After World War II, the Soviet Union and the United States were the only two powerful countries left. With Germany being divided between the Soviet Union and the United States, tensions began to increase between the two countries. The Cold War began. This was a war where the Soviet Union and the United States did not fight directly, but each wanted to have a bigger influence than the other over the world. The Soviet Union wanted to spread communism around the world. (Communism is the belief that the government should own the economy to make everybody equal). Truman believed in a policy called containment: that the U.S. should contain communism and stop it from spreading. Truman declared the Truman Doctrine, which said the United States should give money to Turkey and Greece so that they could be strong enough to defend themselves from communism.
Truman sent Congress his "Fair Deal." It was based on Roosevelt's New Deal. It gave more money to education, more money to farmers, and a higher minimum wage for workers. Labor union leaders asked him for higher wages and more benefits.
After coal miners went on strike, Truman had the Department of the Interior take over the mines. While Truman sympathized with the working class, when there was a huge railroad strike, Truman believed it was illegal. He also thought it was unfair to people who could not get to work because the railroads were not running. He reacted by threatening to force the strikers to go into the army if they did not return to work.
Truman de-segregated the military, allowing blacks and whites to fight together.
In 1948, Truman ran for a second term as President against Thomas Dewey. He was the underdog and everyone thought he was going to lose. The Chicago Tribune published a newspaper on the night of the election with the title "Dewey Defeats Truman". To everyone's surprise, Harry Truman won the election.
On June 25, 1950, North Korea attacked South Korea. China supported North Korea. North Korea wanted to bring Communism into South Korea.
The U.S. fought the Korean War to defend South Korea and keep communism from spreading there. General Douglas MacArthur wanted to bomb China. Truman thought it was too dangerous to do that, so he fired MacArthur. Many people respected MacArthur, so they were angry at Truman. He made Mathew B. Ridgeway general.
During the end of his term, Harry Truman's approval rating was at an all-time low. He was very unpopular because thousands of Americans died in the Korean War; there was a medium amount of corruption in his government; and people were accusing many of Truman's employees of being communists. He left office on January 20, 1953. The Korean War ended about six months later.
As time passed, Truman's reputation got better. Many historians now believe that Harry Truman was a great president.
Truman moved back to Missouri. He died on December 26, 1972 in Kansas City, Missouri of multiple organ failure caused by pneumonia at the age of 88.
John Adams
John Adams, Jr. (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was the second President of the United States (1797–1801), and father of the sixth President, John Quincy Adams. He was also the first Vice President of the United States (1789–1797).
Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts. He was the son of Lt. Col. John Adams, Sr. (1691-1761) and Susanna Boylston (1708-1797), and he was the cousin of the philosopher Samuel Adams. He went to Harvard College. He married Abigail Adams in 1764.
Adams wanted the Thirteen Colonies to be free from Great Britain. However, Adams was fair and thought every person should be treated fairly. Even though he did not want British soldiers in Boston, he was the lawyer who defended the British soldiers who were involved in the Boston Massacre.
Adams was a representative from Massachusetts during the Second Continental Congress. He helped Thomas Jefferson write the United States Declaration of Independence. During the American Revolutionary War, Adams helped make peace with Great Britain. He served in France, the Netherlands and England as an ambassador in the 1780s.
Adams was the first vice president under George Washington. After Washington chose not to run again, Adams won the 1796 election. Adams is thought to have been the first president to belong to a political party, but like George Washington, he thought himself above any particular party. He ran for president on the Federalist ticket. He beat Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican Party. President candidates and vice president candidates did not run together like they do today. Since Jefferson got the second highest number of votes, he became vice president.
During his term, he resolved a conflict against France peacefully. He also passed the Alien and Sedition Acts which made it illegal to say bad things about the government. Many people did not like those acts because they felt it took away their freedom of speech. Adams was not re-elected president and lost to Thomas Jefferson. The Federalist Party was not as popular as it was when Adams was elected. One of his last acts as president was to make John Marshall the Chief Justice of the United States. This made sure that the Federalist Party would still be important.
Of the first five U.S. presidents, Adams was the only one who did not own slaves. He was also the only one to be from New England.
Adams died on July 4, 1826 of heart failure. This was the same day that Thomas Jefferson died, and was also exactly 50 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776.
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III; August 19, 1946) is an American politician and humanitarian activist. He was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Before he was president, Clinton was the Governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992, as well as the Attorney General of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979.
He took office at the end of the Cold War. Clinton was the first president from the baby boom generation. He was 46 years old when he was elected and the third youngest president. He was impeached in 1998 for lying about his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Clinton was the second president to be impeached.
He is married to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was the 67th United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, and the Democratic nominee for president in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas. His biological father, William Jefferson Blythe. Jr, died in a car accident, three months before Clinton was born. His mother, Virginia Clinton Kelley was a Nurse anesthetist. He took the last name Clinton because it was his stepfather, Roger Clinton, Sr.'s name. Clinton grew up in Hot Springs, Arkansas. In high school, Clinton played the saxophone. Clinton went to college at Georgetown University. During his college years, Clinton worked under several politicians. He later went to Oxford University and Yale Law School. Clinton did not fight in the Vietnam War because he was in the ROTC for a short time.
Clinton married Hillary Rodham in 1975. In 1980, their daughter, Chelsea Clinton, was born.
After law school, Clinton was elected Attorney General of Arkansas in 1976 and governor of Arkansas in 1978. At 32, he was the youngest governor in the country at that time. Clinton was governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1993. Clinton was known for being a "New Democrat" while governor. During his time as governor, Clinton changed the state's school system. There was also a scandal called Whitewater during Clinton's term.
In the 1992 presidential election, he beat Republican George H. W. Bush. During the early part of Clinton's first term, he put in place a tax code which would increase taxes on the rich.