Truman and the post-war years
- Introduction.
- Stimulation of the Black Americans.
- The rising of the wind.
- The Atlantic Charter.
- Cold War and the reasons for its development.
- Bretton Woods Conference.
- Creation of the world bank.
- Post World War 2 issues.
- The American-Soviet relations.
- The European Recovery Plan.
- The 3 versions of the inevitability hypothesis.
- Measures by Truman.
- Conclusion.
- Indicative bibliography.
During and due to the War economy, the American factories had been very active. They bustled with triple shifts. The US had eventually absorbed one of the most severe attacks launched on its values. However the role of the family and women within, it highlighted the uncertainties facing the American society. 6 million women had taken jobs during the War and they wished to carry on working. As one worker put it, "war jobs have uncovered unsuspected abilities in the American women. Why lose all these abilities because of the belief that woman's place is at home? For some it is, for others it is not". This issue stimulated the Black Americans as they moved from the countryside to assembly lines. They found new opportunities and new reasons to be angry and to insist on Freedom, especially as they were confronted with new sorts of jobs related to city life.
[...] Truman and Dean Acheson, who was an influent member of the State Department as early as 1941, and later secretary of state in 1949, argued that the Greek issue was essential. With a typical rhetoric, they spoke about "apples in a barrel which are infected by the corruption of a rotten one" : it meant that corruption of Greece would infect Iran and Africa. "It will also carry infection to Africa through Italy and France, already threatened by the strongest communist party in Europe. [...]
[...] For 16 years since 1929, the USA have been rising, preoccupied with economic disaster and military threat. "Would the new life involve the redistribution of income? Would the USA move toward new measures to correct the old ancient injustices of discriminations based on race and gender?" It was a time of anxiety and fear but it was also a unique moment of opportunity. As for the "state of the world", the relative optimism of the early 1945 vanished very quickly. [...]
[...] From a post 1980 point of view, the historian Melvin Leffler, in a book entitled A preponderance of power and national security: the Truman administration and the Cold War, has shown that the idea was to create a world environment hospitable to the American interests and values. The point is that the Soviets had the same objectives and that it led to the 40 years of Cold War. Even the revisionists have asked the question: "Could the Cold War be adverted or mitigated? [...]