Assignment:
Each explanation should be 250 to 350 words in length and should include a summary of how you learned what you know about each of the topics. No additional study or research should be completed prior to completing this assignment.
How the American economy changed after WWII ended.
What is the ideology of the Cold War and in what relation did it have to the breakdown of wartime alliances after the end of WWII.
What were the American Cold War policies and practices in international relations in the late 1940s to the mid-1950s.
Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal policies had helped the American economy begin to recover from the Depression, but the war solidified the recovery and made the economy stronger than ever. Mass production of war material was perhaps America's greatest contribution to the war effort, and created jobs on an unprecedented level. The economy was extremely strong at the end of the war, and remained strong despite switching from war production to the mass production of peacetime goods.
The United States was a capitalistic society, devoted to free trade and the principles of liberty, while the Soviet Union was a tyrannical state where the government controlled the economy through state ownership of business. U.S. support of free, democratic governments in the liberated nations of Europe collided with Soviet desire for hegemony over the nations of eastern Europe. This was the major contribution to the breakdown of the wartime alliance.
American policy was to support the democratic governments and resist further Soviet expansion. This commitment to halting the spread of Communism led to such events as the Berlin Airlift, the Korean War, and eventually the Vietnam War. The American government also lent support to groups within Soviet-dominated nations who resisted and fought for democratic government, such as in Hungary.