Truman, Eisenhower, and the American Citizen
The purpose of this essay is to highlight the similarities and differences of the decisive actions taken by President Harry Truman (1945 to 1953) and President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953 to 1961) when confronted with two pivotal issues of their administration. Those issues were civil rights for African Americans and the cold war. This essay will also highlight how American citizens responded to the issues during the period from 1945 to 1961.
President Harry Truman and Civil Rights
It is widely known of the brutalization, and inhumane treatment of African Americans, long before Truman was President of the United States in 1945. However, the first effort made by Truman to ease the burden of African Americans was the continuation of the Fair Practices Commission (FPC) that guarded against racial discrimination in employment. His
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This system was designed to maintain stability and a balance of power in the international arena. The containment expressed displeasure of totalitarian, non-democratic forms of government. Truman favored a more traditional warfare to containment and a strong conventional military. Eisenhower endorsed the threat of using nuclear warfare over the conventional war. He convinced the Soviets that he would use atomic deterrence if provoked (Costa, 1998).
American citizens became obsessed by the possibility of nuclear war, resulting from the ever increasing threat of the communist Soviet Union. The government established a loyalty review board, to thoroughly examine the background of federal employees and anyone they were conducting business with. The prospering middle class worried about intermingling with the society they were trying so desperately to isolate themselves from (Cayton,
Directly after the end of World War II, the United States faced a time like no other—the Cold War. The fear of communism and the totalitarian Soviet Union grew rampant, and the possibility of an impending all-out nuclear war gripped American minds. During this time, the fear of a breach in national security heightened, and a loyalty review program in the government was introduced by President Truman. Soon, this practice crept into society, as everyday citizens undertook the responsibility of “policing” each other—determining each other’s loyalty, with suspicion constantly clouding one’s mind. Amidst this, American historian Henry Steele Commager, a product of the University of Chicago “…where he received his Ph.B. and M.A. in philosophy…and returned for his Ph.D.” ("Commager, Henry Steele”), stepped onto the scene to dispute the anti-communist crusade he noticed was running rampant in his nation.
How did the U.S. contain communism? After the ending of World War II l, the United States and the Soviet Union rejoiced. The worst war in human history was over. However, the peace did not last.
By the end of World War 2, the concern of Soviet Union (communism) taking over the world started to build up. When the Cold War started in 1947, many major events were taken in different countries. Unlike the Soviet, the American also fought the war in their homeland. U.S government afraid that the communist ideology is going drive American freedom, liberty, and right away. President Truman established a Federal employee Loyalty program for the employers to take loyalty oath to United States.
He oversaw the conversion of the American economy from its World War ll footing to one that emphasized both consumer and military production. While not without problems, this transition occurred about as smoothly as possible. Truman protected the New Deal and with a rise of the minimum wage in 1949 and the enlargement of Social Security in 1950, built upon its achievements. He pushed forward the cause of the African American civil rights by desegregating the military, by banning discrimination in the civil service, and by commissioning a federal report on civil rights. Just as important, Truman spoke out publicity on the
The attack comes without warning and President Harry Truman, with the help of the United Nations, vows to defend democratic South Korea. The Containment Policy stated that the US would support any nation that are being oppressed by communism and cannot protect themselves from it. This became America’s major reason to intervene in the Korean War. However, the policy of containment came under attack due casualties and economic issues that the policy created. One of the major effects that over extended the powers of American foreign policy is that it gave the US a reason to interfere with any war they wanted as long as it involved communism.
Containment was used by the United States so they could prevent communism spreading and was used towards the Guatemalans, Greece, Turkey, and Cuba during the cold war. In which was successful in stopping communism from spreading but did require people being killed or be put in jail which is bad because they got punished for something they believed on. This happened around 1954 because at that time they were fighting the cold war so they had to come with a quick and effective way to stop communism from spreading and containment was the solution. Containment was a big step for the Unites states, they were to intimidate the Soviet Union.
Due to limited resources, interference in other regions, even if covered by the Truman Doctrine, was considered undesirable because China and Palestine were less important than the restoration of Europe. In addition, at this time, the Truman Administration is moving away from the doctrine of containing communism and moving on to a strategy of containing the Soviet Union. This was also part of the strategy in
Especially since Eisenhower believed in massive retaliation, which was funding the stockpiling of nuclear weapons and less funding to the army. Eisenhower’s policy had backlash from both conservatives and liberals. As stated in Document E, “...whether a policy accepting the first blow may be the best one.” People believed that massive retaliation was not the best way to avoid nuclear war. Document E serves the purpose of showing the faults of massive retaliations and how in the grand scheme it isn’t a sufficient way to keep away from a nuclear war.
Between the Red Scare and, its period of economic prosperity, the 1950s has long been considered as a time of great controversy in the United States. Though industry may have been thriving and unemployment was down, the people of the United States lived in constant fear of the Soviet Union and Communism as a whole. It was because of this fear and the encouragement of certain government officials that triggered the Red Scare, which was later considered by many as a “Communist witch hunt.” It was also this fear that eventually led to increased American involvement in the Cold War.
In the final hours of his presidency, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered a phenomenal speech that shocked the nation. President Eisenhower warned the people of the United States of the impending dilemmas approaching the future. He offered America advice to mitigate the damages of inevitable catastrophes awaiting. After half a century of complicated problems including two world wars and the great depression, the people had experienced enough hardship. They blatantly ignored the plea of President Eisenhower because it is easier to pretend ignorance than to initiate change.
When World War II ended, the United States rejoiced with what they assumed their victory would determine; total peace, the discontinuation of Communism, the return of all the dearly missed soldiers, and greater equality for all, especially in the workplace. Much to the dismay of many citizens at home during the war, these aspirations were not exactly what they expected. In the near short years right after the war, there was much prosperity and many were perfectly content, but in these years, many had difficult times with the changes that occurred after the war. With these rough times came many fears of the conditions of the country, but many of these fears were greatly calmed through the work of the President Eisenhower in the 1950s. In the
They both used the policy of containment. Eisenhower created a theory called the “Domino Theory.” The “Domino Theory” was a theory that stated that if one country became communist then their neighboring country would become communist too (Ayers 950). It was made for awareness to prevent communism. The strongest Military efforts included brinkmanship and massive retaliation.
Truman was the 33rd American President who served his terms in office from April 12, 1945 to January 20, 1953. One of the important accomplishments during his presidency was the Truman Doctrine. At the end of WWII, Russia was coercing European countries to fall under its sphere of influence, communism. Before and during the war, the British had been moderating this force, but after WWII Britain’s strength and affluence significantly declined. As a result of this, President Truman decided the US needed to become involved in this affair.
President Dwight Eisenhower was a decorated war veteran in world war 2 before he became president of the United States. In January of 1953 president Eisenhower gave his first inaugural address to the citizens of the United States. Two foreign and two domestic policies will be analyzed in this paper. The policies were talked about in the inaugural address. This will show president Eisenhower's policy plans for his first four years in office.
"But it is hard to imagine how the U.S. government could have prevented a Communist victory short of getting involved in a massive military intervention, which would have been risky, unpopular, and expensive"(Tindall 964). "The discovery of the Soviet bomb in 1949 triggered an intense reappraisal of the strategic balance of power in the world, causing Truman in 1950 to order the construction of a hydrogen bomb, a weapon far more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, lest the Soviets make one first"(Tindall 964). The onset of the cold war the ideology drove more of the Soviet behavior. "American 's traditional commitment to democtatic capitalism, political self determination, and religious freedom conflicted with the Soviet Union 's preference for spheres of influence on its periphery, totalitarianism at home, and state mandated atheism"(Tindall 970). Kennan stressed that U.S. needed to be responses to the Soviet adventurism.