1. Domestic Events 1945 – 1963 (Not including Civil Rights)
Post War America
Domestic Events 1945 – 1963 (Not including Civil Rights)

3. Harry Truman and the Fair Deal

4. After the War: Will Depression Return?
Demobilization: 15 million soldiers
G.I. Bill (Serviceman’s Readjustment Act): education paid for, loans for homes and businesses
Pent-up demand for consumer goods
Baby-boom generation:
Growth of suburbia: Levittown
Move to the “Sunbelt” – Florida to Cali

5. BIRTHS IN THE UNITED STATES
THE “BABY BOOM”
BIRTHS IN THE UNITED STATES
Baby Boomers

6. The Baby Boom created a need for
Services, such as Schools

10. Harry Truman and the Fair Deal (1946 – 1952)

11. Economic Policies
Debate over inflation: Truman: keep price controls; Congress: relax them.
Result 25% inflation
Workers & unions want better wages
Strikes, threat to order.
Truman seized the mines until United Mine Workers call off strike; steel: “ draft them” (Congress: “no”)
1946: Congress elections: Republican victory: cut taxes, reduce spending, ignore Truman’s call for social programs

12. Economic Policies (cont.)
Employment Act of 1946 (cont. New Deal tradition):
Wanted: nat’l health plan, increase min. wage, plan for full employment
All he gets is: Council of Economic Advisors to advise Pres. & Congress
22nd Amendment (1951): two terms
Taft Hartley Act: curb labor’s power
Over Truman’s veto
No closed shop, no secondary boycotts, 80 cooling off period before strike (if dangerous to safety), take oath

13. Truman attempts to help A-A
1948
End discrimination in Fed Gov’t
Desegregate military
Wants Fair Employment Practices Commission – S. Dems block

14. Truman Losing Support in ‘48
Losing support of:
Liberal Dems – too aggressive in foreign policy = Progressives
Southern Dems – Dixiecrats led by Strom Thurmond
Rep– Thomas Dewey (Gov. NY) should win easily

16. Truman’s Fair Deal Congress approved the following measures:
An increase in the minimum wage from 40 cents an hour to 75 cents
An extension of Social Security benefits to 10 million people not
covered under the original law
Federal funds for the construction of low-income housing and
slum clearance
Increased federal funds for flood control, irrigation projects and
electric-power projects

17. Truman’s Fair Deal (Con’t.)
Congress rejected these measures:
A national health insurance plan
Federal aid to education
A law protecting the civil rights of
African-Americans
1) Abolish the Poll tax
2) Punish those guilty of
lynching African-
Americans

18. 1952 Election
Republicans: Eisenhower (“I like Ike”), R. Nixon as VP (fame: Alger Hiss case)
Democrats: Adlai Stevenson
Eisenhower pledged to go to Korea & end war

20. Eisenhower’s Presidency
Style: delegate, trust
Fiscal conservative: balance budget, curb spending
Also: practical: Expand New Deal programs: min. wage, public housing, expand Soc. Sec.
Opposed federal aid to education & federal health care
“Balanced” approach: modern Republicanism

21. 1956 Highway Act 42,000 miles of roads, link all major cities
Created jobs, helped trucking industry, expand suburbs, common culture
Integrated roads for movement of troops & tanks
Hurt railroads, public transportation and environment

23. Popular Culture
TV: 1961: 55 million t.v.’s, 3 networks: comedies, westerns, quiz shows
Advertising: promote name brands, franchises (McDonald’s)
Expansion of corporate America: teamwork, conformity, conservative
Women: home & family, homemaking was the job (best-seller: “Baby & Child Care”)
Beatniks: writers & intellectuals (Jack Kerouac: “On the Road”): be different, be a rebel

25. John Fitzgerald Kennedy
35th President
1961 – 1963
Camelot
1st Catholic
“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”
Assassinated in office

26. Kennedy Nixon Debates

28. New Frontier Continues in FDR’s shoes Aid to:
Schools, preservation, mass transit
Medical insurance for elderly - SS
Federal government should be active, strong and visible in people’s life

29. JFK’S “NEW FRONTIER” U.S. space program: Man on moon by 1969
Peace Corps:
America’s “good will ambassadors”

31. Assassination Kennedy Assassination
YouTube - Lee Harvey Oswald Assassination