We presented our projects today.
Berlin Blockade
- 1948: the three western controlled zones of Germany's (US, France, UK) were united, and grew in prosperity due to Marshal Aid
- The west wanted the east to rejoin, but Stalin feared it would hurt soviet security
- In June, 1948, Stalin decided to try to gain control of West Berlin which was deep inside the eastern sector
- Stalin cut road, rail and canal links with West Berlin, hoping to starve it into submission
- The west responded by airlifting in the necessary supplies to allow wet Berlin to survive
- In May 1949, Russia admitted defeat and lifted the blockade
McCarthyism
- Joseph McCarthy was a Republican Senator from Wisconsin
- In 1950, he gave a speech where he claimed to have a list of 205 Communists in the State Department
- No one in the press actually saw the names on the list, but McCarthy's announcement made national news and caused panic throughout the country
- McCarthy became one of the most powerful people in the US
*Supporters of McCarthy
1. Republicans
2. Catholics
3. Conservative Protestants
4. Blue-collar workers
5. Joseph and Robert Kennedy
- In the spring of 1954, McCarthy charged US Army had promoted a dentist accused of being a Communist
- For the first time, television broadcast allowed the general public to see the Senator as a blustering bully and his investigations as little more than a misguided scam
- In late 1954, the Senate voted to censure him for his conduct and to strip him of his privileges
- McCarthy died 3 years later of alcohol abuse
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