American History: The Rise of US Influence After World War Two

Photo: americanhistory.si.edu

President Harry Truman signing the European Recovery Act

Source: http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/us-history/American-History-The-Rise-of-US-Influence-After-World-War-Two-126735008.html

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.

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Britain was once the most powerful nation in the world. It ruled a wide-reaching empire. This week in our series, we look at how British power gave way to American influence after World War Two.

One can almost name the day when this happened. It was February twenty-first, nineteen forty-seven. British diplomats in Washington called the State Department. They had two messages from their government.

The first was about Greece. The situation there was critical. Greece had been occupied by Germany during the war. Now it was split by a bitter civil war. On one side of the fighting was the Greek royal family supported by Britain. On the other side were communist-led rebels supported by Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union.

British forces had helped keep Greece from becoming communist at the end of World War Two. A few years later, Britain could no longer help. It needed all its strength to rebuild after the war. So, on that February day in nineteen forty-seven, Britain told the United States it would soon end all support for Greece.

Britain's second message that day was about Turkey. Turkey was stronger than Greece. But the concern was that it, too, could become communist unless it received outside help.

Britain warned the United States that the Soviet Union would soon extend its control all the way across eastern Europe to the eastern Mediterranean. It called on President Harry Truman to provide strong American support to help Greece and Turkey resist the communist threat.

Britain, in effect, was asking the United States to take over leadership of the Western world. The United States was ready to accept this new responsibility.

For months, relations between the United States and the Soviet Union had been growing worse and worse.

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The two countries had fought together as allies in the Second World War. But Soviet actions after the war shocked the American people.

The Soviet Union wanted to block western political and economic influence in central and eastern Europe. It wanted to extend its own influence instead. So, after the war, it forced a number of countries to establish communist governments.

AP

WINSTON CHURCHILL: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.”

Britain's prime minister, Winston Churchill, described the situation in a speech in March of nineteen forty-six at Westminster College in the American state of Missouri.

WINSTON CHURCHILL: “Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in some cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow.”

Churchill warned that the Soviet Union was trying to expand its power. He described it as an "iron curtain" falling across the middle of Europe. This iron curtain divided Europe into a communist east and a democratic west.

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The situation was made even more tense by news coming from China. China was a divided nation at the end of World War Two. The forces of Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek controlled the southwestern part of the country. Communist forces under Mao Zedong controlled the north.

Both the United States and the Soviet Union expected that Chiang Kai-shek would be able to unite China.

Chiang and the Nationalists won several early victories over the Communists. But Mao and his forces used a growing hatred of the Nationalist government to win support. Slowly, they began to win battles and capture arms.

Early in nineteen forty-nine, communist forces took control of Peking -- now Beijing -- and Tientsin. They captured Shanghai and Canton. By the end of the year, Chiang and his Nationalist forces had to flee to the island of Taiwan.

The fall of the Nationalist government on the mainland caused a bitter political debate in America. Some critics of the Truman administration thought the United States had not done enough to help the Nationalists.

The Truman administration rejected the charges. It said Chiang caused his own defeat by failing to reform and win the support of the Chinese people. Secretary of State Dean Acheson described the defeat this way:

"The unfortunate but inescapable fact is that the ominous result of the civil war in China was beyond the control of the government of the United States. Nothing that this country did or could have done within the reasonable limits of its capabilities could have changed that result; nothing that was left undone by this country has contributed to it. It was the product of internal Chinese forces, forces which this country tried to influence but could not. A decision was arrived at within China, if only a decision by default."

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The United States was more successful in its policies toward Europe. The British warnings about the communist threat in Greece and Turkey led President Truman to speak to Congress. He said, "I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."

americanhistory.si.edu

American flour being unloaded in Greece

Truman called on Congress to give him four hundred million dollars in aid for Greece and Turkey. After a brief but intense national debate, Congress agreed. Truman then launched an effort to save the Greek economy and reorganize the Greek army. Soon after that, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union ended their aid to Greek rebels. The civil war in Greece ended.

American help for Greece and Turkey was the first step in what became known as the "Truman Doctrine." The goal of this policy was to stop Soviet aggression anywhere in the world.

Truman was willing to use military force to stop the spread of communism. But he also believed it was equally important to build up western European nations so they would be strong enough to defend themselves.

Europe was suffering terribly after World War Two. There were severe shortages of food and fuel. Crops were destroyed. Many Europeans were beginning to look to the communists -- to anybody -- to save them.

This is one reason why Truman and his advisers developed a plan to rebuild the economies of Europe.

americanhistory.si.edu

Heavy machinery from the United States bound for Austria

After the war, President Truman made George Marshall his secretary of state. Marshall had led American troops as a general in World War Two. Now, as the nation's top diplomat, he proposed the idea for rebuilding Europe. This idea became known as the "Marshall Plan."

President Truman explained why there had to be a Marshall Plan. People were starving, he said. There had been food riots in France and Italy. There was not enough fuel. People were cold and sick. Tuberculosis was breaking out.

As Truman said later, "Something had to be done."

Secretary of State Marshall described the plan during a congressional hearing in Washington.

GEORGE MARSHALL: “Why must the United States carry so great a load in helping Europe? The answer is simple. The United States is the only country in the world today which has the economic power and productivity to furnish the needed assistance. The six and eight-tenths billion proposed for the first fifteen months is less than a single month’s charge of the war.

To be quite clear, this unprecedented endeavor of the new world to help the old is neither sure nor easy. It is a calculated risk. It is a difficult program. And you know, far better than I do, the political difficulties involved in this program.

But there’s no doubt whatever in my mind that, if we decide to do this thing, we can do it successfully. And there’s also no doubt in my mind that the whole world hangs in the balance as to what it is to be.”

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The United States offered aid through the Marshall Plan to all countries in Europe. The Soviet Union and its allies refused help. Sixteen other countries, however, welcomed the aid.

From nineteen forty-eight to nineteen fifty-two, administrators of the Marshall Plan worked with these countries. The United States spent thirteen billion dollars.

The plan worked. Agricultural production in Marshall Plan countries increased by ten percent. Industrial production increased by thirty-five percent. Production in some industries, such as steel, increased by much more.

There were political results, as well. Stronger economies helped prevent communists from gaining control of the governments in France and Italy.

Some Europeans criticized the Marshall Plan. They said it increased tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union in the years after the war. Yet few could deny that the plan was one of the most successful international economic programs in history.

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Next week, we look at another way the United States provided aid in postwar Europe -- the Berlin Airlift.

You can find our series online with transcripts, MP3s, podcasts and pictures at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember, inviting you to join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.

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Contributing: David Jarmul

This was program #200. For earlier programs, type "Making of a Nation" in quotation marks in the search box at the top of the page

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World Nettle-Eating Championship

Strange story: World Nettle-Eating Championship

Source: Speak Up

Speakers: Rachel Roberts (British Accent)

Chunk Rolando (American Accent)

Source: www.speakup.com.br (edition 253)

The British are famously eccentric: what other nation would invent a World Neattle Eating Championship? Every year people come to The Bottle Inn - a pub in Marshwood, Dorset - in order to take part.

Contestants sit before enormous piles of stinging nettles, and have one hour to strip the leaves and eat as many as possible; apparently, there's a technique which stops the plants from stinging your lips and tongue. Contestants Matt Thurtan explain: " Food  the Leaf, get it past your lips, and swallow quickly". The winner is decided by the total length of stripped nettle sterms; 2004 winner Simon Sleigh holds the World record of 22 metres. The event began in 1986 when local farmer Alex Williams made an unusual challenge: if anyone could produce a taller nettle than his own, then he would eat it. Unfortunately for him, he lost.

AMERICAN STYLE

Americans may dispute that Britain has a monopoly on ecentricity. Visitors to Spivey's Corner in North Carolina will discover that this tiny village, with a population of only 49, is the home of theNational Hollerin' Contest. "Holler" is another word for "Shout", but contestants says that hollering is an art and one of the olders form of communication. In the past, farmers would shout out greeting and warmings to neighbours, sometimes several miles away. Hollering is a dying art which the contest organisers hope to keep alive; 10000 people come to Spivers Corner every June in order to hear the unique techniques of Sampson County's hollers.

Wilma Rudolph, 1940-1994: 'The Fastest Woman in the World'

Voice of America Special English
www.manythings.org/voa/people  www.voanews.com

I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Barbara Klein with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Wilma Rudolph, the first American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics.

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They called her "the Black Pearl," "the Black Gazelle" and "the fastest woman in the world."  In nineteen sixty, Wilma Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics. She was an extraordinary American athlete. She also did a lot to help young athletes succeed.

Wilma Rudolph was born in nineteen forty, in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee. She was born too early and only weighed two kilograms. She had many illnesses when she was very young, including pneumonia and scarlet fever. She also had polio, which damaged her left leg. When she was six years old, she began to wear metal leg braces because she could not use that leg.

Wilma Rudolph was born into a very large, poor, African-American family. She was the twentieth of twenty-two children. Since she was sick most of the time, her brothers and sisters all helped to take care of her. They took turns rubbing her crippled leg every night. They also made sure she did not try to take off her leg braces.  Every week, Wilma's mother drove her to a special doctor eighty kilometers away. Here, she got physical treatments to help heal her leg.

She later said: "My doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother."

Soon, her family's attention and care showed results. By the time she was nine years old, she no longer needed her leg braces. Wilma was very happy, because she could now run and play like other children. When she was eleven years old, her brothers set up a basketball hoop in the backyard. After that, she played basketball every day.

As a teenager, Wilma joined the girl's basketball team at Burt High School. C.C. Gray was the coach who supervised the team. He gave her the nickname "Skeeter." She did very well in high school basketball. She once scored forty-nine points in one game, which broke the Tennessee state record.

Many people noted that Wilma was a very good basketball player and a very good athlete. One of these people was Ed Temple, who coached the track team of runners at Tennessee State University. Ed Temple asked C.C. Gray to organize a girl's track team at the high school. He thought Wilma Rudolph would make a very good runner. She did very well on the new track team.

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Wilma Rudolph went to her first Olympic Games when she was sixteen years old and still in high school. She competed in the nineteen fifty-six games in Melbourne, Australia. She was the youngest member of the United States team. She won a bronze medal, or third place, in the sprint relay event.

In nineteen fifty-seven, Wilma Rudolph started Tennessee State University, where she joined the track team. The coach, Ed Temple, worked very hard for the girls on the team. He drove them to track competitions and made improvements to the running track with his own money. However, he was not an easy coach. For example, he would make the members of the team run one extra time around the track for every minute they were late to practice.

Wilma Rudolph trained hard while in college. She did very well at her track competitions against teams from other colleges. In nineteen sixty, she set the world record for the fastest time in the two thousand meter event.  She said: "I ran and ran and ran every day, and I acquired this sense of determination, this sense of spirit that I would never, never give up, no matter what else happened."

That same year, Wilma Rudolph went to the Olympics again, this time in Rome, Italy. She won two gold medals -- first place -- in the one hundred meter and the two hundred meter races. She set a new Olympic record of twenty-three point two seconds for the two hundred meter dash.

Her team also won the gold medal in the four hundred meter sprint relay event, setting a world record of forty-four point five seconds. These three gold medals made her one of the most popular athletes at the Rome games. These victories made people call her the "world's fastest woman."

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Wilma Rudolph received a lot of attention from the press and the public, but she did not forget her teammates.  She said that her favorite event was the relay, because she could share the victory with her teammates Martha Hudson, Lucinda Williams and Barbara Jones. All four women were from Tennessee State University.

The Associated Press named Rudolph the U.S. Female Athlete of the year. She also appeared on television many times. Sports fans in the United States and all over the world loved and respected her.  She said: "The feeling of accomplishment welled up inside of me, three Olympic gold medals. I knew that was something nobody could ever take away from me, ever."

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Wilma Rudolph was a fine example for many people inside and outside the world of sports. She supported the civil rights movement -- the struggle for equality between white and black people. When she came home from the Olympics, she told the governor of Tennessee that she would not attend a celebration where white and black people were separated. As a result, her homecoming parade and dinner were the first events in her hometown of Clarksville that white people and black people were able to attend together.

After she retired from sports, Wilma Rudolph completed her education at Tennessee State University. She got her bachelor's degree in elementary education and became a teacher. She returned to coach the track team at Burt High School. She also worked as a commentator for women's track competitions on national television. In nineteen sixty-three she married her high school boyfriend Robert Eldridge.  They had four children, but later ended their marriage.

Wilma Rudolph won many important athletic awards. She was voted into the Black Athlete's Hall of Fame and the United States Olympic Hall of Fame. She was also voted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.  In nineteen seventy-seven, she wrote a book about her life called "Wilma."  She wrote about her childhood problems and her athletic successes. NBC later made the book into a movie for television.

Rudolph said her greatest success was creating the Wilma Rudolph Foundation in nineteen eighty-one. This organization helped children in local communities to become athletes. She always wanted to help young athletes recognize how much they could succeed in their lives.

She said: "The triumph can't be had without the struggle. And I know what struggle is. I have spent a lifetime trying to share what it has meant to be a woman first in the world of sports so that other young women have a chance to reach their dreams."

Rudolph also influenced many athletes. One of them was another African American runner, Florence Griffith Joyner. In nineteen eighty-eight, Griffith Joyner became the second American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics.  She went on to win a total of six Olympic medals. Wilma Rudolph was very happy to see other African American female athletes succeed. She said: "I thought I'd never get to see that. Florence Griffith Joyner – every time she ran, I ran."

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Wilma Rudolph died of brain cancer in nineteen ninety-four in Nashville, Tennessee. She was fifty-four years old. She influenced athletes, African Americans and women around the world. She was an important example of how anyone can overcome barriers and make their dreams come true.  Her nineteen sixty Olympics teammate, Bill Mulliken, said: "She was beautiful; she was nice, and she was the best."

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This program was written by Erin Braswell and produced by Lawan Davis.  I'm Barbara Klein. And I'm Steve Ember. You can learn more about famous Americans at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.  Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.