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by now it has to be clear that the post-world War two years were filled

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with foreign policy challenges for the US of A. but all life in the u.s. didn't [bowl of challenges listed]

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suddenly freeze. unless Stalin had a giant freeze ray or

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something which he did not. really. abroad we were busy butting heads with the

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Soviet Union, rebuilding Western Europe ,and trying to

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win the hearts and minds of those regular non-superpower Nations in other

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parts of the world. but America also had plenty to deal with at home. many of

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those domestic issues were about work. about 12 million American men and women

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were returning to the u.s. from military service and most of these people wanted [boat overflowing with service men pictured]

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to get back to normal life after the exhaustion and terror of war. bliss meant

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starting families buying houses and getting jobs. most veterans figured they

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would just go back to their old jobs. while the trouble was that key groups

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had very different definitions of getting back to normal. first there were

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the labor unions. their deal was trying to expand all the power they gained [labor union poster shown]

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during the war. they wanted to use this momentum to flex their muscles no

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factory and business owners of course were not big fans of Union muscle

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flexing. it was their dream to get rid of the unions. all this led to strike after

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strike after strike. and all those strikes eventually led to shortages of

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stuff. washing machines cars even basics like bread and meat became scarce. well

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needless to say Americans were not pleased. though Truman had done a good

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bit of cracking down on unions himself the public blamed Democrats and all [video of Truman shown]

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things to the left for the shortages. so in the midterm congressional elections

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of 1946 Republicans took over the Congress and put a halt to any of

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Truman's New Deal like ideas. FDR was probably rolling in his grave. Truman

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wanted to do all kinds of things that would have made FDR proud. establish a

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minimum wage ,guarantee employment create medical insurance ,give housing aid.

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improve benefits for War veterans, and make price controls. but Republicans saw [list of Truman's goals pictured]

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these things is a their wasteful handouts and/or threats to the economy.

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and without congressional support Truman didn't see any of his wildest dreams

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come true. while the president's domestic agenda got stomped, he did get his way

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only a little bit when it came to civil

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rights. after a major boom in lynching in the south in 1946, Truman ordered an

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investigation, finally, into America's race problems. in 1947 he desegregated [Truman in the oval office shown]

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the military by executive order. FYI in executive order is when the president says

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"whatevs guys I'm gonna do what I want to do because I'm the Prez". yeah

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