Analysis of Truman's Fair Deal - Literature review Example

The "Fair Deal" was President Truman's proposal to improve the standards of living in post-war America. Delineated in the of the Union Address to the Congress of January 5th, 1949, the program included the setting up of a National Insurance scheme for all Americans, an increase of the minimum wage, as well as fair employment and equal rights for all US citizens, regardless of color and religion. US Secretary of State George Marshall outlined an economic strategy, known as the "Marshall plan", to help reconstruct Western European countries after World War II. American money was used over four years, starting from mid-1947, to help the recovery of these countries' economies, thereby halting the spread of Soviet influence. The Policy of Containment was devised in 1946 by George Kennan, then a high-ranking representative at the US embassy in Moscow. It consisted in limiting the expansion of the Soviet sphere of influence, both militarily and economically, in the hope of provoking the collapse of its social system. The Marshall plan was the economical part of this policy, whereas the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in April 1949 was its military component. McCarthyism, a term coined by a political cartoonist in 1950 following the involvement of Senator Joseph McCarthy in a widespread "witch hunt" against Communists on American soil, corresponds to the excessive response to the fear of the spread of Communism following World War II. Also, termed the "Second Red Scare" (the first one having occurred just after the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917), this period spanned roughly a decade from the end of the 1940s until the late 1950s. Characterized by its policy of systematic suspicion, it sparked a controversy that still exists today. It raised the issue of freedom of thought versus patriotism, and term is still used to describe the unfounded questioning of a person's loyalty to the nation. After the rout of the French troops in their Indochinese colonies in 1954, President Eisenhower explained the sending of US advisors in the area the following year by stating that the loss of an ally in the South-East of Asia would cause the further loss of other collaborating nations. He used the image of a row of dominoes, all falling after the first one has been tipped over. As the number of white-collar positions increased and overtook that of professions dealing with the direct production of materials, a shift in the American population appeared in the 1950s. Most employees were leaving the industrial areas of the North and East of the USA to move to the South and West, were management-related positions were numerous and the environment more welcoming. This shift was accelerated by the development of Interstate highways that allowed the commuters to use their cars instead of the public transports, thus creating and developing a suburban way of life that didn't exist before. The Korean and Viet Nam wars had in common that they showed America's commitment to prevent the spread of Communism throughout the world, and not just in Europe. They were both limited wars that demonstrated that technical superiority is no guarantee for victory. Besides, neither they were popular at home among the general public. They differed in that the Viet Nam war had more important long-term repercussions on the American economy, politics, and public attitude toward the government. The US Supreme Court ruling in the case of Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka established the first case of desegregation in a public place, namely schools. It opened the door to further desegregation, which occurred gradually for all public places, and to the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s approach to obtaining Equal Rights for all American citizens consisted in a non-violent resistance to segregation laws that existed at the time. His movement gathered many supporters, and numerous marches and other protest events took place without resorting to physical violence by the demonstrators. This eventually caused the government to pass various official Acts, which led to total desegregation throughout the country. The Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 occurred when the Soviet Union started to install medium-range ballistic missiles on its ally territory of Cuba, close to the US. This confrontation was resolved through diplomatic channels leading to concessions on both sides, but represent one of the major nuclear war scares of the Cold War. The Great Society is President Lyndon B. Johnson's series of measures aimed at wiping out both poverty and segregation. Improving the educational system, allowing access to medical care for all US citizens, and developing cities and roads were among such measures. The "New Left" is a left-wing movement that arose in the 1960s and eventually dwindled in the 1970s. Unlike the "Traditional Left", the agenda didn't focus on the workforce itself, but in an intellectual opposition to the authorities instead. With the advent of the birth control pill and antibiotics able to fight successfully most sexually transmitted diseases, the US and the rest of the Western world underwent what was termed the "sexual revolution." A more liberal attitude toward sex and a change in the general morality gradually led in the long term to equal rights for women and homosexuals. The Nixon doctrine of 1969 stated that, while they could rely on American support and protection if needed, all ally nations should be militarily independent and able to sustain their own defense forces. The Watergate scandal was sparked in 1972 by a burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters housed in a Washington, D.C. building called the Watergate. Five men were arrested and a series of illegal activities ordered and covered by the White House were subsequently made public, forcing President Nixon to resign from office in 1974. The term "reaganomics" is used to describe President Reagan's economic measures in the 1980s. In order to fight inflation and unemployment, government spending was reduced and taxes were lowered. The American society has seen various changes since 1945, most of them involving steps toward more equality and freedom for all citizens, regardless of color, gender, or religion. The events and policies outlined in the previous paragraphs above all contributed to a change in the mentalities and attitudes of the general public, from McCarthyism to the Viet Nam war, from civil disobedience to reaganomics. The September 11th, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington were unusual in that they were the first direct strikes without warning on US territory since Pearl Harbor in 1945, as well as the only ones perpetrated by a foreign aggressor on the North American continent itself. The use of civilian aircraft hijacked for destructive purposes needs also to be highlighted as an unprecedented event. Sources: Mintz, S. (2007). Digital History. Retrieved on October 12, 2007 from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/) Read More