The most vigorous anti-Commu-
ity, President Truman established a nist warrior was Senator Joseph R .
Federal Employee Loyalty Program . McCarthy, a Republican from Wis-
It had little impact on the lives of consin . He gained national attention
most civil servants, but a few hun- in 1950 by claiming that he had a list
dred were dismissed, some unfairly . of 205 known Communists in the
In 1947 the House Committee State Department . Though McCar-
on Un-American Activities investi- thy subsequently changed this figure
gated the motion-picture industry several times and failed to substan-
to determine whether Communist tiate any of his charges, he struck a
sentiments were being reflected in responsive public chord .
popular films . When some writers
McCarthy gained power when
(who happened to be secret mem- the Republican Party won control
bers of the Communist Party) re- of the Senate in 1952 . As a commit-
fused to testify, they were cited for tee chairman, he now had a forum
contempt and sent to prison . After for his crusade . Relying on exten-
that, the film companies refused to sive press and television coverage,
hire anyone with a marginally ques- he continued to search for treachery
tionable past .
among second-level officials in the
In 1948, Alger Hiss, who had Eisenhower administration . Enjoy-
been an assistant secretary of state ing the role of a tough guy doing
and an adviser to Roosevelt at Yal- dirty but necessary work, he pursued
ta, was publicly accused of being presumed Communists with vigor .
a Communist spy by Whittaker
McCarthy overstepped himself
Chambers, a former Soviet agent . by challenging the U .S . Army when
Hiss denied the accusation, but in one of his assistants was drafted .
1950 he was convicted of perjury . Television brought the hearings into
Subsequent evidence indicates that millions of homes . Many Ameri-
he was indeed guilty .
cans saw McCarthy’s savage tactics
In 1949 the Soviet Union shocked for the first time, and public sup-
Americans by testing its own atomic port began to wane . The Republican
bomb . In 1950, the government un- Party, which had found McCarthy
covered a British-American spy net- useful in challenging a Democratic
work that transferred to the Soviet administration when Truman was
Union materials about the develop- president, began to see him as an
ment of the atomic bomb . Two of embarrassment . The Senate finally
its operatives, Julius Rosenberg and condemned him for his conduct .
his wife Ethel, were sentenced to
McCarthy in many ways repre-
death . Attorney General J . Howard sented the worst domestic excesses
McGrath declared there were many of the Cold War . As Americans re-
American Communists, each bear- pudiated him, it became natural
ing “the germ of death for society .”
for many to assume that the Com-
266
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
munist threat at home and abroad 1950s another wave occurred . Fran-
had been grossly overblown . As the chise operations like McDonald’s
country moved into the 1960s, anti- fast-food restaurants allowed small
Communism became increasingly entrepreneurs to make themselves
suspect, especially among intellectu- part of large, efficient enterprises .
als and opinion-shapers .
Big American corporations also de-
veloped holdings overseas, where la-
THE POSTWAR ECONOMY:
bor costs were often lower .
1945-1960
Workers found their own lives
I
changing as industrial America
n the decade and a half after changed . Fewer workers produced
World War II, the United States ex- goods; more provided services . As
perienced phenomenal economic early as 1956 a majority of employ-
growth and consolidated its position ees held white-collar jobs, working
as the world’s richest country . Gross as managers, teachers, salesper-
national product (GNP), a measure sons, and office operatives . Some
of all goods and services produced firms granted a guaranteed annual
in the United States, jumped from wage, long-term employment con-
about $200,000-million in 1940 to tracts, and other benefits . With such
$300,000-million in 1950 to more changes, labor militancy was under-
than $500,000-million in 1960 . mined and some class distinctions
More and more Americans now began to fade .
considered themselves part of the
Farmers — at least those with
middle class .
small operations — faced tough
The growth had different sourc- times . Gains in productivity led
es . The economic stimulus provided to agricultural consolidation, and
by large-scale public spending for farming became a big business .
World War II helped get it started . More and more family farmers left
Two basic middle-class needs did the land .
much to keep it going . The number
Other Americans moved too .
of automobiles produced annually The West and the Southwest grew
quadrupled between 1946 and 1955 . with increasing rapidity, a trend that
A housing boom, stimulated in part would continue through the end
by easily affordable mortgages for of the century . Sun Belt cities like
returning servicemen, fueled the
Houston, Texas; Miami, Florida; Al-
expansion . The rise in defense buquerque, New Mexico; and Phoe-
spending as the Cold War escalated nix, Arizona, expanded rapidly . Los
also played a part .
Angeles, California, moved ahead of
After 1945 the major corporations Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the
in America grew even larger . There third largest U .S . city and then sur-
had been earlier waves of mergers in passed Chicago, metropolis of the
the 1890s and in the 1920s; in the Midwest . The 1970 census showed
267