Demobilization: Labor, The Baby Boom & Truman’s Fair Deal US History: Spiconardi
Demobilization The Armed Services
Military reduced from 12 million members to 1.5
Questions: What to do with 10.5 million discharged
men? What to do with the wartime factories?
Demobilization
Servicemen’s Readjustment Act: The G.I. Bill of Rights Considered last piece of New Deal Legislation Created to prevent repeat of Bonus Army March The G.I. Bill of Rights
Authorized billions of dollars to pay veterans’ benefits College education Medical treatment Unemployment insurance Home and business loans
Made it possible for more people to attend college or buy a home than ever before
G.I. Bill
G.I. Bill
Fair Deal Truman’s plan for social improvement
Goals Promote full employment A higher minimum wage Housing assistance Employment compensation for workers out
of work Most of the proposed legislation not
passed by Congress
Taft-Hartley Act Wages could not keep up with inflation Unions went on strike for higher wages US became anti-union & Congress passes
Taft-Hartley Act President could delay a strike (80-days) if it
threatened “national welfare” Barred the “closed shop” no longer had to
belong to a union before being hired “Right-to-work laws” Could take jobs & not
belong to a union Required union leaders to swear they were not
communists
National Military Establishment Act In order to meet post-WWII
international concerns (COLD WAR) two new federal agencies created Department of Defense
Oversees all gov’t agencies relating to national security & the military
National Military Establishment Act Central Intelligence Agency
Obtain and analyze information about foreign governments, corporations, & persons
Use of propaganda to get others to decide in favor of the United States
Covert operations (espionage)
The Baby Boom Largest population explosion in US
history No longer economic hardships of Great
Depression, which limited family size Men coming home from war (wink, wink)
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