U.S. History President Harry S.

U.S. History

President Harry S. Truman presided over one of the most tumultuous and eventful periods in recent American history. He took over the office of Presidency after the death of FDR in 1945 before being elected to the office for one full term. During his term, he witnessed the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the climactic end of the Second World War. Moreover, Truman engaged American troops in the Korean War and helped kick-start the Cold War that would last until Reagan's presidency in the 1980s. Truman suffered through a disagreeable Congress and although his post-war efforts were not always popular, he made more inroads into the development of late-20th century American society than perhaps any other president of the post-war years. For example, the United Nations was formed under Truman, as was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and acknowledged the creation of the state of Israel in the late 1940s.

Truman, a Democrat, was succeeded by Dwight D. Eisenhower. A popular president known in popular slogans as "We like Ike," Eisenhower was president during the heyday of the 1950s, when television and housewives became part of the popular culture. More relevant to politics, President Eisenhower devoted a significant portion of the American budget toward the development of aerospace technology in an attempt to outdo Russia in a "space race" that coincided with the Cold War and that would culminate under Kennedy's leadership in the 1960s. Similarly, Truman advocated the development of nuclear weapons in order to bolster the American image in opposition to the Soviet Union. His development of the interstate highways may have been one of Eisenhower's most notable legacies, as the 1950s marked the beginning of the American "car culture."

Democratic President John F. Kennedy may have won the 1960 election by a hair's breadth but he would become one of the most enduringly popular and iconic American leaders. The only Catholic president and a renowned social liberal, Kennedy helped to usher in a new era of American Civil Rights during which leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. would help alter the social and political landscape of the nation. However, Kennedy also engaged in controversial and potential volatile encounters such as the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War would prove to be one of the most tumultuous periods in modern American history and when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 his vice president and successor Lyndon Baines Johnson continued the bloody and extended process of engaging and then withdrawing from Southeast Asia. Lyndon Johnson's problems in Vietnam were partially offset by the great strides his administration made in securing Civil Rights laws. Moreover, Johnson would initiate other social service programs such as Medicare. Johnson's legacy would nevertheless be perpetually obscured by his more dynamic predecessor and successor: Kennedy and Nixon, respectively.