorized by another creation, the National Security Council ( NSC ). The CIA got deeply involved in Western European politics, using money and persuasion. The US reached a large national security apparatus. A new conflict developed with the Soviet Union. In 1948, because of Anglo-American pressure, the French agreed to merge the three countries’ occupation zones to create a western Germany, which would be included in the Marshall Plan. The Soviets responded by making travel between western Germany and Berlin (their occupation zone) difficult. There was a long stalemate. Then, the US, Britain, and France finally created a self-governing West Germany. Meanwhile, the US, Canada, and 10 European allies negotiated a self-defence alliance , the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ) to assure the Western Europeans that the US would come to their defence if they were attacked by the Soviet Union or a resurgent Germany.
3. Stalemate in Washington
Liberalism Divided Truman won the 1948 election, especially because of his foreign policy. By the time of the election, liberals had split into two antagonist blocs, who were both defenders of the New Deal but divided over policy towards the Soviet Union and domestic communists.
- The Progressive Citizens of America , that wanted a flexible policy toward the Soviet Union and an extension of the New Deal. They wanted to create a new liberal party without conservative elements. They were even willing to work with the communists.
- Anti-communist liberals were the Americans for Democratic Action , that saw both the Soviet Union and domestic communists as untrustworthy and did not work with them. They were not happy with Truman and tried to recruit General Eisenhower for the role. But in the end, they had to accept Truman as their candidate.
The split in the left-liberal world spread in all organizations, and this especially impacted the CIO (labour). Many CIO activists came to see the communists in their organization as a weakness. In 1948, the treatment of African Americans emerged as a national electoral issue for the first time since Reconstruction. Many blacks had moved to the North, becoming a key electoral constituency. The parties had to win their support. Truman often changed his mind about civil rights, sensitive to pressures but afraid of losing southern support. In 1946, he established a Committee on Civil Rights to come up with recommendations for action and appointed Afro-Americans to important positions. Then, because of the opposition of southern Democrats, he retreated. With the Democrats split and Truman’s popularity low, few people gave him much chance to win. Truman’s Revival The Republicans had problems too in 1948: an isolationist and conservative wing of the party competed with a more internationalist and liberal wing. The heads of these wings, Taft and Dewey, emerged in 1948 as the contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, and Dewey got the nomination. However, Truman ran a successful campaign, adopting an appealing speaking style. He won by holding together the Roosevelt coalition (unions, European immigrants, black voters, farm voters, urban voters), and the Democrats recaptured control of both houses of Congress. No Fair Deal Truman saw almost his entire program of domestic legislation (called Fair Deal ) go down to defeat. It was a liberal program, with proposals to introduce national health insurance and federal aid to education. He did not succeed because of the weakness of congressional liberals and opposition. Truman got through only one major initiative: a housing program for the construction of additional federally financed public housing for the poor.
4. National Security State
In 1950, in western Korea , troops from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Republic of Korea (ROK) started an armed conflict. In the past, the two armies had often fought along the 38th^ parallel, which divided the communist-led north (DPRK) from the conservative-led south (ROK). But this time, North Korea had launched a full-scale invasion and captured the South Korean capital, Seoul, while continuing to advance. US leaders reacted quickly: the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for North Korea’s return to the 38th^ parallel. A second resolution called for UN members to assist South Korea. The Korean War has not become central in American memory in spite of its heavy cost (44.000 US troops died, and many more were wounded). 3 million Koreans (10% of the population) were killed, wounded, or missing. Yet this war had an impact on the development of the US, because it led to an unprecedented militarism that continued after the war (Europe and Asia), and it also strengthened domestic anti-communism (McCarthyism). The Korean War was related to the process of decolonization and the division between communist and capitalist parts. After the Second World War, independence movements succeeded in freeing their countries from European rule: Japanese colonial control of Korea ended, but the country had to be organized as an independent entity. The US and the Soviet Union agreed to jointly occupy Korea, with the Soviets staying north and the US south, but then they failed to come up with a plan for establishing a government for a unified Korea.
national security. The Truman administration introduced in 1947 the Federal Employee Loyalty Program : all new federal employees had to undergo a loyalty check. The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) carried out the investigations. The program covered only federal workers, but the list of suspects of the HUAC was used by other employers in investigations of their own. People were considered security risks for alcoholism, financial irresponsibility, criminal past, homosexuality. Officials in the Truman and Eisenhower administrations thought homosexuality was unacceptable among federal employees because it created opportunities for blackmail. People started to think that the danger of communism was present even in the government (spies). McCarthyism The Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy captured national attention in 1950, when he claimed to have a list of State Department employees with communist affiliations. His accusations led to press coverage, controversy, and investigations. The term McCarthyism became widely used to describe the anti-communist drive. There were proposals to legally restrict communist activity: Congress passed the Internal Security Act , that required communist organizations to register with the federal government; it excluded foreigners who had been affiliated with subversive groups from visiting the US; and it authorized the detention without trial of suspected subversives. Anti-communist became common in both parties (Republicans and Democrats), and it became a weapon business used against labour (many unions were weakened). In the South, anticommunism became a way to block the civil rights movement. McCarthyism went far beyond the issue of communism: people worried as much about atheists, unionists, left-liberals, and homosexuals. The HUAC investigated the entertainment industries and analysed the content of cultural products, and many people were expelled from the industry. Anyone who refused to declare they were not a communist could not work in the movie, radio, or TV industries. Cold War Religion After WW2, in the US there was an increase in churchgoing and public religiosity. This was the opposite of other industrialized nations (secularization). Many Americans believed God had given them a mission to create a model society, and during the Cold War, US foreign policy was formulated with this central idea, portraying the US opposition to communism as divine work. Americans of all faiths assumed that the struggle of the US against the Soviet Union represented a battle between good and evil, with their country acting on God’s side. Ike Most Americans did not like the war in Korea. The lack of strategy in the war, inflation and high taxes diminished support for Truman, who decided not to run again in the 1952 election. Dwight Eisenhower was the Republican candidate. He was popular thanks to his military record. In the campaign, he pledged to make the Korean war end. He became the first Republican president in twenty years. He wanted a smaller government, less involved in regulating the economy and life, transferring some power back to the states. But he did not fully reject the expansion of the federal government that had come with the New Deal. So, some of his main critics were other conservatives, who criticised him over foreign policy, too. He wanted the presidency to retain its dominant role in foreign policy, and this put him in a negative position to conservative Republicans who objected to the priority given to defending Europe.
Stalin died, helping Eisenhower in ending the Korean War. The new Soviet leadership launched a peace initiative: the Soviets and Chinese agreed to end the war, but the US was still unsatisfied with the terms and therefore intensified the air war. But the shock of its allies, and the recognition of the costs of a new offensive, led the administration to change plans. An armistice agreement was signed in July 1953 , that divided the north and the south along the current battle line, giving the south more territory than before the war. A conference in 1954 failed to make progress toward reunification. The “New Look” With the end of the Korean War, the US did not militarily demobilize. Militarism shaped American economic, technological, geographic development. In parts of the country, the military influenced politics and culture. Military leaders and defence industries formed a political force, that Eisenhower called the delta of power. However, the military almost never got involved in electoral politics or government positions. Eisenhower was sceptical of the militarization of American life and fought to reduce military spending: his administration introduced a “ New Look ” military strategy that called for increased dependence on strategic bombing, nuclear weapons, military aid to allies, and covert action (cheaper alternatives to maintaining a massive force). In his farewell address, Eisenhower warned of the dangers of the military-industrial complex , but his program did not eliminate these political and social arrangements. By contrast, the New Look gave power to an elite of scientists and military managers whose activities few Americans could understand (or judge/control). McCarthy Falls, McCarthyism Continues Anticommunism also became less intense with the end of the Korean War but remained pervasive. When McCarthy began going after central institutions of state power, his downfall came quickly. In 1954, his Senate colleagues voted to censure him for inappropriate behaviour. But McCarthyism remained both inside and outside the government (loyalty checks and investigations went on). Congress even passed the Communist Control Act , that denied the Communist Party all legal rights, and the FBI created the Counterintelligence Program , or COINTELPRO, that tried to weaken the communist party through the spread of false information, leaks to the media, etc. Later, the FBI used COINTELPRO to target other movements it disliked, such as the civil rights movement.
PART 2: THE HIGH TIDE OF LIBERAL DEMOCRACY (1954- 1974 )
5. Suburban Nation
During the decades after WW2, the US experienced an extraordinary economic growth that even changed the norms of living. Life expectancy at birth rose; families started to own cars, TVs, washing machines. The greatest transformation took place in the new suburbs. In the 1950s, a way of life developed that became what it meant to be American: racially homogeneous neighbourhoods of single-family homes, automobiles, nuclear families with stay-at-home mothers, and consumption. Suburbanization became the dominant model for development for decades to come. Mass Production The postwar economic boom was in part based on the productivity of American industry, especially the mass production of consumer goods. Many of the facilities the government built during the war
TV provided a new advertising medium to promote mass consumption. So, many goods and services once reserved for the rich (i.e., cars) became widely accessible, although different types of these goods were produced for different economic groups. Suburbanization Suburbanization promoted consumer spending. At the end of WW2, the US faced a huge housing shortage. Returned servicemen and new families found it hard to find decent housing; many lived with friends/relatives or crowded into structures created during the war as temporary shelters. Despite government incentives, postwar housing construction went on slowly because of shortages of materials, inefficient builders, and economic uncertainty. But by the late 1940s, a construction boom started: over 80% of the population growth of the US took place in the suburbs. A desire to escape overcrowded city neighbourhoods fed this suburban growth. Most people moved to the suburbs not in search of a lifestyle, but because there they could find more living space at a price they could afford. Urban houses were impossible to find or too expensive, and therefore suburban homes represented a cheaper, obtainable solution. Federal aid flowed to the suburbs, but not to the cities. However, the government-supported process of suburbanization reinforced the barriers that maintained racially homogeneous communities. Blacks were less likely to relocate to suburbs than were whites, and they lived almost exclusively in all-black communities. Even if federal practice became less racist, segregated housing continued, and whites received a disproportionate amount of loan guarantees. If an African American family did manage to buy a home in white neighborhoods, threats and violence were used to force them to move and discourage others from coming in. A Nation on the Move There were different postwar population movements : rural to urban migration, migration from the South to the North, and Spanish-speaking people to the US. These helped sustain economic growth by bringing workers to expanding areas. Many people left rural areas because of city life and job opportunities. Movies, radio, and TV brought images of city living into every part of the country, but the decline in rural employment opportunities played a more important role. The greatest rural job loss occurred in the South, where cotton cultivation disappeared. White southerners tended to move to the Midwest (factory, transportation, and service jobs). They brought with them an intense religiosity, Protestantism, but they also brought their forms of entertainment, like country music and stock car racing. Yet even with their distinctive cultural orientation, they blended in with the rest of the population in the new communities. African American migrants from the South did not have that luxury, as they generally could find homes only in black neighborhoods. With whites moving out to suburbs, the African American population in the cities shot up. Good jobs were becoming harder to find in northern cities: some were lost to machines, others to new factories built in the suburbs. Manufacturers often found it difficult to get enough land to build efficient plants, and so they started to shift production in other places (decentralization). Nationally, manufacturing employment in the largest cities fell, but in the suburbs it grew. Black southern migrants failed to achieve the same degree of economic mobility and social integration of white migrants. Population went to the North, but it also went to the West (and Southwest). Federal spending supported westward migration, as federal money was used to develop the region. Migration to the West often brought economic mobility. The relocation of poor Americans to more prosperous regions with greater job opportunities contributed to the postwar rise in national income.
After the war, unlike in the past, the number of immigrants who came to the US from elsewhere in America (Canada and Mexico) was the same as the number of immigrants from Europe. Canadian immigrants were English-speaking and culturally close to the white population of the northern US, and so they had little social impact. Mexican immigrants had greater social visibility. They came north to take advantage of job opportunities, especially in agriculture and transportation. The wartime shortage of labour led the US to establish the Bracero (Spanish brazo, arm) program , under which Mexican citizens could enter the US as contract labourers for seasonal agricultural work without facing the military draft. Meant to be temporary, the program remained in place until 1964, because it was a convenient course of cheap labour. On the East Coast, Puerto Rican migration added to the Spanish-speaking population. All these population movements of the postwar years resulted in a resegregation of the country. Whites went to the suburbs, and blacks, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and other minority groups were left to inherit cities with decaying infrastructures, declining employment opportunities, and inadequate housing. In the 1960s, the country was facing an urban crisis. Toward a National Suburban Culture A new national suburban culture emerged, with the car at its heart. Residents of new suburbs initially travelled back to the city for work, shopping, entertainment, but this became less common, as shopping centres, parks, and new churches started to be created there. After the war, shopping areas were created in the middle of parking lots, and the shopping centres were meant to substitute village centres, with post offices, banks, restaurants, etc. Shopping centres soon began to supplant downtown shopping districts. A new set of car-oriented services popped up on suburban roadways. The drive-in restaurant was the purest expression of car culture. The most successful fast-food chains, like McDonald’s, used the techniques of Fordism to keep prices down and volume up. Hotel chains also used franchising to profit from the dominance of the automobile for long and short trips. Churches emerged as key areas of suburban social organization, providing their members with a sense of community. Family Togetherness and Gender Divide Suburbanization also changed class distinction, because people lived side by side, and conviviality characterized this new culture. Many young suburban families did not have parents or relatives living nearby, and so they turned to their neighbours. Suburbanization coincided with an increased emphasis on the importance of family and marriage, that were considered the central sources of personal satisfaction more than ever before. They were mostly nuclear families, and many young couples started a new household distant from the homes in which they grew up. Sex played a more prominent role in marriage than in the past. The postwar years saw an increasing social disapproval for sex outside of marriage, and unmarried pregnancy brought shame, leading to many illegal abortions each year, and to adoption. But within marriage, sex and sexual pleasure were desirable. The ideology of family required different roles for men and women. Families should live only on the wages of a male breadwinner, and women had to stay home: be mothers and wives. Most women who left their jobs did it voluntarily, eager to start families or to escape the hardships of manufacturing work. But many were forced out of their jobs. They also dropped out of college to begin families. Soon, though, they began returning to wage labour, and most of them worked for economic reasons (especially non-whites). Other women took jobs because they enabled their families to afford things like vacations, education, etc. Working
accept the change. Within days, the new city ordinance was ruled illegal. However, 90% of the black riders refused to travel under the old system organizing a boycott, which soon led to a compromise proposal to reserve the two front bus seats for whites, the backseat for blacks, allowing the rest to be filled first come, first served. The protest ended after ten days, revealing a new way of church- based, nonviolent mass action. Such efforts blossomed only after two other events further altered the political climate in the South: a Supreme Court decision, and a terrible murder.
- Brown vs. Board of Education was a decision of the Court related to a NAACP campaign to advance black education by attacking the inequality in schooling offered to whites and blacks. Authorities in the South, worried that the federal courts would find unequal facilities unconstitutional, increased spending on black schools. But by then, the NAACP was arguing that segregated schools were inherently unequal and unconstitutional, and that the only remedy would be desegregation. The case that gave Brown its name was related to a young girl, Linda Brown, who was denied admittance to a white elementary school in Kansas. For the Browns, the main issue was that segregation meant that their daughter had a longer and dangerous trip to school than if she could attend the one nearest to her home. The NAACP introduced an additional issue, contending that segregation had a negative effect on black children. Finally, in 1954 the Court issued a unanimous ruling that in public education separate facilities are inherently unequal and unconstitutional and generate a feeling of inferiority. Unfortunately, the Brown decision did very little to change the racial segregation of public schools, because the resisters predominated. A Southern Manifesto condemned the decision as an abuse of judicial power, and many southern states used anticommunist laws against the civil rights movement. New segregationist laws passed in the South. The federal government had failed to back Brown, and even the Supreme Court itself failed to issue an implementation order for its decision_._ Therefore, very little desegregation occurred.
- The new laws restricted the NAACP, and racial violence rose: the Ku Klux Klan and other organizations blossomed with individual acts of terrorism. A murder took place in 1955 Mississippi: Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Afro-American, was there to spend his summer vacation with relatives, but since he spoke to the wife of a white store owner, he was killed. Shocking pictures were published in the black press. Although the murderers were arrested, the murder spread terror among southern blacks, and also enraged them. There was a mass boycott of buses in Montgomery, and NAACP member and activist Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white rider in violation of state law. Upon hearing of her arrest, Montgomery civil rights advocates started to act. Local black leaders created the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) with Martin Luther King Jr. as its president. He was a Baptist minister new to the city. Initially, activists made modest demands, but after the refusal of city authorities and the bus company to make changes, a short boycott was turned into a battle. They started to insist on complete bus desegregation. The boycott and M. L. King received growing national publicity and support in the North from African Americans, but also from unions and liberal groups. In 1956, the Supreme Court declared laws in Alabama requiring the segregation of buses to be unconstitutional. King and the other activists hoped to use the excitement the event created to launch a new push for civil rights, and so they founded the SCLC ( Southern Christian Leadership Conference ), but lacking money and a strong leadership, it got off to a slow start. Meanwhile, the campaign to desegregate schools remained the main arena of civil rights struggle.
Washington slowly moves The widespread criticism abroad of the oppression of African Americans caused concern in the Eisenhower administration about its impact on support for the country in its contest with the Soviet Union. So, Eisenhower signed the first federal civil rights act to be passed since almost a century. In response to a federal court order, the Little Rock school board came up with a plan for gradual desegregation. Governor Faubus didn’t want integration and sent troops to block black students from entering. When faced with another court order, he left black students with no protection. Huge crowds of white segregationists surrounded the school, and the images reproduced worldwide forced Eisenhower to act. He sent in Army troops and Guards and used them to protect students. Another issue was the admission of new states to the Union, with many movements for statehood in Alaska and Hawaii. Hawaiian statehood was blocked by southern Democrats, uncomfortable with the territory’s racially mixed population and the idea that it might elect an Asian American to Congress. Eisenhower did not want to grant statehood to Alaska until the government was sure it would retain control over large blocks of land for military purposes. But then, he stopped resisting to Alaskan statehood, and Congress passed legislation that gave both territories statehood in 1959. Sitting in In 1960, four black college students went into a store in Greensboro (North Carolina) and sat down at the lunch counter, which was restricted to white customers, asking to be served. Refused, they stayed on their stools until the store closed. Day after day, more and more students went there to sit at the counter, and the sit-in spread to other stores. When asked who they thought they were, members of the football team replied, “ We the Union army ”. The sit-in was unexpected, as civil rights issues had disappeared from the headlines. Greensboro was something new, because the protests quickly gained national publicity and generated a wave of sit-ins in other southern cities. Students played a key role in this, but even the growth of higher education among southern blacks created a new base for civil rights activism. Sit-in demonstrators suffered assaults from white segregationists and arrests, but they remained nonviolent. In the upper South, they won some victories, as local authorities began desegregating lunch counters and other public facilities. Civil rights became a national issue again. Both parties adopted strong civil rights planks in their platforms, because polls showed that black voters did not have a strong preference for one party or the other. The two presidential nominees, Nixon and Kennedy, both had records as moderate supporters of civil rights. However, when King was arrested for taking part in a sit-in, Kennedy’s brother called the judge who had jailed him and urged him to release King on bail, which he did. This helped win over black voters. But the poor state of the economy probably had more to do with the support they gave to Kennedy than the civil rights did.
7. “Hour of Maximum Danger”
Kennedy’s inaugural address almost entirely concerned itself with international affairs. He shared the widespread belief that the greatest challenges of the country lay not at home but abroad. While calling for the Cold War to be waged as total war, Kennedy recognized its costs and dangers. He told the crowd that Americans had the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. But triumph would require subsuming the individual to the national purpose: “ And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country ”.
