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Cold War in the Pacific and at Home · Saberian History Lectures

0:00
Okay, wires on. So we left off with the rise
0:05
of the Truman Doctrine. Now the Truman Doctrine
0:07
was the idea that the United States would prevent
0:11
the spread of communism by supporting free peoples
0:14
who were resisting subjugation by armed minorities
0:19
or by outside pressures. Armed minorities would
0:21
be communist parties in their own countries,
0:24
outside pressures would be the Soviet Union.
0:28
And primarily, they were looking at Turkey and
0:33
Greece in particular. And all of this goes back
0:37
to an idea that had been circulating in American
0:40
political circles called the domino theory. Now,
0:44
what the domino theory is, it's not about matching
0:47
numbers on the little domino, but rather if I
0:50
have dominoes that stand. How many of you have
0:53
seen dominoes stood up and then you knock them
0:55
down and it's really cool how it has that nice
0:57
waterfall effect? And so the domino theory was
1:00
that if Turkey, or rather if Greece were to fall,
1:06
then Turkey would fall and then the Middle East
1:09
would fall. That one country after another, after
1:13
another, after another would fall to communism.
1:16
Okay, so Greece, Turkey, and then the Middle
1:20
East. Now, there was another extension of the
1:25
domino theory which precipitated America's involvement
1:28
in Indochina, which is now Vietnam, but there
1:31
was a worry that if Korea fell to communism,
1:35
then... It would lead to Japan falling under
1:38
communist influence. And then also you saw it
1:41
in Vietnam. If Vietnam were to fall to communism,
1:44
that then Laos, Cambodia, etc. And so when we
1:51
talk about the domino theory, the domino theory
1:54
isn't that necessarily... isn't tied to a region,
1:58
but just if communism started growing in one
2:00
place, that it would expand to other parts of
2:02
the globe. And what was the stated objective
2:05
of communism? To control the world. That to the
2:16
communist class, nationality, Ethnicity and religion
2:23
were all constructs for the oppression of the
2:27
masses. And so if I am a communist, I believe
2:32
that I am here to overthrow the evil imperialists.
2:41
And so there is no peaceful coexistence per se.
2:45
But after two world wars, were they ready for
2:49
a third? No. And so when we talked about option
2:53
one, do nothing, which looked like appeasement,
2:55
option two, which was war, and then option three,
2:58
which was containment, the United States elected
3:01
a containment strategy, but part of that containment
3:03
strategy was to contain the spread of communism.
3:06
Does that make sense? Now, one of the things
3:11
that I have talked about before, and I know this
3:18
is hard for us because this is kind of backwards
3:20
to our own current climate. One of the thoughts
3:31
was that look at where communism had taken root
3:35
in the world. What was the first major communist
3:41
power in the world? Soviet Union. Soviet Union
3:45
was Russia. Now, what spurred the Communist Revolution
3:52
in Soviet Russia? Well, the Bolsheviks. But why
3:57
was anybody listening to Lenin? Was their previous
4:02
system of government working? No. You had, in
4:07
Russia, leading up to the Russian Revolution,
4:10
abject poverty. So you have poverty, bad government,
4:17
leads to revolution and communism. By the way,
4:28
what other countries had had authoritarian regimes
4:31
rise out of poverty? Italy, Germany, you get
4:37
the idea. And so there was a thought in American
4:42
political circles that If we take care of the
4:46
poverty, we may not have to worry about the spread
4:49
of communism. And so John Marshall, who was the
4:53
General of the Army during World War II, and
4:55
who is now the Secretary of State under Truman,
4:59
sets forth an idea that the United States will
5:02
rebuild the infrastructure and the economies
5:07
of Western Europe to prevent the rise of authoritarian
5:11
regimes. Because what has happened to Europe?
5:16
Absolutely destroyed by the war. Eastern Europe
5:20
was destroyed first by the Nazis charging eastward
5:23
towards the Soviet Union and then was annihilated
5:26
by the Red Army charging back towards Berlin.
5:28
What had happened to Western Europe? Blown up,
5:32
firebombed, I mean, complete and total utter
5:37
destruction. As part of the war effort, every
5:40
major factory and plant that the Allies could
5:43
reach, they bombed. Every bridge that they couldn't
5:47
use for their own crossing, they would destroy.
5:50
You get the idea. Warfare was not polite. It
5:52
was not surgical. It was total war. You have,
6:00
in Germany, people scrounging for food because
6:08
the devastation was that dire. And so, whereas
6:18
previously, after World War I, was there a concerted
6:21
effort to rebuild the territories that had been
6:25
ravaged by war after World War I? No. And so
6:29
the United States, whose own industrial capacity,
6:35
and one of the things that's kind of interesting,
6:36
and somebody talked about this, the United States
6:42
Had any of its agricultural or industrial capacities
6:46
been even damaged by the war? No. We were the
6:51
arsenal of democracy and the breadbasket of the
6:53
world because the United States was unmolested
6:56
by the conflict. So while the U .S. is leading
7:01
the world in manufacturers, is leading the world
7:03
in food production, it is because the rest of
7:05
the world had been damaged or destroyed in many
7:08
ways. And so the United States is in a position
7:11
to fund the rebuilding of Europe. However, are
7:22
there people in the United States who would be
7:24
opposed to it? Yes. Because the United States
7:27
just finished spending a fortune on what? The
7:31
war itself. Right? The U .S. had run up debts
7:35
that they had never seen before. Well, and so
7:42
there were some misgivings about passing the
7:45
bill to fund the Marshall Plan in Congress. Then
7:47
the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia. Or rather,
7:50
there was a communist coup in Czechoslovakia,
7:52
and then they're like, oh, yes, we better send
7:54
some money to Europe before it all goes red.
7:57
So, that's the run -up to the Marshall Plan.
8:00
Alright, Germany was divided into four zones.
8:02
The four zones were based on the four allied
8:05
powers. These were the US, the UK, and France.
8:14
Then you have the USSR. So, originally Germany
8:18
was divided into four zones, then it became two.
8:21
So what happened was the United States, the United
8:24
Kingdom, and France voted to unify their four
8:26
zones. This is what we call Western Germany.
8:29
This is the Bundesrepublik. And in the Russian
8:36
-controlled half is East Germany. This was called
8:38
the People's Democratic Republic of Germany,
8:41
or the DDR, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik.
8:46
So, now, kind of interesting, and I don't have
8:50
a map for it. I'm going to see if I can pull
8:53
one up. Let me go through a few more slides to
8:59
see. Here we go. So, here you have Western Germany
9:08
here. Eastern Germany was... Under the purview
9:12
of the Soviet Union, Berlin, which was the capital
9:15
city of Germany, was divided into four zones
9:20
comparable to the Allies. Now, you see this yellow
9:26
streak here on the map? That was a corridor,
9:30
so people traveling from West Berlin to West
9:33
Germany could be there, because ostensibly they
9:35
still wanted Berlin to be the capital of occupied
9:38
Germany. the Soviets blockaded, they closed the
9:44
highway because they wanted to control all of
9:48
Berlin. So their plan was remarkably simple.
9:50
We don't want a shooting war with the West, but
9:53
we want Berlin to be ours because you can't have
9:56
a Western stronghold in the heart of the territory.
10:00
You get the idea. So, I'm going to go back. So
10:07
we were not about to have people just bust through
10:10
the barricades GTA style because it's a long
10:12
drive from the east -west border of Germany to
10:18
Berlin. And so the United States airlifted supplies
10:22
over the better part of a year. This was called
10:26
the Berlin Airlift. Now, here's the question.
10:29
What could the Russians have done? Shot them
10:32
down. You know what else we moved into positions
10:36
besides the supply cargo aircraft? Nuclear weapons.
10:43
The messaging was clear. Go ahead, make my day.
10:48
Now, the equation gets a little bit more complicated
10:51
because from 1945 to 1949, the Soviet Union did
10:55
not have nuclear weapons. What did I say? 1949,
11:00
Soviets get nukes. We'll get to that in a moment.
11:02
But actually, the Russians lifted their blockade
11:06
in May of 49. Here you have a fence dividing
11:12
Berlin. They cut Berlin into four pieces and
11:15
the Russians set up a barbed wire fence. In 1961,
11:20
they will build a Berlin Wall. But right now,
11:23
it's a manned fence line. Okay, so... Here we
11:33
go. These are some shots of the aircraft landing
11:37
supplies. And again, this was to keep people
11:39
alive. 1949, April 4th. The United States enters
11:44
into its first permanent military alliance. The
11:49
North Atlantic Treaty Organization. At the time,
11:52
it was Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands,
11:54
Luxembourg, Canada, Denmark, and Iceland. It
11:56
will later include Turkey. Stated purpose of
12:00
the NATO alliance was to curb Soviet aggression.
12:05
One of the key features of the NATO alliance
12:09
is an attack on one is an attack on all of the
12:13
parties. At this point, who is the only nuclear
12:19
power? The United States. Britain and France
12:24
will later develop their own nuclear weapons
12:26
program. The Netherlands never did. Canada never
12:29
did. Denmark, no. Iceland, no. Now, I want to
12:52
go to the map real quick. So here we have By
12:57
the way, Bonn becomes the capital of West Germany.
13:02
And Berlin is the capital of East Germany. Berlin
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doesn't become the capital of the unified country
13:09
until the wall falls in 1989. Austria was also
13:15
part of the division. So here you have the Soviet
13:17
zone near Vienna. And for those of you who follow
13:19
politics, you may recall... When Arnold Schwarzenegger
13:25
spoke to the Republican National Convention back
13:27
in 2012, he referenced remembering Soviet tanks
13:32
driving into Vienna. Arnold is from Austria,
13:38
and so he actually remembers that in his childhood.
13:43
Here you have Czechoslovakia, which is under
13:46
communist control. Poland under communist control.
13:49
They actually have this part annexed by Poland,
13:51
even though it used to be part of Prussia. This
13:53
part, again, used to be part of Prussia. All
13:56
of these get straightened out under Soviet control.
14:01
Now, a couple other things, kind of bureaucratic
14:03
things, but I want to kind of go there. You have
14:06
a consolidation of the military into its modern
14:09
form. So you have the National Security Act of
14:12
1947, which creates our modern Department of
14:15
Defense. So it used to be that you had the Secretary
14:19
of War and the Secretary of the Navy, and there
14:22
was no Air Force. 1947, you have the creation
14:25
of the Department of Defense as the overall structure
14:28
for the other branches. You have the creation
14:30
of the National Security Council, and you have
14:32
the Joint Chiefs of Staff. So what you have is
14:35
now you actually have a unified military command
14:37
between your Army and your Navy, and I believe
14:40
in 1947 is also when they create a separate department
14:43
for the Air Force. Air Force used to be part
14:46
of the old Army Air Corps, and so you have the
14:49
Air Force being separated out from the Army.
14:53
You also have the creation of the Central Intelligence
14:56
Agency. Central Intelligence Agency is an independent
14:59
agency. It used to be the Office of Strategic
15:01
Services. It used to be called the OSS, but then
15:04
it was codified by Congress with the modern CIA.
15:06
That's our Foreign Intelligence Service. And
15:09
you have the creation of the National Security
15:11
Agency. The National Security Agency used to
15:14
be part of the old Army Cryptographic Service.
15:16
It used to be part of the old Army Signal Corps.
15:18
Now it is a separate agency. By the way, what
15:22
does the NSA do now? Overseas communication surveillance.
15:30
Radio communications primarily. By the way, what
15:33
radio do you have? Cell phone. So if you're talking
15:38
to someone overseas, they're listening. No, they're
15:43
recording everything. It's just they're under
15:45
court orders to block all the traffic by U .S.
15:48
citizens unless they're part of a criminal investigation.
15:50
And again, to release information on a U .S.
15:52
citizen, you need a warrant. But for a foreign
15:55
national, what do you need? Nothing. Oh, quite
16:00
a few. And we can get into the particulars at
16:05
this point. The NSA was more concerned with overseas
16:09
teletype radio traffic, stuff like that. And
16:12
again, eavesdropping in that regard. And so these
16:16
are your primary spy agencies take root in the
16:20
aftermath of the Second World War. These two
16:24
were originally part of the Army and now they're
16:26
separated out. Although the NSA, by the way,
16:31
where's the main headquarters of the NSA? Any
16:34
of y 'all know? Baltimore. If you fly out of
16:39
Baltimore, Washington International Airport,
16:41
and you take the shuttle to where you pick up
16:47
your rental car, you drive by the NSA building.
16:49
Looks like a giant black obelisk. It's really
16:51
quite remarkable. By the way, if you really like
16:56
math, there is lots of money to be made as a
16:59
crypto specialist for the NSA. Crypto? So most
17:03
of your encryption sequences rely on premises
17:06
of number theory. And so as you design encryption
17:09
and design decryption apparatuses to make codes
17:13
and to break codes. Okay. You think you are safe.
17:18
Alright. Anyway, kind of fun, kind of interesting.
17:23
Alright. The book feels the need to talk about
17:27
Israel, and I do. It's just it doesn't fit the
17:31
Cold War. It fits the chronology. And so I kind
17:37
of want to talk about it, but I don't want to
17:40
talk about it here, but I figure I'll do it anyway,
17:42
even though I don't want to. So I would talk
17:44
about this separate from the Cold War, because
17:46
while Israel itself is not a major player in
17:49
the Cold War, yet it will be later. Okay? So...
17:54
Let me give you the rundown on Israel and then
17:58
we're going to get back to it. Actually, we're
18:00
going to get back to Israel in the 70s and in
18:02
the 90s. So, Israel. So, Israel as a country
18:12
exists in a region that was controlled by the
18:17
British after the First World War. So, if I look
18:19
at the area around... what they call the Levant.
18:23
If I look at Syria, Lebanon, modern day Israel,
18:26
Jordan, and even Saudi Arabia, World War I, they're
18:30
part of the Ottoman Empire. Upon the fall of
18:34
the Ottoman Empire, you have the Middle East
18:35
being broken up into zones controlled by the
18:41
different allies of World War I. So, Turkey retains
18:47
its independence. Syria was a French client or
18:59
fell under France's influence. Palestine fell
19:09
under England. Saudi Arabia was for the most
19:15
part independent. But you do have British and
19:20
Dutch oil interests interacting in there. So
19:23
for the most part independent, but you have British
19:27
and Dutch oil interests. You have these emirates
19:35
that surround Saudi Arabia. They had been independent
19:38
going back to the Emirate of Najd in the 1880s,
19:41
mainly because when the Emirate of Najd was spreading
19:43
throughout the Arabian Peninsula, the British
19:46
naval guns held them at bay because nothing else
19:48
could. I mean, these were the warrior fanatics.
19:50
These were the Wahhabis. And then, of course,
19:54
Egypt, which is in northern Africa, is also under
19:59
British control. So if I look at the British
20:01
control of... Northern Africa into the Middle
20:03
East, they control Egypt, Sinai, Palestine, that
20:06
belt right there. And they're kind of able to
20:09
maintain control over that belt because proximity
20:13
to the sea. Now, what you have is there was a
20:19
group of Jews, indigenous to Palestine, who had
20:27
joined up with the British army. They were a
20:28
full British unit. are part of the British force
20:33
that liberates the concentration camps. They
20:36
had seen the horrors that had befallen the Jews
20:39
in the concentration camp, and they were not
20:41
about ready to have them try and reintegrate
20:43
into a society that had already previously expressed
20:45
anti -Semitism. Now, separate and apart from
20:48
this, you had had, going back to the 19th century,
20:52
a movement called Zionism. Zionism promoted the
20:59
creation of a Jewish state. And so you have this
21:06
Jewish, and I forget if it was a battalion or
21:11
a brigade, ostensibly under British command,
21:16
they take the people on ships to Palestine and
21:20
they kind of create a country very much against
21:23
the wishes of their British overlords. And so
21:26
you have Holocaust survivors being carted back
21:29
to Palestine. They create their own state. Jewish
21:35
Brigade mutinies against their British officers,
21:37
and in May 14th of 1948, they create a, well,
21:42
David Ben -Gurion is the PM of Palestine, and
21:46
they declare themselves to be the Jewish state
21:48
of Israel. England does not recognize them first,
21:51
even though it is part of a zone under their
21:54
control. 1947, you have the UN partitioning Israel.
21:57
as Israel and the Palestinian territory is separate.
22:00
Israel declares its independence, and the United
22:03
States in 1948 is the first country to recognize
22:06
Israel. Now, that will have ramifications. A
22:15
couple of things I want to point out, because
22:17
I have time. Truman was not universally lauded
22:22
for recognizing the Jewish state. First of all,
22:27
you have the isolationists that say, what does
22:29
it matter to us? But then there's another aspect.
22:32
And I want to go back to the coalition politics
22:34
because this is going to get interesting later.
22:46
1940s. Who's in whose coalition? Let's go back.
22:53
Traditionally, who votes Republican? Western
22:58
farmers and northern business interests. And
23:07
northern industrialists. Who traditionally votes
23:19
Democrat? Southern whites. Southern whites. You
23:31
have some northern liberals or northern progressives,
23:35
but you also have what other group traditionally
23:38
allies itself with the Democratic Party? Starts
23:40
with an I. Immigrants. Of which some of them
23:43
came from Eastern Europe, which includes Jews
23:52
were part of the Democratic voting bloc of the
23:54
northern immigrants. Now, there are some people
23:58
who accuse Truman of doing the crass political
24:00
thing, trying to appease Jews in his own party.
24:03
This is kind of interesting because, as a demographic
24:06
group, Jews vote solidly Democrat for most of
24:09
the 20th century until the 90s. The 90s is when
24:14
the Republican Party starts making inroads into
24:17
the Jewish communities. It's really kind of interesting.
24:20
Okay, late 80s. But again, for most of the 1960s
24:24
and 1970s, as a demographic group, the Jews were
24:28
voting Democrat. They don't start voting Republican
24:30
until the 80s, the 90s, and into the post -9
24:33
-11 world. Kind of interesting when you start
24:35
looking at breakdowns of modern electoral politics
24:38
and how the different parties stand on Israel.
24:40
So that's kind of fun. Anyway, so the U .S. recognizes
24:47
Israel. Which tangentially makes, all of a sudden,
24:53
who gets mad? Syria and the Palestinians, yes?
25:01
And some of the other Arab states in the region.
25:06
Hmm. If you're mad at one country for recognizing
25:09
your enemy, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
25:13
So if I'm a disgruntled Palestinian, in the 1940s
25:18
or in the 1950s or in the 1960s, and I want weapons
25:22
to fight the Jewish state, who would I turn to?
25:27
The Soviet Union. And so conflicts in the Middle
25:31
East will become proxy conflicts between the
25:34
United States and the Soviet Union. In other
25:37
words, you will see American -made arms and Russian
25:41
-made arms being put to use in the Middle East.
25:46
Okay. I'm going to get to the domestic stuff
25:49
probably Wednesday. I want to get to Korea. Here
25:56
we go. Cold War heats up in China. So now we've
26:02
gone through Europe to the Middle East. Now we're
26:04
going to go to Asia. And then we'll go back to
26:06
the domestic stuff. Everybody good? Alright.
26:09
So. Losing China. Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai -shek.
26:17
Some of you remember this question from the last
26:19
quiz. Some of you got it wrong. Okay, so let's
26:23
get to the bit. Alright, China. First of all,
26:26
what was China early 20th century? It was an
26:31
empire. What happened to the emperor? He left
26:34
the picture. So, used to be an empire. Was it
26:38
a strong empire in the 20th century? No. Sino
26:42
-Japanese War showed the weakness of the Chinese
26:44
imperial structure. Then you have a civil war.
26:50
There were two factions of the civil war. You
26:53
had the communists, led by Mao Zedong, Chairman
27:00
Mao. And then you had the nationalists, led by
27:06
Chiang Kai -shek. And again, these are phonetic
27:15
spellings of what's obviously Chinese characters.
27:20
What happened? In the middle of the Civil War,
27:23
who shows up? The Japanese. So in the middle
27:29
of the Civil War, you have the Japanese invasion
27:30
of mainland China. During the Japanese invasion,
27:37
the communists and the nationalists who had taken
27:39
turns killing each other, guess what they do?
27:42
They, in a way, and for a moment, unified to
27:45
go kill the Japanese. By the way, who does the
27:49
United States send arms and munitions to to help
27:51
them in their war against the Japanese? Both
27:55
of them! Both the communists and the nationalists.
28:00
Why? Because they had to stop the Japanese. Alright,
28:04
so 1945, who's no longer in the picture? So what
28:09
do these two people go back to doing? Fighting
28:11
each other. So, what happens is the Communists
28:15
win on the mainland. The Nationalists flee to
28:24
Formosa. Formosa, we now call Taiwan. was the
28:47
United States rooting for in this civil war?
28:50
The nationalists. Who lost? The nationalists.
28:54
So, there is a feeling in the United States that
29:00
the Truman administration lost China. Now, what
29:05
the Truman administration does is the Truman
29:07
administration does not recognize the communist
29:09
government in mainland China to the United States
29:11
for a period of... 20 some odd years, the only
29:16
China that the United States is talking to is
29:19
the Nationalist government in Taiwan. There's
29:22
a one China policy, and then there's a two China
29:25
policy, and then there's another one China policy.
29:28
Now, a couple other things happen. 1949, the
29:36
Soviets develop an atomic weapon. So, NS -68,
29:46
it's finally codified that the United States
29:48
will have as its official doctrine to degrade
29:50
the Soviet Union's power in the world. But right
29:53
now, does that strategy look practicable? No,
29:56
not doing a very good job of that. Okay, now,
29:59
here's the thing. A couple other things I want
30:03
to get into. Part of the reason the Soviets are
30:07
able to catch up in atomic technology is they
30:09
have spies on the Manhattan Project. When the
30:12
United States develops a hydrogen bomb in 1951,
30:16
the Soviets catch up in eight months. How do
30:20
you catch up in eight months? Well, you look
30:21
on the other guy's paper. Right? Okay. So, there
30:27
is a feeling among people in the government that,
30:31
hey, we have spies in the government funneling
30:33
information to the Soviets. That's a bomb shelter.
30:38
We'll get to that. I'm going to get to Korea
30:40
and then I'm going to get back to The Red Scare.
30:45
Okay, Korean War. Very similar, albeit not entirely.
30:50
Okay, Korea, and I'm hoping I have a map up here.
30:53
Yes, I do. Okay, here we go. So, Korea, and you
31:00
don't see it on the map. Japan is literally the
31:02
country, I mean, it's not quite swimmable, but
31:05
Japan is literally the country next to Korea.
31:08
So, Korea... had been kind of a contested land
31:11
between China, Russia, and Japan. Because here
31:18
you've got Manchuria, which is technically part
31:20
of China. Right above it is the Soviet Union.
31:22
And then right over here is Japan on the other
31:24
side of the Sea of Japan. Korea was occupied
31:27
during the Second World War by the Japanese.
31:31
With the surrender of the Japanese, it fell to
31:34
American occupation. But you have... The northern
31:40
part, which is beginning to fall under the communist
31:43
sphere of influence, both because of the Soviet
31:44
Union to the north at Vladivostok, and of the
31:49
communization of China. So, what happens is the
31:54
government in North Korea invades South Korea,
31:59
practically pushing the US and their allied forces
32:03
into the sea at Pusan. And there was a worry
32:07
that, because again, where is the bulk of the
32:09
American army that's occupying Japanese territory?
32:12
In Japan. So MacArthur, who's in charge of Japan
32:16
and Korea, again, he's trying to secure the U
32:19
.S. slash U .N. position. They get a declaration
32:22
that this is a police action. Why can't Truman
32:25
call it a war? Congress can declare a war, and
32:31
also he didn't want to call it a war, because
32:32
if you call it a war, you have to throw everything
32:34
you've got at the conflict, and what's everything
32:35
you've got? And in 1950, who else has nukes?
32:40
Soviet Union. Okay, so, MacArthur, who is commanding
32:46
the occupation of Japan, is tasked with trying
32:49
to salvage the situation. One of the things that
32:51
MacArthur does is the master stroke of the landing
32:53
of Inchon. Actually, it's one of the great annals
32:56
of military history. Incheon, its tides only
33:02
permit a very small window for an amphibious
33:04
assault, and it's sort of one of those, as he's
33:08
selling it to the administration, one of the
33:11
things that comes up is, no one would be stupid
33:14
enough to invade, to do an amphibious landing
33:17
at Incheon. And he's like, right, no one would
33:19
be that stupid, which means the Koreans would
33:21
not be prepared for an attack there. Fairly good
33:25
logic. The landing is successful. The US Army
33:28
cuts the supply line of the Chinese. The UN forces
33:31
push them back all the way to the... They're
33:34
heading towards the Yalu River. The Chinese are
33:36
now worried because what could happen if the
33:38
Americans push the North Korean Army all the
33:41
way back to the Yalu? What would the US then
33:44
be able to do? Invade China. So the Chinese had
33:49
massed 500 ,000 volunteers north of the Yalu,
33:52
and they crossed, pushing the Americans back.
33:57
So it's been a back -and -forth war. Relatively
34:00
speaking, short. You're only talking 1915 to
34:02
1953. When the Chinese enter the war, MacArthur
34:05
wants to attack China directly. That included
34:09
dropping 34 nuclear bombs on them. Now, what's
34:15
interesting is... MacArthur pushes his limits.
34:21
He's speaking out against some of the administration's
34:24
policies, curtailing him publicly. And so Truman
34:28
fires him. Now, this is huge because at this
34:32
point in American history, the Congress has gone
34:34
back to the Republican Party. The Democrats still
34:37
hold the White House. By the way, why is MacArthur
34:40
a hero to the Republicans? Go back to 1932. 1932.
34:48
The Bonus Army. MacArthur was the chief of staff
34:54
who dispensed with the Bonus Army. He was well
34:57
connected to the Republican establishment. Truman
35:01
sacks MacArthur. MacArthur comes home to a hero's
35:04
welcome, gives a joint session of Congress. It
35:07
really was, if you had to get fired, he was well
35:10
taken care of. But anyway, what's interesting
35:13
is the termination of MacArthur as a general
35:15
realized one of the interesting tensions that
35:19
had not occurred in American warfare previously,
35:22
which is this. With modern war and modern communication,
35:29
you do have the White House having the ability
35:33
to command a war in exacting detail. Was that
35:39
capability a thing in the 19th century? and even
35:43
in the early 20th century. And so one of the
35:45
things I often say, the MacArthur -Truman conflict
35:47
is not just a conflict of personalities, it's
35:50
not just a matter of civilian control versus
35:51
military control. It is the first time that the
35:54
complexities of modern warfare and the efficiencies
35:57
of communication allow the political establishment
36:00
to more directly command military action, whereas
36:03
previously field commanders were given much more
36:06
deference just because the communications apparatuses
36:09
were slow. You get the idea? Okay. Eventually,
36:14
there is a ceasefire and a truce at the 38th
36:17
parallel, and this is where we have a demilitarized
36:19
zone between the North Koreans and the South
36:22
Koreans. Okay. So, let me get to the social stuff.
36:28
So... Yeah... Let me get to the domestic stuff.
36:37
Let me go back. Okay. Immediately after the war,
36:46
you have that post -war economic transition as
36:50
people who were in the service are now being
36:52
reintegrated into the workforce. You have a number
36:55
of inflation spikes. You have strikes. You have
36:58
Truman intervening in strikes, much the way Teddy
37:01
Roosevelt had done. You had... So the Taft hardly
37:07
limiting unions' ability to strike, forcing them
37:10
to use cooling off periods, and actually you
37:14
had a trying to pass legislation to make the
37:19
U .S. a right to work against the interests of
37:21
the unions. And again, who's part of the unions
37:23
is part of the Democratic coalition, and the
37:26
Republicans had recently retaken Congress. So
37:29
they pass a right to work law. Truman vetoes
37:32
it, but it's overturned by the Republican Majority
37:35
Congress. You get the idea. You have also civil
37:42
rights agitation beginning, coming out of World
37:46
War II. Veterans of the Second World War who
37:49
have fought for the Republic against Nazi Germany,
37:52
against racism, are now agitating for their full
37:55
and equal rights as citizens. So, you have combat
37:59
units, formed in the later part of the war and
38:03
those units are desegregated by Order of Truman.
38:06
You also have Latinos creating the GI Forum to
38:10
counter segregation at home. Again, it starts
38:12
as a veterans organization. So the nucleus of
38:15
the Civil Rights Movement is the Army itself
38:18
and these veterans organizations that spring
38:21
up afterwards. Fair deal rejected. So you have
38:27
Taft -Hartley being repealed. The idea of nationalizing
38:31
healthcare goes all the way back to Harry Truman.
38:33
I was going to make a joke about the Democrats
38:34
not having any new ideas, but it might be too
38:36
soon. What? 50 years? Too soon? No, more than
38:44
that. More like 60. Alright. Now, with all the
38:49
progressivism in the Democratic Party, you do
38:51
have a break in the Democratic Party because
38:53
the South votes as a bloc for what's called the
38:55
Dixiecrats. Okay, not entirely as a bloc. Strom
38:58
Thurmond runs against the desegregationist policies
39:01
of Harry Truman. But yeah, Strom Thurmond runs
39:05
for president back in 1948. He loses. Strom Thurmond
39:13
will go to the Senate and stay there until 2001.
39:18
Dude was like 90 -something when he finally retired.
39:21
If there was ever an argument for term limits,
39:23
it's, look, if you ran against Harry Truman,
39:25
you need to at some point get out of the Senate.
39:29
Oh, by the way, he was a Democrat and then he
39:31
became a Republican. But anyway, we'll get to
39:33
that one later. Okay, we got past Mao. Moving
39:36
on, moving on, moving on, moving on, moving on.
39:38
No, that's not the one. Here we go. The Reds
39:41
care. Here's a basic idea. And I'm about to run
39:46
out of time, but here's your basic idea. After
39:49
the United States has its nuclear secrets stolen,
39:53
has the loss of China, and has socialists and
40:01
communists who join the government in their fight
40:05
against fascism, there is this feeling that communists
40:10
are in our midst and that they must be rooted
40:13
out. So you had the House Un -American Activities
40:18
Committee investigating communists in the government
40:21
and in media. So you have the Hollywood Ten.
40:25
These were people who were identified as members
40:26
of the Communist Party in Hollywood. They were
40:28
blacklisted. They were not allowed to work again.
40:30
You had Alger Hiss. He and Whitaker Chambers
40:35
were investigated for... giving secrets to the
40:40
Soviet Union. Now here's the thing. The Alger
40:43
Hiss Whitaker Chambers incident is huge historically.
40:48
Here's why. I'm going to get to the party realignment,
40:51
I think, on Wednesday. So, in the House Un -American
40:57
Activities Committee, we'll just say the House
41:00
UAC, there's a man leading the charge. to root
41:06
out communists out of the government. Now everybody
41:08
thinks of Joe McCarthy. Joe McCarthy's in the
41:10
Senate. So you've got McCarthy in the Senate.
41:15
He's a senator. And Joe McCarthy is actually
41:18
a little later. But in the House on American
41:22
Activities, there is a young congressman from
41:25
California who's going to make a name for himself
41:28
as a vicious communist hunter. The House and
41:37
American Activities Committee hearings are the
41:39
first televised congressional hearings. And Richard
41:43
Nixon becomes a star of the Republican Party
41:46
and a star of the national stage as a commie
41:50
hunter. This is what's going to basically catapult
41:56
a no -name candidate from California into the...
42:03
vice presidency of the United States in 1952.
42:07
It will also earn him the enmity of many on the
42:13
American political left for the viciousness with
42:16
which he pursued those with communist tendencies.
42:19
And so, in many ways, the rise of Richard Nixon
42:25
and the tragedy of Richard Nixon starts with
42:29
the House Un -American Activities Committee and
42:31
ends In Watergate. Here's the part I want to
42:36
get into. Okay. So you're an American. You have
42:45
watched China fall to communism. You have watched
42:48
Korea fall to communism. You have watched the
42:51
Iron Curtain descend over Eastern Europe. You
42:56
have seen a world in crisis. And you have seen
43:00
the Russians catch up to the US. in nuclear weapons.
43:06
How did they do it? Espionage, which makes you
43:12
think that there are members of the government
43:14
who are helping the Soviet Union. Now prior to
43:18
World War II and even into World War II, were
43:21
there American socialists and communists? Yes,
43:24
Eugene Debs ran for president as a socialist
43:28
at least six times. Are there people who are
43:33
socialists in the government? Yes. Is there a
43:37
concern that these people, due to their ideological
43:39
commitment to socialism and communism, might
43:42
compromise the national security? Absolutely.
43:44
Does communism recognize nationalism? Communism
43:49
posits that nationalism is a ploy by the elites
43:53
to control the masses. And so you have Aldrich,
43:59
Whitaker Chambers, key members of the Truman
44:01
administration who are found to be communists
44:04
and they're being prosecuted by two arms of the
44:07
legislative branch. And the legislative branch
44:09
in 1946 and into 1948 are now in the hands of
44:13
the Republicans, both the House and the Senate.
44:16
So you have the opposition party in charge of
44:18
the legislature. Now, if you're a Republican,
44:20
what's the beautiful thing about a communist
44:22
witch hunt? I can stick it to the Democrats in
44:26
the White House, can't I? So two... people emerge.
44:31
In the Senate, you have Joe McCarthy. Joe McCarthy
44:36
is a Midwestern senator. He's running for re
44:42
-election. He's trying to get it. He's trying
44:44
to be the hero of the communist witch hunt. Then
44:48
you have the House Un -American Activities Committee.
44:59
These are the first televised hearings. So you
45:02
come home from school, you turn on the TV, and
45:04
you see men in suits grilling the people who
45:06
might be communists on national TV. I'll give
45:10
you a name of one of the congressmen, a no -name
45:12
congressman from California who makes a name
45:14
for himself as a communist witch hunter. Richard
45:25
Nixon. Richard Nixon goes from a no -name congressman
45:29
in California to being a rising star of the Republican
45:31
Party and General Eisenhower's running mate in
45:35
1952. Now, you don't think as he's going after
45:41
leftist intellectuals with communist ties, he's
45:44
not making himself some enemies, maybe some enemies
45:46
in the press? You don't think the way he prosecuted
45:50
communists in the 1950s isn't going to come back
45:52
to haunt him in the 1970s? So a couple of things
45:56
come together because of the Red Scare. Two things,
46:01
actually, and I have just enough time to talk
46:03
about both. First is the antipathy of the intellectual
46:09
establishment towards Nixon. But also, and Alex,
46:16
you asked this question, I want to say, about
46:18
seven weeks ago. How is it... that the Democratic
46:26
Party goes from being a conservative party to
46:31
being the modern manifestation of democratic
46:34
socialism in the United States. I believe it
46:36
was you who asked it at some point. I think it
46:38
was seven weeks ago. Am I correct? At least you
46:40
asked that once. It feels right that I would
46:42
ask that. Okay. I will tell you the story in
46:46
a nutshell. In the 1920s, could you be a socialist?
46:54
Yes. Even before World War I, you could be a
46:57
socialist. You could be a communist. But in the
47:01
1950s, could you be a socialist or a communist
47:04
anymore? So now you've got two parties. You could
47:08
be a Republican or you could be a Democrat. Are
47:20
you going to join the party of Joe McCarthy and
47:22
Richard Nixon who has hounded you and your intellectual
47:25
compatriots? No. You will make common cause with
47:28
the Democrats because, you know, poor Southerners,
47:33
they read the Bible and there's plenty of things
47:35
in the Bible about the poor. There are other...
47:38
the Democratic Party is the party of unions,
47:41
is the party of southern conservatives, is the
47:43
party of all these other things. So the socialists
47:45
join the Democratic Party and that tension will
47:48
tear the Democratic Party apart in 1968. So the
47:53
liberalization of the Democratic Party and the
47:58
antipathy of the establishment towards Nixon
48:01
both get started in the second Red Scare. Questions,
48:06
problems, concerns? I did not get as far with
48:12
y 'all as I did with the other group.