Truman and Post War Reconstruction (1945-1952)

Question 1

What was the Bretton Woods System?

Answer 1

• In 1944, 44 allied nations met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, USA and established the IMF and the World Bank
• They also obliged countries to adopt a monetary policy that tied their currencies to the US dollar

Question 2

What was Truman’s domestic policy called?

Answer 2

The Fair Deal

Question 3

What did Truman aim to achieve with the Fair Deal?

Answer 3

He aimed to expand FDR’s ‘New Deal’ policies while dealing with poverty, unemployment, and the post-war economy

Question 4

How much of the army did Truman demobilise?

Answer 4

• In 1945, he demobilised 9 million and kept 3 million
• In 1946, he demobilised them even further to 1.5 million

Question 5

What was unemployment like during Truman’s presidency?

Answer 5

Unemployment never went higher than 5%

Question 6

What were the benefits of FDR’s GI Bill?

Answer 6

It provided government help in getting a 90% mortgage and 52 weeks of unemployment benefits, as well as loans for college

Question 7

What types of booms were there in 1945?

Answer 7

1. A baby boom which created a new market and stimulated growth
2. A housing boom which led to the development of housing sites like Levittown in Long Island
3. A car boom which led to an increase in geographic mobility

Question 8

What was the state of the US economy by 1952?

Answer 8

• Total output had increased by nearly 90% since 1939
• Business investment had risen from $14bn annually to $38bn
• Employment rose from around 46 million to 61 million
• Income per capita had increased by about 40%

Question 9

What problems did Truman face due to the Republicans?

Answer 9

• The Republicans highlighted the problems of reconversion from a war economy with slogans like ‘To Err is Truman’
• The Republicans won control of both the House and Senate in the 1946 midterms and increased the likelihood of political gridlock for Truman

Question 10

What is political gridlock?

Answer 10

It occurs when opposing political parties are unable to agree on key issues, resulting in a stalemate where little or no progress is made on legislation or policymaking

Question 11

What was Truman’s 1948 presidential campaign like?

Answer 11

It followed him touring the country while facing political gridlock from the Republican Congress and earning him the nickname ‘Give ‘em hell, Harry’

Question 12

Where did the nickname ‘Give ‘em hell, Harry’ originate from?

Answer 12

When Truman was campaigning in Washington and attacking the Republicans, a supporter yelled ‘Give ‘em hell, Harry’, to which he responded ‘I don’t give them hell’

Question 13

How was the Democratic party split in the 1948 elections?

Answer 13

There were two new groups formed:
- The States’ Rights Democratic party (Dixiecrats, Strom Thurmond as Candidate)
- The Progressive Party (Henry Wallace as candidate)

Question 14

Who was the Republican Party’s candidate?

Answer 14

Thomas Dewey

Question 15

Who was Truman’s running mate in 1948?

Answer 15

Alben Barkley

Question 16

What was the public opinion of the election results?

Answer 16

They expected Dewey to win, so much so that journalists even wrote articles naming him as the next president

Question 17

What was the result of the election?

Answer 17

• Truman won in what is known as the greatest election upset in American history
• He had 303 electoral votes compared to Dewey’s 189
• 51.1% of the population voted in this election

Question 18

What problems did Truman face with Organised Labour?

Answer 18

• From late 1945 to 1946, there were strikes in the steel, coal, auto and railroad industries which were key sectors of the American economy
• Truman responded by warning that the government would draft striking railroad workers and he even took United Mine Workers, a union, to court
• Although the measures worked, they strained the relationship between organised labourers, who were Democratic supporters

Question 19

Why did Congress not support the Fair Deal?

Answer 19

There was a lack of economic necessity like the Great Depression for the ‘New Deal’

Question 20

What had the Fair Deal achieved by 1953?

Answer 20

• 62 million Americans were employed, which was an increase of 11 million under Truman
• No bank had failed in nearly 9 years
• Minimum wage had increased from $0.40 to $0.75 per hour and Social Security Benefits had doubled
• 7.8 million veterans benefitted from the GI Bill
• Poverty had fallen from 33% in 1949 to 28% in 1952

Question 21

Who was McCarthy?

Answer 21

• He was a senator from Wisconsin
• In 1950, he claimed to have a list of 205 Communist Party Members in the US State Department

Question 22

Why did the Red Scare increase in the early 1950s?

Answer 22

• The presence of the HUAC
• The rise of McCarthyism
• The successful Soviet nuclear test in August 1949

Question 23

What was the effect of McCarthyism?

Answer 23

• Hollywood actors like the Hollywood 10 were investigated (Charlie Chaplin)
• Comics like Captain America, created in 1941, changed the enemies from the Nazis to the communists
• The Hiss (1949) and Rosenberg (1951) cases revealed that there were communist’s in the government and increased fear

Question 24

What is a lame-duck stage in a presidency?

Answer 24

When the president is on the way out, and their influence is beginning to decrease
- Truman saw this when his attempts to veto the 1952 Internal Security Act (allowed communists to be denied passports) only saw 58 members of Congress support him