Isabel Brooks

History 148

Professor Spiegler

7 May 2024

1) What were two or three things you learned in the lecture "The Cold War Part One" that
you did not know before and that you think is probably significant? Make sure you include
specifics here (who are you talking about? what event? when?)

The first thing I learned from this lecture was that the U.S. was highly involved in
attempting to control/assist other country’s governments during the Cold War. I think this is
significant for two reasons. One, it shows how powerful the U.S. government was post-World
War 2, and two, it raises the question of whether the U.S. abused its power. For example, the CIA
overthrew governments without the knowledge of U.S. citizens, and if the CIA’s affairs had been
made public at the time, there would’ve likely been much controversy (Spiegler “New
International Institutions & New U.S. Institutions” 18:29-19:10).
Another thing that I learned from this lecture was that the U.S. took over Japan in the late
1940’s to help ensure that Japan wouldn’t go to war again. This was a highly significant event in
history because it led to the stabilization of the Japanese government. The U.S. implemented
strategies to disarm Japan to build up its economy and rework its government to hold to
democratic ideals (Spiegler “Other International Developments” 26:12-26:55). To this day, Japan
still boasts a strong democratic government.
I also learned from this lecture that after World War 2, Jewish people from Germany
relocated to Israel. I thought this was interesting because I would’ve expected Jews to want to
remain in other parts of Europe, but there was so much fear and trauma that many of them didn’t
want to remain on the continent. The significance of Jews moving to Israel was its role in
displacing Palestinian Arabs, resulting in violence and war. The Jewish refugees had tried to
escape war and conflict by moving to Palestine but were unable to escape it.

2) What were two or three things you learned in the lecture "The Cold War Part Two" that
you did not know before and that you think is probably significant? Make sure you include
specifics here (who are you talking about? what event? when?)

The first thing that I learned from this lecture is that Congress was largely Republican
during the late 40’s and throughout the 50’s. President Truman was elected in 1945 and was a
Democrat, therefore he had a challenging time passing bills and policies because they would get
turned down by Congress. One example of this was the proposed “Fair Deal” in 1949 which
promoted more progressive changes like increased minimum wage and the expansion of social
security. Congress did not allow this bill to pass. I think the political dynamic during the Truman
presidency is significant because it shows just how quickly the political ideals of a country can
change. Before the war, FDR and Congress were considerably left-wing and progressivism was a
large part of the American Democracy a couple of decades before the war as well. But within the
change of just one president, Congress consisted of many more right-wing politicians.
I also learned that for a few decades after World War 2, there was a weird, almost
unspoken mindset toward people that were most “closeted”, specifically homosexuals. There was
a belief that because homosexuals were incredibly looked down upon during the 40s and 50s,
they were pro-communism. I think this is significant because we are a democratic country, we
support equality and freedom, and the fact that our government would take away federal jobs
from homosexuals goes against the progressive grain that had been so deep in the previous
decades.

3) What reflection or questions do you have about anything you learned here?

Overall, I’m amazed at how far backward the U.S. government went during the Cold
War. Things like women’s working hours, immigration laws, and equality as a whole either
maintained their small foothold in the government or completely lost it. I was also surprised at
how little trust people had in each other. Communism was like the black plague, and I find it sad
that it took so long for the second Red Scare to dissipate. It’s incredible how much of an
influence one person can have on an entire country’s belief system. From what I can gather,
McCarthy managed to influence the Red Scare for over a decade with limited backlash.
I’m also surprised that the Cold War lasted for 45 years without having a nuclear war. I
know that MAD was a contributor in preventing an extremely deadly war (if not
earth-shattering), but for the amount of conflict that was happening between so many world
powers, I expected more global-scale violence. I’m sure the trauma from the previous World
Wars also impacted the prevention of another major war.
One of the questions I have after the two lectures is: how were European countries
dealing with communists at the time and was there as much hate toward communists, or
presumed communists, as there was in the U.S.? Another question I have is: was progressivism
also brought to a halt in other countries involved in World War 2?