World War II
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President Truman came to office towards the end of World War II. He was in charge of overseeing the defeats of Germany and Japan, being in charge of post-war international relations with the United States, managing the U.S. in its transition from war-time to peace-time footing, and keeping the Democratic Party together.

President Truman’s domestic policies were not nearly as successful as his foreign policies. Truman had to put up with 3 main issues: administration of the modern American presidency, a legislative program called the Fair Deal, and Republican accusations of internal subversion and corruption.   

With the war coming to an end, President Truman had to first organize the white house and its staff. He replaced many officials with men that he had chosen on his own. Unfortunately though, these men did not contribute much to his presidency.  The president’s staff were very powerful in policy making. During Truman’s reign as president, the President’s staff grew much in size.

President Truman was the first president in two decades to not lead a country that was involved with economic depression and  a world war. Truman now had to rebuild the country to its full potential following the war. With the end of the war, it was President Truman’s job to bring back the nation’s financial system to a consumer production and define the governments role in the economy for the future.

In September of 1945, President Truman presented to Congress a message that would help with the post-war political and economic agenda. This would maintain and build upon The New Deal. This new program that he had created went no where though. Even though he had won passage of the Employment Act of 1946, his program would not have any substance. Reconversion came to a stand still, and President Truman was to blame. A year after he presented his message to congress, President Truman’s popularity as president had decreased exponentially.

Once Truman regained his popularity through his success with Republicans in Congress, Truman launched his new agenda knows as the “Fair Deal.” It was a collection of policies and programs that were heavily endorsed  and wanted from the Democratic Party and liberals. This new agenda would provide  economic controls, repeal of Taft-Harley, an increase in minimum wage, expansion of the Social Security program, housing bills, national health insurance, new development projects modeled on New Deal’s Tennessee Valley Authority, more liberal immigration laws, and new civil rights legislation for African-Americans. After going strong with the Fair Deal, all excitement over it was lost once the 1950 struck and the focus changed onto the Korean War.

During the Korean War, economic growth began to become a focus. The United States began to work towards keeping a balanced and successful government and also focused on rebuilding the economy to the best of its potential. The United States seemed to be moving in the right direction towards becoming the best country it could be once again.