Truman, Harry S.: First Term

First Term

At home, inflation and demobilization were the chief worries of reconversion to a peacetime economy. Although Truman began quietly to eliminate the old New Dealers from the administration, his domestic policies were essentially a continuation of those of the New Deal. His program (later labeled the Fair Deal) called for guaranteed full employment, a permanent Fair Employment Practices Committee to end racial discrimination, an increased minimum wage and extended social security benefits, price and rent controls, public housing projects, and public health insurance. However, Congress, which was controlled by the Republicans after the 1946 elections, blocked most of these projects, while passing other legislation—notably the Taft-Hartley Labor Act (1947)—over Truman's veto.

In foreign affairs his chief adversary was the USSR. Relations with that country deteriorated rapidly after Potsdam. The two powers were unable to agree to feasible plans for the unification of Germany, general disarmament, or the establishment of a United Nations armed force. Truman took an increasingly tough stand against what he considered to be the threat of Communist expansion in S and W Europe. In 1947 he proposed a program of economic and military aid to Greece and Turkey, stating that it should be a principle of U.S. policy “to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.” Enunciation of the so-called Truman Doctrine signaled the beginning of the policy of “containment” of Communism. It was implemented by the adoption of the Marshall Plan (1947), designed to effect the economic reconstruction of Europe, by the Point Four program (1949) of technical aid to underdeveloped countries, and, above all, by the creation (1949) of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

In 1948, Truman ordered the desegregation of the armed forces. As a result, a bloc of southern Democrats bolted the party and sponsored J. Strom Thurmond for President in the election of that year. Truman was also challenged on the left by Henry A. Wallace of the Progressive party, who opposed Truman's policy of confrontation with the Soviet Union. Although he won renomination, the President was thought to have little chance of reelection. But Truman embarked on a vigorous whistle-stop campaign across the country, blaming the Republican Congress for most of the nation's ills and highlighting its inactivity by calling a special session of Congress, at which he urged the Republicans to enact into law their own moderately liberal party platform. The campaign was a resounding success. Contrary to all the predictions, Truman defeated his Republican opponent, Thomas E. Dewey, and Democratic majorities swept into the House and Senate.

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