He accused a former State Department official, Alger Hiss, of being a member of that network; Hiss denied the allegations but was convicted in January 1950 for perjury. Though this was the first time the Soviets had been officially given information about the atomic bomb, Stalin was already aware of the bomb project, having learned about it through espionage long before Truman did. [250] The "New Deal" loyalists within the party—including FDR's son James—tried to swing the Democratic nomination to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, a highly popular figure whose political views and party affiliation were totally unknown. [80] From the beginning, he assumed that the American monopoly on the atomic bomb was adequate protection against any and all external threats. [45] The National Security Council drafted NSC 68, which called for a major expansion of the U.S. defense budget, increased aid to U.S. allies, and a more aggressive posture in the Cold War. [242] When a steel strike loomed in April 1952, Truman instructed Secretary of Commerce Charles W. Sawyer to seize and continue operations of the nation's steel mills. [19] As vice president, Truman had been uninformed about major initiatives relating to the war, including the top-secret Manhattan Project, which was about to test the world's first atomic bomb. [89] To fund the Marshall Plan, Truman asked Congress to approve an unprecedented, multi-year, $25 billion appropriation. Others, including Eleanor Roosevelt, supported and applauded Truman's decision. Repeated union efforts to repeal or modify it always failed, and it remains in effect today. [206] In civil rights cases like Sweatt v. Painter, the Justice Department issued amicus curiae briefs that supported ending segregation. By the end of the summer, he had developed his battery into a tight combat unit. Truman vetoed the bill in September 1950, arguing that it infringed on personal liberties and would be ineffective at protecting against subversion, but Congress overrode the veto. [46] Thus in early 1950, Truman made the decision to go forward with the H-bomb. "The Historiography of Hiroshima: The Rise and Fall of Revisionism.". "[4] Truman took the presidential oath of office shortly after learning of Roosevelt's death.
[101], Cold War tensions heightened following Soviet acquisition of nuclear weapons and the beginning of the Korean War. It also affected members of Congress and other political leaders, who now worried that the embrace of left-wing policies would leave themselves vulnerable to accusations of being "soft" on Communism. Harry S. Truman was Franklin Delano Roosevelt's vice president for just 82 days before Roosevelt died and Truman became the 33rd president. [37] Despite significant opposition from those who favored higher tariffs, Truman was able to win legislative extension of the reciprocity program, and his administration reached numerous bilateral agreements that lowered trade barriers. The United States, France, and Britain agreed to combine their occupation zones, eventually forming West Germany.
[131] By August 1950, U.S. troops pouring into South Korea, along with American air strikes, stabilized the front around the Pusan Perimeter. Barton J. Bernstein, "Roosevelt, Truman, and the atomic bomb, 1941–1945: a reinterpretation. [11], In 1947, Forrestal became the first Secretary of Defense, overseeing all branches of the United States Armed Forces. [83] Paired with the aforementioned decision to go ahead with the H-bomb, Truman ordered a review of U.S. military policies as they related to foreign policy planning. On June 14, 1905, the man who would become America's 33rd president enlisted in Light Battery B of the Missouri National Guard. [103] Latin American countries also requested aid and investment similar to the Marshall Plan, but Truman believed that most U.S. foreign aid was best directed to Europe and other areas that could potentially fall under the influence of Communism. Truman sought to find a middle course between the two camps; price controls on many nonessential items were lifted by the end of September 1945, but others remained in place by the end of 1945. After initial successes, however, the war settled into a stalemate that lasted throughout the final years of Truman's presidency. [135] Fearing that the escalation of the war could spark a global conflict with the Soviet Union, Truman refused MacArthur's request to bomb Chinese supply bases north of the Yalu River. [50] At the December 1945 Moscow Conference, Secretary of State Byrnes agreed to recognize the pro-Soviet governments in the Balkans, while the Soviet leadership accepted U.S. leadership in the occupation of Japan. [281] During the years of campus unrest in the 1960s and 1970s, revisionist historians on the left attacked his foreign policy as too hostile to Communism, and his domestic policy as too favorable toward business. [213] The failure of Truman's healthcare plan solidified the status of private employers as the primary sponsors of health insurance in the United States.
[7][14] Outside of the cabinet, Clark Clifford and John R. Steelman emerged as particularly important advisers.
[185] Historian James T. Patterson concludes that: In his first major address to Congress after taking office, Truman articulated a liberal domestic program, but his early domestic policy was dominated by post-war reconversion. The Soviet Union also withdrew their soldiers from Korea in 1949, but continued to supply North Korea with military aid. [87] Despite this American aid, much of Europe continued to suffer from food and fuel shortages by 1947; as Churchill put it, Europe was "a rubble heap, a charnel house, a breeding ground for pestilence and hate." The income, outlay, deficit, and debt figures are calculated for the, Represents the national debt held by the public as a percentage of GDP. . I'd rather be here than president of the United States.". However, State Department officials were reluctant to offend the Arabs, who were opposed to the establishment of a Jewish state in the region. [208], By the time Truman took office, National health insurance had been on the table for decades, but it had never gained much traction. [81] Military spending plunged from 39 percent of GNP in 1945 to only 5 percent in 1948,[82] but defense expenditures overall were still eight times higher in constant dollars than they had been before the war. ", Kort, Michael. [159], Conflict between management and labor presented one of the biggest challenges to the conversion of the economy to peacetime production. [202] The 1948 Women's Armed Services Integration Act allowed women to serve in the peacetime military. Nonetheless, Truman retained a strong reputation among scholars, and his public reputation eventually recovered in the 1960s. [190] The conservative coalition of Republicans and conservative Southern Democrats played a major role in blocking passage of the Fair Deal, but the inability of liberals to agree on the details of many programs also contributed to legislative gridlock. West Germany, which fell under the aegis of NATO, would eventually be incorporated into NATO in 1955. "Truman and the Historians: The Reconstruction of Postwar American History. [41], In March 1946, at an optimistic moment for postwar cooperation, the administration released the Acheson-Lilienthal Report, which proposed that all nations voluntarily abstain from constructing nuclear weapons.
"[130] Truman turned to the United Nations to condemn the invasion. [1][2] As the war continued, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought re-election in the 1944 presidential election. Anti-communist liberals by 1947–48 thus played a central role in the Democratic Party, and enthusiastically supported Truman's anti-communist foreign policy. In 1947 alone, 540,000 veterans bought a house at the average price of $7,300. Truman's first choice to succeed him, Chief Justice Vinson, had declined to run, Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson had also turned Truman down, Vice President Barkley was considered too old,[269] and Truman disliked Senator Kefauver. [118], Under the leadership of General Douglas MacArthur, the U.S. occupied Japan after the latter's surrender in August 1945. Nowhere in the whole Truman record can one point to a single, decisive break-through ... All his skills and energies—and he was among our hardest-working Presidents—were directed to standing still". [189] Taken together, Truman's proposals constituted a broad legislative agenda that came to be known as the "Fair Deal. ", Joseph C. Satterthwaite, "The Truman doctrine: Turkey. The highly unpopular Truman was handily defeated by Kefauver; 18 days later the president announced he would not seek a second full term. Think you're a Top Gun at aircraft identification? Truman took command of Battery D on July 11. He chose to re-enlist with the National Guard, where he was elected first lieutenant. [97], Rising tensions with the Soviets, along with the Soviet veto of numerous United Nations Resolutions, convinced Truman, Senator Vandenberg, and other American leaders of the necessity of creating a defensive alliance devoted to collective security. Another executive order, also in 1948, made it illegal to discriminate against persons applying for civil service positions based on race. [51], Former Vice President Henry Wallace, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and many other prominent Americans continued to hope for cooperative relations with the Soviet Union. [29] After leaving office, Truman told a journalist that the atomic bombing "was done to save 125,000 youngsters on the American side and 125,000 on the Japanese side from getting killed and that is what it did. The U.S., Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Iceland, and Canada were the original treaty signatories.
Due to a combination of the Reciprocal Tariff Act, the GATT, and inflation, U.S. tariff rates fell dramatically between the passage of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act in 1930 and the end of the Truman administration in 1953.