Practice in Class OPVL

Origin -

• Speech so it is a primary source - straight from the speakers mouth
• Given by Churchill (former Prime Minister of Great Britain)
• March 5, 1946

Purpose -

• Tell Americans that they need the US alliance - didn't want to be all alone
• To spread the ideas of the "iron curtain" - making America know about this threat
• To show future generations that we can't live with a divided world that this "iron curtain" is putting us in

Value -

• Clear expectation of what Great Britain wants
• Hearing from someone very important to Great Britain
• Real implications - primary source

Limitations -

• Is this what the British Government really wants?
• We don't have the Soviet side of the argument
• What are his private thoughts about this topic?

Korean War and 1950s Class Notes

• June 25, 1950 - North Koreans crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea
• Each section believed The Koreas should be one Union under lead of each of their leaders
• Truman assumes this is a "Soviet-backed" attack
• Security Council (elite body within UN) decides to assist South Korea

The War

• American soldiers take heavy casualties, pushed down Korean peninsula
• Lead advance into North Korea (capturing Pyongyang)
• China goes into war on side of North Korea (pushed American troops back across 38th parallel)
• MacArthur called for land attack on China (alludes to Nuclear attacks on Korea)
• MacArthur is fired in April, 1951
• Armistice talks begin in 1951 (still cannot agree and fighting/dying continues for 2 years)

Fear of Communism in America

• Fear taking over America (fallout shelters made and duck and cover drills)
• House of Un-American Activities Committee leads charge against "communist threats from within"
• HUAC starts investigating Hollywood (communist suspicion by Government)
• Alger Hiss Case - lying to the court about sending papers to a Communist spy
• Robert Nixon urged for Hiss to be indicted for espionage
• "red-baiting become common" - using attack and spreading fear of other political parties
• 1954 the Communist Control Act was passed (made membership to the Communist Party Illegal?)

Senator Joseph McCarthy

• Becomes head of "witch-hunt"
• Claimed the state is crawling with communists
• Claimed to have also had a list of 205 communists in the department
• His main targets were democrats associated with the New Deal (Truman and Dean Acheson are "dangerous liberals")
• President Eisenhower feared McCarthy would split the Republican Party
• Starts to look like a bully and the public starts to doubt him and they get a chance to see abuse of witnesses
• 1954 Senate finally condemns McCarthy in a 67-22 vote
• Dies soon after in 1957 probably from alcohol and exhaustion

Ike's Political Philosophy

• "Dynamic Conservation"
• Believer in delegation
• Criticized for this because he often seemed uninformed and he was always at the gold course
• Era of conformity and consensus
• Took different anti-communist actions