History

Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/

The Early Cold War Pt. 3

THE FAIR DEAL

Early in his presidency, Truman sought to build on the promises of Roosevelt’s New

Deal. Besides demobilizing the armed forces and preparing for the homecoming of

servicemen and women, he also had to guide the nation through the process of returning

to a peacetime economy. To this end, he proposed an ambitious program of social

legislation that included establishing a federal minimum wage, expanding Social Security

and public housing, and prohibiting child labor. Wartime price controls were retained for

some items but removed from others, like meat. In his 1949 inaugural address, Truman

referred to his programs as the “Fair Deal,” a nod to his predecessor’s New Deal. He

wanted the Fair Deal to include Americans of color and became the first president to

address the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He

also took decisive steps towards extending civil rights to African Americans by

establishing, by executive order in December 1946, a Presidential Committee on Civil

Rights to investigate racial discrimination in the United States. Truman also desegregated

the armed forces, again by executive order, in July 1948, overriding many objections that

the military was no place for social experimentation.

Congress, however, which was dominated by Republicans and southern conservative

Democrats, refused to pass more “radical” pieces of legislation, such as a bill providing

for national healthcare. The American Medical Association spent some $1.5 million to

defeat Truman’s healthcare proposal, which it sought to discredit as socialized medicine

in order to appeal to Americans’ fear of Communism. The same Congress also refused to

make lynching a federal crime or outlaw the poll tax that reduced the access of poor

Source: US History. Authored by: P. Scott Corbett, Volker Janssen, John M. Lund, Todd Pfannestiel, Paul Vickery, and Sylvie Waskiewicz. Provided by: OpenStax College. Located at: http://openstaxcollege.org/textbooks/us-history. License: CC BY: Attribution. License Terms: Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11740/latest/

Americans to the ballot box. Congress also rejected a bill that would have made

Roosevelt’s Fair Employment Practices Committee, which prohibited racial

discrimination by companies doing business with the federal government, permanent. At

the same time, they passed many conservative pieces of legislation. For example, the

Taft-Hartley Act, which limited the power of unions, became law despite Truman’s veto.