Friday April 26

Presidents:

Truman:

  • from Missouri
  • became VP in January, 1945
  • took over after FDR died in April, 1945
  • One of the most unpopular presidents of all time when he left office-22% approval rating
  • Rating has improved greatly over the last 60 years
  • President when WW2 ended in Germany and Japan
  • Potsdam Conference/Declaration-(German consequences/Japan's surrender or else face destruction)
  • Decided to use the atomic bomb against Japan
  • Had to deal with transition from wartime economy to peaceful economy
  • Helped organize and later join the United Nations
  • Took a hard-line stance against communism and the Soviet Union-Policy of containment
  • Desegregated the US military
  • Truman doctrine and Marshall plan were passed
  •  Created the CIA and the National Security Council
  • The Fair Deal:
  • Similar to FDR's new deal of the 1930's
  • Aimed to promote economic development and social welfare
  • Faced a lot of opposition from Southern Democrats and Republicans
  • Most Fair Deal proposals did not get passed
  • Civil Rights
  • Housing
  • Social Security
  • Minimum wage
  • Health
  • Labor
  • Education
  • Agriculture

Truman:

  • Recognized Israel as a home place for the Jewish people
  • Berlin Aircraft
  • NATO established
  • Chinese Civil War ends
  • McCarthyism
  • The Korean Conflict and firing of General Douglas MacArthur

1948 Election:

  • Truman(D) vs Thomas Dewey(R)
  • Truman came from way behind to win
  • Newspapers and polls all assumed Dewey would win easily
  • First election that Truman won

Dwight Eisenhower:

  • Famous WW2 General
  • 34th
  • 1953-1961
  • Decided to join the Republican Party after WW2
  • This all but guaranteed him a win in the 1952 election
  • Richard Nixon was his VP
  • Diagnosed with Crohn's disease and had a minor stroke while president
  • Believed in laissez-faire
  • Believed in balance budget

accomplishments:

  • Dominated by the Cold War-Containment Policy
  • Used CIA to do convert ops to disrupt communist governments abroad(Iran/Guatemala)
  • Opened relations with Spain
  • Ended the Korean Conflict as promised in his 1952 election campiagn
  • Defensive alliances were signed with South Korea and Taiwan
  • SEATO was formed
  • Increased US involvement in Vietnam-US advisers meet
  • Developed idea that nuclear weapons would be defensive weapons
  • NASA created due to Soviet Sputnik launch
  • US spy plane(U-2)was shot down over USSR
  • Allowed McCarthy to do his thing but privately did not approve
  • Eisenhower doctrine
  • Deported around 1 million immigrants(Mexicans)
  • Sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to help in desegregation of all public schools-1954-Brown case
  • Helped pass the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 which created the US' interstate Highways

JFK:

  • 35th
  • 1961-1963
  • Served in WW2
  • Was a US representative and Senator from Massachusetts before becoming President
  • Married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier
  • 1st and only catholic president
  • Youngest elected president and second youngest president
  • The reason why the US is afraid of having a catholic president is because they think that the pope will take over our country
  • Assassinated in 1963 in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald

1960 election:

  • Ran against VP Richard Nixon
  • 1st presidential debates took place
  • Many say this helped JFK win the election
  • JFK 303 electoral votes
  • JFK only won the popular vote by .01%

accomplished:

  • Cold War issues dominated Kennedy's presidency
  • Berlin Wall was built in 1961
  • Bay of Pigs invasion-1961
  • "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." JFK
  • Cuban Missile crisis
  • Alliance for Progress with Latin America
  • Kennedy increased the # of helicopters, military advisers, and declared war.
  • CIA helped with the new ba'ath party government overthrow communists in Iraq.
  • This new party murdered large numbers of Iraq's educated people
  • Saddam Hussein is said to have participated in this massacre
  • big in getting into civil rights
  • Nuclear test ban treaty was signed in 1963
  • Established the peace corps in 1961
  • Signed the Equal pay Act of 1963, a federal law aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex
  • space race was very important to JFK

The New Frontier:

  • promised federal funding for:
  • 1. education
  • 2. medical care for the ederly
  • 3. economic aid to rural regions and
  • 4. government intervention to halt the recession
  • 5. end racial discrimination

Lyndon Johnson:

  • 36th
  • 1963-1969
  • JFK's VP
  • Took over as president after JFK was assassinated
  • only won 1 election
  • served only 1 1/2 terms

accomplishments:

  • Put together the Warren Commission to investigate the JFK assassination
  • Passed Civil Rights Act 1964, which outlawed most forms of racial segregation
  • Passed voting rights act (1965) which outlawed discrimination in voting, thus allowing million of southern blacks to vote for the 1st time
  • Started affirmative action laws
  • Passed immigration act 1965 which allowed more non European people to immigrate to the US immigration which mire than doubled between 1965-1970

The Great Society:

  • John's plan to:
  • aid education
  • attack disease
  • medicare and medicad
  • urban renewal
  • beatification, conservation, development of depressed regions
  • war on poverty
  • control and prevention of crime
  • removal of obstacles to the right to vote

I thought everybody was supposed to be read the meander rights. So yes he probably should have read them. It is his right as a legal US citizen. I don't think its that big of a deal that he didn't get read them though because the cops didn't know whether he was a US citizen or not.

E-mail me when people leave their comments –

You need to be a member of History 360 to add comments!

Join History 360

eXTReMe Tracker