POSTWAR AMERICA
The Postwar Boom
Review
• Race for the H-bomb
• Policy of Brinkmanship
• CIA
• Warsaw Pact
• Eisenhower Doctrine
• Khrushchev takes over following Stalin
• Race in space
Main Idea
• The Truman and Eisenhower administrations led the
nation to make social, economic, and political adjustments
following World War II.
• Why it matters now
• In the years after World War II, The United States became the
economic and military power that it is today
Objectives
• Identify social and economic
problems America faced after
WWII.
• Describe causes and effects of
social unrest in the Postwar period
• Contrast domestic policy under
Truman and Eisenhower.
Readjustment and Recovery
• Social life changes after the war
• GI Bill – A way to ease soldiers back into civilian life by
helping pay for tuition and unemployment
• Housing crisis forced the development of suburbs (small
residential communities surrounding cities)
• Divorce rates went way up following the war
Economic Readjustment
• The US converted from a wartime economy
to a peacetime economy
• Contracts with war industries ended
immediately leaving many unemployed
• The price of consumer goods soared after
the war
• Government stepped in to control wages
and prices
Recovery
• Economists were predicting a depression following the
war
• They didn’t take into account that people were ready to
splurge after going through the Depression
• The Cold War contributed to economic growth
• Marshall Plan produced strong foreign markets
Move toward Conservatism
• When Truman took over for FDR he faced problems in the
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•
•
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labor market
Strikes were a problem following the war
Truman was usually a fan of organized labor but he
threatened to draft all strikers into the military
The Unions called off the strikes
Disgusted by shortages of goods, rising inflation, and
labor strikes the country started to want a change…
Checkpoint
• Identify one social problem America faced following
WWII. Identify one economic problem America faced
following WWII.
• One social problem America faced following
WWII was
.
• One economic problem America faced following WWII
was
.
Social Unrest Continues
• African Americans that
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•
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served in WWII come back
demanding rights
Truman supported civil rights
He pushed for anti-lynching
laws, removal of the poll tax,
and a permanent civil rights
committee in the White
House
Congress rejected all of
these measures
Truman steps in by forcing
the military to stop
segregation and he forced
the government to start hiring
people of different ethnicities
1948 Election
• The Democrats nominated Truman in 48’
• Southern Democrats, known as dixiecrats, were upset
with Truman and his push for civil rights
• They formed their own party (States’ Rights Democratic
Party)
• Truman stuns everybody by winning
• Fair Deal – extension of FDR’s New Deal
Checkpoint
• Why did the Democratic Truman lose support in his own
party in the South?
• Truman lost support in the South because
.
Republicans Take the Middle of the Road
• BY 1951 Truman had lost a lot of support due to the
stalemate of the Korean War and McCarthyism… He
decided to not run for reelection in 1952
• Republicans nominate Dwight D. Eisenhower (war hero)
running on “I like Ike”
• Ike’s chances took a hit when his running mate, Nixon,
was accused of taking money from a slush fund
• Nixon used television to make an appeal to the nation
Eisenhower’s Policies
• Eisenhower called his approach “dynamic conservatism”
AKA “Modern Republicanism”
• Eisenhower chose a “middle of the road” approach to
politics trying to stay away from controversial issues (Civil
Rights)
• Eisenhower’s goals were to balance the budget and cut
taxes
Checkpoint
• How was Truman’s approach to politics different than
Eisenhower’s?
• Truman focused more on
during his
presidency, while Eisenhower was more
concerned with
.