Foreign Affairs. January-February 2020

When Progressives Were on the March

January/February 2020 169

appeal was reaffirmed by the passage of

the gi Bill in 1944, with its transforma-

tive provisions for homeownership and

educational assistance. But anti–New

Deal forces were gathering strength, as

well. In 1946, with the help of southern

Democrats in Congress and mobilized

business leaders, the Republicans were

able to defeat key progressive measures,

such as U.S. President Harry Truman’s

proposals to continue wartime wage and

price controls and to commit the govern-

ment to maintaining full employment.

The defining battle in the postwar

United States was fought between labor

and industry, both of which had emerged

stronger from the war. Union member-

ship was higher than ever. Business

leaders, for their part, had built up huge

profits and were eager to take back what

they called their “right to manage.”

Unlike in France and the United King-

dom, where governments had convinced

over time as the strikes continued and

the party increasingly fell in with the

Soviet line on issues such as opposition

to the Marshall Plan. By late 1947,

tripartism had broken down. In its place

came the so-called Third Force govern-

ments, which held power until 1951 and

which excluded the Communists while

moving slowly to the right. The reforms

that had been enacted in the initial

postwar moment mostly became perma-

nent, but further ones were put off, in

some cases forever.

Progressive forces in the United States

faced a more difficult political landscape

than their British and French counter-

parts, and their gains were accordingly

more modest. Popular support for the

New Deal remained high at the end of

the war, bolstered by a robust labor

movement and by the political organiz-

ing that African Americans had under-

taken during the war. The New Deal’s

A more perfect union: meatpackers on strike in Kansas City, Missouri, 1946

KIM
VINTAGE

STOCK

/ ALAMY

STOCK

PHOTO