PROSPERITY AND PROBLEMS

"The war?" the former Red Cross worker said to the interviewer. "The war was fun for America." A strange thing to say, you may think. But Americans were the only people in the world that the Second World War had made better off. Their homes had not been bombed or their land fought over. Busy wartime factories had given them good wages.

In the years that followed the war Americans became better off still. Between 1947 and 1971 the value of their wages in buying power - their "real incomes" as this is called - more than doubled. Americans bought more houses, cars, television sets, consumer goods of every kind. They became the most prosperous people the world had ever seen. As early as 1960, 55 percent of all families owned washing machines, 75 percent owned cars, 90 percent had television sets and nearly all had refrigerators.

During these years of prosperity the United States was led first by President Truman (1945 - 53), then by President Eisenhower (1953 - 61). In 1961 a new President called John F. Kennedy (1961 - 3) was elected.

Kennedy told the American people that they were facing a "new frontier," one with both opportunities and problems. One big problem in their own country was poverty. Although most Americans were well-off, millions of others were too poor to lead decent lives. Some were crowded together in city slums. Others lived in places like old coal-producing districts where the mines had closed.

Kennedy was a Democrat, as Roosevelt had been. He tried to help the poor with government money and food. He also wanted to help other groups who were not getting a fair deal, like black Americans. But before Kennedy could do all these things he was shot and killed. This happened while he was driving through the streets of Dallas in November 1963.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1963 - 9) took over from Kennedy as President. Johnson had been Kennedy's Vice President. He had spent years as a member of Congress, making political friends and winning influence there. He used this influence to speed up Kennedy's plans for reform. One of his first actions was to persuade Congress to pass Kennedy's plan to improve the position of American blacks. In 1964 this became law as the Civil Rights Act.

Johnson also promised the American people a "war on poverty." He set up systems of health care for the elderly (Medicare) and for the poor (Medicaid). He also increased federal aid to education. He said that he wanted to turn the United States into "the great society" - a country where everyone received fair and decent treatment.

But Johnson himself caused his plans to fail. In the later 1960s he involved the United States more and more deeply in war in Vietnam. The huge cost of the war forced Johnson to give up many of his plans for improvements. Riots and protests flared up all over the country - against the war, against poverty, against continuing racial injustice.

By 1968 the American people were bitterly divided. Many blamed Johnson for the country's problems. He became so unpopular that he decided not even to try to get re-elected. In 1969 he gave up the Presidency and retired.

Richard Nixon (1969 - 74) was elected to take Johnson's place as President. Nixon was a Republican. He was much less interested than Kennedy and Johnson in helping the poor. The government was paying out more than enough money on welfare schemes already, he said. He believed that people should overcome hardship by their own efforts.

In November 1972, the American people re-elected Nixon. The main reason for this was that by then he was close to getting the United States out of the hated war in Vietnam. A cease-fire was finally signed in January 1973. Arrangements were made for all American fighting men to come home. The American people felt a huge sense of relief.

It was Nixon's moment of greatest triumph. But soon he was in trouble. He was accused of being involved in an illegal plan to discredit his political opponents, called the "Watergate Affair." Congress threatened to put him on trial - "impeach" him - for misusing his powers. To avoid this, Nixon resigned as President.

Nixon was followed as President first by Gerald Ford (1974 - 7) and then by Jimmy Carter (1977 - 81). Neither Ford nor Carter won much success or popularity as President. One reason for this was that both found it difficult to control inflation. The United States now imported lots of oil. After an Arab-Israeli war in 1973 international oil prices rose steeply. These oil-price increases caused general inflation. By 1980 prices in the United States were rising by 13.5 percent a year and this was making life difficult for many people.

In 1980 Americans elected a President they hoped would make a better job of running the country. He was a former film actor named Ronald Reagan. Like Nixon, Reagan was a Republican. At home, he showed little sympathy for the poor. He said that he aimed to make Americans depend less on government help and more on self-help. Abroad, Reagan was determined to make the United States stronger than its old rival, the Soviet Union. He spent many millions of dollars on developing powerful new missiles and on research into weapons to knock out enemy missiles from space.

Many people at home and abroad criticized Reagan. Some said that he was unfeeling. Others believed that he was incompetent. Still others called him a dangerous warmonger. But Reagan's policies - including the spending on weapons - helped more Americans to find jobs. Businessmen made bigger profits. Most Americans - all except the poorest of them - became better off. This helped to make Reagan popular. So did his relaxed and friendly manner, which came over well on television.

Reagan was popular for another reason, too. After the shame of Vietnam and Watergate his simple "stand on your own feet and act tough" policies made many Americans feel proud of their country again. In 1984 they re-elected him as President by one of the biggest majorities in American history. He was still popular, and for much the same reasons, when his second term as President ended in 1989.

Bryn O'Callaghan: An illustrated history of the USA; Longman, Harlow, 1990/1996, page 108 ff.