What Difficulties Could Have Hindered the Return to a Peacetime Economy

Postal service-State of war Prosperity and Common cold War Fears, 1945-1960

The Challenges of Peacetime

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Learning Objectives

Past the end of this section, you will exist able to:

• Identify the issues that the nation faced during demobilization
• Explain the goals and objectives of the Truman administration
• Evaluate the deportment taken by the U.S. government to address the concerns of returning veterans

(credit: "1953": modification of work past Library of Congress)

The decade and a half immediately following the end of World State of war II was one in which centre- and working-class Americans hoped for a better life than the one they lived before the war. These hopes were tainted by fears of economic hardship, as many who experienced the Great Depression feared a return to economic decline. Others clamored for the opportunity to spend the savings they had accumulated through long hours on the job during the war when consumer goods were rarely bachelor.

African Americans who had served in the military and worked in the defence force industry did not wish to return to "normal." Instead, they wanted the same rights and opportunities that other Americans had. Still other citizens were less concerned with the economic system or ceremonious rights; instead, they looked with suspicion at the Soviet presence in Eastern Europe. What would happen now that the Usa and the Soviet Union were no longer allies, and the other nations that had long helped maintain a remainder of power were left seriously damaged by the war? Harry Truman, president for less than a year when the war ended, was charged with addressing all of these concerns and giving the American people a "off-white bargain."

DEMOBILIZATION AND THE RETURN TO Noncombatant LIFE

The near immediate task to be completed after Globe State of war Ii was demobilizing the war machine and reintegrating the veterans into civilian life. In response to popular pressure level and concerns over the budget, the Usa sought to demobilize its armed services as speedily as possible. Many servicemen, labeled the "Ohio boys" (Over the Hill in October), threatened to vote Republican if they were not abode by Christmas 1946. Understandably, this placed a great deal of pressure on the withal-inexperienced president to compress the size of the U.Due south. military.

Not anybody wanted the government to reduce America's military might, however. Secretarial assistant of the Navy James Forrestal and Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson warned Truman in Oct 1945 that an overly rapid demobilization jeopardized the nation'south strategic position in the globe. While Truman agreed with their assessment, he felt powerless to put a halt to demobilization. In response to mounting political pressure, the authorities reduced the size of the U.S. armed services from a loftier of 12 million in June 1945 to one.five million in June 1947—withal more troops than the nation ever had in arms during peacetime. Soldiers and sailors were not the only ones dismissed from service. As the state of war drew to a close, millions of women working the jobs of men who had gone off to fight were dismissed by their employers, often because the demand for war materiel had declined and considering government propaganda encouraged them to become home to make fashion for the returning troops. While most women workers surveyed at the end of the war wished to proceed their jobs (75–ninety per centum, depending on the report), many did in fact leave them. Nevertheless, throughout the tardily 1940s and the 1950s, women continued to make up approximately one-third of the U.South. labor force.

Readjustment to postwar life was difficult for the returning troops. The U.S. Ground forces estimated that as many of 20 percentage of its casualties were psychological. Although many eagerly awaited their return to noncombatant condition, others feared that they would not be able to resume a humdrum existence afterward the feel of fighting on the forepart lines. Veterans also worried that they wouldn't find piece of work and that civilian defense workers were improve positioned to take advantage of the new jobs opening upward in the peacetime economic system. Some felt that their wives and children would not welcome their presence, and some children did indeed resent the return of fathers who threatened to disrupt the mother-kid household. Those on the abode front end worried besides. Doctors warned fiancées, wives, and mothers that soldiers might return with psychological problems that would brand them difficult to live with.

The GI Neb of Rights

Well before the end of the war, Congress had passed one of the well-nigh meaning and far-reaching pieces of legislation to ease veterans' transition into noncombatant life: the Servicemen'south Readjustment Act, too known as the GI Bill ([link]). Every honorably discharged veteran who had seen active duty, but not necessarily gainsay, was eligible to receive a twelvemonth'southward worth of unemployment compensation. This provision not only calmed veterans' fears regarding their ability to support themselves, just information technology likewise prevented large numbers of men—likewise as some women—from all of a sudden entering a task market that did not have enough positions for them. Another fashion that the GI Pecker averted a glut in the labor market was past giving returning veterans the opportunity to pursue an education; it paid for tuition at a college or vocational school, and gave them a stipend to alive on while they completed their studies.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, or GI Beak, on June 22, 1944, just weeks later on the Centrolineal invasion of Normandy, French republic, and more than a year before the end of the war.

The result was a dramatic increase in the number of students—peculiarly male ones—enrolled in American colleges and universities. In 1940, only 5.5 pct of American men had a college degree. By 1950, that percentage had increased to 7.3 percentage, as more than two 1000000 servicemen took advantage of the benefits offered by the GI Neb to complete college. The numbers continued to grow throughout the 1950s. Upon graduation, these men were prepared for skilled blue-collar or white-neckband jobs that paved the way for many to enter the center class. The creation of a well-educated, skilled labor forcefulness helped the U.South. economy likewise. Other benefits offered past the GI Bill included low-interest loans to purchase homes or start small businesses.

However, not all veterans were able to have reward of the GI Pecker. African American veterans could use their educational benefits simply to nourish schools that accustomed black students. The approximately nine thousand servicemen and women who were dishonorably discharged because they were gay or lesbian were ineligible for GI Bill benefits. Benefits for some Mexican American veterans, mainly in Texas, were also denied or delayed.

The Return of the Japanese

While almost veterans received assistance to help in their aligning to postwar life, others returned home to an uncertain future without the promise of regime aid to help them resume their prewar lives. Japanese Americans from the W Coast who had been interned during the war also confronted the job of rebuilding their lives. In Dec 1944, Franklin Roosevelt had declared an end to the forced relocation of Japanese Americans, and every bit of Jan 1945, they were free to return to their homes. In many areas, however, neighbors clung to their prejudices and denounced those of Japanese descent as disloyal and unsafe. These feelings had been worsened by wartime propaganda, which often featured horrific accounts of Japanese mistreatment of prisoners, and past the statements of military officers to the issue that the Japanese were inherently savage. Facing such animosity, many Japanese American families chose to movement elsewhere. Those who did return often plant that in their absence, "friends" and neighbors had sold possessions that had been left with them for safekeeping. Many homes had been vandalized and farms destroyed. When Japanese Americans reopened their businesses, former customers sometimes boycotted them.

For more on the experiences of Japanese Americans later on internment, read about their return to communities in Oregon later on World War II.

THE FAIR Deal

Early in his presidency, Truman sought to build on the promises of Roosevelt's New Bargain. Besides demobilizing the armed forces and preparing for the homecoming of servicemen and women, he also had to guide the nation through the process of returning to a peacetime economy. To this end, he proposed an ambitious plan of social legislation that included establishing a federal minimum wage, expanding Social Security and public housing, and prohibiting kid labor. Wartime price controls were retained for some items simply removed from others, like meat. In his 1949 inaugural address, Truman referred to his programs as the "Fair Deal," a nod to his predecessor's New Deal. He wanted the Off-white Deal to include Americans of color and became the first president to address the National Clan for the Advocacy of Colored People (NAACP). He besides took decisive steps towards extending civil rights to African Americans by establishing, by executive gild in December 1946, a Presidential Committee on Civil Rights to investigate racial bigotry in the United States. Truman likewise desegregated the armed forces, again by executive order, in July 1948, overriding many objections that the military was no place for social experimentation.

Congress, however, which was dominated by Republicans and southern conservative Democrats, refused to laissez passer more "radical" pieces of legislation, such as a bill providing for national healthcare. The American Medical Clan spent some $1.five million to defeat Truman'southward healthcare proposal, which it sought to discredit equally socialized medicine in order to appeal to Americans' fear of Communism. The aforementioned Congress too refused to make lynching a federal offense or outlaw the poll tax that reduced the access of poor Americans to the ballot box. Congress besides rejected a bill that would have made Roosevelt'due south Fair Employment Practices Commission, which prohibited racial discrimination past companies doing business with the federal government, permanent. At the same time, they passed many conservative pieces of legislation. For case, the Taft-Hartley Act, which limited the ability of unions, became law despite Truman'southward veto.

Section Summary

At the finish of World War II, U.Southward. servicemen and women returned to civilian life, and all hoped the prosperity of the war years would go on. The GI Bill eased many veterans' render past providing them with unemployment compensation, low-interest loans, and money to further their teaching; however, African American, Mexican American, and gay veterans were often unable to take advantage of these benefits fully or at all. Meanwhile, Japanese Americans faced an uphill struggle in their attempts to render to normalcy, and many women who had fabricated meaning professional gains in wartime plant themselves dismissed from their positions. President Harry Truman attempted to extend Roosevelt's New Deal with his own Fair Bargain, which had the goal of improving wages, housing, and healthcare, and protecting the rights of African Americans. Confronted by a Congress dominated by Republicans and southern Democrats, however, Truman was able to achieve only some of his goals.

Review Questions

Truman referred to his programme of economic and social reform as the ________.

New Deal

Foursquare Deal

Fair Deal

Straight Bargain

C

Which of the following pieces of Truman's domestic agenda was rejected past Congress?

the Taft-Hartley Act

national healthcare

the cosmos of a civil rights commission

funding for schools

B

How did the GI Pecker assist veterans return to civilian life? What were its limitations?

The GI Bill provided returning veterans with a year of unemployment bounty, then they did not have to worry virtually finding jobs immediately. Information technology allowed them to receive depression-interest loans to buy homes or start businesses, and information technology paid for tuition for those who wished to attend college or vocational schoolhouse. However, African American veterans could apply their educational benefits only to attend schools that accepted black students, and some Mexican American veterans had difficulty gaining access to their benefits. As well, because those who had received a dishonorable discharge were not eligible, thousands of gay and lesbian servicemen and women who had been dishonorably discharged for their sexual orientation were unable to receive benefits.

Glossary

Fair Deal

President Harry Truman's plan of economic and social reform

GI Bill

a program that gave substantial benefits to those who served in World War 2

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Source: http://pressbooks-dev.oer.hawaii.edu/ushistory/chapter/the-challenges-of-peacetime/

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