Cold War Dbq

Cold War Questions – all of this information can be found in your textbook chpts. 36 and 37, also with the notes online and possibly your test prep book

1. Below is a list of significant pieces of legislation passed during the presidencies of Harry Truman and Dwight D Eisenhower. What did the legislation say, why was it passed and what impact did the legislation have on our government and/or the American people

a. 22nd Amendment
*The 22nd Amendment, ratified on February 27, 1951, was primarily designed to establish that no US President can be elected to more than two terms. It also limits the maximum time a President may serve to 10 years, if one should succeed to the office.
*The 22nd amendment was passed to prevent a situation where
b. Highway Act 1956
*Popularly known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 established an interstate highway system in the United States.
*The movement behind the construction of a transcontinental superhighway started in the 1930s when President Franklin D. Roosevelt expressed interest in the construction of a network of toll superhighways that would provide more jobs for people in need of work during the Great Depression
*Because of the 1956 law, and the subsequent Highway Act of 1958, the pattern of community development in America was fundamentally altered and was henceforth based on the automobile.

c. Taft-Hartley Act
*Because labor disputes could interrupt commerce, it was of great importance to the federal government to maintain open communication between labor unions and employers. The Constitution's commerce clause, which allowed the federal government to regulate interstate commerce, was the constitutional basis for the
The CIA served as the primary civilian intelligence-gathering organization in the government

f. Smith Act
*The Alien and Registration Act of 1940 was proposed by Congressman Howard Smith of Virginia, a poll tax supporter and a leader of the anti-labor bloc in Congress, and is generally referred to as the Smith Act
*J. Edgar Hoover, immensely proud of his leading role in the government's nationwide persecution and deportation of radicals and immigrants during the 1919 Palmer Raids, suggested to President Harry Truman in 1948 that the Smith Act be used against the Communist Party and its sympathizers. Truman embraced the idea as a means to outflank Republican rivals who were accusing the Democrats of being "soft" on Communism
*The successful use of the Smith Act by the Truman administration against the top leaders of the Communist Party drove a large stake into the heart not only of the Party but of every organization in which the Communists had been active and