chapter three- Truman and post war reconstruction Flashcards
Truman and winning his first term, what problems does he face?
Truman will try and change the presidency of FDR in his own way and he will have to allow the war economy to become one of peace-time. There will be a negative GDP and this will decline by 12%, unemployment will increase by 5% and that will partly be down to the 12 million soldiers who will need to find jobs.
Truman and his 21 point programme
this was designed to have substantial increases in his minimum wage and legislation to ensure that full employment can be reached, though these goals will not be realistic. this will have to be funded by the tax payer and is a key example of social; intervention.
People would be annoyed that the plan was largely unrealistic and the goals would not be attainable.
what troubles will Truman face politically?
the republicans will gain control of congress in 1946 and this will mean that Truman will struggle to be able to pass bills, a catalyst for this taking place would be his economic troubles.
there would even be suggestions that Eisenhower would become the democratic presidential nominee and Truman would take the role as vice president.
Truman would go on his whistle stop tour in 1948 even whilst he faced political gridlock.
Truman winning his second term would mean that he would be able to allow congress to have democratic control and he will be able to gain more domestic cooperation.
the republican people would be dead set against many reforms such as an extension to the FEPC and the price control bill.
strikes and organised labor and the taft-hartey act?
organised labor means the same thing as trade unions. 15 million workers will be unionised by 1945, this was due to inflation and their wages were not going as far. 800,000 steal workers will go on strike and in total there will be 4985 strikes and they will involved 4.6 million workers.
John Lewis will become powerful, he was the president of the unionised mine workers. 1947- Taft-Hartley Act, this was designed to diminish the power of the strikers and stated that unions would be liable for broken clauses and president could order 80 day pause before strikes.
this would be designed to intimidate the unions and Truman would VETO the act though this would not work.
approval rating of 1945 was 90% though this would decrease to 38% in 1948.
Truman would state that this act would take the fundamental rights away from working people.
political leaders that will lead to tensions in politics?
Joseph Martin- the republican majority leader of the house of representiaves and would soon become speaker.
strom Thurmund- this would be the democratic governor of South Carolina and will split with the party and will be a presidential candidate in 1948.
Henry Wallace- he will be VP to FDR and will want the party to become more progressive and will split with the party.
the state of Trumans presidency in 1949?
strengths:
has gained some political capital by his successful foreign policy, he desire to help veterans and de-segregate army. will be adaptable, the whistle stop tour and will win and election in his own right.
weaknesses:
the economic turmoil that is faced by people and the split within the democratic party between the more liberal/right people. the Berlin Blockade hasn’t been fully solved by the start of 1949.
price of food
would have faced low periods of popularity with 32% in 1946
Key Phrases from his state of the union in 1949.
“every segment of our population has the right to expect respect from our government”
“new tax legislation that will bring in $4 billion of revenue”- combining socio-economic concerns.
“Poverty is first as wasteful and first as unesscary as preventable disease”
Trumans fair deal, expectations and realities?
improvment in welfare- social security will extend to another million people and minimum wage will increase from 40 cents to 75 cents per hour.
Housing act 1949, 810,000 subsidise houses- only 156,000 built by 1952- overly ambitious.
Truman proposed a national health insurance- the AMA will call this socialised medicine.
improvements on cicil rights- a permanent FEPC will not be passed and there will be failure to pass an anti-lynching bill, the slums would not be removed in Northern cities to make way for new housing which would affect African Americans.
John Keynes the economist?
he would suggests that the best way to force a country out of recession would be to borrow money and spend it on large scale projects that stimulated the industry and created jobs, Truman would be somewhat weary of this but he would want to continue with the liberal programmes that was previously seen.
the Bretton-woods system?
on 1 July 1944 representatives of 44 of the allied countries would align to discuss things concerning money and this would create the IMF, this would also encourage countries to tie their money to the US dollar.
what did the US economy look like under Truman?
the fair deal was established in 1945 and was created to help move the economy from a war-time economy to a peace time economy, the key reason for this was to help aid poverty and also there would be 12 million soldiers who would soon be returning home.
the army would be slowly demobilised and by 1946 there would be 1.5 million men to re-introduce into society.
the Truman presidency would never need unemployment over 5%.
though there would be an inflation rate of 18% in 1945 and this would lead to a mini-recession regarding consumerism.
a price control bill would be suggested in 1946, though this was said to be too weak, though the CEA and the employment act (full employment) would both be approved. The CEA would have both conservatives and liberals so would be a cross-party effort. The attempt from this would be to try and manage areas such as food.
a baby boom 1945-50 would also help markets, such as housing and would lead to the development of suburbs.
there would also be booming car sales of 7.9 million by 1955.
the economy would also be improving due to the $185 billion war bonds that would be purchases by citizens.
per capita the income of Americans would rise by 40%
by 1952 he would given a 22% approval rating and this was due to the prolonged war in Korea.
what domestic problems would Truman face?
there would be a high demand due to women remaining at home in order to look after children and this would lead to an increased pressure on school and housing, the economy would have to adapt for example, factories would have to change what they were producing. The people that be worse off during this time would women and minority groups.
there was the issue of production and this would be helped with the defence production act in 1950
the role of organised labour?
despite Truman announcing the price control bill he would still state that the unions would be able to pursue higher wages and this would lead to a lot of strikes that would affect key sectors, for example, 800,000 steel workers would go on strike, he would even threaten to take a unions to court and this would mean that Truman had damaged a ket party of the Democratic parties support- organised labour.
The SC would say that it would be uncconstitutional when Truman would take the workers to court, result in the private companies taking over and another 53 day strike would have to take place.
why was the rise of McCarthyism significant?
he was a senator from Wisconsin and he would have list of 205 Communist party members that were apparently working for the US state department.
this would be the ignition of the second red wave, following the first one in 1917 after the Russian revolution.
there would be:
economic fear
military fear of the size of aggression
rise of organised labour
there would be a successful nuclear test in 1949
there would be people who would exaggerate the threat- the HUAC.
there would be the need for the US to have an enemy.
the threat of anti-communism would permeate all aspects of American life and yet the Communist party would have only 80,000 members.
the HUAC would also start to target Hollywood which would lead to the “Hollywood ten” taking place.
Hiss and the Rosenbergs would also be accused, Hiss would be a state-department official and the Rosenburgs would work on the cases of the atomic bomb, they would be executed in 1953 for passing secrets to the Russians- adding a deadly aspect to the dislike towards communists.
Truman himself would sign an executive order that would be designed to root out people that would be sympathisers with communists.
both The Republican and Democratic Party would would suggest that the administration had affected the United States.
McCarthy would gain such immense power as he would call into question the people who were supposed to keep America safe.
They would also highlight that the loyalty programme of Truman had failed. This was the exec order that T signed.
Truman would state that “there was not a single word of truth in what the Senator said”
in 1952 Truman would fail to VETO the internal security Act which would seek to allow Communists to be allowed passports- though it is important to note that this was put forward by Senator McCarran and the power would come from more that just McCarthy, Truman would lose his bid to VETO he would lose his bid and it would seem that McCarthy could wield more power than him.
forms of change and continuity with the Truman presidency.
CHANGE
would replace many key people that would be prevelent in the FDR administration, for example Harry Hopkins.
would also invite people that he was friends with such as Charles Ross who would be the press secretary.
he would create the CEA which would aid him econimically.
CONTINUNITY
Truman would keep the cabinet of FDR as he settled into his presidency.
