The Great Depression

• major causes

Herbert Hoover

• Republican Pres.) elected 1928

• doctrinaire & rigid re govt. meddling in business or welfare

• favored voluntary trade associations; pro-business gov't.

Stock Market Crash (Oct. 29, 1929)

• already Ford laid off 75,000 workers due to no buying power

• led to secondary industry unemployment

• 5,000 banks closed doors in 1930 due to withdrawals

• unemployment rose to 13 million

Herbert Hoover

• alienated Americans, exacerbated

• Cooperative business price & wage control - by business

• Cooperative farmer production control

• charity but no fed. relief

Reconstruction Finance Corp (1932)

• loans to RR, banks, insurance corps.

• Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930) - prohibitive tariff on mfg.

• crippled European exports & debt payments to U.S.

• "Hoovervilles" ramshackle communities of evictees

Repatriation (1931)

• Mexican American citizens & Mexicans deported

• ostensibly draining welfare from "citizens"

"Bonus Army" (1932)

• 200K vets for benefits "bonus"

• Hoover had camp of 2,000 dispersed by L/C MacArthur w/tanks & bayonet

• appalled nation & voters in 1932 election

Dust Bowl

• John Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath (1939)

• tragedy of migrant fruit pickers Okies in California

Election of 1932

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Demo.)

• Gov. of NY, magnetic personality

• polio & crippled, but won public confidence

• promised relief, reform , recovery

New Deal

• no theory, doctrine, or plan

• experimentation, contradictory

• trial and error

• lame duck period - all banks closed

20th Amendment (1933)

• set inauguration on Jan. 20

• 21st Amend. (1933) ended Prohibition

The Hundred Days or The New Deal

• from Mar. 9 to June 16, 1933

• no plan, but no Congress oppostion

Inaugural Address

• reassured, stirred to action, live radio

• “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

• captured hearts

• “fireside chats” explained legislation

FDR’s Initial Acts

• Economy Act

– reduced fed. employee salary 15%

– reduced vet. benefits

– but lowered buying power; error

• Fed. Deposit Ins. Corp. (FDIC)

– guaranteed bank deposits

– ended banker’s holiday

– renewed public confidence

Prevented Future Failures

• Home Owners Loan Corp.

– refinance mortgage, prevent foreclosures

• Federal Securities Act

– fed. govt. regulation of NYSE

– full disclosure of stocks to public

• Civilian Conservation Corps

– reforestation jobs for men 18-25

Nat’l. Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)

• most controversial

• Public Works Admin.

– allowed mfrs. to set prices

– but set min. wages, max hrs.

– collective bargaining

• Nat’l. Recovery Administration (NRA)

– to supervise codes

– failed bcs. mfrs. took advantage

– led to C.I.O. by John L. Lewis

Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)

• May, 1933

• to limit production, subsidize staples

• raise agri. prices to “parity” with indus.

• paid “rental” payments

Ag. Adjustment Admin.

• agents to pay and to manage

• Henry A. Wallace, Director

• destroyed 1933 crops

• 10 mil. A. and slaughtered 200K sows

A.A.A. Significance

• raised prices of staple crops

• wheat, pork, corn, etc.

• drove tenants and sharecroppers off land

• estab. order, stability in agriculture

Tennessee Valley Authority (T.V.A.), May, 1933

• dams, hydroelectric plants, lines

• sell fertilizer, electricity, flood control

• soil and forest conservation

• river navigation and recreation

• National Control, Social Planning

• raised std. of living of mils. of poorest

• estab. “yardstick” std. for elect. rates, eff.

Fed. Emergency Relief Administration, May 1933

• Harry Hopkins, Director (social worker)

• created Civil Works Admin.

• later Works Progress Administration

• spent $Billions to hire 8.5 mil.

• built public roads and buildings

• CWA Projects: Fed. Theater (actors), Fed. Writer’s (books), Art, Youth Administration

Extremist Pressure (1935)

• Sen. “Kingfish”Huey Long (LA)

• demagogue for poor, criticized F.D.R.

Long’s “Share Our Wealth”

• movement had 4.6 mil. members

• confiscate incomes over $5 mil.

• 100% tax over $1 mil.

• annual family income, old-age pension

• ltd. hours of work create more jobs

Fr. Charles Coughlin “Radio Priest”

• said New Deal threatened democracy

• proposed stronger nat’l. govt.

• pension for 60 yrs. age of $200/mo.

• no valid source for tax

Court Challenge to New Deal

• Supreme Court invalidated NIRA in Schecter vs U.S.

• small firms not under interstate comm.

• threatened FDR’s 1936 election

• pressure to abandon pro-business stance

• led to Second New Deal

Second Hundred Days

• (post-June, 1935)

Nat'l Labor Relations Act (The Wagner Act, 1935)

• to strengthen labor

• strengthen collective bargaining & guarantees against mgt.

• created NLRB to supervise unions, mgt., elections

Social Security Act

• old-age insurance

• tax on workers & employers + unemployment insurance

• excluded agricultural & domestic workers, self-employed

Public Utility Holding Co. Act

• (no pyramiding)

• Rural Elect. Act (REA)

FDR’s reaction

• FDR accepted deficit spending

• "undermined foundations" of liberty

• gave him grateful voters for landslide in Election of 1936

• workers, unions, blacks, farmers, elderly, homeowners

• made him powerful President

FDR mistakes weakened him

• Court Packing" bill (1937) Supreme Court threat

• NIRA, Wagner Act, & Social Security being reiewed

• - FDR proposed to increase justices pro-New Deal

• opposed by bar associations, media, public

Sit-Down Strikes

• 1937 series in auto & steel industry

• mgt. forced to concede 40-hr. wk. + wages

• FDR condoned strike violence & force

• CIO grew in rubber, textile, electric indus.

• alienated business & conservatives

Fair Labor Stds. Act (1938)

• abolish child labor

• nat’l. min. wage ($.40/hr.)

• 40 hr./wk., overtime

• alienated conservatives

• improved conditions but not economy

New Deal in Retrospect

• didn’t recover to full empl. w/o mil.

• generation never regined mid. class

• never developed doctrine or stable position

• created vast bureaucracy

• fed. govt. responsible for social welfare

• fed. regulation in stock exch., agri. price, labor, pensions

• neglected minorities, but won their voter loyalty

WWII :

• 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor

• Europe First - One Front (Russia)

• 1942 US & British bomb Ger. war industry

– Russia advances from Lenningrad - Moscow-Stalingrad

– Ike & Patton take N. Africa (Kasserine Pass vs Erwin Rommel)

• 1943 US invades Sicily & Anzio Beach to rome (1944)

– Russians push Germans out of Russia

War

• Hitler’s Blitzkrieg (1939) in Poland, Den, France

• U.S. starts Manhattan Project

• Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941

• Mobilization: 15 mil. , 1 mil blacks

• Economy: gas, rubber, rations, price controls

• Social Change: women, demography, Japanese Americans interned, Hispanics in service

• Baby boom

1944 D-Day (June 6)

• 1 mil. allies at Normandy

– Gen. Geo. S. Patton (3rd Army) from France to Bulge

• 1945 German Counteroffensive Buldge retreats

– US & Russians meet at the Elbe, Ger. surrenders

1943 Tehran Conference (FDR) Stalin committed

• U.S. & Russia allies vs Germany

• Mac Arthur & FDR said Russia fighting America's enemy

Yalta Conference (Feb. '45)

• FDR, Churchill, Stalin

• Soviets annex Poland + promise free elections

• issued call for U.N. Conference at San Francisco in April

United Nations Conf. (Apr. '45) U.N. 50 nations internat'l goodwill/friendship

• General Assembly - 1 seat/nation, for discussion

• Security Council (5 perm. mbrs. US, Russ, Engl, Fr, China)

– plus six temp. elected 2-yr. terms

– seat of authority, to maintain world peace: dipl, econ, mil sanctions

– big power veto of any UN action

• Secretariat (admin.) + Sect. Gen. (exec.) + Councils (IMF, WHO, etc.)

May '45

• Berlin surrenders; April

• FDR dies

Potsdam (Berlin) Conference (July '45)

• Truman, Stalin, Churchill

• agree on Nazi war crime trials, Ger. reparations

• divide Ger. and Berlin into 4 Zones (US, Soviet, Br, and Fr.)

Power Shift

• Truman got A-Bomb news (hardened position)

• Stalin demanded retain Poland "buffer" + no elections

• nat'l. interest, like U.S. Monroe Doctrine

• created U.S. suspicion,

• Soviet resentment (WWII 2nd Front)

U.S. Atomic monopoly

• refusal to destroy or share arsenal

• Soviets dominate Czechoslavakia + Yugoslavia

Cold War: "Containment"

• U.S. policy toward Communism post-1945

• George F. Kennan, Foreign Service Officer, scholar, Soviet historian

• Mr. X, Foreign Affairs (June, 1947) "Soviet Conduct"

Tenets of Containment

• Russians constant aggression diplomacy

• counter force of containment in any quarter of globe

• can win Cold War; "Iron Curtain" mentality

U.S. Policies

• developed and promulgated concept and policy and led to:

Truman Doctrine (1947) U.S. econ. aid to Greece and Turkey

• Communist Yugoslavia aid Greek & Turkish communist civil war

• domino theory, Truman argument to joint session

• Congress appropriated $400 mil. in aid vs Communist infiltration

• first case of mil aid for idealogical grounds

• -democracy vs communism aggression in remote area

• US public + policy becoming rigid

Marshall Plan (1947)

• Geo. Marshall, Sect. State, former Ch. of Staff

• devastation of economy left Europe ripe for Communism

• brilliant success: U.S. aid $13 Bil. > Europe boom

• U.S. trading partner + influence W. Europe "bulwark" vs USSR

• Rise of Br. Labor Party (govt. owns RR, energy, steel, price controls)

Berlin Airlift (1948) USSR blocked E. Germany

• U.S. C-47 and C-54's took food, fuel, meds.

• 2 mil. Berliners

• ended May 1949: demonstrated powerful military + containment

China (1949) "lost" to Communism bcs. no intervention

• “lost” to Communism; no intervention

• Chiang Kai-Shek (Nationalist) vs Mao Tse-Tung (Communist)

• Chiang corrupt, and lost mainland > Taiwan (industrialized)

Japan: (Ally)

• MacArthur, Mil. Gov., “westernized”

• Constitution, universal sufferage, parliamentary govt.

• Free Enterprise, ally, capitalist trading partner

• Edward Deming (industrial guru) "corporate structure"

Korean War (1950)

• Soviet-backed N. Korean attack on S. Korea

• U.S. (MacArthur) led U.N. Inchon landing

• Chinese divisions "human wave" counter-attack

• MacArthur fired for opposing Pres. Truman's policy; truce

• permanantly divided on N-S idealogical lines

McCarthyism

• Second Soviet Red Scare

• fear of nuclear hollocaust

• espionage

• unseen conspiracy

Espionage

• Whittaker Chambers, Time editor, 1948

• accused Alger Hiss, former State Dept. of Communism

• admitted microfilm; 5 yr. prison for perjury

• Julius & Ethel Rosenberg (1950) executed for assisting Soviets with atomic secrets

Anti-Communism hysteria

• loyalty oaths

• “un-American” activities, organizations

• blacklisting

• thousands of Americans fired, harrassed

• John Henry Faulk "Fear on Trial"

Joseph McCarthy (Wis.)

• 1950 til 1954 hearings

• sensational accusations, The BIG LIE, vs Army

• demagogue, finally censured

• Army counsel Joseph Welch

• “Have you no decency, Sir?”

 
Cold War: "Containment" - U.S. policy toward Communism post-1945
1. George F. Kennan, Foreign Service Officer, scholar, Soviet historian
2. Mr. X, Foreign Affairs (June, 1947) "Soviet Conduct"
 - Russians constant aggression diplomacy
 - counter force of containment in any quarter of globe
 - can win Cold War; "Iron Curtain" mentality
SIGN: developed and promulgated concept and policy and led to:
1. Truman Doctrine (1947) U.S. econ. aid to Greece and Turkey
 - Communist Yugoslavia aid Greek & Turkish communist civil war
 - domino theory, Truman argument to joint session
 - Congress appropriated $400 mil. in aid vs Communist infiltration
SIGN: first case of mil aid for idealogical grounds
 - democracy vs communism aggression in remote area
 - US public + policy becoming rigid
2. Marshall Plan (1947) Geo. Marshall, Sect. State, former Ch. of Staff
 - devastation of economy left Europe ripe for Communism
 - brilliant success: U.S. aid $13 Bil. Europe boom
SIGN: U.S. trading partner + influence W. Europe "bulwark" vs USSR
BUT: Rise of Br. Labor Party (govt. owns RR, energy, steel, price controls)
3. Berlin Airlift (1948) USSR blocked E. Germany
 - U.S. C-47 and C-54's took food, fuel, meds.
 - 2 mil. Berliners
 - ended May 1949: demonstrated powerful military + containment
4. China (1949) "lost" to Communism bcs. no intervention
 - Chiang Kai-Shek (Nationalist) vs Mao Tse-Tung (Communist)
 - Chiang corrupt, and lost mainland Taiwan (industrialized)
5. Japan: (Ally) MacArthur mil. governor "westernized"
  - Constitution, universal sufferage, parliamentary govt.
 - Free Enterprise, ally, capitalist trading partner
 - Edward Deming (industrial guru) "corporate structure"
6. Korean War (1950) Soviet-backed N. Korean attack on So. Korea
 - U.S. (MacArthur) led U.N. forces & landing at Inchon
 - Chinese divisions counter-attacked in "human waves"
 - MacArthur fired for opposing Pres. Truman's policy; truce
 SIGN: permenantly divided along idealogical lines N - S
 
McCarthyism - fear of nuclear hollocaust
2. Espionage 
 - Whittaker Chambers, Time magazine editor, 1948
 - accused Alger Hiss, former State Dept. of Communism
 - admitted microfilm; 5 yr. prison
 - Led to anti-Communism hysteria
 - Julius & Ethel Rosenberg (1950) executed
 - for assisting atomic secret to Soviets
 - thousands of Americans fired, harrassed (John Henry Faulk "Fear on Trial"
3. Joseph McCarthy (Wis.) 1950 til 1954 hearings
 - sensational accusations, The BIG LIE, vs Army
 - demagogue
 
Civil Rights
1. Mexican Americans WWII veterans - G.I. Forum
 - LULAC won Delgado v. Texas (1948); Good Neighbor Commission
2. Brown v. Bd. of Education of Topeka (1954) by NAACP
 - rejected Plessy v. Ferguson, led by Thurgood Marshall
 - "separage education facilities inherently unequal"
 - all deliberate speed to integrate
 - led to race riots & resistance
 - Little Rock, Ark. (1957) Eisenhower federalized National Guard
3. John F. Kennedy election of 1960 vs Nixon
 - intelligent, good looks, inspiring
 - mobilized youth, nation; Peace Corps, Viva Kennety, Green Berets
4. Rev. Martin Luther King
 - energized in support of Rosa Parks (1955) Montgomery bus
 - boycott , non-violence, national figure, Nobel Peace Prize '64
 - led to "sit-ins" in 1960 at Woolsworth lunch counters
 - and "freedom rides"
 - white racist violence gained national support and marchers
5. Black Nationalism - Muslims (Elizaj Muhammed)
 - Malcolm X, successful Muslim speaker & author
 
Cuban Missile Crisis
1. Kennedy's 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion failure by CIA
2. 1962 Krushchev announces military equipt., technicians to Cuba
3. Kennedy announces U-2 photos; naval quarantine; full retaliation policy
4. Krushchev withrew missiles
 BUT: Cuba becomes a Soviet puppet
 - U.S. promised not to invade Cuba
 - end of Monroe Doctrine
Civil Rights Act of 1964
1. Kennedy assassinated (Nov. 22, 1962) Dallas by Oswald
2. LBJ passed JFK legislative agenda
- removed barriers (poll tax) to voting
- outlawed racial segregation
- no discrimination on race, sex, religion
- created Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
3. LBJ also had "War on Poverty"
- "Head Start" prep. for elementary + nutritional aid
- Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) - poor schools
- Medicare - fed. hospital insurance for age 65+
 - and fed. grants to states (Medicaid) for under age 65
 
Into the Labyrinth
Three major factors: oil, Soviet Union, Israel
 
Background:
1. Jewish U.S. immigration: 3 mil. bx 1880 - 1920 supported Zionism
2. British Balfour Declaration (1917) to support Palestinian homeland for Jews
3. San Remo Accord (1920) Br. & Fr. to keep U.S. out of Middle East repealed 1928
 - Aramco entered
Kennan's Containment
Truman Doctrine
Potsdam - let 100,000 displaced persons back into Israel
4. League of Nations w/U.S. pressure created Israel in 1947
SIGN: U.S. took over British problem
 
Iran, 
1951 CIA coup overthrew PM Muhammad Mossadeq for Shah Pa
Gamal Abdul Nasser alienated to Soviets
 
 
 
Vietnam War:
Nationalism:
1. Middle East: Israel, Palistine, petroleum-rich Middle East
 - preoccupied with bi-polar view of a polycentric world
2. Latin America: 200 mil. in 1960 (50% rural poor) - Nic., El Salvador, Col.
 - 1.5% oligarchs/family conglomerates owned 65% land
 - Marxist insurgencies erupted in Central and So. America
3. Cuba (1959) Fidel Castro led campesinos vs Batista dictatorship
 - Exiled wealthy families & capitalist corporations
 - became anti-U.S. estab. USSR puppet economy in defiance of U.S. power
4. Kennedy's America seemed to reflect the turmoil and the upheaval:
 - Civil Rights movement - Blacks, Chicanos, women demanded rights
 - Anti- War movement and War Hawks pressured LBJ & Nixon
- U.S. strengthened resolve of unilateral stand vs nationalism movements
 - Charles de Gaulle withdrew from NATO
 - Nasser led Egypt vs Israel (6-Day War 1967) for pro-Arab nationalism
 - Panamanian student riots (1967) vs U.S. sovreignty
 - U.S. Marine invade Dominican Rep. (1966) nationalism violated OAS
5. Kennedy in S.E.A. - consummate "Cold Warrior" failed to see nationalism
 - 1945 Vietnam: U.S. officers on parade stand w/nationalists
 - Ho Chi Minh & Giap defeated French at Diem Ben Phu (1954)
 - Kennedy "escalated" 1961= 600 1963=16,000 LBJ 1968=538K
 - U.S. puppets: Ngo Dinh Diem (CIA coup) & Nguyen Van Thieu
6. LBJ used "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" (1964) justified escalation
 - LBJ 1964 "Peace" election campaign
 - concealed "contingency plans" for bombing North & U.S. combat role
 - Divisive: Hawks ("Domino Theory") vs Doves (napalm, Agent Orange)
BUT: My Lai atrocities (1968) TV exposed American racism & atrocities
 - 1968 Tet Offensive at Hue and villages: VC capacity & U.S. not "winning"
 - minority draftees, casualties Black Power, anti-war movement
 - LBJ (Mar. 68) Clifford report + "Blue Ribbon" Panel "will not accept
SIGN: LBJ withdrew from 1968 election
 - Democratic Convention - Chicago "police riot"
 - RFK assassinated, Nixon & Agnew win
7. Nixon "Vietnamization" builds So. Vietnam & abandons it
 - bombs Cambodia til 1973, bebacle & "peace"
 - split nation's conscience and emotions
SIGN:
 1. Kennan "the most disastrous" war; The longest war
 2. 58k KIA 300k wounded vs 2 mil. Vietnamese
 3. inflation, costs, Great Society
 4. amnesty for draft dodgers
 5. shattered image of elected officials i.e. Presidency
 6. Divided the nation i.e. Kent State (1970) 4 KIA/ D.C. Moratorium
 7. Re-assess "cold war" dominor theory, faith in technology
 8. questioned our own principles of racism, democracy, liberty
 
Watergate (June 1972) CREEP burglary of Watergate for "bugs"
 - James McCord (former FBI) revealed Nixon campaign
- Nixon Lawyer John Dean testified Nixon knew and had tapes
- Senate Watergate Hearings
 - Nixon participated in cover up (tapes of FBI tampering)
 - FBI Director L.Patrick Gray had destroyed documents
 - CIA provided eavesdropping equipt
 - CREEP "plumbers" dirty tricks
 - Nixon's expletive deleted and ignorance
- VP Agnew resigns for IRS fraud
 - Ford appointed VP as replacement
- Nixon resigns for cover up & IRS fraud for 69-72 returns