Domestic Politics and Policy Chapter 20, Section 3

The Peacetime Economy Truman’s first priority was reconversion (moving the economy from wartime to peacetime) People wanted the troops home and protested to Truman, “no boats, no votes”; he responded and got most of them by 1946 the government tried to find a way to ease the wartime controls on goods without a lot of inflation but people finally had money and wanted to buy consumer goods and when they did, prices increased by 25%; wages did not keep up and many people had little money

Strikes workers demanded better wages after the war in 1946 nearly 4.6 million workers went on strike President Truman supported the workers but feared the strikes would cause economic trouble in 1946 a railroad strike disrupted the economy so Truman drafted all the workers into the military and ordered them to work; the Senate refused to back him because they thought he overreacted

The Taft-Hartley Act The United Mine Workers defied a court order not to strike and a federal judge with Truman’s backing held them in contempt; their union was fined $3.5 million the Taft-Hartley Act was passed in 1947 and it allowed the President to declare an 80 day cooling off period during which workers could not strike and had to return to work in industries that affected the national interest

Truman’s Fair Deal 21 point program that extended the New Deal promoted full employment, a higher minimum wage, greater unemployment compensation, housing assistance and other programs he also asked for national health insurance and legislation to control atomic energy conservative Democrats joined with the majority party (Republicans) and blocked most of his ideas

Truman and Civil Rights Truman believed in equality of opportunity for all human beings he publicly supported Civil Rights Congress would not address his concerns and so he appointed a biracial committee to look into race relations; Congress disagreed with their findings in 1948 Truman banned discrimination in the hiring of federal employees

The Election of 1948 Truman ran as a Democrat some Democrats split from the party and ran candidate Strom Thurmond on a segregationist platform; they called themselves the Dixiecrats The Republican candidate was Thomas E. Dewey (governor of New York) from.....? Dewey was favored to win and newspapers reported that he did....however, Truman won the election

Truman’s Second Term few successes, mostly related to the Fair Deal He could have run again in 1952 but chose not to

22nd Amendment debate over presidential term limits became heated during Truman’s second term traditionally after George Washington left office after his second term, no other president had served more than 2 terms, until FDR Congress adopted the 22nd Amendment in 1951 and it stated: No person can serve more than 8 years in office If you fill in for another person and serve less than 2 years of their term, you can have two of your own; if you serve more than 2 years you cannot serve more than one more term

Eisenhower and the Republican Approach Stevenson (Democrats) and Eisenhower (Republicans) “Ike” was very different than Truman Eisenhower called for a K1C2 formula for victory (Korea, Communism and Corruption) He also promised to end the Korean War His Vice Presidential candidate, Richard Nixon, focused on ending corruption in the government

The Checkers Speech Nixon was accused of having a special fund set up for him by rich republican supporters and having special gifts given to him many republicans wanted Eisenhower to dump the Californian Governor from the ticket Nixon made a televised speech in which he gave a detailed account of his personal finances and denied having taken any gifts except for one... Checkers=a black and white cocker spaniel given to his daughter by a supporter and that he refused to return because she loved him so much

Eisenhower Wins People loved Nixon/Eisenhower after the “Checkers Speech” and they won the election People liked his style and he won again in 1956

Modern Republicanism conservative when it comes to money, liberal when it comes to human beings Eisenhower wanted to slow the growth of federal government and limit the power of the president and the courts His cuts in government spending caused the economy to slump and go into a mini recession He did extend Social Security to 10 million Americans and increase minimum wage from 75 cents to 1 dollar an hour

Technology the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created in 1958 as a response to the launch of Sputnik (?) by the USSR The National Defense Education Act was created to improve math and science classes in schools across the nation