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NOTE: You can share this narrative about events that happened during the year 1951 with your students and discuss where intext citations should be placed, and how. Discuss how various parts of this narrative could be made more effective (for example, there is no clear conclusion). Discuss transitions, the addition of specific, supporting details. What else?

1951: The Year in Review

Some notable individuals died in 1951. It was the year that William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper magnate, died. He died on August 14, 1951, at the age of 88.

John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, one of the most colorful politicians of modern times, founder of an American political dynasty and grandfather of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, also died in 1951.

But, despite these deaths, America was growing. As of September 1, 1951, the population had reached 154, 853, 000. On December 20, another birth statistic was added to the census. That's when I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at about 10:30 in the morning. It was the culmination of an interesting year.

On September 8, a formal Treaty of Peace was signed with Japan officially ending World War II. But in Korea, an undeclared war entered its second year on June 25, the anniversary of the day 80.000 North Korean Communists crossed the 38th parallel of latitude, intent on crushing the Republic of Korea.

Although a cease fire line had been agreed upon in November, over 100,000 Americans and 3,000,000 Koreans had been killed by the end of the year in what was beginning to be called the Korean War.

General Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of the American Army in Korea, was dismissed from his post on April 11 by President Harry S.Truman for publicly challenging the president's policies. MacArthur had advocated the American bombing and invasion of mainland China. His slogan was "There is no substitute for victory." MacArthur was greeted at home with tumultuous ticker tape parades. He addressed a reverent Congressional audience and then gradually faded from public view.

Americans were concerned about war. So was Congress. They voted for the largest peace time military appropriation bill in history: $77 billion.

Communism was also a subject of concern for many Americans in 1951. On February 5, General Grow, the U. S. Military Attache in Moscow, wrote in his diary,
War! As soon as possible! Now! We need a voice to lead us without equivocation! Communism must be destroyed!

Six months after his diary was made public, Grow was court marshalled for failure to safeguard secret military information.

The American Committee for Cultural Freedom (ACCF) was founded by James Brunham, James T. Farrell, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Sidney Hook, and others in 1951 to "counteract the influence of mendacious communist propaganda." The ACCF was an affiliate of the international Congress for Cultural Freedom, which was funded by the Central Intelligence Agency. Enough said about that!

America's concern about Communism was neatly bundled in the popular literature of the year. Mickey Spillane's One Lonely Night sold 3 million copies in 1951 (one for each dead Korean?). In the book, Mike Hammer, the hero, gloats

I killed more people tonight than I have fingers on my hands. I shot them in cold blood and enjoyed every minute of it. . . . They were Commies, Lee. They were red sons-of-bitches who should have died long ago. . . . They never thought that were people like me in this country. They figured us all to be soft as horse manure and just as stupid.

Not all Americans were soft and stupid in 1951, but neither were they tough as Mike Hammer. In fact, many Americans were deeply worried about the potential use of the atomic bomb in warfare. Dwight D. Eisenhower, General of the Army, wasn't worried though. On March 11, he told a gathering of Senators

To my mind the use of the bomb would be on this basis: Does it advantage me, or does it not, when I get into a war? If I felt that the material destruction I was going to accomplish was not equal to some moral or otherwise great reaction to this act, then I would abstain. If I thought the net was on my side, I would use it instantly, because I proceed from this basis: The U. S. Is not going to declare war or conduct an aggressive campaign. It is merely going to defend itself, and if someone in spite of its peaceful purposes, jumps on it, I believe in using what we have in defending ourselves.

Along with worries about using it, there was a great deal of paranoia in 1951 about keeping Communist Russia in the dark concerning atomic bomb development. On April 5, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to die in the electric chair for stealing atomic bomb secrets. The main prosecution exhibits were two Jello box halves for spy-to-spy identification, photostats of New Mexico hotel registration cards signed by "Harry Gold" (a key prosecution witness, later revealed to be a mythomaniac), sketches of the atomic bomb made by David Greenglass (who flunked most of his academic courses in high school and was Ethel Rosenberg's younger brother). Judge Irving Kaufman said in his judgement of the Rosenbergs, "I consider your crime worse than murder." He accused the couple of causing "the Communist aggression in Korea."

Despite the growing Korean war and the specter of "The Bomb," Americans attempted to keep their spirits high in 1951. The stage production of "Oklahoma" played 2, 246 times to audiences in New York. "Arsenic and Old Lace" played 1, 444 times, "Mister Roberts" 1, 157, "Annie Get Your Gun" 1, 147, and "Kiss Me Kate" 1, 007.

The popular songs in 1951 were "Hello, Young Lovers" and "Getting to Know You" by Rogers and Hammerstein from the score of "The King and I," another Broadway smash hit.

The Best Motion Picture of the Year was "An American in Paris" directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron.

The Best Motion Picture Actor in 1951 was Humphrey Bogart. He won the award for his portrayal of Charlie Ono in "The African Queen." The Best Motion Picture Actress award was given to Vivien Leigh for her role as Stella in "A Streetcar Named Desire."
Although not the competition it is today, television came into prominence in the early 1950s. Edward R. Murrow narrated the CBS documentary series "See It Now" featuring coverage and analysis of new events. The premier show began with a split screen showing New York's Brooklyn Bridge and San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge as Murrow said,

For the first time in the history of man we are able to look at both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of this great country at the same time. . . . No journalistic age was ever given a weapon for truth with quite the scope of this fledgling television.

Murrow later changed his mind and said, "The trouble with television is that it is like a sword rusting in the scabbard during a battle for survival."

In a forerunner of the now famous Senate Watergate Hearings, both CBS and NBC broadcast the Senate Hearings on Crime in America. Underworld character Frank Costello refused to allow his face to be telecast, so the television cameras focused on his hands as he answered questions from Senator Estes Kefauver.

On the lighter side, Dinah Shore starred in "The Chevy Show," a 15-minute, twice-a-day program that became a weekly one hour show in 1956. Dinah, who advised viewers to "See the U. S. A. in your Chevrolet," closed each show by blowing a kiss to her television audience.

And the World Series of Baseball, always a big deal in any year, was won, in 1951, by the New York Yankees, 4 games to 2 over the New York Giants.

Chevrolet, of course, was trying to sell automobiles, just as countless other manufacturers were trying to sell countless other products. In the early 1950s, marketing became of equal importance with production. Hundreds of similar products were competing with each other. Burma-Shave shaving cream utilized a unique form of "verse by the roadside" advertising to attract attention.

I KNOW
HE'S A WOLF
SAID RIDING HOOD
BUT GRANDMA DEAR,
HE SMELLS TO GOOD
BURMA-SHAVE

This production and consumption of products upset traditional class categories as millions of working class American families moved into the suburbs and became middle class. Along with changes in production and marketing, traditional societal values were also changed, or upset in 1951. Oral contraceptives were tested and put on the market. The consumption of soft drinks dropped 10% between 1950 and 1955, presumably because people were concerned about dieting and tooth decay. Cigarette smoking spawned a "cancer scare."

Changes to our social system also occurred in 1951. In November, W. E. D. DuBois, one of the greatest black scholars of the century, was arrested and brought to trail for not registering as a subversive. He was acquitted and said, "A great silence has fallen on the real soul of this nation."

On December 7, a delegation of black Americans, led by Paul Robeson, often reviled as a Communist, and William L. Patterson, presented a petition to the United Nations which charged the United States government with a policy of genocide against its black citizens.