Friday, April 26th

[7thChelsea]

Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what your can do for your country. JFK

ORDER OF THE COLD WAR PRESIDENTS starting with Truman.

Boston Marathon- I think everybody should read the meander rights. He did a horrible thing and I think he should have read the. Since he was an illegal citizen he should have as well.

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