The Reactions of Hoover and Roosevelt to the Great Depression - Assignment Example

 Compare and contrast the reactions of Hoover and Roosevelt to the Great depression. What were their competing visions of the government’s role in society? How did the New Deal contribute to the modern conception of the presidency? One of the reasons that Roosevelt got elected was because the country believed that he would be able to stop the downward trend of the economy during the Great Depression. Hover has often been perceived as the president who let the country slide into the depression, through a lack of action when in fact he did take action. Hoover’s intervention after the Stock Market crashed was to implement tariffs among other things. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (1930) however has been seen by historians and economists today though as something that actually made the problems associated with the Great Depression worse, not better. Those economists that believe that the economy can only benefit from lowering prices point to tariffs as a way of increasing prices rather than dropping them. Roosevelt on the other hand campaigned on a balanced budget and a promise not to intervene with the economy. However, once he was elected he went ahead and expanded some of Hoover’s programs and created some of his own. The minimum wage act and the Davis-Beacon Act (1931) meant a reduction is price flexibility which slowed the economy even further. The New Deal which was a program implemented under Roosevelt’s reign was actually two different deals. The first one which ran from 1933 – 1935 was aimed at inputting money at the top of the economy so that the people at the bottom benefitted from the trickle down effect. The Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933) for example paid farmers to reduce their production. No one was actually able to explain why that would help children in the poverty end of the scale who were going without food or the countless numbers of tenants and sharecroppers who were evicted and left without a job but it did make the larger (wealthier) farmers happy. As far as helping alleviate the impact of the Depression however, it was a non-starter – consumer demand fell because of course there were less people with money to spend. The National Industry Recovery Act (1933) was instrumental in setting up a centralized planning scheme that would encourage businesses to set prices that would drive weaker and smaller businesses out of the marketplace completely. Again this might have benefitted larger businesses but the smaller ones were still forced to close and unemployment figures still continued to rise, meaning there was less money being spent in the economy. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)(1933) was a cash injection model that was to help seven rural Southern states to get back on their feet. Through the TVA higher paying jobs were created which did help the economy in that region. The Second New Deal (1935 – 1940s) was the bottom up method of helping the economy. It involved a number of different programs like the Works Progress Administration (1935) which was responsible for hiring people who could then support their families. The projects were all based on local and community works that were set up such as road building, construction and work in public areas. Finally the New Deal did have an impact on the way American’s view the presidency today. The government has absolutely been committed to that time to intervention policies that are supposed to stop the country from sliding into another depression. This meant increased Federal legislation on a number of different areas that were previously left alone. There is no way of knowing what the outcome of the Great depression would have been if it wasn’t for the start of World War II but the population of American now expect their government to not only intervene in the economy but also protect them from the consequences of it. Works Cited Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People, Volume 2, 6th edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009 Explain the start of the Cold War through the end of the Truman Administration. What actions contributed to the start of the conflict? What policies were enacted? In your opinion who was the most to blame? Truman was a man who loved his country and he spent the best part of his life ensuring that the country was defended from the threat of Communism. His own experience during the Second World War made him strongly patriotic and determined to protect America’s interests. He went into the post war negotiations determined that America would win at all costs and continued in that line of thinking for the duration of his term in office. Truman’s ace in the hole as far as negotiations with the Russians went during the war was to use the atomic bombs on Japan. He wanted to ensure that Russia did not get down into the Pacific and by dropping the bombs he effectively stopped any Russian interest in that area. He also used the atomic technology as a leverage tool to help establish America as a super power. This was the start of Truman’s “Iron Fist” approach to communism. In 1947 Truman supported the Marshall Plan which was a program designed to help Europe with economic aid – this gave America influence in western Germany and increased trade between Europe and America. More importantly it stopped the Russians from offering any aid and assistance – instead the Russians controlled the East German area and the Cold War was officially on. In 1948 Truman went on to defeat Stalin and his efforts in western Berlin and then he went on to join with 11 other nations in NATO in 1949. The Russians formed a German Republic which was part of the Warsaw pact (1956). Truman was successful in keeping the Russians in their place in Europe but the other major communist threat were the Chinese. Thanks to Truman’s atomic bomb efforts the US had sole rights in Japan and US forces that were deployed there maintained that presence through to 1952. American had a neutral policy towards any conflict in China although behind the scenes Truman supported Jiang Jieshi’ Guomindang (GMD) against Mao Zedong (CCP – Chinese Communist Party)). He was determined that the Chinese civil war was part of the Russian – American cold war and he categorically refused to deal with the CCP which he believed was only concerned with generating Russian interest in China. It was Truman’s increasing aid to GMD that led to the Korean War. In 1950 Truman sent in forces to South Korea to fight against the North Korean troops. In the start of a long and expensive fight, he escalated action from simply helping the South Koreans, to actually moving into North Korea and fighting for dominance there. Believing that he still had the influence of atomic weaponry on his side Truman expected to have UN support for his fight in Korea. Unfortunately for him the UN didn’t see it that way and America had to retreat. Even when Truman had no choice but to accept his defeat in North Korea he would still not compromise America’s position. He would not participate in the compulsory exchange of prisoners of war that was outlined by the Geneva Convention and he insisted on voluntary repatriation – leaving the matter to be sorted out by his successor Eisenhower. Not all of Truman's efforts against communism were focused off shore. In his own country he set up a Loyalty Program to give people incentives to turn in Cold War spies. He created the Rio Pact with his Latin American counterparts to increase the sphere of American influence against the communists. In 1950 Joe McCarthy brings his "reds under the bed" investigations into full force vilifying anybody who had the remotest possible communist connection into the spotlight. It could never have been said that Truman was a bad man or even a bad President. He just had a very narrow viewpoint about communism and he was determined that the rest of the world leaders would bend to his ideas. He will be remembered for his defeat in Korea and for the infamous reds in the beds campaign. Yet for all that he believed he had America’s best interests at heart – it was his narrow viewpoint however that kept the Cold War going for a lot longer than it needed to be and that was definitely his fault. Works Cited Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People, Volume 2, 6th edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009 Read More