CHAPTER 7 Truman Defends the Free World (1945-1953) Presidential Terms Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) Harry S Truman (1945-1953) After a complete victory over Germany, Italy, and Japan in World War II, Americans wanted to get back to normal life. The sacrifices made by citizens were enormous. But now the universal sentiment was to bring the boys home. There were clearly still threats in the world, but as Bennett points out, leaders in a democracy cannot resist such pressures to demobilize. These years immediately following the war would forever change America s role in the world. Before World War II, Americans considered themselves isolated from global events. After the war, circumstances demanded that the United States assume a leadership role on the world stage. This chapter will afford ample opportunities for classes to discuss the present role of America in world affairs. That present role was born during this period. An immediate cause for concern was the Soviet Union. America s alliance with that communist dictatorship during the war had been uneasy from the outset. Stalin had made vague assurances about free elections in Eastern Europe at the great wartime conferences. Now it became clear that his vision of free elections was very different than the American vision. With American troops rapidly demobilizing and returning from Europe, Truman had little leverage. Even the possession of the atomic bomb did not intimidate Stalin. It was, after all, relatively useless against the massive and still mobilized Soviet army. Stalin was willing to go to any length to have friendly governments to his west. His nation had been attacked twice from that direction in less than twenty-five years and had suffered over twenty million deaths in the recent war. He was determined to see that such an attack never happen again. Thus he used raw power to create compliant, satellite governments in Eastern Europe. That meant communism and a totalitarian nightmare to the millions living in those nations. Winston Churchill warned of this perilous situation in his 1946 Iron Curtain speech. He urged the Free World to band together to stop the further spread of communism. George Kennan s Long Telegram from the U.S. embassy in Moscow advised a policy of containment as the most appropriate American response. But growing tension did not preclude the U.S. and the Soviet Union from historic cooperation in the postwar period. They worked together to form the United Nations in the hope that a new international organization could maintain world peace. They also worked with other wartime allies to conduct the Nuremberg Trials. These trials set a precedent for how the
world can deal with crimes against humanity, as seen in the Holocaust. As Bennett notes, the judges did not accept following orders as an excuse for mass murder. Students can be challenged to think about this deeply. How far down the chain of command should this go? To the commanders of death camps? To the common soldiers herding victims onto trains? What about accountability for the civilian populations who knew what was happening but did nothing? These are difficult issues that deserve serious discussion. Harry Truman s honeymoon with the American people did not last long. Postwar inflation and labor troubles as the nation transitioned to a peacetime economy led to the Republicans taking control of Congress in 1946. It was critical that Truman be able to find political opponents willing to cooperate with him as America faced severe challenges abroad. A key person he turned to was Arthur Vandenberg, Republican chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Without the help of Republicans like Vandenberg the president would have never persuaded Congress to pass the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. These were the keystones of American foreign policy in the postwar period. Teachers and students can discuss whether such bipartisanship exists today and if not, why not. The key phrase of Truman s speech establishing the Truman Doctrine was, I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. Teachers should help students see the profound shift this represented from America s past. What does it mean in the present? The Marshall plan was also a dramatic commitment for the United States. Bennett calls it the second most unsordid act in history (referencing Churchill s quote about Lend-Lease). Teachers need to help students see both the humanitarian and the strategic purposes in the Marshall Plan. Hungry, desperate people are more susceptible to the promises of communism. What about calls for new Marshall Plans today? Where do students think such plans would be successful? Is such foreign aid still an important role for the United States? During this period, America s help in rebuilding the war torn world included massive aid to its recent enemies, Germany, Italy, and Japan. The world had never seen such an approach. Students should discuss the long-term impact. What is the status of U.S. relations with those nations today? On the domestic front, Truman pushed for the Fair Deal. The Republican Congress defeated most of his goals, including national health care. That elusive goal remains a hotly debated political issue to this day. The G.I. Bill did pass and offered tremendous benefits to veterans of the war.
Government help in attending college, starting a business or buying a home was more of a hand up than a hand out. These efforts stimulated the economy and transformed the nation. Millions of men who had never dreamed of college could go. New careers opened up to them and as they succeeded their incomes rose, pouring more tax money into federal coffers and thus paying for the original costs. Some have argued that today s G.I. Bill is not nearly so generous and efforts are underway to address that concern. Students might research this and compare the way our nation treated veterans of World War II with the benefits afforded to veterans of our present war. Another domestic issue Truman faced was labor turmoil and a record number of strikes and work stoppages. Republicans in Congress sought a solution with the Taft-Hartley Act, a measure Truman deemed too strong in its anti-union provisions. He vetoed the bill, but Congress successfully overrode his veto. Unions were a dominant force in the late 1940s. Bennett points out that Taft-Hartley put a permanent check on their growth. Students should know the details of the bill and also the status of unions today. Are they still an important part of our new post-industrial economy? What roles do they still serve? Struggles with communists were not confined to overseas. Many Americans had been drawn to communism in the depths of the Great Depression when it seemed clear that capitalism was broken beyond repair. Communists sought control of several unions after World War II and Bennett credits major union leaders with preventing this from happening. He uses the story of Ronald Reagan, the president of the Screen Actors Guild, to illustrate this point. The story also marks Reagan s first political battles and his rise as an American leader. The Truman years will always be remembered for decisions, momentous decisions. In the pivotal year 1948, Truman decided the United States would be the first country to recognize Israel as an independent, Jewish nation. This despite strong objections from the man he respected most, Secretary of State George Marshall, who feared resulting chaos in the Mideast. Truman listened to both his heart and to his Jewish friend Eddie Jacobson and came to the conclusion that in the wake of the Holocaust, the Jewish people needed a homeland. Chaos did indeed come, and the region still struggles with the fate of the Arab people who were displaced by the creation of Israel the Palestinians. Teachers should help students see the connection between this era and events seen daily in today s news sources. Truman made another critical decision that year to launch the Berlin Airlift and provide food, clothing and fuel for the millions of residents of West
Berlin. This containment measure took the U.S. to the brink of war and kept the city out of the Soviet orbit. Students will need to see an appropriate map to visualize the German occupation zones and how Berlin was situated deep within the Soviet Zone. Low approval ratings in polls did not stop Truman from seeking election on his own in 1948. Few people gave him a chance at success. Prospects looked even worse after Truman took strong stands on behalf of civil rights. He named a Civil Rights Commission, supported strong civil rights planks in the Democratic Party platform, and most dramatically, issued Executive Order 9981, desegregating the armed forces. This led southern Democrats to bolt the party and support their own Dixiecrat candidate, Strom Thurmond. When Henry Wallace led other Democrats to support his candidacy with the liberal Progressive Party, the Roosevelt Coalition was split three ways, making it seemingly impossible for Truman to defeat the Republican candidate Thomas Dewey. In one of the most stunning political upsets in American political history, Truman prevailed by taking the campaign directly to the American people in his whistle stop tour. This was the last presidential campaign before television came to play a dominant role. Classes can discuss whether such an upset would be possible today. They can also discuss how television has transformed politics. Has the impact been positive or negative? Could a Harry Truman get elected in the present era? Once in office on his own right, Truman still faced Cold War tensions. The U.N. s Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 not only reflected back on the horrors people faced in World War II, but also pointed to the totalitarian governments enslaving people behind the Iron Curtain or in newly communist China. In light of this, in 1949 America signed its first mutual defense treaty since the American Revolution NATO. NATO is still a key U.S. connection with the world and is important in several present conflicts. Students can research where American troops still cooperate with NATO forces. Americans found much to worry about by the late 1940s. After being totally victorious in World War II and seemingly on the brink of an American Century, things seemed to be falling apart. The Soviets dominated Eastern Europe, and in 1949 they detonated their own atomic bomb. Then China fell to the communist leadership of Mao Zedong. How could these things happen? Some Americans began to wonder if enemies within were betraying the nation. Thus, the Red Scare came to America. The term Red Scare implies that there was no real threat only unreasonable panic. As Bennett points out, the U.S.S.R. was attempting to subvert American institutions
and there were Soviet spies. He refers to the Venona decrypts. These texts of secret messages from Moscow to spies in the West have only become known since the fall of the Soviet Union. Students who research them further will find them fascinating. However, it is true that Congressmen such as Richard Nixon (and the House Un-American Activities Committee) and Senators such as Joseph McCarthy fanned the flames of anti-communism for political advantage and in the process smeared the names of many innocent Americans. Students might look for contemporary charges of McCarthyism and connect those to the man whose tactics created a new word in the English language. Ironically, out of the fear bred by the Cold War came steps forward for America in the arena of civil rights. Before and during World War II, comparisons between discrimination faced by African-Americans here and laws directed at Jews in Nazi Germany made many Americans take note of their own Jim Crow society. The same was true during the Cold War. How could the United States criticize communist denials of freedom on the world stage when American society itself fell far short of its own constitutional ideals? Organizations such as the NAACP pointed this out and Americans began to take steps toward justice. Jackie Robinson s presence on the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers riveted the nation and showed that integration in all aspects of American life was possible. Students researching the story of Robinson s journey to the major leagues will find it to be one of the great stories of courage in our national memory. Bennett s account of the Korean War answers many questions about a conflict some Americans call the forgotten war. Students might research how Korea came to be divided by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. after World War II. North Korea s invasion of the South was the first major military test of Truman s containment policy. General MacArthur s dramatic Inchon landing prevented a major loss and soon turned the tide into what appeared to be an American victory and a unification of Korea into one nation. That was prevented when the communist Chinese sent hundreds of thousands of volunteers into the fray. What resulted was a bitter stalemate across the original dividing line the 38th parallel. The situation remains little changed to this day with opposing armies still lined up along that line. Classes can have fruitful discussions over topics related to this war. Was Truman correct in firing Douglas MacArthur, a genuine American hero? What would have been the result of following MacArthur s recommendations? What were the constitutional implications of Truman s action? When is it ever wise to fight a limited war? What about Truman s decision not to ask Congress for a declaration of war? How does that square with Article One, Section Eight of the Constitution? What has been the
historical result of that decision? AMERICA: THE LAST BEST HOPE Harry Truman left office with the Korean War still raging. He returned to Independence, Missouri happy to leave what he called the Great White Jail. He became a private citizen, and walked the streets of his hometown every day. He left office as the least popular president in American history. Yet today, polls of historians consistently rank Truman as one of America s great presidents. This is something students can explore to better understand the nature of historical judgment, as opposed to contemporary opinion. What factors over the last decades account for Truman s growth in historical stature? Teachers will notice that throughout the book, people are mentioned who will become major figures later. Teachers might ask if students recognize such names and even see if they can connect how experiences during this period helped shape their character. Included in this chapter are John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan, Hubert Humphrey, and Colin Powell.