This document provides biographical information and accomplishments of US Presidents Harry Truman through Gerald Ford. It details Truman taking over after FDR's death and decisions around WWII and establishing international organizations. Eisenhower's presidency focused on containment of communism. Kennedy established the Peace Corps and increased Vietnam involvement. Johnson passed Great Society programs and escalated Vietnam War. Nixon ended Vietnam War but resigned due to Watergate scandal. Ford pardoned Nixon and continued détente policies.

1. President Harry Truman(D)-33rd
1945-1953
• Fought in WWI
• Was Missouri State Senator
• Became Vice President for
FDR in January,1945
• Took over for FDR when he
died in April, 1945
• On of the most unpopular presidents of all time-22% approval rating
at one point
• Rating has improved greatly
over the last 60 years
• Last President to not have
earned a college degree

2. Truman’s Presidential
Accomplishments
• President when WWII
ended with Germany and
Japan
• Potsdam
Conference/Declaration-
(German consequences/
Japan’s surrender or else
face destruction)
• Decided to use the
atomic bomb against
Japan
• “We have discovered the
most terrible bomb in the
history of the world. It
may be the fire
destruction prophesied in
the Euphrates Valley Era,
after Noah and his
fabulous Ark.”
• Harry Truman

3. • Had to deal with
transition from
wartime economy to
peacetime economy
• Helped organize and
later join the United
Nations
• Took a hard-line
stance against
communism and the
Soviet Union-Policy of
Containment
• Desegregated the US
military
• Truman Doctrine and
Marshall Plan were
passed
• Created the CIA and
the National Security
Council
• “The Buck Stops Here”

4. The Fair Deal
• Similar to FDR’s New
deal of the 1930’s
• Aimed to promote
economic development
and social welfare
• Faced a lot of opposition
from Southern Democrats
and Republicans
• Most Fair Deal proposals
did not get passed
• Civil Rights
• Housing
• Social Security
• Minimum Wage
• Health
• Labor
• Education
• Agriculture

5. • Recognized Israel as a
homeplace for the Jewish
people
• “Hitler had been murdering
Jews right and left. I saw it,
and I dream about it even to
this day. The Jews needed
some place where they could
go. It is my attitude that the
American government couldn't
stand idly by while the victims
of Hitler's madness are not
allowed to build new lives.”
• President Truman
• Got the US involved in
Vietnam by giving aid to
France
• Berlin Airlift
• NATO established
• Chinese Civil War ends
• McCarthyism
• The Korean Conflict and firing
of General Douglass
MacArthur
• "I fired him [MacArthur]
because he wouldn't respect
the authority of the
President ... I didn't fire him
because he was a dumb sob,
although he was, but that's not
against the law for generals. If
it was, half to three-quarters of
them would be in jail.“ Truman
• Assassination attempt over
Puerto Rican independence

6. 1948 Election
• Truman(D) vs Thomas Dewey(R)
• Truman came from way behind to win
• Newspapers and polls all assumed Dewey
would win easily

9. President Dwight Eisenhower(R)-34th
1953-1961
• Famous WWII general
• Decided to join the
Republican Party after
WWII
• Richard Nixon was his
Vice-President
• Diagnosed with Crohn's
Disease and had a minor
stroke while president

12. Eisenhower’s Presidential
Accomplishments
• Dominated by the Cold
War-Containment Policy
• Used CIA to do covert-
ops to disrupt communist
governments
abroad(Iran/Guatamala)
• Opened relations with
Spain
• Ended the Korean
Conflict as promised in
his 1952 election
campaign
• Defensive alliances were
signed with South Korea
and Taiwan
• SEATO was formed
• Increased US
involvement in Southeast
Asia(Vietnam)-US
advisors sent
• Developed idea that
nuclear weapons would
be defensive
weapons(deterrence)
• NASA created due to
Soviet Sputnik launch
• US spy plane(U-2) was
shot down over USSR
• Allowed McCarthy to do
his thing but privately did
not approve
• Eisenhower Doctrine

13. Ike and Chiang Kai-shek

14. • Believed in laissez-faire
• Believed in a balanced budget
• Deported around 1 million illegal
immigrants(mostly Mexicans)
• Sent federal troops to Little Rock,
Arkansas to help in the desegregation of
all public schools-1954-Brown vs the
Board of Education of Topeka, KS case
• Helped pass the Federal-Aid Highway Act
of 1956 which created the United States'
Interstate Highways

16. President John F. Kennedy(D)-35th
1961-1963
• Served in WWII
• Was a US Representative
and Senator from
Massachusetts before
becoming President
• Married Jacqueline Lee
Bouvier
• First and only Catholic
president
• Youngest elected
president and second
youngest president
• Assassinated in 1963 in
Dallas, Texas by Lee
Harvey Oswald

20. 1960 Election
• Ran against Vice-
President Richard
Nixon
• First presidential
televised debates
took place
• Many say this helped
JFK win the election

22. Kennedy’s Presidential
Accomplishments
• "Ask not what your
country can do for
you; ask what you
can do for your
country." JFK
• Cold War Issues
dominated Kennedy’s
presidency
• Berlin Wall was built
in 1961
• Bay of Pigs invasion-
1961
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Alliance for Progress
with Latin America
• Kennedy increased
the number of
helicopters, military
advisors and
undeclared U.S.
Special Forces in the
Vietnam

25. • The CIA helped the new Ba'ath Party
government overthrow Communists in
Iraq.
-This new party murdered large numbers
of Iraq's educated people
-Saddam Hussein is said to have
participated in this massacre
• Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed in
1963

26. The New Frontier
• promised federal funding for:
• 1. education
• 2. medical care for the elderly
• 3. economic aid to rural regions and
• 4. government intervention to halt the
recession
• 5. end racial discrimination

27. • Peace Corps was established in 1961 where
Americans volunteer to help underdeveloped
nations in areas such as education, farming,
health care, and construction
• Signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963, a federal law
aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex
• "First, I believe that this nation should commit
itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is
out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning
him safely to the Earth. No single space project
in this period will be more impressive to
mankind, or more important for the long-range
exploration of space; and none will be so difficult
or expensive to accomplish—JFK Moonshot
speech in 1961

28. President Lyndon Johnson(D)-36th
1963-1969
• JFK’s Vice-President
• Took over as
President after JFK
was assassinated

30. LBJ’s 1964 Campaign
Commercials
• Daisy Girl
• Ice Cream
• What is the point in these two
commercials?

31. Johnson’s Presidential
Accomplishments
• Put together the Warren Commission to
investigate the JFK assassination
• Passed Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed
most forms of racial segregation
• Passed Voting Rights Act(1965) which outlawed
discrimination in voting, thus allowing millions of
southern blacks to vote for the first time
• Started affirmative action laws
• Passed Immigration Act of 1965 which allowed
more non-European people to immigrate to US.
Immigration more than doubled between 1965-
1970

32. The Great Society
• Johnson’s plan to:
• aid education
• attack disease
• Medicare and Medicaid
• urban renewal
• beautification, conservation, development
of depressed regions
• war on poverty
• control and prevention of crime
• removal of obstacles to the right to vote

33. The Great Society
• Elementary and Secondary Education Act of
1965--For the first time, large amounts of federal
money went to public schools and the focus was
poor schools
• Higher Education Act of 1965, which focused on
funding lower income students, including grants,
work-study money, and government loans
• set up the National Endowment for the
Humanities and the National Endowment for the
Arts
• Economic Opportunity Act helped start Head
Start, food stamps, Work Study, Medicare and
Medicaid

34. Medicare

35. The Great Society
• Gun Control Act of 1968 regulates the
firearms industry and firearms owners.
Passed in response to the assassinations
of JFK, RFK and MLK.

36. Johnson and Vietnam
• The Vietnam Conflict dominated much of
Johnson’s presidency
• Believed in Domino Theory
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution(1964)-Congress
gave Johnson power to wage war in
Vietnam as he saw fit

37. 1968 Election
• "I shall not seek, and I
will not accept, the
nomination of my
party for another term
as your President.”
LBJ

38. President Richard Nixon(R)-37th
1969-1974
• Vice-President of
Eisenhower
• Lost 1960 election to
JFK
• the only person to be
elected twice to both
the Presidency and
the Vice Presidency
• Only President to
resign from office

40. “Silent Majority"

41. Nixon’s Presidential
Accomplishments
• Vietnam Conflict dominated much of his
presidency-war became very unpopular
• Promised to end the war— “Peace with honor”
• Expanded the war to Cambodia and Laos-
bombing Ho Chi Minh Trail
• Started pulling troops out of Vietnam as
promised
• The Nixon Doctrine- “Vietnamization” of the war
• Paris Peace Accords signed in 1973 stopped the
fighting and got the US out of the war

43. Environmental Decade
• National Environmental Policy Act
• Clean Air Act of 1970
• Federal Water Pollution Control Act
• Established many government agencies:
• 1. Environmental Protection Agency
• 2. Occupational Safety and Health
Administration
• 3. Council on Environmental Quality

44. • War on Drugs-1971
• Supplemental Security Income--provides $$ to
low-income people who are either aged (65 or
older), blind, or disabled
• Saw large scale integration of schools in the
south
• Supported affirmative action
• Signed Title IX(1972) prohibiting gender
discrimination in all federally funded schools
• Equal Employment Opportunity Act-enforces
laws against workplace discrimination based on
an individual's race, color, national origin,
religion, sex, age, perceived intelligence and
disability

45. • Abortion was legalized during Nixon’s
presidency(Roe v. Wade-1973)
• US astronauts landed on the moon-1969
• Nixon approved the development of
NASA's Space Shuttle program
• In 1972, President Nixon traveled to China
where the president was to have direct
talks with Mao Zedong and Chou En-lai
• This eased relations with the US and
China and China(not Taiwan) was
recognized as the official China

48. Nixon’s Visit to the Soviet Union
• Went to Moscow in 1972
• SALT I was signed,
limiting nuclear weapons
• Anti-Ballistic Missile
Treaty was signed which
banned the development
of systems designed to
intercept incoming
missiles
• This led to a new era of
“peaceful co-existence”
and detente with the
USSR

51. • Supported Israel in the Yom Kippur
War(1973) where Israel was attacked by
Egypt and Syria
• This support of Israel led to the 1973 oil
crisis where OPEC countries did not trade
oil with the US as a result
• Nixon lowered the maximum U.S. speed
limit to 55 miles per hour to conserve
gasoline during the crisis
• Nixon took US completely off the gold
standard

52. Watergate
• Five men were caught breaking into Democratic party
headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington,
D.C. on June 17, 1972 to find dirt on the Democratic
Party
• Two Washington Post reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob
Woodward, investigated the story
• Woodward and Bernstein relied on an FBI informant
known as "Deep Throat" to link the men to the Nixon
White House— “follow the money”
• This became one of a series of scandalous acts
involving the Committee to Re-Elect the President
• Nixon downplayed the scandal and denounced the story
as biased and misleading
• FBI eventually confirmed that Nixon aides had attempted
to sabotage the Democrats--many began resigning and
faced prosecution
• Nixon was involved by trying to cover up the break-in
(obstruction of justice) and eventually resigned from the
presidency

53. Watergate

54. Woodward and Berstein

55. Watergate
• “People have got to
know whether or not
their President is a
crook. Well, I'm not a
crook. I've earned
everything I've got.”
Nixon

56. Leaving Office
• “Always give your best.
Never get discouraged.
Never be petty. Always
remember, others may
hate you. But those
who hate you don't win
unless you hate them.
And then you destroy
yourself.” Richard
Nixon

59. President Gerald Ford(R)-38th
1974-1977
• Nixon’s Vice President
• Took over when Nixon
resigned
• Only Vice President and
President to never be elected
• "I am acutely aware that you
have not elected me as your
president by your ballots,
and so I ask you to confirm
me as your president with
your prayers.“ Ford
• Had two assassination
attempts within three weeks

60. Ford’s Presidential
Accomplishments
• Pardoned Nixon—a “corrupt bargain”?
• Offered conditional amnesty program for
Vietnam War draft dodgers who had fled
to countries such as Canada
• “Whip Inflation Now” called for Americans
to reduce their spending and consumption
in an attempt to stop inflation
• Education for All Handicapped Children
Act(1975) established special education in
school throughout the US

62. • Continued détente with the USSR
• Ford wanted to help South Vietnam when
North Vietnam invaded in 1974 but
Congress refused
• By April 1975, all of Vietnam became
communist
• Indochina Migration and Refugee
Assistance Act was passed to allow
refugees to immigrate to the US