744 Chapter 28 Collision Courses, Abroad and at Home: 1946–1960
organized a new Progressive party and nominated
former Vice President Henry A. Wallace. With two
minor candidates sure to cut into the Democratic
vote, the president’s chances seemed minuscule.
Promising to “give ’em hell,” Truman launched
an aggressive whistle-stop campaign. Traveling by rail,
he made several hundred informal but hard-hitting
speeches. He excoriated the “do-nothing” Republican
Congress, which had rejected his program and passed
the Taft-Hartley Act, and he warned labor, farmers,
and consumers that if Dewey won, Republican “glut-
tons of privilege” would do away with all the gains of
the New Deal years.
Millions were moved by Truman’s arguments
and by his courageous fight against great odds. The
success of the Berlin airlift during the presidential
campaign helped him considerably, as did disaffection
among normally Republican midwestern farmers. The
Progressive party fell increasingly into the hands of
communist sympathizers, driving away many liberals
who might otherwise have supported Wallace.
Dewey’s smug, lackluster speeches failed to attract
independents. One party satirized his campaign by
boiling it down to four platitudes: “Agriculture is
important.” “Our rivers are full of fish.” “You cannot
have freedom without liberty.” “The future lies
ahead.” The president reinvigorated the New Deal
coalition and won an amazing upset victory on elec-
tion day. He collected 24.1 million votes to Dewey’s
21.9 million, the two minor candidates being held to
(^1) In 1952, Greece and Turkey joined the alliance, and in 1954 so
did West Germany.
about 2.3 million. In the Electoral College his margin
was a thumping 303 to 189.
Truman’s victory encouraged him to press for-
ward with what he called hisFair Dealprogram. He
urged Congress to raise the minimum wage, fund an
ambitious public housing program, develop a national
health insurance system, and repeal the Taft-Hartley
Act. However, relatively little of Truman’s Fair Deal
was enacted into law. Congress approved a federal
housing program and measures increasing the mini-
mum wage and Social Security benefits, but these
were merely extensions of New Deal legislation.
Containing Communism Abroad
During Truman’s second term the confrontation
between the United States and the Soviet Union domi-
nated the headlines. To strengthen ties with the
European democracies, in April 1949 the North Atlantic
Treaty was signed in Washington. The United States,
Great Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands,
Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Iceland,
and Canada^1 agreed “that an armed attack against one
or more of them in Europe or North America shall be
considered an attack against them all” and that in the
event of such an attack each would take “individually
and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it
deems necessary, including the use of armed force.”
The pact established theNorth Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO).
In September 1949 the Soviet Union detonated
an atomic bomb. Truman had expressed doubts that
the Soviets could build such sophisticated weapons.
But when the explosion was confirmed, he called for
rapid expansion of the American nuclear arsenal. He
also asked his advisers to determine whether the
United States should develop a new weapon thou-
sands of times more destructive than atomic bombs.
The “super” or hydrogen bomb would replicate the
fusion process on the surface of the sun. The Atomic
Energy Commission argued that there was no mili-
tary use for hydrogen bombs, which would destroy
hundreds of square miles as well as precipitate a dan-
gerous arms race with the Soviet Union. The Joint
Chiefs of Staff disagreed. Even if the hydrogen bomb
could not be used in battle, they argued, its mere
existence would intimidate enemies; and, the military
men added, the Soviets would themselves build a
hydrogen bomb whether or not the United States did
so. (Unbeknownst to American leaders, Stalin hadIn 1948 the strongly Republican Chicago Daily Tribuneprinted its
postelection headlines before all the returns were in. For Truman, it
was the perfect climax to his hard-won victory.