“We must build a new world,
a far better world —
one in which the
eternal dignity of man
is respected.”
President Harry S. Truman, 1945
CONSENSUS AND CHANGE
the growth of government author-
T
ity and accepted the outlines of the
he United States dominated glob- rudimentary welfare state first for-
al affairs in the years immediately mulated during the New Deal . They
after World War II . Victorious in enjoyed a postwar prosperity that
that great struggle, its homeland created new levels of affluence .
undamaged from the ravages of
But gradually some began to
war, the nation was confident of its question dominant assumptions .
mission at home and abroad . U .S . Challenges on a variety of fronts
leaders wanted to maintain the dem- shattered the consensus . In the
ocratic structure they had defended 1950s, African Americans launched
at tremendous cost and to share the a crusade, joined later by other mi-
benefits of prosperity as widely as nority groups and women, for a larg-
possible . For them, as for publisher er share of the American dream . In
Henry Luce of Time magazine, this the 1960s, politically active students was the “American Century .”
protested the nation’s role abroad,
For 20 years most Americans re- particularly in the corrosive war in
mained sure of this confident ap- Vietnam . A youth counterculture
proach . They accepted the need emerged to challenge the status quo .
for a strong stance against the So- Americans from many walks of life
viet Union in the Cold War that sought to establish a new social and
unfolded after 1945 . They endorsed political equilibrium .
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OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
COLD WAR AIMS
(1929-40), America now advocated
T
open trade for two reasons: to cre-
he Cold War was the most im- ate markets for American agricul-
portant political and diplomatic is- tural and industrial products, and
sue of the early postwar period . It to ensure the ability of Western Eu-
grew out of longstanding disagree- ropean nations to export as a means
ments between the Soviet Union and of rebuilding their economies . Re-
the United States that developed af- duced trade barriers, American
ter the Russian Revolution of 1917 . policy makers believed, would pro-
The Soviet Communist Party un- mote economic growth at home and
der V .I . Lenin considered itself the abroad, bolstering U .S . friends and
spearhead of an international move- allies in the process .
ment that would replace the exist-
The Soviet Union had its own
ing political orders in the West, and agenda . The Russian historical tra-
indeed throughout the world . In dition of centralized, autocratic
1918 American troops participated government contrasted with the
in the Allied intervention in Russia American emphasis on democracy .
on behalf of anti-Bolshevik forces . Marxist-Leninist ideology had been
American diplomatic recognition of downplayed during the war but still
the Soviet Union did not come until guided Soviet policy . Devastated by
1933 . Even then, suspicions persist- the struggle in which 20 million
ed . During World War II, however, Soviet citizens had died, the Soviet
the two countries found themselves Union was intent on rebuilding and
allied and downplayed their differ- on protecting itself from another
ences to counter the Nazi threat .
such terrible conflict . The Soviets
At the war’s end, antagonisms were particularly concerned about
surfaced again . The United States another invasion of their territo-
hoped to share with other countries ry from the west . Having repelled
its conception of liberty, equality, Hitler’s thrust, they were determined
and democracy . It sought also to to preclude another such attack .
learn from the perceived mistakes of They demanded “defensible” bor-
the post-WWI era, when American ders and “friendly” regimes in East-
political disengagement and eco- ern Europe and seemingly equated
nomic protectionism were thought both with the spread of Commu-
to have contributed to the rise of dic- nism, regardless of the wishes of
tatorships in Europe and elsewhere . native populations . However, the
Faced again with a postwar world United States had declared that one
of civil wars and disintegrating of its war aims was the restoration
empires, the nation hoped to pro- of independence and self-govern-
vide the stability to make peaceful ment to Poland, Czechoslovakia,
reconstruction possible . Recalling and the other countries of Central
the specter of the Great Depression and Eastern Europe .
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