have it in my office. classic. it's about two groups. the zooks and the yooks. they don't like each other. why? because one group butters their bread butter side up and the other is butter side down. now there is a reason to go to war. how you butter your bread. but it's a children's story about the cold war and the escalation of it. i said i wasn't going to read it, but i will read the end of it, the very end, because it's about developing weapons and one side getting something and the other side responding with a bigger weapon. at the other end, they have developed the big boy boom. the yooks and the zooks are clashing. they are coming to the wall that separates them and both have the big boy boomeroo.

here's how dr. seuss ends the book. grandpa, i shouted, be careful. gee, who will drop it? will you or will he? be patient, said grandpa. we'll see, we'll see. it's a cliff hanger. dr. seuss, right there. who is going to drop the big boy boomeroo? it's the cold war. we have atomic weapons and the soviet union has some. we have an atomic bottom and they get one. we have to have a hydrogen bomb that takes an atomic bomb to dead na detonate it, to set it off. dr. seuss. anyway. it's an arms race now. what is the soviets' response? here we go. it's not enough. they want to have the largest standing army in the world. they are going to develop one

that encompasses nearly 3 million men. that's a lot of folks. they are going to escalate their atomic weapons program, if we're working on a hydrogen bomb, then they're going to work on it as well, or something else. the most interesting thing in terms of the soviet response is this. support for the satellite. i use that term in quotes because i mean not only their countries. they're going to ensure that their control of eastern europe is solid, solidified. no threat of being overthrown. but satellites in terms of technology. the soviet union is going to pour a lot of money into their weapons development program, as well as their space technology program. and they will put into space

rockets and satellites and in 1957, they are going to do something that absolutely terrified us. what is launched in 1957? >> sputnik. >> sputnik, this little thing, ball-looking device that is orbiting the earth, beeping as it's going across the horizon. it absolutely terrified us. we don't have that. we have not yet successfully put a satellite into space, and yet they have. the realization is they are ahead of us in this space race. so we've got to catch up. sputnik is a drop kick to nasa. we are going to push and put a lot of money into rocket technology, space technology, and eventually we will win this race and put a man on the moon before they do, but that's

another lecture for another day. you need to understand there are suspicions and paranoias on both sides. when we do something, the soviet union responds. when they do something, it affects us, and the cold war is not done yet. it's not just the fall of china and it's not just the united states cozying up to japan, but it's going to explode, the cold war is going to heat up, if you will, in korea. now remember the last lecture of world war ii. we talked about korea being occupied by japan. once the war is over, the united states and the soviet union decide to divide korea with the united states being in control of the southern part of korea and the soviet union is going to be administering the northern part of korea.

eventually both u.s. and ussr agree we will withdraw and allow the koreans to have some degree of self-determination. we are going pull out and the soviet union will and the koreans will be able to determine their future and fate. and we both did. the difference is, when we pulled out, we took everything with us. when the soviet union pulled out, they left behind a stockpile of weapons. the most modern military technology that they had at the time. that's a temptation that was going to be used. the following summer, 1950, with the use of soviet military arments, they will invade south korea and try to take possession of the entire country. this is exactly what kennan had warned us about, truman says. soviet union is not content. they're going to expand now, you

know, into other areas. this is a classic example of expansion and trying to take over the southern part of korea. we must respond. but he doesn't go to congress to ask for a declaration of war. he thought it might set a bad precedent. whenever i need to send troops someplace, i don't want to have to go to congress and ask them every time. so which he does is he goes to the united nations. the united nations and ask for a force to be sent to prop up and support and defend the people of south korea. now, the united states is going to do all the heavy lifting here. we will have more men and more equipment, we'll spend more money than any other country in the world defending south korea. that's what's going to happen. since it is technically speaking korea is a police action, as the united nations called it, it's not an officially declared war

because only congress can do that and of course truman didn't go to congress. what's going to happen is most of the fighting in 1950 is a back and forth. the red arrow shows you the penetration of the north koreans deep into south korea and then general mcarthur, general mcarthur is going to land over here on this eastern coast. 6 he's going to land there and cut off the north korean forces in the southern part of the country. be very successful with that and then he decides not to be satisfied, but simply driving them out, he decides to invade into the northern part of the country. if you follow the arrow, she headed north. what's the country on the other side? that's china.

you are mao. it's the summer of 1950 and you had been in power less than a year. you know the policy of the united states that is to contain communist expansion and all of a sudden here at the backdoor, you have a well-decorated united states general leading the united nations forces and they're getting closer and closer. if you are mao, you are as paranoid as stalin and if you are mao, you are thinking that this is all a means to an end. the war in korea is a means to an end and drive mao and the communist into the power in china. we are using the conflict as an excuse to invade china and so his response is to send flood after flood of chinese troops across the border to support the north koreans to stop the americans. by 1950, we got bogged down. the united states is not only fighting north korean

communists, but chinese communists and this war will go on until 1953. but the most significant military action occurs here in the first year. and by the summer of '53, we agree to end this conflict with a permanent division of the country at the 38th parl legal. south of the 38th parallel, south korea will be a free democratic and capitalistic state north of the 38th parallel, they will be a totalitarian communist state, and it's still that way today. it's a divided country today and one of the great flash points, i mean, you have this lunatic in north korea who every now and again threatens against somebody waiting for countries around the world to pay him off. well, it's a flash point today.

its origins are here in the middle of the cold war. and one other area to move into. it's not just korea, it's not just in china. outlined in red, what is that country? >> vietnam. >> that's vietnam. this is an area that we talked about called french indochina. back in the world war ii lecture we talked about how the japanese invaded french indochina and there was nothing france could do about it because france had already been knocked out of the war and the january needs moved in and took over. well, now that the war is over, the vietnamese would like to have their own right to determine their nation and they status. this guy wants to do that. that is ho chi minh.

he drafts a declaration of independence in 1945 that is modelled after our own united states declaration of independence. if you put the two documents side by side, they are eerily similar. you would think that the united states would support a nation to who wants to be free and independent, self-determination. we don't. why not? we are not really going to support france in this. it's more of ho chi minh's political tendency. he is a communist. as much as we would like to support the independence of a nation, we are not going to support the independence of vietnam under communist control. we are going to contain it. as best we can. that's next week's lecture for another day.

vietnam gets a whole day. there is an awful lot going on in terms of the cold war abroad. the mediterranean, western europe, western hemisphere, china, korea, vietnam. all of these things are a part of the cold war. shift gears now. while all that was is going on overseas, what effect does it have here at home. the cold war on the home front. well, one of the things we are suspicious of are communists. if you want to get anything done, you give it to congress to do. so we are going to flush them out with a congressional committee called the house on americans activity committee, huac. one of the interesting things is, we are going to investigate hollywood. hollywood turns out all kinds of movies about world war ii, movies in which the enemy are the japanese, the enemy are the germans. why is it that hollywood is not

producing movies in which the enemy are the russians or the communists? is it possible that the communists have infiltrated the film industry? that's the reason why they are not producing these movies? we are going to investigate. so we're going to have all kind of subpoenas. we're going to have movie stars come to washington, d.c., raise your right hand, i am not now nor have i ever been a member of the communist party. you deflect attention from yourself and profess your undying loyalty and devotion to all things american, mom, apple pie, hot dogs, whatever the slogan is. chevys? what is that? yeah, anyway. ronald reagan. not president yet. gary cooper, iconic actor. they called all kind of folks to come and talk about whether or

not communism has infiltrated the movie industry. if you decided, i'm not going to play this game, i'm an american, i have rights, we don't do this sort of thing in in country. suspicion, innuendo. well, we do. but there were ten folks who said, i will invoke my fifth amendment rights. self incrimination. i'm not going to answer your questions. well, you know what that means, don't you? you're a communist. exactly. if you're going to invoke your fifth amendment rights, well, that must mean you're a communist. so you draw up this blacklist. you don't hire these people. they didn't stand up and profess loyalty to this country, therefore, they must be a communist. don't hire them. because if you do, you know what that means, then you're a communist. and then it goes and goes. it's like that ripple effect.

remember the soviet union has an atomic bomb, 1949? atomic? we need to figure out how that happened. it couldn't have been that they developed a technology themselves. they had to have help. where did the help come from? it had to come from within the united states. one of the classic examples of searching through and figuring out who was involved. it focuses on the husband and wife team of ethel and julius rosenberg. >> i have a question. >> yes. >> why is the woman's name first? >> i decided to put it first, alphabetically. they will be charged separately

and both convicted of espionage, passing along atomic secrets to the soviet union in 1951 and executed for espionage in 1953. this is serious business now. the united states has been infiltrated by soviet spies. nothing more serious than the atomic weapons program and the rosenbergs paid the price. what we have then in the united states is a full-fledged red scare. we talked about this after world war i, in the 1920s. this is really a second red scare. we are afraid that the united states, here on our own shores, had been infiltrated. every aspect of american life. we are suspicious of everyone and everything. your next door neighbor might be a spy. it's your american responsibility, your duty to report suspicious activity.

the band leader synonymous with the red scare and flushing out the communists, wherever they might be, is this fellow. recognize him? joseph mccarthy, senator from wisconsin. the united states senator from wisconsin. what he is going to do is gain a lot of attention in 1950 and going to go to wheeling, west virginia, and going to deliver a speech. in part of that speech he is going to hold up a piece of paper and he says, i hold here in my hand a list of 205 names of known communists working in the state department. you see i have a piece of paper in my hand? see that writing on it? see the names, things on here? i'm joseph mcor think. i'm a united states senator, i'm waving a piece of paper in my hand and i'm saying i have a

list of 205 known communists working in the state department. don't you think that got a little bit of attention? we are not in the news cycle 24-7 like we are today, but it will get a lot of attention in 1950. all of a sudden the questions. who is on the list? how did he get the list? other communists other than the state department? all of a sudden a junior senator from wisconsin is going to be the darling of the news media. who is he and how did he get the information? a clue that maybe some of his claims and charges were not necessarily on the up and up is that when he would repeat the claim that he knew of communists in the state department, the numbers kept changing. they go from 205 to 56 and the numbers just kept changing. none the less, he is going to conduct hearings in washington,

d.c., where individuals would be subpoenaed and come to testify as to what they know about communism infiltrating the federal government. this is the day and age of television. television is brand-new into the 1950s. what the radio was to the 1920s, the television is to the 1950s. there is no better show on tv in the 1950s than the mccarthy hearings. people are glued to the set. i want to see who the communist is. when it's all said and done, he didn't get a single conviction. yet his legacy still lives on to this day. when there is a charge and accusation that is filed that a certain group doesn't necessarily like, they say it's just mccarthyism. well, it's a part of the cold war, and it's a part of the

times of the early 50s in which we are paranoid and suspicious of all kinds of things. and generally we look to the president in those days of leadership. >> considered the same thing as journalism as we saw before? >> i'm not sure we are trying to sell newspapers, so much, in this regard, it's -- it's -- i would say your, your, you're in the general area, but with -- with a slight difference of intent. less -- more political, less economic. all right. while all of this red scare is going on, we generally look to -- the president for leadership. harry truman, who had taken this very tough stand against the soviet union, he has got a very difficult time by the early 50s. we are bogged down in korea. we are at a stalemate in terms

of the soviet union, and the slide said, his hands are tide bile poy lpolitics. by that i mean, harry truman is a democrat, yet members of his own party are pulling away from him by the early 50s. because he has started to push for civil rights. that's another lecture for another day. southern democrats, conservative southern democrats are going to push back against truman who wants to push forward a civil rights agenda. he lose saz pos support and the republicans aren't going to help truman anyway. they're just playing politics. truman's popularity plummets. and by the early 50s, there is sort of a -- a change in the political atmosphere. remember i talked about a 30-year cycle. the 1920s. conservative and republican.

1930s, liberal, democratic. 1940s, transition. if you will. because of the war. we're back to our 30-year cycle. the 1950s are going to be more conservative and republican, and dominated by these two guys. dwight d. eisenhower and arichard nixon elected in 1952 and '56, republicans, regain the white house. >> this 30-year -- >> republican and much more conservative. who better to lead a cold war than a general? dwight d. eisenhower one of the most decorated generals in world war ii. he wasn't really a politician. yet, and in fact, no one really knew if he was republican or democrat. not even interested in politics, but he decided to get involved, the republicans got him, and

everybody seemed to like ike as he was known. he was just a very personable gentleman. well -- the popularity of eisenhower is not just because of his military record of, world war ii, it also has to do with the -- the economy of the day. when you talk a look at -- how the united states emerged from world war ii, we are going to have this dramatic boom. and when things are good, when people have jobs and they're having more income than they have ever had before, they tend to like the party, the republicans are going to be the ben fact benefactors of that. i'll give you three things that are part of the postwar prosperity. because of world war ii, the united states is going to have a tremendous trade surplus, not deficit, surplus. we are going to be sending a lot of american made goods overseas, to europe, to other parts of the

world, that have been devastated because of the war. that is going to fire up american factories. remember, when we were talking about the great depression, and i said -- the new deal did an awful lot of good, put a lot of people back to work. but it didn't completely pull us out of the depression. only world war ii does. this is what we are talking about. americans are back to work as never before. and that continues into the most war period. another part of the, prosperity, simply the cold war itself. just, just, the dramatic increase in the defense budget. we are building, a lot of new weapons and, armaments for war. if you are in a defense-related industry you have got a job. and a, literally a gravy train to keep that job. and then finally, prosperity is due to something called the baby boom. sound ridiculous, i know. if you were born between 1946

and 1964, see a show of hands, anybody, anybody? yeah. i'm a proud member of the baby boom generation. soldiers come back. get married. start families. there is this tremendous demographic called the baby boom. what does that have to do withic nom withic -- economic prosperity. when you have kids you have to start big all kind of things you don't normally use as an adult. the size of your family has increase you'd have got to buy baby clothes, bigger car, bigger house, got to have this and that. it's going to drive the american economy. the american consumer drives the american economy. these are very prosperous times for us as a people, and us as a nation. and the prosperity benefits the

republican party. my favorite word -- and you knew it was coming -- not everybody in america is happy. not everybody is content. you see not everybody in america is white. and the siecivil right movement the most important domestic movement in the second half of the century, that's the next topic for the next look chuectl. and the babyboomers, of the 50s. grow up to be the flower children of the 1960s. yes, i'll share some stories. not everybody is happy and not everybody is content in the 1950s.

but those are all lectures for another day. questions that you have? [ inaudible question ] >> probably one of the most famous names of writers that -- that would be on the list would be ring lardner. but there is a list of -- not just, screen writers, but it was directors, producers. you know, all of this was sort of hush-hush. these folks sort of went underground and wrote to keep their jobs, they, they wrote with assumed names, because no one would hire them. and it is a great story about -- about survival. yes, ma'am? >> didn't the soviets use -- [ indiscernible ]

>> they did. in order to choacquire that man personnel. they are forcing, best way to put it not only men in service, women into military service as well. you don't really have any options. >> even though you are just trying to -- >> we are going to get the ho chi minh. i have a look chur on streectur. i need to introduce it. you need to understand that vietnam is a part of the cold war. and i just wanted to bring it to attention, your attention today, and -- and -- two lectures from now we are going to talk about, u.s. involvement in vietnam. so, hang on to that. i will get to it later. >> i hope not. yeah. no, actually what we are doing now is destroying them.

>> why? >> we really don't need the thousands that we have. i mean -- yeah. >> how do you destroy a bomb? >> that is a great question. >> throw it in the ocean. >> that is above my pay grade. >> i would think the answer is -- "very carefully." >> all right, i hope you have a wonderful break. and i will see you again, afterwards. we will talk about civil rights movement, and vietnam, when we return. >> you know what, i think we will have a quiz next time we gather together. how is that? all right. see you.