With the end of World War II, the United States, along with the USSR, became one of the two world superpowers. The states helped to lift Europe out of ruins, survived the economic and demographic boom. The country has begun the process of rejecting segregation and racial discrimination. At the same time, anti-communist propaganda campaign of Senator McCarthy's supporters unfolded in American society. Nevertheless, despite all the internal and external trials, the country managed to maintain and consolidate its status as the main democracy of the Western world.
New superpower
When a bloody war broke out in Europe in 1939, the US authorities tried to stay away from a large-scale conflict. However, the longer the confrontation lasted, the less opportunities remained for conducting an isolationist policy. Finally, in 1941 there was an attack on Pearl Harbor. The treacherous attack of the Japanese forced Washington to reconsider its plans. So the role of the USA after the Second World War was determined in advance. American society rallied in a “crusade” of the 20th century, whose goal was to defeat the Nazis and their allies.
The Third Reich was defeated, leaving Europe in ruins. The paramount economic and political importance of the Old World (primarily Britain and France) was shaken. The USA after the Second World War occupied a vacant niche. In all respects, the country, relatively weakly affected by the horrors of recent years, has deservedly become considered a superpower.
The Marshall Plan
In 1948, the “European Recovery Program” proposed by the US Secretary of State George Marshall began to operate, also called the “Marshall Plan”. Its goal was economic assistance to countries in devastated Europe. Through this program, the United States after World War II not only supported its allies, but also consolidated its dominant status in the Western world.
Money to rebuild industry and other important infrastructure was allocated to 17 countries. The Americans offered their assistance to the socialist states of Eastern Europe, but under pressure from the Soviet Union they refused to participate in the program. In a special manner, money was provided to West Germany. American funds came to this country along with the parallel levy of indemnity for previous crimes of the Nazi regime.
The growth of contradictions with the USSR
In the USSR, the “Marshall Plan” was treated negatively, believing that with the help of it the USA after the Second World War puts pressure on the Soviet Union. A similar point of view was common in the West. It was followed, among others, by the former American vice president Henry Wallace, who criticized the program of assistance to Europe.
Every year, the growing confrontation between the USSR and the USA became more acute. The powers that stood on one side of the barricades in the fight against the Nazi threat now themselves began to openly quarrel. Affected contradictions between communist and democratic ideologies. After World War II, Western Europe and the United States created the NATO military alliance, and Eastern Europe and the USSR created the Warsaw Pact Organization.
Internal problems
US internal development after the Second World War was accompanied by contradictions. The fight against Nazi evil rallied society for several years and made it forget about its own problems. However, almost immediately after the victory, these difficulties reappeared. First of all, they were related to ethnic minorities.
US social policy after the Second World War changed the former way of life of the Indians. In 1949, the authorities abandoned the previous Law on Self-Determination. Reservations in the past. Assimilation with the community of Native Americans has accelerated. Often, Indians moved to cities under pressure. Many of them did not want to abandon the lifestyle of their ancestors, but they had to give up their principles because of a radically changed country.
Combating segregation
The problem of the relationship between the white majority and the black minority remained acute. Segregation persisted. In 1948, she was canceled in the Air Force. During World War II, many African-Americans served in aviation and became famous for their amazing exploits. Now they could repay their homeland in the same conditions as the whites.
The year 1954 granted the States another important public victory. Thanks to a long overdue Supreme Court decision, US history after World War II was marked by the abolition of separate education in schools on a racial basis. Then Congress officially confirmed the status of citizens for blacks. Gradually, the United States embarked on a path leading to a complete rejection of segregation and discrimination. This process was completed in the 1960s.
Economy
The accelerated economic development of the United States after World War II led to an unprecedented economic boom, which is sometimes called the "golden age of capitalism." It was caused by several reasons, such as the crisis in Europe. Period 1945-1952 also considered the Keynes era (John Keynes - the author of the famous economic theory, according to the covenants of which the United States lived in those years).
Through the efforts of the United States, the Bretton Woods system was created. Its institutions facilitated international trade and allowed the implementation of the Marshall Plan (the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, etc.). The economic boom in the United States led to a baby boom - a population explosion, as a result of which the population of the whole country began to grow rapidly.
The beginning of the cold war
In 1946, while on a private visit to the United States, the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a famous speech in which he called the USSR and communism threats to the Western world. Today, historians consider this event the beginning of the Cold War. In the States, Harry Truman became president at that time. He, like Churchill, believed that with the USSR it was necessary to adhere to a rigid line of behavior. During his presidency (1946-1953), the division of the world between two opposing political systems was finally entrenched.
Truman became the author of the “Truman Doctrine,” according to which the Cold War was a confrontation between the democratic American and totalitarian Soviet systems. Germany was the first real bone of contention for the two superpowers. By decision of the United States, West Berlin was included in the Marshall Plan. The USSR responded by blocking the city. The crisis continued until 1949. As a result, East Germany was created in East Germany.
Then began a new round of the arms race. After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there were no more attempts to use nuclear warheads in wars - they stopped after the first. The Second World War, the United States was enough to realize the lethality of new missiles. However, the arms race has already started. In 1949, the USSR tested a nuclear bomb, and a little later - a hydrogen bomb. The Americans lost their arms monopoly.
Mccarthyism
With the deterioration of relations in both the USSR and the USA, propaganda campaigns were launched to create the image of a new enemy. The Red Threat has become the agenda for millions of Americans. The most ardent anti-communist was Senator Joseph McCarthy. He accused many high-ranking politicians and public figures of sympathy for the Soviet Union. McCarthy's paranoid rhetoric was quickly picked up by the media.
After the Second World War, the United States, in short, survived anti-communist hysteria, the victims of which were people who were very far from leftist views. McCarthy blamed traitors for all the troubles of American society. They were attacked by trade unions and supporters of negotiations with the socialist bloc. Although Truman was a critic of the USSR, he differed from McCarthy in more liberal views. Republican Dwight Eisenhower became close to the scandalous senator, who won the next presidential election in 1952.
Many figures of science and culture became victims of the McCarthyists: composer Leonard Bernstein, physicist David Bom, actress Lee Grant, etc. Communist spouses Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for espionage. The propaganda campaign to search for internal enemies, however, soon drowned. At the end of 1954, McCarthy was dismissed.
Caribbean crisis
France, Great Britain, the USA after the Second World War, together with other Western countries created the NATO military bloc. Soon, these countries came out in support of South Korea in its struggle against the Communists. The latter, in turn, was helped by the USSR and China. The Korean War lasted from 1950-1953. This was the first armed peak of the confrontation between the two world political systems.
In 1959, a revolution occurred in neighboring Cuba. Communists came to power on the island, led by Fidel Castro. Cuba enjoyed the economic support of the USSR. Moreover, Soviet nuclear weapons were deployed on the island. Its appearance near the United States led to the Caribbean crisis - the climax of the Cold War, when the world was on the verge of new nuclear bombing. Then, in 1962, the American president John F. Kennedy and the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev managed to agree and not aggravate the situation. The fork was completed. A policy of gradual detente has begun.