USA+(1945-1989)

OVERVIEW - USA 1945-969

By the end of the Second World War, in 1945, the United States had been through tremendous change. The Depression had seen millions of Americans lose their jobs, their savings and their homes. The economy had almost collapsed. [|Franklin Roosevelt] (FDR) and his New Deal policies had seen federal government take on a new role in running the economy to try and bring the country out of the slump. They made fundamental changes to the welfare structure to ensure that no crisis like it could happen again. The coming of war in Europebrought jobs to American people, and its own entry into the war in 1941 finally ended the Great Depression. Federal power, particularly the power of the President, had been further extended by the needs of the Second World War. Once peace returned, two questions arose: • Would the American economy return to depression? • Would federal government return to the laissez-faire attitudes of the 1920s? Although the Second World War had brought the United States out of the Depression, once the War was over the Depression did not return. Far from returning to Depression, the USA experienced massive economic growth and the majority of Americans saw living standards rise steadily through the 1950s and the 1960s. New technologies were a major factor in this growth but, unlike the 1920s, federal government also worked hard to build economic wealth. The business of American government was business. Both Democrats and Republicans now routinely used tax and spending policies to control economic growth. However, this growth in government power worried many. Congress felt that its power had declined relative to that of the Executive. President Truman was to have many battles as Congress tried to reassert its authority. There was even the Twenty-Second Amendment to the Constitution, added in 1951, to ensure that no future president could have the amount of power which FDR was believed to have had. But there could be no return to the 1920s. In spite of constraints, Truman attempted to build on and develop the New Deal. Even when the Republicans returned to power in 1953, Eisenhower accepted many of the social changes the Democrats had made. Later on, in the 1960s, both Kennedy and particularly Johnson would extend and develop the idea that federal government should protect and care for those in need. While the majority of Americans saw their living standards rise, there were also millions who did not. It was estimated that a quarter of Americans lived in poverty. Although there was no direct crisis such as in the 1930s, Kennedy declared a 'war on poverty' as part of his New Frontier programmes. He began a programme of measures concerning welfare, health and education, but conflict with Congress and his untimely death meant he was able to achieve little. His successor, Lyndon Johnson, was a man who had served under FDR and was determined to go further than Roosevelt had done in ending poverty in America. The Great Society was the biggest programme of social legislation in UShistory. Its success is disputed, but it was unquestionably an attempt to use the power of federal government to achieve improvements in the lives of millions of Americans. Politically, the Democrats continued to hold power for most of the decade, with a Republican administration for eight years - 1953-1961. Their hold on both houses of Congress was just as strong. However, there were conflicts between the various branches of government and within the parties themselves, especially in the Democrats, which limited the achievements of the Presidents. The 'conservative coalition' of Southern Democrats and Republicans was to prove a particular problem. The biggest political crisis of the era -apart from civil rights- was the anti-Communist hysteria that became known as McCarthyism. The quarter century that followed the Second World War saw the United States experience economic growth and political conflict. It also saw the growth of federal government and a real attempt to deal with poverty and injustice.

Domestic policies - from Roosevelt's last New Deal to Johnson's Great Society

Foreign policies - Cold War from Europe to Asia

OVERVIEW - USA 1970-1989

under construction..