Introduction

The United States changed dramatically in the post-World War II years. The economic boom based on wartime spending continued and made the nation richer than ever before. Large corporations dominated the business world, but unions grew too, and most American workers saw their lives improve. Some Americans, however, still found themselves left out. Huge gaps still existed between rich and poor, and millions of people were still part of what one critic called “the other America.” Building on a start made during the war, African Americans and members of other minority groups began to mobilize to change American society. In time, the Civil Rights movement encouraged other movements for reform.

Meanwhile the United States found itself in the midst of a new kind of international conflict. The cold war, which stemmed from divergent views about the shape of the postwar world, pitted the United States against the Soviet Union in a competitive struggle that had ramifications around the globe. Strong and secure after its successful involvement in World War II, the United States sought to spread the values of liberty, equality, and democracy that provided the underpinning of the American dream, and to create a world where American enterprise could thrive. When those aims and values came into conflict with Soviet insistence on a different kind of security and stability, the cold war was the result.

This volume, part of an 11-volume Encyclopedia of American History, charts the changes that occurred in the decades following World War II. It seeks to provide easy access to the social and political developments of the postwar years, highlighting social, cultural, and economic issues as well as political and diplomatic affairs. Taken together, the entries provide a good overview of the shifts of the postwar years.

—Allan M. Winkler Miami University Oxford, Ohio

ENTRIES A TO Z

Acheson, Dean (1893-1971) secretary of state Secretary of state when Communist forces drove Jiang Jieshi off the Chinese mainland, Dean Acheson found himself labeled “The Red Dean” and the man who “lost” China by critics of presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.

Acheson, born in Middletown, Connecticut, on April 11, 1893, was the eldest son in a distinguished family with Scots-Irish roots. His father, Episcopal bishop of Connecticut, preached hope, charity, and good works. His mother, Eleanor Gooderham, was the daughter of a prominent Toronto whiskey distiller and banker. His father insisted the young Acheson attend all the finest schools—Groton, Yale, and later Harvard Law School. Although he found Groton to be a harsh environment, Acheson developed a fierce independent streak, which he found invaluable in maintaining his composure later in life. At Harvard Law, Felix Frankfurter took him under his wing and Acheson bloomed. After a year clerking for Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, at Frankfurter’s recommendation, Ache-son joined a Washington law firm and quickly made a name for himself in financial law.

Perhaps at Frankfurter’s suggestion, newly elected president Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Acheson to serve as undersecretary of the treasury. Unfortunately, Acheson and Roosevelt disagreed on fiscal policy. When Roosevelt took the nation off the gold standard, Acheson resigned in protest at what he thought was an unwise action. His loyalties, however, remained with the Democratic Party, and he never fully cut ties with the Roosevelt administration.

In 1941, Roosevelt called upon Acheson to serve as assistant secretary of state, and within four years he was promoted to undersecretary. In 1949, President Harry S. Truman chose him to succeed George C. Marshall at the State Department. Acheson believed that the Soviet Union was the major threat to the United States and felt the nation’s first priority was to contain Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe. To accomplish this, he was convinced

American allies would have to be strengthened both economically and militarily. Acheson helped draft the blueprint for European economic recovery, the Marshall Plan, and the military alliance that evolved into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Although Asia was a secondary concern to Acheson, he also negotiated the Japanese Peace Treaty.

More controversial was Acheson’s involvement in framing the National Security Council’s new foreign policy document, NSC-68, which called for an increased military

Dean Acheson (Library of Congress)

Buildup to contain the Soviet Union in the way diplomat George F. Kennan had counseled. During Acheson’s tenure as secretary of state, the COLD war held center stage and the way Acheson and the Truman administration dealt with it came increasingly under fire. Equally controversial was Acheson’s role in the Korean War. He encouraged American intervention and advised Truman to go to the United Nations rather than Congress for approval. The Republican-controlled Congress thereby acquired the ammunition to label Korea “Truman’s War,” but Republicans before the attack also accused Acheson of giving the North Koreans a green light when he remarked in a Washington speech that the peninsula was not within the U. S. defense sphere.

While many criticized Acheson, John F. Kennedy consulted him during the Cuban missile crisis, and both Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson sought his advice on the Vietnam War. Initially hawkish, Acheson encouraged intervention because he was certain the United States would win the war. As the struggle dragged on, Acheson, ever the pragmatist, became convinced the war could not be won and urged the withdrawal of troops. Acheson died in 1971.

Further reading: Robert L. Beiser, Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006); James Chace, Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998).

—Gisela Abels

Man wrestles with manual razor in television commercial.

(Library of Congress)