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Book No. – 52 (History)
Book Name – Modern World History (Norman Lowe)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. TRUMAN’S BACKGROUND AND THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1944
2. TRUMAN IN OFFICE 1948-53
3. PRESIDENT EISENHOWER
4. AFRICAN AMERICANS UNDER EISENHOWER
4.1. Martin Luther King Jr
5. THE ELECTION OF 1956
6. PRESIDENT KENNEDY
6.1. The New Frontier, poverty and education
6.2. Civil rights
6.3. Women in the 1960s
6.4. The space race
6.5. Problems with Congress
7. LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON
7.1. The election of 1964 and the launch of the Great Society
7.2. Poverty, medicare and medicaid
7.3. The Medicare Act (1965)
7.4. The Medicaid Act
7.5. Civil rights
7.6. The Freedom Summer’ 1964
7.7. The Voting Rights Act (1965)
7.8. The Black Power movement
7.9. 1967-Presidential Commission of Inquiry.
8. Malcolm X
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LANGUAGE
USA from 1945 to 1968: Uneven Prosperity
Chapter – 24
Table of Contents
- This chapter examines the domestic achievements of the four U.S. presidents between 1945 and 1968.
- Despite differing backgrounds and political parties, the presidents faced similar problems, particularly poverty and racism.
- Truman (1945-1949) had a challenging task transitioning from war-time to peace, which created complexities in farming, food production, and industrial relations.
- Truman struggled to achieve significant progress, particularly with a hostile Congress, and was limited in improving the lives of African-Americans.
- Eisenhower (1953-1961) enjoyed greater serenity in his first term, marked by economic prosperity, making the U.S. a leader economically and militarily.
- This prosperity helped Eisenhower win a second term in 1956, but his second term was more challenging, particularly regarding race.
- The rise of the civil rights movement exposed the weakness of both American society and the presidents trying to resolve racial issues.
- Eisenhower’s civil rights efforts were limited and often clumsy.
- Kennedy addressed civil rights more eloquently but faced significant opposition in Congress, leaving solutions elusive.
- After Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, civil rights remained pressing.
- Lyndon B. Johnson used his political skill to secure civil rights legislation.
- Despite prosperity, the unevenness of it remained, with inequality persisting.
- The final president of the period, Johnson, declared a “war on poverty”, signaling that the previous three presidents had failed to address inequality in American society.
TRUMAN’S BACKGROUND AND THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1944
- Truman served with distinction in World War I, overcame business setbacks in the 1920s, and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1934.
- In 1944, he was selected as FDR’s Vice-Presidential candidate due to his reputation as a steady domestic politician.
- The visible decline in Roosevelt’s health raised doubts about his ability to serve the full term.
- In contrast to the tired Roosevelt, Thomas Dewey, the Republican candidate, was young and dynamic.
- Roosevelt/Truman won the 1944 election with 25.6 million popular votes compared to Dewey’s 22 million.
- In April 1945, Truman succeeded Roosevelt as President following his death.
- Truman displayed immense power when he signed the order to deploy the atomic bomb, destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
- On the domestic front, the U.S. emerged from WWII with industrial supremacy and capacity.
- Despite government spending being curtailed after August 1945, a return to Depression did not materialize.
- Pent-up consumer demand led to an era of prosperity not seen since the 1920s.
- The GI Bill of Rights (Servicemen’s Readjustment Act) offered low-interest loans for housing and funded education and training for ex-servicemen.
- Truman’s Fair Deal promised full employment, a minimum wage increase, national health insurance, and expanded social security.
- However, Truman struggled with domestic issues.
- Alarmed by inflation and industrial disputes, Truman sought Congress’s power to draft striking railroad workers into the Army.
- The 1946 elections saw the Democrats lose control of both the Senate and the House for the first time since 1932.
- Although Congress didn’t completely undo the New Deal, it blocked most of Truman’s domestic proposals.
- Truman couldn’t prevent the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, which restored power to employers and made the closed shop and secondary strikes illegal.
- Truman’s presidential authority was limited, especially on civil rights.
- In 1945, segregation was widespread in the U.S., with practices like segregating plasma donations by race.
- Victory over Fascism raised expectations among African-Americans, but Truman’s Missouri background was ill-suited for civil rights reform.
- As late as 1945, Truman made racial remarks in personal papers.
- In February 1948, Truman sent a message to Congress recommending legislation to:
- End segregation in interstate travel
- Make lynching a federal crime
- End the poll tax
- Create a permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission
- Truman’s civil rights bill was blocked by Southern filibustering, and his actions led to a violent white backlash in the South.
- Despite limited progress, an important step came in July 1948 with an executive order ending segregation in the armed forces.
TRUMAN IN OFFICE 1948–53
- Truman alienated Southern Democrats, leading to the formation of the States’ Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrats), with Strom Thurmond as their Presidential candidate.
- The Republicans nominated Thomas E. Dewey for President, anticipating victory for the first time since 1928.
- Despite this, Truman became increasingly self-confident in his campaign dealings and secured a narrow victory in November 1948.
- In his first full term, Truman faced McCarthyism, linked to Joseph McCarthy, a senator from Wisconsin.
- McCarthy rejuvenated his career with sensational allegations of communist infiltration in the State Department.
- Historians now recognize that the anti-communist movement was already strong when McCarthy made his infamous speech on 9 February 1950 in Wheeling, West Virginia, claiming that over fifty communists infiltrated the State Department.
- McCarthy’s allegations of red infiltration rocked the East Coast establishment.
- The Korean War fueled fears of communist threats.
- Truman, facing McCarthyism, an uncooperative Congress, and a militant workforce, believed that his successor, General Eisenhower, would find the presidency just as frustrating.
- Truman famously stated about Eisenhower: “He’ll sit right here and he’ll say do this, do that! And nothing will happen. Poor Ike – it won’t be a bit like the Army. He’ll find it very frustrating.”
PRESIDENT EISENHOWER
- Dwight David Eisenhower was born in Texas in 1890.
- Graduated from West Point in 1915 and the Command and General Staff School in 1925.
- Held important posts in Washington, DC, and during WWII, became Supreme Commander of Operation Overlord, overseeing the successful D-Day landings in June 1944.
- Seen as an outstanding presidential candidate by both political parties due to his military leadership.
- After Truman’s victory in 1948 and the failure to secure a win in Korea (1950–1952), Eisenhower developed a sense of duty.
- Declared he would not seek the presidency but was open to serving if called upon and received the Republican Presidential nomination in July 1952.
- Announced he would visit Korea if elected to bring the war to an honorable end, contributing to his 55.1% victory in the election.
- McCarthy continued making accusations even under a Republican president, especially after taking over the Senate’s Permanent Investigating Subcommittee.
- Eisenhower felt contempt for McCarthy but refused to engage, telling advisers he wouldn’t “get into the gutter with that guy.”
- McCarthy shifted focus to attacking the Army and was condemned by the Senate after the 1954 televised Army hearings, leading to his deteriorating health and death in 1957.
- The 1950s saw an expanding economy and the baby boom, which led to the growth of suburban communities and the introduction of labor-saving domestic gadgets.
- Household chores and childcare were seen as female tasks, with Eisenhower’s administration not challenging these views, which wouldn’t be questioned until the 1960s.
- Eisenhower’s domestic policy was called “dynamic conservatism”, and his Cabinet included wealthy businessmen.
- He established the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and expanded unemployment and social security benefits.
- Developed a “soil bank” plan to help farmers reduce overproduction.
- Secured Congressional backing for the Interstate Highway Act (1956), a $25 billion, ten-year road-building program to create safer, multi-lane freeways.
- Pushed the Tidelands Oil Act (1953), transferring offshore oil deposits in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Pacific Coastto state ownership.