As seen from Europe during the first post-war
years, the US was a land of plenty. The GIs, when
they came to London or Paris, looked remark-
ably well fed and groomed, quite different to
Europeans in their fourth year of war. The fabled
US army stores, the PXs, were filled with candy,
cigarettes, lighters, watches, pens – everything
that was in such short supply for the Europeans
was available to the US troops in abundance. The
image of wealth was reinforced by the dream
kitchens and cars shown in Hollywood films. But
these were false impressions. The life of John Doe
did not match the celluloid representation.
At home Americans, too, faced shortages, and
industrial dislocation as the country after 1945
turned from the needs of war to those of peace.
Worst off were the 20 million black citizens. They
had already experienced discrimination in the
army while fighting the ‘crusade for freedom’.
Now they were not willing to accept the condi-
tions of ghetto housing or the prejudices and dis-
crimination of the Deep South, where they were
deprived of basic civil rights and prevented from
voting by such subterfuges as the notorious
‘literacy tests’. Southern juries, moreover, were
overwhelmingly selected from white citizens;
indeed, the chance of securing genuine equality
before the law was not easy for non-whites
to attain in the US in 1945. Segregation was
common in restaurants and diners, and on trans-
portation. In education, black children in South-
ern states attended inferior black schools. Evenoccasional lynchings were still occurring in the
Deep South. African American citizens could well
ask themselves: ‘What were we fighting for?’
But there were both black and white citizens
who wanted to right these wrongs. The long-
established National Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored People began to win some
significant legal battles. But the struggle for civil
rights proved long and hard. President Harry
S. Truman, at first cautiously, then more boldly,
took his stand on the issue. His motives were both
altruistic and practical. The African American vote
was increasingly important as black people became
more involved in politics and their support was
moving from the Democrats to the Republicans.
Truman had to destroy the impression that on
civil rights his party was dominated by the
Southern Democratic wing. Yet he could not
persuade Congress to pass civil rights legislation.
The evidence of his concern was the setting up
of a Committee on Civil Rights.
Not all white Americans were well-to-do
either, as the European GI brides discovered
when their husbands took off their uniforms. But
the war had brought full employment to the US.
The GI Bill of Rights provided federal grants
which gave to ordinary Americans opportunities
to advance themselves in education and to acquire
new skills. Army gratuities enabled many a new
small business to be started or a home to be built.
The average American was better off than ever
before. But would the boom be as short-lived as(^1) Chapter 31
THE UNITED STATES
A RELUCTANT WORLD POWER