History 2302 Final Paper

May 14, 2009

The American Presidency from 1933 to 1961. (From FDR to Eisenhower).

In observation of the American presidency during the years from 1933 to 1961, a

distinct pattern can be discerned, pertaining to the evolution of the executive branch of

government, and the roles played by the individual presidents that held office during this

period. Notably, presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945), Harry S Truman

(1945-1953), and Dwight D Eisenhower (1953-1961).

In the years preceding 1933 and the great depression, the role of the president was

relatively small and was subjected to the checks and balance system of the United States

constitution. Beginning with FDR and the New Deal, presidents have assumed

increasingly larger roles in running the government‟s domestic and foreign policies. The

origin of this phenomenon can be traced to the presidency of FDR with the establishment

of the Imperial Executive, combined with Executive Activism. FDR is credited with the

expansion of the executive department, and also, being one of the most efficient presidents

in US history, with setting a standard by which successive presidents after him will be

judged. By this measure, he is considered to be the father of the modern presidency.

Among the issues that prevailed and shaped the presidency during this period from 1933 to

1961 were the Great Depression and World War two in the case of FDR, The Cold War and

the Civil Rights reform in the case of Truman, and also the handling of the Cold War and

maintenance of peace and prosperity as in the case of Eisenhower.

Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only president to have served more than two terms in

the history of the United States. Before he became president, he had served as governor of
New York during the raging crisis of the great depression. As governor, Roosevelt

displayed his ability to manage a crisis by creating the Temporary Emergency Relief

Administration, the first agency of its kind in any state to provide food, clothing, and

housing for the unemployed and to find them jobs if possible. In campaigning for the

presidency, FDR was able to articulate to the American people the urgency of the crisis,

and more important, using his skills as a great communicator, he was able to win the faith

and confidence of the American people who believed in his “planned program” to relieve

Americans from the shackles of the great depression. He advocated “restoring agricultural

purchasing power, protecting home owners from the threat of mortgage foreclosures, and

obtaining foreign markets for American goods by lowering the nation‟s exorbitant tariffs”

(pg 12). Such nascent liberalism is what would eventually become the ideological

foundation of the New Deal.

It was the New Deal programs that came to define FDR‟s presidency. What

constituted the basis of the New Deal were the drastic programs of relief, recovery, and

reform, which he implemented in order to help Americans who through no fault of their

own could not provide for themselves. He created several “emergency” agencies to

enhance the relief program. By implementing important legislation such as the Social

Security Act, the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Industrial

Recovery Act, Roosevelt managed to move the country in a new direction. Beginning with

FDR government would assume a moral responsibility toward its citizens. The New Deal

served as a foundation for what is popularly referred to as the Welfare State or Liberalism.

To ensure the proper application of his policies, FDR expanded the executive

branch, thus creating a strong, centralized government, and establishing what is known as
an Imperialist Presidency, allocating more power to the executive at the expense of the

other branches of government. In this mode, FDR made all the important executive

decisions, and reduced congress to nothing but a rubber stamp. He even attempted to

influence the role of the Judicial branch of government through his court packing schemes.

Since the sitting judges did not often side with him, he proposed to increase the number of

judges of the Supreme Court from 9 to 15, and also suggested a retirement age of 70 for all

Supreme Court judges. He would eventually succumb to popular opposition and back

down from his court packing schemes. Nevertheless, FDR remained a man of the people,

which explains why he was elected for four terms of office. He gave hope to the people

during critical moments such as the great depression. Ironically, it was not the New Deal

that ended the great depression. Though the New Deal served as an efficient band aid in

keeping the American economy from falling apart, it was America‟s involvement in the

Second World War that would bring lasting relief in terms of employment particularly in

the manufacturing industry, and the manufacture of military equipment that would be used

in the war.

In the foreign policy arena, Roosevelt made the most of his dual roles as

Commander in Chief and Chief Diplomat. He expanded the powers of the presidency by

bringing the Armed Forces under his direct control, a move which paved the way for other

presidents to take a more active role. Notably, he also ended America‟s long period of

isolationism, through his participation in the Second World War. Policies like the

Lend-Lease agreement enabled the US to contribute large amounts of war supplies to

Britain and Russia.

FDR was successful in building a coalition with Britain and Russia, which
eventually won the war, and brought economic prosperity to the United States, but his

handling of relations with Russia would later on prove to have been the wrong approach.

By allowing the Soviet Union to assume Spheres of influence in Eastern Europe, FDR

failed to prevent a situation that would eventually evolve into the Cold War between the

United States and Russia, a potentially deadly arms race that would last until the late 80s.

Dealing with the cold war is about the main issue that came to define the presidency of

FDR‟s immediate successor, Harry S. Truman.

President Harry S Truman came into office in 1945 relatively unprepared. He had

been FDR‟s vice president for only four months, a period during which he had minimal

interaction with the president. Thus he was not familiar with the way Roosevelt was

running the government. Roosevelt died from ill health in April 1945, barely 3 months into

his fourth term of office. By default, then vice president Truman became the next president

of the United States of America.

When Truman came to office, Americans were on the threshold of a new beginning. The

Second World War was grinding to an end, and Truman would have to deal with broader

issues that Americans faced, moving forward into the future. He was challenged to

efficiently emulate FDR even though he knew little about the former president‟s policies.

He thus lived under FDR‟s shadows and for the first couple of years, he was cautious not to

make any abrupt departure from FDR‟s policies, given the fact that FDR was a popular

icon and it would be politically risky to make abrupt changes. So Truman made adept use

of his skill and wisdom, while relying on his advisers, to continue upholding the legacy he

inherited from his predecessor, continuing America‟s active role in bringing about world

peace, and ensuring the smooth function of the New Deal in the domestic front.
 By 1947, beginning with the Truman Doctrine, the new president started a new

trend that would come to define the Truman legacy. He realized that more stringent

measures had to be taken in other to effectively contain the spread of communism and deal

with Russia which by this time in Truman‟s view had become a threat to the US. For the

purpose of collective security, Truman formed NATO with the western European nations

to counter the threat coming from Russia. Domestically, he could not accomplish much in

the way of the New Deal, as most of his proposals would be blocked in congress by

conservatives who argued that the days of the depression were over, and thus it was not

necessary for government to spend that much money on programs such as those suggested

by Truman‟s Full Employment Act. So Truman shifted his position to emphasize more on

economic growth, “not through centralized planning, but by „updating‟ through measures

like the Employment Act, establishing a cooperative relationship with both big business

and organized labor that Roosevelt had introduced during world war II” (pg 96).

From a simplistic point of view, all FDR had to do was contain the Depression until

World War II began. “Truman, by contrast had to adapt the liberalism of the Great

Depression to the new exigencies of economic growth and prosperity, the advent of the

consumer culture, the cold war and the politics of anticommunism at home, and the

beginnings of the Civil Rights Revolution”( Pg 93).

The legacy of the Truman presidency is defined more by his performance in the

area of foreign policy. His crucial decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan helped to

speed the end of the Second World War. He concluded that because the Japanese would not

surrender anytime soon, instead of pro-longing the war, and loosing American lives, it was

preferable to use the bomb.

Truman had greater success in the realm of the Cold War. He is credited with

“establishing the foundation of America‟s cold war policy upon which subsequent

presidents simply added new approaches and interpretations” (pg76).

Truman completely reversed Roosevelt‟s approach toward Stalin, the Russian

dictator. FDR trusted Stalin to cooperate in the process of world peace, and against

Churchill‟s advise, fully granted him permission to establish spheres of influence in

Eastern Europe, but according to Truman‟s advisers, the differences between the US and

Russia were irreconcilable, because the Russians were seeking to extend the Soviet system,

and thus, communism with secret police and the extinction of freedom of Speech. Such an

attitude coming from Stalin conflicted with Truman‟s and hence American values of self

determination, liberty and freedom. However, coming out of world war 2 and after being

criticized for using the atomic bomb twice in Japan, Truman sought to avoid an all out war

with Russia. What he did was adopt a strategy of Containment, a legacy which would be

efficiently continued by his successor Dwight D Eisenhower, and subsequent presidents,

until the fall of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites in 1989. In

addition to U.S. leadership of NATO, Truman also implemented several actions to assist

Western Europe. He contended that if nothing was done to elevate the status of capitalist

and democratic nations, the spread of communism, which thrived in poverty, would be

unavoidable. He argued that if one nation fell to the hands of communists, many other

nations would fall, and communism would spread like the “domino effect”. Thus through

the enactment of the Marshall Plan, the United States pumped economic aid to rebuild

Western Europe. Through NATO, Truman prevented Greece and Turkey from becoming a

communist sphere of influence. Such was the same purpose of the Korean War which was
originally intended to be a limited war. But for politically unclear reasons the U.S.

attempted to extend the war beyond the 38th parallel with the intention of completely

eradicating communism from Korea and eventually China. This mistake only resulted in a

stalemate, and unnecessary prolongation of a war which was supposed to be quick and

short. Rather, it became a slight deviation from Truman‟s strategy of containment.

Truman was not able to make many changes on the domestic front, partly because

he was more committed to the more urgent issues in the foreign policy arena. Moreover,

many of the liberal initiatives of the New Deal were still in effect, and all he had to do was

reconcile them to the phase of prosperity. The few things that Truman did in the domestic

arena did turn out to be quite significant. It is fair to call Truman a trend setter because

aside from his foreign policy innovations, on the domestic front, Truman also started the

nation on the road to Civil Rights. No president before Truman had ever addressed the

issue of Civil Rights as much as Truman himself. He created the Civil Rights Committee to

investigate the Civil Rights crisis. The findings of the commission were that “the situation

for black Americans was so desperate that, if something wasn‟t done soon to rectify the

discrimination, repression, and murder of African Americans, the nation was on the verge

of potential a race war“(pg 102). Truman ordered the Justice department to act on the

recommendations of the Committee. To Truman‟s credit, the Supreme court invalidated

the “government-backed segregation of public schools and restrictive covenants”(pg 102),

as well as playing a more active role toward implementing the statutes of the fourteenth

amendment, ensuring equal protection under the law for all races, especially blacks.

Truman, against all opposition from Southern democrats, made it an important objective to

eradicate this evil of racial oppression that has plagued America for too long. Amongst
other domestic achievements of Truman are the desegregation of US Armed Forces, The

passing of the Housing Act of 1949 and the Social Security Act of 1950. His proposal for

national health insurance eventually led to the establishment of Medicare in 1965.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower is the president that led America during a period

commonly referred to as the golden age of peace and economic prosperity

(1953-1961). The decade of the 50s was the most stable period in the history of America.

His eight years of Uninterrupted Economic Expansion was characterized by a low to no

inflation, increase in productivity up to 25%, increase in real wages for workers up to

20%, and family wages went up by 15% (pg 135). Because of the events of the years

leading up to the golden age, historians tend to give Eisenhower less credit for the

achievements of his administration, given that the ground work had already been set by

the policies of FDR and Truman respectively. Eisenhower embraced Truman‟s policy of

Containment, and against the demands of his own party, he refused to pursue legislative

proposals that would have reversed FDR‟s New Deal policies. The foundations of these

two set up as templates, guidelines that guaranteed the success of the Eisenhower

presidency.

However, his distinct background and method of approach made him different

from his two immediate predecessors. Dwight D. Eisenhower came to the presidency

from a military background, rather than from the usual political career. He had served in

uniform for 34 years during which he slowly rose through the ranks of the military

because of his organizational skills. During World War II he held the position of

Supreme Commander of the allied forces in Europe, and also had the honor of being the

first military commander of NATO. As part of his organizational skills, he was able to
"collegially manage the vast logistics of creating and effectively deploying a modern

mechanized multinational military force" (pg 131). When he retired from the military in

1948 to lead a peaceful life, he became the president of Columbia University. His

background in uniform made him an excellent candidate for the university administration

because the university, like the military is an institution that operates largely outside the

free market model as part of a state centrally-planned apparatus with the semblance of a

socialized system. The unique experience of operating within such a system is what made

Eisenhower the skilled pragmatist that he was. Whilst these positions had gained him

massive popular support, he had little experience of legislative procedures. However his

organization and military precision would serve him well during his time in the Oval

Office.

Being that he was not a proactive president, and generally disinterested in politics,

his focus on Domestic policy was to preserve the status-quo. He was willing to reject his

own party's demands for a massive tax cuts, and against all odds with leaders of his

Republican party, he refused to make cuts in foreign aid, refused to increase military

spending, choosing to make substantial cuts instead, claiming that such heavy military

investment after the Korean war was unnecessary. He did not forget the working man,

initiating in 1955 a 33% increase in the minimum wage. He resisted pressure from his

party to roll back pro labor legislation. These are all issues that brought him in conflict

with Republican leaders.

The creation of the interstate highway system under the orders of Eisenhower went a long

way to boost the economy by reducing transportation costs, and travel time, thus

improving the living standards of middle class Americans who could easily drive long
distances for vacation or other purposes of leisure. It was also good for tourism.

He deserves a lot more credit than he was likely to receive, given the fact that he

did not adopt policies that could have "derailed this postwar miracle"(pg137).

Eisenhower never sought to pursue an active racial civil rights agenda. To him, a

Civil Rights was an issue of the States. However, he did make important steps in the

desegregation of schools. When he responded to the unrest in Little Rock Arkansas by

sending federal troops to make sure that black kids get to white schools, a court ordered

decision to desegregate schools, he was forced by the situation. He pledged "to uphold

the Brown v Board decision as the reigning interpretation of the Constitution but never

laid out an executive program to do so. His decision to act on the situation in Little

Rock Arkansas was rather a move to sanction the governor‟s violation of federal law on

federalism and his military chain of command.

Whilst Eisenhower embraced Truman‟s policy of containment, he wisely

concluded that the Cold War cannot be won. He continued to engage the use of

America‟s multilateral alliances, but “backed away from the more aggressive aspects of

the Truman Doctrine and sought to avoid the direct application of American military

power, something his successors would be far less hesitant to do“(pg 145). He was

committed to ending the arms race and improving relations with the Soviet Union.

Unfortunately for Eisenhower, his commitment to peaceful coexistence was stymied by

the actions of his more aggressive Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. The death of

Stalin in 1953 gave room for America to establish a new relationship with a new Soviet

leadership. This opportunity would come by Summer 1955 during the summit held in

Geneva between the leaders of the last war‟s big four powers, namely the U.S., Britain,
France, and the U.S.S.R.. The summit however did not produce desired results because,

against Eisenhower‟s orders, John Foster Dulles continued running the U2 spy plane over

Russian airspace. The shooting down of the U2 spy plane worsened the atmosphere

between Eisenhower and Russia‟s new leader, Khruschev.

Though Eisenhower did not realize his goal of achieving a lasting peace from the

Geneva summit, he did manage to forge a permanent détente (peaceful coexistence)

between the two nations.

Had Eisenhower not left the issues of foreign policy solely to his war thirsty

Secretary of State, maybe he could have made better progress in establishing peace with

Russia. Only after Dulles‟s death in 1958 does Eisenhower take full control of foreign

policy, and successfully maintaining a peaceful coexistence with Russia.

Eisenhower in his farewell speech cautions Americans against the rise of the

military industrial complex, indicating that the dependence of large sectors of the U.S.

economy on a cash rich military would make America prone to embarking on military

adventures even when it was not necessary. Such was the situation with the Vietnam War

during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, who did not hesitate to send American

troops into South Vietnam to repel the communist influence from North Vietnam. A

situation that Eisenhower had avoided, seeing that it would have resulted in the same

situation like the Korean War of 1952.

Eisenhower remains one of the greatest presidents the United States has ever had.

Though he arguably could have achieved more success on domestic issues like the Civil

Rights, had he been a more proactive president, his background as a military leader with

great organizational skills and his characteristic of a pragmatic president, made him an
efficient leader ideally suited for his time.

The cold war remained a flaming issue of American foreign policy, up till 1989, it

would last through six more presidents until the Soviet Union finally collapsed in 1989.