Harry S. Truman

Every Segment of Our Population and Every Individual Has a Right to Expect from our Government a Fair Deal…

President Harry Truman,
Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union, January 5, 1949
Truman Presidential Museum and Library

Harry Truman,
April 19, 1945.
Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies, 1789-Present

On January 5, 1949, President Harry Truman used his State of the Union address to recommend measures including national health insurance, raising the minimum wage, strengthening the position of organized labor, and guarantying the civil rights of all Americans. Referencing the popular "New Deal" programs of his predecessor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Truman styled his reform package the "Fair Deal."

A few months earlier the president's career seemed over.  Political pundits of the time agreed that Truman needed a miracle to win his 1948 bid for reelection against the popular Republican governor from New York, Thomas E. Dewey. Adding to the incumbent's troubles, a revived Progressive Party attempted to attract left-leaning Democrats, while segregationist "Dixiecrats" broke with the Democrats to run South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond for president. Responding to the competition, Truman embarked on a campaign tour by train, delivering “whistle-stop” speeches to thousands of voters in small communities throughout the United States. This tactic proved effective, and President Truman was reelected by a slim margin. Still, the Chicago Daily Tribune was so confident of the president's defeat it went to press with the November 3, 1948 headline "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN."

Truman had begun to push for Fair Deal-type legislation following the end of World War II in 1945. However, Congress resisted his plans for the extension of federal social and economic programs. Concerned about the transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy, lawmakers ultimately accepted the role of government in maintaining full employment and stabilizing the economy, but rejected Truman's proposals for national health insurance, educational aid, and federally-supported housing programs. Even after Truman's successful 1948 campaign, the mandate for expanded social programs remained weak. The minimum wage rose and social security coverage broadened, but few Fair Deal programs were enacted.

On July 26, 1948, President Harry Truman issued two executive orders. One instituted fair employment practices in the civilian agencies of the federal government; the other provided for "equality of treatment and opportunity in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin."

From African American Odyssey

Press Release for Executive Order No. 9981,
establishing the President's Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services,
July 26, 1948.

"By Executive Order—President Truman Wipes Out Segregation in Armed Forces."
Chicago Defender,
July 31,1948.

 

President Truman Wearing General MacArthur's Hat [detail]
John Chase, cartoonist
Ink on paper, 1950.
American Treasures of the Library of Congress

During Truman's presidency, concern over the potential spread of communism and the growing influence of the Soviet Union underlay much of his Administration’s foreign policy. In what became known as the Truman Doctrine (1947), the president pledged U.S. support of "…free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures." The United States inaugurated the massive European aid package known as the Marshall Plan in 1948, and led in the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (1949). These and other related measures became known in U.S. foreign policy terms as the “containment” of the potential spread of communism to other parts of the world.

Learn more about the life and times of the thirty-third president:

• Read about the Marshall Plan. For European Recovery: The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Marshall Plan includes the text of three books about the Marshall Plan. William Averill Harriman's album of photographs, The Marshall Plan at the Mid-Mark, contains several photographs of Truman. View The President Signs the Foreign Assistance Act of 1948 as well as pictures documenting the Marshall Plan in action.
• On April 10, 1951, Truman fired General Douglass MacArthur for insubordination after the general publicly criticized Truman's commitment to a limited war in Korea. On his return to the United States, MacArthur addressed a joint session of Congress. His famous "Old Soldiers Never Die" speech is preserved in Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division's First 100 Years.
• View additional photographs of President Truman and his wife, Bess Wallace Truman in Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies, 1789-Present.