Truman domestic & economy. Truman political & mccarthyism

domestic/econ successes

-establishment of fair deal programme 1945 proposed fed aid to education, abolish poll taxes, anti lynching laws, permanent FEPC (fair employ practices by Roosevelt to prevent racial discrim abolished 1946), increase min wage, establish national health insurance

-SS extended to an extra million Americans, min wage raised 45-75 cents, by 1953 62 mill Americans employed (11 mill inc), unemployment low, poverty fell from 33% - 28% 1952

-adminstration successfully navigated post war econ challenges, promoting econ growth + prosperity in usa

-bretton woods made US dollar dominant, IMF + WB headquarters in NY

-1948 econ boom, post war baby boom increased demand

-1946 national school lunch act for poor children

domestic/econ failures

-inflation at 25%, trade unions demanding higher wages

-steelworker, railroad worker & miner strikes all year 1946 + April 1952. undermined his authority, Truman threatened railroad strikers so they backed down (harshness alienated traditional dem voters)

-1947 taft Hartley act limited trade union power, Truman vetoed but congress overrode

-didnt worsen econ but made little improvement as was already booming

-limited by congress on trying to fix inflation

-fair deal largely rejected by congress, lacked econ necessity of Roosevelts new deal

-post war housing shortage was worst in usa history. 1949 housing act meant to build 810,000 public housing units subsidised for low inc Americans, only 156,000 built by 1952 (356,000 by 1964). some poorly constructed

-national health insurance scheme attacked as being tax raising “socialised medicine”

-little achieved in education

-many felt new deal had done enough, had to give it up to focus on Korea

political successes

-defeated Dewey by over 2 mill votes in 1948 due to: 33 day 30,000 mile tour of USA, personal campaign, trumans warmth compared to dewey, do-nothing congress, booming econ, stance on CRs for af-americans, resistance to communism, airlift success

political failures

-political gridlock due to republican control of house & senate

-dems looked in disarray, former VP Henry Wallace broke away to form new party, senator strom Thurmond stood independently. issue of southern dems + Dixiecrats who disagreed who disagreed w/ liberal CR policy left party

-fair deal seen as left wing, helping black Americans and affecting state rights

-congress rejected many of Trumans legislative proposals so he vetoed 250 congressional bills. worst period of legislative conflict in US history

-truman divided his party, liberal dems criticised fair deal failure, southern dems criticised unions & CR policy

-hardline stance damaged relations w/ unions, traditional supporters

-red scare:rich reared econ consequences of communism, fear of china + USSR military, fall of china, successful soviet atomic bomb 1949, psychological need for USA to have enemy, politicians exaggerating threat, spy scandals Klaus fucha 1950. republicans needed smth to attack dems for

-McCarthy voted worst US senator in 1949, needed good publicity. claimed there was commies in state dept, created c’tee to investigate under Millard tydings. c’tee reported McCarthy’s lies were “fraud & a hoax”so McCarthy supporters created fake photo of tydings conversing w/ US commie party leader making him lose election

-McCarthy led investigations, 500 govt employees + 600 teachers lost jobs, attacked libraries for having mark twains work

-dems scared to defend accused and be seen as commie sympathisers, hysterical anti communism

-HUAC, nixon prominent member, investigated Hollywood 10 (writers & directors in American commie party) arrested

-truman been told to “scare the hell” out of Americans to gain support for Truman doctrine, may have done too well

-torn over defending his administration, failed to veto 1950 internal security act