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Chapter 5 The Reemergence of Contributionism By 1950, the Cold War dominated American foreign relations and shaped the domestic political debate. A series of international events, such as the Czech coup of 1948 and the Soviet atomic bomb test in 1949, alarmed many Americans and prompted vigorous American policies to contain the USSR. When President Truman sent American troops to defend South Korea from the North Korean invasion in June 1950, there was no longer any doubt that the United States was involved in another major war, a mere five years after the end of World War II. In addition, traditional American fears of radicalism merged with the new confrontation with the Soviet Union to lift internal subversion to a source of national discord. By 1946, politicians such as the young Richard Nixon were using ‘‘communism-ingovernment ’’ as a wedge issue to win congressional elections. Eventually, the guilt or innocence of Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs became the subject of intense debate. Attacks on domestic communist influence were not limited to the Republican side of the aisle, as President Truman issued an executive order calling for loyalty tests of government employees. When Senator Joseph McCarthy (R) of Wisconsin made his accusations about communism in the State Department in Wheeling, West Virginia, in June 1950, he was a latecomer to the issue. For many Americans, however, the Cold War and the bomb were distant fears. By the late 1940s, the greatest economic boom in American history had begun. Millions of Americans continued to make the move from the central cities to the suburbs and were enjoying the fruits of postwar prosperity. New car sales grew from 69,500 in 1945 to 7.9 million in 1955; by the end of the 1950s, 60 percent of families owned their own homes, up from half of families at the end of the war. Americans were also making up for time lost during the war, marrying younger and having large families as 104 Chapter 5 the ‘‘baby boom’’ continued. The number of live births per 1000 population , the so-called ‘‘birth rate,’’ remained between 18.4 and 19.4 during the Depression years. This rate rose to 26.6 in 1947 and held at 24 or higher until 1959.1 Scholars are divided as to which elements are most important to understanding the 1950s. To many historians, the Cold War hovers over the entire decade, influencing everything from politics to popular culture.2 They see the period as ‘‘The Age of McCarthy,’’ in which the civil liberties of a good many Americans were violated.3 Another school of historians suggests that suburbanization and postwar prosperity were more important to most Americans than the Cold War and McCarthyism.4 Peter Filene summarizes this perspective best: ‘‘They [Americans of the 1950s] may have been more worried about grocery prices than the fate of Czechoslovakia or the treason of Alger Hiss.’’5 Ordinary citizens may not have dwelled on the U.S./Soviet confrontation , but the propaganda battle with the Soviet Union was foremost in the minds of the congressmen, intellectuals, and policymakers who dealt with issues of immigration and ethnicity. Communism was an issue in virtually every political debate, public celebration, and film that broached the subject . Those who supported liberalizing the immigration laws emphasized how the national origins system hurt our international standing in the world. Those who supported maintaining the current system had many arguments, among them the fear of communist espionage and the desire to maintain the demographic composition of the country. Congress fought over the McCarran-Walter bill in 1952, the most important debate concerning the nation’s immigration laws since 1924. The legislation upheld the status quo, maintaining the national origins system. Continuing a pattern established during World War II, both sides used the language of tolerance during the debate and assured the American people of their respect for different ethnic groups. McCarran-Walter became law despite a presidential veto, but the firestorm over the bill emboldened those who opposed the current system to attack it more directly. After 1952, supporters of liberalizing the immigration laws called for abolishing the national origins system. The Cold War created sympathy for refugees from behind the Iron Curtain, and Congress passed special legislation to allow many into the country.6 Though immigration remained relatively low on the national agenda in the late 1950s, some supporters of reform believed it was increasingly likely that policymakers would eliminate the quotas. USE (2024-04-25...

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