Download Truman Domestic Policies

Truman Domestic
Policies
McElhaney
APUSH



Postwar domestic adjustments
The Taft-Hartley Act
Civil Rights and the election of 1948













Servicemen's Readjustment Act,
1944 (GI Bill)
Taft-Hartley Act, 1947
Fair Deal
Racial issues after WWII
Desegregation of Military
Jackie Robinson
Jim Crowe South
Truman and Early Civil Rights
Civil Rights and the Election of
1948
Truman and Israel
Thomas E. Dewey
J. Strom Thurmond
“Dixiecrats”











Henry Wallace
Alger Hiss
Joseph McCarthy
House Un-American Activities
Committee (HUAC)
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Hollywood Ten
Dalton Trumbo
Edward R. Murrow
Waldorf Statement
McCarren Internal Security Act,
1950
Dennis v. United States, 1951
Postwar Domestic Adjustments






US After WWII 10 million service men and women
were demobilized.
Fear of economic recession- many believed that there
would be a rise in unemployment (true but not too bad)
The economy changed from War production to
consumer goods
Women left the work force in large numbers, 3 million
Labor unrest: Unions ended their war time promise to
end strikes and a wave of strikes occurs
United Mine workers go on strike, after 45 days
Truman proposes government be authorized to take
control of essential industries crippled by strikes and
draft strikers. (Truman alienates unions)
The Taft-Hartley Act

Republicans take control of both houses of Congress in
1946 and seek to return to a conservative government:






Lower taxes
Reduced government regulation
Support for business
Anti-Union – reduce the power of unions to aid business
End price controls passed during the war
Taft, a conservative Republican Senator sponsored act


Authorized President- 80 day cooling off period for strikes in
essential industries
Banned shops closed to non-union members
Truman Vetoes but is overridden
“GI Bill of Rights”





Servicemen's Readjustment Act, 1944 (GI
Bill) Benefits offered by the government to
help returning soldiers- Subsidies
Housing support and loans
Education funding
Job training
Business loans
Fair Deal: Liberal
programs of
Truman similar to New Deal


1949, Truman called for a
"Fair Deal" including
housing, full employment,
and higher minimum
wage, better farm
supports, new TVAs and
extension of Social
Security, and increased
rights for African
Americans.
Limited and refused by
Republican Congress 1946

XI. Truman’s FAIR DEAL
A. The only major successes
were raising the minimum wage,
public housing and extending oldage insurance to more beneficiaries
(SSA of 1950)
C. In essence, Truman was able
to preserve New Deal programs
but unable to add to it.
D. Coalition of Republicans and
Southern Democrats prevented
little more than the
maintenance of existing
programs.
Truman and Civil Rights



The “serious gap between our ideals and some
of our practices… must be closed.”
1948 Orders End to Segregation in the Armed
Forces
And Civil Service
Truman and Civil Rights





Supports the trend in post war America against
intoleranceof discrimination of the Nazis- rings loud and
clear- Nuremberg Trials began, the truth of
Nazi racism comes out
War was fought for freedom- freedom should
be available at home
Some former soldiers don’t like racism in USA
American society is developing conditions for
change emerge
Emergence of the Civil Rights
Movement




Anti-Semitism begins to decline-social clubs,
universities, industries
New Deal included African Americans in jobs
and relief programs (not perfect, but not
excluded)
During War FDR desegregated War Industries
African Americans in the North experience
more integration- Jackie Robinson- Brooklyn
Dodgers- signed 1947
The South is Segregated and had
limited signs of changing
NAACP: “It’s not Russia that threatens the United States so much
as Mississippi.”
 Jim Crow South= segregated South






Institutionalized, legal discrimination, limiting African Americans in
public sphere- Schools, restaurants, hotels, restrooms, hotels,
drinking fountains, movie theatres
Separate but Equal practices- ruled constitutional with Plessey v.
Ferguson 1892- Supreme Court ruled that separate public facilities was
OK.
State laws designed to limit African Americans-specifically voting
Overturned with the Brown vs. Board of Education 1954
1945-50 Reduction in lynching
Increase in black voting
Incremental Civil Rights for
African Americans


1946 Morgan v. Virginia- segregation in public
interstate travel was unconstitutional
1950- Shelley v. Kraemer- restrictive covenants
in housing- not selling property to members of
certain groups violated the Constitution
Early Civil Rights Organization



Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
Precursor to Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC will be active in the 1950s
and 60s Civil Rights Movement)
SNCC Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (Lunch Counter “Sit Ins”)
Essay Question:




Why does the Civil Rights Movement see
success after WWII?
Environment for change emerges because of
WWII racial excesses
Philosophy of Ameircan efforts to fight =
Freedom/Equality…
Protests Movements show the dichotomy of
Values vs Practices in Ameirca (horrible
treatment on TV, Montgomery and Selma
1960s)
Election 1948





Southern Democrats leave national party in
response to Truman's support for Civil Rights
Dixicrats
Strom Thurmond- South Carolina Senator, runs
for president
Dewey runs for the Republicans
Truman appeared to lose- but appeals directly to
the people citing the “Do nothing Republican
Congress” and Wins the Election

Democrats also win the congress back…

Essay: How do you account for the appeal of
McCarthyism in the United States in the era
following the Second World War?







Topics
Legacy of the warAppeasement- causes
sensitivity to international
issues
Soviet Expansion in Europe
Poland, Latvia, Estonia,
Lithuania, Czechoslovakia
Chinese Revolution- Mao
and Chiang
Berlin Crisis- Airlift
Soviet obtaining the Atomic
Bomb 1949
Clause Fuchs-Soviet Spy
named Whittiker Chambers–
Alger Hiss



Communism is seen as a
threat to US way of life
Republicans use the fear of
Communism to criticize the
New Deal, Truman
Administration “Soft on
communism”
Fear of nuclear war by
American public
Another Red Scare




After WWII Americans became concerned with
the threat of Communism’s expansion
Resulted in search for spies and communists in
the United States
House Un-American Activities Committee
(HUAC) began during the war and became preoccupied with the hunt for American
“subversives”
“Are you now or were you ever a
communist?"
HUAC under Truman





The “Hollywood Ten”
HUAC believed that some writers and producers in
Hollywood were making movies sympathetic to
communism and were trying to manipulate the
American public
10 Screenwriters were found in contempt for refusing
to answer questions and give information- they were
sent to PrisonSubsequent actors, producers and writers will be
investigated and if they have any connection to
communism or sympatric to communism, they will be
banned from the movie industry- “Blacklisted”
Dalton Trumbo was the most famous of this group.
1947 Federal Employee Loyalty
Program





Truman implemented a program to end criticism
of his administration being “Soft on
Communism”
Review complaints of disloyalty
Program investigated thousands and found
nothing substantial- however pushed people out
of the government
Invaded people’s private lives
Significance:

Another Cold War domestic reaction
Truman decides not to run for
reelection in 1952

Military deadlock in Korea, war-induced
inflation, and White House scandal.

Adlai E. Stevenson runs on the Democratic
ticket against Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Election of 1952, Eisenhower defeats
Stevenson 442-89. Nixon is VP.

Hollywood Ten



Dalton Trumbo
Short Article
click for more info
Nixon and HUAC



In the Early Period- Richard Nixon becomes famous
for his efforts to find communists in the US- he was a
Congressman from California
He gains fame from his prosecution and investigation
of Alger Hiss- a State Department official who was
giving information to the Soviets through a spy named
Whittaker Chambers. Chambers was a Time
magazine editor who received immunity for
information.
Hiss was never found guilty of spying but for
perjury to the committee.
“Tricky Dick”

First gains fame as
member
Of HUAC
Pursues- Alger Hiss
Then VP for Eisenhower

Checkers Speech



McCarthyism 1950







Link
The greatest image of Red Scare 1950’s is Joseph
McCarthy- Republican Senator from Wisconsin.
He is associated with bullying, intimidating, and
harassing witnesses
Launched a crusade to find communists in the US
He claimed there were 200 Communists in the State
Department
He finds public support for his attacks and used TV
and Radio to gain support
He is popular for a short time
McCarthy 1950



He said: “I have here in my hand a list of 205
(employees) known to the Secretary of State as being
members of the Communist Party and who
nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of
the State Department.”
This fed into the fear of communism and to the
political attacks on Truman for being “soft on
Communism”
He spent the next two years raising malicious and
reckless attacks
McCarthy Attacked






“Have you no sense of decency”
George Marshall- great hero of WWII FDR’s chief of
staff.
Should be understood as a reaction against Democrat
controlled government
His movement appealed to Republicans and those
affected by Communist take over in Eastern Europe
(ethnic groups, Catholics)
Legislation associated with the “Witch Hunt”
Internal Security Act- said communist organizations
had to register, members were ineligible for
government and defense jobs
McCarthyism




Much of his
accusations were
untrue
People were ruined
McCarthyism is known
as unprincipled abuse
of rights and
Smear attacks on
character and loyalty
Lesson From History: What to do
with political bullies: video
Edward Murrow, See It Now (9th March, 1954)
“The line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine
one and the junior Senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it
repeatedly.
We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig
deep into our own history and our doctrine and remember that
we are not descended from fearful men, not men who feared to
write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes which were for
the moment unpopular.
This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthty's
methods to keep silent. We can deny our heritage and our
history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result.”