During Truman’s presidency the three major topics or categories of policy came from the Civil Rights Movement, his domestic agenda and his foreign policy. In this brief synopsis of his policies we are going to look at what they were and summarize what I feel the general effectiveness of them were.
Concerning Civil Rights Truman was very active and a committed supporter to see the equal treatment of blacks. Truman supported the Fair Employment Practices Commission and sought to get the act in place not just during war time but in peace time as well. Truman also imposed some anti-lynching laws to make it illegal to kill the blacks without cause. But Truman did very little when he was opposed by congress. But he did end a segregated armed forces in the United States.
I believe that Truman had good intentions when it came to civil rights, but at the same time he was all about the vote and the African American vote was beginning to be important. Unfortunately Truman did not have much of a backbone when it came down to congress opposing his legislation.
On the Domestic front one of Truman’s domestic policies would be the Fair Deal. The Fair Deal was meant to revitalize the programs that Franklin D. Roosevelt implemented with the New Deal. He wanted to increase wages and implement a National Health Insurance. The Fair Deal was met with opposition because people did not want the New Deal back. People were upset with rising prices and continued shortages. They did not want social legislation.
Truman I believe had good intentions with the Fair Deal Act but the people were just tired of promises and they were tired of social reform. I myself feel that a national healthcare plan would be beneficial and would be a welcomed act at this time but after just coming out of the depression and fighting World War II the people opposed it.
As far as the National policies there were three big ones. Containment, the Marshall Plan and NATO. Containment was simply maintain your distance away from socialism. The Marshall Plan was a plan to aid Turkey and Greece and to keep the Mediterranean free of Soviet rule. When the British government told us that they could no longer send aid to Turkey and Greece the United States stepped up and aided those countries. North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO is very important because it formed an alliance between the Western nations that says if Russia attacks any of the alliance then all will fight.
On the National scope Truman did many great things. All of the policies that he implemented nationally concerned the Soviet Union. This was a very positive thing because during the Cold War the people of the United States needed a strong national leader and with Truman that is what we got.