Part Nine IX › Division VII VII › Section 973 973

The United States and Canada Since 1920

Subject Outline

AThe United States since 1920
- 1The post-World War I Republican administrations
  - aPolitics and economics under Harding and Coolidge (1921-29): favouritism toward big business, restriction of immigration, "Coolidge prosperity"
  - bSocial conditions in the 1920s: prohibition, growth of organized crime, and the jazz age
  - cHoover's administration (1929-33) and the Great Depression: the stock market crash, domestic and international repercussions, Hoover's attempts to effect economic recovery
- 2The effects of the New Deal and World War II: the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-45)
  - aComprehensive New Deal measures for economic recovery, relief, and reform
  - bReform measures of the second New Deal
    - iJudicial invalidation of New Deal legislation: power struggle between Supreme Court and President
    - iiLabour legislation and union activity: strengthening of the Democratic coalition
  - cForeign policy between the World Wars: isolationism and neutrality, opposition to Japanese expansionism in Asia and economic sanctions against Japan, lend-lease aid to Britain (1940-41), the "Good Neighbor Policy" in Latin America
  - dThe U.S. in World War II: wartime mobilization, regulation of production and manpower, the role of U.S. forces in defeating the Axis powers in Europe and the Pacific, U.S. military occupation of Japan and participation with the Allies in occupation of Germany
- 3The beginning of the Cold War: the U.S. from the end of World War II to 1961
  - aThe Truman administration (1945-53)
    - iForeign policy aimed at the containment of Communism: the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, the Point Four Program, the creation of NATO, U.S. support of Nationalist China
    - iiPrograms of the Fair Deal: the conversion to a peacetime economy, labour disputes and inflation, the Taft-Hartley Act (1947), social and economic legislation
    - iiiMcCarthyism and the "Red Scare"
    - ivThe Korean War (1950-53): wartime mobilization of the U.S. economy, peace and bilateral security treaties with Japan (1951)
    - vMaintenance of a large postwar military establishment: collaboration of science and industry
  - bThe Eisenhower administrations (1953-61)
    - iIntensification of the civil rights movement and innovative decisions of the Warren court, passage of the Civil Rights acts of 1957 and 1960
    - iiForeign policy during the Eisenhower years: sponsorship of military coups in Iran (1953) and Guatemala (1954), the Suez crisis (1956), U.S. entry into the space race (1958), intervention in Lebanon (1958), continued support of Nationalist China, the U-2 affair
    - iiiSocial and economic problems: recessions (1953-54 and 1957-58), growing racial unrest, unemployment, labour strikes and the Landrum-Griffin Act (1959)
- 4The U.S. in the late 20th century: continuation of East-West hostilities, detente, the end of the Cold War
  - aThe Kennedy administration (1961-63): the Cuban missile crisis (1962), the Nuclear Test- Ban Treaty (1963), military aid to South Vietnam, the assassination of John F. Kennedy
  - bThe Johnson administrations (1963-69)
    - iCivil Rights Act of 1964, Medicare and other social welfare legislation, inflation and increased governmental economic activity
    - iiIncreasing alienation among the youth and minority groups: protests in cities and on campuses, the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968), the anti-Vietnam War movement
    - iiiForeign policy: Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964) and subsequent expansion of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, invasion of the Dominican Republic (1965-- 66), commencement of Paris peace talks (1968), military and economic aid to Middle Eastern and Latin-American countries
  - cThe Nixon administrations (1969-74)
    - iForeign policy: the continuing Vietnam War and the Paris peace talks, the invasion of Cambodia (1970), rapprochement with the People's Republic of China, Vietnam War cease-fire agreement (1973)
    - iiInflation, high unemployment, and temporary price and wage controls; cabinet reorganization; antiwar demonstrations
    - iiiThe Watergate scandal, the resignation (1973) of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and appointment of Gerald R. Ford, the resignation (1974) of Nixon
  - dThe Ford administration (1974-77): presidential pardon of Nixon (1974), detente with the Soviet Union, conclusion of the Vietnam War (1975), continuing Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), celebration of the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence (1976)
  - eThe Carter administration (1977-81): foreign policy emphasis on human rights, Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel (1978), Panama Canal treaties (1977), Iranian hostage crisis; attempts to alleviate the energy crisis and to reform electoral, welfare, and Social Security bureaucracies; poor relations between president and Congress
  - fThe Reagan administrations (1981-89)
    - iIncreased military spending, cuts in social welfare programs, reduction and simplification of personal income tax rates, rapid growth of federal deficit, Supreme Court shift to the right, Iran-Contra Affair
    - iiAnticommunist foreign policy stance, sponsorship of Contra insurgency in Nicaragua and support for government forces in Salvadoran civil war from 1981, invasion of Grenada (1983), U.S.-Soviet relations during Gorbachev era
- 5The U.S. from the end of the Cold War (c. 1989)
  - aThe George Bush administration (1989-93): continuation of conservative economic policies, the "war on drugs," savings and loan institutions crisis, invasion of Panama (1989), Persian Gulf War (1991), economic recession
  - bThe Clinton administration (1993-2001): ratification of North American Free Trade Agreement (1993), economic recovery
  - cThe George W. Bush administration (2001- ): income tax cuts, September 11 attacks (2001), Second Persian Gulf War (2003)
BCanada since 1920
- 1Canada between the World Wars
  - aThe Liberal government under King (1921-30): Commonwealth relations, nationalism and the return to isolationism
  - bThe Great Depression and relief measures of the Conservative government (1930-35): return of Liberal government (1935); foreign trade, welfare legislation, financial reforms
- 2Canadian participation in World War II: mobilization of manpower and production, development of armed forces
- 3Canada since 1945
  - aPostwar foreign policy: North American continentalism and collective security: participation in NATO, the UN, and the Korean War; leading role in UN peacekeeping efforts; U.S.-Canadian economic relations and free-trade agreement
  - bInvolvement in British Commonwealth affairs: relations with Third World nations
  - cFranco-Canadian relations and French separatism in Quebec: conflicts between French- and English-speaking Canadians
  - dPostwar prosperity: expansion of manufacturing and mining industries; economic nationalism; relations with Indians, Eskimo, and Metis