{"id":5621,"date":"2022-01-20T17:50:24","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T17:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/?page_id=5621"},"modified":"2026-10-31T11:43:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T15:43:47","slug":"1945-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/course-syllabus\/1945-2\/","title":{"rendered":"1945"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Brands, Chapter 1:\u00a0 Last one Standing, 1945-46<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Sunrise at Alamogordo (pp. 3-6)<\/li>\n<li>The Looming Shadow (pp. 6-9)<\/li>\n<li>The Dynamo of Ambition (pp. 9-13)<\/li>\n<li>When Johnny Comes Marching Home (pp. 13-17)<\/li>\n<li>What (Else) Hath Roosevelt Wrought (pp. 17-20)<\/li>\n<li>Flames and a Kiss (pp. 20-23)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ixRZARRP6Rc?si=bXfrkKAKawwyNxjJ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/2022\/04\/20\/research-post-4\/\">From Abby Marthins&#8217; oral history project on WWII homefront<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Image Gateway<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2026\/10\/American-Progress-1945.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8392\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2026\/10\/American-Progress-1945.png\" alt=\"Progress 1945 version\" width=\"1501\" height=\"1048\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2026\/10\/American-Progress-1945.png 1501w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2026\/10\/American-Progress-1945-300x209.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2026\/10\/American-Progress-1945-1024x715.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2026\/10\/American-Progress-1945-768x536.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2026\/10\/American-Progress-1945-900x628.png 900w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2026\/10\/American-Progress-1945-1280x894.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1501px) 100vw, 1501px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Images of the atomic explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 superimposed over John Gast&#8217;s 1872 painting, &#8220;American Progress.&#8221;\u00a0 How does this alteration capture some of the anxiety that Americans faced at the onset of the atomic age?<\/p>\n<h3>Brands, Chapter 2:\u00a0 The War That Never Ended, 1946-48<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Mild About Harry (pp. 24-28)<\/li>\n<li>Sounding the Tocsin (pp. 28-32)<\/li>\n<li>A Concept and a Doctrine (pp. 32-35)<\/li>\n<li>Cold War Dissenters (pp. 35-37)<\/li>\n<li>A Man With A Plan (pp. 37-40)<\/li>\n<li>One If By Land, Two If By Air (pp. 40-41)<\/li>\n<li>Dewey Or Don\u2019t We? (pp. 41-44)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Image Gateway<\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_5776\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-19-at-9.54.58-AM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-5776\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-19-at-9.54.58-AM-1024x574.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-19-at-9.54.58-AM-1024x574.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-19-at-9.54.58-AM-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-19-at-9.54.58-AM-768x431.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-19-at-9.54.58-AM-500x280.png 500w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-19-at-9.54.58-AM.png 1476w\" alt=\"1948\" width=\"940\" height=\"527\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5776\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5776\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harry Truman holding the Chicago Tribune following reelection in 1948<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Timeline<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"suEOdc\" data-tooltip=\"1945 Ministers Meeting\" aria-label=\"1945 Ministers Meeting\">1945 \/\/ Hiroshima and Nagasaki<\/li>\n<li class=\"suEOdc\" data-tooltip=\"1945 Ministers Meeting\" aria-label=\"1945 Ministers Meeting\">1946 \/\/ Iron Curtain Speech<\/li>\n<li class=\"suEOdc\" data-tooltip=\"1945 Ministers Meeting\" aria-label=\"1945 Ministers Meeting\">1947 \/\/ Truman Doctrine<\/li>\n<li class=\"suEOdc\" data-tooltip=\"1945 Ministers Meeting\" aria-label=\"1945 Ministers Meeting\">1947 \/\/ National Security Act<\/li>\n<li class=\"suEOdc\" data-tooltip=\"1945 Ministers Meeting\" aria-label=\"1945 Ministers Meeting\">1947-48 \/\/ Marshall Plan<\/li>\n<li class=\"suEOdc\" data-tooltip=\"1945 Ministers Meeting\" aria-label=\"1945 Ministers Meeting\">1948-49\/\/ Berlin Airlift<\/li>\n<li data-tooltip=\"1945 Ministers Meeting\" aria-label=\"1945 Ministers Meeting\">1948 \/\/ Truman wins second term<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2><strong>Atomic Age<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Manhattan Project<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Behind-the-scenes with Christopher Nolan\u2019s \u201cOppenheimer\u201d movie (2023), based on the 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of physicist and Manhattan Project director J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MeIk9ap1u_E?si=zoFcjIpeAtPN5msU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-origwidth=\"560\" data-origheight=\"315\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Enola Gay<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Col. Paul Tibbets was the pilot in command of the\u00a0<em>Enola Gay\u00a0<\/em>(a B-29 bomber named for his mother) that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. The city had a population of about 350,000 at that time. \u00a0The explosion immediately killed about 70,000 of those residents, destroying most of the city\u2019s buildings. \u00a0Tens of thousands more died in the weeks afterward. \u00a0Tibbets was interviewed on camera, not long after he returned (August 19th).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qFcymt8jmOo\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Containment Policy<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>From Churchill\u2019s \u201cIron Curtain\u201d speech in Fulton, Missouri (1946)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lMt7zCaVOWU\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-origwidth=\"560\" data-origheight=\"315\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Churchill\u2019s stern 1946 warning about the Soviets highlighted a growing\u00a0tension\u00a0in superpower relations, a period that\u00a0columnist Walter Lippmann described memorably as\u00a0\u201cThe Cold War.\u201d \u00a0The US policy toward the Soviet Union which subsequently defined this Cold War period has come to be known as\u00a0<strong>containment.<\/strong>\u00a0 State Department official George Kennan helped develop this\u00a0containment doctrine, principally through\u00a0two powerful documents, the so-called\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www2.gwu.edu\/~nsarchiv\/coldwar\/documents\/episode-1\/kennan.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cLong Telegram,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and an anonymous article for the journal\u00a0<em>Foreign Affairs,\u00a0<\/em>titled,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.foreignaffairs.com\/articles\/23331\/x\/the-sources-of-soviet-conduct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cThe Sources\u00a0of Soviet Conduct.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Here is an excerpt from the now-famous 1947 article:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>These considerations make Soviet diplomacy at once easier and more difficult to deal with than the diplomacy of individual aggressive leaders like Napoleon and Hitler. On the one hand it is more sensitive to contrary force, more ready to yield on individual sectors of the diplomatic front when that force is felt to be too strong, and thus more rational in the logic and rhetoric of power. On the other hand it cannot be easily defeated or discouraged by a single victory on the part of its opponents\u2026.In these circumstances it is clear that the main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Discussion Question<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How did developments such as the Truman Doctrine (1947), Marshall Plan (1947) and Berlin Airlift (1948) help illustrate the initial application of containment principles?<\/li>\n<li>Who were the leading American critics of containment policy and what were the differences in the views of figure such as Senator Robert Taft, a leading conservative, or Henry Wallace, a prominent progressive?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Progressive Alternatives:\u00a0 Henry Wallace<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/henrywallace.weebly.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-4975\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2021\/03\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-23-at-7.18.15-AM-1024x475.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2021\/03\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-23-at-7.18.15-AM-1024x475.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2021\/03\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-23-at-7.18.15-AM-300x139.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2021\/03\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-23-at-7.18.15-AM-768x357.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2021\/03\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-23-at-7.18.15-AM-1536x713.png 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2021\/03\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-23-at-7.18.15-AM-500x232.png 500w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2021\/03\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-23-at-7.18.15-AM.png 1844w\" alt=\"Wallace\" width=\"940\" height=\"436\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Election of 1948 and the Landscape of Post-War American Politics<\/strong><\/h3>\n<div id=\"attachment_5782\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-20-at-2.07.36-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-5782\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-20-at-2.07.36-PM-244x300.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 244px) 100vw, 244px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-20-at-2.07.36-PM-244x300.png 244w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-20-at-2.07.36-PM-834x1024.png 834w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-20-at-2.07.36-PM-768x943.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/files\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-20-at-2.07.36-PM.png 1060w\" alt=\"Taft\" width=\"244\" height=\"300\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5782\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5782\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Robert Taft (R-OH)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Post-war American politics became complicated by competing ideologies that vied for control of American political parties and the broader national culture.\u00a0 The Democratic New Deal coalition splintered in 1948 as many Southern Democrats or Dixiecrats refused to support the party\u2019s evolution toward more open support for civil rights.\u00a0 Democrats also endured a battle between liberals (like Harry Truman) who supported New Deal values at home and Cold War containment abroad and progressive (like Henry Wallace) who questioned the foreign policy establishment.\u00a0 Republicans were divided between conservatives (like Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio) and ultra anti-communist demagogues (like Rep. Richard Nixon from California in 1948 or later Sen. Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin) and moderates (such as Gov. Tom Dewey from New York).\u00a0 Outside of the mainstream parties there were also other ideologies competing for American support, including libertarianism, socialism and communism.\u00a0 Critics derided these fringe movements as extremists, but many persevered and ultimately influenced US policy in sometimes-powerful ways.\u00a0 But in 1948, it was Truman and New Deal liberals who prevailed in what many regarded as a stunning upset victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brands, Chapter 1:\u00a0 Last one Standing, 1945-46 Sunrise at Alamogordo (pp. 3-6) The Looming Shadow (pp. 6-9) The Dynamo of Ambition (pp. 9-13) When Johnny Comes Marching Home (pp. 13-17) What (Else) Hath Roosevelt Wrought (pp. 17-20) Flames and a Kiss (pp. 20-23) From Abby Marthins&#8217; oral history project on WWII homefront Image Gateway Images [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":373,"featured_media":0,"parent":13,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-5621","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5621"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8393,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5621\/revisions\/8393"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-118pinsker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}