amanda0195
1950s
Presidents
Harry S. Truman (D) (1945-1953)
Election
Became president after death of Franklin D. Roosevelt
Foreign
End of World War II 1945
NATO 1949
Mao Zedong creates People's Republic of China 1949
Marshall Plan
Truman Doctrine
Berlin Airlift
Korean War
Domestic
Fair Deal
Desegregation of Armed Forces 1948 (first desegregated in Korea)
Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) (1953-1961)
Election
"I Like Ike"
Won in landslide against Adlai Stevenson
Foreign
Ended Korean War with armistice 1953
Plot to overthrow Mossadegh in Iran 1953
Domino theory 1954
Dien Bien Phu Vietnam 1954
Suez Crisis 1956
Hungarian Revolution 1956
Soviets launch Sputnik 1957
Eisenhower Doctrine 1957
U-2 Incident 1960
Domestic
Moderate conservative
Continued New Deal agencies and expanded Social Security
Red Scare (McCarthyism)
Brown v. Board of Education 1954
Civil Rights Act 1957
NASA
Space Race
Interstate Highway System 1956
Little Rock Nine 1957
Fair Deal
From Truman's 1949 State of the Union address.
"Every segment of our population, and every individual, has a right to expect from his governemtn a fair deal."
Proposed 21 Point Program
Aid to education
Tax cut for low-income earners
No poll taxes, anti-lynching law
Universal health insurance and expanded Social Security
Making Fair Employment Practices commission permanent
Increase in the minimum wage (40-75 cents/hr)
Price controls to keep cost of living low
Repeal of Taft-Hartley Act
More aid to farmers
Expansion of public works
All were voted down
GI Bill (Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944)
Provided
Education
Low-interest, government-backed loans for homes, farms and businesses
To help reduce pressure from huge influx of returning veterans
Baby Boom Generation
Between 1945 and 1960 more than 50 million children were born
Because of post-war optimism, good economy, younger marriages and larger families
Also resulted from new focus on women's roles in the private sphere
Surburban growth
High demand for housing after the war
Levittowns
William Levitt created mass-produced, low-cost housing
first in New York
Low interested rates on mortgages, tax deductible
Consequences
Urban areas (cities) became impoverished because wealthy families had left
Labor
Taft-Hartley Act
Red Scare