American politics since 1945

1. The United States at the outcome of World War II and the reasons for its dominance in the Western World.

The United States foreign policy

        At the beginning of 1945 as the allied powers were close to victory in WWII, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill told the House of Commons: “America stands at this moment at the summit of the world”. Indeed, the United States had been the world’s main economic power since the beginning of the 20th century. But until the 1940’s this power had not been accompanied by a recognition of international responsibilities, the war gave this opportunity, in its wake, most Americans considered that they could not isolate themselves from the problems of other nations. Now, they considered their powers as a right to interfere in the affair of other countries.

        The reasons for the dominance of the US at the end of WWII were numerous.

        First, they were economic for ten years. Before the conflict, the USA had remained stuck in a deep economic crisis: The Great Depression, but the war and the massive industrial efforts needed, put the country on the track of growth once again. The new abundance that was created concerned every area in American life and raised the general level of affluence, giving new opportunities for every social class. This general picture was in sharp contrast with Europe, a continent that had been totally devastated by the conflict and was even relying on the United States to boost its economy. The fact that the American territory had not really been hit by the war, was also one of the reasons for American dominance. In July 1944, the Bretton Woods Conference had ended on an agreement concerning a new financial world order with the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which was based in Washington D.C. The American point-of-view dominated during the negotiations proving the growing influence of the US in economy in the Western World.                                                                                        Then, the reasons were military. The Europeans countries were bled white and the contribution of the US to the eventual victory of the Allies had been essential, moreover it was still the only country in the world to possess the atomic bomb that president Harry Truman had used on Japan in August 1945.

        All those factors combined themselves to affirm America’s dominance in the Western World. So, from 1945 onwards, the political decisions taken by the American government did not only concern the US but a large part of the world as well. This is why American domestic and foreign policy are linked, and the key events in each domain would be examined, as one official had said in 1945 “The policy that the American people have supported is the idea that the interests of the USA were worldwide and not confined to North and South America and the Pacific Ocean.”                                                 However, they were strategic reasons as well: after WWII, the Soviet Army had advanced up to Berlin and many European governments along with the USA feared that the sphere of influence of the USSR could extend to the whole of Europe. Because of this, the financial help and the maintaining of US troops in Europe were capital, all the more so as tensions with the Soviet Union began to appear during the post-war negotiations. In 1946, Churchill gave a warning at the University of Fulton in a speech that has become famous, he said “An iron curtain has descended across Europe” meaning that some countries were now under the Soviet sphere of influence. Churchill actually wished America to stay united with Europe in order to discourage the Soviets.

        It was in this atmosphere of tension that the US government took several measures aimed at supporting the Western European powers. On March 12, 1947 president Truman explained in front of Congress his Truman Doctrine. The USA promised support and help to any country threatened by ‘tyranny’ – whatever that meant – and, as a consequence, the government came back on its decision to withdraw its military forces from Europe two years after the end of the conflict. The Doctrine implied that the communist regimes were dictatorships and Truman, who was a convinced anti-communist wished to stop the spreading of this ideology. Then, on June 5, 1947, Secretary of State George Marshall urged a massive American aid programme to rebuild Europe, known as the Marshall Plan, as the Americans believed that Europe’s slow recovery from the war threatened its political stability.

II- The early years of the Cold War

The consequences of the Cold War in domestic policy

The Cold War had multiple consequences and certain events led the two blocks on the brink of an opened conflict. The first event was the Berlin Blockade which lasted from June 1948 to May 1949. After WWII, Germany had been divided into four occupation zones and Belin was in the middle of the Soviet zone. The city itself was also divided into four sectors, and in June 1948, the Soviets blocked every access to the sectors of Berlin controlled by the Western powers. Their goal was to have control over the entire city. But to supply their sectors, the Western powers formed the Berlin Airlift. The CIA did not contemplate the maintaining of peace beyond a few weeks’ time, but eventually thanks to an agreement worked out in the United Nations, the Soviets reopened the city in May 1949 after nearly a year of blockade.

In nuclear research, the McMahon Act was passed in 1946 and forbade information exchange over nuclear secrets. However, three years later, in September 1949, the Soviets succeeded in detonating a nuclear bomb. This meant that the two countries were now on an equal footing and that the US could no longer rely on its exclusive ownership of nuclear weapons. The Cold War took another step forward when the Korean War broke out in 1950. In June 1950, the North Korean forces, backed by the Soviet Army, crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea, five days later, president Truman said that the US was supporting South Korea and sending them naval and air power. But the USA was obliged to send troops as the North Korean forces were more powerful than expected. Under the direction of general MacArthur, the Americans soon gained ground and liberated Seoul in September 1950. But MacArthur made it known to Truman that he wanted to expel the Communists by using the nuclear bomb. Eventually, MacArthur was dismissed in April 1951 and a truce between North and South Korea was signed in November. The Korean War ended a peace treaty in 1953, but the conflict had caused the death of 55,000 US soldiers and also had consequences at home with huge support developed for the soldiers who were sent to Korea.

        The tensions between the USA and the Soviet Union resulted in the will of the Americans to fight communism almost everywhere. But the Cold War also had consequences inside the territory of the United States. In those years there was the fear of an inside enemy and this attitude found its echo in what was known as McCarthyism. The name comes from Joseph McCarthy, a republican senator who launched a national witch hunt against communists in the attempt to discredit the Democratic Party as well. In February 1950, he announced in a press conference that he had “a list of 205 names that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who, nevertheless, are still working in the State Department”. His attitude influenced a great deal of people who did not hesitate to denounce their neighbours or acquaintances under the suspicion that they were communists. McCarthyism fuelled this atmosphere of mistrust in America, which is also known as the Red Scare. In Hollywood, several actors and directors were blacklisted for having ties with communist parties and writers such as Arthur Miller, found themselves in a difficult position, all the more so as McCarthy himself conducted inquiries within the HUAC (House of Un-American Activities Committee). In the late 1950’s, McCarthyism declined, but other facts contributed to reveal the tensions that animated the USA at the time. In 1951, two American citizens: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were convicted of espionage and condemned to death for having revealed atomic secrets to the Soviets, but that was back in 1944 when the Soviet Union was still an ally of the United States. The couple claimed their innocence and despite popular support, their appeal was turned down and they were executed in June 1953.

        So, the Cold War had consequences in domestic and foreign policies, and in 1953, when president Eisenhower took over from Truman, the tensions between the Americans and the Soviets were still high. Eisenhower, a Republican, largely stuck to Truman’s policies, he accepted the need for global vigilance and popularised the Domino theory on 1954 when he expressed his concern that the conquest of Indochina by the communists could result in a disaster for the Western World: “You have a row of dominos set up, if you knock over the first one, what will happen to the last is the certainty that it will go over very quickly”. He repeated that stopping communism must be given absolute priority and he used the CIA as an instrument of foreign policy. The Agency put some foreign leaders on its payroll. Gave money to Labour Unions, newspapers and political parties and even launched covert operations to overthrow hostile regimes when necessary like in Iranin 1953 and Guatemala in 1954.

The troubled 1960’s, part one

The 1960 presidential election

        The 1950’s were a period of prosperity for the USA at home and abroad. But the country in general, had remained quite static during this period, particularly in domestic policy. President Eisenhower somehow personified this trend, and in 1960 he had to step down after two terms. The 1960 election was a battle between Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon, the outgoing vice president. As early as the presidential campaign, there were signs that Kennedy, if he was elected, could open the door to major changes. His programme was called The New Frontier promising a bright future through the use of technical progress. His style was also different and he took advantage of the fact that during the 1960 campaign, presidential debates were broadcasted on television for the first time ever. Before the four debates, Nixon apparently had had an advantage with 7% undecided. But after the debates, Kennedy apparently came out on top with 4% undecided: he had looked more convincing than Nixon, who during the first debate had appeared ill-at-ease. Kennedy was perhaps the first politician to take advantage of the media, but he did not win in a landslide. Indeed, the 1960 election was one of the closest ever and JFK won the popular vote by less than 0.5%. The outcome of the election remained uncertain for long hours, but Kennedy eventually became the second youngest president and the first catholic to hold office. President Kennedy also struck the public opinion during his Inaugural Address with sentences like “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. More importantly, he spoke about new negotiations with the Soviet Union, and there was huge hope in the American population when JFK became president, people actually believed that he could change politics, but the Kennedy presidency was marked by successes and failures. First in foreign policy.