POST WWII - POLITICALUnit 9.5

GI Bill• Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944

• Over 15 million given opportunities• Postwar boom in higher education

• How does that change the face of college students?• How does that change the Florida University system?

• Low-interest loans• Effects on home ownership, suburbs• Farms and businesses

• Helped stimulated the postwar economic expansion

1948 Election• Dem – Harry Truman• Rep – Thomas Dewey• Dixiecrats (States’ Rights Party) – Strom Thurmond

• Why did they leave the Democrats?

• What was wrong with the polls?

Truman’s Fair Deal Plan• First Introduced in 1946, and again after 1948 election• Fair Deal tried to expand upon the New Deal programs

• National Health Care system• Aid to education• Civil Rights • Public housing• Minimum wage hike

• Most measures defeated in Republican-controlled Congress• Minimum wage only major one passed• Foreign policy (Cold War) took priority

• 22nd Amendment• Passed in 1951• Limited President to Two

terms• Made Washington’s

precedent a rule• Why?

• Executive Order 9981• 1948 (after congress

would not pass law)• Truman desegregates

the military with executive order.

The Eisenhower Decade• “I Like IKE”• 1952 Election

• Rep – Dwight Eisenhower• Dem – Adlai Stevenson

• Checker’s Speech• Eisenhower’s VP Nixon

• 1956 Election• Rep – Dwight Eisenhower• Dem – Adlai Stevenson

Eisenhower Presidency• “Modern Republicanism”

• Fiscal Conservative who tried to balance the budget• Sometimes rated as the top economic President

• Was it his policies or a great economy?

• Did expand Social Security, raise minimum wage• Federal Highway Act – Interstates• Did not expand much on other domestic issues

• Looking in hindsight, was this a mistake?

McCarthyism• A Second Red Scare – McCarthyism

• Worrying about communism after a World War. Sound Familiar?

• Smith Act – passed in 1940, made it illegal to advocate the overthrow of the government.• Upheld in 1951 with Dennis et al v. United States

• HUAC – House Un-American Activities Committee• Started in WWII to find Nazis in gov’t, used then against communists• Leader in late 40s – Richard Nixon• ACLU argued this was against 1st Amendment Rights• Hollywood Ten – blacklisted for not testifying

McCarthyism – Spies like us• Alger Hiss -1950

• Work in State Dept.• “pumpkin papers”• Never convicted of

Espionage, but of perjury• Nixon lead investigation

• Rosenbergs• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

were traced to spy ring that gave atomic secrets

• Found guilty of treason and executed in 1953

• Some thought it was just hysteria

McCarthyism – Rise and Fall • Joseph McCarthy – Rep. Senator from Wisconsin

• Use communism issue in reelection campaign in 1950• Said 205 Communists worked in State Department

• Popularity increased as he used a steady stream of unsupported accusations.• Loved by many as he attacked wealthy and privileged• Helped Republican candidates in early 50s

• During the televised Army-McCarthy Hearings he was exposed.• “McCarthyism” = “witchhunt”

1950s Civil Rights - I• WWII – Phillip Randolph – March on Washington threat• Jackie Robinson and baseball – 1947• 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

• Overturns Plessy v. Ferguson • Chief Justice – Earl Warren

• Thurgood Marshall - NAACP

• “separate facilities are inherently unequal”• Schools were to end segregation with “all deliberate speed”

Civil Rights II• Montgomery Bus Boycott – 1955

• Rosa Parks resisted segregation law• Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. organizes boycott

• Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)• Leader of non-violent protests (passive resistance)

• Greensboro (NC) sit-in movement - 1960• Woolworth lunch counter was segregated• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) started

Civil Rights III• Little Rock Central High School - 1956

• Gov. Orval Faubus used National Guard to keep black students out• Eisenhower sends in troops to uphold federal authority• “Little Rock Nine”

Reflection Questions• What successes did Truman have in implementing his

domestic policies?• What were the highlights of Eisenhower’s Presidency?• In what ways was the threat of communism a hysteria?• How did civil disobedience and passive resistance help to

end segregation in the South?

Links• http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpJ4JKIdr0s&list=UUZYs757tACChkS-vjS1m66Q&index=38 – Civil Rights Review (15:00)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MksNGcNzKc – Little Rock Nine Presentation (10:00)