Contextualizing Period 8 in two minutes
- American and Soviet soldiers met at the Elbe on April 25, 1945; the Soviet Union had lost about 27 million people, and Stalin wanted a buffer of friendly governments in eastern Europe.
- The United States ended the war with unbombed cities and close to half the world's factory output, and it alone had the atomic bomb until the Soviets tested one in 1949.
- At Bretton Woods in 1944, 44 nations designed the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and the United Nations began in 1945, as planners believed open trade would keep the peace.
- The GI Bill of 1944 paid for veterans' schooling and backed their mortgages, and despite fears that the Depression would return, the economy grew for most of the next 25 years.
- For 35 years the Cold War shaped where Americans lived, what schools taught and how much power Washington held, and it gave civil rights activists an argument against Jim Crow.
- Liberal faith in federal power to solve social problems peaked in the mid-1960s with civil rights laws and the Great Society, then drew fire from the New Left and the New Right.
- On the exam: Period 8 prompts ask you to place events from 1945 to 1980 in the context of the Cold War, postwar prosperity and the fight for rights.
Topic 8.1 key terms
- Grand Alliance
The wartime partnership of the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany. A shared enemy held it together, and it began to strain as that enemy collapsed.
- Lend-Lease
The U.S. program, begun in 1941, that sent Britain, the Soviet Union and other Allies weapons, trucks, fuel and food without payment up front. About $11 billion went to the Soviet Union. Washington ended it in May 1945, days after Germany surrendered.
- Superpower
A nation strong enough to shape events across the whole world. After 1945 only two qualified, the United States and the Soviet Union, and each read the other's strength as a threat.
- Cold War
The long rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, from about 1945 to 1991. It was fought through alliances, spies, arms races and proxy wars instead of a direct war between the two superpowers.
- GI Bill (1944)
Federal law giving veterans college and job-training money and government-backed home loans. In practice, local banks, colleges and officials often denied Black veterans the same benefits.
- U.S.-Japanese security treaties (1951)
Treaties that ended the U.S. occupation of Japan but kept American troops on bases there. Japan became a strong ally under the American shield.
- United Nations (1945)
Every member has a seat in the General Assembly. Five permanent members of the Security Council (U.S., USSR, Britain, France, China) each hold a veto.
- Bretton Woods system
The 1944 plan that created the IMF and the World Bank and fixed exchange rates to the U.S. dollar, which could be exchanged for gold at $35 an ounce.
Transcript
Quotes are from the historical record and name their source. Lines marked Dramatized are reconstructions.
Elbe Day
April 25, 1945
Key terms: Grand Alliance, Lend-Lease, Superpower, Cold War
April 25, 1945 Torgau, Germany · on the Elbe River
Adolf Hitler had five days to live. Two armies were closing on what was left of his Germany, one from the west, one from the east.
Lieutenant William Robertson painted a flag on a bedsheet so the Soviets would know who he was. They shot at it anyway. Then they worked it out.
Then soldiers from both armies climbed out along the wrecked bridge and met.
Hardly anyone shared a language. So they traded.
The famous photo of the handshake came the next day. They shook hands again for the cameras.
Just over three years later, these two armies were squared off over Berlin.
Then Korea.
In 1962, their leaders came closer to nuclear war than anyone ever has.
How did a handshake turn into a standoff? Stranger still, that standoff never became the war people feared.
Top of the World
1945
Key terms: GI Bill (1944), U.S.-Japanese security treaties (1951), United Nations (1945), Bretton Woods system
In 1945, the United States was the only great power whose cities hadn't been bombed.
It made close to half of everything the world's factories produced. And for four years, it would be the only country with an atomic bomb.
About twelve million Americans were in uniform, and nearly all of them wanted to come home. The GI Bill paid for their schooling and backed their mortgages.
Black veterans came home to the same Jim Crow laws they had left. Many decided they would not live under them much longer.
Economists warned that without war spending, the Depression might come back. Instead, the economy grew for most of the next twenty-five years.
The Soviet Union had won too, at a cost of about twenty-seven million lives. Its western cities were rubble. Its army stood across half of Europe.
At Yalta, Stalin had promised free elections in Poland. What 'free' meant was left for later.
Washington's plan for the peace was built on institutions.
At Bretton Woods, 44 nations designed the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. American planners believed open trade would keep the peace, and keep American factories busy.
For the next 35 years, the contest with the Soviet Union shaped nearly everything else. Where Americans lived. What their schools taught. It even handed the civil rights movement an argument: the world was watching. And it started a long fight over how much power Washington should have.
On V-E Day, thousands of Muscovites cheered outside the American embassy. The friendship had about a year left.