America, From Truman to Johnson

Kevin J. Benoy

War’s Legacy

• Before WW2 the USA was a major economic power, but little else.

• Its army in the 1930s was on a par with Portugal.

• All this changed as a result of the war.

War’s Legacy• America’s resources and

industrial power – along with its safe distance from fighting made this transformation possible.

• America came to be known as “the arsenal of democracy,” producing 12,000 ships, 100,000 tanks and nearly 300,000 aircraft during the war.

• $400 billion was spent on the war effort – more than the total of all of the other allies put together.

• Most of this spending happened within the US domestic economic, bringing an end to the long depression.

Truman’s America

• Vice President under Roosevelt, Truman was largely unknown outside America.

• By the time his presidency ended, he had transformed American foreign policy profoundly.

Truman’s America

• Domestically, his main concern was to continue where Roosevelt left off with his New Deal.

• Rural poverty was still significant.

• It was also great in non-white urban areas.

Truman’s America

• In September 1945, Truman initiated a 21 point programme focussing on extending social security benefits and providing affordable housing.

• In 1946 he passed an employment act.

Truman’s America• He hoped to achieve

much with his Fair Deal Programme, but it was sabotaged by the Republican-controlled Congress.

• A National health system, slum clearance, a national old age pension system and child and maternity benefits were all blocked.

Truman’s America• Worse, Congress passed

the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947.– It banned the closed shop

for unions.– It enforced a 60 day cooling

off period before any strikes could take place.

• Clearly it tipped labour relations strongly in favour of management. Truman tried to veto it, but Congress, by a 2/3 vote, rejected his veto.

Truman’s America

• Despite his domestic failures, Truman managed re-election in 1948 – despite having to run against renegade Southern Democrats – Dixiecrats – who thought him too pro-Negro for their liking.

Truman’s America• Congressional elections also

saw Democrats win.• Part of the Fair Deal could

now be enacted.– The minimum wage rose from

40 cents to 75 cents an hour.– Social Security benefits were

extended.– Desegregation of the army

began.• On the other hand, he still

could not win support for a health scheme or for guaranteeing civil rights for negroes.

Truman’s Foreign Policy• Opposition to Communist

expansion was a cornerstone to Truman’s foreign policy.

• Communist expansion into China came despite huge amounts of money being poured into the country.

• Hard conditions in Europe led to unprecedented levels of support for Western European Communist parties – especially in Italy and France.

Truman’s Foreign Policy• To keep Europe from turning

Left, Truman suggested sending massive American aid in what came to be known as the Marshall Plan.

• This would bring prosperity – and a market for American goods.

• If Soviet satellites took the offer, it would give influence behind the Iron Curtain.

• In the end, Stalin forbade E. Bloc countries taking the aid. Truman still won a huge propaganda victory – though he had much to do to convince American tax-payers to fund the project.

McCarthyism

• Truman’s efforts to win support for his foreign policy of opposing Communism everywhere was expensive.

• The administration needed to whip up support and in doing so created a monster.

McCarthyism• From 1948 to 1954 a

Republican Senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, carried Truman’s anti-communist rhetoric much further still.

• Reasonable Americans and the administration found McCarthy’s witch hunt tactics repugnant.

• Few spoke out against him, fearing they would be accused of being communist themselves.

McCarthyism

• The Republican Party leadership cynically remained silent.

• The Democrats were pushed on the defensive as accusations flew that Truman was “soft on communism.”

McCarthyism

• Anyone who had once had left-wing beliefs feared being hauled before the House Committee on Un-American Activity to defend themselves.

McCarthyism• 9,500 Civil Servants were

fired and 15,000 more resigned in an atmosphere of fear and persecution.

• 600 teachers lost their jobs.

• Actors were blacklisted – including Charlie Chaplin who never worked in America again.

McCarthyism• The McCarran Act was passed

in 1950, forcing suspected communist organizations to send a list of members to the government.

• As late as the 1980s, this was used to force university student groups to submit names to the FBI of students who watched anti-nuclear war film If You Love This Planet in campus theaters.

• In 1954 the US Communist Party was banned and membership criminalized.

McCarthyism• Once their own president

was in the White House, McCarthy’s usefulness waned.

• A combination of Supreme Court decisions and popular resentment of McCarthy’s tactics brought an end to the witch hunts.

• Arthur Miller’s 1952 play The Crucible was a withering attack on McCarthyism.

Ordinary Life• For those not targeted –

and white – the late 1940s and early 1950s were a period of prosperity.

• The standard of living rose and a consumer society emerged.

• Planned obsolescence entered the marketplace. Everything seemed designed to be replaced in the near future – cars, clothes and even buildings.

Suburbia

• The Middle class abandoned city centers and took up residence in the exploding suburban housing developments.

• City centers became the decaying preserve of the urban poor.

Eisenhower’s America• Eisenhower won an easy

victory in 1952.• A popular war hero, he

won as much because of his personal popularity as for his conservative policies.

• Prosperity lessened the desire of Americans to worry about welfare and reform. He was lucky to preside over a period of continued growth.

Eisenhower’s America• His presidency was not

marked by many remarkable domestic successes– After sputnik was launched,

more funding was given to science and mathematics education to help America “catch up.”

– Some help was provided for seniors to help them pay medical bills.

– Farmers were paid to produce less – to increase farm prices and incomes (prices rose, but incomes did not).

– The minimum wage rose to $1 an hour.

Civil Rights• Eisenhower did more to

improve civil rights for blacks.– He made it easier for

them to vote.– He ensured that

Supreme Court decisions were enforced – including a 1954 ruling that separate schools for blacks and whites were illegal and a 1955 ruling ordering desegregation of all schools.

Civil Rights

• When the Governor of Arkansas refused to allow 9 black teenagers into Little Rock Central High School, Eisenhower dispatched 1,000 airborne troops to the town to force the issue.

Civil Rights• Such moves were not

popular in the South, where segregation was deeply engrained.

• Through much of the region, little changed.

• As late as 1961, no black children attended white schools in Mississippi, Alabama or South Carolina.

• Only 9 did so in Georgia.

Civil Rights

• Negroes took matters into their own hands.

• Bus boycotts protested the policy of insisting blacks give up seats to whites on busses – the law in Montgomery, Alabama.

Civil Rights• Demonstrations took place

outside whites-only cafes, hotels, libraries and drug stores.

• Modelling its activities on the ideas of Gandhi in India, the Civil Rights Movement, led by Martin Luther King Jr. And others, made Americans aware of the problems faced by blacks and the brutality of whites in combating them.

Eisenhower’s Foreign Policy• Eisenhower appointed

people to jobs and left them to get on with it.

• Foreign policy was given to John Foster Dulles, a Secretary of State who wielded unprecedented power.

• Pursuing brinksmanship, Dulles responded to all Russian moves with a display of force.

The Eisenhower Doctrine• In 1957 the President

promised aid to Middle Eastern countries who seemed threatened by the Soviet Union.

• This offer was later extended and a series of alliances were set up around the world as regional versions of the NATO alliance.

• CENTO formed in the Middle East and SEATO in South East Asia.

• Eisenhower also began preliminary planning for an operation against Cuba – the Bay of Pigs invasion.

The Kennedy Administration

• John F. Kennedy was the first American politician to realize the importance of television and act upon it.

• Many observers say it resulted in his narrow 1960 election win over Richard Nixon.

• At 43, Kennedy was the youngest president in American history – and a Roman Catholic.

The Kennedy Administration

• His social policies were announced with great fanfare – evoking the spirit of the pioneering era in what he called his New Frontier Policy.

• His goals were a fairer, freer and more equal society.

The Kennedy Administration

• To combat the recession, which struck in 1959 he increased public work spending and encouraged credit buying by the public.

• In 1962 he sent in Federal troops to enforce desegregation at the universities of Mississippi and Alabama.

Kennedy’s Foreign Policy• Foreign policy goals and

domestic policy echoed similar sentiments.

• The Peace Corps was formed in 1961, sending skilled volunteers to underdeveloped countries (building goodwill toward America while helping 3rd world people).

• The Alliance for Progress was created to help Latin American countries develop.

Kennedy’s Foreign Policy

• A common thread ran through all of these.

• Kennedy was a confirmed Liberal in the Wilsonian tradition.

• Capitalist prosperity would prevent communist growth – and America, as the leading capitalist country, had to act. `

Kennedy’s Foreign Policy

• Under Kennedy, the Eisenhower formulated Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba took place.

• Kennedy was prepared to risk nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

• American involvement in Vietnam was stepped up.

Kennedy’s Death• Kennedy was enormously popular

with many Americans (and foreigners), but was hugely resented by others.

• His handling of domestic and foreign affairs created powerful enemies.

• In 1963, while being driven in a convertible through the streets of Dallas, Kennedy was shot dead.

• On November 22, 1963, the President died and was succeeded by his vice president, Lyndon Baines Johnson.

The Johnson Administration

• Johnson’s legacy is mixed.

• On the one hand he did much to improve the domestic situation.

• On he other, he led America deeper and deeper into the Vietnam quagmire.

LBJ’s Domestic Agenda

• Johnson furthered Kennedy’s social agenda in what he called his Great Society programme.– He pushed Kennedy’s

Civil Rights Act through Congress in 1964 – outlawing discrimination in housing jobs and education.

LBJ’s Domestic Agenda

– The 1965 Public Voting Act enfranchised more black voters.

– Job opportunities were improved for underprivileged black youths through the Equal Opportunities Act and the founding of the Job Corps.

LBJ’s Domestic Agenda– The Development Act of

1966 sought to revitalize cities by funding rebuilding of infrastructure.

– More assistance went to the old through Medicare and to the poor through Medicaid.

– Further legislation to grant greater rights to trade unions and to liberalize immigration policy failed when Congress refused to pass them.

Johnson’s Problems

• America’s financial position suffered enormously under Johnson as his domestic agenda was pursued at the same time as the horribly expensive Vietnam War.

• “Guns and Butter” were, together, unaffordable.

Johnson’s Problems• Johnson did not start American

involvement in Vietnam. He inherited the commitment from previous presidents.

• Under his leadership there was a marked jump, both qualitatively and quantitatively, in American involvement.

• Soon half a million American soldiers were bolstering a series of weak right-wing regimes.

Johnson’s Problems

• Despite the scale of America’s efforts on land, sea and in the air, the war could not be won.

• The lesson that a great power cannot win a guerilla struggle against popular nationalist movements was learned at great cost – though not by this president, but his successor.

The 1968 Election

• The Vietnam war divided Americans.

• Opposition to the war was particularly strong among the young – especially the educated young.

• The strain on the President was huge and with an election coming, LBJ decided not to run in 1968.

The 1968 Election• Even with Johnson on the sideline,

the Democrats were wounded beyond repair.

• Attacked by Republicans on the Right, they were also lambasted by opponents of the war on the Left.

• At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago street violence ruined the event as the world watched police launch baton charges into demonstrators.

• Republican candidate Richard Nixon won the election handily.

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