POLITICAL MOVEMENTS 1945-1980

Curriculum review

• new syllabus & curriculum
• Are strong arm tactics at times necessary for the greater good to prevail?
• Get copies of material for portfolios, chapter 6.

TRUMAN ADMINISTRATION

• Global context:
• 60 million died on WW2 battlefields.
• Only the USA and USSR came out of the war as great powers.
• Economic boom in USA and Canada.
• Both countries move from liberal to more conservative domestic policies.
• FDR died on April 12, 1945. Accidental president.

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TRANSITION FROM WARTIME TO PEACETIME

• Recall, decision to drop the bomb.
• Challenges of reconversion. 16 million soldiers were assisted by the GI bill.
• Employment Act of 1946
• Fair Deal - domestic policy goals

INDUSTRIALISTS VS. LABOR

Would the Great Depression return?

Economic Problems

• 12 million returning soldiers; Army cut to 1.2 million. Women and blacks, lose jobs?
• convert to domestic production? What would labor do? 21 point plan.

STRIKES

• Railroad, Steel, Coal, Automotive
• Ford spies
• 3% of labor force was on strike in January go 1946.
• Through executive and judicial action, issues were resolved.
• Democratic Party lost support of labor organizations.

1946 WORST INFLATION IN OUR HISTORY

GDP GROWTH

TURMOIL FROM CHANGE

• Republican slogans:
• "To err is Truman".
• Republicans won Congress in 1946.
• Taft-Hartley Act restricted Union power, passed over a presidential veto, won some labor support back.
• Truman successfully blamed Republicans.

INFLATION MEASURES

• Control of meat prices
• Housing support for the poor.
• Higher minimum wage
• Federal assistance for education.
• GM and UAW agreed to a sliding wage scale.
• Civil Rights Commission established in 1946.

1948 ELECTION

• Democratic Party leaders offered the nomination to DD Eisenhower, who refused.
• Truman fought hard for the nomination. KY Senator Alben Barkley was VP candidate.
• Democratic Party split, southerners supported Strom Thurmond- Dixiecrats.
• Truman issued executive order 9981.

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REPUBLICANS 1948

• Nominated NY governor, Thomas Dewey
• VP California governor, Earl Warren (future Supreme Court Justice).
• Late polls revealed Dewey solidly ahead of Truman.

TRUMAN POST CONVENTION

• Issued executive orders to end discrimination in civil service jobs.
• Called Congress into a special session, made the Republicans look ineffective.
• Went on a whistle-stop national campaign and delivered fiery speeches.

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TRUMAN WINS

• Truman won New Deal constituents, rural and urban labor unions, Midwestern farmers, and African Americans.
• Popular vote: 24 to 21 million.
• Electoral college 303 to 189.
• Truman felt he had a mandate.

TRUMAN'S SECOND TERM

• 1948-1952. Fair Deal at home, containment of communism abroad.
• McCarthyism in America.
• Korean War 1950-1953.
• "Every individual has a right to expect from our Government a fair deal".
• Isolationism to interventionism.

FAIR DEAL LEGISLATION

• Federal Security Agency - social security administration centralized.
• Minimum wage to 75 cents an hour. ($7.48 in 2015)
• Housing Act of 1949 - money to renovate old structures.
• Fair employment practices commission (desegregated federal schools)

FAIR DEAL FAILURES

• Unemployment benefits
• Federal education aid
• Low income tax cuts
• National health insurance
• Baby boom impact - focus on the family and local community.

FAIR DEAL FAILURES

• Massive debt and contradictory fiscal policy, creating new programs that were unfunded.
• Labor strikes, USArmy took over railroads August 27, 1950 to prevent a debilitating strike.
• Truman ordered seizure of steel mills in April of 1952 which would have threatened us military during wartime.

INCREASED EXECUTIVE BRANCH POWER

• Chairmanship appointments to the following agencies: Civil Aeronautics Board, FCC, Federal Power Commission, FTC, ICC, and the SEC.
• 22nd Amendment restricts Presidential power by limiting to two terms of office.
• Truman leaves office with a low approval rating.

LEGACY

• Korean War failed to find a resolution.
• Red Scare - did not stand up to McCarthy.
• However, he successfully managed reconversion, from wartime to peacetime economy.

LEGACY

• "The Presidents who have done things, who were not afraid to act, have been the most abused...and I have topped them all in the amount of abuse I have received". H. S. Truman.