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