Post-World War II transition – “The Cold War at Home and Abroad,”

Overall main idea: During the late 1940s, the United States under President Truman adjusted to post-war transition problems with an economic boom, a baby boom, and attempts to extend the New Deal to more Americans.

Launching the Great Boom

Main idea: The U.S. transition from wartime was fraught with inflation, strikes, and shortages that would eventually give way to economic expansion and an active foreign policy to combat the Cold War.

Cold War – the global rivalry and competition between the United States and the Soviet Union from World War II until 1990, mostly over different political ideologies of democratic capitalism vs. communism; it was not an active, direct, “hot” war but passive, indirect, and “cold”

Reconversion Chaos

Main idea: The U.S. transition from wartime was sudden, resulting in shortages, inflation, and strikes.

Japan’s surrender took U.S. officials by surprise; longer term plans to phase out the war became obsolete and canceled; troops were sent home quickly

Shortages resulted in consumer goods, food, and automobiles

Inflation (higher prices without higher wages) hurt factory workers, who often went on strike to fix the problem; auto, steel, electrical, packinghouse workers went on strike, which hurt other factories who depended on them; workers’ wages went up as a result, but companies often passed the higher costs onto higher prices for goods

Economic Policy

Main idea: Despite fears after the war, unemployment went down and unions lost power as a result of the actions of the newly Republican-controlled Congress.

The Democratic-controlled Congress passed the Employment Act of 1946, which adjusted taxes and spending

Millions of women left the workforce after World War II, providing higher employment for men than expected; also consumer spending went up so much that more jobs were available

Strikes continued, especially led by John L. Lewis and the United Mine Workers (UMW)

Republicans won control of Congress for the first time since Coolidge and the Roaring 20s (1928); their slogan was “Had enough?” in response to the reconversion problems, strikes, and dissatisfaction with Truman

Republican-controlled Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which reversed some gains made by labor unions during the Depression (remember the Wagner Act?); Taft-Hartley Act barred closed shops, secondary boycotts, Communist union leaders, and imposed a “cooling-off” period that postponed strikes

The GI Bill

Main idea: The GI Bill was passed after World War II to pay for veterans’ benefits.

Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, a.k.a. the GI Bill of Rights – provided benefits to veterans of World War II paid by the Federal government, including easy loans for buying houses or farms and money for college

By 1947, veterans made up 50% of all college students in the U.S.; women’s share of college degrees dropped from 40% to 25%

VA – Veterans Administration – bureau responsible for veterans affairs in U.S. (since 1930, but increased significantly after WW2)

Assembly-Line Neighborhoods

Main idea: In response to the housing shortage, Americans mass produced suburban homes and whites received easy loans to buy them.

Housing shortage led to a huge demand market for homes

Veterans Administration mortgages through the GI Bill allowed veterans to buy homes on installment plan loans with little or no down payment, backed by the Federal government

FHA (Federal Housing Administration) was a New Deal program that provided Federally-backed mortgages for houses with little or no down payment; mostly catered to suburbs, especially white suburbs

Levittown – the symbol of mass produced suburban subdivision housing after World War II; started as a suburb of rental housing outside of New York City, created by William Levitt’s building company in 1947; soon the idea spread across much of the country; Levittown housing was cheap, very standardized, simple, and small

Redlining – withholding of services or raising prices to residents in certain areas, usually discriminating against African-Americans, other minorities, and older inner-city neighborhoods; blacks often couldn’t get loans or insurance to move to better housing outside the city because of redlining by FHA, the GI Bill, and Levittowns

Blacks who attempted to move outside of inner cities on their own were often met with intimidation and violence; this is one way Birmingham became known as “Bombingham”

Steps Toward Civil Rights

Main idea: World War II accelerated movements for black civil rights in the government, military and sports.

African-American soldiers came home from World War II determined to achieve the rights of freedom and equality that they had fought for in Europe and the Pacific; the end of World War II is often considered the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement

Lynching and racism reared up in the South after the war as many veterans attempted to vote

The New Deal Coalition for the Democratic Party included blacks as well as white Southerners – Truman was faced with attempting to satisfy both; he created the Committee on Civil Rights to investigate and suggest ways to improve African American civil rights; it would take more than two months to implement its proposals

One proposal that was accomplished was the integration of the armed forces in 1948; as a result, blacks would continue to use the military for career opportunities

Another proposal was the integration of federal government jobs in 1948

In sports, racial integration was also controversial, but not as much – Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play in professional baseball since the 1800s; other previous famous black athletes included Jesse Owens (Olympic sprinter) and Joe Louis (boxer)—both from Alabama.

Consumer Boom and Baby Boom

Main idea: The reuniting of families and improved economic and social conditions after World War II led to a “baby boom” and a family consumer products boom.

Causes of the baby boom – marriage rates increased and the average age for marriage decreased after the war; married couples also had postponed having kids until after the war; the improved economic conditions and security from the end of the Great Depression and the World War led to better prospects for raising a family; advertising and television promoted the ideal of the American family; women left the workforce to become homemakers; finally, perhaps men and women just missed each other during the four years of overseas war? ;)

Exact baby boom years are uncertain, but generally agreed to be from 1946 until the early 1960s

One effect of the baby boom is a boom in family consumer products like diapers, toys, school products, and housing

Truman, Republicans, and the Fair Deal

Main idea: In the post-war 1940s, Truman adopted moderate policies that promoted anti-Communism abroad and New Deal gains at home without being too risky.

Truman’s Opposition

Main idea: Truman’s opposition in the 1948 campaign included the American Progressive Party, the Dixiecrats, and the Republicans.

Truman went into 1948 election as an underdog; his opponents:

Dixiecrats, a.k.a. the States’ Rights Democrats – Southerners who left the Democratic Party after it called for full civil rights for African-Americans; nominated Strom Thurmond of SC as Presidential candidate

American Progressive Party – more liberal, against the Cold War and for more improvements in poverty and racism in the U.S.; nominated Henry Wallace (FDR’s former New Deal vice president)

Republicans – Congress was controlled by them, but Truman bashed them as the “Do-nothing Congress”; nominated Thomas Dewey

Whistle-Stopping Across America

Main idea: Truman ran an active campaign across the U.S., surprising polls to defeat Thomas Dewey for President.

1948 campaign was the last major railroad “whistle-stop” campaign; national TV broadcast the conventions

Truman was intelligent and educated, but was known for a folksy, grassroots appeal; used slogans like “Give ‘em Hell, Harry!” and “The buck stops here” (“passing the buck” means to pass on responsibility or blame, so Truman was saying that he took responsibility for the country)

Truman benefited from Dewey’s unwillingness to campaign actively, as he was avoiding risk; Dewey was vague and tied to the Republican Congress

Polls predicted that Dewey would easily defeat Truman, as Truman’s approval rating was low and the Democratic vote would be split between the different parties, but Truman won 303-189 in the electoral vote; a famous photo shows a victorious Truman holding an early published newspaper that reads “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN”

Truman’s Fair Deal

Main idea: Truman attempted to extend the New Deal with his Fair Deal, but Americans were hesitant about new initiatives.

Fair Deal – Truman’s domestic program, an attempt to extend the New Deal to ensure “greater economic opportunities for the mass of the people”

Fair Deal programs:

Housing Act of 1949 – largely failed, but established the precedent of the Federal government providing livable housing for all Americans

Extension of Social Security – benefit payments went up and service was extended to rural and small town people

Farm subsidies for small farmers – rejected

Permanent commission to fight racial discrimination in the workplace – rejected

National healthcare insurance plan – rejected

Apparently Americans liked the New Deal but didn’t want to extend it too much further

Overall main idea: During the late 1940s, the United States under President Truman adjusted to post-war transition problems with an economic boom, a baby boom, and attempts to extend the New Deal to more Americans.