We did blog discussion today and we got our next assigned blog topic. Mine is Ronald Reagan and I'm doing his accomplishments.
Harry Truman-
- Became vice president for FDR in Jan. 1945.
- Took over for FDR when he 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.
- Bad eyesight.
- Didn't go to college.
- 1948- Truman vs. Thomas Dewey- Truman came from behind, newspapers and polls assumed that Dewey would win.
Accomplishments-
- Making the atomic bomb.
- Truman Doctrine- milltary aid to Greece and Turkey.
- Fair Deal- like New Deal, helped people, common Americans, most of it didn't get passed.
- NATO.
- Nuremburg Trails.
- United Nations.
- Re-build Marshall Plan.
- Buck stops here.
- Created CIA and National Security Council.
- Desegregated the U.S. miltary.
- Took a hard-line stance against communism and the Soviet Union- Policy of Containment.
- Got the U.S. involved in Vietnam by giving aid to France.
- Berlin Airlift.
- McCarthyism.
- Fired Douglass MacArthur.
Dwight D. Eisenhower-
- 34th president.
- Famous WWII general.
- Joined Republican party after WWII.
- Vice-President was Nixon.
Accomplishments-
- Ended Korean conflict as promised.
- SEATO was formed.
- Made social secrity bigger.
- Launched the space race- NASA.
- Increased U.S. involvment in Southeast Asia- U.S. advisors sent.
- Developed idea that nuclear weapons would be defensive weapons- deterrence.
- Eisenhower Doctrine- give military supplies to middle eastern countries if they requested it to help fight off communists.
- US spy plane- U2 was shot down over USSR.
- Believed in laissez-faire.
- Believed in a balanced budget.
- Deported around 1 million illegal immigrants
- Sent federal troops to Little Rock, AK to help in desegregation of all public schools- 1945 Brown case.
- Helped passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 which created the U.S. Interstate Highways.
John F. Kennedy-
Election-
- Ran against Richard Nixon.
- Closest election in history.
- Had televised debates.
- They benefited JFK- looked better on TV.
Accomplishments-
- Raised minimum wage.
- Bettered Social Security.
- Made Peace Core- volunteers went over to under developed countries and helped with farming and other things.
- Wanted to put a man on the moon.
- Worked with leader of Soviet Union to stop a nuclear war.
- Contained communism in Latin America.
- Bay of Pigs invasion- 1961.
- Cuban Missle Crisis.
- Kennedy increased the number of helicopters, military advisors and undeclared U.S. special forces in Vietnam.
- Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed in 1963.
- CIA helped Ba'ath Party gov. overthrow communists in Iraq.
- New Fontier-
- Promised federal funding for-
- Education.
- Medical care for the ederly.
- Economic aid to rural regions.
- Gov. intervention to halt the recession.
- End racial descrimination.
Kennedy Assassination-
- In Dallas to get John Connally and Ralph Yarborough to focus on election.
- Lee Harvy Oswald shot him.
- Govenor of Texas recoved but JFK didn't.
- Lee Harvy Oswald- defection to the USSR.
- Went to Parkland Hospital.
Lee Harvy Oswald-
- Joined army.
- Said he was communist and moved to Soviet Union.
- Came back to U.S.
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