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United Nations Resolution 181, resolution passed by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1947 that called for the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, with the city of Jerusalem as a corpus separatum (Latin: “separate entity”) to be governed by a special international regime.
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Truman’s last years in office were marred by charges that his administration was lax about, or even condoned, subversion and disloyalty and that communists, called “reds,” had infiltrated the government. These accusations were made despite Truman’s strongly anticommunist foreign policy and his creation, in 1947, of an elaborate Federal Employee Loyalty Program, which resulted in hundreds of federal workers being fired and in several thousand more being forced to resign.
The excessive fear of communist subversion was fed by numerous sources. China’s fall to communism and the announcement of a Soviet atomic explosion in 1949 alarmed many, and fighting between communist and U.S.-supported factions in Korea heightened political emotions as well. Real cases of disloyalty and espionage also contributed, notably the theft of atomic secrets, for which Soviet agent Julius Rosenberg and his wife Ethel were convicted in 1951 and executed two years later. Republicans had much to gain from exploiting these and related issues.
On June 25, 1950, a powerful invading force from the Soviet-supported Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) swept south of the 38th parallel into the Republic of Korea (South Korea). Within days, President Truman resolved to defend South Korea, even though there were few Americans in Korea and few troops ready for combat. The UN Security Council, acting during a Soviet boycott, quickly passed a resolution calling upon UN members to resist North Korean aggression.
After almost being driven into the sea, UN forces, made up largely of U.S. troops and commanded by U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, counterattacked successfully and in September pushed the North Korean forces back across the border. Not content with this victory, the United States attempted to unify Korea by force, advancing almost to the borders of China and the Soviet Union. China, after its warnings were ignored, then entered the war, driving the UN forces back into South Korea. The battle line was soon stabilized along the 38th parallel, and armistice talks began on July 10, 1951, three months after Truman had relieved MacArthur for openly challenging U.S. policies. The talks dragged on fruitlessly, interrupted by outbreaks of fighting, until Eisenhower became president. The United States sustained some 142,000 casualties in this limited war, most of them occurring after China’s entry.
The stalemated Korean War, a renewal of inflation, and the continuing Red Scare persuaded Truman not to stand for reelection in 1952 and also gravely handicapped Gov. Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois, the Democratic nominee. His opponent, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, was an immensely popular war hero with great personal charm and no political record, making him extremely hard to attack. Although he disliked their methods, Eisenhower allowed Republican campaigners, including his running mate, Sen. Richard M. Nixon of California, to capitalize on the Red Scare by accusing the Truman administration of disloyalty. Eisenhower himself charged the administration with responsibility for the communist invasion of Korea and won wide acclaim when he dramatically promised that if elected he would visit Korea in person to end the war.
Eisenhower won over many farmers, ethnic whites, workers, and Roman Catholics who had previously voted Democratic. He defeated Stevenson by a large margin, carrying 39 states, including three in the once solidly Democratic South. Despite Eisenhower’s overwhelming victory, Republicans gained control of the House by just eight votes and managed only a tie in the Senate. Because the Republican margin was so slight, and because many right-wing Republicans in Congress disagreed with his policies, Eisenhower would increasingly depend upon Democrats to realize his objectives.
Eisenhower had promised to end the Korean War, hold the line on government spending, balance the budget, abolish inflation, and reform the Republican Party. On July 27, 1953, an armistice was signed in Korea freezing the status quo. By cutting defense spending while taxes remained fairly high, and by keeping a tight rein on credit, Eisenhower was able to avoid serious deficits, abolish inflation, and, despite several small recessions, encourage steady economic growth that made Americans more prosperous than they had ever been before. Eisenhower also supported public works and a modest expansion of government social programs. In 1954 the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation was established by Congress. In 1956 Congress authorized the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, Eisenhower’s pet project and the largest public works program in history. Amendments to the Social Security Act in 1954 and 1956 extended benefits to millions not previously covered. Thus, Eisenhower achieved all but the last of his goals, and even in that he was at least partially successful. At first Eisenhower did little to check the Red Scare, but in 1954 Senator McCarthy unwisely began to investigate the administration and the U.S. Army. This led to a full-scale investigation of McCarthy’s own activities, and on December 2 the Senate, with Eisenhower playing a behind-the-scenes role, formally censured McCarthy for abusing his colleagues. McCarthy soon lost all influence, and his fall did much to remove the poison that had infected American politics. In short, Eisenhower was so successful in restoring tranquility that, by the end of his first term, some people were complaining that life had become too dull.
Tensions eased in foreign affairs as well. On March 5, 1953, Joseph Stalin died, opening the door to better relations with the Soviet Union. In 1955 the Soviets agreed to end the four-power occupation of Austria, and in that July Eisenhower met in Geneva with the new Soviet leader, Nikita S. Khrushchev, for talks that were friendly though inconclusive.
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May 22, 2024 · In 1947, as the United Kingdom prepared to withdraw from the region, the United Nations passed a partition plan (known as UN Resolution 181) that would divide Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state, an idea originally proposed by the British government about a decade earlier.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
From time to time in 1947, some people in various parts of the United States and some other countries reported seeing strange objects in the sky and claimed that they were spacecraft piloted by space aliens. In the midst of this “flying saucer” craze, some unusual material fell to the ground on or about July 4 near Roswell, N.M.
May 15, 2024 · National Security Act, U.S. military- and foreign-policy reform legislation, signed into law by Pres. Harry S. Truman in July 1947, which reorganized the structure of the U.S. armed forces following World War II. It created the office of Secretary of Defense to oversee the nation’s military.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Truman Doctrine, pronouncement by U.S. President Harry S. Truman on March 12, 1947, declaring immediate economic and military aid to the governments of Greece, threatened by communist insurrection, and Turkey, under pressure from Soviet expansion in the Mediterranean area.
McCarthyism, name given to the period of time in American history that saw U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin produce a series of investigations and hearings during the 1950s in an effort to expose supposed communist infiltration of various areas of the U.S. government.
